The Ho-Ho-House Tour

Merry Christmas!

Welcome to the House of Bad!

I love this wreath. I've had it for about 6 years, and I just change up the ribbon to suit my mood. I bought some beautiful glass heart ornaments to hang on the porch this year, and once I'd added matching ribbon to everything, they looked made for each other. (I'm not entirely sure the hearts were made for outdoor use, but at least it'll be quick, if they break. Unlike the drawn-out mocking death of the hanging plants I hang there each summer.)



I can't take credit for that most glorious of Christmas decorations - freshly fallen snow. (And to be honest, I hope that it'll all go away come the 26th!)



Hubs gave me the porch swing for my birthday. I'm looking forward to being able to trust Bad not to run into the road, and then I'll be able to sit there with hot chocolate and blankets while I watch my babies play in the snow. (And a little wine in the summer, maybe, whilst they ride their bikes up and down the street?)

I love pulling all the ornaments out of their boxes each year. There are always some that I'd forgotten we had, and it's a wondrous surprise to see them again.



The tree's the thing, here at the House of Bad. Anything and everything goes, as far as ornaments are concerned. Here are some of the things you'll find on our tree (and last year's post, if you want to see close-ups of a few):

Moose in a rowboat (Nfld)
Fisherman (PEI)
Gnome (Montreal)
Santa made from a seashell (Quebec City)
Coke bottle (Las Vegas)
Rastafarian Santa (Bahamas)
Manatee (St. Pete's Beach)
Christmas Palm Tree (Key West)
Nativity in a Poppy seed shell (Budapest)
Nativity in a pottery cup (Mexico)
Humpty-Dumpty (Harrods, London)
Glass grapes (Niagara-on-the-Lake)
Blown glass tree (Bermuda)
Mickey Mouse in a lightbulb (California)
Bobble-head monkey (McDonald's Happy Meal)
Glass pickle
Glass potato
Frog Prince (2 different ones!)
Pig Prince
Ballerina Elephant
Cinderella (not the Walt Disney version)
4 silk Snow White balls (Walt Disney version)
Silk butterfly
Leprechaun
spaceman in a rocket car
Venetian gondola
train
Santa in a firetruck
glass candy canes
collection of mirrored disco balls
glass and feathered birds
Russian wooden dolls
antique glass balls (all colours)
new glass balls (purple and blue)
cheap flocked balls from Ikea (all colours)
crocheted angels and snowflakes my mom made when I was little
a silk 'Ziggy' ball from Hubs' childhood
ceramic snowman my sister painted circa 1980
glass circus lion
glass circus clown
ballet shoes
jewelled high heel shoe
various creations by the Princess (looking forward to some from Bad!)
nutcrackers (various types)
glass icicles
stuffed Donald Duck
glass teddy bear
glass bell
resin teddy bear
Victorian tin tinsel
clear bead garland
my beloved tree topper (coveted for an entire Christmas season and purchased in February at 75% off!)



It all looks fabulous together once it's up! It really is a tree designed for children (of all ages!). We sit around it and play a Christmas version of eye spy, looking for their favourite ornaments. (The stuffed dog is circa 1985 or so, and he only comes out at Christmas. His name is Poinsetter. I didn't make that up. And please ignore the shutters on the windows. They're hideous, but they came with the house, and 4 years later we haven't gotten around to replacing them yet. Or the ugly carpet. What can I say? It's an old house and the list of things we need to replace is almost as long as Santa's naughty list.)



I don't do a lot of seasonal decorating inside the house, apart from the tree, but what would Christmas be without Reindeer Games? These books and toys live with the ornaments for most of the year, so they're a treat for the kids when they come out again each December.

Other than that, the kids have the trees they made at Bad's birthday, and there's a vase full of pinecones in the powder room. (Just before it snowed we were out walking and the Princess asked me why some trees lost their leaves and some were still green. I explained the difference and we picked up some pinecones - a LOT of pinecones. I thought about making something with them, but just the idea of sticking little googly eyes on to hundreds of pinecones to make little hedgehogs had my head about to implode. I threw them in the vase, and they're actually really pretty. My photo didn't turn out.)

You should check out my blog decorations though, I did this last year too, and lame though it may make me, I just can't help but love it.

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you have a season full of hugs and giggles and cheer. (And that Santa comes, too!)

xo Badness

Psst! Go see Jen on the Edge for the list of other houses on the tour!

Squee!!!!

You: Um....Badness? There's nothing 'squee!!!!' about that chair.

Me: I know...it looks hideous, but try to look past the 40 year old orange and green weave upholstery. Look at the teak legs...look at the curve of the back. And trust me...this is the most comfortable chair I have ever been in. I bought it at Goodwill, 1..2..3....7 years ago. For five bucks. We had no money and we needed a chair. I fell in love with the shape of this one, and I knew it had potential. (I didn't know that I'd have to live with that fabric this long!!!) Anyway, the other day Hubs told me that he'd talked to one of his customers about my chair, and they'd offered to re-upholster it cheap! He told me to go buy fabric!!!!! Squee!!!! Imagine how beautiful it's going to look wearing this:

Here's the fabric hanging over the back of my beloved sofa, so you can see how they look together. (And if you're not sure about the pattern I chose, don't worry. I had to stare at it for ages before I could decide if I loved it or thought it was hideous. It's going to be fabulous....it's like one of those dresses that look like nothing on the hanger, but when you put them on? Va-va-va-voom! This is gonna be one sexy chair.

And don't look at the carpet. Hopefully it'll be the next to go!

The Battle of Midway...

Ta da! Okay, I'm only half done, but still, I've done a lot. All the furniture has been moved, and I've thrown out a couple bags of garbage. All of the children's things have been transported back to their rooms.



Some of you might be looking in this closet and thinking, "This girl has no clothes!" I have a confession to make. I have no clothes. At some point after the Princess was born I listened to the advice that you shouldn't hold on to too small clothes that you might be able to wear again 'someday'. I kept a couple pairs of jeans and a dress that I'd spent a lot of money on and barely worn, and gave the rest away. So in the beginning of the year, when I finally got my act together and lost all the baby and 'husband' weight, I was left me with....almost nothing. I bought some summer things, and I've got a few pairs of jeans in the dresser, but I think I'm going to have to hit up a couple consignment shops to get myself through the winter. Maybe Santa will be good to me!



The kids and I spent hours shopping yesterday, we hit HomeSense, and Wal-Mart, and the SuperStore, but I didn't find the boxes and bins that I want to re-organize all the craft, wrapping, gift and holiday supplies that also hide in the closet. I used some laundry baskets for the time being, but they're not pretty, I think I can hear Ikea calling my name. I'll be able to pick up a lamp there too.



You can probably see from the photos that we've never decorated this room. I think I'm going to make that my project for the spring. I want to make a big 'inspiration/bulletin' board to hang over the desk, something covered in fabulous fabric. I can dream all winter about new bedding, new bedside tables.....

But for now? It's nice just to be able to walk in there!

Coming out of the closet....

Hubs bought a new computer for his company last week, and I (yay!) inherited the old one. This is lovely in that I will have much more time to post and visit bloggy friends, but it has created some furniture arrangement issues. I ran to Ikea and bought the smallest and cheapest computer table I could find, and set it up in a corner of the living room. I actually really like it, Hubs took issue with the fact that the keyboard shelf is white, but this bookcase we've had forever is in the same room, and it kind of ties it together.

The problem is that the computer table displaced an old table and chairs that the kids used for colouring. I've decided that the kids can do crafts in the kitchen for now, and I took the old table up to my bedroom. I'm going to create my own little spot for drawing and wrapping and whatever. But -

This is now the corner of my room. This is the BEFORE. This is today's project. Hopefully by tonight I will be able to post the AFTER.

Wish me luck....gulp.

For the girl

This morning as we were putting on our coats and shoes for the walk to school, the Princess piped up, "Mommy? How about for a special surprise you clean this closet while I'm at school?" She's DEFINITELY my child.

She hates it when she can't get in to find her things on her own. Closet space is a constant problem in this house. There wasn't a coat closet at all when we first moved in. The old owners walked halfway through the house and hung their things in the kitchen. We turned THAT cupboard into a much needed pantry, and we punched a doorway through to the front room and stole 3' from it to create a powder room and a small walk-in closet.

The closet helps a lot, but it needs to hold an awful lot of stuff. Especially during the spring and fall, when the weather can go from 'jeans and tees' to 'snowsuit and mittens' and back again overnight. Add in the purses and school bags, my sewing machine, extra boxes of kleenex...all in all it can be an organizational nightmare.



But for now, it's beautiful...and it will stay that way, at least until Hubs gets home.



And how do you like my new boots? Hubs thinks they're a little muk-luk-esque, but they're fuzzy and soft inside, which is perfect for someone who hates to be cold and hates to wear socks.

The Quest for More Space

We live in a lovely old house. A hundred years plus old. And while there are a lot of things I love about our home; great big rooms, high ceilings and 6' high windows that flood those rooms with light, there is also a distinct set of disadvantages. Built-in storage, where it even exists is poorly laid out and insufficient. Hence, I spend a disproportionate amount of my time moving our belongings from room to room.

Part of this, of course, is just a fact of the daily toy migration. But I'm also always looking for a better home for everything, a better solution. I'm devoted to baskets and containers, I'm always trying to re-organize something. I'm a faithful supporter of Goodwill, and it feels like I'm carting bags off there every other week, but I have a sneaky suspicion that our junk is following me home and sneaking in when my back is turned.

My hubby has a home business, (anyone in need of industrial supplies, please phone!) and needs a good amount of space for storage and his office. He has complete run of the basement, which is unfinished and spidery so he's welcome to it. Unfortunately, although the bedrooms are all large, there are only three of them. So until a few weeks ago the kids were sharing a room and Mark had his office upstairs. The problem with that was when Mark stayed up until the wee hours of the morning working, which he does most nights, the light and noise kept me up. And Badness doesn't need help from anyone else on that front....

So. Everything from the playroom got moved into the dining half of the living/dining room. After all, we have small kids - we don't dine, we shovel in cold food when we've finished attending to their needs. The office got moved downstairs. The third bedroom got painted purple, and the princess has now got her own room complete with ensuite facilities. Her room looks great. The rest of the house is a mess. And poor Badness is still stuck with pink roller blinds and all the piles of crap that I haven't found a home for elsewhere in the house. And I don't know when I'll have time to fix it for him.