Catching Up...

Things are FINALLY returning to normal after the play around my house, with a few exceptions here and there. The show was SO fun and we had a decent turnout (not as great as we'd hoped) but all in all it was very successful. But by the end of it, we were all pretty sick of each other.

I came home from "strike," which is where the set is torn down and taken back to "scene shop" and all that, and after about 5 seconds in the recliner, I was sick. I had a horrible cold that lasted for 3 days and then Aaron caught it just when I thought I was better. Then I caught it again. It was misery. 

I did manage to watch a really amazing series on Netflix that I'll be doing a "What I'm Watching" on shortly. It was amazing. I watched  42 episodes in 3 days. I didn't move from my recliner for anything.

I also turned 25 on the 14th. Let's not dwell.... but here are a few pics from the festivities....

 This is what two sick people look like when they're trying to pretend they're not sick so they can go out on a birthday date.

 My teeny cake that my Mom got for me!

My sister in law got me this amazing blanket for my birthday and I'm obsessed with it. 

So... this happened a week before I planned for it to.

I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving or the first day of December to put my Christmas things out. But the Friday before Thanksgiving Aaron and I went out to Bowling Green to eat and I ended up wrangling him into Michael's so I could pick up some deco mesh and ribbon. And while we were there they just happened to be having a huge Christmas Decor sale and we ended up with a HUGE HAUL for $60. Two rolls of red mesh, two rolls of blue sparkly ribbon, a roll of music theme ribbon, a new tree skirt, 5 sparkly picks (the kind that you just stick in the tree at random), and some floral wire. We hit the motherload. While we were there we determined we just couldn't wait and so when we got home (at 9pm) we started decorating. I sent him to bed at midnight and finished up around 5am. Not a biggie for me. Ya'll know I'm a night owl.

Now if you've been reading this blog for long you notice that my Christmas tree is in a spot where a LARGE piece of furniture used to live.... Missy, where's your piano????!!!!

That leads me into my next topic.

Yep. I moved the piano. I'd been wanting to forever and one afternoon I just... did. By myself. What a task. I love the open space it gives me, and especially love that this year I did not have to move any furniture to put my Christmas tree up.

After a couple of weeks I decided I was going to follow through with my long shelved plans to create a faux mantle, and I knew precisely where I wanted it.

I didn't have any money in the budget to go out and buy shelving and crown molding... in fact I think I'm going to ask my Father In Law if he can create mantle shelf that may match out entertainment center  for me. He's amazing. So I dug around in my crap-closet and found an old shelf and some brackets and made this little "place holder."

Here it is all decorated for Fall. I made the "autumn" banner myself one night. Just some card stock, yarn, and a very steady hand.... I did the letters by hand. Took forever, but I love it.

And then I moved my sofa table from behind my loveseat. I was in a mood this one particular day and everything got moved!

I moved the sofa table into the actual living space, underneath our wedding photos and it's working out great. I am loving this little set up as well! It takes up WAY less space, is cute, and very functional. I keep our shoe basket on the bottom and can slide my purse in there (I never know where to put my purse...) and on the top shelf I have a basket with little sis' leash for easy access when she needs to go out. 

I did laundry. A LOT of laundry. :) Thought you might like to know that.

I shampooed my carpet. Cause, that's whatcha do when you've got a dog that occasionally has a whoopsie.

Then you cuddle with your whoopsie pup.

Cause she's cute and it's not her fault you weren't paying attention to her doing the potty tap dance outside of the bedroom door while you folded clothes. Bad Mama... :(

Did I mention we went to the Smokey Mountains with Aaron's family a couple of weeks before the play? Probably not, because I kind of stopped living during the play. I'll probably do a post on just the vacation because we had a ton of fun! But here's my favorite shots of me and Aaron from the trip...

 Looking out over the mountains our first full day there. And YES we rode the chair lifts up....I was a nervous wreck, but my sisters in law were cheering me on and I had a death grip on Aaron's hand... and my purse.

And then this one was us at Dollywood. We actually ended up going two days in a row, and this was our first day. as

Again, I'll do a full post on the entire trip soon! We had such a fun time.

I don't actually have any plans for any upcoming posts other than a Christmas tour, and I think I'll include a video on that one... and I may do a look at my office, I realize that I never did a proper tour once it was "finished," and now that it's been "finished" for a while, I've changed it about 84,000 times. So I need to at least get the photos updated for you guys. HOWEVER, with that being said, I have a busy week coming up, so I don't know when I'll get the posts actually written and put up. But they're coming I promise! I've missed blogging and can't wait to get back into the swing of things!