IKEA Black Friday Happiness!

Hi friends,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with yummy food and good times with family & friends. We certainly did. We traveled to my husband's family for my first Pineville Thanksgiving with about 40 people. It was very different from my family's very quiet traditional Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. I loved it!

Another first for me was actually going to a store on Black Friday. I have to admit that I have never ever ever had an interest in being around tons of crazied people while shopping. I like my shopping peaceful and relaxing.

But....when my mother-in-law offered to watch the kids (they were so happy helping her decorate her Christmas tree on Friday morning) my husband and I jumped at the opportunity to get out kid-free for a few minutes. It was actually sad how quickly we responded with a "yes, we can do a little shopping" and were out of the house 10 minutes later.

We remembered that there was an Ikea in Charlotte, NC. We don't have one back home in Raleigh, NC. We actually got to Ikea before they opened at 10am. The store was very quiet.

I had been wanting to replace my home office (supposed to be our dining room) ceiling light with an Ikea light since last summer. Lately, I was super bummed to see that this particular light was no longer featured on their website. I was super sad walking around the store to see that this light was also no longer on display in their staged rooms.

But, guess what we found near the check out, discounted 60%? Three of those lights. I couldn't believe my eyes! I quickly inspected one and gently tossed it into our cart.

My home office with chandelier that was in the house when we purchased it last April (too ornate for my casual office):

This summer I replaced my home office light with a Pottery Barn light that I was trying to reuse from our old house in Virginia. As soon as we put it up we realized the scale was completely off. It was too small for the space. (Still trying to think where I can reuse this light in our new home.....)

My new light that hopefully my helpful and handy honey will put up for me SOON:

We also purchased two other items (one having to do with jewerly and the other will also be added to my home office) that I will share soon with you.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend. Hopefully I will be able to share my new home office light with you soon. Take care friends.

Happy decorating & living-
Megan

A New Tradition

Hi friends,
I am so exicted for the upcoming holidays! I wanted to share an idea that a friend of mine (a former teaching colleague who now has five beautiful children) shared with me last year. It's such a wonderful idea! It's become a new tradition for my little family.

Here are my little ones, Bryce, 5 1/2 years old, and Brayden, 3 1/2 years old (this is this year's Christmas card picture- it only took about 80 shots to get this one):

Here's the idea: Take 25 Christmas books and wrap them up. Each day from December 1 to December 25, let your children open up one of the books and read it together.

Honestly, last year we probably had about 20 Christmas children's books. I had fun picking up and ordering 5 more to make up the 25 for the collection. This year, I've already bought 3 new ones. I will wrap some of the smaller, shorter books together in one gift to make my total of 25 presents.

Very Important: These Christmas books are put away in the attic after the holidays so that we are surprised when we open them up again in a year.

All you need is this:

Tape and scissors:

25 Christmas books:

Wrapping paper and a place to store the gifts (I picked up this cute new basket at Target last week):

I also picked up this little adorable Santa who will help us count down the days to Christmas. His candy cane can be moved to help you keep track of how many days until Christmas.

Lastly, you will need a little bit of time by yourself. My awesome husband, Steve, took the kids to the playground for an hour on Saturday so I could wrap the books.

Here's a quiet house with no one in it but me.....ahhhh!

I did have a helper, Raven, the dog-



Oh, and I had entertainment too, Oraph's Lifeclass show on "Joy Rising", it was a good episode!!!!!

Here are some of my favorite children's Christmas books:

Our new books for this year:

So, our plan is starting December 1, one child will get to move the candy cane to December 1 and one child will get to chose a book to open which we will read. Then the next day, they'll switch roles. This will help us count the days until Christmas.

Now, we're ready for December 1:

I can't wait! I hope this is a tradition you'll consider stealing.

Do you have some fun holiday traditions you will share with me? I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved one-
Happy decorating & living,
Megan

Wanted: Blue & White Striped Rug

Hi friends,
Getting the new rug (from my last blog posting) for our living room has inspired me to want to get a rug for the adjoining room- my home office (dining room). We sacrificed our dining room so that this momma could have a space for herself to work. After all, how often would we use our dining room? We aren't hosting Thanksgiving or Christmas this year so at least right now, we're off the hook! Maybe in the future, we will want a real grown-up dining room. I predict we will. But, for right now, I use that room every single day as my office.

Anyway, back to the rug. Here's the inspiration rug that I am dreaming about (it's from the movie, Something's Gotta Give). It's a cotton blue and white striped rug. I think that I really like the casualness of it since the adjoining living room is more 'pretty'. Isn't it fun?

Here was the Room Make-Over Design Plan that I did for my home office this past summer. You'll notice that in the plan I included a soft blue rug. I am thinking that now I want to go with something more fun like the blue and white striped rug.

Here are some other inspiration rugs that I am really digging:

I did a little brief searching online about prices for similar rugs and I was quite shocked how expensive they are. So I guess I will continue dreaming about a blue and white striped rug for a little longer while I head back to work.

Here are a few pictures of my home office that definitely still needs work (change paint color, change out light fixture to a larger one, and add a new blue and white striped rug!):

Here is my view of the living room from my home office:

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. If you're traveling, I wish you safe travels. Take care everyone and be well.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan

P.S. Do you have your speakers turned on (not muted) on your computer? If so, what do you think about the new music accompanying my blog?