Merry Christmas!

by Julia

I am finally posting on the blog for the first time. My timing has to do with the availability of one of my teenagers to walk me through the whole process. The digital natives at this house tolerate my lack of complete comfort at the computer, as does Candace, who I whine to about it on occasion.

A quick intro: I am the oldest of this clan, I am married to David (we hit 20 years this past summer), and I have four intense children.

Here are the rowdies on Christmas Eve in their new pajamas. Santa and the elves outfit them yearly, along with their cousins. We are the only Fish family members not gathering together this year because our oldest came home from his first semester at college to see us! (And all his friends.)

So here we are with one of T's friends and the LDS missionaries for our Christmas Eve dinner. This meal, a Fish family favorite, is called Raclette. It is the name of the cheese and traditionally is served melted with boiled potatoes, cornichons, and pearl onions. We add shrimp in garlic butter on top of the snazzy machine you see in the middle of the table (Merlin and Pat gifted one to each of our families years ago). This meal also included a green salad, grape tomatoes, artisan bread, various fruits, and brownies with sorbet. Mer would be proud of the artistic cheese tower I made.

Here are the place cards I created for our guests. Yes, I am a calligrapher. I am addicted and I can't stop (that is redundant). This blog may soon look like Julia's portfolio.

The biggest surprise of the day was when we were sitting in church today and it was announced that the Thompson family would be singing a musical number. I had a moment of anxiety as the man announcing looked right at me and smiled. I smiled back, turned to David, and said through my teeth, "what are we singing??" He assured me that I was not expected to do an impromptu performance. Instead, my four children sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem" in all four parts. They were amazing! G (the nine year old) can almost hold down that alto by himself. I wondered why they sent David and me out for a walk last night. . .

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas.

Firsts

By Marci

Today I heard a most-informative conversation between two aged gentlemen, one talking much more than the other:

"I'm telling you (to the one with silvery hair) that if you just ate a handful of almonds a day, you would get back your original hair color....

"Are you still drinking decaf?  Even after I told you it causes diabetes?..."

"I'm giving you all these pointers, and you're just not doing any of them...."

I don't drink coffee, so I'm not sure about the diabetes caf vs. decaf deal, but the almond thing was definitely a first for me.

Today our baby had her first dose of rice cereal.  She's been a little grumpy after feedings and not sleeping as well as usual, so we decided to go for it.  Each of the three older sibs had to help, of course.  Not sure how she puts up with all of us.  She liked it: Another food-loving fish.

FISH FAMILY FAVORITES

by Stefanie
This post is about things in my house that make me happy right now. It's also about posting things that my sisters, Lori, Keri, and Julie should post but don't. This cute star was crafted by Lori and Keri. I can't even begin to guess how many they have made and given away. I wish I had more pictures to post of the various sizes, colors, patterns, and holiday themes they have put together, but they are all adorning someone else's home. Maybe at some future point they will post a tutorial on how to make them.

I have issues with the quality of pictures I can take on my phone--and I say that because these pictures just don't do the above art piece justice. Anyway, this was created by my sister, Julia, who is an extremely talented artist and calligrapher. I hope she will start posting as well as offering her art on "See Fish Create." Julia made this for me for Christmas in 2004, and it is a treasure.

These wreaths are made from pages of a book. Lori made the middle one for me and I made the other two thanks to her instruction. Different sizes of books make different looking wreaths. When I made the one one the left, I didn't like the weight or size of the paper and how it turned out, so I decided to experiment further and see how it looked spray-painted. It's hard to tell, but I used white, silver, blue, and a glitter paint. I was trying to make it resemble a snowflake--I'm not sure I succeeded. Lori also helped Keri make a GREAT looking wreath using coffee filters densely attached to a straw wreath. Wish I had a picture! We are at the mercy and unlikelihood of Keri posting a picture, but we can always hope.

Rarely does anyone enter my home who doesn't have the urge to take a shot at this hoop. That's ok, it's what its there for. Before my remodel, my boys had a little hoop hanging on the closet door in the entry that they would play on daily for hours, especially in the winter. Well, it beat the heck out of the door, plus I was worried eventually someone's foot was going to go through the door in the process of a dunk or lay-up. The chandelier was also a little marred from erring balls. In spite of the possible damage to the decor, I decided that the basketball activity was a good thing and to embrace it rather than fight it. At the time of the remodel, I had my contractors make a more permanent backboard (that I painted to match my decor), and then I bought a rim that I had powder-coated gray--again to match the decor. It's called give and take--they get the hoop, I get to decided the color. Anyway, my boys are a lot bigger now--and so are their friends; the play is rougher; my walls are a little beat up; so far we've only had one glass cover on the chandelier break, but I expected that and bought extra; and the fun is competitive and extreme. I'll repair and repaint when they grow out of it, but I don't know if that will ever happen--their dad enjoys it just as much as they do. And, like I said, so does everyone that enters.

This is my pantry door. It is painted with chalkboard paint. I love it to write messages, menus, thoughts, quotes, etc. I really need my sister Julie to come write all these things for me so they are beautiful to look at as well as legible. These days chalkboard paint comes in a variety of colors. It works best painted on completely smooth surfaces. Most walls have a texture, and it's hard to write with chalk on a bumpy surface!

Last but not least, my amaryllis are blooming! That's always happy. Merry Christmas!

See Fish Finish!

by candace

You ready to see the space in the house that makes me the most happy? The loft/playroom area! I love how it turned out. It would have never looked like this without my sister Stefanie. In fact, most of the house would not look like it does without her. She really is amazing. She even sacrificed her life to get the Subway art (seen below) hung on the wall.

I wanted the play area to be functional and fun. I bought the white cabinet to hold books and some toys but I bought the big white toy box so most of the toys could be thrown it there...not organized but hopefully realistic for G to help me clean up. There is a swing, a desk, a mirror, an ABC poster, a chalkboard wall, magnet boards to hang pictures or G's art, and—best of all—chairs for the adults.

The black wall is chalkboard paint. The orange things above the abacus are magnet boards...waiting for G to color some pictures so I can hang them up there. Our family picture is printed on metal!

My mom and I made this :)

 

Where did I get it?

White cabinet, white toy box, swing, gray cabinet above chairs, orange magnet boards, crazy light: IKEA

Orange desk: 2modern

Abacus: CB2

Subway art, gray chairs: World Market

 ABC art, orange bird cage: Z Gallerie

What do you think? Any ideas to make it more fun or functional?

See Fish Finish!

by candace

Welcome to the third week of See Fish Finish. You can see the master bedroom here and the nursery here. Today we have the office. I am a freelance graphic designer—mostly designing textbooks—so I needed a space to work. The office was the first space in the home that came together. I found these yellow chairs within a couple days of moving in and knew they would be a great start to the room. This room has been this way for two years and I still love it.

Where did I get it?

Yellow chairs and S-shelf: West Elm

Desk and white cabinet: IKEA

Wall decals: whatisblik.com

Star: made by my sisters!

Amazing light fixture: Turkey! You'll have to fly a long way to get yourself one :)

SEE FISH DECORATE ON A DIME

by Stefanie

In 2008 at this time of year I was in the middle of a remodel and did no decorating for Christmas. It was a relief and at the same time I missed being festive and buying/making fun things for the holiday season. My remodel took my house to a totally different color scheme and style, and I knew my old seasonal decorations weren't going to work for me. So I gave all my old stuff to my brother who had just recently purchased his first home and began brainstorming on how I could decorate really cheap for the next Christmas. (I was feeling very poor because of my remodel!)

The first tip I would like to pass along is to buy your decorations right after Christmas. I know it's no fun because they are picked-over and no use to you for a year, but they are also 75% off! That year I found 3 silver trees and some great ornaments for a fraction of what they were originally priced. It's also a good idea to buy wrapping paper and ribbon. I covered many pictures on my wall making them into "presents." It's cheap and festive.

The next inexpensive

thing I did was make paper chains forgarland. Yes, it was time-consuming initially, but I have saved them from year to year carefully in plastic garbage bags with all of their decorative danglies intact, and they go up quickly every year.

I saw a cool idea in the windows of Anthropologie and thought I would try and duplicate it because, again, it was inexpensive--and, yes, time-consuming initially. I saved packaging from stuff that was mailed to me; I saved white plastic grocery sacks; and I bought some white tissue paper and created all these "puffs." Some I sprayed with glitter spray. Some of the packaging that was thin foam disks I added a few small ornament balls in the middle. I tied all these to my stair railing. Sometimes I've added paper chains and silver, beaded garland and sometimes just lights.

This year I added some decal ornaments to the wall (that I got last year 75% off at a bookstore). My daughter had the idea to "hang" them from some cheap, silver, gift ribbon.

One year I made this table center piece out of a small, dead branch that I spray-painted white, added some origami stars and birds and hung some small, ball ornaments.

I also made some "trees" out of old phonebooks by folding the top edge and corner of each page to the center of the book and then the bottom corner up at a diagonal to meet the first fold and create a point. (I seem to remember making these as a kid with my cousin Suzee when my family would visit my grandparents at Christmas time. I remember it being a long project; it is. Phone books have lots of pages :0)

Well, I've got more to say and show but am so bugged with Blogger and how it places my pictures and messes up my text that I'm going to end. Last but not least, I'm one of the fortunate few that get to have a reindeer hanging on the wall, and yes, he does turn into Rudolf at Christmas time.

Some places I found great bargains were:

*"Dollar" stores--I got some great snowflakes to hang in my windows, wrapping paper, and random stuff to decorate presents with.

*Big Lots

*TJMaxx

*Target--one year I found stockings and ornaments all in my crazy color scheme!

*Down East Home--stockings

*Some higher-end furniture stores and nurseries after Christmas when all their cool left-overs are on sale--Don't spend all your money before Christmas!

Fish Family Favorites: Bulbs

by Stefanie

Every Autumn our brother Kevin orders amaryllis and paper white bulbs for his mom and sisters. (Thanks Kev!:) The amaryllis are our favorite. We love to give them as Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts and love growing them for ourselves. I personally have a hard time deciding which ones I should give away, and yet I want to give one to every neighbor and friend I have! They're so exciting and gratifying to watch grow and so easy to care for.

We order our bulbs at www.johnscheepers.com. You can order gift boxes that come with the bulb, soil, and a pot to plant them in or you can just order the bulbs individually and plant them how you wish. Lowes and Home Depot also sell the bulb gift boxes. However, the bulbs usually aren't as big and the variety is limited. I will post the end result in several weeks when these bulbs are blooming!

See Fish Finish!

by candace

In case you missed the first week of "See Fish Finish" you can see the master bedroom here.

Next, we have the nursery. The inspiration for the nursery started with the fabric for the crib and this is where it ended up.

Before I had to take the bumper pads off because my child was destroying them...

And now...

 Where did I get it?

The amazing crib bedding (including the sheet): made by my talented mom and sisters

Crib, dresser, changing table, lights: IKEA

Duvet cover, pillows, clock, rug, hippo, hour glasses: CB2

Curtain: Urban Outfitters

Next week? The office!