It's Christmas Time...!

The kiddos and I have had a fun time putting up our holiday decorations... slowly but surely it's all done. Nothing extravagant, just some simple things to make it feel "Merry and Bright" around our living space.

They helped me wrap and ship our packages...
                                       

We still need to add the fourth stocking for Aspen, coming in the mail soon! :)

Replaced my regular mug display, and in their places, a collection of beautiful ornaments. I believe this was the kid's favorite part, helping to hang them.

My piano got a few new touches...

In October, our two year old, Capri, drug this branch home all by herself... wouldn't take any help, and insisted on dragging it the whole 1 mile to our garage - crazy lady ! ;)

Jubalee & Tremain held it in place while I secured it for decorating...

Our tree is a simple one this year...cute lil chubby shape. The kid's chose him :)

Daddy and kid's dressed the tree up, did a fabulous job!

I'm loving to update my wreath each season and holiday... could become an addiction if I'm not careful.

Merry Christmas to each of you. Remember the true meaning of the season.... Jesus Christ came to earth for us! :)

"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift"!

II Corinthians 9:15

Our Front Door in Progress.

It has been a very busy couple months. Have done a project or two, but my distraction from actually blogging about them has been the fact that I was in my third trimester with our 4th baby - yay! Long story short, our wee one finally arrived on November 2nd, first thing in the morning :) All this week has revolved around healing from the labor and delivery, and of course, nurturing our new little addition.

But now that I have quite a bit of free time, I decided to go ahead and post one new project. Although I cannot take much of the credit because my hubby was the one who did all the work. I decided on a light blue, and then he chose the exact shade, and painted the whole thing while I was out of town. 

We love it! The front door looks WAY better than the original.... which by the way, I don't have a before photo because I never took one... what was I thinking?! That's half the fun, to look back on and compare, but alas, I forgot to - won't happen again with any other project.  Anyway, the original door color was a burnt red, and it made the entry blend right into the rest of the house.

 And here's a close up of my first fall wreath. I know, I'm 28 and never hung a wreath on my door, pathetic. But the point is I finally did :)  Good ol' Hobby Lobby is where I found all the cool stuff to make it.

Happy November! 

Family room, and Play room

The main room in our home has been a difficult space for me to decide what the heck it's going to function as. I have posted pictures of this room last year as our living room, but now that our front room is the media/living/reading space, I decided that the bigger room will function best as a family/play room for the kiddos. It has worked out well that way, since they spend most of their time in that part of the house regardless of what I turned it into.

Here are some current pics of the layout, and one of my favorite additions to my vintage furniture collection... a cream armoire! It was love at first sight! Searched for one to house the kid's toys and such this past Spring, and spotted it on our local EstateSales.net. A few days after seeing it, I made it our own at 60% off the asking price. It's one of my all-time faves, and won't be going anywhere until I die or something...  haha.

List of favorite items in this room:

*The wool rug is one that my mom bought for me when I was 16, still love it as much as the day I picked it out 12 years ago.

*Round rustic table from Mexico, found on Craigslist last yr, it is now used for play time, puzzles, and just about anything the kids can think up.

*As stated above, the vintage armoire was found at an Estate Sale.... I'm not positive, but it may be considered a true antique? Built as early as the late 1800's or early 1900's?

*My husband installed the indoor/outdoor ceiling light and fan, picked out at Lowe's.

*Poster Art is from Hobby Lobby, I have two others like it in various rooms, love the vintage style lettering and drawings.

 

Dining Room turned Media/Reading Room

I can hardly believe it's been almost a year since I last blogged. But it's a busy life, and a good one at that.... so I have no regrets about being away.

About our home-making progress, for most of the fall/winter, I was burnt out on projects, so it wasn't until this Spring that I started getting into home-decor mode. What probably has given me a little push is that I am pregnant with our fourth child, yay! I'm in my 23-24 week and feeling fab. Tons of energy to "Nest" this place into shape. Lately, my theme for our home has been "Less is More". Trying my best to focus on what really matters for our family, getting organized, and only organizing that which we love or need.... nothing more, nothing less.

Other rooms are in progress upstairs, but for now, I will share what I have done with our front room. It was originally designed to be a dining room, but for the first year living here, it never was in use but maybe twice per year. Truly for our family it became a waste of space. I decided to make it our media room after my husband and I bought our first flat screen tv during Black Friday sales last year. We could have mounted it in our family great room, but the only place to put it was above our fireplace on the mantle, and that's not my cup of tea...

This is what our "Dining room" looked like for the first year or so...

Before photos

Here are the photos of the current media/reading room. Ideally, I would like to have a vintage piece of furniture as our media cabinet underneath the television, but I haven't found something that I like, that's affordable, and the right height. We do love the room though, it has turned out cozy. After the kids have been tucked into bed, this is where we spend our evenings: reading, looking at HGTV magazines,  watching rugby, a movie, or enjoying our favorite show, House Hunters International.


After photos

All the paint choices have come from Lowe's.

Downstairs ceiling, *Hot Stone.

Media room walls, White-no color added.

window pop-out wall, *Green Goddess.

The art around the tv is something I came up with in honor of my husband's profession. He's an Orthopedic Surgeon, and in the past he mentioned having x-rays as art incorporated into our home. I remembered his request and made them myself.... not something you see on average, and if I did, I'm sure it's price tag wouldn't fit my "Love of the Thrift" mind-set. I think it cost around $30-40 to make all of the x-ray art.

Most people think that this "Art" is strange, especially women, but that's ok, my hubby loves them, and that's all that matters :)

Thanks for checking out our room.... Have a fabulous weekend!