Preparing for Christmas at the Cabin

This will be our third year spending Christmas day at our family's cabin in the Adirondacks and it has become our family's very favorite tradition. This is pretty much how we all feel when we run away to the mountains after such a hectic holiday season! :)

We will spend time with our extended families before we leave and then spend a snowy week in the woods. Today I thought I would share some of the Christmas decor we added to the cabin this year. We set up one of our older artificial trees in the family room earlier this month. Then we will cut down another tree from the property on Christmas Eve to put by the kitchen fireplace.

Nothing fancy here. Every Christmas Eve, we make some ornaments to add to the tree. This year, I bought this kit from Paper Source and I am looking forward to putting them together. My boys will groan and make fun of me when I pull this activity out, but then before you know it, they will all be gluing ornaments together and laughing along. Another thing we enjoy is the Trader Joe's Test of Caramels. We had so much fun with that last year!

I added a scarf and hat to Jim, the deer head above the fireplace. My stepdad likes to tell the joke that he wonders how fast that deer must have been traveling when he ran into the side of the house and got his head stuck right above the fireplace. :)

To us, this house is the most comfortable place in the world and we have made the best memories here. We are so grateful that Billy's parents have shared this cabin with us and allowed us to use it as our own. We hope to provide the same for our boys and their families.

I added an Adirondacks pendent and a couple of strings of lantern lights that were Target Dollar Spot finds this past summer. I wish I had thought of using them on the Christmas tree sooner and bought more! A buffalo plaid ribbon as garland adds to the camp style.

We painted the small kitchen island red, and it still needs at least another coat of paint (although we already did three coats on top of primer) so this has not been our most successful project to date. Hopefully, we can put another coat on and call it done but I have to admit that I am a bit nervous to return to the cabin and see how it turned out fully dried. I took this picture quick just before we left in the pouring rain on Sunday. Red can be such a difficult paint color to choose!

I will be sure to share more pictures of this space when we are there for Christmas. Finally, I saw this picture online the other day and I thought - YES! - there is not a thing I want for Christmas but this.

The silence part probably won't be happening, but I will sure be grateful for the rest!

Christmastime Fun in Snowy Vermont

I always wanted to visit Vermont during the holiday season and this year we finally made it happen. We've made a couple of trips to the Vermont Country Store, which although a major tourist destination, still manages to maintain its old time charm. But never at Christmas. We took a beautiful drive from our family's cabin in Upstate NY over the nearby Vermont border and the snowy trees were gorgeous. It was snowing on and off during our drive and felt like being in a real life snow globe.

Holiday Housewalk 2018

Hello and welcome to this year's Holiday Housewalk hosted once again by the talented Jennifer Rizzo. For me, Christmas is all about traditions and I love that this housewalk has become a part of my holiday blogging tradition. For as long as I have been reading blogs, Jennifer Rizzo has been hosting this amazing line-up of Christmas homes. I am honored to be included once again. You can start this year's tour by clicking on the button below. The tour continues all week so be sure you visit ALL of the homes for tons of holiday inspiration.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe it is already Thanksgiving week. And yet the weather has been so winter-like, in some ways it feels more like Christmas around here. We got hit hard with a November snowstorm this past Thursday that paralyzed our area like I have never seen. We are normally used to dealing with storms here in the Northeast, but I think the early storm mixed with lots of ice and also the timing led to a nightmare commute for many of our family and friends. It took Billy over 4 hours to get to work and he was one of the lucky ones. It took some of his co-workers close to 7 hours to drive what normally takes less than an hour. I prefer November to look more like this shot of our kitchen.

Target Dollar Spot Advent Calendar

Hello friends! I have been busy decking our halls for the holidays. In fact, as I write this, we are awaiting our very first snowstorm of the season. So it's been quite easy to get into the Christmas spirit early this year. Before I begin sharing our decor this year, I wanted to share a super easy project I recently completed with items purchased at the Dollar Spot in Target.

Our Fall Bedroom

Hello and Happy Weekend! We are expecting lots of rain and wind from a nor'easter here in NJ this weekend which meant huge lines at the grocery store today. Billy's new job has him working alternate weekends and this is his weekend to work. Last weekend, we got to see the last of the foliage in the Adirondacks and Vermont for this year and I will share more of that in my next post. This weekend, my big plans include a bit lot of deep cleaning in our house (ugh!) - in preparation both for the upcoming holidays and also a couple of photo shoots with professional photographers that will be happening soon (yikes!).

Fall This & That - A Season of Change

Happy Weekend, friends! There have been lots of changes happening around here and today I thought I would pop on share some updates to our home - and beyond. I have been on the hunt for the perfect farmhouse table for our family for a while now. I think the table that we eat at - do homework at - play at -  is such an import element to any home. I am thrilled to finally have a table that seems to suit our taste for the long haul. Nothing trendy, just classic design.