One day, we would love to be in Asia for the new year and take in the beauty of the festivities to the fullest extent.

Previous lunar new year posts can be found here.

Lion Dance by rlam50

Dragon Dance by barakasin

Recaps for previous years here:  Year One, Year Two

Around the house:

We got rid of the dining room chair rail.

I built a temporary patio/firepit.

I made an ass for myself.

Hosted a huge Halloween Party.

We’re always switching things around in the furniture department.

I seemed to cook a lot of food this year.

We contemplated chickens, but opted instead for a puppy.

I talked about my bedroom wishes (NOT THOSE) but didn’t follow up. I did indeed buy that Home Depot drop cloth after all, so now my mattress on the floor issue is gone.  Yay for $30 solutions! I also got new night tables off Craigslist I never showed you.

Otto has decided he must be the supermodel of all my interior shots….every time I’d try and take a photo, he’d settle himself right into the shot.

Yes, that is the Monopoly Man trophy you see. I NEVER win, but managed to pull one out over the holidays so it’s finally my turn to proudly house the trophy…until I lose the next game.

Elsewhere:

We had a big travel year, and while in New England, I had my heart broken at Brimfield. I seem to have better luck within my budget on my local flea excursions.

We hit up the local Rennaisance Fayre.

Had a big sale.

Doesn’t look like we got a whole lot done compared to past years.  But it felt like a busy year…oh yeah, WE BUILT A TREEHOUSE!!!!  And it took a long time.

We still haven’t painted the interior, and are beginning to wonder if we really need to. I realized after the leaves fell that I could finally get some decent shots of it so you can see how it relates to the house a bit better.

In summer, the treehouse is almost completely obscured by foliage….but now, it’s quite naked!

The sleeping bunker/level two building plans are on hold to address some more pressing needs around the ranch.  Namely a pantry, to keep the dog out of the foodstuffs, and if all goes well, a real bathtub.  I always thought we’d do the half bath first, but the lack of proper bathtub in the house is starting to become more and more important to both of us.  The CC has been playing soccer on weekends and as he limps home stiff and sore…he’s starting to want a good soak as badly as I do.  Time and money will tell.  I’ve been pinning ideas for it here.

As for which outlet I should choose to sell my finds? There’s pros and cons to all of them and if I can manage it, a hybrid of the options might be best.  Maybe an Etsy shop for smalls and E-bay for big pieces? We’ll see…I’ve actually been pretty busy this winter redoing some dining chair sets for other people.  Once I get my last set finished and out the door..it’s time to start selling again.  Hope everyone is looking forward to a good 2012…I love the optimism January’s clean slate can bring.

There were Ninjabread Men…..

and Star Wars Pancakes….. (Thanks LBJ and JJ!)

We made our very first Gingerbread house!  It’s never been my thing, but after seeing an A-Frame at Trader Joes, I couldn’t resist.  We had a blast making it.  Next year we might try again, baking all the pieces ourselves…The CC thinks we should make a mini treehouse!

and there was daily Elfing…..

A road trip…..

…and back home in time for Christmas.

The first signs of doubt…heartbreaking.  Hoping this wasn’t our last year for the magic…but if it was, I like to think we made the most of it.

Of course, there were gratuitous puppy shots…..

On New Year’s Eve, we hosted a slumber party with an art project…the ubiquitous crayon melting project.

This was mine……

and here’s the gallery of the kids’ creations….

I showed them photos from here and here in order to give them more ideas with different styles.  I loved how everyone made something unique, and they had such a good time.  There was (outside) doubt about whether boys would get into such a project, and when they were done and so proud of their creations, I felt quite pleased that maybe all my ideas aren’t so bad after all!

For what it’s worth, here’s my take on this project.  I found that the embossing heat gun (white one above) was the best tool.  The hair dryer puts out too much air, so we tended to use that to create splatter patterns and not so much for melting.  A tea light flame isn’t quite strong enough and gets extinguished easily, so we subbed out a taper candle.

Time to start packing up the decorations and get organized.  We haven’t printed out the annual list yet, so lots to do to ring in 2012…Happy New Year!

UPDATE: Hung the yellow piece in the bedroom. Things are still deciding where to hang theirs.

The big fat man is coming…..

This year’s version looks more Charlie Brown than ever.

A few favorite ornaments seemed to be a good place to play around…..

These first two are from my childhood….my parents picked them up for me on their travels in the 70′s.

A family favorite was “Pancho Claus”  picked up south of the border.  He was a candle in the form of Santa wearing a sombrero….the wick came out of the top of his hat.  One brutally hot summer he melted in the attic and we mourned his loss, not unlike a pet.  What?!  It was the 70′s and Pancho Claus was cool I tell you….Trust.

These glittery little beauties were found at estate sales in my 20′s….from someone elses childhood.

Um…all birds.  Sorry.

The red flocked deer below belonged to my parents, and I adored them growing up.  They used to be on our dining room table every year, in front of a silver punchbowl full of poinsettias. Sometime in my 20′s or early 30′s, I begged for them, and they were kind enough to oblige.  The vintage brass deer candle holders are a recent Etsy purchase.

Felt circles bought from Fred Flare a few years ago are sill holding strong….

On the puppy front, Otto is growing very fast and into everything…..he even tried to chew the lights!

He is Ottofabulous the LoveShark.  Sometimes he’s Pushkin (the CC wanted to name him that at one point, so it’s one of his bazillion nicknames.)

What are some of your favorite holiday decorations?  Hannukah, Chinese New Year, etc..  Is there a piece from your childhood that you cherish, or have you gotten something new that will be a keeper for years?

 Photos brought to you by Diptic, Hipstamatic, Big Lens and Instagram.  I found a plug- in that imports the Instagram photos to the right sidebar, so the latest snaps will be there.  I swear, I will pick up the SLR again at some point.

I’m still learning how to work this newfangled thing with the help of Thing One, who has an iPod touch, so he’s way ahead of me.  YES, I still have the clickwheel “classic” version.  I’m old.  When your kids start teaching you technology, it’s the beginning of a slippery slope down to grannyhood.

While cleaning up the last bits of Halloween around the house, I took my first attempt at Hipstamatic/Instagram usage and posted to my Twitter feed.  This could be fun!

Weather was our main foe this round.  Last year, it was nice and dry all week, this time, we had rain Thursday AND Friday.  So?  This means the bulk of our forest adornments must be put in all at once….on the day of the party..in the mud.  We had a dry party, so there’s that…not cashing in on your rain date is definitely a win.

We used a Paperless Post invite which I have edited for public viewing…

We had about 95 peeps this year, and some of these snaps were taken before and after the party, and some were taken the next day.  Again…just not a lot of time for photos during the party.

As guests arrived up the driveway, there is a table at the entrance to the forest with treat bags.

We pulled out the tombstones we made last year….

And hung the moon…..

For those worried I might expose children to Gnarls Barkley, rest easy…we went with the spooky sounds instead, which I think scared the kids a lot more than the Boogie Monster ever could have, so they were potentially ruined either way.

For safety reasons, the treehouse was off limits, but we styled it up super spooky.

We created a little scene underneath the treehouse with our new gifted butler from our good friend…she loves Halloween as much as we do and I hope we did her proud with him!

I decided to put more than just skelebirds in the cages…this one has ghost bats…..

The other practice moons ended up adorning the bar area.

I’m pretty bummed I never got a single photo of the table spread.  It looked pretty good too…it was heaving with yummy stuff….

Now nothing…no bloody cranberry grape juice with brain ice, no hot spiced apple cider, kettle corn, mini pizzas, mini bagel dogs, carrots, sugar snaps, sun sugar tomatoes, hummus, grapes, manadarins, chips, pumpkin cakes, oreo tower, cheese plate, paté, garlic toasts, and of course…  dem bones!  Photo FAIL!!!!

The Tattoo Station was back again this year…..

….as was a pinata.  We didn’t make it ourselves this year…not enough time.

There’s really no better reminder of our savage animal insticts than watching the melee after a successful hit on a pinata.  That’s SCARY.

So this is one of those funny little things you discover after a party….who took the teeth?  Did they wear them, and did they taste like raw pumpkin?  Who knows.

This year’s movie feature was a series of old Scooby Doo episodes from 1969-1971.  Here’s a theater before and aftermath……

The next night, we had a fire, leftovers and popcorn and the Things choice movie.  Heh. Ven.  New tradition for sure. After the Things went to sleep, the CC and I watched the 39 Steps.

My favorite photo:  The CC and Thing Two kept me company after the party while I was snapping away in the forest, and I got lucky……

Happy Halloween everyone.

I might have to get rid of The Gnarls Barkley song since at the VERY end there’s a brief mention of head…sigh.

This is one of my favorites on here…I’m a Siouxsie Sioux fan from waaay back and I miss my old cassettes.

And finally, the song in question…..

UPDATE:  We ended up using a mix of spooky sounds (wolves howling, door creaks etc…) for the forest and played the music mix inside the house.

Still here?  OK, well last year’s CSA gave us fresh eggs on a weekly basis, and we desperately miss them.  We opted against the CSA this year after our 9th week in a row of zucchini exclusive boxes brought the entire family to tears.  The Things were begging for it to STOP.  “Can’t we just compost them?  I can’t eat them anymore!!!  I’m even sick of the fritters!!”  I digress….

Eggs. We can go to the farmers market and get them, but some weeks I just can’t get there.  We’ve got a few friends who have been keeping them and we are fascinated.  Replacing our beloved pooch doesn’t seem likely, and a pet with such a tasty habit might be nice?

My Pinterest followers will recognize some of these images from my growing collection of coop inspiration.

So many beautifully designed coops out there!  If money were no object and we weren’t planning to build it ourselves…then these might dot our landscape.

Via Dwell

via Nogg.co

This is one of my faves…and we could probably make something similar, but I think we might like a walk-in coop?  Dunno..details, details.

via gastronomista

So, if we are to build said structure, would it look more like these?

via my pet chickens

via star apple

via backyard poulty mag

And we have all loved and admired this couple’s super coop….

via Dwell

So why am I talking about chickens anyway?!  Don’t I have the interior of a treehouse to paint now that the temps are cooling?  Why, yes.  But finishing up pesky details isn’t nearly as much fun as planning something new, that may, or may not, ever happen.

August 24 UPDATE:  Oh my GAWD..I just saw Karen’s coop over at The Art of Doing Stuff…and that is the mac damn daddy of all coops…..go check it here!