Home for the Holidays!

We don't have a real fireplace, but that doesn't
stop us from having stockings for the whole family!

Last weekend we shared with you pictures from our Mobley holiday kick off celebration.  And it occurred to me that we haven't shared with you some of our holiday enhancements!  As I mentioned earlier, it's always amazing how much we actually buy every year, but nothing beats an impeccably decorated Christmas apartment.
Last Christmas, and this year as well, I found most of my decorating necessities at our Union Square Farmer's Market.  Yes, I know I speak highly of that place quite frequently, but they have the best tools to quickly transform your apartment into whichever season or holiday you choose.  My favorite decorating accessory is holly berry leaves.  Our Farmer's Market sells HUGE branches of fresh holly leaves for $7!  I did our entire mantle (and by mantle, I mean bar!) with holly and still had tons left over to add some holly to other arrangements in the house.


Our other Christmas favorite is Poinsettia flowers.  Ours came from Mike's favorite little place in the Garden District (yes there is a garden district in New York).  Again, $7 at our guy, but you can also get great deals on huge velvety poinsettias at the Farmer's Market.  They make great hostess gifts during the holidays and look beautiful alone on a coffee table or even as a centerpiece.  Also at the Garden District, Mike bought festive mini potted trees for the patio, because the exterior illumination is just as important as the interior!

I've also become mildly obsessed with decorating with mini pine cones.  Not only are they adorable and tiny, but they are so festive and can be painted to match any Christmas decorations you have in your home.  Mine are sprinkled with gold glitter and are beautiful enough to sit alone in our hurricane vases.  I also sprinkled mini pine cones around our holly berry on the top of our bar to create a little wooded wonderland!



This weekend also brought us, drum roll please.....our new couch!  After some lucky guy got the deal of the century from buying our couch on Craigslist, we rid ourselves of the cumbersome sectional where we spent so many lazy/hungover Sundays as a family.  We spent one Friday night couchless before our special delivery came Saturday morning.

Our living room BEFORE with the old couch

Our living room AFTER with the new couch!
Look at how good Winston is....he's
not even sitting on the couch!

I can't even explain how much room we have now that we have a sofa.  We have the most beautiful Persian rug that Mike's parents gave him when he was living in LA, and we were hiding it under a giant beast of a couch.  Look at how beautiful the rug looks now!!!!  I have to give a shout out to my amazing husband who gave me the best Christmas present ever a few weeks early....a brand new Dyson Animal vacuum.  So again...I have to give credit to the vacuum for making our rug look so beautiful and vibrant.  We still have some finishing touches to make on the living room, and we had quite a productive/expensive visit to Pottery Barn on Saturday, but it's starting to transform into the cozy home that will make us happy and comfortable as we renew our lease for at least another year in the city.

When we got the new couch, I was worried that our days of lazy Sundays with the whole family on the couch were gone.  But we all actually all fit on this one too!  Winston is not permitted on the couch without laying on top of a blankie, but he has already developed a fondness for our new piece of furniture, and we have a much better view of our Christmas tree now!

Don't mind the ridiculously large, out of place coffee table...we have a new
one being delivered in 1-2 weeks (blog post to follow...DUH!)