anti-grinch mode

AG and i are grinches. better yet, were grinches, not anymore. we are not fans of christmas time... but i decided to change my attitude and even if i do not like christmas, i do like holidays... and vacations even more!!! so i decided to come out of the grinch mode and with blueprint as inspiration, i decided on festive decorating without the fuss...

The first step was making a wreath for my front door, and i saw the perfect one on the holiday issue featured on amy butler's home, so i decided i would make it myself and not spend much on decorating. all my neighbors have christmas decorations since november, and most of the houses are such eye sores... yuck! they just don't know when to stop. horrible sights...

I gathered materials from what i already had, bought some white spray paint, the cheapest wreath hook (it was a hideous green, i spray painted it black) and was set. i did my minimalist beautiful wreath. i love it! i'll show you my holiday tree on another post...

paint it black

So, we really want to be a DIY couple. that, and considering our tight budget for house decoration, we decided we would paint by ourselves one of the dining room walls (we had never painted a wall before, but how hard could it be?). so, black walls it would be!

We painted the first wall and once it was finished, we still had another new can of paint, so we went for a second one. the difficult thing about dark colors is that they bring out all the flaws the walls have. but the trick is applying several layers of paint. we did a pretty good job and now the dining room is looking great! it's really beginning to come together in my mind (after some color touch ups on my grandmother's heirlooms...).top to bottom: AG applying the first coat of dutch boy 10A-6 top hat paint, me admiring our work.