It just cried...shabby me up!!!

Once again I am around the house planning for christmas. Decorating, shopping, attending christmas events and soon a few parties and I am ever so busy crafting. I love to make gifts and decorations this time of year.
Last year I found the gold lantern and it just sat with all my decorations.
The other night I pulled it out and it cried to me it needed some pink!!
Added a few sweet roses and some ribbon and here it is!
Soon I will get my christmas village up so I can get some pics of the christmas tree in the living room. That is our family tree with all our personal ornaments!
It grows each year.

More pink!! Really?!?!?

Ok so I love pink!! It's great for any season and any decor!!
My husband says pink for christmas?
Well of course- why not?? Pink is just a lighter shade of red!!! LOL
So I made a few projects so far this year- not too much as I have already made alot in previous years!
The centerpiece on my dining room table is actually a wreath, but I thought it fit perfectly around the hurricane and I have an awesome flameless candle in there! I love those!! Don't have to worry about melted wax anywhere and fires and all that other stuff.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.... well sorta!

I have started to add a few christmas decorations in with the few fall things I have around. Since we are hosting thanksgiving dinner I still wanted to leave up some fall decorations, but I am getting very anxious for christmas!!
I left up my pink pumpkins on the mantle and I have a shelf near the entrance I christmased up!!
Soon we will be putting up the tree and all the decorations. It just seems like time has flown by so quickly. It seems like not that long ago we had the tree up, and now here we go again.
I am looking forwards to thanksgiving. The Macys parade, turkey cooking, oh the pies......

Thrifty Thursday

Went thrift shopping again and brought home some new treasures!!
I found the beautiful painting and I hung it over my bed- it was only 5.00.
The plates I found were a set of 14 for 2.50 and 2 pairs of shoes for 2.00 each.
I love the tea set in the box. That actually came from walgreens and was only 10.00. How sweet it is!!
I love all my plates and I think I am a collectaholic- I need to figure out a way to store them so I can use them when I want to without the mess of trying to dig them out!!
I browse thru many many blogs and love them all. Each and every home is so beautiful- they all look so perfect!! I try to keep my home looking perfect and it is just so hard!! With 4 kids running around and hubby too- it seems no matter what I do I just can not have a perfect home like I see in the blogs and magazines!!
So how do I just get over it???
My house is very much lived in and it really looks like it!!
Does anyone else go thru this too?? Wanting your home to look perfect and finding it nearly impossible to keep up and still be able to live life?!?!?

Cupcakes, trays and all that good stuff...

Yesterday the little one at home decided we had to habe cupcakes!! And of course- how could I say to that sweet face!!!
So we baked some yummy cupcakes and I got to display them on the three tier shelf I just made!
I can't take credit for the idea-I got my inspiration from Romantic Country Summer 2009 issue.
How much I love that magazine!! Always such great projects and the most beautiful home showcased!!!
So my little princess and I made the sweet treats and I got to use the stand.
It was super easy!!
I found a set of silver plated trays at the thrift store for only 4.99 and I spray painted them with metallic finish spray paint and then found matching glasses for 1.59 also at the thrift store and used liquid nail to glue them on the trays!!
I am going to use it on the tablescape for thanksgiving-maybe for some fresh fruit or more cupcakes!!! Umm.....

Favorite shelf

I just love this little shelf and the pretties I have on it!
I bought the shelf at a garage sale for 1.00 and actually everything on it, is a thrift store find.
I am looking forward to the weekend. Halloween with the kids- trick or treating and I love welcoming all the little ones in the neighborhood and see what they are wearing for halloween.
Halloween is great because it is like kick off to the holiday season!!

Fall colors too...

I love the fall colors, they just don't blend well with pink!
So I do little displays here and there so we can enjoy the fall decor without me having to redo everything!

My mantle

I love finally having a fireplace mantle!
Being able to dress it up for the holidays!!!
But of course modern technology- I have wires to my flat screen all around.
I need to get a larger HDMI wire to stuff it under the cover and thats about the best I can do.
I really don't want to put the surround and cable box on top of the mantle so I need to fix that.
I really wish the Romantic Homes and Romantic Country magazine showed how people LIVE in thier homes!! Let's see thier tvs and family rooms!!!
I love to see pics of peoples homes- maybe why I love reading blogs so much!
So here is a pic of the mantle and some fall decor that goes more with my color scheme. I think some small white lights might look real pretty too.
What do you think?

New path

The joys of owning a home!
Always something that breaks, needs to be painted, repaired- you name it!
For years I have been tackling our front walkway and porch. Hated the paint!!
But after a while I just got tired of trying to remove the paint, so we decided why not paint!!
And what a difference!!!
I love it-only wish we had done it sooner!!


Outside I have some scarecrows, some fall colors, but inside it is very difficult to decorate for halloween as it just doesn't match my stuff!!
So I had a few pink pumpkins I did last year and so this year I am expanding upon that!
I have a pink display in the works on the mantle. When it is finished I will post the pics!
I have a small setup of some fall colors in the foyer, but that has grown some.

Our new addition

This is Bentley! He is our new Maltese. Isn't he sweet? He loves to be held and dresses pretty sharp! He is definately a lap dog. When not being held he is on the couch waiting for me!
He is about a year and half old so we don't have to worry about housetraining!! Yeah!!
He has a sweet little face and loves lots of attention! He is getting adjusted to the girls too.
We just adore him!!

Before and after

This is the before pic. Doesn't look too great-

huge TV, ugly sliding glass doors and just a mixture of stuff.

After...2009

Some finished projects!!
New floors, french doors replaced the sliding glass doors that were falling apart. Big TV- gone!
Yes there is still alot more work that needs to be done, but what a difference!!
All this work and I now really love my house!
I have two pieces of wood furniture under the white shelves that we refinished and my grandma gave me the beautiful curio.
I still would like to get a nice sectional in here, but my sofa and love seat are only 5yrs old!! They just need a good cleaning and some slipcovers!! I do think a sectional would free up even more space!
It is now so much brighter in here and we love it!!

It is done!

Ohh...my floors are finished!! I am so excited- I feel like I am in a different house!

There are still a few small projects in the living room we need to fix-putting the surround speakers in the walls and just the small things that show.

I am seriously thinking about moving on to the kitchen now- we have the wood floors and although we still need a new fridge only- I am thinking we might paint our labinate cabinets and countertop. I have seen a few pics on the internet and I like the results. I am looking for new ideas without breaking the bank!!

I will post our journey on the kitchen if we do decide to paint!

Until then I am going around the house looking for more work for my poor tired hubby!

I have new floors!!!

I am so happy!!!

We finally got to put some hardwood floors down!!

Last weekend we finished the kitchen, dining room (Goodbye nasty dining room carpet)

and half the living room!!! This weekend we plan on finishing the rest of the living room.

I wanted the floor to continue in the foyer but hubby said no- leave the tile!! Ok!!!

So it was truelly amazing how much dirt was under the carpets! uhh.....

It makes the house look bigger and even cleaner. We must now decide what to do with the dark stained baseboards. They look nice, but need alot of work!! Either strip and restain or replace and stain or replace and paint. Not sure what to do yet!!

I'll be sure to post a pic when the living room is done- hopefully by Monday morning!!

It's been a busy summer with all 4 kids home and they go back to school in less than three weeks! I am so excited!! Back to computer time and crafting once again! Look out Michaels- here I come!!!!!

ummm...yummy!!

These have to be the easiest peanut butter cookies ever!!

I found the recipe online and decided to try it!

Wow!!

Super easy and delicious too.

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes on a ungreased cookie

sheet.

Enjoy!!

Sticks and Stones

I have gotten so many compliments on my stones that I thought I'd share them on my blog!

For Mothers Day this year my children painted these concrete stones we bought at Lowes and

placed them out front for me!

How sweet!! What wonderful memories and a great way to add color to any garden or front lawn!

Please excuse the mess! Our grass still needs to grow in between the stones and we are going to have the sidewalk pressured washed as well. I have no idea why the previous owners painted all the sidewalks and driveway!!! Anyway.....thats a hug project we need to tackle, but no it the hottest time of the year- so it has to wait for now!!

Oh MY!!!!

It really has been a long time since I posted on here!!

Summer is here now and I have been so busy keeping the kids occupied!

We have been doing crafts and playtime activities and last week we made edible playdough.

Oh what fun!!

The kids liked it and then they were able to eat it!

All it consists of is

equal parts

peanut butter

dry instant milk

honey.

It is yummy too.

I am also on facebook now and I love it!!

Thanks for asking about me Lori!!!

I often wonder if anyone does read my blog- at least I knew a few friends do!!!

Happy summer!!

Time flys when your having fun!

Then.....

Ok maybe it hasn't been every single day, but it's been pretty good!!

Hubby and I have been together a long time now and we have changed and growed up alot in those years.

Our kids are good people and we can be thankful for that!

Now.....

Time has flown by us, we've had a few kids and it definitely has changed us!

But we stick by each other and love each other very much!

So as we approach another anniversary this summer, I will remember all the good times and the bad and be happy we got to share them together!

Favorite treats

I love to surround myself with my favorite things!
The other day I recived a very special package from Frivolous whimsy etsy shop.



I won a tons of sweet goodies from her etsy shop!! She has amazing work and I love her creations!!
I am putting up a few things for Easter but because we will be on vacation I am not going to overboard this year!

Looking in....

Just thought I'd share some pics of my home and some of my thrift store finds. I rearranged my dining room table so it is going a different way and I think I like it. It is a small change which I like to change things up around here without getting too crazy! The living room I go back and forth with. For Christmas time I have to put the couch along the wall because of the tree, but I like it the way it is now as it seems more cozy- a little tight when we play wii, but we deal!

The tea cups I found at a thrift store. I bought 4 plates and 4 cups and paid 2.00 for it all.

The small white pitcher was .50 and the vintage hankie was 1.25, the small white bowl was only .30 and the rose plate with gold edging was 1.00. I made out pretty good yesterday. I love my thrifting. I started thrifting several years ago when my husband and I got our first place. It was so cheap to get the things we needed and I found at those prices I could also get the things I wanted. A few years later after I got pregnant with our twins I found thrifting was necessary!!

Now it has become a favorite hobby! I love the hunt!!! When I find great deals, it feels good too.

I know I got a great bargain while helping charity at the same time!!

Ok...not just a hobby....lets be honest......an addiction!!

I look for thrift stores everywhere I go!!

In fact for Easter we are traveling up north to see family and I am already planning out all the thrift stores I want to explore. I am going to plot them all out on my GPS and drag my dear hubby along for the ride!! LOL

I wonder what kind of neat stuff I will find!!

My Puppy Love tag swap

My Puppy Love tag booklet arrived the other day from Karla's cottage tag swap and I was so very excited!! Each artist had the most impressive tags and I could really see all the hard work and creativity put into each one! The one here is the cover made by Karla at Karla's cottage.
The tag featured above is so darling, but I don't see a name or blog on here so if someone reads this and it happens to be yours- I just wanted to say how much I love it!!

The tag above also is so beautiful and there is no name on this either. Each side is so beautiful!! Such amazing work!! The above tag was made by Deborah. I love the colorful pic and the back is on the most beautiful paper!!
The tag with this beautiful flower really touched me!! The back page happens to include

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 which just happens to be mine and my husbands verse we live by since the day we were married! I thought that was a wonderful coincidence!!

The above tag was mine that I made!! How sweet!!
The next adorable tag was made by Jenny at TheRedBulletinBoard.Blogspot.com.

I love the little pic!! How very cute!

I really enjoyed being a part of the swap!!! It is so nice to get such pretties in the mail!!!

It was alot of fun and I hope to be a part of another swap sometime soon!!

Playtime

We treated the kids with a nice wooden swingset.

They all love it very much, except now everyone wants to play here even more so.

Our backyard is loaded with toys and fun stuff.

It has been nice here the past few days which makes it very easy to sit out and relax and watch the kids at play.

It looks like so much fun- I might climb up there adnd check out that slide!!!

A wonderful afternoon

I had the most wonderful mail day! All these pretty I bought arrived today at the same time and I about flipped out!!

The faux cake box I got from Miss Rhea at

http://www.sweetnshabbyroses.blogspot.com/

I had been admiring her blog and website and so I used some of my christmas money I had gotten to buy this sweet treat.

The faux marshmallow cookies are from FrivolousWhimsy at

http://www.frivolouswhimsy.blogspot.com/

They look perfect!!! I can't wait until my friends come over and see them!!!

I will definately be buying more stuff from these great artists!!!

I set up the little tea table so I can treasure them will in my living room!!

Get ready for some LOVE!

Getting ready for some valentines lovin!!

Isn't this face the sweetest??

What to do? What to do?

Have you ever put something somewhere but were not quite sure if you like how you arranged it all? Well I found this cute shelf at the thruft store for 1.00 and of course I painted it pink and added lace in the little windows, but I am not sure I like what I put on it! Cupcakes? Tea cups???

Not sure...so I am open to any suggestions!!

I like the shelf but maybe I should move it? or leave it there???

I have no clue what to do!!!

Love signs

ohh I love to decorate for Valentines- it is my second favorite holiday to decorate for!!

Today I plan on finishing a little tea cabinet I am painting pink and I plan on working on

making a valentines collage of the kids.

I especially love looking at others blogs this time of year too and seeing all the pinks and reds people decorate thier homes with for February!