Are you ready?

There's no denying it, Christmas will be here soon.

I'm ready. Are you?

I'm ready for gingerbread houses, baking (errr...making messes) with my kids, the glow of the tree as we watch TV at night, sugar cookie candles, Christmas songs (I've updated my playlist), romps in the snow and happy times with family and friends.

I'm not ready for the gifts. Oh boy, am I not ready. I'm only about half done with shopping.

Did you go out on Black Friday? My dad was brave enough to come stand with me at 10:30 waiting for Toys R Us to open at Midnight. Good thing we had that great turkey dinner in our bellies, it was a long wait. I didn't get what I wanted (darn Zhu Zhu hamsters) but we did get some other things. And we got to spend a few hours alone....just us.

I don't get many times like that with my dad.

I'm hoping I can talk him into it again next year. It was fun...even though I didn't get to bed until 4 a.m. and my middle child was at the side of my bed at 7.

Christmas is coming soon. So, are you ready?

P.S. ~ The first two images were from Cottage Living (gosh I miss that magazine) and the others are from Country Living.

A Little Of This, A Little of That....

Hi everyone, it's been too long since my last post but we've been deep into the kitchen project. The powder room is also moving along but a bit slower. It's difficult to live without a kitchen so that has taken priority. It's about 3/4 done, I can't wait to show it to you all!


That said, I have a few things I wanted to share with you today....

You may have noticed the link in my sidebar for Bags Of Love. They are a wonderful company to work with, it's a great place to go for some special gifts. The canvas wall hanging of my daughter was a gift from them and I couldn't be happier with it. I just sent them my photo and they did the rest.

I'm still deciding where to hang it. She wants it in her room but I want to be able to see it all the time. We'll see who wins that one......

I also like to share my good Etsy experiences and Peppercorns 2 was no exception. I purchased the marquee letters you see on top of the mirror. The shipping was fast and I would certainly go back to the store again. Excellent service.

Now on to a project from Jamie at Something To Do . Look at this hutch they made from mostly scrap pieces! It's incredible and just goes to show what beautiful things can be created with a little bit of imagination and a few tools as well. You can go over to her blog for the before pictures and the story of this sweet hutch.

I'll keep you posted on the kitchen. So far the cabinets are painted, the walls are almost done and we'll be sanding the floor after Thanksgiving. I'm so excited to get to that part!

My one year blogging anniversary was this month. I can't believe an entire year has gone by, surprisingly (or not if you ask my family) I've had a lot to say. I want to thank you all for coming here and reading my ramblings. I'm so glad to have found the blogging community, one filled with creative and amazing people. I'm awed every day by the talented people here.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. May you have much to be thankful for, a belly full of warm food and people to share it with.

We've been busy...

I figured I would start off with a pretty picture because the rest are....well....not so pretty. In addition to the powder room, we're now working on the kitchen too. I asked my husband to finally take up the vinyl floor in the kitchen that has been driving me mad for two years now. Lucky for me he happily obliged.

We knew there was wood to be had underneath, we took a peek behind the basement door about a month ago. See it under the green paint?

Two layers of vinyl, a layer of plywood and a ton of staples, all of it had to go. My hand is blistered from taking up staples, ouch!

But after all that work, we sanded a small spot and look what is there! Beautiful yellow pine! Just like getting to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop, we found the prize.....

The black is all old adhesive that luckily comes off with a bit of sanding.

Soon the kitchen floor will match the dining room and it will all be beautiful. I can't wait! It will definitely have more "character" than the other floors in the house but that's okay. I'm just thrilled we found it all intact after being covered for so long.

So since the floor is being done, I decided why not do the whole kitchen?! As of today the cabinet doors are all off, sanding done and priming started. I'll be changing the look of the kitchen with a lot of elbow grease and paint. While I do that, hubby will continue working on the bathroom.

We're determined to have all this done by Christmas. Hopefully in enough time to do all my regular holiday decorating. I'm not sure what I was thinking starting a project like this so close to the holidays but I'm excited....blisters and all. Still excited.

Please forgive me if I don't get around to visit you for a bit, doing two rooms at once is taking time away from blogging right now. I need to hurry up and finish so I don't come down with blogger withdrawal!

Did I mention I was having Thanksgiving here? Yikes!

Sebastian Photo Shoot

I wanted to put a picture of this guy on my sidebar and realized I didn't have a good photo on my computer. What a perfect excuse for a photo shoot. This is our Sebastian.....

He's a 5 year old Sheltie, isn't he pretty?

We've had him since he was only 12 weeks old and so small.

Sebastian has some anxiety issues....

Which means his face often looks like this...

But as long as he has a cozy corner to sleep in....

And his kids to give him hugs.....

He is perfectly content.

Powder Room Project

The time has come, we're ready to get moving on the powder room. Back in June I had talked about it and it took us.....oh, only 5 months to actually begin. Let me give you the "Before" tour and then I'll give you an idea of the plan.


Last year I gave it a coat of brown paint that was leftover in the basement. It was a quick fix to cover the purple color it was when we moved in. I didn't want to replace the sink and toilet at that point so I went with the brown/blue theme.


We're lucky to have a window in this room for natural light but it doesn't have moulding around it. We plan to fix that....

Say goodbye to the blue sink! I found a new, white pedestal sink on Craigslist for a steal.

The floor is the worst part I think. It's vinyl and discolored.

The ugly fan...

My husband started taking the baseboards off and I yelled out, "WAIT! I have to take before pictures for the blog first!!" So he tried to put it back. Luckily he's understanding about just how important the before pictures are....

So that's the full tour, now on to the fun part. I definitely want to add some sparkle, love the sconces in this bath....

This mini chandelier was on clearance at Home Depot. You can't beat finding something off the rack and for cheap....

I looooooove the floor in this picture but my powder room is small....

So we ordered an all white 1" hexagon tile. My bathroom won't look this gorgeous (I NEED that chair...and the tub....and the mirror....) but it'll have the same floor.....

Being as it's such a small room, I want to make a big impact with wallpaper. I'm so glad wallpaper is back but honestly, even if it wasn't.....I'd still be wallpapering. This large print damask is gorgeous....

Target online has this paper available. It's one I'm considering but I want to look around some more first. Isn't the color pretty?

Well that's all my powder room ramblings for the day! I'll keep you posted with progress pictures as we move along. I'm looking forward to making this bathroom pretty for our guests.

(P.S. ~ The bathroom photos I used as examples were from my inspiration folder. I believe they all came from Country Living's website but if any belong to you, please let me know so I can give credit.)

Perfect

I think at some point we all try to be perfect at something....the perfect parent, perfect employee, perfect spouse, the perfect homemaker.

We want to do everything right, be everything to everyone and keep our homes sparkling clean all at the same time. And at times we succeed.

I know I fall into this trap....it's easy to do. Until I stop and think about all the reasons why things don't have to be always sparkling and free of flaws. Because it's impossible, and exhausting and not real.

This is the hardwood floor in my daughter's room. We had to get through carpet and about a million staples to get to it. And when we did, it wasn't perfect. There were holes.....lots of holes. And a huge scratch right in the middle. We could have filled it in, tried to make it at least appear perfect. Instead we chose to leave it alone. I don't know how it got there but it's part of our home's history and as long as we live here, it will be left as it is.... flawed.

So when my house looks like this....

full of dust and completely imperfect, I'm going to cut myself a break.

I don't have to be perfect, and neither does my house.

Halloween

I am so sad Halloween is over. It's my favorite holiday and my favorite time of year. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas decorating but there is something about Halloween....no stress, no fuss, just fun!

Here we are at my son's school after his parade. Notice the look on his face? Yeah, that's pretty much how the day went with him. He didn't want to wear his full costume, he didn't want to wait for me while we were trick or treating and he walked right into someone's house. Yup, that's my son. Ring the doorbell and if they take too long, hey, just open the door and go right in.


Candy is serious business you know!



I didn't intend to have this action shot....any tips on how to get a 4 year old to sit still? No?? Oh well, it was worth a shot.



And my girls, who were happy to sit still and smile....

It rained here for us but we still had a great time. The candy is a little damp but the kids don't seem to notice. How was your Halloween? Did you get a lot of trick or treaters? How much candy did you eat? I'll tell if you will....

Halloween was yesterday but the real fright starts today. Nothing could be scarier than today's task.....cleaning up the basement. *dun dun dun* We're going to hopefully get some organizing done down there, it's my goal for this week. If we don't accomplish this I may not be able to find my Christmas decorations when the time comes, it's that bad down there. Wish me luck!