"And then cried Max, 'Let the wild rumpus start!'

It's that time of year again - and this month (like all the others this year) has completely snuck up on me. Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. While I'm completely a beach girl - there's nothing I love more than snuggling up in front of a fire during the Winter. Normally I'm one of the crazy people out on the Friday after Thanksgiving picking out my Christmas tree (honestly I'd go on Thanksgiving if my husband would allow it.) This year, however, we hopped in the truck and arrived at Home Depot to find everything completely picked over and only the sad, Charlie Brown Christmas trees left. We're a little behind schedule this year but we have our tree! It's still outside drying (are we the only ones that hose down our tree before we bring it in??) but I wanted to post the beginning of Christmas around here!

My mom, sister, Jenn and I all made what I'm thinking will now be an annual trip to Roger's Gardens yesterday and I came home with two Euro trees for our mantel. I actually love how they look even after Christmas. The brass candle holders were a gift from my sister and Jenn last year, and they're one of my absolute favorite things. They found them in an antique store back East.

{Close-Up}

We keep it pretty simple around here - but that's the way we like it! : ) Happy Decorating!

Growing Up

Last week I bought my first piece of grown-up furniture. As I've mentioned before, I am bit by bit replacing my Ikea purchases from my college years along with my hand-me-downs (not the good ones!) with pieces that really fit our house. **This is part of the reason I haven't posted too many pictures of the rest of our house. I'm revealing as I complete a section!** I haven't taken pictures yet but I'll leave you with a few hints as to what it is!

Here's another hint: We've registered for a lot of this....

Bookworm

We are a house full of book nerds. We love to read. I grew with a librarian for a mother (she later was a teacher) and David was the kid who never did his homework, not because he was playing video games but because he was reading. Yes we are a little nerdy! : ) So when I was designing our house I knew we had to have bookshelves wherever possible. This wall-o-books....

....sits directly across from this

When we moved in, we were so sick of living in dust, and so ready to just get our stuff in that I never really took the time to arrange the shelves the way I really wanted them. Our books, and eventually other "stuff" accumulated on our shelves. I've been meaning to re-do them for quite a while now. I was reading the latest Pottery Barn catalog and was admiring the handy work of their very talented set stylist and was instantly inspired.

Janet has also inspired me to get creative and not run out to buy things I really don't need. I still went shopping, but did it in my own house. I collected little "fillers" for the shelves to keep things interesting. I was actually pretty shocked with all of the stuff I found in my house!

{You can see our stairway to the right}

What? You don't keep your iPhone SDK programming book on top of your Apartment Therapy book?

I still need to find a picture for this frame. The brown binders are a must for me! They are recycled paper binders (sold at OfficeDepot) that hold all of my inspirations from magazines. It makes it WAY easier to find things!

{Please excuse our circa 1980's track lighting - we had issues installing lights due to the awkward pitch in our ceiling, and we had minimal room for a j-box}

Here's the "before's." It may not look all that different (or maybe it does.) But, I can promise you our shelves were a little scary!

{Before}

Here's a few inspiration pics

{I would have LOVED to have the space for a library ladder}

{Love this wall to wall bookcase}

{A little more natural}

I've been seeing this more and more. I understand that an all white palette lends a much more consistent look but really - how practical is this?? You'd have to REALLY know your books! : )

{How's this for some wallpaper!}

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Wedding Straws

I'm staying true to my word and comin' at you with a fun wedding project I've been working on! I don't think I've said too much about our wedding on the blog so I'll fill you in. We're going to be having our wedding at The Inn in Rancho Santa Fe. It's a quaint, single story inn, built in 1922 by the young and talented Lillian Rice (you go girl!)

{The Inn circa 1920's-ish}

{The Inn today- We'll be getting married under the big Pepper tree!}

The overall theme of our wedding is going to be Vintage Garden. Our main objective is for it to be fun and a complete reflection of us! Because of this, we're not really following "the rules" on quite a few things!

{Our colors are mainly yellow with touches of green}

{We're thinking of adding little touches of green with succulents}

In true "me" fashion - I'm making a lot of the decor items myself (with lot's of help from mama seagrass!) I found some really cute, yellow, vintage fabric on-line and we're going to be making bunting flags to run along the edge of the building where our reception will be held. (I'll show pictures soon!) I wish I had pictures of the reception area - it's in a little private garden area under a canopy of outdoor, garden, ping-pong lights.

{Example of flag bunting}

Remember my Ball Jars post? We'll be using those scattered along all of the tables for tea-lights!

The part I'm MOST excited about (besides the actual getting married part of course!) I just found out that The Inn will be setting up croquet for our guests during cocktail hour, while we take our pictures! Next to the big tree that we'll be getting married under, on the other side of the pathway is a croquet lawn! Should be fun!

On to the latest wedding project I've been working on. Since we'll be getting married in August - notoriously one of the hottest months in S.D. (I know, I know, I'm not complaining - I know hot here, does not even begin to touch the kind of hot other places experience!) Regardless, we want to be prepared so we're going to be setting up a little refreshments table for guests to enjoy iced tea and lemonade. And what would iced tea and lemonade be without some vintage, barber stripe, paper straws???

{I made little flags that say "drink and be married"}

{I found vintage, paper straws online here}

{I've got quite a ways to go before I'm finished - but I had to share my start!}

**All wedding images found via Green Wedding Shoes Blog**

Not Bad, Ikea, Not Bad

I tend to have a little bit of a love, hate relationship with the infamous IKEA. I tend to lean more towards the hate side of things when the little buffet I bought back in college wobbles like a fat man with little legs any time I need to move it. But, I love love love the prices! And every once in a while, they have really good finds! I made the trek to Ikea this last weekend for some curtains (post on that soon!) and came home with some pretty cute finds.

{cream, enamel pitcher $6.99}

{Hydrangeas from Farmer's Market}

{cute, label-less, water jug $2.00}

{Natural Doormat $7.99}

I'm actually threatening of heading back and getting a few more of the clear water jugs after receiving this book.

David and I decided to tackle registering, and we received this book from William Sonoma. I saw this picture of a Summer bbq. I love the idea of using the glass, water jugs scattered on the table for water.

I didn't come home with any of these and I'm kind of regretting it - they're only $0.49!

How cute would these be at that Summer bbq? Hmmmmm do I sense a future theme?

Dear Ikea,

I'm back on the side of loving you. I'm so glad that you are embracing your cottage side. Well done, Ikea, well done!

Love, Melissa

Balls!

.....(Ball) Jars that is! I found an absolute score on Craigslist. Remember my recent mountain vacation? Well, the combination of me catching a cold and us getting snowed in, resulted in me spending a ridiculous amount of time blogging and Craisglist-ing (the best place to buy furniture no?) Well, my persistent searching led me to these beauties.

A woman had them posted for dirt cheap. She had a collection of 600, and was looking to get rid of them - fast!

Our wedding is going to have a vintage, garden theme, and we wanted to have vintage, Ball jars for flowers and votives. We bought 75 jars on our first visit to the Craislist woman's house. However, upon returning home and doing some math, as far as how many jars we would have per table as well as prices on vintage Ball jars, we decided to go back and purchase 75 more!

{So, what am I doing with 150 vintage Ball jars in the mean time you ask?}

....we have lot's and lot's of flowers in jars, my pens and pencils now live in jars, my make-up brushes now live in jars....you get the idea.

I would have posted the whole, 150 sea of them - it is quite a sight - but they are on rotation through the dishwasher.

{PS - pictures on Flea Market finds coming soon!}