Week 3: House & Holiday

Wow it's been a few weeks since my last post. Not to mention that three weeks of holiday prepping has passed.  Actually this is the end of week five of the HHP countdown. I'm always on the go so it's been a little difficult to get my posts done.   Although I have not been here I have been working diligently on the countdown and today I will sum up what's been happening with my plans for the holidays.  

Week three was Me & Mine week.  The goal was to focus on the master bedroom, set up an area in your home as a  wrap and mail center, schedule personal care appointments and if you've already started, inventory the gift closet.  In week four, Close to Home week, the focus was the kids room, complete the Seasonal Spruce-Up Exercise, think about Halloween costumes and more holiday prepping.   This week, five, is House Room which focuses on holiday guests you may be having during the holiday season and the guest room, do an inventory of holiday decorations and plan decorating ideas.  Also in this week we decorate for Fall (you can see my fall decor here).  Since I'm kid free and do not expect any guests coming to stay with me, other than holiday prepping, I had two bonus weeks to do whatever I wanted.  So I cleaned the master bedroom and the second bedroom

In all honesty, I do very well with keeping everything neat and organized in the master bedroom. The only things that I needed to do was:

*  wipe down baseboards
*  vacuum and shampoo carpet
*  clean windows/window sills.
*  polish furniture
*  wash curtains at the window
*  and touch up walls with a little paint

I really would like to do something dramatic in the master.  Something like this:

Maybe next year.  Sigh!  Oh well, let's move on to holiday planning part.

For the third (or is it 4th) year in a row I joined the Christmas Card Swap.  Each year I send out and receive cards from my friends at Magical Holiday Home.  I send cards all over the world: England, Austrailia, Canada, Scotland, and of course the United States to name a few.  For this year's swap, I found the perfect cards for my friends at the end of last holiday season.  I really hope they like them. I also bought cards to give out to friends and a few co-workers (pictured below).

Once I get the list of participants, I can print the address labels.  I had to make sure I had the correct addresses of family members as some of them have moved over the past year.  I swear I have one relative who's like a gypsy...always moving!  I can't keep up!  At the end of this month I will start signing and addressing the cards so that they will be ready to go in the mail on December 1st.  It will be great to already have them done.  Especially when there will be so many other things to do to prep for the holidays.

Next, I did a check of wrapping supplies and I'm good in that department.  I have plenty of wrapping paper, some of which haven't even been opened and I cleaned up on gift boxes, tissue paper and gift bags at the end of the holidays last year.  Now if I can focus on shopping for gifts (lol).

And finally...I finished up the weeks doing an inventory of my Christmas decorations.  I purchased a new tree last year and then decided I wanted new ornaments as well.  However, once my tree was up I wasn't quite happy with it.  It looked so naked.  I found a few nice ornaments on clearance last year but I also made a note on my shopping list to look for a few more as well as some ribbon.  I like my trees to look full - pretty - and full.

Tomorrow starts week six of the countdown, Wardrobe Week.  Gotta plan outfits for the upcoming holiday parties.