It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We decorated last weekend and I forgot to post these. Thanks for reminding me Marilyn!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost here, and yesterday Brian and I decided to go to Michael's and make some seasonal decorations. Inspired by their 70 percent off sale, we pulled together a wide array of stuff to make a wreath for the front door and a cornucopia for the table.

Here's the finished wreath. It took about 10 minutes to make and cost about $7. Much better than buying one done, plus we'll always remember picking everything out together.



We also picked up stuff to put together our table. We found the cornucopia basket and arranged the pieces inside. 



And we found these adorable turkey candle holders on clearance too, and they look so cute on the table.

I realized I never posted these

A week after we got home from the honeymoon, we decided to paint the downstairs. It was a looooonnnnnng week, but we got it done.

Here is the living room as we were about to start:


Unfortunately, we got a late start the first night. And we ended up painting into the wee hours.




It was a lot of work, but it looks so nice. Somehow even with all the changes we've made, painting really made it feel like home.

New cabinets in our dining room

One of the things we wanted to do when we built the house was to have the extended cabinets into our dining room. We didn't opt for it through the builder, but before KB closed down most of their operations here, I was able to get the info for the vendors that supplied our kitchen cabinets and counter. We worked through them on our own and added two sets of upper and lower cabinets in our dining room. We can't believe the difference it makes in rounding out the room - not to mention the extra storage space.

Here's the before:


And here's the after. In addition to the cabinets, we turned the table, added a rug and got a table runner. I think it looks so pretty! In fact, I think it's my favorite decorated part of the house.

Ceiling fans going up

While I spent the weekend doing some wedding crafts, Brian started installing ceiling fans. I am so impressed with him. He did a great job!

The search for new dinner plates

I had a set of dishes we both loved, but they did not fit in our cabinets or our dishwasher because they are 12" square. Plus they took up half the island in a plate rack. So a few days ago we finally decided to start really looking for new ones. Here are the old ones (pretty, huh?)



On Saturday, after trying Linens N' Things, World Market, Kohl's, Target and WalMart we found some we both really liked at Bed Bath & Beyond. We also found a nice rug to put under the table and got a table runner. We're so happy with how it all turned out.





So now that we have our plates up in the cabinet, it cleared out half our island. I put in a sliding drawer for the pots and some lids, and I used our plate rack to organize other plates and some baking dishes. It all looks so nice and organized now.

RIP Cape Mallow and Marigolds

Today we said goodbye to some of the plants we planted a few weeks ago - including our pink cape mallows (aka the marshmallow trees) and a few marigolds. Turns out the cape mallows do not grow well in New Mexico. Of course, it would have been nice to know that before we bought them, dug holes and planted them, but oh well. Oh well - they were pretty while they lasted.

Landscaping, Continued

This weekend we (and by we, I mean Brian) added some trees to our yard. It's all looking so pretty!





The tree in the corner of each rounded bed is this a Cleveland Flowering Pear, which will look like this when it matures a little more:



Then on the sides for some privacy we planted some of these:



And finally on the other side there's one of these:




And of course, how do the dogs show us they love what we did? They lay all over it:









Brian taking a much-deserved break to enjoy lunch on our new patio:

Rock's done...now what?

It's time for plants. After finishing the rock and the patio yesterday, we went to Lowe's (thanks for the coupons mom). Here's what we came home with:



Step #1- Create something plants could live in. As you saw in previous pictures, our yard was sand. So we got potting soil, manure and compost to create a liveable ground. Here's Brian doing the back-breaking work while I was making lunch and putting a chicken soup on the stove. If it's any good I'll post the recipe.


Step #2: Get planting. We plan on adding some shade trees in the corners, but we wanted to only get what we could feasibly finish, so trees coming later.




Proof that I worked and just didn't take pictures of Brian:




Here's something really cool about our patio. This picture was taken at 2 p.m. and this is as much sun as it gets because it's shaded by the house:


That's it for now. I'll post more pics as things start to bloom and grown.

Weekend improvements - part 2

We got about 90% of the way done with the rock last weekend, but we didn't have enough for one side alleyway along the house. We had dinner with our neighbors earlier this week, and they said they were planning on rocking their side alleys this weekend, so we were able to get in on their delivery.

So here is what 3 tons of rock looks like. Last week we had 7.


And here's what is going on in our yard right this minute (yes I'm blogging while B works)


We will be able to sit outside and enjoy the view on our new patio in two days. And no - I did not carve my initials in it like I did the house slab. :-)

We start landscaping the flower beds later this afternoon, so more pics to come soon.

Funny story - I was chatting with one of the concrete guys about KB leaving, and he said "didn't I see you on the news the other night?" Hee hee - I'm famous.

My TV news debut

Here is the story they ran last week. We shot it in front of our house.

Rocking the Yard, Day 1

Here is what our backyard looked like prior to 9 a.m. this morning (our yard is at the bottom - I realized I never took a pic of the yard because there wasn't much to show; but this will give you the general idea - a giant doggie sandbox)



I am still not used to the lack of grass around here. That being said, we tackled a big project today - starting to rock the yard. I felt bad because I had a meeting in Santa Fe so I wasn't able to help until almost 4 p.m. Brian and his friend did a fabulous job, and I was so surprised at how much they got done. We had 7 tons of rock delivered in front of our house at 9 a.m., and here's how the yard looked at 5:30.

We installed a decorative stone border across the back wall and in two half-circles at the corners. This will eventually be home to some trees, flowering plants and bushes (and maybe even a small vegetable garden).