Pulling It Together For Christmas

If you follow me on social media, you’d know that I have been without kitchen cabinets since the spring.  Mostly my own fault, because I didn’t order the new ones until the end of October, but I am thrilled to report that the cabinets were just delivered.  Want to see them?  Me too!  Too bad I have no time to assemble or install them right this second.  They look like this.  Womp, womp.

You know how one project leads to another?  Well, I have a bad case of that going on around here.  The kitchen and family room were connected by a half wall, so of course the entire family room had to be redone as well.  Then while I was building wall-to-wall shelves in there, hubby accidentally cut a pipe behind the shelves, which led to be completely gutting the bathroom.  Blah, blah, blah, it’s a hot mess around here.

But all that mess won’t keep me from hosting Christmas for my family this year.  My brother, his wife, and four kids will be here along with my mom and her husband.  They all expect nothing less that for me to pull it all together miraculously at the last minute.  Or at the very least hide all my power tools from the toddlers.  But they’ll be happy to know I’m getting there with a little help from Cost Plus World Market.  I told you I was taking a trip to the new location in Shrewsbury, NJ last week, and let me tell you I had a blast. First of all, thank you to World Market for letting me buy a few things on them, and for sponsoring this post.  And another thank you to my brother and his wife for watching my younger kids while Smart Jr and I shopped the night away.

I veered a little from my  shopping list because I was overwhelmed by all my options.  World Market has a little bit of everything!

I did get the gold and teal ikat curtains from my list and Smart Jr, my 13-year-old, got this horrendous shot of me.

Clearly my iPhone photography skills are better than hers.  Or maybe she’s just a lot cuter than me.

We mingled with other bloggers, chitchatted with employees, and ran into a few long-time Jersey Shore friends who just happened to be shopping there too.  I also made plans to return with a few friends who were pretty jealous of my shopping excursion.  (You know who you are Dina, Cindy, Shari, Melissa, Kathy, Keri, Bridget, and Inch.)

A certain teen I know was in heaven when she spotted the sodas she always gets when we go out for hibachi.  They have a ball in them that you have to push down into the bottle before you can drink it.  They are apparently extremely popular with her age group. 

I’m never going to take her anywhere with me again though, not after she picked this little gem up and said she was going to buy it because it made her think of me.

Whatever.  I had 3 different people ask me if she was my daughter because I looked so young.  Yay me!  Just went I thought 38 was hitting me hard.

I spotted a few items I have been eying up online for ages, apparently they are all over Pinterest as well.  This ottoman with storage is awesome.

And this simple pendant.

There were so many fantastic lighting options, I was so overwhelmed I decided to hold off until my next trip.

I couldn’t resist some new hand towels and bath mat for my almost finished guest bathroom.  I almost bought the comfy pajamas too!

We stayed twice as long as we planned, but managed to drag ourselves away with a pretty good haul.

So how did this shopping trip to World Market help me get my act together for Christmas…  When I got my ikat curtains home I realized they weren’t long enough, so I went online to order longer ones and low and behold I ran across these beauties for $5 a panel!!!!  I don’t usually decorate with red, but I figure I can put these up every year for Christmas.  I bought 3 sets!

And even though the shower in the guest bathroom isn’t totally finished (still!), the rest of the bathroom is looking good with a few new hand towels and bath mat. 

I added a bottom shelf to the DIY ladder I made from one board.  It’s now from two boards.  lol

So tomorrow it’s all about building cabinets.  And seeing Star Wars The Force Awakens.  Of course.