My Christmas Living Room

Even though I’m probably going to keep messing with my Christmas living room decor until it’s time to put it all away, I think now’s as good a time as any to share the full look for this year’s tree and mantel.

The last time I even decorated to this degree was back in 2011 when I was just starting to figure out what I wanted the living room to look like. Since then, probably the biggest change has been realizing that the walls were painted too dark for the limited lighting I get in the room, which prompted me to go with a much lighter color in the hallways, entryway, and upstairs landing area as well.

A lot of the decor was reused from past years, but there have been a couple new additions, especially to the tree’s red/white/silver/gold color scheme (sources: family heirlooms, my Old World Christmas collection, Target, TJMaxx, Homegoods, At Home, Hobby Lobby). I had some trouble figuring out a decent way to clip my old star onto the new tree, so I went with a few ribbons up top that I found at the dollar store.

I don’t love the top, but the rest of the tree grabs my attention so much that I don’t mind. I added my two living room chairs on either side with some pillows from Target as a way to keep Charlie from sneaking behind the tree and bumping my ornaments (two beauties already lost :( …).

As for the mantel, most of it has been taken over by my big-ass TV, but I still found some room (read: crammed decor around it like there was no tomorrow) for the items I liked best (clearly, I have an undying love for mercury glass).

I snagged a new bronze reindeer (which, including the kitchen’s red one, brings my total up to 3) and a lovely metal rocking horse that I keep moving around because I like it so much. I may keep that little guy around all year!

The basket next to the mantel is also new, filled with several pillows I’ve either bought new this year (from At Home) or had upstairs in my master bedroom. One of my pet peeves is seeing hazards around mantels as decor (because fire), but I went with it anyway when I snapped these pics (I immediately took them and the sheepskin rug away and pushed the poinsettias back to the edges of the mantel after I was done).

A word about the poinsettias: I normally fill a cart with red ones on Black Friday (both Lowe’s and Home Depot have them for 99 cents apiece that day each year), but I have never bought the red-and-white-pinkish ones until now. I guess I went with it just to see if I liked the variety. The red ones began dying off quickly, so I think next year I’ll just buy more of these. (The platform the taller one is resting on is actually one of my wooden couch sleeves I made a few years ago.)

I’ve got two stockings hung (“with care” is debatable) with initials (one for me, one for Charlie). More on that in a future post on that little craft and such.

I also switched out the rug after the old beige and blue one clashed too much for my liking; I snapped this pic mid-switch so you can laugh with me (or, well, at me) at how sometimes I turn easy stuff into a comedy of errors. Every time I moved the rug, the rug pad wanted to come with it, which at one point was put into a flustered heap in front of the tree. It all worked out eventually, of course, but it’s funny to me when a simple thing refuses to cooperate.

The old rug is swapped it out for the one I originally had in my office and topped with a Turkish rug that my sister gave me, which I liked because it adds some extra, unexpected pattern. The bottom rug is clearly too small for the room, but at least now I know what I might be looking for in a replacement (and depending on what I find, I might still try to layer the Turkish rug on top). I didn’t realize before this that Turkish rugs have to be brushed a certain way to look right (you can see that from certain angles it looks like it’s got one light side and one dark), which I’ll have a post about sometime soon with the details.

I’m really glad I chose to decorate this year because it reminded me of all of the plans I still have for the living room. Some of it is relatively simple, such as bringing out the color of the stone with some sealer and touching up the wooden mantel area (it has seen better days for sure). You might have noticed that the coffee table is currently missing from the room, and that’s because I’ve put it and the old side tables on Craigslist and dragged them out to the garage. The plan with those is to build my own and give myself a customized option with storage (when I sketch things up, I’ll share it). If you have your own suggestions, I’m all ears as I gather ideas!

Speaking of ears…

The windows will also be getting an upgrade soon with some window casing (and then hopefully actual window treatments). I’ve added it already to the dining room and kitchen, so completing these three (and the one by the front door) will finish off the entire first floor. I’m tempted to start on it even as I sit here typing this, but I have also been telling myself to wait a few weeks, since it will be a hell of a lot easier to do when I take down the tree and have full access to the area. Whether or not I actually take my own advice is another story. I’ll also be adding crown just like I’m doing in the kitchen, so I’ll share that progress as it comes as well.

Finally, I’m hoping to start on the built-ins (!!!) I’ve had in mind for years once the holidays are over. I can’t wait to start sharing that project!

So, um… there’s my Christmas living room? I intended on just sharing the decor, then suddenly this post turned into talking about all the things I want to change up. Ha! Hope you’re having a good week!

The post My Christmas Living Room appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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My Favorite of Favorites: Hard Boiled Egg Cookies

Here’s the deal with these cookies: aside from the fact that they have one of the worst names in the history of naming—well, anything— hard boiled egg cookies are my absolute FAVORITE Christmas cookies to snarf down. Even though they sound about as appetizing as a whiskey shot with a pickle juice chaser, they don’t taste at all like eggs. They are a lot like sugar or butter cookies, but they have a soft, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, chewy texture that pairs perfectly with a cold glass of milk.

I like these even more than Thin Mints. And I can eat the hell out of a sleeve of Thin Mints. Is that convincing enough?

Family tradition. These cookie cutters are my great-grandmothers. See how there’s only a tiny bit of red paint still left on the handles?

Last Friday, I shared with you my grandmother’s favorite cookie recipe (kolaches) and what it meant to me to have these around now that she’s gone. I promised ages ago that I’d share both recipes, so I’m here to pay up and give you the details, even if you decide that the name is just too hard to get over.

Or, you could call them by name in front of your kids and basically guarantee that you can hoard them all to yourself. It’s genius.

Granny’s Hard Boiled Egg Cookies

• 4 c. flour
• 2 c. sugar
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• ½ lbs. butter softened
• 4 hard boiled egg yolks sifted
• 4 whole eggs

Directions:

Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, hard boil egg yolks and butter. Mix like a pie crust (dough should be bits not solid). Add 4 whole eggs and vanilla. Makes a stiff dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for about a ½ hour before rolling out on floured surface. Cut into favorite shapes. Bake at 350 degrees until the edges are brown (about 12 minutes).

I prefer them plain with a small wash of egg white on top because I’m not a big icing fan, but the rest of my family is insistent on icing or adding sanding sugar to a few so that I’m not the only one who can enjoy them.

In our family tradition, I like to eat them while they’re still warm from the oven, which is also a fine time to dust them with sugar (if you didn’t do it before putting them in the oven), but you should generally wait until they’ve cooled to ice them. Mom has a long standing tradition of ignoring this rule altogether when baking, so I have fond memories of iced cookies with a see-through spot on top (or in the case of birthdays, whole top layers sliding from their base). Ahh, childhood.

———–

(Speaking of, the entire time I was writing this post, I said the word “cookies” so much I had a memory flashback of watching Troop Beverly Hills. I know I’m dating myself, but does anyone else remember that movie?)

The post My Favorite of Favorites: Hard Boiled Egg Cookies appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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All That Glitters

I don’t have a big DIY post for you today. Instead, just simple glimpses and Christmas closeups of the house as it’s still coming together for the holidays:

The tree is done!

We’re about a third of the way through this crazy month, and in between illness, gift shopping, lots of client work (blogs often try to refresh their looks as the new year approaches, so my design queue starts to fill up again), and all of the awesome social events that this time of year brings, I am feeling a bit mentally overwhelmed.

Of course, these events aren’t really for complaining about… it’s just that when things begin to pile up and my usual schedule goes out the window, I start to feel a sense of inadequacy and urgency to do all the things at once, which never really works out very well. And I then I have to remind myself to stop that shit.

Does that ever happen to you? It seems way too easy to overlook what’s done and see only what’s left unfinished.

So, I took a moment to slow down a bit this afternoon and just look around at all of the loveliness I was surrounded by for the first time in a long while. As per usual, nothing’s perfect. At the very least, Charlie sees to that (for instance, she stepped on my living room tree’s remote today and managed to turn on the flash setting… it looked like my tree was having a panic attack).

But once I manage to take a quick breath, ignore that I have to vacuum the floor again, and let the twinkly awesomeness take over, it became plainly obvious that I’m exactly where I want to be. As long as I remember to slow down, I become grateful again. Even if that means the dining room doesn’t actually get decorated any more than my initial half-assed attempt at finding places for things I used to display on the mantel (the idea is still simmering… but I’ll figure it out later). After all, it’s in a dining room that I did a lot of work to (like adding picture frame molding, taking down wallpaper and patching walls, painting a vivid shade of blue, etc.), so a table centerpiece can wait its impatient turn.

And then, it makes me excited all over again for what’s coming next.

Wider shots of the living room are coming soon, but I am taking just a little extra time to make everything the way I want it. Perhaps I’m overcompensating for the last few years of having too much going on to celebrate (just today, Facebook reminded me of the graduation pics I took from ’13), but it’s making me happy nonetheless. And another cookie post coming Friday… have a good one!

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