Happy Thanksgiving.....

For those celebrating the holiday, I hope you enjoy every minute of your family, friends, football watching, food & dessert eating, holiday shopping and whatever else you may do the next few days!

We are headed to the Gaylord Resort at National Harbor for the holiday.  Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday (gasp..I know) so I prefer to spend it somewhere and just relax and be with my family.  We are having dinner in Alexandria and then movies back at the resort...Friday we will see the ICE "Frosty the Snowman" show before we come home.  

And on Saturday we will be hunting our family room Christmas tree at our local tree farm, decorating, drinking homemade hot cocoa, and watching ELF :)

Good times.....

This girly got back on Tuesday night and we are thankful we flew her home early because of the weather and snow issues.  First thing she did was come in and snuggle with all the cats...and of course Winston was first!  Its her first time home in 4 mos...so that was way too long. She flies home Sunday morning and then she will be back Dec 11th for a month...yay!

Tuesday night I made Alexa's favorite dinner and there was lots of rowdiness during and after dinner....just like ole' times LOL!

Wednesday we woke up to this white stuff...yeah can you feel how thrilled I am? NOT!

Thankfully it started raining a bit and most of it is gone today but still pretty chilly.

And Wednesday Alexa's BFF Grace came over for the night.  Lots of pizza eating, watching Home Alone and playing Cards Against Humanity....it was lots of fun!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Dean Family!

I hope you enjoy your holiday!  I will be back on Monday with more Holiday projects for you...stay tuned. But for rest of week & weekend I will be enjoying spending time with my family!

Hugs & Love!

Happy Thanksgiving & Dining Room Makeover!

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving today and a fabulous weekend filled with shopping, eating, resting and laughing with friends & family!

I have finished "most" of my dining room makeover.  If you recall it was very red...I love red..but after 7 years I needed lighter & brighter.  Still a bit Rustic-French Country but just a lighter version.  We still have to hang the new chandelier but that didn't get done in time for Thanksgiving..oh well.  But I'm thrilled with the Benjamin Moore color (Powell Buff) on the walls...a creamy gold that really brightens up the room.

BEFORE

This is what I had going on before....we lost the rug last year because the cats liked to use it

as a scratching post ugh..so out that went...I still mourn its loss.  And I love red but I'm over it and I needed new art for my walls...in this picture I had removed most of the art I had up.  And a new chandelier will be the final touch, something larger and more French Country feeling.

AFTER

And here she is after the re-do!

The dining room is dressed for Thanksgiving...I'm hosting it this year.

Its not my favorite holiday I will say but I enjoy the time off with my family.

My dining room furniture was an anniversary gift over 14 years ago from my husband...its from Ethan Allen and something I will never get rid of....I love the honey color and distressed feel to each piece.

I have lanterns from Kirklands, candles, pumpkins and a wheelbarrow I got in Lucketts at the Design House.  This middle arrangement will come off for dinner of course.  And soon it will be decked out with Christmas decorations.

My curtains used to hang to the floor and they were lovely.  However they collected more cat hair than my vacuum cleaner and were a pain in the bum.  And I just wanted a fresher, lighter look for the windows.  The mirrors on either side of the windows are from Hobby Lobby.  I am in the process of repainting all the white trim in my house...so far I have 3 rooms done..phew..after 7 years it definitely needed the touch up.

I finally got to rehang my Warren Kimble picture...I love his art and we were lucky enough to meet him in his studio years ago up in Vermont.  He signed a few pieces for me and this is one of them...something I will always treasure.  And it goes with the French Country theme nicely I think.

I went for simplicity this Thanksgiving for table settings.  Linen placemats, our silver, mini grapevine wreaths as napkin holders and rustic pumpkins at each place setting.  Those are Waterford water glasses at each setting that James' grandmother got us years ago for Christmas.  They come out every holiday season and we remember her...she got us many of our nice serving pieces each holiday.

The wall with the buffet will soon be stenciled with a 24x24 size stencil in two-shades darker than the paint color now.  It will be subtle and pretty...like a damask print on that one wall to draw interest behind the buffet.  And the pictures I have (4 in total--2 for each side) will go on each side of the buffet. I can't wait to hang those.  I'd love to have a tall hutch at some point but I have too many other "needs & wants" for the house first LOL.

Here they are before and after...big difference no?  I love it!

I will share final pics once the stenciling is done, new pictures hung and new chandelier hung.

Big improvement at least to me :)

This is a Thanksgiving Fall Subway Art I made for my kitchen that I framed.

I haven't grabbed a photo yet yikes...but if anyone would like to use it feel free.

Its sized for 8x10 paper and prints nicely on cream cardstock.
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Entering this Makeover into the following fun Linky Parties:

36th Avenue
The Fun in Functional
Common Ground
Make It Pretty Monday
Alderberry Hill/Make the Scene Monday
DIY Dreamer