Festivus For The Rest Of Us

I've been feeling a bit inadequate lately.

For about the last 37 (almost 38!) years.

You see....I love decorating magazines. I'm addicted. And I love decorating blogs. Any blog that gets me inside someones house? LOVE it!

But if there's one thing I've learned in the past year, it's this: Elizabeth Hill is not worthy of much photographic blog coverage. Don't get me wrong. I love my little house. LOVE IT. I do. But I don't have it decorated to the nines, I'm not real original in my decorating and quite frankly? I can't be stalking blogs and decorating. So the decorating has to go. Because I'm not going to give up the blog-stalking.

Lisa from Take 90 West (one of my new favorite blogs) is participating in a Christmas House Tour. She'll take pictures of her beautifully decorated house and post it on her blog. I personally want to see her plantation shutters. Lisa? Can you sneak a little shutter-porn in one of the photos for me? Thanks. You're a pal.

Any-hoo.

Then I go over to Linda's place over there at Restyled Home and she is talking about how she's just not feelin' it. The creative juices aren't flowing. Then she says, "Happy Festivus" at the end of her post. Which makes me laugh. Because Zuddy says that all of the time.

After my morning blog-stalking routine, I go and get a cup of coffee. And I glance around my pathetic messy house and **ting!**

An "a-ha" moment.

An "a-hahahahahaha" moment!

Because who am I kidding??? I don't do all of those cute things like Mrs. Jones! Or Like Kim from Vintage Pretties! NO SIR!

At the Ziemers? It's Festivus for the rest of us!!! People who decorate in a half-assed manner UNITE!
Do you just use the stuff people give you? Me too!
Do you just slap it up where ever you have the room? Me too!

Are you ready for the tour? Let's go!!


This is the state of my dining room. It's probably the worst room in the house right now. Do you see the bins? Been there for a week. Do you see the box on top of the bins? It's a Department 56 Pillsbury house. I got it from one of the photo studios we hired when I worked on Pillsbury cake mixes. We were in the studio shooting back of the package photos on Pillsbury cake mix and the studio had also done a bunch of stuff for Department 56, so they gave us TONS of stuff. I got some great ornaments and that house.
The table? You can see our Holiday cards. It'll be a miracle if they get sent out.

Another shot of the dining room mess. Festive, no? You can see a couple of garlands all wadded up on the table, there. A green one with gold pine cones and a red beaded one. Incidentally? They're both sitting on top of a picture that was taken down from above the piano and replaced with that mirror. What's it been since I did that? 3 weeks? 4 weeks?

The Hutch. More junk on that thing. And another shot of the junk on the dining room table. Can never see enough of that, right?

Personally I think that this shot says it all: Can you see how the garland is a little heavy on the right? THAT'S where I decided, "Oh sca-rew it." Because that garland is made of sweet little bells. Sweet little bells that get all tangled up on one another. So I just left it all balled up there.
I love that garland. MJ and I got it at Crate & Barrel for our work at that red and white place. Then she turned around and gave it to me. Thanks MJ! Thanks red and white place!!

Here's the only thing that's done. This little ledge. See that decoration that says SANTA? At some point, Zuddy will move the letters around to say, SATAN. Then I will see it and move it back to SANTA. Then the whole game will continue until I take down the decorations. Because we're mature like that.



Ahhhhh. The contact-papered piano. The glass containers have some silver baubles in them, but I haven't bought any candles to go in them yet. I probably never will.
The little trees are supposed to go with the Pillsbury cottage thingie. I probably won't put it out, so I need to put those away, too. Clearly we have a dumping ground here.


Here's the final spot on my tour: The balled-up tree skirt. Why bother crouching down there and neatly arranging it when you can just ball it up throw it under there?

So? Are you feelin' it? Are you feelin' my pain?

Not only do a I have a great big decorating mess, but poor Noodle barfed all over the hallway and bathroom a couple of nights ago. She came up- stairs to get me up in the middle of the night to tell me about it and I went downstairs and stepped in it because I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't see it. Then I tracked it all over the dining room and kitchen.

Happy Holidays!!