Holiday Preparations

On top of having a nasty little cold, I have been busy trying to pull everything together before the holiday.  I have been making a bunch of Etsy gifts, doing some shopping (finally), and running some serious errands.  So I hope you understand my silence the past few days… and probably the next couple.  But never fear- I have a million ideas for December 26th and forward.  I will let you sit in anticipation until then! ;)

I will leave you with this however…

Happy Holidays!  Love, Bo

Life is Good

Since we moved in together, our fridge has started to look like we suddenly have 40 children trying to display their best moments.  By that I mean lists, tickets, Christmas cards, love notes, photos, invitations… we have enough for a household of 42.  So I had the idea for a project to make all of our love notes (from each other and from visitors) into wall art.  I have always loved the photo displays made of string and clothespins so I decided to modify it for our kitchen wall.

Why this saying?  When Walker and I started dating, the phrase “Life is Good” seemed to pop up everywhere and life certainly was good.  It became a sweet reminder of how lucky we are.  Now we see it every day, along with little love notes from friends and family.  Talk about a mood-booster!  Here’s a little tutorial in case you’d like to make one of these in your home (spoiler alert: it is super renter-friendly!).

I started by placing a piece of blue painters tape at the height where I wanted the base of the letters to sit and used my level to make sure it was straight (but a chalk line would have been perfect here too!).  Next, I did some math.  I measured each of the letters (purchased at Michael’s for $2 a piece), added .5″ of space between them, and added 2.5″ for space between words to get my total length.  I centered this length on the wall and marked it on the tape.  Then I went back and marked where each letter would go.  When that was finished, I had a (level) piece of tape with the exact positions where the letters would sit.

Before getting the letters on the wall, I placed a thumb tack on the bottom-left corner of the L and the bottom-right corner of the D for the string.  I measured out the string and tied it to the thumb tacks for our clothespin line.

Then I used Command picture hanging strips to stick the top of the letters to the wall.  This involved a lot pressing and waiting.  Once I had all of the strips in place, I removed the blue tape and did the same for the bottom of the letters.  However, I deviated from the picture hanging strip directions here a bit and just left the letters on the wall once they had both strips.  I found that removing the letter from the wall too much resulted in the strip coming off of the letter.  This is how I lost my first S.

Once I replaced the S and got all of the letters on the wall, I pressed some more for good measure.  I grabbed a bunch of love notes and some clothespins to complete our “Life is Good” wall art.  I even added a hanging basket (made from a curtain rod bracket, an S-hook, and wooden basket I had in the house) to hold additional clothespins.  Our wall is happy and so is our less-chaotic fridge!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas…

Anyone else completely caught off-guard that it is ALREADY December 15th?  As in: 10 days until Christmas.  I guess the 35-minute line at Michael’s should have tipped me off that it is getting to be crunch time.  Despite a lack of Christmas shopping, Walker and I were good about getting our apartment into the holiday spirit early this year so we could enjoy it all month long (except the stockings, explained here)!  Nothing beats a cozy, festive living room in December.  :)

Our tree is about 2.5 feet tall and is a Nobel Fir ($15 bucks at the grocery store!).  We decorated it with lights, round ornaments, and spray-painted zoo animals in gold and white (thanks to Young House Love for the idea!).

On our front door, we have a Let it Snow-man which my mom (upstate NY) sent me as a joke my first Christmas living in Los Angeles.  I wonder what would happen if it really snowed here… sheer panic?


For the first time ever, we also have REAL mistletoe hanging in the opening between the kitchen and the living room!  I donated to some Cub Scouts outside the hardware store and they gave it to me.  It made my whole day!

Add a few strands of lights and voila: festive house!  Lastly, what good is a decorated house if you can’t sit and enjoy a glass of wine in your warm, Christmas-y living room?