It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

I love Christmas and I LOVE Christmas decorations.  With it being our first Christmas as a married couple AND in a new home, I wanted to get new Christmas tree decorations.  I decided on browns, greens, and dark gold.  Mom helped me put the tree up while they were in for Thanksgiving - which was a huge help!

I've been eyeing my friend Jennifer's stockings for a few years and bought them for Ben and I this year - oh, how I love a pop of leopard!  The tree skirt that matched the stockings was super cute BUT over $100!!  I decided to make one using liquid stitch and it cost about $10! 

Here are a few pics of our Christmas decorations.  I have a few more things to do around the house (and outside) so I'll post those soon!

Our little Christmas tree! 
It looked a little "Charlie Brown-ish" prior to the decorations!

"Pop of leopard (& red)" tree skirt.

I'm obsessed with our stockings!

Our First Thanksgiving

The year of "first" continues as we celebrated our first Thanksgiving as newlyweds.  Both of our parents came to our place to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I was excited to bust out our china for the first time and to host Thanksgiving - I love to play hostess!  We had a great time chatting and stuffing our faces.

We have so much to be thankful for this year!  This year, I'm most thankful for my husband!  He's truly a blessing from God.

Here's a few photos from Thanksgiving...

Our First Thanksgiving!
I'm rocking my new Appetizing Apron that obviously has a pop of leopard!  

Place cards - Cost $0; Pine cones & leaves

Our table decor with our new china.

My cute husband cooking/carving the turkey.

Staycation

In our newly married small group, our leaders has suggested "getting away" quarterly as a couple.  With weddings and work, our "getting away" has not been by ourselves except for a few days in DC before a wedding.  Ben and I had talked about having a "staycation" in Atlanta so when Ben found a Groupon for a night at the Regency Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, he bought it! 

Because we've both been a bit busy, we did not do too much planning, but we did hear about a wine and food truck pairing event in Alpharetta (a suburb north of the city) on Saturday afternoon.  Our staycation started there and then we headed for massages thanks to Ben's friends who are in massage thereapy school!  Ben had never been to the new World of Coca-Cola so we headed there next.  With it being Veteran's Day weekend, Ben got in FREE and I got in for 1/2 price - not too shabby!  When we left there, it was dusk and there was a great view of the city!  I wanted a photo, but of course "self-portraits" are never good.  This is the best we could get....

We headed to our hotel after that and got cleaned up to walk to dinner at Ecco which was about three blocks away.  We had a delicious dinner feasting on a meat and cheese plate, pasta, and some marvelous dessert that I have no idea what it was.  On the way back we decide to drop into a tavern and finish watching the LSU and UGA games. 

It was such a fun day to just have time together.  It's always good to turn the phones off and just enjoy each other and that's exactly what we did!  Married life is LOTS of fun :)

Bond. James Bond.

When you are newlyweds, you are always finding out new fun things about your husband.  This one definitely did not surprise me. Ben loves James Bond movies and has seen them ALL!  When my super fun friend Sarah asked if we wanted to get all dressed up to go see the new James Bond movie on opening night, Ben was like a kid in a candy store.  I obviously don't turn down an opportunity to bust out sequins!

On Friday night, we got all dressed up and headed for the movie theatre.  We had plans to hit up the Four Season before but with Atlanta traffic, we ended up meeting at the restaurant across the street for a cocktail.  We then headed to the theatre - I was in full sequins and Ben in a tux!  The other two couples were also dressed in cocktail attire. 

It was a super fun evening!  We got a lot of stares and a ton of fun comments. 

Bang, bang...on the door baby

I hope that B-52's song gets stuck in your head! 

Well, our home would not qualify as a love shack, BUT, when you come over, there is an updated door to bang on.  Our front door was white with this awful screen security gate.  This gate had one way screws, so the process for us to finish the door has been a little longer than expected.  Since our yard is drabby, I wanted a "pop of color" at our house, so bring on the paint!  I painted the door yellow and then after some frustration, Ben was able to get the security gate off the door.  This weekend, while I was painting our new door decor, Ben was sanding and putting a fresh coat of white paint over the trim.  What a difference a fresh coat of trim paint can make!  See below, our before and after pics!

Before....

After.



I love the wooden monogram on the front door.  It's a bit flimsy so we will see how long it lasts...



Baby it's cold in here...

The joys of buying an older home means the insulation is probably not the best.  Our contractor suggested to us to wait a year to see what we really needed to do in regards to insulation. 
We made it through the summer - our electricity bill was a fun one - and know of a few things we need to do to help for summer next year.

It's been getting cooler and cooler in Georgia and I freeze in 65 degree weather.  The back of our house where our bedrooms are located is at least 10 degrees cooler than the front of our house.  I got home from work last week and discovered Ben had made a little trip to Home Depot and decided to start the insulation process above our bedroom and bath.  Oh, I do love him :) 

Just another project checked off the list....