thanksgiving this & that

hi everyone! tomorrow is thanksgiving. i hope you have a happy one! i won't be posting as i usually do on thursdays, but i thought it would be fun to tell you what i'll be working on over the 4-day weekend. we aren't travelling or having family in town this year, so we have four days wide open in front of us and i'm hoping to get a few things done around the house.

here is my to-do list:

~ paint half the kitchen white (baby steps)
~ order christmas cards
~ photograph the office (no more procrastinating! i AM going to show it to you!)
~ clean out my daughter's room
~ decorate for christmas, yay!

this side of the kitchen never got touched up when we replaced the baseboards and door frame in conjunction with our office project. (the office is the room just through that open doorway where you can see the built-ins). i am kinda over the light blue color anyway so i'm just going to paint this half of the room white. as we do our mudroom project, which is on the other side of that closed brown door, that door trim and door will be replaced, and then i'll probably keep going with the white around the rest of the kitchen. but for this weekend, i'm hoping to at least get this side done!

as if choosing a christmas card wasn't hard enough, now i have to narrow down pictures! i took them myself this week, with my new iphone 6+ and vsco, and i'm surprised at how well they turned out! i'm actually considering designing the card too. does anyone know of a good place to print your own design if i go that route??  

warning, this post just got real. before i can photograph my office, i have to clean it up again. it was just limping back to cleanliness when i started corralling all my new christmas wrapping supplies, all the fall decorations i need to put away, and various trappings for a hampster we are um, hampster-sitting during the holiday. not to mention i turned it into an impromptu portrait studio yesterday. ugh. so yeah, this one needs some work. 

aaaaand the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. this is the current state of my daughter's room. she can be quite meticulous about her room, but during a sleepover with a friend last weekend, every toy she owns was dumped around the room, and sleeping nests were constructed out of hundreds of stuffed animals that had previously been bagged up for the goodwill safekeeping in the basement. so we just need to gut this one and start over. (in case you're wondering why i chose olive green walls for this girl, they were that way when we moved in. we've barely touched this room and i'm basically waiting to decorate it until she grows out of the "i want a giant rapunzel wall mural" phase of life). 

for christmas i'm planning to make a branch canopy with some kind of sparkly and twinkly stuff on it over our dining table. i really want to replace these chandeliers next year, but have no idea with what (suggestions?!) and until then they work well for christmas. and to hold up tree limbs.

my littlest guy and i made the pumpkin pie today (and that'll be the beginning and the end of my pinterest thanksgiving around here). my grandma always used to use the recipe on the side of the libby's can and i maintain there's no better way to make a pumpkin pie.

as for my agenda for the big day, we're staying home and i'm sooo excited for a relaxing holiday. my day should consist of starbucks, the black friday ads, cooking, eating, tv, and putting up the tree. and some more giant branches. i can't wait!

i hope all of you have a wonderful thanksgiving!