Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I hope ya’ll had a wonderful Christmas. Southern in the City sure did. We made our way across the entire state of North Carolina and were lucky enough to see both sides of the family stretching from eastern NC all the way to Charlotte.

I always say that I’ll take more photos on my trips and made that promise to myself again before this past one. Yet, I only snapped a few memories but here they are for you anyway.

Some of my favorite things from this trip:

- Seeing all the cousins at my grandparent’s house in Scotland Neck. I don’t have any photos from this visit but I know someone who does and will post soon.
- Watching our family dog, Reagan and The Husband share a moment
- Chick-fil-a
- Christmas Eve stocking shopping with the brother
- Mom’s food (all of it)
- My nephew, Holden playing his Wii game
- Snuggling with my nephew Thomas
- Snuggies
- Dad making fun of my Monster Margarita
- Experiencing two Christmases with two great families
Be back soon with New Year's news.

The First Snow

Like many of ya’ll in the Eastern part of the country, Southern in the City experienced the first real snow of 2009 last Saturday. It was beautiful, it was lovely, it was white - and it’s still here. I walked outside my apartment on Sunday morning and it was like a bad hangover – fun the night before but in the morning the reality set it and it was not pretty. It even gave me a headache. Snow is bright.

What is it about snow that is so calming and beautiful but then the next day so gross? Well, at least in the city it is. I only took a few pictures because my camera just wouldn’t let me take photos of the yellow, brown, half-melted snow come Sunday morn.

Never-the-less, here are some photos for the curious ones: Southern in the City and The Husband are flying South tomorrow (i.e., Scotland Neck, Raleigh and Davidson, N.C.) and couldn’t be more excited.

Wishing ya’ll the merriest of Christmases. Safe travels to everyone and if you’re in the area, come and say hello.

Steel Magnolias

Is it just me or is anyone else shocked that Christmas is next week? I’m not really sure where the past month went but ready or not, here comes Santa.

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to tackle wreath making. I read an article in Southern Living on how to make a magnolia wreath and thought it would be the perfect Southern touch to my Manhattan abode. Plus, the ones at Pottery Barn were going for $100 and I have better things to spend my money on - like shoes, er, Christmas presents.

My mom shipped magnolia leaves up from NC, so I had that part covered. Now I just needed an oasis wreath. How hard could it be to find? Well, I called over six florists and none had oasis wreaths. Fortunately, I learned that NYC has a flower district (28th and 7th Ave), who knew? So off I went. Here’s a little tidbit for ya’ll – styrofoam and oasis are not the same thing, even if the styrofoam is green (this is probably obvious to most people, but it wasn't to me. Go ahead, you can laugh). The next day I went back and finally found my oasis wreath. My low-cost project was quickly becoming pricey.

So here we go. Let’s make a wreath. These steps are from the December 09 issue of Southern Living:

* Start with a 15-inch florist foam wreath that has been soaked in water. I used an 8.5 one.
* Set the florist foam wreath on an empty 3-gallon nursery pot. I used a bucket.
* Insert individual leaves directly into the foam so they are perpendicular to the form. No need for wire or glue. Four concentric rings of leaves will cover the wreath. I did five or six.

And check out mine below. Not so bad eh?

The leaves have started to brown a bit, but it doesn't bother me too much - gives it a little more charm dontcha think?

Deck the Halls Part Deux

Living in a tiny Manhattan apartment leaves little-to-no space for decorating, much less decorating for Christmas. But, I have been able to pull out a few things that make our home feel more festive this holiday without making The Husband feel like Christmas has “thrown-up” in our apartment. (not the best description, but you get the picture).

I snapped a few photos of some of the decorations so far because I know many of you are curious. Later this week I’ll post a video, so that you can virtually walk-through our space and see the final reveal.
I love it when Christmas trees tell a story with ornaments. “I got this one from…” or “this one reminds me when...” While trees decorated in all blue and silver or red and green ornaments are pretty, I prefer the more personal ones. Here’s a picture of our tree this year with some of our memories together. Since this is our first big tree, we do have some “filler ornaments." We still have to get our tree topper and skirt but you get the ideaThroughout the apartment, I’ve put fresh remnants from the tree in glass and silver containers so that it smells extra "Christmasy"room-to-room. My mom also sent some pine cones that smell of cinnamon and orange slices, similar to those Pottery Barn pictures I posted earlier. Everyone should have a great advent calendar and here is ours. When I was younger, my family had this one and I recently found it at Barnes & Noble and had to get it. You can buy it hereMy Godmother gave me a Reed & Barton silver cross ornament each year for my birthday. Here are some of my favorites displayed on a silver tree. Can you tell I like Christmas trees? I’m still searching for the oasis ring for my magnolia wreath. Here’s the magnolia, taking a bath, eagerly awaiting to become something pretty. Check back later this week for a full video of the final reveal!

That’s A Wrap

Well, it happened. I never thought it would. After three years of continuous rolling, our plastic food wrap has finally come to an end. The Kirkland plastic wrap (with an easy-to-use cutter included) provided its last piece of plastic yesterday. No more, no more.

I didn’t quite believe it to be true, after all we had a few false alarms where we thought it was the end, but fortunately got another few months out of the stuff.

You are probably thinking that I’m crazy right about now – talking about my plastic food wrap on my blog. But really, we had this box for THREE whole years, two different apartments - that’s a lot of food wrapped-up.

I can’t even remember where we got it. However, I think I can safely say that it likely came from Costco or somewhere similar with larger-than-life items. Okay…on to more interesting things - I've started to decorate our 750 square foot apartment for Christmas and will be posting pictures tomorrow. Hopefully this post about plastic wrap will hold you over until then.

Deck the Halls

If your kitchen counter looks anything like mine, you probably have an abundance of home catalogues and magazines with picture-perfect rooms decorated for Christmas. I love to get inspiration from these, especially around the holidays. But, if you’re not careful, you might slip into thinking that you've failed if your house or apartment doesn’t look like Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel. Frankly, who can afford to deck their halls with this stuff? Not me.

I haven’t started to decorate for the holidays just yet. The only Christmas decoration Southern in the City and The Husband have up is an advent calendar by our window. I have though, thumbed my way through most of our catalogues and found some beautiful ideas that I plan to test out this year. But, like most people, I plan to do it all for less.

Here’s some inspiration from Pottery Barn that I plan to recreate. Southern Living Magazine also has a great tutorial for making your own magnolia wreath. You can’t get any more Southern than magnolia. This weekend I will "attempt" to make my own. Hope it goes better than the rolls at Thanksgving - check back later!