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I've been meaning to tell you, my mom is a genius. Of course I knew this already, but let me just share with you her latest example of genius-ness.


I am generally happy with my dining room and the church pew works like a charm to corral the girls during dinner but there was one small problem with the layout. When anyone over the age of 16 sat at the pew, they had a good chance of knocking their head against the mirror before dessert was served.


So often I would blather to my mom on the phone about wanting to put something behind the bench to create a bit of breathing room between guests and the big O (that would be the mirror, not Oprah). A console would be perfect, but I can't find a console that is as long as the bench and isn't thousands of dollars. Blah blah blah. It was probably around this point in the conversation that my mom would tell me she had to go so she didn't have to listen to this conversation...yet again.


Then we were downstairs (pre-family room makeover) and she said, "What about this console for behind the pew?" Uh, that's not long enough mom, duh. And it's too deep. To which the smarty pants said, "not if you cut it in half."

Mind blown.


I should clarify that this woman is a furniture lover of the first degree and doesn't normally condone furniture mutilation. But this particular piece was a random HomeGoods buy (we all have a few of those around the house) and is by no means precious.

So of course I took that sucker outside as quickly as I could, measured to find the exact middle of the table and asked the hubs to buzz that sucker in half. We kept the tape down as he cut to prevent any splitting and in no time flat I had myself one. long. console.

Although each side of the now super long console still had two legs to hold it up, it was a bit wobbly. To remedy this we just screwed each side of the console into the wall to hold it in place and we were done.


So nothing earth shattering but now all of my dinner guests can enjoy themselves without bonking their head in the middle of an animated story. (we host a lot of animated storytellers at our house). And really I'm a fan of little updates to a room. It feeds my constant appetite for change without chucking a room and starting over again every few months ($$$$$$)




The runner is a temporary one I made from fabric leftovers and extra ribbon. It will hang out until I find a more permanent replacement one day.





What about you? Do you make a lot of little changes around the house to pacify the 'itch'? Ever cut a piece of furniture in half? I'm willing to rent my mom out to anyone who needs her, although maybe I should ask her first.

Today is the day my friends. I'm thrilled to be able to play with 11 other great bloggers for the 12 Days of Christmas Holiday Tour and today is my turn to show you around.

But it's too cold to stand outside yapping, let's go inside and get warm with some gin hot chocolate.



Everyone in my family has a Christmas collection and mine is snowflakes. So you will see them all over the house, on lamps, doorknobs, wreaths and of course, the tree. Keep an eye out for them. It's kind of like a holiday where's waldo.






Each year the mantel gets something different (check out 2012 and 2011) and this year it told me it was feeling pink. So pink it is, with a little red and white thrown in. Can one ever get enough of ribbon at Christmas? (the answer to that question is no by the way)


My girls and I decorate a gingerbread house every year and this year's estate was extra sweet.




Herbie loves the holidays as much as the next guy so he pulls out his festive antlers for the season.




Amelia has already started her Christmas collection - nutcrackers - and she's off to a good start. Santa just might have a few other in store for her this year as well.





I can't wait for Christmas dinner this year so that I can put my fab new plates from B by Brandie to use. They really are beautiful plates and their colors pop right off the table. The patterns reminded me of snowflakes and you know I'm a sucker for mixing patterns, so these plates fit right in.





We spend just as much time feasting in the dining room as we do tearing into presents in the living room on Christmas, so we like to have the tree right where we can see them from both spots.



Christmas is about the lights, right? And what better time to appreciate the lights than at night. I know, I'm a regular Sherlock. So I give you... nighttime pictures.









Thanks so much for coming over. Anyone over the age of 12 knows what a crazy time of year this is, and I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to stop over and say hi. Be sure to check out all the other great homes that have been featured so far on the tour.

Day 1 - Evolution of Style
Day 2 - Shine Your Light
Day 3 - Dixie Delights
Day 4 - The Creativity Exchange
Day 5 - Dimples and Tangles
Day 6 - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Day 7 -  Driven By Decor
Day 8 - Simple Details

And tomorrow Oak Ridge Revival is hosting!


Now who's ready for more hot chocolate?

So the bench.


When last we left our story (read part 1 here), it looked something like this.

After all the sanding was complete, and my tears were dried, I called over my mom and dad to take a look at what I was working with. After decades of refinishing furniture and selling it, they are like the experts on Antique Roadshow. I bring them things, they tell me the good/bad news and then I jump for joy or kick them out of the house, depending on their answer.

When will I learn?! That's rhetorical by the way, as I think I am beyond help.

Ever since I wrote about the glory that is unpainted wood furniture (here), I've had a hankering to add some, somewhere. And since I've got extra furniture three rows deep in the basement, I figured buying something wasn't the way to go.


Luckily I've been eyeing my church pew. I've been thinking of changing the red for some time, as I talked about here, so why not go with the color it was originally meant to be anyway.

In theory anyway.

Quick history on the pew, it came from the small country chapel that my great-great-grandfather founded long long ago. My mom acquired it back in the early 80's when they renovated the chapel and at that time it was painted brown. Why in the world would someone paint wood furniture brown? That's exactly what I was thinking too! Anyway, she promptly painted it red and it has been that way ever since. The point being no one that I know knew what type of wood this was or how it would look.

I love to solve a good mystery so I tested a little spot with my Citristrip just to see what I was getting into. If it looked bad I could paint that spot again or worse yet just put a pillow over it.


What a tease. It was worse than Ryan Seacrest before a commercial break. It was all, oh, I'm bubbling right away, I'll come up with no problem. And the first layer did.

That's right, I said first layer. But it was the layer, upon layer, upon layer of brown...paint/natural stain/mystery McGuyver substance that wouldn't. go. away.

I don't really have any pictures of this phase as its hard to take a picture while banging you head but basically each day started with 'I'm sure this will be the last layer of brown goop, I can do this' and ended with 'Who in lucifer's reach made this #%$^!!!'.

This went on for a week.

It was the worst as it looked as if there wasn't any paint there but when I scraped off the Cirtristrip there was more and more dark brown goo. I never did find out what it was but I got as much off as I could.


I used my last bit of energy to sand and then I stopped. The bench and I needed some time apart.

Have you ever underestimated a DIY project? Have you wanted to beat a piece of furniture? Do you have any idea what that brown goop could have been?

Come back next week when we see how the old girl looks now.