Along with the light(s) that we got up this past weekend, I also put up the tree and other holiday cheer:

The cats like relaxing under the tree.

Some of my favorite ornaments this year…including some old vintage toys that I put hooks on:

…Minnesota beeswax ornaments that used to be on the tree at my parents house…

…vintage ‘Shiny Brite’ ornaments…

…from the year I was born…

…every tree needs a bird…

…and finally I got a set of these hand painted beauties this year…

Also, during one of the 3 trips I made to Menards this past weekend, I picked up these:

These faux wood blinds are great. We have them in all our bedrooms, including the exact same ones in the guest bedroom. I just couldn’t stand to look at those plastic miniblinds that are impossible to keep clean any longer…

I really wanted some interior shutters in this room, but that would have been quite the investment and since we aren’t planning on staying here forever, I think they will have to wait for the next house.  I had these blinds custom cut to width with the measurements that I supplied.

Glorious.

All 3 were up in a half hour, but I didn’t have a chance to shorten them to the correct length yet which is actually probably the most time-consuming and annoying part of the whole process.  It isn’t completely necessary to shorten the blinds as the excess does rest on the window sill, but I think it looks nicer and cleaner to have them shortened to the length of the window. I also shorten the cords substantially as well–I don’t think there is any reason why they need to be so long.  OCD…Meh.

A coworker of mine just ordered similar blinds from Home Depot.  They have a nice service where they come out to your house, measure your windows, allow you to pick that blinds you want, and then they come back and install them which is all part of a package deal.  Convenient..if you aren’t in a hurry to get them up and you don’t want to bother with doing the work yourself.  Since I have nowhere near enough patience for that, I did them myself.

Now I will have something awesome to watch when I am working on the window seats.