one off the to-do list

I like making lists.  Somehow it helps me to remember things if I write them down.  Possibly because I can actually look at the list and not rely on my memory?  Hmmmm.  Anyway, we, probably like most other people have an ongoing list of things that need to be done around the house.  I keep ours in a notebook, organized by room so that I can find it easily and add it to the honey-do list when I can (Brian LOVES that list).

One of the things that has been on the list for the kitchen ever since we moved in was to get crown moulding put on the top of the cabinets.  The builder wanted something like $900 to do it when we were building.  At least I think that's what it was - I do remember that it was a crazy amount of money for the one section of cabinets that you can see in the picture and then another 4 foot section above the refrigerator.

So I finally ordered the crown and even got a little crazy and ordered a piece for the bottom of the cabinets, too. (It has a name, but it eludes me at the moment).  That was about January.  Then a few weeks ago our friend, Tim, from church installed it for us.  I was so excited!!  It was fun watching it change and look totally different.  He did a great job (and he brought homemade toffee - yum!!).

But what I'm most excited about is that we get to cross it off the list - yay!!!  I know, I'm strange like that.  I get a lot of satisfaction from drawing that line of ink through all of those faded letters after 4 years, and I'm not afraid to admit it!

ups and downs

I'm not sure what to do with this anymore. 

Vicki pointed out to me the other day that it has kind of become symbolic of our life right now. 

If you remember, it was the project I was working on when I got the call from my doctor saying that I had cancer.  Weeks later I finished it and then couldn't find it.  Found it a few weeks later - down in the basement.  Hung it on the wall in the foyer.  It fell down.  I hung it again with hooks and was happy it stayed up all night, then all the next day, then for a week, then never thought much more about it.   Then a couple of Saturdays ago I heard a noise after I went to bed.  Thought it was Brian coming in, so I just went back to sleep.  This is what I saw the next morning:

Hmph!  So I was showing Vicki what happened when she came over the other day, and she said that it's just kind of like our life right now - ups and downs.  Yes, I guess it is.  Who knew that "W" would be such a source of frustration for me yet a source of laughter at the same time.

I'm at a loss now how to hang it anymore.  I'm thinking it's just going to sit on the mantle, leaning against the wall.  We have picture frames like that, and they've been safely up there for over 4 years so surely this will be a safe place for it - we'll see.

all through the house

I've been wanting to post these pictures for a while now and am just now finding time to do it.  What's with all the hectic chaos this time of year anyway?  I'd love for it to go away........I think.

While we know that the focus of Christmas is not in "things" but the birth of our Savior and spreading His love to others, one way I like to show love to my family is by making the house look festive to make fun memories and emphasize that this is such a very special time of year.  I enjoy decorating and making things and finding bargains so it's fun for me to do, too.  With that said......

 here are a few of my favorite things

Love these ornaments hanging from the light over our table.  Thank you to Hobby Lobby for having enough of these at 50% off (and thank you to my family who went about 5 times with me - they prefer this over the fabric store anyday since there are model trains and planes to look at, not just fabric - ugh!)

Our very first Christmas card of the season on the new Christmas card frame holder thingie I made (yep, even used the drill under supervision) this year.  AND, the card came all the way from the Netherlands! 

This was the card frame 2 days ago!  LOVE that we get to hear from so many friends and family.  We ended up having to put the regular cards in a different spot and keep the picture cards up here cause we were running out of room.  Have to add another string for next year.

The Advent tree.  Put little notes of special things to do on each card and hung them from some branches that we found, where else but the church parking lot (good thing there are trees somewhere, since we wouldn't have found them in our backyard, huh?).  Would you believe that I had to hot glue some of the branches on to make it look fuller and then found them deserted on the table the next day?  Looks more like a Charlie Brown tree now but doesn't matter.

Our family ornament for this year.  We get the new version from Hallmark every year and put our Christmas card picture in it.  Very fun to see all of them when we decorate the tree each year.

Found this garland dirt cheap (like $2 or $3) at Michaels and made it into a wreath that hangs on the window in the dining room.  It's perfect with the colors in there and I love that it's shimmery and frosty.

New bows for the garland on the stairs this year.  I guess I decided that I was done with the red plaid ones that we had had for almost 12 years last year cause I couldn't find them anywhere when we unpacked the decorations this year.  I got all this ribbon 70% off on Black Friday so it's all good.

More shimmery, frosty, lusciousness in the dining room.  I've had the tray for years.  I think we may have received it as a wedding gift or I bought it with some money we were given around the same time.  The Peace sign is from Walmart, and my favorite part is that I got to use some of the white vases that came from Grandma's house.

a closeup of course (did I mention I have a photography obsession?)

the ornaments that sit in the tray in the dining room - thanks again to Hobby Lobby and their 50% off goodness.

Another deal from Michaels.  I like that it looks snow-covered.  Which I guess I didn't have to worry about since it probably will really be snow-covered with the storm that's coming our way Friday.  Yay for a white Christmas!!

Look at my babies!!!!  I want to go back and squeeze those cheeks so so badly.  The front picture is probably my favorite Christmas picture of the boys EVER.  I always intended to switch the pictures out with current ones but every year I just want to look at those sweet chubby faces instead.

Thanks to Google Reader I have access to tons and tons of free ideas and printables everyday!  (It can also be a huge vacuum of your time, so use with caution).  I printed this from a blog and it's one of my very favorite new decorations this year.  Such creative and generous people out there.

Not the best picture but I love the tree glowing at night.



Again, thanks to Hobby Lobby, there is much needed color on the tree this year.

Thanks to Mom and Dad we have Wisemen in our Willow Tree Nativity now.  No Nativity is complete without Wisemen right?  I love how simple and beautiful these pieces are and that this Nativity is the first thing you see as you come down the stairs every morning.



pantry organization

My pantry had not felt very loved for such a long time.  If you look closely (or maybe you don't have to look very closely) you can see things just thrown in there, canisters toppled over, bags spewing everywhere, nowhere to put your feet when you do actually need to step into the pantry.  It was driving me nuts.

I would really love to have one of those Container Store dream pantries.......but I don't see that happening anytime soon so I opted for this much less expensive version that really only involved sorting, purging, and reorganizing.  I did buy a few items to solve some issues, but nothing major and I think it all totaled out to less than $60. 

It's not very dramatic, but it radiates calmness and simplicity to me (and we can actually get into the pantry now, so it's way more functional)....here's the before and after

 See how you can see the floor again?

This is one of the items I bought - to stack cans so that I can see what we've got in there without lifting each can. 

Got to use the label maker - LOVE the label maker.  I put things like cookie decorating, kids' treats, kids' snacks, medicines, etc. into these plastic Glad containers.  I even did this with my common baking staples (baking soda, salt, baking powder, vanilla, etc.), so now when I'm baking I can just pull out the whole container - so much easier!

This is my favorite purchase.  These are 18 inch turntables that we got at Bed Bath and Beyond.  We used to have to reach over bottles to reach whatever was in the back corner of the pantry.  Which was fine if you miraculously didn't knock any of them over in the process - I'm not that graceful.  Now we just turn the thing to get to whatever we want.  So perfect!  I was cringing at spending $15 a piece for each of these (we have 3), but it was definitely money well spent - highly recommend them!!

office re-do

My goal this summer was to go through each of the rooms in the house and purge and organize - get rid of the clutter.  We did pretty good with the boys' rooms and the play room (even had a garage sale and was able to make some money to pay for what you're about to see below).  Next on the list was the office.  And we have been working on the office since June.  What was intended to be a cleanup ended up being a complete overhaul.  Some of you were here in the thick of it (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU A&N), so I wanted you to see the fruits of your labor!

Here is the before:

Don't you love the organization here?

Just as a side note - I know those frames look weird hanging nearly to the ceiling with all the space below them.  There used to be a hutch on this desk, and we hung them at the top of it.  But never moved them when we took the hutch off.  Just in case you were wondering, you know.

And here is the during:

We built my desk area out of an exterior wooden door, and as you can see we had tons of help putting it together (thanks to Mr. A for the idea, design, use of tools, use of know-how, use of his and Ms. N's entire Saturday.......we owe you big time!)

And this is what it looks like now:

We still need to add some type of bulletin/magnet board as well as a few decorations for that blank wall, but this feels so much more spacious to me - I think mostly because of the paint color change and the bigger and better designed desk.  We love it and I just wanted to share since I had shared my frustrations with living in the chaos of it all (I should have taken a picture of the chaotic in between time, huh?)