Honor Roll

We’re doing fun and not so fun things around the house. Fun: Christmas decorating! New design project planning! Not so fun: Fixing a leaky roof along the front turret. Getting the giant elm tree out back trimmed. But then it can’t all be twinkly lights and picking paint colors, eh?

• Big congratulations to Ashley of The Gold Hive and Natasha of Natasha Habermann Studio (images above and below)! They were the two linking participants in the One Room Challenge that will be moving up from guest participants to the official 20 in the next round. So impressive, both of them!

• The Chicago Tribune leaves the Tribune building (and the surprising importance of the bland Prudential building they’re moving to).

• Peter Sagal (host of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!) has lived here in Oak Park for 20 years. He talks about choosing this neighborhood, always hating his show’s name, and more with our local paper.

• We would like to add another dog to our family when we’re ready. I’ve been looking at pups up for adoption and I seem to melt for a new mutt every week, but then it also feels too soon. One thing I’m doing in preparation though is planning for a new gate and fence. How do I make something as beautiful as some of these?

• Primary is one of my favorite places to shop for the kids (solid colors, no logos or graphics), and they’ve just added striped pajamas! So cute.
  You can get 20% off plus free shipping on your first order at Primary.com with my affiliate code AFF20PCT.

• Embracing slow decorating for Christmas. Do you feel pressure to get everything up at once?

IMAGES: The Gold Hive • Natasha Habermann Studio