Life at our house

Christmas...finally!

2012-02-15T12:53:00.001-08:00

I just recently uploaded family pictures from Christmas. Sad, I know.

My husband and I kept saying that this was the best Christmas we've had yet!

I made a new Advent Calendar this year. Loved it.

I put a verse and a piece of candy for each child in each cone.

We went on our yearly family trip to Gatlinburg.

It was a blast! Emma took this pic of her big brother while we were there.

Oh my he is growing up way too fast! His little brother isn't too far behind him. He had his Christmas program at preschool.
I don't think he sang a word.

The kids got there traditional Christmas Eve pajamas. I lucked out and found the Elf and Santa ones at Crazy 8 on clearance. Score!

The kids seemed to be really excited about their presents this year.

Hope you had a great Christmas...2 months ago! : )

A New Year

2012-01-25T22:40:00.000-08:00

So, it's 25 days into the new year. 2012. Wow, I can still vividly remember 1984. A few days ago, I was writing a check (yes, I still write those, sometimes) and I accidentally wrote 1/21/02. That made me laugh.

I'm not huge on New Year's resolutions, but the beginning of a new year always lends itself to evaluation and goal making. So, now that I have had a month to think about it, there are a few resolutions/goals I have for 2012.

1. Love more. Do less.

2. Give more. Take less.

3. Live more. Worry less.

It's pretty self-explanatory. I am a list maker so it is a little hard for me not to have a very detailed list that includes finally having that bikini body again or finishing the crown molding in my son's room or taking another trip to Africa. If I can just follow these three things during 2012, I think the important stuff will happen and well, who cares if the walls in my son's room are only up to an inch off the ceiling because I was too lazy to do the trim because I knew that we would eventually install crown molding? ...Well, I do. That's not the point, though. I want 2012 to matter!

I am super excited about a blog makeover and some other fun stuff that will be coming soon. There are plenty of projects I am a little giddy about sharing also. So, here's to 2012. May you be even better than 2011!

An American Girl

2012-01-25T22:08:00.001-08:00

So, I'm a little late in posting about my girl's birthday, but better late than never, right? Emma loves American Girl dolls and since the closest store is about 5 hours away, we decided to make a little trip out of it. She invited a friend and we stayed in a hotel where they even provided accommodations for the dolls. They giggled, learned to braid hair and ate cookies and milk.

The next day, we spent a few hours at the store and had brunch in the American Girl Bistro.

She spent way too much money, but it was her money and her day, so I let her enjoy it!

It was a great trip, but we were all tired!

So, that's how her 7th birthday went down. Can't believe it has been that long since she was born. Where does the time go?

Birthday Boy #2

2011-11-03T08:33:00.001-07:00

To celebrate Konnor's birthday, we had a football party.

We decorated with all things sporty: trophies, footballs and of course mini Toomer's oaks covered in TP.

Instead of a cake, we thought cupcakes would be easier for hungry little boys. The football toppers were made from scrapbook paper, a little cardstock and some toothpicks. I used a piping tip made for creating hair to make the green icing look like grass.

We made football shaped chocolate sugar cookies for favors.

For the past three years, Konnor has wanted to play a football game at his party, but the weather didn't cooperate. This year, we planned to have his party inside a gym so the weather wouldn't be an issue.

We were actually able to fit 9 candles in a cupcake!

He had a great party and I think he will always remember his 9th birthday as being a great one.

I don't even want to think about having a kid in the double digits next year. Wow.

Birthday Boy #1

2011-10-13T06:07:00.001-07:00

We recently celebrated Brady's 3rd birthday! We met up with family the day of his birthday to exchange presents.

Later on in the week, we invited friends over to celebrate. That boy loves trucks so it was an easy theme.

Anyone who knows Brady, knows that it is very tough to get one of his smiles on camera.

This was our attempt to get a pic of all the kids at the party. Brady is not even looking at the camera.

He had a great birthday and has started his 3rd year of life out with a bang by moving to a big boy bed and potty- training. I am so thankful for this sweet but tough little guy.

Since Brady really only plays with cars, trucks and the iPad, we really did not want to overload him with more toys that he probably wouldn't play with anyway. So, instead of gifts, we asked his friends to give a small donation to help buy formula for a mother-less baby in Africa named Alama ( a name given to babies whose mother's die in childbirth). I met Alama's parents when I went to Africa last year and stayed in their village.

I was told by the missionary there that many times when a mother dies during childbirth, the baby "goes away." I don't really want to think about what that implies. The missionaries agreed to help with the cost of formula for the baby and they found another woman in the village who would care for him. The monthly cost of formula for Alama is around $140. The missionaries have had a few donations but are now pretty much paying it out of pocket. Alama will still be in need of formula for about 5 more months. Maybe you feel led to give and make a difference, not only in this little guy's life, but also in a village who have heard the saving gospel of Christ, but not embraced it. If so, leave a comment or send me an email and I will let you know how you can help.

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."-John 13:35

Back to the old routine

2011-08-29T06:51:00.001-07:00

Well, summer break is officially over although the weather stuck around! : ) My kids had lots of fun this summer and of course, every year, it seems to go by faster and faster.

This summer, we made our first summer list.

We marked off MOST of them. There are still a few left- one of which is potty-train my new 3 year old.

We spent lots of time on the waterslide.

We had our Back to School family night a couple weeks ago. We did this last year and the kids loved it!

Emma was in charge of decorations. She drew placemats on the paper tablecloth.

She also taped up little pictures she drew of school supplies.

I scored some lunch trays at GW several months ago.

Of course, we had to have rectangular pizza and corn.

Konnor always tries to close his eyes when I take a picture.

Brady said the blessing.

We talked about the new school year and how K and E could be an example of Christ to their friends and teachers.

After dinner, we made pencil cups out of old soup cans and scrapbooking supplies.

Then, the first day of school arrived. Emma started 1st grade and Konnor started 3rd.

Little Brady is still in pre-school!

We are looking forward to a great year ahead!

I WON!

2011-07-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

That's right! I entered my kitchen makeover in the Before & After weekly contest and I won! Now, go here to check it out!

Summer is here!

2011-06-20T15:57:00.001-07:00

So technically summer starts tomorrow (which also happens to be my birthday), but our summer activities have been in full force for a few weeks now!

We wrapped up school with my little girl graduating from kindergarten.

Right after school was out, we went on a summer vacation with some friends to the beach!

We had a blast!

The week we got back from the beach, we had VBS- which was also awesome!

Now that we have been home, we've tried to organize ourselves a little.

I've seen the idea of a summer list around blogland a lot. It's such a great way to plan the summer. I also wrote the verse we are going to try and memorize. Can you tell that I am trying to reinforce being KIND and FORGIVING? : ) We also created a reading list. My husband is already reading something, I just forgot the name so, it's not on the list.

In an effort to give the kids a little bit of a routine, I made to-do lists for summer.

There are reminders of things they need to do everyday. Instead of our usual Thursday chore days, I decided to give the kids a chore to complete every weekday. I even made myself a daily to-do list, weekly and monthly. It feels so good to have it laid out for me and to be able to check it off! I LOVE LISTS!

We celebrated the best dad in the world yesterday! I love this pic we took at lunch. Brady did NOT want to take a picture. For us, if two out of three kids are looking at the camera and smiling...well, we call that success.

So, that's how our summer is going so far.

Disobedience Chores

2011-05-17T14:18:00.001-07:00

It is always a good thing to have clear consequences for disobedience. In the past, when my kids have disobeyed, I would threaten them that if it happened again, they would be in trouble or I may have...just a few times.... resorted to yelling. I think we have all been there before. Until I had a plan in place for dealing with disobedience, I often got frustrated and didn't handle the situation in the best possible way to teach my kids why it is important to obey. So, I decided to make a plan. This may look like an ordinary mug, but it is not.

It is full of little folded pieces of paper each with a chore written on them.

My kids have age-appropriate weekly chores that they do to earn money like taking out the trash, bringing in the mail and cleaning their rooms. We have chore day on Thursdays when they complete these weekly chores.

When they make a bad choice and disobey, they have to go to this mug and pull out a disobedience chore. There are times when we use other disciplinary actions, but this seemed to be a great quick consequence to disobedience.

They do not get to choose which chore they want to do. So it is the luck of the draw whether they get to wash the windows in the living room or clean the toilet in the upstairs bathroom.

I tried to put chores in the disobedience mug that would be less than desirable, but helpful for me to have done. I must say that since we have been using disobedience chores, I have been much calmer and more effective in my parenting. My kids have been happier because they know the rules and consequences to breaking them. And- my house has been a little cleaner!

For the record- this is my daughter doing her weekly chore, not a disobedience chore!

You should check out Lifeway's Homelife Magazine this month. There are some great articles (one was actually written by moi!) and more family jar (mug) ideas. I can't wait to try out the "Caught Doing Good" jar for my kids this summer. I'm hoping it will help my two oldest see the good in each other!

I'm posting on the Homelife blog this week, so check it out!

Typical

2011-05-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

Most days look like this:

The boys are wrestling. Yes, my youngest still has his pjs on in the afternoon.

E is doing her homework. Eventhough she has all week to get her work done, she insists on doing it all in one night so she doesn't have to worry about it the rest of the week. Can't blame her really.

This was a rare occasion when her big brother wanted to help her and she allowed him to. Had to get a picture of that one.

Konnor's Baptism and Easter

2011-05-01T14:03:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago, my husband had the honor of baptizing Konnor. It was an awesome day celebrating what God was already doing in our son's life. He has been on a journey of learning what it means to follow Christ (and still is!). He came to the point where he was ready to make the public statement of his faith. It has been so cool to see him feel genuine remorse and guilt over his sin. I even heard him telling his younger sister how she could become a Christ-follower, too.

We were so happy to have many of our close friends and family there to celebrate with us. It was truly a day we will never forget!

We had a busy Easter weekend with Secret Church on Friday night and services Saturday night and Sunday morning. The kids and I made resurrection rolls using this recipe. Let me just say, they were YUMMY and so easy! We will definitely make these again!

I mean, who doesn't love a cinnamon/sugar/butter covered marshmallow wrapped up in a crescent roll? I love how once they are cooked, they look very similar to a cave!

(BTW- we used reduced fat crescent rolls, I can't believe it's not butter and splenda in place of all the real stuff and they still tasted awesome!!)

The kids got into their Easter baskets about 5:30 because we all had to be at church super early.

After an awesome day at church, celebrating the ultimate sacrifice made for us, we had a great lunch and came home for some egg hunting.

(yes, my son was running around in his diaper- classy, huh?)

Here they are (+ a few neighborhood friends) digging into their loot.

It was a great day!

Featured Today!

2011-04-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite design blogs, Little Green Notebook, is showcasing a few pics from my recent kitchen makeover! Wow! Can't believe it! Go on over and check it out!

While you are there, be sure to browse Jenny's blog and see her amazing design work. Also, check out this post telling about the birth of her third daughter. What a cool story!

The Kitchen Details

2011-04-13T06:41:00.001-07:00

I am still loving my new kitchen. I said in my last post that I would share more info about how I refinished the cabinets.

Remember our kitchen cabinets used to look like this:

They were really ok as they were. They were in good condition, but I just really wanted to lighten up the kitchen and I really wanted cream cabinets.

So, here's what I did:

I numbered each cabinet.

And I made a little diagram to remind myself where each numbered cabinet door belonged.

Then, I removed all the doors and began the grueling process of painting them!

I did not sand, but used a Zinser oil-based primer. I had planned to spray the doors, but my sprayer was acting up so I ended up using a brush.

I brushed on about 3 coats of semi-gloss cream paint.

Now, if you noticed, in the before pic, there is a wood bridge that connects the two sets of cabinets on either side of the sink. I HATED it! I desperately wanted to take that baby down and separate the cabinets. So, my awesome husband did!

He was able to cut the existing piece of trim and fit it around the two sets of cabinets.

We had planned to install a super stylish barn sconce (previously there had been a fluorescent light mounted under the wooden valance), but unfortunately, because of window framing- we were going to have to hire an electrician to install a light box.

So, instead, my aforementioned genius husband, reinstalled the fluorescent light and mounted it to the wall.

My valance covers it completely!

It really worked out perfectly, because if we had installed the sconce I had picked out, I wouldn't have had room for my valance!

And that, my friends, is my favorite part of the makeover!

I chose to replace all the doors before distressing them because I couldn't handle the chaos of my messy kitchen any more!

First, I sanded the edges of the doors.

Then, I used Watco Danish Oil (found at Lowe's) to bring out the distressed marks.

I simply brushed on the danish oil, let it sit for a minute or two and then rubbed it off with a rag.

Once the doors were dry, I replaced the knobs. I needed a total of 24 knobs, and I only had 21. I had some pulls leftover from our last home that ended up being the same finish, so I used those on two cabinets. I chose two bottom cabinets that didn't have drawers over them so that having a different pull would make sense.

Since all the doors previously had only a knob, I had to drill an additional hole to use the pulls. This can be tricky. I have totally messed this up before, so here are a few tips.
Make a template. Use a piece of cardstock. I taped on the cardstock being sure that it lined up EXACTLY with the edge of the cabinet door. I then used an awl and poked through the cardstock into the existing hole in the cabinet door. Then, I removed the cardstock, attached the pull to the cardstock through the hole with a screw. Make sure the pull is pushed up flush to the cardstock and then using the awl, again, poke through the cardstock into the bottom hole in the pull.

Now you have two holes! You have to make sure this part is right. If you have your holes marked wrong, the pull will not fit when you try to install it.

You can see that I have x-ed out one set of holes, because they were wrong!

Next, drill through your cardstock. I used a small drill bit first and then used the drill bit that matched the size of my pull screws. This worked perfectly. If you don't use the small one first, it is easier for the wood to split and just harder to drill all the way through.

Here's another great tip that I actually learned from Young House Love. Put a little piece of tape right below where you are drilling and it will catch your little shavings! Makes for much easier clean up!

Then, wa- la:

So, those are the details! Now, I need to go load the dishwasher!

The Kitchen Reveal!!

2011-04-06T17:11:00.001-07:00

Can I just say....I L.O.V.E. my kitchen!! After a lot of work, it is finally done (well, at least for a while! : ) )

So here it was back when we moved in:

And they are my usual bad before pics! :)

Now I did tweak it along the way by painting and changing out some furniture, but I was dying for some white cabinets. So, I broke out the primer and went for it.

And I'm so glad I did!!

Source list:

Paint- Valspar cream oops paint $5, Danish oil for distressing $11
Primer- Zinser Oil based $14
Cabinet hardware- Resale shop $10.50 (21 @ $.50 each, already had the 3 pulls)
Valances- P. Kauffman fabric (Old Time Pottery) for $20, other supplies $11 (used this tutorial to make them)
Accessories- Yellow step stool (Hobby Lobby) $12, small yellow pitcher (Goodwill) $1, 3 glass jars (Target) $6 each, everything else, I already owned!

That's $102.50!! Woo hoo!!

So this post won't be horribly long, I will share in the next few days about how I painted and distressed the cabinets, tips for changing out cabinet hardware and my favorite part of the whole makeover!

Oh- and Happy Belated Birthday, Grandma! : )

I will be linking here and here and here and here!

Gallery Wall

2011-04-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

I have a post all ready about my kitchen makeover, but first, I wanted to do another quick post. The Inspired Room is doing a Gallery Wall party so I thought I would share mine!
This is a wall in our family room where we have started a gallery of frames with pictures we have taken on international mission trips we have been on. There are two pics my husband took when he was in Brazil and Panama. The other pic is one I took of a beautiful little girl I met in Africa. We hope to add many more pics as the years go by.

These next pics show the grouping a little better (taken before I painted that old dresser and before we got hardwood flooring put in).

I added a cream plate with "faith" on it in vinyl.

I also made this little sign out of a piece of wood. The words are from an awesome song by our church worship ministry called, I See the Poor.

I pray this pictures will remind us of our times in these other countries and the mark it made on our lives.

We have another gallery wall on the other side of the room. Our family rules poster (found here) is in the middle surrounded by family portraits.

P.S. Did you see those GORGEOUS floors???!!! : ) Love them! Oh, and I promise I will post about the kitchen tomorrow!

We'll take your truth and we'll take your justice to this broken land
take your salvation to every single nation.
We want the world to know, there's no one like You, Lord.
Every nation is Yours.

Get your copy of I See the Poor or shoot, just download the whole album! You won't regret it! Go here.

Kid's Bathroom

2011-04-02T14:33:00.001-07:00

I must say that this bathroom was done A LONG time ago. I just never posted pics. This is the upstairs bathroom shared by the kids. It used to look like this:

Yep, pretty pitiful. I attempted putting up a little of the kids art and a colorful lamp, but that's about it! I mean, the toothpaste is out and the toilet lid is up. Pretty gross.

These vintage drapes were my inspiration. I found them at a thrift shop about 4 years ago and fell in love with the graphic design and colors.

I cut off the pleated top of the curtains and added small grommets for the shower hooks to loop through.

The walls were painted a warm grey (another of my oops paint finds!). I did a board and batten treatment on the bottom half of the wall and painted it a glossy white

I put the kids' paintings back in the room. I also added the pair of owls, also painted a glossy white. The towel rack is a board I found at Hobby Lobby that I washed with some teal paint and added some thrifted brass hooks.

I had my two oldest kids paint these canvases. I just told them what colors to use.

A gentle reminder for them to brush their teeth.

I also changed out the cabinet knobs. Nothing too fancy, but an upgrade from builder basic.

I decorated this bathroom for less than $60. It works for me!
If only it were always this clean! : )

Old Bonus Room

2011-03-31T07:25:00.001-07:00

Didn't I mention that I was painting my kitchen cabinets? Yeah, well, they are painted, but the distressing is still not done. So no pics, yet. Sorry.

In my last post, I showed part of our recent house rearrange which included moving both of the boys to the previous bonus room. The bonus room was a tough room that I finally got looking the way I wanted it ... and then we decided to put the boys in there. I had some pics I took of the room in it's former life that I thought I would share.

I only have one before pic and it is a horrible quality since I took them with my phone. But, hey that just makes for an even better after, huh? : ) You'll also notice that I did not clean up for the pic... mainly because I took it right before we tore the room apart to paint and add chair rail molding. (By the way, the paint was a $5 gallon of oops paint from Lowe's. Half my house is painted with oops paint. )

Before:

After:

(I know, just the mess off the floor makes a difference!) We pretty much kept the same layout we had before but moved the kids area behind the couch to cut out on some that visual mess I was just mentioning.

This is the play area behind the couch. I love love love that rug. I scored it at Target on super clearance for around 30 bucks about a year ago.

Office area:

And, one of my favorite spots. I wanted to do this embroidery hoop art somewhere and this seemed to be a perfect spot. After scoring the hoops at a yard sale for like a hundred of them for $1, I decided to go for it. I think I added one more on the right side by the wall after taking this pic, though. The green lamps came from Walmart for $15 a piece and the shades were from Ross for like $4.99 each. This dresser and the armoire in the previous picture both were in our bedroom at some point.

It was a great bonus room. It is way more functional now as the boys' room, though!

The Boys' Room

2011-03-22T18:28:00.001-07:00

Remember our home rearrange a few weeks ago? You can read about it here. Some friends have asked for pics of the boys' rooms, so here are a few:

This room used to be our bonus room. K's room was upstairs and is now our little girl's room. B's room was downstairs and is now the office.

(Yes, that is Drew Brees on the ceiling!)
The boys are really loving being in this big room together!

We still have some work to do in my little girl's room, but here's a little peek.

Here's what is currently going on at our house- prep work for hardwood floors in our living room! I've also been painting our kitchen cabinets, so our house is a total wreck!

Changing things up a bit

2011-03-09T17:33:00.001-08:00

So, in my last post, I said my husband and I had pretty much rearranged our whole house. I only have new pics of our living room right now, but I LOVE it!

So here's the old living room:

I said in this post that I never liked the bookcases because they always looked cluttered, well, here's the new and improved no-bookcase living room:

My husband wanted to put the gigantor leather man sofa here when we moved in over a year ago, but I just never thought it would look good. It is so much better than our old set-up. We have more seating, and more space! Who'd a thunk? Well, my husband did, and I should have listened to him.

Before:

And AFTER!

You may also notice that we have a flat screen over our fireplace. We previously had one of those flat screen box televisions in the hole above our fireplace. Well, my genius husband figured out how to mount our flat panel (it was in the bonus room which is now our sons' room) over the hole. We absolutely love it!!! We gave the old "flat screen" to our 8 year old son to play video games on. He thinks he hit the jack-pot. So, there's part 1 of 5 of our crazy room switcheroo. Hopefully it won't take me forever to post the rest! : )

Valentine's Day Celebration!

2011-03-02T17:26:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I'm a little late sharing about our family Valentine's Day party, but better late than never, right?

I dug out the decorations I used for last year's celebration.

I added the little mailboxes (for some reason, I didn't take a close up pic of them.) that I think everyone in blogland bought at the dollar spot in Target. I had intentions of cutting out the kids' names in vinyl with my silhouette, but I wimped out and just used stickers. Each family member made a valentine card for each other and we delivered them to the mailboxes. This year, we just used left over valentine cards that the kids didn't use for their classmates. Next year, I'm hoping to think ahead enough to have the kids make hand-made cards for each other. It definitely kept them busy while I was getting dinner ready, though. I always take any advantage I get to encourage the kids (mainly Konnor and Emma!) to say/do something nice for each other!

For dinner, we decided to have a Papa Murphy heart-shaped pizza. For $5, you can't beat it!

After eating pizza, we opened our valentines from each other.

Emma got some shoes and tights for her American girl doll. **Side Note--For you moms who have daughters with these dolls, did you know that Michael's and Hobby Lobby both have clothes and accessories for 18 inch dolls? With the 40% off coupons that always seem to be available for these stores, you can get a pretty sweet deal!**

Konnor (great pic of the top of his head, huh?) got a new Percy Jackson book that he'd been wanting.

Brady got a green truck that he picked out that day at Target. He was happy. That boy loves trucks.

For dessert, we had chocolate pudding with pink sugar sprinkles.

My hubby and I ate our chocolate pudding out of the champagne glasses we used at our wedding. I know...awwww. My wonderful husband brought some beautiful pink roses home, which were the same kind he gave me on our first Valentine's Day together when we were sophomores in high school!

He brought one home for this girl, too!

All in all, it was a great day!

In non-Valentine's Day news, last weekend, we totally rearranged our house. You read that right, not a room, not a few rooms, every room in our house except the dining room, kitchen and master. It was pretty much nuts, but we LOVE it! Everything's not totally in it's place, but I will definitely post about it soon!

New Shop Items!

2011-02-23T15:01:00.001-08:00

We finally added more items to the shop! Click on the links to the right to check it out!!

Recovering a Seat Cushion

2011-02-17T14:21:00.001-08:00

Okay, it's not that hard, but if you've never recovered a seat cushion before, here's how to do it:

When I posted about my dining room transformation, I asked you not to look at the two head chairs with the non-complimentary blue chair cushions.

I was looking for some neutral fabric to recover those chairs. I thought about using a dropcloth because it would match the curtains and would be inexpensive. I kind of wanted fabric with a little more texture, however. I lucked up and found the perfect fabric at Old Time Pottery for about 5 bucks a yard. (They had some great designer fabrics there that pretty much made me want to redo my entire house, but I refrained.)

So, here's how you recover a chair:

1. Cut your fabric. Remember to leave enough room to fold it over the cushion with extra fabric to spare.

2. Start by pulling the fabric taught (but not so tight that the shape of the cushion changes) and put one staple in the middle of each side. Staple top, bottom and then side to side.

3. Staple all around the edges leaving the corners for last.

There are 2 options for corners. You can do a gathered corner or a pleated corner.

I went for the pleated corner. Just make sure which ever way you do it, both corners match.

I gathered the back corners because it was more of a rounded edge and they are less visible.

4. Trim off excess fabric, make sure any screw holes are accessible and reattach to chairs!

Much, much better.

Linking here.

Dining Room and Living Room Updates

2011-02-08T15:08:00.001-08:00

One of the things I enjoy about blogging is sharing projects we have going on around the house. I know there are a gazillion houses out there way more beautiful than mine and there are even more people out there with more design skills than me. Having said that, who wants to redo something in your house and not show it to somebody? : ) Blogging inspires me to get things checked off my list and hopefully a few others will be inspired along the way.

That being said, I have made some updates in my dining room and living room recently.

We painted the living room chocolate brown soon after moving in. It was a horrid burgundy and we loved the chocolate color of our previous dining room, so we went for it. Well, let's just say in a small dining room, dark walls, dark furniture and dark floors make for a...well DARK room!

I forgot to mention that I also had dark drapes.

I had some light aqua paint leftover from our accent wall in the living room which is open to the dining room, so one evening, I started painting. It only took a few hours since we have panel molding and only one wall with no openings/windows. It was already looking better! I looked and looked for the perfect fabric for new drapes and ended up just using drop cloths like everyone else on the planet. (***Tip- if you are using dropcloths for drapes, buy them at Home Depot. The ones at Lowe's have seams in them! ***) Love them. I decided to fold the tops of mine over to create some interest and to keep from having to hem them.

We also changed the layout of the dining room furniture. It seems much more balanced now having the china cabinet on the main focal wall. And to be honest, we did it because it makes traffic flow to and from the kitchen much better!

So, on to the pics...

BEFORE:

and AFTER:

I L.O.V.E. the new light airy feeling. I really wanted to do something to break up my all matchy matchy dining set. So, I sold all my chairs but 2 on craigslist and made enough money to buy these beauties.

Because they are cream, they also lighten things up and they are washable. I've already washed paint and crayon off of them. I think they will make it with my kids.

Here's the view looking in from the kitchen.

And, another one looking from the living room.

Now, you may have noticed that the two wooden upholstered chairs are covered in a fabric that doesn't quite go with the rest of the room. Don't worry, I have already taken care of that. I just haven't uploaded the pics, yet.

I still want to make, or find a cute runner for the table and I'd like to change out the chandelier with either a simple chrome one with white shades or a drum shade pendant. One day it will be finished, right? Probably not! I'm okay with that, though!

Now, the living room has gone through many different furniture arrangements.
Here's a pic showing the old curtains that matched the dining room ones. The lady that bought my dining room chairs ended up buying these also!

We used to have the couch on this long wall, but I never liked it.

Please excuse the bad, blurry pics. (The camera class I took, is definitely paying off! These were taken BEFORE I took the class! : ))

Here's a pic with the new drop cloth curtains.

I like the couch floating in the room. Something I don't love: the book cases. It's so hard for them to not look cluttery. I needed something big on that wall, though and that's all I have, so for now, it has to work.

Do you see that print over the chair? That's one of my favorite Christmas presents that Kris got me!! It's a family rules poster and you can find it here.

One day, I'd really like to get a sectional for this room. But, this is how we live in it right now. When we moved to this house in Oct of 09, we had moved 3 times in 3 years. When you move that much, it is hard for all your furniture to work from house to house. I think that's one reason that my house keeps evolving! It's a fun process, though!

Linking here and here.

This boy

2011-01-31T11:10:00.001-08:00

Most of the time, when we are out somewhere, Brady is not very outgoing. Many of our friends comment on how he scowls at them. Kind of like in these family portraits we had made.

It's not that he's mad or unhappy. He's just really shy and unsure of people.
These are pics are proof that he is a happy child and he DOES smile A LOT!

Sometimes we play a little game where I say, "don't you smile at me!"

Then he looks like this. He purses his lips and won't look at me, trying not to smile.

But, he can't handle it, he gives in and smiles, every time!

I think he thinks that if he closes his eyes, I can't see him smiling.

This boy...he just melts my heart.

My Attempt at Organization

2011-01-28T13:27:00.001-08:00

For some reason, January usually brings a desire to purge and organize. We have definitely been doing that in the Dolberry household! I always feel like I am trying to get to a place where everything is in order, because I think things will run much smoother! I am not always good at putting organization into practice, but there are a few things that have made our lives easier and I thought I would share some of them.

One thing we have done is move the kids' chore/behavior charts to the laundry room. They used to be in their rooms. Now, they are more centrally located which makes it easier to check off their lists. The washer acts as a great place to keep our magnetized markers and are in perfect reach of the kids. (I'll be posting about our behavior rewards system soon.)

This window calendar has been a great help in keeping our week organized. It is an old window from my Mom's house. I cut the days of the week out in vinyl and I use a dry erase marker to write in our appointments and schedule for the week. This is great to keep up with practices and meetings. I have also found that having 2 kids in school and 1 in preschool that it was hard for me to remember which child had a party when and when what paper was due for which kid.

Each Sunday, I check their separate calendars and write in anything that will be coming up that week. I'm totally a list person, so this really works for me.

Since I mentioned kids and school, this is another area of my house that helps me keep things under control, for the most part. I blogged about it here and here.

Each kid has his or her own basket where all their school work goes until the end of the week. We will recycle most of it and keep a few pieces to save. Those pieces go in this basket.

Another item that has added organization to my life is my Droid X phone. I have my daily to-do list on it that I love checking off everyday. (I told you, I'm a list person.)

I think this app is called Astrid tasks and it is free.

Another app that I love is Evernote.

It allows me to have several different notes/lists that I can access from anywhere on the internet. It is also free!

So there you have it. What great organizational tips do you have?

Snow, snow and more snow.

2011-01-25T20:24:00.001-08:00

I like snow, I really do, but now that this is the 4th time we have snow forecasted in the past month and a half, well, I must say that I'm not that excited.

Nevertheless, we will enjoy being at home together (assuming they will cancel in the morning) and pray all the siblings will get along.

Here are some pics from 2 snows ago.

We got about 4 inches at our house, which considered a blizzard for us in the south. : )

Brady always seems to put his hat on any way but the right way. I just leave it because I think it's cute.

We started building a snowman.

We wanted to make a really big, giant snow man.

He ended up being a little munchkin snowman.

I had seen a snowman kit right before Christmas and almost bought it. It was so cute with everything you need to accessorize your snowman. We just used what we had. Since it was the day of the SEC championship game, we put an Auburn toboggan on our snowman to show our team spirit. War Eagle!!

Then, a little ditch sledding took place.

B spent a little more time with the snowman.

The next day, we did some real sledding on a big hill we found while driving around.

B went down the hill a few times with me or Kris. But he mainly just watched. Notice the hat again.

Konnor turned a few flips.

Emma started out just going down from halfway up the hill. She finally would go from up top.

We had a great time sledding and it looks like we might be able to do it again tomorrow. One thing I haven't done in the three snows we have already had this winter, is make snow cream. I put a bowl out to catch some fresh snow tonight. Guess I'll be googling some recipes to make some for the kiddos tomorrow. Stay warm!

Wrapping up Christmas

2011-01-21T19:35:00.001-08:00

Well, the decorations are down and the house is pretty much back in order.

Here are some pics of our Christmas this year.

After our church Christmas eve service, we usually go to our friends' house to celebrate with friends. The kids have a birthday party for Jesus. When we get home, the kids exchange presents and open a new pair of pjs.

On Christmas morning...

Our 8 year old got a cell phone...yes we are those parents. Go ahead and think we are crazy.

We didn't go out of town this year until the day after Christmas, so we went out to dinner on Christmas day. We had Japanese food and it was awesome!

It was snowing when we left!

For Christmas presents this year, I made fabric coasters using this tutorial:

I paired each of them with a vintage mug filled with my favorite peppermint taffy candy.

I also made these crayon folders using this tutorial.

I did add a ribbon closure after taking the pic. Using the directions from the tutorial, 8 fat crayons fit perfectly in the slots. If you sew 16 slots instead, the regular crayons fit nicely.

I'm definitely making these again. I'd love to make them for B's whole preschool class for Christmas next year. We will see!

I also made some felt flower pins.

They were super easy! My friend, Nancy, showed me how to make them, but I'm pretty sure she saw a tutorial on The Pleated Poppy.

Well, that about wraps up the Dolberry Christmas 2011. It was awesome! Now on to the organizing....

Gingerbread House

2011-01-03T06:39:00.001-08:00

We have never made a gingerbread house before. With the pre-made house kits they have out now, we thought we would give it a try.

Dad was the official icing applier. He was really good at it. Once the icing was on, it was time for some candy.

The kids had to eat a few pieces along the way, of course.

B even shared some with Dad as he worked.

The finished product.

Now, how to eat it?

I wasn't sure if they would like the taste, but they did!

We will definitely make this a yearly tradition!

Opryland Hotel

2011-01-02T14:42:00.001-08:00

We also went to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel here in Nashville. We've been several times, but never during the holidays.

The kids loved seeing all the lights.

They were also mesmerized by the water and light show. It was pretty cool.

The hotel was really crowded and the kids were super fussy, but it was something they and we had always wanted to do, so we did it.

I think next year we'll pass, though!

Gatlinburg 2010

2011-01-02T14:30:00.001-08:00

December was jam packed for us as a family. It's going to take me a few posts, but I wanted to share about our month of festivities before Christmas. In early December, we went to Gatlinburg. We had a great time!

B wasn't sure about this musical Santa.

This is as close as E would get!

Christmas Decor 2010

2010-12-16T17:59:00.001-08:00

I wanted to be a part of the big Christmas tour of homes at Nesting Place, but I think I'm a little late. I thought I'd share anyway.

I feel like my decorations are even done really. I didn't include a pic of my stairs because I only have naked garland wrapped around the railing and a bow tied with the ribbon spool still hanging off of it. I couldn't commit to the ribbon, so it's been that way for a couple weeks now.

Anyway, on to the pictures....

I showed you my mantle and new stockings,here.

Here's the living room tree. Every year, I say I'm gonna get a big tree during the after Christmas sales. Our ceilings are so high that this 6 ft tree looks like a dwarf. We'll see if I get one this year.

I added some green ornaments this year. Most of them I bought at the Dollar Tree and Walmart had some great glittery ones for $1.

One of our nativity scenes.

I love to see how the figures are rearranged daily. Notice the optimus prime next to Joseph. He was there at the birth of Jesus, right?

Here's our upstairs tree with all our family ornaments. I used to put up a larger tree, but half the lights were burnt out so I picked this small table top tree at Goodwill for $5. It was prelit with colored lights (oh yeah) and was still in the box. The only bad part is that all our ornaments didn't fit. We just picked out our faves and it was all good.

I really wanted one of these Little People nativity sets last year, but they were sold out. So, when Target had them for half price at $13 a few weeks ago, I snagged one up! I love to watch my 2 year old play with it!

He always puts the sheep on top of the barn where the angel is supposed to go. He also likes to put most of the characters in a big cluster. Apparently, we've lost Mary. That's never good.

Well, those are the highlights. If you want to see some really awesomely decorated houses, go here!

Introducing...

2010-12-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

Vintage Merriment

My friend, Nancy and I just opened an etsy store.

Click on the links on the sidebar!

----------->>>>

Christmas crafts

2010-12-07T15:44:00.001-08:00

Well, we are really getting ready for Christmas this year at our house. I really wanted to do an advent calendar with the kids this year. I haven't found a ready made one that I really like. I wanted to make one and found some awesome ideas for them all over blog land, but there was one problem....it was November 30th when I finally decided to do it. So, I didn't have much time to be creative.

I was browsing the aisles at JoAnn and found an advent calendar kit for like 5 bucks.

It took about 26 hours to put it together. Not really...it was more like 2 hours, but still. I think I might could have made one of the other super cute ones in the same amount of time. I still think it turned out cute and it was totally fool-proof because I didn't have to think a bit- just glue all the pieces together. The only thing I changed from the original design is I put burlap over the white polka dotted chipboard back pieces.

I decided to put verses in each pocket rather than candy or anything like that. My kids have really enjoyed reading them every night. I hope this will be a great new Christmas tradition. Maybe next year, I'll make a cute one! For more advent ideas (for next year of course!) go here.

I also made new stockings this year out of burlap and some trims that I had around the house! It was fun, except for cleaning up all the burlap fuzz!

Go here to check out some other great Christmas crafts!

Our Christmas Mantel

2010-12-01T13:27:00.001-08:00

The Lettered Cottage was hosting a mantel party yesterday and of course, I am late!

I decided to decorate our mantel a little differently this year. If you want to see last year's mantel, click here. Because our tv sits right on top of our mantel (not too excited about that, but it is what it is), I can't use really thick garland or the remote doesn't work...which makes hubby and the kids upset. So, I went with a skinnier garland and a few red bulbs scattered throughout.

I saw these topiaries on a blog (I thought it was How Does She but can't find the post now.) and decided to make some of my own. ((( ----Found them. It was here.)))

I only spent $4 at the dollar store on glitter and 2 styrofoam cones. They are placed on top of some brass candlesticks spraypainted cream. The larger round topiaries are made from some old forms I kept. I stuck them in my trusty white Ikea pots and threw some moss and ribbon on them. I think they might need a polka dotted bow tied on the stem. Don't look too close- I ran out of glitter!

Next to the topiaries, I put some milk glass vases each with a silver ball ornament on top

.
I bought these stocking holders last year at Target after Christmas for like a buck a piece. Although the shapes are kind of cute, I was afraid they were a little too juvenile looking.

So, I peeled off the felt backing on the bottom and unscrewed the metal weight.

Then, I unscrewed the decorative piece and put it all back together.

I had been wanting some stocking holders for a while, but they can be so expensive when you have to buy 5 of them! This was a great fix and they are plain so they are versatile with any Christmas decor.

Speaking of stockings, I made new ones this year out of burlap. I made each one a little different and accented them with trims and buttons that I already had.

I like the way it turned out this year!

Go on over and check out everyone else's mantels to get some great ideas!

2010 Christmas Cards

2010-11-22T18:17:00.001-08:00

Well, it's almost the end of November, so it's time to start thinking about Christmas cards. This was our card last year.

I loved the way it turned out. I just made it in Photoshop, but I think I'm going to try out Shutterfly this year. They have some awesome designs to choose from.
I"m trying to decide between this one, this one and this one. There are so many great designs to choose from. I love the ones with several pics, but we'll see how well my kids cooperate for more than one pose!

Don't forget to check our Shutterfly's wall calendars and canvas wall art. Both would make great presents for grandparents!!

Do you want to get 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly this year? Check this out : http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Do you send Christmas cards? Do you send photo cards or premade cards? Well, it's almost time to send those babies out, so you'd better get to it!

Halloween at our House

2010-11-10T17:24:00.001-08:00

I have been such an amazingly bad blogger lately. Oh well, there are more important things in life. I do love documenting our outings, projects and just everyday life, though, so I'm attempting to get back at it.

Here are some pics from Halloween:

Beetle decided to declothe (Is that how you spell it? ...if that's even a word!) himself and jump on the trampoline while K & E drew faces on their pumpkins.

Then there was the messy part.

I think this was the first year that they actually pulled most of the guts out by themselves.

We had a variation of costumes this year
E and B were Jesse and Woody for our church Fall Festival.

K was originally gonna be Buzz, but I think he decided that might be a little juvenile for a mature 8 year old and decided to be a basketball player.

On Halloween night, E switched it up and was a ballerina, I think. K was still a basketball player and the Woody costume was falling apart by this time, so I just threw a jersey on B.

We had a great time and still have LOTS of candy left!

Well, we'll see if I can keep up with blogging a little better. I have some updated house pics to share, so I'm going to try to get those up soon!

Where did October go?

2010-11-01T19:54:00.001-07:00

It's been over a month since I have last blogged! Trust me, I've been busy. So here's what's happened since September 13th (my last post).

This boy turned 8!

We went to a lot of football/cheer practice and games.

We had a great fall break where we went to Gatlinburg!!

E's cheer squad took 1st place overall at cheer competition!

Then she turned 6!

And finally, my friend and I participated in a craft show at her office. We had tons of fun and actually sold stuff!

During all this, our church was going through the book, Radical by David Platt. As a church we have several commitments (you can find them here)- two of which are reading through the Bible in a year and praying for the whole country throughout the year. This really has been an awesome experience so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing how God uses it to bring us all closer to Him and to make more of a difference!

So, that's it in a nutshell! Hopefully I will be able to keep up with blogging a little better, but we'll see!

Family Night

2010-09-13T12:32:00.001-07:00

Kris and I have been talking lately about how we felt like we weren't being as intentional in discipling our kids as we once were. With football/cheerleading 3 times a week and on Saturdays and church on Wednesdays and Sundays, it is just so busy. So, we decided to have a weekly family devotional time on Friday afternoons. We plan to do it pretty soon after the kids get home from school so that if even if there is something else going on that night, it won't get in the way of our family time. My friend Kelly and her husband, have a great website called Family Muscle. It has plans for family nights all laid out for you. It is a really awesome tool to help bring your family closer to each other and God. So we decided to try one of them out. We chose to do the Back to school Family night, even though school has been in session for a month or so!

I only had a day to pull together decorations. I just used stuff I had and a couple things from the dollar spot at Target. ( I will go ahead and apologize for the poor quality of the pics! I realized right before dinner that my good camera's battery was dead, so I had to use my son's old point and shoot!)

I really wanted to find some school trays but didn't have time to really search them out, so I just bought the styrofoam ones. We had rectangle pizza, corn, salad, school bus cookies and milk.

The food was really good! So good, that I think we'll have it more often!

After dinner, we took all of our broken crayons and melted them into round disk crayons. The kids really enjoyed doing this.

Once the crayons cooled, they really liked coloring with them.

After craft time, we played a few games like show-and-tell...

and Red Rover, Red Rover.

We ended with a devotion and talked to the kids about obeying their teachers, leaders and of course, parents!

We really had a great time and look forward to our next family night!

Now go check out this website and get started planning your family night!

B turns 2!

2010-09-07T07:51:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that my baby boy is growing up so quickly.

It seems like he was born just yesterday, but he turned 2 last week.

Here are a few pics from his Toy Story party.

I only have a few pics that turned out because my camera was on manual focus. Darn it! I just can't believe he's 2!

Cheap Kitchen Furniture Redo

2010-09-02T08:11:00.001-07:00

I bought this little table 2 years ago at GW for $15. I painted the oak finish a distressed cream right after I bought it. I didn't prime it so, after moving, the distressed finish became a little too distressed and not very desirable.

I planned to paint it cream again, but thought I might go a little bolder and paint it blue. The paint was left over from another project, so there was nothing to lose but time, right?

So, I painted it blue and distressed it. Then, I applied 2 coats of wipe-on poly. I also added a shelf and trimmed it out with molding. This is the first time I have ever altered a piece of furniture with more than paint. I was pretty excited about the way it turned out. I love how the cream and the bare wood show through in spots.

This is a very important table in our house. Each child has his/her own basket to keep school papers in and those little things I find around the house that belong to them. Then on the weekends, we empty them out. I put special school projects or work that I want to keep in the bottom drawer. The top shelf has a basket where we keep things that used to clutter up the top of the table, like receipts, invitations, pens, pencils, etc.

I even gave my kitchen table a makeover. It used to look like this:

It was just a cheap-o black pedestal table- I think from Target (I bought it at a liquidation outlet.).

I really wanted a dark stained wood table with cream chairs. I was pretty sure that this table was not solid wood, so I thought it was hopeless. I decided to sand it down just to see.

I'm so glad that I did, because it was wood!

I found 2 of these chairs at GW for $14.99 (for BOTH).

I Painted them cream and recovered the cushions with a $4.98 shower curtain from Target. (I added some clear vinyl to the seats also to protect them from the many spills that will be in their future.)

Now, they look like this:

I also took two chairs like this, also bought from GW for $6.99 each, and gave them the same treatment.

So my table went from this:

To this:

And the kitchen went from this: (when it was semi-done)

To this: (done for now...I still want to paint my cabinets! )

I love it!

Cost breakdown:

Stain for table- $8
Poly- had on hand
Chairs- $30 for all 4
Spray paint for chairs- $12

Material- $4.98 shower curtain (but already had it on hand)
Clear Vinyl- around $5
Fabric trim- $3
Paint for small table- free leftover from another project (but $5 was original price)
Poly- had on hand
Piece of MDF- $7 cut for free at Home Depot
Braces for shelf- $1 also cut for free
Piece of trim- had on hand
New drawer pulls- $2 for both

Linking here, here and here. And also here and here.

A little football

2010-08-20T20:35:00.001-07:00

We bit the bullet and let K play tackle football this year. He's played flag football for the past two years and loves it. There's just something about putting those pads on, though! We found out that E could cheer for his team, so that settled it. They both are having so much fun!

Here are some pics from last week's game:

K is the starting quarterback for his team.

He passed the ball for one touchdown and ran for an extra point in this jamboree game.

He's the one all the way to the left.

E loves cheering. She's only 6 but I can really tell she's getting better and better with her cheers, jumps and stunts.

This guy can't wait until he can play "puetbaw" too!

Oh and we got a dog. His name is Topher. Some friends of ours have had him for about 5 years. They are adopting an older child from Ethiopia and aren't sure how he would do with a dog. They were looking for a family for Topher and we are it.

I admit that I wasn't super excited about having a dog again after our last experience with one, but Topher has been wonderful! He's a Lhasa apso and he's such a good dog.... and he's trained- Halelujah! Anyway, the kids just love him to death and are doing their part to take care of him. It's nice to have him a part of our family!

My Baby Boy's Room

2010-08-18T19:46:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to rearrange B's room for awhile now. His crib was right in front of his window and many days, when he wakes up from nap time, he's drenched in sweat. I saw that Layla at the Lettered Cottage was having a linky party today, so that gave me some motivation to get it done.

It used to look like this not long after we moved in.

This is one of only two rooms left in my house that hasn't been painted (I'm in the process of painting the other one right now). Kris and his dad installed the beadboard several months ago. I don't hate the color, but it needs repainting, so I'm thinking of using a light green. We'll see.

I finally raised the curtains up higher and wow, what a difference that made!

The mirror used to be in our Master Bedroom. It's been in my closet for months and I finally thought about putting it in the nursery.

The red dresser used to be big brother's and before that it was my brother's.

I scored this Pottery Barn Anywhere chair at GW for $9.99. It had a pink cover on it. I had planned to take it apart and use it as a pattern to make a new cover, but that takes time and I haven't had much of that. My good friend mentioned that she had one I could HAVE. How nice of her.

I just love how his nursery turned out. He will turn 2 next week and both my other kids were out of their cribs by their 2nd birthdays. Not this one, though. I'm keeping him locked in as long as he'll let me! : )

Linked here, here and here.

PS- Any of you read the book Radical by David Platt? Our church is doing a study of it and let me just tell you, it will knock your socks off. Check it out, if you dare!

This little girl

2010-08-17T06:53:00.001-07:00

This little girl had her first day of kindergarten today.

Last week, when big brother and little brother were at school and preschool, she wanted a makeover. So we put on makeup and painted fingernails and of course, we had to take some pictures!

I just can't believe that she is already old enough to go to big school!

And, this little guy started preschool. He loves "going bye-bye" with Daddy a couple mornings a week.

Big sister showed him the ropes.

And this guy, well, he's an old pro at school. I mean, he's got two years under his belt.

Whatever will I do with myself 2 days a week when I have no kids at home?

I'm sure I'll think of something! : )

One Organized Kitchen!

2010-08-14T13:51:00.001-07:00

Well, I said I was going to decrapify. I started in the kitchen.

Here are the befores:

Here's everything I got rid of:

And here are the afters:

I have all of our everyday dishes right over the dishwasher.

I even have room- instead of it being crammed full, like usual!

I organized some of my spices and moved all the baking supplies from the pantry to the cabinets next to the stove.

This cabinet holds my cookbooks which used to be in that cabinet over the refrigerator that you can never get to. I also have my serving bowls in this cabinet. The bottom shelf might be my favorite- it has everything I need to make the kids' lunches quickly!

I also cleaned out my pantry. I found some jello that had a 2008 expiration date! Oops!

It looked like this before:

But now, it looks like this:

It is so awesome to have everything in its place!

Cleaning out

2010-08-11T06:01:00.001-07:00

Since my trip to Africa, I have really felt a need to get rid of A LOT of stuff. I realize how much we have that we don't even need.
So, I've been on a mission to decrapify, (Some blogger came up with that term- I'd give credit if I could remember who it was.) organize, and just complete all those unfinished tasks in the house. I want our home to feel like home which, for me means looking appealing, but also, I want everything to have a place. I'll be sharing some of those projects along the way to help keep me on track and to hopefully inspire you to simplify and organize some!

I have taken several loads to Goodwill and put some items on Craig's List and Ebay. Here are some of my Ebay listings in case you are interested!
Longaberger Pottery Pitcher

Green Leaf Bowl

Blue Vintage Canister

Longaberger Round Basket

Set of 2 Longaberger Round Hanging Baskets

Longaberger Basket Vase

Smocking Lot

That's all! Now I must go and organize my kitchen!

Taming the silverware

2010-08-04T11:12:00.001-07:00

Do you hate doing the dishes? I know I'm not the only one, however, after hand-washing dishes during the 7 days I was in Africa that I am VERY thankful for my dishwasher. I have to say that even with the convenience of the dishwasher, loading and unloading it is still one of my least favorite chores.

Of course, this little man is always willing to "help."

If you're like me, you will try any tip on making a dreaded task quicker and more efficient. Well, here's one for you-

When loading your dishwasher, separate your utensils by like items. For example- all the forks together, all the knives, together, all the kiddie silverware together...I think you get the idea. This is something I saw my mother-in-law do once and I know it's not mind-blowing and maybe everyone else in the world was already doing this, but what time it saves when you go to put them all away. It also makes it easier for the kids to help out.

So, for the chance that someone else out there never thought of this simple tip either, I'm sharing it with you!

Have a great one!

Some thrifty finds and some subway art

2010-08-03T07:12:00.001-07:00

I have been a really bad blogger since we got back from Africa. There has been so much to do to get things back in order and get the kids ready to start school. K will be in 2nd grade, E is starting Kindergarten and B will be going to preschool 2 days a week. Since we have been back, I have really wanted to get things cleaned out and organized.

I have wanted a great dresser to have downstairs for storage and I found one at GW (of course!) the other day for only $29

I decided to put it in the foyer for now, but it may end up in the living room. I definitely wanted to paint it, but I was seeing it in cream with these original dark pulls, but that may not work out well with the white wainscoting in this room. We will see where it ends up!

I also got these great deals:

A "B" from Bombay for .99, a piece of foam for .99 and a white frame with mat for 2.99.

I loved this slide box that was only .99. I think it will look great in my oldest son's room, but right now it's in my living room.

I also got 6 of these awesome drawer pulls for .99 each!!

I'm linking these great finds to this party today at Southern Hospitality and also this one at Vintage Revivals.

I also saw that Tatertots and Jello is having a subway art party. I have really been wanting to share this project for awhile, so I thought now would be a good time.

I had a large canvas that we'd bought for another project and didn't use it. I wanted to make some sort of subway art with it for my living room and my friend, Nancy, gave me the idea to use the streets we have lived on. I thought it was a great idea since we've lived so many places. : )

It's definitely not perfect, but I just love the way it turned out! It is definitely a conversation piece. Anytime we have someone over, they ask about it!

Well, that's all I have for today. I have a toddler crying on my leg for M&Ms.

Faces of Africa

2010-07-13T14:22:00.001-07:00

Now that we are home, there are so many things going through my heart and mind after visiting West Africa. To be honest, I am still processing all I experienced.

I'd love to tell every detail of our trip. The highs and lows. It seems that it is just so hard to put it all into words. So for now, here are some of the faces I saw in Africa.

I'll also ask you to pray.

Don't only pray for their physical condition, but more importantly- their spiritual condition.

Pray for Mory, Fatima, and Penda. As they say the words over and over of the Jesus story, pray that they will sear their hearts and be drawn to the Father.

Pray for MC who believes. Pray for courage for him to step out and be public with it.

Pray for Herve who is so close to following the "Jesus road."

Pray for Daryl, Glenda, Rick, Jeanne, Matthew and Luke as they live their among the Manenka people and share the love of Christ.

Pray for Fadima, Fanta, Houwa,

Fatimata, Sidici, and Sudu who have heard the gospel.

Pray for Sudafa and his wife Peina who are the only believers in their village.

Pray for the village of Binkaro. They watched the Jesus film for the 3rd time with such intrigue.

Pray for West Africa. The people are so friendly, so hospitable, so loving, but most are without a Savior.

Off to Kankan

2010-07-02T06:05:00.001-07:00

(photo taken in West Africa by Brad Bynum)

Kris and I leave today for Kankan, Guinea in West Africa. I would be so grateful for your prayers!

Please pray for us as we travel. We won't actually make it to our final destination until Sunday evening.

Pray for the safety of our kids while we are gone.

Pray for our team that we will be used by God for His glory.

Pray for the people of Kankan, for those who will be ready to follow Jesus.

Summer Days

2010-06-26T16:29:00.001-07:00

About a month ago, the kids wanted to buy a small above ground pool. My husband told them that if they could come up with the money, they could have one.

Well, they put together about $7 in cash between the two of them and then found a bag of change their grandparents had given them. We took the change to cash it in and they ended up having over $30 in change. So they were only about $10 short of what they needed, but I took care of that. They have had so much fun in this little pool!

We've had to drain it and fill it up a couple times because the filter would kick off and then we didn't realize that we had to add chemicals to it to keep the water from getting green. Oops.

The filter died the other day, so we had to trash the pool. Oh well, they definitely got their money's worth!

Kids Perfoming

2010-06-12T15:43:00.001-07:00

I have been a horrible blogger lately. I guess there are worst things to be though, right? : )

We have been so busy with end of school activities and then my hubby was sick. We've visited with family. Now we are gearing up for Adventure Week at church, so the craziness continues! Good craziness, though.

I wanted to share some pics from K's church musical- Cool in the Furnace.

Here he is on the big screen.

I also wanted to share some from E's preschool graduation.

They did a musical, Down by the Creek Bank

Here is her speaking part, which was prerecorded (GENIUS), shown on the big screen.

Here's E with one of her besties.

This is her whole graduating class. Do you see her on the back row? She's looking for me!

We were so proud of both of their performances!

The past few weeks...

2010-05-18T20:40:00.001-07:00

We have played in the rain. I

I'm not sure what my son was doing here.

f you haven't heard, Nashville was heavily flooded 2 weeks ago. So many people lost their homes and belongings. Please keep them in your prayers.

I bought some cool stuff for the house to makeover. Here are a couple things..

My oldest had field day.

I played with my cricut and made some gifts.

My youngest unloaded the dishwasher>

I made some new pillows for the sofa. (Don't pay any attention to those aqua candle sconces. They are cream now.)

And, we had family pictures made.

LOVE THEM!!!

What did you do?

Why we must go

2010-04-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

I've been working on getting my passport renewed, which is not a fun process, by the way. I've also been looking at a long list of immunizations and praying that I've had most of them so I can get stuck the least amount possible! Why? Because Kris and I are going to West Africa in July on a mission trip. Our team has just started meeting together weekly and I'm just so excited to be able to be a part of God's heart for the nations.

I'm posting a video from our last church campaign called the Sending Church. We are starting two international campuses this year and plan for more local and international ones in the future. Every time I see this video, I am reminded of why we must go and tell others about the hope they can find in Jesus.

11/29/2009 Bumper - The Sending Church Campaign Recap from Justin Crutchfield on Vimeo.

A bunch of plates

2010-04-26T08:54:00.001-07:00

I bought these at Goodwill for 25 -50 cents a piece.

I've been wanting to do something over my kitchen cabinets, but didn't want it to be cluttery, so I decided to try some plates. I saw this post from the Nester before I went out and bought 13 $2 plate hangers. Thank you, Nester. So, I did this:

Yep, I hot-glued paper clips on the backs of the plates. There is a possibility that the paper clips won't hold, but if they don't and the plates fall and break, I've only lost a quarter!

I love the way it turned out. I like how you can see the plates peeking out above the cabinets.

I'm posting to Rhoda's party!

A bunch of plates

2010-04-26T07:49:00.001-07:00

I bought these at Goodwill for 25 -50 cents a piece.

Yep, I hot-glued paper clips on the backs of the plates. There is a possibility that the paper clips won't hold, but I've only lost a quarter if they do!

I love the way it turned out. I like how you can see the plates peeking out above the cabinets.

I'm posting to Rhoda's party!

Mexican Lasagna and Football

2010-04-20T09:31:00.001-07:00

We've been really busy lately with flag football...

K is the one faking the hand-off. The Panthers are undefeated after their first two games and I think K has scored 3-4 touchdowns and several extra points. Kris coaches and I'm still unsure who is enjoying it more- my husband or my son!

I've done lots of projects in the house, but no pics to show you. I begin to wonder if it will ever be done!

Anyway, I wanted to share a quick recipe. I haven't made it in like 5 years probably, until last weekend and now I'm wondering why I waited so long!!

Here it is:

Mexican Lasagna

floured tortillas
refried beans
taco sauce
taco seasoning mix
ground beef
cheddar or mexican blend shredded cheese

Toppings: sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, corn chips, avocado, olives, ....whatever you want!

Brown ground beef in a skillet. Drain beef and add taco seasoning and water. Simmer.
In a casserole dish, layer ingredients as follows- tortillas, refried beans, ground beef, taco sauce, cheese. Continue layering until dish is full with last layer being cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Serve with desired toppings.

I don't have a picture, but let me just tell you, it is GOOD! My kids loved it, too, which is always a plus!

$1 can of paint

2010-04-16T06:27:00.001-07:00

This past week, I finally finished a project that I have been itching to do since we moved in!! Here's the realtor's pic of our house the way it was when we bought it. It's nice, but I HATED how the trim, the brick, the siding, the door and the shutters were all the SAME color. It needed a little contrast. So, while looking through the unwanted, mismixed paints at Lowes one day, I found a quart of Valspar exterior paint in a blackish brown shade and it was ONE BUCK! Oh yeah.

I painted my door almost immediately and boy did that help! But, I finally pulled off those bland tan shutters last week and painted them. I hung out my 2nd story window to get one pair. It was so worth it!

Isn't that much better!
Here's another before:

and after:

That can of paint may have been the best $1 I've ever spent!

Ooohhh, I also found this pic taken by the realtor before we moved in of our backyard.
Before:

And now, the after:

If you missed the posts about our Backyard Makeover, check it out here and here.

I'm linking to Frugal Friday.

Backyard Makeover: Part 2

2010-04-08T09:12:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we started making over our backyard that looked like this when we moved in (minus the fence posts!):

and this

and finally this.

We did get the fence completed which made a huge difference in our yard. We chose 6 foot privacy in the back and I think 4 foot non-privacy on the sides.

The houses in our neighborhood are way close together, so we wanted to create our own little spot, but not shut the neighbors out.

Something else we decided to do is move our playset. The new placement really opened up the backyard.

If you saw Part One of the makeover, you know we built a pergola.

We are loving how it turned out. So the next thing to do was to add in shrubbery and trees.

You saw the before, here's the after! These are river birch trees lining the back of the fence.

We love the playset in it's new spot!

Here's looking the opposite direction to other side of the yard. The river birches again which run in to a bubble of mulch in the corner. There are small holly bushes, monkey grass and my favorite, hydrangeas. There's a cherry tree in the middle of all of that.

I know, our grass looks like it has the mange. We didn't overseed last fall, but we will be doing that this year. I almost put these in photoshop and greened the lawn up a bit, but I had laundry to do.

The trampoline area.

I LOVE the stained fence but I NEVER. WANT. TO. DO. THAT. AGAIN! I won't have to either. It won't need a touch up for 7 years so we figured our then 14 yr old boy will do it!
And here's our patio. I really want to get some really nice outdoor seating to replace the bench, but I'm going to wait until the end of the season and try to get something cheap!

We are thinking of mounting a small t.v that we have in the corner by the backdoor. That would be fun for football games and when we are grilling.

I also want to do something on that big blank spot of brick over the bench. Not sure what yet, though!

And lastly, our wonderful, magnificent, beautiful pergola. Can you tell I like it? I do so!!

So that's it! We had some awesome friends that helped us move the playset (a few times) and with planting and mulching. Thank you guys! I can't wait until everything is in bloom. It will be a different place back there! One of the river birch trees is getting some leaves on it. I will definitely repost some pics when all the blooms and leaves are out!

We have also been working on the front yard. Now, the front lawn is the way a lawn should look! No mange there! There are a few finishing touches and I'll post about it soon!

Linking to Transformation Thursday!

Easy New Botanicals

2010-04-06T10:29:00.001-07:00

This frame and it's twin previously held portraits of our kiddos, but when we were staging our house to sell, I replaced them with these botanical prints which were actually just pages from a calendar that I bought at a yard sale for a buck years ago.

They aren't bad, but I'm trying to create a more comfortable, less formal feeling in our living room and these were NOT furthering my mission!

I really didn't want to put up more pics of my kids since they are everywhere! By all means, I love my kids and looking at their sweet faces, but I needed something different to create some balance!

But, I needed something CHEAP!

I remembered taking tons of pics of flowers when we were in Seattle last summer and decided to try and use them.

So for the price of two 8x10 prints, I got this:

I like the corner much better now. I am trying to decide if I like the color of the frames. They could go cream....just not sure about that yet. I'm thinking of taking the gold undermat out also.

Never finished, but it definitely feels better than before!

By the way, I had to include a pic of the kids on Easter. What an awesome Easter weekend it was!! So glad to know that Jesus is RISEN!!!

Hopefully I'll have Part 2 of the Backyard Makeover posted tomorrow! You can see the pergola we built in Part 1 here.

Linking to DIY day, Posh Pieces and Today's Creative Blog.

Backyard Makeover: Part 1

2010-03-30T16:53:00.001-07:00

DIYMy hubby has a flair for landscapes. He's just darn good at it! He's worked his magic at every house we've lived at, and this one is no different. Now that the weather has been nice , we've been itching to do some work in our backyard!

When we lived in southern California, we rented a house that had a gorgeous backyard already and our favorite thing about it was it's pergola.

We wanted one for our house here in TN. Did we know how to build one? Nope. But that didn't stop us.

Here's the patio before:

And here it is during the building of the pergola:

And finally....it's done!

Now, of course, I still have to accessorize it, but I LOVE it!

If you want to build one, there are videos and plans all over the internet.

Now on to planting shrubs, spreading mulch and staining the fence.

More backyard transformation to come!

Linking to DIY Day and Transformation Thursday.

Chalkboard labels

2010-03-29T15:04:00.001-07:00

I bought these banana leaf baskets a few months ago to try and corral all the papers that come home with the kids everyday from school. They are the perfect size to hold their folders and they keep everything somewhat organized. I usually put every paper the kids bring home in the baskets and then go through them every couple weeks and pick out a few things to keep. The rest is trashed or recycled. As you can see in the pic, it's time to clean them out again! It's a good way to balance keeping a few pieces but not feeling like everything goes from backpack to trash! I've been meaning to make some tags for them, and have finally done it! I decided to make some chalkboard tags and it was super easy!
All I did was cut out the rectangles (I used a Capri Sun box!), paint them with chalkboard paint and attach with a ribbon!

It's amazing how just having them labels makes them look so much better and more organized! Now I must go and and throw some things away!

Linked to Met Monday .

A Day at the Zoo

2010-03-26T13:49:00.001-07:00

I have been a horrible blogger lately. There have been so many things I wanted to share, but have been too busy to do it!

It's been Spring Break this week, so we have gotten some projects done and had a lot of fun with the kids.

We decided to check out the Nashville zoo.

This was one of our favorite exhibits.

The kids loved feeding these beautiful birds. Kris even convinced one to sit on his arm.

Emma let it sit on her shoulder for a minute.

Konnor was happy to just look at the bird.

Brady was about 1/16 of an inch away from poking it!

Konnor took this pic of Emma and Kris in the bamboo forest.

The other favorite exhibit had to be the petting zoo. Why people want to pet smelly dirty farm animals is beyond me, but kids like it.

Speaking of farm animals, we brought home this goat

and this one

and also this little boy!

We had a great time!

They got a new coat

2010-03-17T14:07:00.001-07:00

of paint, that is. I've had this little elephant for a long time. It was fine the way it was, but I really wanted something a little different, so I spray painted it cream.

Now I love it.

I found these two mismatched candle bases at GW. The silver one is not bad the way it is, but I wanted them to match.

So I gave them a coat of silver metallic spray paint. Now they are great accents in my girl's room!

What do you have in your home that you can reuse by giving it a new coat of paint?

Linked a little late to DIY day and to Transformation Thursday.

Easy Potato Soup

2010-03-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

Although spring seems to be around the corner, there are still chilly days when soup seems to be just the right thing for dinner!

For those kind of days, I wanted to share this potato soup recipe that my friend gave me.

Here's all you need:
1 bag of frozen diced potatoes
1 box of chicken broth
1/2 large block of Velveeta cheese
1/2 pint of heavy cream

All you do is simmer the potatoes in the chicken broth for about 10-15 minutes.

Then, you add the Velveeta and cream. Once everything is incorporated and heated through, you are done!

You can add bacon, scallions, or my favorite, crusty bread.

This may be the easiest soup I have ever made!

18 months

2010-03-03T07:10:00.001-08:00

This boy keeps me so busy. He is an explorer for sure.

He loves books.

I love him.

I can't believe it's already been 18 months since he entered our world!

Not exactly what I wanted

2010-02-24T14:51:00.001-08:00

I was looking for some sconces to go on either side of my round mirror that hangs over my couch. I couldn't find what I was looking for (unless I wanted to pay an arm and a leg for them!). So I settled on these.

Not exactly what I wanted.
They were okay for $15 for the pair, but it was one of those times where I thought I probably just bought them because the price was right, the size was right and I was sick of looking at the empty space. I kept the box and receipt handy because I was sure I would take them back. I didn't mind the design so much, but the color wasn't working for me. My colors are browns, tans and aquas. Not this green color. So, with a little acrylic paint and some antiquing gel , I gave them a little makeover.

I think they go much better with my color scheme, and they bring a little color to the wall. (Don't mind the basketball on top of the bookcase. It was put away to keep kids from fighting over it and I forgot to take it down!)

Linking to: Today's Creative Blog and The Shabby Chic Cottage.

Metal Cabinet turned Locker

2010-02-19T06:19:00.001-08:00

I found this old cabinet at an antique store back in August for a mere $15 dollars. I had big plans for it and have finally been able to give it a makeover.

My son's room has a lot of sports decor, so he really wanted to make it look like a locker.

We spray painted it red and I found these locker plates online. I had a hard time deciding on the numbers I wanted. I really thought I should use consecutive numbers, but then, I decided to be different and I ordered a 9 and an 18 for his birthdate.

It was hard to get a good pic of it. For some reason it looks really splotchy. He loves it! He stores all kinds of stuff inside it!

I'm so glad I brought that nasty metal cabinet home!!

I'm posting to Miss Mustard Seed's party.

Valentine's Day Fun

2010-02-18T10:31:00.001-08:00

Emma erased the verse I had written on the chalkboard and replaced it with her own message to celebrate Valentine's Day.

We had a little Valentine's party for the kids last Sunday night. I got all my decorations from the Dollar Tree. I put rose petals in my hurricanes. I love how versatile this things are!

The kids loved opening their little valentines. My youngest mainly loved eating the M&Ms!

My Valentine brought these home. They are the same kind of roses as the first ones he ever gave me on Valentines Day, 16 years ago!! He is so thoughtful.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

One organized closet

2010-02-16T14:57:00.001-08:00

Yeah, it's bad. R E A L L Y BAD! This closet has looked this way since we moved in 5 months ago. I knew it needed to be organized and yesterday during the kids' rest time, I finally tackled it!

I can't believe that I am actually showing you this. I mean, when we have people over, there are those closed doors that I am terrified kids will open and things will coming spilling out! Please tell me I am not the only one who has this problem! I mean, most people keep the sheets on top of the cold medicine, next to the candles, right?

As you can see, I did attempt at some organization with the labeling of this plastic box!

So, only using things I had (except for the stainless turntable you see in the above picture that I bought at GW for a mere 4 bucks), I turned this....

into THIS!

Starting on the top shelf, I have a box of floral supplies to change out a flower arrangement in a snap. I also have the blankets for the pull out couch in the living room. The kids LOVE to sleep there on the weekends, so it is very nice to keep them handy.

On the next shelf, to the far left, I have a bin with scented candles and those air freshener plug-ins. Next, I have most of our medicines on the above-mentioned turntable. They are separated into pain meds on the bottom and cold/sinus on the top. I've found it makes it a lot easier to find this stuff, when it's organized. Lastly, I have the sheets for the sofa sleeper. I have seen Martha Stewart's tutorial on folding sheets and I'll admit it, I am still horrible at it. I thought this wire basket made good work of keeping it tidy even if they aren't folded Martha style.

Next, we have a bin of extra toiletry items. I coupon, so I buy lots when they are cheap/free. In the drawers, I have batteries, first aid items, and misc medicines that didn't fit well on the turn table. Then, I have another separate drawer where I keep toiletry samples for traveling. These really come in handy!

And, on the last shelf, I have a basket of TP, the canister vac, and a basket with vacuum attachments and light bulbs.

Every time I walk by this closet, I just want to open it and breath a big sigh of relief!

What do you need to organize?

I'm posting to Kimba's DIY day! Check it out!

An Old Board

2010-02-09T14:41:00.001-08:00

I picked up this old board off the beach in Alabama when we were on summer vacation last year. It sat in our garage for months and after pleading with my husband to not throw it away, because I would do SOMETHING with it....it made it to our new house.

Well, finally, I pulled it out and made something out of it. It's not a piece of driftwood or anything cool like that. It's just a 1 by 4 that was left on the beach. I just loved the jagged edge, though!

I dry brushed a little bit of cream paint and then added these vinyl letters with my cricut.

I'm not in love with the font I used, but it's the only one I had! I do love how it turned out, though. My husband did, too. He even hung it for me without even asking! So glad he didn't throw it in the garbage!!

I'm linking to:Today's Creative Blog

Our Living Room

2010-02-08T15:03:00.001-08:00

I told you a few weeks ago that we'd been on a painting spree. Well, I have finally have some pics to show for it!

Here's a pic of our living room before we moved in. Loved the previous owner's aqua sofa and loveseat- although it would be very impractical, to me because I like to stick with more neutral colors on the big ticket items! It makes it MUCH easier to change your mind on the colors you use!

Then, this is after we moved in and put all our stuff in the house. Just adding the drapes made a huge difference in breaking up the mass of cream in the room. We knew that we wanted to paint, but also knew it would be a big job since this is a two story vaulted ceiling.

We choose a khaki with grey undertones. We call it weimaraner.

We also did some rearranging. We had the sofa floating in the room previously, which I loved. But my hubby likes things more spread out, so I gave it a try.

Here's the fireplace wall before:

I wanted to break up all the weimaraner color, so I pulled out a can of light aqua paint that we used in our old house. We actually painted our fireplace wall in that house this same color and we loved it!! So we tried it again!

It's very subtle in the pics, but definitely gives a little punch!
Here's a little corner in front of the staircase, before:

And after:

Here's the stair case area before (with previous owner's furniture):

I had a couple of ideas of what to put on this wall and finally decided on using the many black frames that I had. It took a while to get the layout that I wanted, but I am happy with it. I like that I can add to it throughout the years!

So there's the living room! There are still several things in here that I don't like and will be tweaking for sure!

P.S. I don't know why my pics are so blurry! I haven't been very pleased with my camera lately. I also don't have a lens without zoom, so it's hard to get a good wide shot!

I'm linking here!

Fun in the snow!

2010-02-05T09:25:00.001-08:00

It's been like 2 weeks since I've blogged. I have so many pictures on my laptop and so little time to download them!

We have had some snow here in middle TN. We got around 5 inches last week. It was great, but after a 5 day weekend for the kids and being stuck at home, I was a little ready for the sun to melt it away! : )

We made lots of snow angels

and built a snowman!

The kids really wanted to sled. After checking everywhere in town and coming up empty, my hubby came up with this...

Nothing a little beadboard couldn't help!

We ate lots of soup,

drank lots of hot chocolate,

and enjoyed the warmth of the fireplace.

I think we have had our fill of snow until next winter, though.

Of course, snow is in the forecast again, this weekend. So we will see about that!

Have a great weekend!

Easy Stromboli

2010-01-25T14:29:00.001-08:00

Above is all you need to make an incredibly easy, but incredibly yummy stromboli.

Take your french bread dough and roll it out onto a greased cookie sheet.

Add sliced ham (or any meat)

and your favorite cheese.

Fold her over once

and then one more time.

Cut some slits on the top to let the steam out and cook according to bread instructions. (Usually 400 degrees for !5-17 minutes).

Dip it in some marinara sauce and enjoy!!

80's furniture gets a makeover

2010-01-21T08:38:00.001-08:00

Above is a picture of my oldest son's room at our previous house. His furniture was my husband's when he was in high school! K loved it, but I knew it needed a makeover!!

So I found some tinted grey primer and some charcoal paint that I found on the mismatched paint aisle.

For $7, I thought it was a great deal!

I added some pulls that I had leftover when I replaced the ones in my kitchen. I did have to buy some knobs to go with them. And it turned out like this...

I know the pics aren't great. It's because I took them with my cell phone. I couldn't find my memory card at the time to use my camera, so I went the easy way and then I got too lazy to take some more!

I think you get the idea, though!

When we first moved to our new house, K was in a twin bed because he was sharing a room with his little bro. So, he was in a twin bed. We have since moved little bro. to his own room (I'll be showing you it soon!), so I got K's queen bed back out. I had to do something with the headboard and didn't have enough of the charcoal paint left. I kind of wanted to do something a little different and not so matchy-matchy anyway. So, I sanded it down,

covered up this nice motif with a plaque,

and put a coat of primer on it.

Then, I used another clearance quart of paint- this time a yummy cream. (I'm thinking of using this color on my kitchen cabinets.)

I distressed the edges to tie it in with the other furniture...and just because I like it that way. I love how it turned out!

I'm linking toTransformation Thursday and Furniture Feature Friday!

Untitled

2010-01-20T08:19:00.001-08:00

It's been several days since I've had a post. My grandmother called to ask why I hadn't had a blog post since January 7th. So, I thought I better write one! (Love you, Grandma!)

We have been SUPER busy in our house. We painted the kitchen, painted the living room, painted and installed wainscoting in the foyer, moved my youngest son out of shared room with older brother into guest room, and installed beadboard in youngest son's new room. And of course, with all the rearranging, that meant we had to redecorate oldest son's room and youngest son's room. Whew! That was a lot! So, I have a lot of projects to share, but every time I wanted to write a post last week, I couldn't help but think of the devastation the people of Haiti are experiencing. Like many have said in the blog world, it just felt futile and insensitive to talk about anything besides Haiti. When I was stressed trying to finish up projects and get my house back into some sort of order, God reminded me...you have a HOUSE! It's amazing how easily we can forget how blessed we are. When thinking of Haiti, a line from a song that our worship leader wrote keeps coming to mind...

"I see the poor and I see the broken. How can I sit here and do nothing?"

Yeah, I'll get back to posting about diy projects, decorating, recipes and just plain life, but Haiti will still be on my mind.

A desk for my girl

2010-01-07T15:25:00.001-08:00

We did some rearranging in the house this past week and needed a new home for this old desk. I bought it about 6 years ago at a yard sale for $15. It's solid wood and I love it because it is very small and can fit almost anywhere. It also has great storage! After I bought it, I painted it red. Loved it for my oldest son's room for a long time!

Well, my daughter decided she wanted a desk in her room, so that is where it landed. I didn't think she would have enough room for it, but we made it work.

I couldn't let it stay that red in her aqua and pink room, so I pulled out the paint I used on her dresser. It may be too much pink in the room, but I thought it would definitely be better than the red!

I put the same silver knobs back on it and I think it looks sweet sitting in her room.

She even decorated the desk. Now is it the way I would have accessorized? No, but I have to keep reminding myself that it is HER room and I need to let her be creative and have her hand in it! It doesn't have to look like a page out of a magazine!

I just love that she loves it!

I'm linking to Transformation Thursday and Furniture Feature Friday.

PS- I realized that I'm only 4 posts away from my 100th post!! I may have to do a give-a-way! But what??? I'll be thinking!

The BEST Cheeseburgers Ever!!

2010-01-06T15:22:00.001-08:00

It's really easy! All you do, is take your regular old patty and once it is almost done, sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on it and ALL around it.

Then, you let it melt.

And get really brown!

Put that baby and all it's brown, crispy cheese on the bun and add the condiments of your choice.

I'm telling you, it's awesome!

My husband and I have been busy doing some DIY projects around the house. I can't wait to show them to you!!

New Thru 30

2010-01-04T14:36:00.001-08:00

I am so excited about something that my small group at church is doing. We are going to read the New Testament in the next 30 days. I was a little nervous about doing it at first because that is a LOT of reading!! I am not a big reader, so I wasn't sure I could pull it off. To be honest, I'm still not sure about that, but then, I thought, even if I don't get the whole things read, how can it hurt to try? I mean, if I only read the first 6 chapters of Matthew (did that today!!), how beneficial would that be to my life and my walk with God! Don't be fooled, though, I haven't given up before I've begun! I'm very determined to do this!! Want to join me? Go to www.youversion.com where you can access the reading plan and connect with other people who are doing the same plan! If you do, follow me- vanessadolberry and we can encourage each other!

Befores and Afters of 2009

2010-01-01T12:00:00.001-08:00

$15 Side Table painted to match its twin!

Another Old Lamp Revamped

$7 Mirror

Old Dresser ($100 5 years ago)

Can't wait for more in 2010! Posted to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday!

Best of 2009

2009-12-30T14:50:00.001-08:00

Here are some of my favorite posts of 2009:

A day at home with the kids

Revamped Dresser

Our Yard

Lamp revamp and a Chalkboard

My favorite

2009 was a great year! I pray that this next year God is glorified in me and my family!

Happy New Years, everyone!

An Organized Pantry

2009-12-29T09:18:00.001-08:00

This time of year, we all think about cleaning out and getting organized. There are so many areas in my house that need this! Here's one that has been tackled! This is my pitiful little pantry.

Now, most people would be happy with a pantry at all, but you see, I used to have one l that was about 5 x 5 feet, so this seems VERY small!

My mother in law had the great idea to use some baskets I had to organize things better, so here's the final result!

Aaahhh!

So much better!

I did spend about $5 for these racks that I installed on the inside of the door. It was so worth it though! Now, if I can just keep it that way and keep the little guy in the corner of the pictures out of it!!

Posted at Kimba's DIY day!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T06:38:00.001-08:00

Luke 2-The Birth of Jesus

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register. 4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." 16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.Jesus Presented in the Temple 21On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Jam

2009-12-23T21:11:00.001-08:00

This is my absolute favorite jam!!

Here's what you need:
1-12oz. pkg. cranberries 2-10oz.frozen strawberries 4 cups sugar 1-3oz. pkg. liquid pectin

Now, I think you are supposed to make this jam around Thanksgiving when you can actually find cranberries in the grocery stores. Well, I NEVER think about making this then, so here's what I do: I buy the dried cranberries and toss them in some boiling water. It plumps them up and works perfectly! I used about half of the package shown.

Also, make sure to check your strawberry package size. Mine were 14 oz, so I used 1 whole package and 6 oz of the second package. After thawing your strawberries in the refrigerator, cut them up coarsely.

Next, put cranberries and strawberries in a food processor and pulse until you get the desired consistency.

It's always nice to have a helper!

Combine cranberries, strawberries and sugar in a large pan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil and cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat . Add pectin to mixture. Return to full rolling boil. Boil 1minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off foam with a metal spoon. ( You can play with the cooking time to get the consistency you want. Sometimes, I don't get it quite right and it is a little runny.... but it still tastes awesome on biscuits and would be yummy on pancakes or cheesecake!!

Quickly pour jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving ¼” head space. Wipe jar rims off. Cover at once with lids and screw on bands. The recipe I have says to process them in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes, but I don't usually do this. I just turn them upside down on the counter and usually they will seal just fine.

Add a tag and some ribbon and you have a nice gift! Or.... you could just eat it all yourself!!

Now, the only bad thing about making this jam, is cleaning up this mess!

Christmas Hurricanes

2009-12-17T16:50:00.001-08:00

What do you get when you take one of these-

and put it in one of these-

put it on top of one of these-

and then add a sprinkle of this ?

THIS....

There are several of these all around blogland. I know I saw them here and here. This is my version.

Vase- Dollar Tree $1
Candle- Dollar Tree $1
Candle Base- Walmart $2
Holly- Free from my frontyard

Most of the other hurricanes like this I have seen had a candlestick base also from the Dollar Tree. I really wanted a softer line and for them to be a little shorter. I found these at Walmart and even though they were twice the amount, it is perfect!! Because of the sturdy wide base, I didn't have to glue them together, either. For only $4 each, I still think they are a great deal!!

I'm linking to Transformation Thursday (barely made it!), Frugal Friday , and It's So Very Cheri.