What I'm Loving Wednesday 12.5.12

Hello Friends!

So much has been happening in the last week or two that I have chosen to focus my energy on my 3D life needs and not so much on the blog.

However.

One of those big things is now DONE. School my friends...I am all but finished with school! Finally.

I have one class to take during winter term, which meets once per week for two hours. It is like it doesn't even count! After taking 16-20+ credits per term for the past 3 years a 2 hour class once per week will be nothing.

Also, I have successfully completed all of the credits and requirements for both my BS in Communication Studies and my Certificate of Conflict Resolution. The class next term is my final requirement for my Certificate of Management of Human Resources. SO exciting and scary and nerve wracking! I will now have to find a J-O-B! EEK!!

Anyway, school is done and now I can start the process of shifting my focus. For the past three years the focus has been school school school. Now I can begin to shift.

I will share more over the coming days and weeks. I will write a weekend review post, and talk more about what's going on in the day-to-day at Casa Beebe, but for today I am going to share with you some of the things I'm loving.

Special request of my brother Ken, who is studying for his finals and asked me to write an interesting blog post to help him study. Ha! No reading the blog until your studies are done mister!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

1. My new coffee mug(s) from HomeGoods

I am into everything Peacock lately....

2. My tiny Christmas tree (also from HomeGoods)

It needs a few more decorations, but I haven't gotten quite that far yet.

3. The new Christmas stocking my mom gave me (from Pier1)

Are we noticing a theme? It gets better!

4. The new Peacock tea light holder decoration (also from Pier1) that my grandma gave me for Christmas.

Yes I opened them early, but that is because they are meant to be used right now. I love it!!!

5. The new artwork I bought for above my fireplace (also a HomeGoods buy!)

6. The number 8

Eight short days until the start of my vacation!! WOoohoO!

7. THESE (HomeGoods)

I have been looking for Peacock dishes for a long time. When I was in Portland over the weekend I went to HomeGoods (obvi) and there they were! This gorgeous pattern and so inexpensive! I bought 4 salad plates, 4 bowls, and 4 coffee mugs. I LOVE them! They are dishwasher and microwave safe and they are so pretty and delicate. Swoon!

8. Now that I am done with school and it is the holiday season, my coffee can handle a little bit of extra cheer.

There it is....8 things I'm loving! What are you loving today?

Outdoors Indoors

HAPPY MONDAY!

(source)

I love Calvin & Hobbes! 

I know this may sound odd, being that I have a garden and everything, but I am not so great with plants. Well, let me qualify that. I am not so great with houseplants or plants in pots. I am miserable at watering them. 

If you read my garden post on watering you will notice that my garden is set up on a drip system and a sprinkler system and it is all on a timer. Do you know why? Because otherwise it would never get watered. I do not know why this is such an issue for me but it is. I am a terrible water-er. There. I said it. I confess!

I actually had to tell my grandmother, who has the biggest green thumb on the planet (her house looks like a jungle because of all the plants) to stop giving me plants as gifts because it was such a huge waste of money. She would give me some beautiful (and expensive) potted plant or flower arrangement for say Easter and I would water it like twice and then it would die. And then it would sit there dead until Chris got mad enough to throw it out. And repeat. 

This year, when we created our outdoor beach oasis, we bought some plants to put on the beach to finish the look. We did this knowing full well that the plants would have to be brought in for the winter. Bringing them in was part of the process this weekend of shutting down the garden. 

So now, I have plants in my house. I have to say, plants make a crazy difference in the look of a house. 

Ignore the crooked blanket. Notice how the plant on the far left is looking pretty dead...it was outside of the watering area of the sprinkler...It still has some green in there so I think it will make a comeback. I'm not joking about the watering. 

This corner of my living room now looks completely different to me! And, I think next year when these plants go back outside I am going to think it looks very empty and naked! I may actually have to go buy some indoor plants. We'll see. 

I am getting better at watering. Our lemon plant has survived two years of winters in the house and it is still going strong. Maybe I am old enough to have houseplants now? 

The other thing I did this weekend that is outside of my comfort zone (I am SO not crafty) is I created a fall arrangement for my fireplace hearth. Yup. This girl right here. (I actually had to have Chris help me pick out the flowers because when I got there I was just overwhelmed!) We went to Michael's and found they were having a 60% off sale! Whooohoo! I got some very nice silk flowers for $13.95. Here is what I did:

I had the black vase and I wanted to "fall-ify" it with some sunflowers. There are actually four different sunflowers in there and three other tall fillers. I had some raffia hanging around in my closet so I took and tied a bow around the neck of the vase. Ta-Da! My own fallified hearth decoration! Go me! The big red sunflower has a goldish-black sparkle center which tied in perfectly with the shiny black of the vase. I think it turned out great! 

I did manage to take down all my summer decorations, and have put a couple of fall decorations up, but I'm not done yet. 

Have you decorated for Fall? Can you keep houseplants alive? 

Faux Tree

I like to stick with one holiday at a time. I know lots of people love Christmas music sooooo much that they start playing it as soon as the weather starts to cool off.

I am not one of these people. Christmas music is for Christmas time...which begins either Thanksgiving night or the Friday after and not one single moment before!

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is time to move on to full Christmas celebration mode!

The Christmas music is playing...Mannheim Steamroller, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Kenny G, Amy Grant, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and family, The Maldonado Family, Ray Coniff, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and of course, The Southpark Christmas album.

What? Southpark is a tradition!

I hauled out all the decorations and have spent the last few days putting up all the holiday trim. Chris helped with the outdoor lights and decorating the tree. It's starting to look and feel festive around here!

I also dug out my holiday coffee mugs.

The only things we need now are egg nog and cookies!

Happy Holidays!