Working on a house will destroy your blogging

Obviously, right? But SO MUCH has happened! And Ryan bought me a camera (it's orange!) so now I can actually show you what I've been doing!

Ryan is painting the kitchen cabinets for me! They were this gross dark stain, and it was all streaky. They will be this gorgeous bright white. I LOVE the way our Crate and Barrel Essential dinnerware looks inside. Definitely the silver lining of no cabinet doors, I can enjoy my dishes. And I LOVE these dishes.

Since the kitchen cabinets are somewhat out of commission, our living room is the holding area for the majority of our kitchen stuff:

Ryan was baking pies today (yes, my man makes home made pie crust, yes, I scored big time) and discovered how truly inconvenient this is. Which is why he's painting the cabinets right now. Honestly it doesn't bother me too much, I know how time consuming the cabinet painting is and I moved in prepared to be inconvenienced. It bothers Ryan though. Hence the painting right now.

More of the inconvenient kitchen. Isn't that sky blue color pretty? Ryan is so nice to paint these, I can't tell you what a huge pain in the *ss these cabinets are. The oil based paint looks like it's awful to work with, and the clean up takes him so long it almost isn't worth it unless he can paint for a while with no interruptions.

We have decorated for Christmas though! Having our own Christmas tree has made me feel more "grown up" than anything else. Isn't that weird?

Our Christmas tree. With tinsel!

I'm thinking that after I clean up said tinsel, the only exclamation points will be after expletives. It's so pretty though.

A dear family friend gave us a set of wedding-themed ornaments. I hung the bride and groom up together.

My Grandma quilts, and she pieced this lovely quilted ornament for me last Christmas. It's one of my favorites, and it has our wedding colors in it.

Ryan's Grandma on his mom's side used to make these gingerbread cookies for ornaments:

Yeah our "tree skirt" is a yard and a half of fabric that looked somewhat Christmasy that I pooled around the base of our tree. I will be way more prepared next year!

Ryan set up the train he's had since he was 10 around the bottom. It actually blows smoke out of the engine, but we're too cheap to buy 6 C batteries. Next year.

Our neighbors brought us this poinsettia over, and I put up our brand new nativity set next to it! Ryan says without a stable and animals it's not a nativity set, that this is just the Holy Family. I maintain that it's the nativity right after Jesus was born and before everyone else showed up. Obviously.

I am beyond thrilled to have a camera and have more free time, so I can get back on the blogging train!

How're the holidays treating you so far?