Little Living Tree

We've been hustling to finish painting the dining room just in time for the holidays; speaking of holidays, this Norfolk Island Pine is our tree this year.  We usually don't have a tree at all (you know, trying to "save" the environment and all) but since we're hosting Christmas at our place this year, we felt like we had to do some decorating.

The small potted pine was under $20 at Lowes, and since it's alive, we know it will last even beyond the holiday.

Outside, we wrapped white lights around the front porch rails.  I love how they light up the boxes under the roof and kind of want to keep them up year round.  Just like the rest of the house, we have years to grow into our full-on holiday decorating potential.

Turkish Triptych

Remember this big blank wall behind "Maya's" new couch?

Well, we finally ordered a piece of art to display on it, and we love the way it came out.

It's a scene of the city of Istanbul that Tommie took during our honeymoon to Turkey in 2011.  

We were toying with the idea of getting panoramic prints for few of Tommie's photographs, but prices for large images can get expensive…add to that any frames and we were quickly looking at over a couple hundred dollars for just one piece of art.  

We have ordered several of Tommie's photos on 16x20 canvas before and have been really pleased with the quality, so when we noticed that Canvas On Demand was having a 70% off sale for a three-panel "PhotoSplit" (triptych), we jumped on it.  It cost $75 for what was normally $350.  One of the benefits of canvas is that no frames are required, saving additional costs.  

It took us a long time to decide which image to use.  Finally, we decided on the sepia mosque scene because we figured the coloring and the image itself would look great above the couch.  Even though it is one image broken up into three sections, serendipitously, each panel has two marionettes in it and could almost exist on its own.  (Each panel is 15x30 inches with a two-inch gap in between.)  

Our advice for choosing an image to use for a triptych is to go for a scene that was captured fairly close up and includes a large impact subject.  Each panel should look good on its own as well as together, and don't choose something that will be ruined by the breaks.  The hardest part is, of course, hanging them so they line up perfectly.  Let's just say there was a lot of math involved (not on my part or else they'd be way off.)

Thanksgiving Lamb

We celebrated our first holiday meal in our house--Thanksgiving with Tommie's parents (and cat).

We collaborated on cooking non-traditional lamb (who says we all have to pick on turkeys?) with traditional Thanksgiving sides like stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, and homemade pumpkin pie.

Even though our dining room is a work-in-progress, our Craigslisted table and chairs serve us well for the holidays.  Next up; Christmas with my side of the family.