Christmas at Knottliten Cottage

The tree. It's the smallest (and cheapest :) one we could find and it's up on the trunk, so the babies can't destroy it. I had extra fabric from the cuff of the burlap stockings my mom made us, so we cut the red, green and tan plaid fabric into strips to tie on the branches, white lights and an angel with a patchwork skirt to decorate the tree. A burlap tree skirt inside out (the other side has adorable felt ornaments that would be too much temptation for the babies).

The centerpiece. I made this in five minutes with stuff already around the house - two wine glasses from Goodwill I had in the cupboard, red tea lights I had in storage, extra trimmings from the tree and the berries from the fall front porch decor.

The front porch. This was almost free - more tree trimmings, holly cut from my neighbor's yard and a red bead garland I found at Target for $2.

Go here to see more thrifty holiday decor linked to The Shabby Nest.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's finally here - Thanksgiving Day! Thankfully, my husband and brother set up all these tables and chairs last night. We will not have room for a fancy centerpiece, but we will know where to sit as soon as I get all these bows attached to chairs.

But for now, I'd better get that turkey in the oven!!

Have a wonderful day!

Bathroom Mini Makeover

One day I walked into my guest bathroom and thought "hmmm - BORING! Not really put together". It wasn't horrible, just a little tired and mismatched looking!

So . . . .

Out came the Almond Satin (very close to Heirloom White) and the basket and the magazine rack got a new coat of paint.



I sanded the edges with my CoW (Chunk of Wood) block sander and wiped some gray stain over them.





Added some contact paper left over from another project to the magazine rack -






And made a few little changes . .

And viola - not much of a change, but enough to make it fun to go in there again!

Sorry about the lighting - I live in the Northwest - we don't have very long days!

Linking up to Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday and Cottage Instinct and A Soft Place to Land.

Cubicle Land

I work for the State Department of Education. You know what that means - a small cubicle with a jillion restrictions on what you can and cannot do to it. When I started four and a half years ago, I was with the Pupil Transportation Department. You know - processing the criminal histories of school bus drivers (and school volunteers - very interesting job), helping set up trainings for drivers and in general helping to make sure our students are safely transported to and from school. That lent itself to some interesting cube decor ~

I got the scrap book paper at one of our Big Lots when they were going out of business. It was 50c a package, so it cost me less than a dollar to "wallpaper" one of my walls. I started collecting school buses from second hand stores, garage sales, etc.

They made for some interesting additions (and so did those grandkid pictures!)

They became plant holders too!

And look at that view - I actually had a window seat!

About a year and a half ago, I transfered out of Pupil Transportation and into Human Resources. Now I do love this job, but the cube that came with it left a little to be desired!


Thinking that perhaps I'd better "grow up" my decor, I went to our Big Lots that was still open and got a couple rolls of shelf paper (1.00 per roll). I then got out the trusty T-pins and started "wallpapering"

Amazing what a little color and organization do for a cube. This cube is much smaller than my last one and has a big post in the middle.
I kept a few of my favorite pieces from my animal/bus theme just for fun.

Then I threw in a little "Fall".

With my snack box, and my cup of tea -- I'm all set!