Front Door Facelift

We recently finished two small projects that didn't take long at all, but make a big impact.  One is a more permanent change, and the other was a fun Christmas project.  

We have been wanting to replace the light fixtures on either side of our front door for awhile now, but wanted to wait until after we painted the exterior.   As y'all know, the painting is now done, so it was time for these to go...

We wanted a darker fixture to tie in with the newly painted black shutters, and something with a clear glass.  After a quick trip to Lowe's, we came back with these:

I am slightly obsessed with them. I enlisted James to do the wiring, and in no time, we had new front porch lights.

I love the herringbone pattern on the fixtures.

Our next project was a triple wreath for the front door.  I saw the idea on Pinterest a few months ago, and knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate a triple wreath into the Christmas decorating at our house.  So, this is the inspiration picture:

Here is the how to from the Martha Stewart website.  After a brief trip to Michael's, I came back with all of the supplies to get started.  Once again, I enlisted James to help me with securing the wreaths to the door. We ended up using all fishing wire to hang the wreaths, because we didn't want to put any nail holes in our newly painted front door.  

Deck The Halls

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, James and I set out to get our first Christmas tree as a married couple.  As most first time newlywed experiences are, it was a fun time, and also a learning experience for both of us.  I learned about James' Christmas decorating traditions and James learned how OCD specific I am about making the tree look perfect.  Since childhood, James and his family would decorate the Christmas tree while eating cookie dough.  James' cookie of choice is his mom's oatmeal chocolate chip.  So we cranked up the Christmas carols, pulled out the mixer and got to work!

Mom O's Choc-Oat Chip Cookie Recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine or butter softened

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 Tbs. milk

2 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 1/2 cups Quick or Old Fashioned Oats, uncooked

1 (12 oz) pkg. semi- sweet chocolate morsels

1)  Heat oven to 375. 2)  In large bowl beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Add flour and baking soda; mix well. Stir in oats, chocolate morsels; mix well. 3) Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.  4) Bake 9 to 10 minutes for a chewy cookie or 12 to 13 minutes for a crisp cookie.  5) Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove cookies to wire rack.  Cool completely.

The dough-- James' favorite part

Finished product

I've made this recipe 2 or 3 times and for some reason they never taste as good as they taste when James' mom makes them.  I guess she has the "mom's touch"--James insists they taste the same, but I think he is just being nice.  While baking we started working on the tree.  James and I are both firm believers in a real tree.  We just love that fresh evergreen smell and the whole act of picking out the perfect tree. 

It was love at first sight

I'm not sure how much fun James had decorating the tree, while I watched over him...moving the ornaments he had just placed.  I really need to loosen up before we have kids.  Here is the finished product, along with some of the other decorations around the house. Including an early Christmas gift from my parents-- a nativity set.