Snowy Shoes Solution

I saw this on MSN.com today and HAD to share!  One thing I HATE, HATE, HATE about winter is when you come in from outside with snow on your shoes.  You have one of two options, take them off and leave them on the rug or take them off and leave them on the linoleum.  Either way, something that is not suppose to get wet, gets wet.  Then if you step on it with your socks, you have wet socks.  Well, enter this Martha Stewart solution:

Make a boot tray by the door even better: Fill it with stones (found at garden centers). Ice and snow will melt and drain through the rocks to the bottom of the tray so your boots won't stand in a puddle. Most of the moisture will evaporate, but you should clean out the tray regularly.  You can view the whole article here.

I am not sure how I will do this with the animals in our house... I can see the cat finding it amusing to take the rocks and hide them and the dog will think that they're treats.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to keep my animals out of this, I would love to hear them! :)

Christmas Tree Part Duex

Your eyes do not deceive you, yes, that is a different Christmas tree than we originally had.  Here's the story:

This is my first Christmas with a cat.  In all fairness, Bryan did try to warn me that Wrigley would think the tree is a giant toy.  But I have had dogs in the past who messed with the tree and even had one pull the tree on top of them, so I thought "Oh, it won't be THAT bad..."

I was wrong.

So very wrong.

We put the tree up on a Saturday afternoon and then left that evening to go to a movie. Upon our return, Bryan opened the door, closed it, looked at me and said. "You should probably just stay out here."  I pushed my way past him to find EVERY ordainment, candy cane, snow flake and even the star on the TOP of the tree was now scattered all over the living room floor.  You could even see where he had JUMPED to the top of the tree to get more ordainments.

 I hit the roof.

 Hard.

 I was threatening to take him back to the shelter, I was SO mad!  Bryan calmed me down (that's the short version of that portion of the drama) and the next day we put the tree back together and began putting Wrigley in the back room when we couldn't watch him. (With his litter, food and water of course... That didn't matter, he still meowed up a storm while he was in there.)

This strategy worked for a few days, but we left for a week-long trip to Phoenix that Wednesday and so he couldn't be locked in the back room while we were gone.  So the tree got locked in the back room.  As you can imagine, moving a tree to the back of the house caused the decorations to get just as messed up as when Wrigley attacked the tree.  

The whole reason behind putting an artificial tree up was so that it would last 5 weeks. (We put it up the weekend before Thanksgiving because we were in Phoenix until the 30th and I didn't want to deal with putting it up when we got home.)

 Well, deal with it I did.  Since I already had to re-decorate my tree, we went out and got a real one, something I never had as a kid but Bryan did have and loved.  I have to admit, I love how much taller it is.  It's not the fullest, but next year we'll spend more time picking it out.

 As for Wrigely and the new tree... Well, stay tuned, I have a good story about that too. :)

It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

I am so not afraid to admit that I LOOOOVVVEEEE Christmas!  I love the decorations, the food, the shopping and of course, the presents!  I am not, I repeat NOT one of those crazy people who put their decorations up as soon as Halloween is over.  I normally wait until the day after Thanksgiving, however, this year, Bryan and I will be in Phoenix until the 30th, so I wanted to get it done since I know I will be tired once we return.

This year is especially fun because we are in our new house!  I already had plenty of decor from apartment living, but a new house calls for new decor, right?...  That's what I thought too! Above you'll see the outside of our house... I am thinking we need to add more to it though... Maybe some lights on each pillar? Yeah, that's what I thought.  Next you'll see my tree.  You can see my holiday colors of choice are red, silver and white.  It just so happens to match our curtains too!  I think my favorite part of my tree is my tree skirt... It is actually just a red flat-sheet because I couldn't afford a real one when I was in college, but I love how full it looks compared to a regular tree skirt, so I've kept it!

Next is our entertainment area, easily my favorite area I decorated. I got the "Ho,Ho, Ho" sign at Target for $2.50!!! Score! I also have some candle holders that were not done in time for the picture that I will post some other time that I Love! ... Yes, there are four stockings and two humans in the house... I am that crazy person who gets gifts for their pets. Deal with it.

I love ball ordainments.  I love how simple and classic they look.  I also love how it is a huge decor trend right now! So, this year I threw them in wherever I usually use vase filler.  Easy AND cheap!!!

More ordainment decor... The bow is too big, gonna have to change that.

A close up of the entertainment area.

Let the Holidays begin!!! (Bryan and Wrigley refused to pose for the picture, so it's just JD and I.)