2 months ago we moved from Denver, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s been a crazy whirlwind but we are finally starting to feel settled in our new city. There is still a ton of work to do, lots of painting, wallpaper, landscaping etc. etc., and of course I will be blogging lots of “Before & After” projects as things progress. It’s been a big challenge as we have seriously down-sized (the new house is much smaller) and got rid of at least half of our stuff in the move. It’s been good for us 🙂 Even though I havn’t had time to do any painting yet, I just had to get some holiday decorations up. It’s definitely scaled down after our over-the-top Denver Victorian, much more streamlined. On the bright side, I can do it in a day instead of the 2-3 days it took in the old house. You’ll see that most of the decor has been “recycled” from the old house. The only new holiday stuff are some stunning flowers and fresh greens from good ol’ Trader Joe’s (I wouldn’t have moved here if SLC didn’t have a TJs 😉  I spent a total of just $29 on 3 bunches of flowers, a bunch of greens, and cedar garland, and got enough goodies to make 3 flower arrangements and had enough greens left over to spread around the house. Oh and a tried a couple waxed amaryllis bulbs on the dining room table (also from TJs, $7.99 each) and I love them! Zero maintenance, perfect. TJs is the BEST place for flowers!

I will get pics of the outside in the next couple of days. In the meantime, enjoy. Happy Holidays!

The entry to our house is actually what was originally the back of the house. Long story, but they apparently moved the street some time ago, so we live in the Backwards House 🙂 For now our front door is a sliding glass door ( we may change it to French doors in the future). The front room serves as an entry and my art studio. More pics in the near future, I promise.

I spoiled myself with a lovely flower arrangement and an orchid on my desk. (all from TJs) It’s the perfect spot to work at, with a view of the yard and the city and mountains to the West.

Our quirky home came with this antique wood-burner (yes it works!) Right now it is functioning as a fancy plant stand.

Our little dining room is just big enough and flooded with light. This area gets the most action in the house so it has most of the holiday decor. You may recognize most of these metallic ornaments as being on our mantle in the old house in previous years. They look great in their new space.

The living room is much more minimal than at the old house, just the tree and holiday flowers under the TV (I really need to work on hiding the wires! Add that project to the list 🙂

Can’t wait to see how it all looks next year after I’ve painted and wallpapered…

I will post the outside decorations in a few days. Have a great weekend everyone! Happy decorating!