Holiday Tour 2011...just a teensy late

Did you hear? Our home was included in the Clarence Friends of the Library 2011 Holiday Home Tour.  The preparation is nothing short of a type of torture that I'm SURE has been outlawed by the Geneva Convention.  HOWEVER, the benefit is that all those nagging little (and big) projects that had been hanging out there in la la land got DONE.  Go grab a snack, a drink, and some toothpicks to keep your eyes open as you peruse the next 30 something photos of the house....in all its CLEANESS.  Did I mention I have an eight year old boy, a four year old boy and a 35 year old boy?  They all live here...at the same time....at the same time I had to keep the ENTIRE house clean.  I deserve a trophy for that.  Or a tiara.

Have I mentioned how much I love my kitchen now?  I'm going to share that love AGAIN soon in a Before and After post.   

The dining room.  I managed to hide my oakey oak dining room table...the hubster put the kabosh on painting or staining it.   Little does he know the plans afoot when he leaves on his next business travel overseas.  BWAHAHAHA.

Hedge apples....just because they're cool. 

God bless my husband and friend for lugging the cabinet out of the basement.  I love this thing.  Love.  The weight...well....just shy of elephant.

The $1 chair.  More on that to come too....I'm such a tease. 

So here's the deal.  When a person hides their oakey oak dining table...well...you have to do something about those oakey oak dining CHAIRS.  Solution?  Hide them in the basement and scrounge the house.  I kinda love the bench there.  That might stay...at least until I find permanent "new" chairs.  Actually what I would sorta totally love is to have mismatched...just all in the same wood tone....or painted....

The den....because my dad is a genius bookcase builder.  Love that guy.

Master bedroom. Makes me want a nap.

Guest room.  Uh yes, I'm a ding dong and this is the only shot I took.

Back to being a tease.  This is the new downstairs bath....that deserves its own post.  Its own blog really.  Its own country to run to be honest.

Back stairs.  Do I have a photo of the beautiful front stair case and foyer tree you ask?  Uh no.  Woops.

Upstairs bath.  Artwork by a very famous artiste named Marshall V.  He was two.  Genius. Pure genius.

Boys' room

If you're still awake I thank you for taking the time to go through my virtual Holiday Home Tour. Oh, it's January you say?  Just pretend it's Dec. 25 and you're delighted to look at Christmas photos. ;-)

So Much Fun it Should Be Illegal!

Oh boy folks.  The fun that is to be had in Clarence this fall is nearing criminal.  I happen to be a part of a little ole group raising funds to build a brand spankin' new library here in our little ole town.  We've never had a "real" library.  We've had a few shelves in the city hall....a little ole house donated for use as a library....but never our own "real" library.  That's all about to change.

But first we need some dough.  We're working hard.  Really hard.  The first of our events are now rolling out...and really you won't even know you're attending a fundraiser...you won't have time to think about that because you'll be having so darn much fun. 

The first super fun event is our "Demo and Dine with Miss Effie" series of cooking classes!   The Demo and Dine is going to be a serious amount of ridiculous fun. I don't know if you're familiar with Miss Effie? She has a u-pick flower farm near Donahue....and basically I think she's the greatest thing since sliced bread. In addition she teaches lots of cooking/canning classes both at the farm and at Scott Community College. She's agreed to come to Clarence...to MY KITCHEN...and teach cooking classes (with all proceeds benefiting the new library). The first will be Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, Saturday,Oct. 22, 6:30pm. Then Pizza Pizza (we learn to make our own mozzarella!!) on Saturday, Nov. 12, 6:30pm and finally Milkmaid 101 on Saturday, Dec. 3, 6:30pm (learn to make buttermilk, ricotta, sour cream, etc). Miss Eff will teach each class, have a few "helpers" come up from the audience, then we get to eat everything she's prepared (and a little local vino ;-) ! YUM!! Oh and I'll have some snackys and things to munch on in the meantime. I think it will be wonderful fun and for a great cause!  Every dime raised will go toward the new Clarence Library.

If you think you'd like to attend one of these awesome classes please register soon!!  Registration is being accepted at the Edna Zybell Library here in Clarence OR by emailing ClarenceLibraryFriends@gmail.com with your name, address and phone, as well as which classes you will be taking. (Each class is $25)  Your check can be made payable to "Library Building Fund" and mailed to Edna Zybell Library, PO BOX 450, Clarence, IA 52216.

Guess what comes around in December?  I am seriously so excited about this I could whip out my tree right now.  The Holiday Home Tour is making its return to Clarence!!!   We have some LOVELY homes on the tour this year....you really do not want to miss it.  The ole VanOort abode is making an appearance.  Crazy amounts of decorating are in my future.  Is the day after Halloween too soon to start?  More fun details on this to come.  Just save the date for now!!!!  Sunday, December 11 in the afternoon. :-)

Warm Holiday Memories

I am nothing, if not a slow blogger. I HAD to share this bit of Christmas with you all though. My birthday is on December 27, so pretty much every year we head home to my folks' house the day after Christmas. It's always a nice break from the holiday rush. I usually just sit. A LOT. OH, and that window on the second floor...yep, that's my room. :-)

And, as is Christmas tradition....Papa NEVER disappoints with his handmade treasures. These trucks are probably ready for an oil change....they've put on a lot of miles since Christmas.

One of Papa's biggest fans....Clancey Dylan.

And not to be outdone...Mema brought the drama with hand knitted socks........

....for E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E. Seriously, the woman was a knitting machine.

These have also put on a few miles...I have a little one I nearly have to wrestle to get the socks off his feet long enough to launder. They're that great.

The piece de resistance....my mom's rum cake (and peppermint stick ice cream). The only cake anyone EVER asks for on their birthday....after we outgrew Strawberry Shortcake and Garfield. Speaking of Strawberry Shortcake....my brother still owes me a full functioning Strawberry Shortcake cake from the baker.....he LAID on mine. Yep, the only storebought cake I ever had (mom's were better anyway).....he LAID on it. I suppose in his defense he was maybe a year old....darn good climber...and it looked a lot like a pink pillow in the middle of the table.

Hope your holidays were warm and filled with family too.

Christmas Organizing

Today we said goodbye to Santa for another year. I love to decorate for Christmas....but I also love to take it all down and get back to normal. We worked on taking it all down today. Christmas is safely put away in the CLEAN basement. :-) I thought I'd share a few of my Christmas organization ideas...in case you haven't put Christmas away yet. ;-)

This is one of my FAVORITES. When the boys receive or make ornaments we label them right away....so we'll always remember who/what/when/where. I stole this idea from a girlfriend who has 5 kids....she would never remember whose was whose unless they were labeled.

Sock monkey...so cute...now we'll always remember he came home with us from Door County, WI in 2009. Oh...and Marshall does have ornaments too....I just seemed to photograph TWO for his brother!

I use these little cuties...metal rim tags and a fine felt pen. If the ornament has a flat side sometimes I write directly on it with a sharpie...just depends.



This idea I'm sure my husband would rather I not share. He thinks I have strand light OCD. When we were first married I would put each strand of lights back into their little plastic doohickies....you know the thingies they come in originally that snap each light into place. Yep, I was that girl. Then I tried wrapping each strand around a piece of cardboard....me not likey.
So, this is what I do now. I divide each strand in half, starting from each end and bundle them with rubberbands.




No more boxes or plastic thingies or wrapping around cardboard....such a space saver...and they aren't tangled for next year!! Just make sure you ALWAYS wash your hands really well after handling Christmas lights....I hear they have high lead levels? Eek.

Slip the whole show back into its labeled bin and there's a little piece of organized Christmas. :-)

And for my final trick.....hanging garland. What do you do with your garlands? Smush them into rubbermaids? Hang them? I've tried both....I'm all about hanging them now. Just grab a hanger, a big ole nail in the floor joist and we're in business.

Happy Organizing everyone!! :-)

Deck the Halls

Bring on the holidays! We're ready...well sorta. The family tree is decorated...by little hands...it's a little bottom heavy ;-)....so sweet. I've only gotten out a couple of my decoration boxes...after the relief of not hosting a home tour this year the wind just went right out of my sails.....in a good way. I just feel like enjoying the holidays without stressing about my house looking perfect. I'll save that for next year! And I'm just plain tired.

We're counting down the days to Christmas on our paper chain advent calendar. To think, since July I obsessed over which advent calendar to make...there are so many cute ideas out there. This is my favorite...by far. Made by 1st grade hands.

When I was young (I feel kinda old these days) I always thought it was weird that my mom insisted on putting all the little paper ornaments we'd made over the years on the tree. They didn't seem very pretty to me...just random little projects we'd done. Now I understand. No matter how many fancy decorations I put up these are my favorite...because my little guys won't be little forever. sniffle.

Clancey and I outfitted the foyer tree this morning.....again it's a little bottom heavy on the ornaments, but that's okay...I like it that way. ;-)

He was particularly impressed with this ornament...it's one of my favorites too. He asked me to put it on the tree because he was afraid it would break. Sometimes he's the bull in the china store....sometimes he's not.

We decorated outside....a while ago. ;-) While it was warm. But we didn't finish.

We finished in the cold. Brr. Again, it's simple, natural, free. Everything is from our yard or something I already had stashed away. Scroll back up to the garland pic....can you guess what that vine is? Fifty bonus points.

More stuff from the yard....pine clippings, bittersweet, dried out hollyhock stalks...I know, I'm a big spender.

Oh, and Bob made a reappearance....he found the perfect home on top of Euphona.

Check out all the amazing holiday decorations at Kim's DIY party!!