We have mirrors! And shelves!

It's been a long time coming, but we now have mirrors in our master bathroom! We had to special order the one for over my sink/vanity area, but it finally arrived. DH made frames for them to match the frames on the cabinet doors...

Here is DH's mirror - we'll have to put some artwork up on the blank wall...
DH also built me 2 more shelves in the utility closet across from the powder room. He installed 2 outlets so I can plug in phone/GPS chargers and my sweeper vac.
I managed to get a lot of my house decorating done. The goal was to get it done in time for the church women's dinner party that I hosted last night. I had everything done except for the tree, and it (for us) is still a tad too early to get the tree. I think we'll probably get the tree this weekend. Here is the fireplace with my new wreath over the mantel...
I hung greens around the border of the great room on the valance. I had to get up and down off the ladder every loop in order to move the ladder - it was a good thigh workout! In order to get the swags even, I laid out each section on the floor next to a tape measure and connected a wire ornament hanger to the greens every 3 feet. Then I just had to make sure the bottom of the swag hit the bottom of the valance and there was no need to measure where to hang each hook.
The Santa/Reindeer quilt and nativity are in the entryway...
Underneath the table I put all kinds of stuffed animals and toys, most of them belonging to our kids over the years (and some that even belong to DH and I when we were little).
The stairs were adorned with lights and more greenery...
We set up the tables for my dinner party on Sunday night and I set them and decorated them on Monday. I was expecting 15 guests (plus me) for the third year in a row. There must be something about the number 16 and our women's dinner - they are not the same exact women every year either. Interesting...
Here are the Santa napkins on the table settings - no one wanted to use the napkins for fear of ruining them!
And other place setting...
So, some of the next projects on the list are to find tiles for the backsplash of the beverage area, and to find floor tile for the floor at the bottom of the basement stairs (that we can see when we look down over the stair railing). Here is the beverage area that we want to tile...
I'm thinking I'd like to bring in some of the red color from the adjoining family room. Here is one with very narrow tiles (1/4") in shades of red...
This one has several colors in it which would pull in the colors of the cabinets, counter, and the red from the other room. It seems a little dark to me though, so I'm just not sure. I also have samples of smaller red squares in colors similar to the above tile. Maybe we can combine this tile with some of the red squares, or something...
And in the continuing saga of our hunter...He has never returned - his blind is still down in back of the house, collapsed from the wind. It's very strange...

The fence men returneth...

The fence guys returned early yesterday morning to install the two gates. I like how the fence turned out, but wish we didn't need to have one.

Here is a shot that shows how the fence looks from the driveway. The fence encloses the pool equipment which is at the end of the garage (you probably can't see the fence very well unless you click on the photo to enlarge it).
DH took the day off work yesterday and we went shopping for some things. I needed to get an area rug for underneath the rolling chair in my sewing studio. The bamboo floor was getting dented from the wheels on the chair and was starting to look bad.
It was difficult to photograph the dents in the bamboo floor - you can see some of the dents near the bottom of the photo where the spot of light is. I love the look of the bamboo, but it is definitely softer wood than what we're used to having on our floors.
We also bought a wheelbarrow to move dirt around. We have a small handcart, but it isn't sturdy enough to move heavier things in.
DH spent today putting a couple of outlets in the floor and working on the security system. One of the outlets went in front of the fireplace so we can plug in a laptop, or the light that is inside the base of the coffee table. The other one is near the end table in the great room, between my chair and DH's chair. He also installed some new light switches in the kitchen and family room. I spent a good part of today arranging DH's closet. It's something he hasn't had time to do and I was able to get rid of about 50% of the casual shirts on the bottom rod. They were shirts that were very old, or work shirts that were not in good shape anymore. I also had to change out all the hangers so that we only had plastic hangers in our closets. The wooden rods in our closets are too large in diameter to use wire hangers.
One of the other things we did yesterday was order mirrors for our master bathroom. DH's mirror choice was fairly straight forward. We ended up buying a rectangular mirror, 36" high x 30" wide. We plan to attach them to the wall and then DH will make wooden frames out of maple to match the cabinets in our bathroom. The wall space to the left of the light will be a spot for some artwork, I guess...
My mirror situation was not quite so straight forward. The difference in the height of the sink counter vs. the height of the vanity counter was an issue. We weren't sure whether to get one mirror, or two. I need to be able to see in the vanity mirror while seated. The other issue is that the light fixture over my sink is not centered, so if we get two mirrors, the light would probably have to be moved and centered over the mirror/sink.

We finally decided to get one large rectangular mirror for the area. Then we'll have the bathroom tile guy put tile above the granite backsplash over the vanity to extend the vanity backsplash to the same height as the sink backsplash. I'll still be able to see in the mirror while seated at the vanity, and the stone from the shower will look like it wraps around the corner to fill in that area above the backsplash (4-6" high). The tile guy is supposed to return on Monday morning to add tile behind the tub, so hopefully he'll be willing to add a few tiles in the vanity area. This is the mirror I've been using since we moved in at the end of July...DH doesn't even have a mirror in the bathroom. He has to go out and look in the mirror on his dresser in the bedroom.
There hasn't been any sign of the hunter yet. DH put up Posted signs around our property today - his note is still in the hunting blind.