gettin' our hollyday on.

The tree is trimmed! The halls are decked! The presents are wrapped! well, only just a few.
This weekend, Justin and I decided to pull out our petite collection of Christmas decorations and sprinkle some holiday cheer on our humble abode. Because we chose to forego the Christmas hooplah last year due to our state of miserable separation boo maryland, this is our first Christmas to decorate as married peoples. How fun!  So Justin pulled out the boxes, I cranked up the Christmas tunes, and we got to work. Little did we know, however, that our decorating binge was headed for a quick derailment.
The culprit: the tree.
The tree that worked so well for 3522 Peachtree Drive looked somewhat ... wonky ... in our new home. It's not that it doesn't have character in its own quirky way. It's simply a smidge ... sparse/crooked/vertically challenged. After struggling a bit to get it in place, we looked at the tree, looked at each other, looked back at the tree, and nodded. It was time for a new tree! We did some research online for the best prices, made a trip to the Home Depot, and bought our first Christmas tree together. Silly me forgot to take a picture of the quirky tree for comparison, but here is our twinkly new beaut all gussied up.

  

Christmas in charming color. Love that!

We're hoping to accrue a sweet little collection of ornaments of the random variety for next year so that it's not so matchy-matchy, but until that happens, this works for us!

After trimming the tree, I threw some ornaments and pine cones in a bowl for the coffee table ...

 tossed a Black Friday steal Christmas-y pillow on the couch ...

only 5 bucks for this cute thang!

tied some festive ribbon on the lamps...

and decked the foyer with what decor we had left!

Now, I must give kudos where kudos are due. It's about time that everyone on this planet Earth knows a little secret about my Mr. Overby.

Justin is the best gift wrapper ever! Believe it or not! So much so that I , with all my particular tendencies, happily sit back, chin in hands, and simply watch as he works his elf-like magic.

See that box on the left? It looks just as snazzy as the boxes on the right, and those are pre-wrapped! Man, he's got some skillz. Not only is he precise, but he's also Mr. Speedy Gonzales too. Maybe I'm just a freak with my two left thumbs who winds up with crooked seams, gaping paper, and more tape on my fingers than on the package itself. Be that as it may, I find it to be such a fascinating skill and am envious of those who master it!

Now that our home is all twinkly and festive, we can sit back, sip some hot chocolate, and revel in all the warm fuzzies of Christmastime ... family and friends, laughter and love, and most of all, the birth of our wonderful Savior! Merry Christmas y'all!

collage and mod podge.

Get comfy. This one's a two-fer.

About a week ago, Justin and I decided to spruce up the foyer with a photo collage. So I turned to Pinterest of course for a little inspiration and stumbled upon a "cityscape-esque" pattern. I guess I also need to explain that Justin and I have a thing for cityscapes. There's just something about a view from the top that just tickles our fancy. Maybe that's why we L-O-V-E New York so much.
Anyhoo. Here's what our collage was supposed  to look like.

via Pinterest

Pretty neat, huh?
Well, this is how it turned out.

If you just tilt your head a bit, squint your eyes, maybe stand one foot ... oh forget it.

It's not the cool, sleek cityscape that made us waggle our brows.

No. Just a simple, ordinary collage. 

See what had happened was...
Little did we know that buying 20 quality frames at one time, sizes 5x7 to poster, would pretty much break the bank. Seriously. I totally understand now why my lady frand has been collecting her frames for ages. So until we're able to gather a fancy collection of our own, the cityscape-esque pattern must be put on stand-by.
But in the meantime, our foyer just seemed ... naked. And we're not one of those families. Naked is a no-no. Well, perhaps once in a ... oh, I digress.
Thank goodness for Marshalls!
After a short trip to the store and a quick purchase of an el cheapo 10 piece frame set for only 10 bucks sa-weet!, we decided to get alittle crafty and create a collage with what we had. We snagged our framed name art I seriously don't know what else to call it that we recieved as a wedding gift to create a centerpiece and used the sample pictures from the frames to tape a template around the centerpiece. After alittle measuring, alittle hammering, and aLOTtle tweaking ... voila! ... our foyer was all gussied up!

said framed name art

So it's not what we originally planned, but I love how it makes the foyer perk up and say 'ello! And I must say, it gels with the sister wall pretty nicely.

note: an attempt to DIY a larger entryway table is in our near future...stay tuned!

So we're happy!

And now, a quick intermission ...

This is Justin squishing a bug.

Okay! How to DIY cute and crafty coasters.

Once again, I can blame thank Pinterest for this one. 

We've had these simple little picture frame coasters for quite a while now.

And as you can guess, they've never housed any cute little pictures. Partly because they are out of sight, out of mind. And partly because I didn't feel like printing out pics small enough to fit. Way to be crafty, Tabitha.

So I pondered ... what can I use instead of pictures? I was thinkin' and thinkin' and thinkin' and then ... an idea. I've got all this extra scrapbooking paper laying around ...

So I cut the paper into 2x3 rectangles ...

And then slipped the paper into the picture slot ...

And dadgum! These coasters are uniquely my own!

  

The project literally took me a mere ten minutes and  zero dollars. woot!

But wait! Project Crafty Coasters didn't stop there!

Since ten minutes only teased my crafty craving, I decided to embark on my first Pinterest Challenge better late than never and make coasters from scratch.

To keep readers fatigue from creeping up if it hasn't already, I'll make this short and sweet.

Supplies:
4x4 tiles
($.16 each at Lowes)

4x4 scrapbook paper
($.50 a sheet at Michaels)

Mod Podge
($5.99 at Michaels)

Clear spray paint
($3.78 at Lowes)

Cork/Felt pads
($1.18 for set of six at Lowes)

                 

                                                                                                                                I was feeling alittle seasonal.

                                                                                          Maybe it was my Pumpkin-Mallow Scentsy wafting in the background. idk :-) 

1. Cut the scrapbook paper into 4x4 squares.

2. Mod Podge the paper to the tile and let dry. (for tips on Mod Podging, look here)

gettin' alittle snarky while the Mod Podge dries...

3. Spray clear acrylic and let dry.

4. Place cork/felt pads on bottom corners of tile. (I chose cork.)

5. Give yourself a pat, find a drink, and enjoy!

I had such a hoot making these autumn treasures, I decided to make more to match the photo frame coasters ...

And now, not only do I have enough coasters for a party of people, I've got a super thrifty gift idea. :-)

Now THAT's the way to be crafty, Tabitha!

nonsense.

I should be working on my thorn in my flesh twenty-five page graduate change proposal paper. Or shoving my nose into my gerontology text book. But I'm not. I should be a good student. But I guess I'm not.  Instead, I would rather dilly dally by blogging about some nonsense.
For instance, earlier this week, after driving back from a wonderful weekend in Florida with my wonderful Justin, I became a member of the "I-kinda-sorta-maybe-can-change-a-flat-tire-all-by-myself-sorta" club. I'll admit, my initiation involved the help of my friend, Andi, and a lovely little gentleman with a good Samaritan spirit. But I could do it all by myself. I could. Just in case you're wondering.

I've also discovered that my love for mother-baby nursing is pretty much taking over any fixation that I had before for pediatric nursing. I do love pediatrics, but mother-baby nursing gives me just enough med-surg experience to keep up with my skillz and just enough little people care as in babies, not 'little people' to appease my pediatric urges. It's like the best of both worlds. True, sometimes the mothers can be ... shocking, for lack of better words (ie. cartoon watching and thumb sucking) :-O. But the fact that I wake up each morning of clinicals with anticipation and excitement for my next shift is a pretty big sign that just maybe this is IT.

Anyways...

Pinterest has quickly become my favorite way to take a break in the midst of all the busywork I've been assigned, and though I haven't really pinned much this week, I did stumble upon my go-to color choices for around the house. Turquoise & gray. I am love love loving this palette! Add a couple complimentary colors like yellow and navy and cream and it's perfect. Oh, and maybe alittle green. For sure.

via Pinterest

 
                        

Oh. And, obviously, this thing I've got for turquoise has crept it's way onto this very page. Hence, the new background. ß à
Well...maybe it's more like aqua than turquoise. But who's asking?

As for other non-significants...
I miss Justin. (and Petey and Paisley)
School = the pits.
December, where are you?
Yes, I like to wear stretchy pants. 
Theories of alternate realities freak me out.
Adele is only 4 days older than me.
I want need a mani-pedi.
Leptospirosis is one bad mamba jamba.
This post is ridiculously mundane.

The End.

  

cookies? no. just alittle respect.

One lazy Sunday afternoon.

One knock on the door.

Two earnest little girls with a mission to just remember. 

we like to move it, move it.

It's been days and days since our last postage, but we have been busy with a capital 'B'. The boxes are unpacked. The cabinets are stocked. The furniture has found a home. and the house is littered with birds. For the past week, Justin and I have been scurrying to get the house as settled as possible and I must say, we deserve a high-five for our progress. Slow progress. But progress.  So far the foyer, kitchen, dining room, and guest bed&bath are the only rooms worthy of notice completed (sparse, but as completed as its gonna be 'til I walk that stage).

So. Without further ado...

the foyer.

bird love. (BEWARE: I've got it b a d)

the kitchen.

Justin made this lil' pig in junior high woodshop! :-)

our favorite verse.

the dining room.

those little birdies are from a local thrift!

the guest bedroom.

reminds me of dandelions.

and the guest bath.

sheesh...have I heard of an iron? 

The owls are a choice, not a sickness. I promise.

Obviously, since the master bedroom&bath, living room, extra guest room, 1/2 bath and office are not pictured, there is m-u-c-h to be done. There also isn't a stitch of art on the walls (just noticed that, in fact, while posting these pics). And that's pretty much due to my anal nature of shifting and tweaking and stepping back and shifting and tweaking and sleeping on it...yada yada. You get the picture. We're hoping to complete the entire house by Christmas, but balancing school and home for the next 11 weeks or so is going to be tricky. Still, I cannot WAIT for the end result! :-)