Shed Some Light

As promised, we have been busy with projects during this break time for Trey.  The first project we did this weekend was install recessed lighting in the kitchen.  We had always planned for this to be part of the kitchen, so we've been only using a small hanging light bulb to light up the whole kitchen.  We also took advantage of a visit from Trey's brother to help us with this project.  We decided to go with a 6" flush fluorescent clear light with white trim.  We put 10 of these lights in the kitchen and plan to put 2 above the fireplace later on.  But those are the logistics, now for the pictures!

Making holes for the lights above the bar.  Brother-in-law is stuck in the attic. 

Trey wiring the lights. 

Poor guy, he was there a long time.

Half-way done!

The finished product, cleaning up after the mess. 

We also installed a ceiling fan in the living room.  I chose an inverted frosted glass bowl with walnut blades and a rusted bronze finish.  The fan also comes with a remote, and the light dims into several levels.  It looks great! 

It looks great with the Christmas decorations. 

Things are starting to look a lot brighter around here . . .

Decking the Halls

 This past week we decorated Home Sweet PROJECT Home for Christmas.  It's such an exciting thing for us to decorate this house that means so much to us already.  I can't believe that this time last year we were in the 30-day timeline to close on the house.  

We began with the tree.  We actually bought our tree and ornaments last year, and I wanted to have an all white and silver tree.  So we got a pre-lit LED tree with a bulk of plastic silver ornaments (because Roscoe and Missy's tails like to to knock off the ornaments).  And we topped it off with a silver star and a white tree skirt.  

The cats keep trying to make the tree skirt their bed.  Better put some presents under there fast. 

We also got a new ornament this year to commemorate the first Christmas in our new home: 

And I was so excited to able to put our stockings on our fireplace mantle this year.  Our stockings are meant to coordinate, kind of match and kind of not.  And they look so great on the fireplace, which is being used a lot! 

I think next year I will need to get some type of garland decoration to go around the mantle. 

And then we have several small things throughout the house, so it feels like Christmas everywhere you look.  

Ceramic light-up nativity scene on the bookshelf with Christmas tree and snowman candles. 

Christmas tree floormat and towels on the oven handle. 

And thanks to a generous offer from Shutterfly in collaboration with Blogger, we were able to get our Christmas cards done for free!  I love the personalization and the beautiful design of their cards.  We took our picture in front of the Christmas tree and put it in a gorgeous lace-detailed template.  See below for our picture and more information about the offer from Shutterfly. 

Vintage Lace Frame Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Merry Christmas from all of us here at Home Sweet PROJECT Home!