Much-a-Do About Decorating...

Christmas was officially over Saturday. Yes, Saturday. Epiphany which takes place on January 6 every year is the finale to Christmas and marks the earliest time that MeLissa will ever be found removing Christmas decorations (the current record for keeping decorations up goes to 1998 when MeLissa left them up so they'd still be around when she returned from France on March 20).

All this aside, Saturday was the big day when all the Christmas decorations came down and all the "every day" decorations were brought back out. 2006 promises to be a big year for MeLissa and in the spirit of the new beginnings it promises, she decided to do a little "sprucing" up of the house by moving "little things" around a bit. And, if we may say so, she did a fabulous job (and there's even just a touch of Christmas for us to enjoy all year round)!

Pictures will be forthcoming, but until that time, here's a little description of the changes she made:

The Kitchen: MeLissa decided things needed to be brightened up in the kitchen. The perfect means of doing so - the kitchen Snoopy collection! For the past couple of years, it has been showcased in our double bookcase in the front room. It is now gaily displayed on our kitchen bookcase and pantry. The red and white really are a nice happy addition to the room. As an added bonus, we were able to move all of MeLissa's entertaining books to a shelf in the living room book case and so she has room to add more cookbooks (Amazon and Borders are rejoicing!).

The Living Room: We mentioned the subtraction of Snoopy kitchen stuff (there's many other Snoopy knick knacks still there!) and the addition of the entertaining library to the bookcase, but we didn't mention that Mark's oversize Martini glass was added to the top of the structure as an on high centerpiece. We placed a red and green martini glass inside and flanked it by red and green striped glasses for just a touch of festiveness all year round. This would make a great centerpiece idea for your next cocktail party...add a few colored beads and voila!

The fireplace mantle also got a face lift. MeLissa loves the look of crystal and mirrors and so she built upon love by decorating her mantle with various crystal candle holders, knick knacks, etc. A glass heart bowl by Waterford is the central focal point with it's colorful potpouri. The two ends also are focal points with a cheery bouquet made of flowers from the very first floral arrangement Mark gave her (they were silk) and a lovely poinsettia which adds a little Christmas cheer.

The most important change that was made, though, was the addition of a sewing area for MeLissa. Yes, she hasn't given up on quilting - she's just decided to make things a little easier by setting up her sewing machine! She plans to attempt to finish the evil triangle block soon (which just for the record will require 2 more mini blocks since she had to rip one out the other night because it was not up to par!). Maybe she'll even post a final picture once she's finally won the war...

In other news, today (January 9) is Mark's first day back to school. This promises to be a challenging quarter with a board exam to act as the finale. Mark's quickly approaching the light at the end of the tunnel (which we've determined is 90% likely not to be an oncoming train!) - he's right on track to finish up his studies in June 2007.