My Creative Blog:
The Farmhouse

Our basement laundry room moonlights as extra storage for odds and ends.

Before the contractors showed up for the second half of the house renovation (when porch, dormer and dining room were added), I came upon the above cabinet on one of my excursions into the city. I mention this because despite being in construction mode, I couldn't maintain the will power to abstain from decorating-mode.
I thought the old country cabinet would be perfect for the laundry room as it would add some nice old-fashioned character as well as provide some extra storage for my collections of transfer ware, flower vases and all our extra Martha Stewart white ware pieces (our everyday dishes).

I like having something that is enclosed so that dust is kept to a minimum and there are no critters lurking about when I need to retrieve something....this includes the ocassional field mouse, lizard, frog, salamander or eek, spiders....all of which have been sighted at one time or another. But really, it's the spiders, as I am one of those people who abhor spiders, yet can't bare to hurt them.

The cabinet also provides extra drawer space for items I don't use frequently.

At some point, we'll completely enclose the laundry room from the rest of the basement and perhaps add some heat so that doing laundry this time of year doesn't require wearing a hat or gloves. We also need to fix some parts of the old drop ceiling as it was disturbed when the electricians and the plumbers swept through with their updates.
To give the laundry room a more comfortable cozy look, I got a nice chunky jute rug for the floor. It was also a really cheap option I found at Home Goods — only $30. For its size, I thought it was a lot more charming than the synthetic rugs you get at Home Depot or Lowe's.
xoTrina

It's beginning to look more like Christmas around here. We hung our stockings....

....and Hubby built us a warm toasty fire.

We also put our Christmas tree up. I was in the kitchen when he called to me, "is this straight?"

We straightened it out and found all of our favorite ornaments to hang. Hubby's parents made it a tradition to give each of their six children (Hubby is the baby of six in his family) an ornament every year so there are lots of ornaments on our tree with a strong Hubby theme. By far, my favorite, and the one ornament I'm sure to hang most prominently on our tree, is the ornament I call, "Hunk of Love."

Here it is being showcased with careful consideration that plenty of light is cast its way. This ornament was given to him when he was in high school. He was on the basketball team, hence the basketball themed ornament. How cute is that!
You want a closer look you say?

Well I'm glad you asked because the very first Christmas we spent together, I made a larger copy in order to better appreciate all the fine details. The mullet (business in the front, party in the back), the 1980's tank top and the best part, the teenager stare.... are what makes this ornament so special. I can't help but smile each time I look at it! Hubby finds this very amusing and always asks, "what mullet?"
Do you have any favorite childhood ornaments?

It was so nice to sit by the tree last night. Hubby read some David Sedaris holiday tales and we played several rounds of Backgammon in front of the fire. Hubby loves Backgammon, and I'm more of a Scrabble girl. So I'm sure we'll be playing lots of both over the holidays.
Happy holidays!