Time for a change!

One of the fun things about un-decorating from Christmas is that you can still leave out a lot of your things and swing them over for a New Year's party or just into Winter. There's no reason to put it all away at once ... the teals, and silvers and pinks of the holidays are just as pretty when there's a bunch of snow outside the window.  You just have to find ways to refresh and rework it all!

When we celebrate New Year's, it's all about time ... the clock striking midnight ... Father Time ... how fast time flies. I'd love to have a party where I could use watches as napkin rings!

The whiteness and glittery-ness of this time of year is just so appealing to me. Probably from living in Minnesota! But so is the sparkliness and the reflecting of light ... it gets dark pretty early still. Decorating for Winter is also kind of girly! You get to use more candles and small lights, too ... so fun!

So there you go ... permission to take it easy and not have to put away everything at once ... to take some time and enjoy the slower pace after the holidaze. Take out the parts that are very obviously red and green and leave in those pieces that sparkle and shine!

Happy New Year!!

 

Season's Pretzels!

Ok fine ... the real name is Seasoned Pretzels but we've been calling them Season's Pretzels for so long that that's the only name we know now! It may be because they really only taste good this time of year. We've tried them other times ... not so good.

So all you need are two bags of tiny twist pretzels ... the tinier the better ... a bottle of Orville Redenbacher Buttery Popcorn Oil ... accept no substitites ... a DRY package of Hidden Valley Ranch mix ... and 2 T of lemon-pepper seasoning ... try to find the salt-less version if you can.

Pour the oil and the dry ingredients into a gigantic bowl and mix everything together. A fork works great for this. Add one of the bags of pretzels and toss it all around with a wooden spoon. Then add the second bag gradually until it's all mixed up. Give all those pretzels a buttery oil bath!

Keep stirring them up each time you go by the bowl until all the oil and seasoning is absorbed by the pretzels. In our house, the rule is if you snitch some pretzels you stir the bowl. Kind of an easy way to get someone else to do the work! When Alex was deployed, this is one of the things he wanted sent in his Christmas box ... it was hard making sure we had a full bowl to send.

I got the recipe a million years ago from my friend Monica who owned A Stitch in Time in LaCrosse WI. Passed it around to everyone where I lived ... it must have totally saturated the neighborhood because when I was buying ingredients last week, the cashier said "I know what you're making!".

We go through them fast ... I usually buy enough to make about three batches ... I think that's about as much sodium and oil any family can absorb ... but they sure are tasty while they last!

Lovely last minute holiday touches!

So here are the rest of my pix from the Bachman's house. There were some great ideas that would be so easy to pull together without a lot of work. Don't you love the birch branches and poinsettias?

Ok ... this isn't a bed for a little kid ... it's a bed for a tiny man's best friend!

You've seen those vintage casserole carriers, right?  They added mirrors to the bottom and then hung them on the dining room wall. All those shapes and sizes were spectacular ... and then you set those pretty red touches in front of them ... breath taking.

You really need a lot of courage to have a massive centerpiece like this on your table! I love all the tiny details ... and all of the red!

Rustic, shiny, vintage, earthy ... it all works together! Don't you love it?

Creating space!

Imagine that you were snowbound in Minnesota and this is where you could hang out for the whole day. Not too much of a stretch given the 20" that dropped down on us this weekend!

Designed as a gift wrapping room, everything you'd want to decorate the perfect package is right at your fingertips ... and you guessed it ... we're still at the Bachman's house in south Minneapolis. Some of these things were just amazing!

This could so be my workshop ... I use some of the same ideas to store and sort things.

I love this pix so much that I made it my desktop!

When you pull open the little closet, it's fitted with shelves that are completely organized with baskets. Don't you love the Scrabble letter id's?

The work table was a commercial metal baking table ... it had a shelf where you could slide cookie sheets in and out ... perfect for organizing a project or storing it when you weren't working on it.

Iron-on vinyl over pattern pieces made the valances for the windows. Loved the ball fringe!

Don't you love it? Couldn't you see yourself working in here? I could!!

The children were nestled, all snug, in their beds.

One of the fun things about the Bachman's Christmas Ideas House is that they decorate the bedrooms for different ages. This time around, it was based on a teenage boy and girl and as you can probably imagine, here in Minnesota, hockey is king this time of year!

They mounted a used air hockey table on the wall and magnetized hockey pucks to hold up important information.

Recycled chip holders and peg board were fun photo holders. They also used wire locker racks on the walls to store odds and ends.

Every parent's idle threat.

The teenage girl's room was right up my alley! I would have loved to have had this as my room growing up. Loved the drafting table as an easel ... all the paint by number projects ... the storage ideas for painting supplies.

A section of a peely-paint gate kept all of the current periodicals within reach when lounging in bed. I could see myself living in this room ... today ... not as a teenager!

Army blankets were used on the bed, as shams and also as a valance over the windows. They jazzed them up with gigantic felted wool flowers. I betchya I have an Army blanket in my duffle bag!

Some sweet pressies on the nightstand table. Wouldn't you love to receive a gift wrapped like this?

Little stop in the bathroom to freshen up.

Mom and Dad's room showed off how popular birch bark is this season in decorating. It truly is in almost every store in the Twin Cities in one form or anyother.

A vintage birdbath with a piece of glass on top was such a fabulous nightstand! Bob won't let me have this but it would sure be fun in the workshop! There's one more room upstairs. Colorwise it's the exact opposite of Mom and Dad's and it was my very favorite ... upstairs ... but is right up there with that kitchen I love!

Someone's in the kitchen!

The kitchen truly is the heart of the home at the Bachman's house. And I would so love to spend the day in this cozy and adorable kitchen!

Can't you just imagine how happy you'd feel baking in this setting? This is one of two that were my favorite rooms in the house. You'll have to wait for that second one!! :-)

I would kill to have a cookie cutter chandelier. I'd love to have all of the ones we grew up with on it. One of the things that was great about this house was that you could buy things from it in the garden center. They had a bare frame ... I'm still thinking about it ... wondering where I could hang it so I could enjoy it.

Look at this great idea for using old windows. It just fills up the wall and gives more reasons for showcasing little vignettes.

Sweet, huh?

Kids are what makes Christmas so much fun. If I had a little space like this, I'd create a countdown calendar, too! This one held ornaments with numbered tags under them. You take off an ornament each day and put it on the the tree until none are left and the tree is decorated. Or ... you leave it hanging in your kitchen untouched because it's cuter than cute!

I am so doing this when grandkids toddle into my life. Forehead slapping myself for not thinking of doing this when my boys were growing up.

I grew up in a Christmas cookie-baking household. Being in this kitchen ... I don't know ... it just makes me want to move in and start my life over again. Or start a new life. But only if I can have the kitchen, too!!