Holy Crap, Guys, it's 2014

I let an entire holiday season pass without a darned word. I'm sorry.

The first Christmas in the Cottage was warm, cozy, and wonderful. Since Thanksgiving was so late, we decorated on Black Friday (which was pretty much December already!). I was so excited to set up the tree in the front bay window. With two small battery-operated candlesticks in the right and left panes (the pic below was taken before we added those)...dear me it was a page out of a dream. Here are a few shots of our decor:

Home-ownership is chugging along--we've gotten lots of use out of the fire pit we bought back in October, and have been chipping away at small to-dos and maintenance items. Next on the list is new curtain hardware (and curtains) in our master bedroom. The wire system the sellers had in place (from Ikea) snapped some time ago, and so we jury-rigged it, but it's at the point where it's just time to bite the bullet and upgrade. Sadly, that means figuring out how to remove it, potentially spackling, definitely painting, and then drilling the new stuff into the wall. So stay tuned for that. I'll be swapping out the blue curtains we brought with us from the apartment (hopefully to be reused in one of the other upstairs rooms!) for some crisp white ones we bought at Target. With the grey walls, I feel like the room could use some levity.

I find my eyes are getting bigger than my wallet in some aspects--there are so many small upgrades I want to make, but dude, stuff tallies up quickly! Ah, well, you're never really done working on a house, right? haha We'll have plenty to keep us busy.

Oh! We also have a functional guest room now! Speaking of making things happen...check it out!

This was the guest room as of one week post-move.

Then we got a full-size bed delivered.

Some quick accessorizing and blammo! A cozy space for family and friends.

Hammy approves.

Also, can we talk for a minute about this snow? Princeton actually shut down today, miracle of miracles, for a full-fledged snow day. We got about 6 or so inches here, and that's without the drifts. I'm in awe of the temperatures, too! I think we hit about 18 degrees today, and tonight we'll be hovering around -2. Brrrr! Tomorrow should be a balmy 30. I'll break out the shorts. haha Here are some snowy scenes:

This was actually from the first snow of the season a few weeks ago.

Snow from the so-called "Hercules" piled against our back door. Just enough so Hammy could still peek out.

Frooooossteeed wiiiiindowpaness....

Well, I hope this makes up for my prolonged absence. With the bedroom project on the forefront of my to-do list, I hope to be back soon with the before and after for that.