Best Movies and Worst Songs

Bells will be ringing and so forth, 'cause it's almost Christmas, y'all.  The season is upon us and all that jazz.  I've got my trees (we do fake trees because this girl is allergic to the real thing, and I'd like to live another day) all set up but not decorated yet. Hopefully I can hop to that this weekend while the hubs strings lights outside.  All the while listening to some holiday tunes.  I can tell you which songs will NOT be played.

The Worst Holiday Songs EVER List IMO

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

I mostly can't stand this one because it's so repetitive and gets stuck in my head.  Often.

Same Old Lang Syne

I think this song semi love story is meant to be touching and nostalgic.  It ends up being an annual annoyance. Running into an old flame makes you drop in tears in the rain, really?  Lame.

Grandma Got Run-over by a Reindeer

Wow.  Just wow.

My Grown Up Christmas List

I played this for hubs the other day because he hadn't ever heard it.  Bless him.  His first reaction was "Wait a minute, this is an adult going to see Santa?"  My thoughts exactly.  Santa makes toys.  He doesn't create world peace and end hunger.  Let's not give the old guy too much credit.

Christmas Don't Be Late

Sung not by soprano, not by alto, or even tenor, but chipmunk.  Chipmunk range is what we're going for here.  No thanks.

Mary Did You Know

Pretty sure she knew.

Thistlehair (the Christmas Bear!)

I love Alabama, and I love kids.  Anyone that knows me could tell you that.  But I have a real hang up with this song.  First of all, there is no Christmas Bear.  Period.  Don't try and steal the kid's magic show from Santa. Also, this song features children singing at the end, more like yelling, loud.  It makes my skin crawl, a lot.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

These lyrics are just weird and awkward.  I think I'd die if I saw my mom kissing anyone when I was little, let alone if it wasn't my dad.  I certainly would not hang out to see any tickling like this child does. Creepy, even if it is just daddy dressed up.

...and anything covered by a boy band in the 90's.

that means you New Kids, *NSync, and Backstreet. 

What do y'all do to get in the spirit?  I love to watch Christmas movies and all the specials on TV.  I've got favorites that I have to watch each year, some of which aren't really "Christmas" but I like watching them at the holidays anyways.

The Best Holiday Movies EVER List, and random classics I watch in December

It's a Wonderful Life

Best movie ever?

White Christmas

You have no soul if you don't love White Christmas.  I secretly wish I could tap dance like that.  Ok, it's no secret.

A Christmas Carol- the 1984 version with George C. Scott

There are so many versions of this, but I think the Scott version really captures the Dickens story. Which, by the way, have you read the actual story?  It's darker and scarier than you think.

A Muppet Christmas Carol

The Muppets do everything right.

HOME ALONE (and only the original will do).  All year long, really.

Buzz, your girlfriend, WOOF.  What kid didn't want to be Kevin?

Charlie Brown Christmas

God bless them and their dying tree.

The Sound of Music

The hills are alive, and so is our house after an hour with Fraulein Maria.  You can count on the Houstons to belt out these tunes loud, often, and off key.

The Wizard of Oz

Not really a holiday movie, but we always watched it around Christmas when I was little.  My Meemaw loves this one.

The Santa Claus (I can't help it, I love that movie)

I got this movie along with my first tv for my bedroom growing up.  Oh, it was white.  A white tv with white remote.  I thought I was too cool.  Each time I watch this movie, I think about that old white tv, and how much I'm craving hot chocolate. 

....and no.... A Christmas Story is not making this list.  I rarely find it funny and always wind up depressed after watching it.  I'd rather shoot my eye out.

What's on your best and worst list?

Family

I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again, I'm so thankful for my family.  All of my family.  I'm really thankful for my mom's side's Thanksgiving tradition.  This one dates back as long as I can remember.  The entire side (my mom is 1 of 6 kids) gathers on Thanksgiving, it's like one big family reunion every year.  As big as we are, we are very close.  Many of my cousins I consider to be some of my closest and best friends. The venue has changed over the years.  It used to take place in Columbia at my parents house back in the 80's.  Then it was moved to Savannah at Aunt Paula's, then to Hilton Head at Aunt Cindy's, where it's stayed since about 1993.

Thanksgiving then

Unfortunately due to Blakely's second (yea, second) spay surgery, we didn't get to make the trip this year.  I was totally crushed and bummed out as Thanksgiving is the biggest deal EVER in my family.  You just simply do not miss unless you are at death's door or something to that affect. Unless you want to catch the wrath of all my mom's sisters, which just take it from me, you don't. :)  You get the point.  In any event, here are some of the things that makes my family's Thanksgiving so special.

The day (and let's be honest, the night before, too) starts off with HOT NOW Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee.  ALWAYS.  I think Aunt Cindy started this trend, but the rest of the fam caught on that's for sure.  I insisted on feeling somewhat like Thanksgiving this year, so I had to run out and get my own that morning.

We all gather round and eat, lots and lots of food.  There's about 60 or so people on my mom's side when you count the aunts, uncles, first cousins, and second cousins.  I'm not kidding when I say my family is BIG.  I know I always say that, but I don't really think anyone understands the magnitude until they enter Thanksgiving.  Mark admits to me it was pretty overwhelming his first go-round.  I think he's finally learned everyone's names at least, 6 years later and all.

We always get a group shot of the cousins.  We've been doing this since we were all in diapers, which is pretty hilarious to look back on all the pictures through the years.  And to see how many family members have been added now with first cousins getting married and having babies of their own.  Crazy!

COUSINS

All the babies born in the last year with their mamas.  Brooke with Jackson, Stacy with Cal, Mindy with Brady, Christy with Addison, Betsy with Watts , Megan with Annie.  Just missing Rachael and Lily!  Yea they just had babies, note the skinny genes, please God tell me I got those.

And we have a tradition of receiving money from grandparents.  My great-grandparents started this tradition.  My great granddaddy would give each cousin an envelope of money and Sweet 16 donuts (you even got to pick whether you wanted powdered or chocolate).  My great-grands have passed away, but my Meemaw and Deedaw have carried on the tradition for us.  You receive money until you have your own kids who would receive in your stead, so a lot of my first cousins are out.  Mark and I don't have kids yet, so we still get the loot.  Heehee :)

the look on Tate's face getting his money envelope is priceless

It used to be that after we ate, got our picture made, and received our grandparent money, we'd ALL go to a movie together.  Back then Hilton Head only had one movie theater, and it was TINY.  So, we literally filled up an entire theater.  Ha! I'll never forget- the first movie we all went to as a family was Home Alone.  Others I remember seeing were Mrs. Doubtfire, Flubber, It Takes Two, Sister Act, and Father of the Bride. We also use to wear out the Disney movie "The Witches".  If you haven't seen it, you should.

my dad, Ali, Steph, and Mandy watching The Witches

I love my family so very much! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and lots to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving Projects

I had five whole days off work recently, and it was nothing short of magical.  With all that time off, I got so many things accomplished around our house!  It's crazy what TIME can give you.

hubby hung the new Bellesol Mirror I scored from the Ballard outlet at 50% off!

And I finally painted stripes in our bedroom and moved the furniture in front of the windows.  The furniture got moved all while hubs was showering and getting ready for his day.  Let's just say he was very shocked.  I'm not sure if he was more shocked that the room was in a completely different arrangement, or that I had moved it all by myself (the 9x12 rug, the kind sized bed, the dressers, everything). Ha. It makes the room feel twice as big! I love it. Then on another day, I told hubs I wanted to paint big ol' fat stripes in our room.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  Then I told him I only wanted to do it on one wall, which made him look at me like I was a stranger in his home.  HA!

The stripes are Sherwin Williams functional gray and Behr Classic Silver, because that's the paint I had on hand.   In my head I was thinking more of a dark charcoal to go with the silver, but I like the way the functional gray turned out.  It's more of a taupe beige gray, but I think it works ok.  I also scored 4 big 18x18 frames on clearance at Pottery Barn.  These are the Carolina frames in gilded gold.  The only catch- they didn't have mats that came with them.  Who has 18x18 photographs laying around?  I can tell you the girl that doesn't even own a real camera certainly does not.  So, I had to get creative and figure out how to make my own mat.  A few hours with Hobby Lobby 30x40 mat boards, my exacto knife, and a ruler... NOT EASY, but it's over now.  Thank God.  The first time I've hung anything in our room! A little less dorm room feeling now.  Hooray! 

There's a lot I still want to do in this room before I can say it's "finished", but I'll have to wait for a few more days off work.  A to do list so I can look back on this blog and maybe actually get them done?

TO DO:

-Paint nightstands gray and distress them

- add mercury glass hardware to nightstands

-get horizontal dresser and paint gray and distress

-hang Ballard mirrors over horizontal dresser 

-move leaning Ikea floor mirror from living room to bedroom

-make pillows for Joss & Main chairs

-put striped bedskirt on bed

-finish up the nailhead headboard and install  

Between working on our room, taking care of our puppy, and just trying to relax and enjoy my days off, I didn't even get around to Christmas decor.  Maybe next weekend.  Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!

My First Stripes!

Last night the wall in my half bath was staring at me and all but asking me to draw lines all over it, so I did.  Honestly, when I get an idea in my head I won't stop thinking about it until I just do it.  These were my first stripes so they aren't blemish free, but I didn't find stripe-painting to be all that difficult.  I first measured the wall, which was 91" from ceiling to trim.  I wanted my stripes to be about 5" thick, so that left me with roughly 18 stripes to do.  The math didn't work out to be exact, so the last three stripes I just made a little tiny bit wider than the rest.  You can't even tell unless you get up to the wall with a ruler, which I think most people have other business to attend to in this room than making sure my stripes are perfect. ;)  I used a level ruler and started drawing my lines every 5" up the wall until all the lines were drawn.  Then came paint.  I didn't tape off anything because I never use painter's tape, ever.  It's a waste of time in my opinion (aka I'm lazy!).  Having said that, I have some areas that need a touch-up.  This project took about an hour to complete start to finish.  I can't believe I was too chicken to try this sooner.  It really isn't that hard, y'all! 

Before Stripes

The main wall color is Behr Elephant Skin, and I used Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray for the accent stripes.  Mainly because I had a sample can in the bathroom cabinet.  I'm glad the colors ended up working together, haha.   iPhone pics:

stripes in progress 

stripes complete

a view from the hall

I like them a lot!  Stripes are almost as addicting as black doors.  Almost.  Next up in this room is to run crown molding.  TBC......... We've come a long way from these days when we first moved in.

Blakely's Surgery

The Houston House had an interesting weekend.  Our Blakers is still a conehead from her surgery, and it has been extremely challenging to get to stay calm, not jump, not run, and not bite at said cone of shame.  All of the above is nearly impossible when you have a chocolate lab puppy.  Especially our B-Girl.

You know that saying "God doesn't give you patience, He gives you an opportunity to be patient"? Well that's entirely true for us this past weekend.  Our days began at 7:05, and not a minute later, with Blakely howling from her crate.  Because she needs to go out?  Because she's hungry?  No, no.  Simply because she's bored, and she can, and she wants to be with us 24/7.  Awesome.  Then it's time for her first abbreviated walk (no more than 5 minutes, poor thing).  Wrestle her to get her regular collar on.  Wrestle her to get her to sit and stay.  Wrestle her out the door without her banging into everything imaginable on the way.  Wrestle her not to try to jump the fence out the yard in excitement.  Wrestle her not to run down the driveway.  Ahhh, and now you are walking (10 minutes later).

Her walks have been pretty hilarious with the cone actually, because when she drops her head to sniff anything, she picks up a pile of leaves on the reverse.  We say that she is just helping us rake.  It's a funny sight.  She then gobbles her way through breakfast from within her protective plastic sphere, slurps down her water, and congratulations, now it's 7:45 am.  We've got the whole day ahead of us to keep her "calm", and to deter gnawing at her e-collar (which we've had to duct tape together several times over).  She then gives us a look of "now what?".

We called our vet on Tuesday, 4 days after her surgery, to let him know we were having trouble keeping Blakely-canine reserved post-surgery.  He recommended Benadryl, as did many of our friends who had gone through this before.  We thought- awesome, a miracle just waiting to happen.  We'd been told how groggy the doggies will be, how they just nap all day, how you can barely get them to go outside for a quick walk... our eyes grew with anticipation....Hubs ran out to the store immediately to purchase our life saver.    HA!  Little did we know that the coma-inducing drug has absolutely NO affect on Miss Chuggy.  NONE.  NADA.  :)  And so, for 10 days straight, we've been in a constant battle with this pup in all healing (and heeling) efforts.

My nerves are shot, and the hubs' has had plenty of those so called "opportunities" to be patient.  I'm thankful for a husband who, even when he's worn thin, is still so caring of our doggy.  For real, he all but tells the baby bedtime stories when she snoozes off at night.

And today, we are both extremely thankful that she gets her stitches removed!  No more flashlight head, Blakely girl!  I'll be very thankful to get her back to her old silly self.

*** Update- poor beansie popped one of her internal stitches.  She will undergo surgery again to fix the popped stitch.  Another 10 days for our family............ more opportunities for patience?  We are going to need your prayers.

Half-bath Redo Progress

Not the greatest pictures, as per my usual iPhone camera-ing, but I'm really happy with the changes and progress in this little half-bath so far!  I painted it Behr Elephant Skin, changed the towels, and hung botanical art and a pair of boat paintings I've had since college.  I love the gold and gray together.  

Progress so far! I want to put in crown molding and probably do a very graphic stripe with high contrast on the wall with the botanical art. This room is so small you need something dramatic and over the top, and paint is easy enough to change if I hate it!

 To be continued...........

How to Pick Gray Paint

Today, I thought it'd be appropriate (as I am currently transforming our house into 50 shades of crazy, or I mean gray) to say that I'm thankful for the color gray.  My friend Flower has always obsessed over it, and I used to laugh at her (just a little).  Until she gave me several of her gray paint colors to test out in my own house, and I haven't had a chance to look back but for my lusting over each and every sample I've put on the walls. Since we moved in, I think I've painted some rooms more than once, and lately a lot of rooms have become gray.

I tend to like grays that are true grays, and don't go blue or purple on you.  Which happens more than you'll like once you start trying this color out.  So long as you pick a gray that has a lot of yellow and brown to it, you'll be just fine.

Trick- look at the whole paint swatch.  If it's a dark color you want, look at the lighter colors on the chip.  If the lighter colors are blue, your dark color on that same swatch is going to read blue.

For example, if you want to use Sled, take a look at  Twilight Gray.
It's probably going to be on the blue side.

If you want to use Porpoise, take a look at Trail Print.
It's got a lot of brown in it, I think you're safe.

I'm often asked by friends for paint advice.  Because I'm some expert?  Um, definitely not.  It's because they know I'm insane and have painted my rooms at the house, at the condo, in college, and back at home with my parents- a bajillion times.  Really.  My dad jokes that my old room at their house has lost square footage due to the thick layers of paint on the walls.  A girl can change her mind, and change it again, and again, right?

Here are my favorite gray paint colors, in no particular order

Sherwin Williams Anew Gray

Sherwin Williams Anew Gray

via Decor Pad

Anew Gray is a taupe gray, and falls into the greige category as a really nice warm  neutral choice.  I painted all of the guest rooms in our house this color.

Behr Elephant Skin

Behr Elephant Skin

When I decided to paint our half bath a deep charcoal color, I wanted to make sure I steered clear of any purple tones.  Charcoals seem to go purple on you real quick like.  Using the method I was telling you about above, I look at the whole paint swatch.  Behr Perfect Taupe is on the other end of the spectrum from Elephant Skin.  I figured with taupe in the name, I was safe enough.

Behr Perfect Taupe

Behr elephant skin in our half bathroom

Behr Classic Silver

Confession here- I didn't use my paint swatch method on this color, and it almost turned out to be a big fat FAIL.

Behr Classic Silver

While by itself, Behr Classic Silver looks like a true silvery gray, maybe if I had looked at the entire paint swatch I would have known that it's darkest shade is deep purpley navy, called Poppy Seed. 

Behr Poppy Seed

I painted my bedroom and bathroom in Classic Silver.  Before I'd gotten all my furniture and accessories back into place, I thought for sure the color was too lavender looking.  NOT the look I was going for.  But, once everything was put back into place, the color now reads more silver.  Thank goodness, because I really didn't want to paint everything again. :)

Benjamin Moore Moonshine

I love Moonshine.  My friend Flower used this throughout her living room and dining room area of her gorgeous Buckhead home. It's a perfect for-real-straight-up-gray.  In looking at the swatch, it looks like the shade actually has a lot of green in it, too.  Moonshine doesn't read green, though, promise.  But because it has green in it, it definitely won't look blue or purple.  Paint is weird.

Moonshine via Young House Love

Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray

Chelsea Gray

Chelsea Gray is an awesome dark gray that has a lot of brown undertones.  It will never look purple, at least I don't think so.  Flower did her master bedroom in this shade, which looks cozy and sophisticated.

Cape May Cobblestone- a few shades lighter from Chelsea Gray,
and noticeably taupe, and not blue or purple. 

Chelsea Gray

And those are my personal favorites.  Good luck on your quest for the perfect gray!