Beautiful Fresh Flowers

I made a promise to myself that other day. The promise is to not ever go without fresh flowers in the house....ever again.
Usually I only buy myself flowers in the spring when I feel like I need them in the house, but when I really need them is in the winter. The winter is all grey and cold and dark, nothing a little fresh flowers can't help.  So I went out to get some flowers and I set some out around the house. I got one arrangement and split it into three small arrangements. This arrangement had some pretty Christmas like flowers and berries in it too so it worked.

I really makes me feel happy to see these flowers. Its better than seeing dead grass and trees all the time outside. You should try it too!

Love,


Jennifer

Some gifts!

Mr. Hunt and I are horrible about getting gifts for each other. We both can't keep secrets from each other. Its bad.
So when Mr. Hunt's first gift came, I ran upstairs and hid it in the office. A few days later, I couldn't hold it in any longer and asked him if he wanted to open it. Now, if it were just me that were bad about keeping them wrapped until Christmas then we would be fine. Mr. Hunt ideally would say, "No, I want to wait unit Christmas day." But no, he is just as bad and says "OK!" So I run upstairs, wrap it, and bring it down just for him to rip it open 2 minutes after I wrapped it. To make it worse, the wrapping paper wasnt even Christmasy

Its a cigar humidor!

Not really sure why, but Mr. Hunt smelled the packages inside the humidor. Maybe he thought it was going to smell like cigars?

He was so happy, he couldn't wait to get it set up.

First he had to wipe down the insides with the formula that it came with.

Then he had to put some of the formula in a small bowl and let it sit in there for three days.

He loved it!

Then the next day was my turn. The doorbell rang while we were watching TV one evening and he ran to the door. He brought it inside and opened it right away and there was an already wrapped gift inside and he handed it to me. I was so excited! You see? He couldn't wait either. I don't even think he asked me if I wanted to wait, he just handed it to me. I'm going to apologize now for the way I look in these next few pictures. This is a real time blog, with real time photos, no time to get all pretty for each picture. Remember, this was a weekend evening while watching TV, not about to go out all dressed up with makeup.

Loved what the card said, but Ill leave that a little secret.

So Happy! (so was Hannah). Us girls love a little design book! Mr. Hunt got me The Home Book by House Beautiful. It is more than 500 pages of house inspiration and I can't wait to go through it. Now I'm really going to be doing some crazy stuff to this house!

A few days after that, Mr. Hunt and I got home from his works Christmas party. I was feeling a little Grinch like since there were no lights up, but then I saw two packages waiting at the door. I knew one was for Mr. Hunt from me and I assumed the other was for me so I got excited! We didn't even let the dogs out before taking turns opening the packages from each other. This time, they weren't even wrapped! I know, its getting worse.

It had been raining that whole day. Look at that package! Yikes! Maybe I should have wrapped it! Again, sorry for the shadows in the pictures, it was night time.

Look at his happy smile! I got him an alarm clock that projects the time on the ceiling. He has wanted one for awhile, but he had no idea that I remembered that and got him one. If you don't have one, you should get one. They are great!

And here is my awesome gift! Look at that wrapping!

Yeah, I didn't even take my boots or jacket off before opening my gift.

I love this "taking pictures of us opening our gifts" We keep getting the REAL reactions perfectly on camera. haha! Look at my face!

I got the navy north face jacket that I have been wanting! So excited!

That's all the gifts we got each other. Maybe once we have kids and they are old enough to understand what Christmas is, we may wait to open the gifts all together. But for now, this works for us. Its the thought that counts. Plus, Christmas is Jesus' and River's birthday anyway!

So that's all that we got each other this year. Nothing too much because we have big plans for our moola this year. As far as what else we got from friends and family, lets just say this. Mr. Hunt got alot of gamecock apparel (which he loves), and I got alot of home decor stuff (which I love), so everything was great! In the next few weeks you will probably see some new gifts around the house.

Until then,
Jennifer Hunt

Christmas Ornaments

Last Christmas I made some ornaments for family members and I decided to make that a tradition this year.
So I set out to make some great ornaments that were also easy and I stumbled upon some sparkly, but clean ornaments.

OK, I needed clear plastic ornaments, a funnel, some very thin glitter, some paint, and some Pledge floor wax. Yep you heard that right!

First, I took the tops off the ornaments and poured a good amount of the pledge floor wax into the ornaments. Then I swirled the wax around in the ornaments until I saw it covered the ornaments all the way. The wax is clear, but its thick so you will be able to tell. Then I set the ornament upside down on top of the bottle of wax so that the extra wax would drip back down into the bottle.
Then I used the funnel to pour the green glitter into the ornaments. I once again swirled the glitter around into the ornament until it covered the whole thing. I even had to put my finger onto of the ornament hole and give it a good shake so that the glitter covered it all. Then I poured the remaining glitter back into the glitter bottle and I was left with these!

I love them because everyone loves a little glitter right? Well these are nice and glittery, but the glitter doesn't get everywhere since its inside! No mess=happiness! Mr. Hunt came over and thought that I had bought them because they looked so good. They don't look homemade at all.
Don't worry, I didn't stop there. They definitely look homemade now. I originally bought white paint and clear glitter paint. I wanted to write a family's initial on the ornament (like I did last year) with the white paint. Then once that dried I would go over the white paint with the glitter paint. Well, that didn't work very well. The glitter paint didn't show up at all. So I was left with just the white initial. It doesn't look bad though, just not what I pictured. One thing I will remember for next year's ornaments is that my handwriting is NOT good. The initials don't look very neat, but at least they look homemade now, and they have some character. I guess its good that I'm not a perfectionist at all because I probably would have thrown them away if I were.
Lastly, I just tied some red ribbon around the ornaments so that they can be hung.

Cute, but not perfect. Does that not describe me? Did I just admit that I think I'm cute? Let me stop while I'm ahead.

Love ya,
Jen

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas everyone. Please remember what this day is really about. Jesus was born, homeless in a stable. He was born so that he could eventually save us from our sins. How awesome is that? The gifts, family, and food are all great, but please remember that the reason CHRISTmas is even around, is because of him!
Also, Happy Birthday to my little baby boy River! He is three years old today. Wow, time has flown! We will be back with how we celebrated soon.

Have a great day,
The Hunts

A Little Christmas Let Down

So I hate to admit this but Mr. Hunt and I didn't put up Christmas lights outside of our house this year. Every time we drive up to the house when its dark outside, I feel like the Grinch of the neighborhood. I will never ever again let this happen.
Since finishing the dining room was a little set back for taking out all the Christmas decorations, we were a little late on bringing everything out. We decorated inside about two weeks ago and planned on hanging lights a few days after.
Well day after day went by and every time we would come home from work it would be too dark. Then the weekends would pass us by with shopping and other Christmas fun and the lights never made it up.
Now that we are a few days away, we both decided there was no point. I know I know, stop giving me a hard time. I already feel bad about it. Since Mr. Hunt and I aren't even going to be here Christmas day, we decided to not put them up.
The good news is that we told ourselves this would never happen again. We will be decorating with everyone the day after Thanksgiving from now on so that we don't miss anything!

The other little let down is our mantle. Don't worry, we did decorate it, but its not what I was picturing in my head for this year. I originally wanted to sew our stockings this year. I even got the fabric for it and everything. When we decorated the house a few weeks ago, we put our other stockings out for the time being. Now, once again, time has got the best of me and I still haven't made the stockings. I still plan on making the stocking this year so that they are ready to go next year. But I still wanted to show you what or mantle looks like.

Still pretty and festive.
Please remind me next year that Christmas time is NOT the time to try to take on a bunch of projects. OK?


From the girl who plans too much without enough time,
Jennifer

Photo Updates

So this is going to be a long one. I have still been taking my daily photos, don't worry. It has taken this long because Mr. Hunt left the power cord to the computer at a clients office. Which leads me to my trick of blogging. I actually write multiple posts at a time and just publish one a day. It has been so much easier for me to do one blog a day. That is also why I usually only do these photo posts once a week.

Hereeeee weeeee goooooo!

Wednesday December 7th

Sweet little girl...looking innocent

Thursday December 8th

Yummy guacamole and chips. Mr. Hunt and I eat some sort of Mexican food at least once a week. Its my favorite, and Mr. Hunt is sweet to allow it so often.

Friday December 9th

Last year I made ornaments for each family member. I decided to make it a Christmas tradition. Here is a sneak peak of this years. I will be back with the full tutorial after I give them out. I don't want to ruin any surprises.

Saturday December 10th

My cousin-in-law's daughter and I having fun at the engagement party!

Sunday December 11th

Mr. Hunt was sick this day, so I took matters into my own hands and some time alone to finish this room!

Monday December 12th

River had some fun while we decorated for Christmas. Also a sneak peak at our mantle.

Tuesday December 13th

I did a lot of wrapping after work this day. Not a very Christmasy looking wrapping paper I know....don't worry, its for Mr. Hunt. Everyone else has some pretty wrapping!

Wednesday December 14th

I bought some flowers to light up the house. I split the bunch into small bud vases so that I could take it and make more than one arrangement. To my surprise there were a lot of Christmas like flowers and things in the arrangement. I like it!

Thursday December 15th

This is Mr. Elephant, not to be confused with Mr. Hunt of course. But Mr. Elephant really helps us get through the winter. He is a humidifier. Not only does he prevent me from getting bloody noses (I know, really gross, but it happens to me if he isn't working his magic), but he also prevents us from shocking the fur babies every time we touch them. Whenever we shock them, they think they did something wrong. Poor babies.

Friday December 16th

Loving my wrapping paper. Did you know I love owls? Well I do and this wrapping paper was it. Too bad I didn't get enough for all the gifts, but these few are looking great under our tree!

Saturday December 17th

Yeah, I went a little crazy at the fabric store. Soon to come are some awesome things that I ended up making!

Sunday December 18th

Mr. Hunt and I have actually been paring down a lot at home. We have been giving so many clothes away, finally. This is just two bags. We have given about 5 and still have to go through the sheets, towels, and coat closet. It actually feels good to give all this away and get it out of the house. Oh yeah, you see that door mat, this is the "Hannah" door mat. Just a little reminder for our guests that she is NUTS!

Monday December 19th

Do y'all ever eat breakfast for dinner? Well, we do here in the Hunt household. We hardly ever cook breakfast, even on the weekends, so sometimes we just want a yummy breakfast for dinner. What you can't see is the chicken fried steak with white gravy that Mr. Hunt made. It was so yummy and he may be upset that the picture of that isn't on here. shhhhhh

Tuesday December 20th

The fur babies wanted to tell their Uncle Dylan Happy Birthday! Aren't they sweet? I know that I'm cheating here, but I had to add this there picture of River too!

Wednesday December 21st

I actually forgot to share this awhile back so I took a picture of it this day to share. Mr. Hunt was teaching a client how to use their payroll system and in their conversation, he somehow found out that she was Stephon Gilmore's mom. If you don't know, Stephon Gilmore is on the football team. So the next day, she brought Mr. Hunt this signed poster of the team. It is signed my Stephon and Marcus Lattimore. Mr. Hunt was smiling so big the rest of the day. Of course he hung it up in the man room...aka the garage.

Thursday December 22nd

Ive been spray painting WAY too many things lately. Someone stop me. Maybe the fumes are getting to me and its making me crazy with wanting to spray paint more and more! I will share all my spray paint fun soon...promise!

Friday December 23rd

This is what our refrigerator looks like today. A lot more full than when we first started. Thank you everyone for the sweet Christmas cards. They all put a smile on our faces everyday.

Well there we go. Finally caught up. Hopefully I can keep up a little better in the coming weeks. No promises though, I learned that I need to watch what I promise on here!

See ya,
JRH