Christmas Target gift cards = blackout curtains

Jeremy's mom always gets me a Target gift card for Christmas because she knows I love to buy up their marked down Christmas stuff. And this year was no exception--I did my patriotic duty to personally pull our country out of a recession and boost slumping retail sales. In addition to Christmas stuff for next year, I bought some heavy velvet curtains that matched my bedroom. Jeremy has been complaining that the white sheers (which I loved) just weren't conducive to sleeping late for quite some time. The day after I bought them, he slept well past 1 pm.

Some other goodies, I picked up were some gold chargers and a wine carafe (marked down 75%)!!! I'm still saving up for the dining room suite I want from Ikea, and I'm about half way there. I can't wait to have a sideboard to store all the stuff like chargers and wine carafes in, and a table and chairs so I can have dinner in my dining room. My dad came over for a traditional "Feast of the THREE Fishes" on December 23rd--I didn't think we needed a whole 7 course meal! We put the leaf in the table that I have, which is the table my parents had when I was growing up. Only problem with the Christmas dinner was that we had to sit on these rickety little chairs that go with a third-hand Big Lots dinette (Jodie, do you remember the one you gave me like 7 years ago?) But it was still nice to host a dinner and entertain. The food was awesome and I force-bloomed some paperwhites in a big clear vase for the center of the table. Once I get the dining room done (soon, hopefully) I'll post some pics.

Also, I AM STILL working on stripping the wallpaper in the entryway but I only have a little bit left. I just need to get around to finishing the stripping and get on with the painting.