The Perfect Christmas Tree

Photo: South Coast Plaza tree

Many of you are overachievers when it comes to Christmas decorating. Some of you are already done but I have not even started my Christmas tree. Lucky for us, we have a professional Christmas decorator giving us some tips. May I please introduce Sophia Mirasol with her handy Christmas tree decorating tips.

Christmas has to be my favorite time of the year. Amidst the hustle and bustle, I find a moment of peace when I sit beside the Christmas tree. It is a joy when my boys sit with me and discuss which is their favorite decoration on the tree.

Here are some tips that will make holiday decorating as simple as pie. . .

1. Start with a thick pre-lit tree. One that has mixed leaf textures and wired pine cones is even better.
2. If it is not a pre-assembled (fold up) type, arrange all the layers in ascending order.
3. Use the pointed plastic attachment of your vacuum cleaner and vacuum your tree.
4. Assemble and fluff all leaves pointing upward and up. This will make it easy to balance any decoration you will hang.
5. Add fancy lights to match your theme. I love star lights or icicle shaped lights. You can scatter them or bunch them for greater impact. Add your lit tree top. Always use proper extension cords and plug them into an AVR or fused outlet strip.
6. Add vines or leaves. Then add berries or a second color of leaves. Play with a coordinated pallette for a playful look or go a range of mono chromatic for a more elegant look.
7. Add Christmas flowers. Poinsettias are the most popular but you can use any flower. Remember that the flowers must be in proportion to the size of the tree. The larger the tree, the larger the flowers.
8. Add your most special ornaments first to be able to position them in the most noticed places. Add different shaped balls, snow flakes, gilded pine cones. You can work these in inner portions of the tree. Secure your ornaments with green florist wire.
9. Add your ribbon and bead garland. Secure with green florist wire.

In between every step, step back and check from various angles of the room for balance and symmetry of your work.

A typical 7 foot tree will use a minimum the following...
10 sets of lights
12 vines or branch picks
12 berry picks
12 flowers
48 balls
24 special ornaments

At the end of the season, make sure to clean decorations and remove all wires. Store glass ornaments in acid free containers. Take photos and list the items in each container. Do not keep broken ornaments. This will make it easy for you the next year.

--Sophia Mirasol

For those of you lucky enough to be in Metro Manila, Sophia is available for your Christmas decoration needs.

Decorate away my friends, decorate away. Until next time.

Nicole

A $64 Dollar Desk

Hi Friends. I wanted to show you today how I restored an antique desk.

The desk style I liked was the Whitney desk from Pottery Barn. But seriously? $999 for a desk? Me thinks NOT.

Here is another one at ONLY $949 plus tax.

Enter the Craigslist disaster. For $35 I got antique, missing pulls, scratched, and even stickers.

Here are some close ups:

scratches and dings

Look at those scratches on the top.

Talk about your fixer upper. This thing looked like it was in need of stripping to restore.The saving grace is that it is sturdy with good bones. Confession: I used this for the past two years in this condition. How unsexy. In our new home, this will be the man's desk. I want him to be able to use a nice desk when he works from home. We need to bring sexy back to this desk.

Solution: A trip to Home Depot for Restor-A-Finish ($8.98) and staining pads ($3.98).

I followed the directions on the bottle and purchased new pulls from Ebay ($15 with shipping). Make sure you measure ALL the pulls' distance to center. This baby was at 2.5 inches for the top pulls and 3 inches for the bottom. 

Look at the top, it removed those scratches. Best of all, this took me under an hour to restore. Really amazing stuff I tell you. 

Ta-da! the after, bringing sexy back! Don'tcha wish your desk were hot like mine?! Restor-A-Finish people. If any of you restore any old desks, please show me. I will do a round up of all your desk projects.

Here is the comparison:

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

Total Cost:
Desk                        $35
Restor-A_Finish         8.98
Staining Pads              3.98
Tax                             1.04
Ebay knobs                 15

Total                           $64
Pottery Barn Desk  $999 plus tax

A total savings of  $935 (plus tax)

Until next time friends.

Nicole

Home Tour

So all these great blogger do home tours. I am actually in the process of moving. Our house sold recently so I am getting the house all packed away. This house was our first home. Before we moved in, we gut the whole place.

 Come on in folks.

Here is my beautiful kitchen (my favorite room in the house).  We had new cabinets put in. There used to be a pass through window but we had it knocked down and extended the counter so week could use it as a an eating area as well. (there is my "enjoy" sign on top of my fridge)

Then there is the dining area. We hung a contemporary brushed chrome light fixture and a big mirror. I staged the dining area with vintage 1940's milk glass plates. My buffet has two Fenton vintage hobnail cake platters and a Mosser glass vintage style cake platter that you can still find today. I found mine on ebay the seller is  Liveforhim2012 (love the Jesus reference). 

Here is my living room. The fire place was brick we had it refaced and put a 6 foot mantle. We also have a built in that I designed. I use plenty of milk glass in my decorating to offset my dark furniture. I love milk glass. 

The first room is our office and craft room. I sew in here. That yellowish piece is a vintage record holder. I use it for storing fabric. 

Here are my kids' rooms. Two tone paint and a chair rail with a chandelier for added fanciness. The nursery I never quite finished. I used to be a guest room. My vision was a vintage style nursery. But I basically rocked what I got.

The Master Bedroom. I never got around to hanging anything on the walls because I was always afraid we would have an earthquake and all the frames would come crashing down on us. 

Here is our master bathroom. See the little bath tubs on the toilet? They all broke. The hooks on top of them fell and all the bath tubs crashed on the tile. I guess my mini bathtub collection is not meant to be.

Now let me get real with all of you reading this. These pictures of my house are from a massive clean up to get it ready for an open house. Before you all ooh and ahh at how this can pass as model home clean, let me give you the honest truth. We took all our clutter and stuffed them in laundry baskets in the garage. Here is what my home looks like on any given day :

Until next time friends.

Nicole