Merry Christmas to ME!

I had a fantastic Christmas, ya'll! I mean, really. REALLY. My husband is always so good to me but especially at Christmastime. :) He loves surprising me with stuff and this year was no exception.

The main thing was my gorgeous handmade jewelry box. For about the last month and a half or so, I've not been allowed in the workshop. Well, I haven't been allowed to look in the workshop, for that matter. Top-secret stuff and all that.

THIS is why...

Is this not absolutely beautiful??  My.husband.made.this.  For.me.  He never ceases to amaze me with his skills and talents.  I can't tell you how many times I've told him how proud I am of him.

He got a few photos of me with it on Christmas morning...

But that's not all!  Well, that was PLENTY for me but THIS is what I found when we got home from Lexington Saturday...

A brand new kitchen table and chairs!  I TOTALLY didn't see this coming.  No, Jeff didn't make this himself (although he COULD).  We saw this set at Sam's when we were there recently and it was severely marked down, peeps.  I mean, it was a steal.  But we were there for something else and decided not to get it.  But I SO wanted it!  I mean, I really, really wanted it.  Jeff did, too.  This style is exactly what I've been wanting.  And it was so cheap.  But we didn't get it.

Little did I know that my husband had other plans.  God love him.  :)  While we were out of town, he had one of his friends come in and set it up so it would be set when we got back into town.  I was SO surprised!  REALLY surprised.  And so happy!

I hope that your Christmas was just as blessed and full of fun times and love from family & friends as mine was.  My prayer is that your new year, 2010, will be just as full of blessings and love.

'tis the season!

It's time once again for my annual Christmas decorations post. As is usually the case, I've had my decorations up for awhile and have taken photos here & there of different things. And I'm just now getting around to posting them. Better late than never, I guess.

I have a couple of *new* things this year so I really only took a few photos of those things to share. This photo shows a paper craft that I picked up here for only $5 -- I thought it would be a fun thing to create myself to put out for Christmas. I think it's really cute and I had really hoped that it would last through Christmas and maybe for a few years at least. However, I've been observing it slowly come "unraveled" -- by that I mean, every day there are a few more ornaments that have fallen off the slowly lowering "branches" and the ornaments themselves are slowly separating (they are just 2 stickers stuck back to back). I just keep *fixing* things here and there but I can't imagine how I'm going to store the thing until next year. We'll see.

My tree is not new however the beautiful tree skirt underneath certainly is. I have been looking for a few years now for just the right tree skirt -- something that fits me and my style and more importantly, my tree's style.

Yes, my tree has style, peeps. As if you couldn't tell, duh. :)

So when my mom & I were out shopping the day after Thanksgiving this year, we came across this tree skirt that is SO me, and it very nearly screamed to be chosen to go home with me. And so it did. Go home with me. It's hard to see in the photo but the lime-ish green has small "scrollies" all over it and the red & white parts are kind of like Santa's hat -- velvety and all that. Isn't it perfect?

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't point out the BEAUTIFUL bow that tops my tree this year. I typically have a gold star on top but this year my mom made this bow for me with ribbon we found on our shopping spree the day after Thanksgiving. Is it not the prettiest thing? She's so talented. :)

The other thing I acquired this year was this sweet little wire tree that my mom picked up for me "because it's your colors and it was just, well, you". My mom is just the best. :) Cute, huh?

I hope you guys are getting everything all ready for your Christmas gatherings without all the stress that inevitably comes with the season. I, for one, have been trying to really keep my focus on what Christmas is all about and what Christ really did when He came as a baby in the manger all those many years ago. May you be blessed this Christmas season!

happy (really, really late) birthday to me!

Yeah, so my birthday was 2 months ago and I'm just now getting this posted. But to my credit, I only just GOT my birthday gift from Jeff about a month ago. Here's the story:

Since we had photos made last summer with this amazing lady, I've been wanting to have a canvas made with one of the photos to hang over the bed in our bedroom. When my birthday rolled around this year, Jeff asked me what I wanted. Since I'd already given a list to my family for gift ideas, I didn't want to tell him anything on that list, in case one of my family members was going to get it. So I thought & thought, and then I remembered about the canvas. Perfect! So I mentioned that to him and he was all about it. Now to choose the photo...

Therein lies the problem. :)

Choosing a photo from the hundreds of photos that Julie took is really hard (that's part of the reason I got the canvas a month after my birthday). But I finally chose one and we got the canvas back shortly thereafter.

I took a photo of the wall *before & after* so you can see the difference. I love it!

I *heart* fall.

I love fall, ya'll. I really do. I think I did a post last year on my fall decorations...and maybe the first year we were here. Can you believe this is our 3rd fall in this house? Time passes so quickly these days...

Every year I seem to collect something new in the way of fall decorations and I end up moving my current decorations around a little bit so even though I've done past posts on my fall decorations, I wanted to share what THIS fall looks like at our house:

You can see here there is a new addition to our kitchen, too -- a bamboo rug that we got from my brother & his wife who weren't using it and offered it to us when they saw my bamboo placemat on the table. It works well, doesn't it?

I hope you are looking forward to the coming holidays, Thanksgiving & Christmas, with great expectation, grateful for all God has done for you and your loved ones. I know I have much to be thankful for...

W.

What do you think of the flag currently on our house? Remember, in this post, how I said that my good friend, Bekah, had gotten me some flags for taking photos at her daughter's first birthday party? Well, this is one of the ones she got me and I just love it!

I did have another one out for the summer months but never got around to taking any photos of it. I didn't get to have it out as much as I would've liked anyway because of the daily threats of rain/storms around these parts in the summer. Though the flags are weather-proof, I prefer not to have them flying in the rain if I can control it. :) That flag has "Welcome" and a pair of flip flops on it. Very cute and very appropriate for the summer! :)

I have one more flag that Bekah got me that I will put out for fall probably at the beginning of October. Hopefully I'll remember to take a photo or 2 of that one to show you.

the value of a good lamp...

We have a new addition in the living room -- a table lamp! To some, it may seem a little weird that I'm so excited about a table lamp, but I have been looking for one for awhile now. I've been saving for one for awhile, too -- some lamps are so stinkin' expensive! All the ones that I seemed to be looking at were, anyway.

But one day recently, Jeff and I were at Lowe's having some keys made and Jeff told me to go look at the lamps while we were there. So I did and I found this lampstand on clearance and the shade that I chose to go with it really wasn't overly expensive either (though it was more pricey than the stand). The shade is actually a pretty similar color, though lighter, to our accent wall color in the living room now, so I wasn't sure how it would look once we got it home but we both like it a lot. I like the height of the stand, too, because it's up high enough for my frames to still sit on the side table and for good reading light, etc.

Yay for my find! Now I can save for something else...Lord knows, there are tons of other things I want to do/buy for our house! :)

rock corner -- part III

It's done! Our "rock corner" is complete! Jeff took some time the end of last week to go get the rock and finish up the rock corner while I was at work. I am so happy with how it turned out and I think Jeff is, too. We've already had our first somewhat heavy rain since it's been done and it worked out great. We had a little "ponding", but I'd rather have it on the rock than on our grass.

Once Jefff got it done, he took photos of it empty first, but then also took a photo (with his phone) after he made a few adjustments. He moved our grill over to the rock from the patio and we have a steel table that was sitting on the patio, too -- it's now up against the house on the rock. We have the trash can sitting on the rock, too, although that cramps things just a bit when we want to grill. An easy fix, of course, but I like having the trash can right there by the door when I need to throw something out. We can always move it when we get ready to grill.

The only thing on our patio now is a couple of (sorry-looking) chairs and it just makes everything looks so much bigger and more open out there! I really like it. What do you think?

Voila!

rock corner -- part II

The temperatures have been a tad bit cooler recently and this morning was actually pretty cool compared to the breath-taking heat we've had, even at 6 or 7 in the morning...

So we decided that we should tackle "phase II" of the rock corner in our backyard. After gathering our tools (wheelbarrow, shovels, rake & hoe) and working for about 2 1/2 hours, here's what part II of the rock corner looks like:

house decoration...

My good friend, Bekah, asked me to take photos at her daughter's first birthday party this past Saturday and she wanted to pay me, but I told her, "No way!" Instead, she got me this super-nice flag for our house, along with 3 others and the flag pole & attachment, too! It was WAY TOO MUCH but I was so excited to get this hung on the house! I thought the american flag one would be appropriate since we're only a couple weeks away from Independence Day.

Bekah & her husband, Adam, own a decorative flag company, FlagAddict.com, and they have so many really nice flags. They come in 2 different sizes and are really reasonably priced for how nice they are. Bekah had asked me to make a wish list (you should, too!) and from that, she picked out the 4 flags for me.

It was a pleasure to take photos for Addison's party and I didn't expect anything in return but I LOVE my flags! Thanks, Bekah!

rock corner -- part I

Jeff began a project in the backyard last weekend. He decided that we needed a solution for the corner beside the patio where the rain just pours down onto the grass. We don't have gutters on the back of the house so in this one area when it rains, the grass and yard in general just looks bad.

He decided that he would spray and kill all the grass in an arched area, dig it up and put down river rock. We're thinking that maybe we can move the grill off the patio then and perhaps free up some space for sitting furniture, etc. At least that's what I'M thinking... :)

Here is what part I looks like of what we're calling the "rock corner":

what a difference!

Talk about feeling like you're in an episode of "While You Were Out"! Look what my husband had done while I was at work on Monday...

Is that not PERFECT?! I'm not going to say I had no idea that this was going to happen because he did ask me, in a nonchalant sort of way, what color I'd like to have on an accent wall in the living room, IF we were to say, you know, do that. I told him that I thought if we picked up "that orangey-gold color" in the fabric on the chair/ottoman (same fabric that's on the pillows on the couch & loveseat, too) that it would look really good. Of course, "orangey-gold" is kind of a risk no matter what kind of fabric you're talking about. But Jeff went and picked out this color, Homestead Ballroom Gold (do you not LOVE that?), all by himself at Lowe's.

We've both commented on how different the room looks now...how it kinda doesn't even look like our house anymore. But we both love it more and more each time we see it. It goes perfectly with that fabric and even the coffee table!

My husband is just the greatest.

grillin' season!

Okay, this is kind of a strrreeeetch to say that this post falls into the "house" category, but other than this, I got nothin'. Nothing new going on with the house right now so this is all I have.

So this is what you get. A few nights ago, I was trying to decide what to do for dinner and I knew I had some squash/broccoli/mushrooms that I needed to use up. So we decided to grill (a lot of) chicken (some for salads later in the week) and have these veggies. But I found a recipe for "Sensational Grilled Veggies" in one of my cooking magazines that looked easy and scrumptious...looks can be deceiving. But I'll get to that later.

The recipe was easy. I will say that. All I had to do was cut up the veggies...

toss them with Italian salad dressing...

and wrap them up in heavy duty foil...

They went on the grill for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the cook time for the chicken...

and then were sprinkled with parmesan cheese afterward. Dinner is served!

While the veggies were okay and definitely something different, neither me or Jeff really cared for them. It was the dressing. Jeff is not a big fan of Italian dressing to begin with and I think I just prefer my veggies salty, not sweet. With that said, if you like Itialian dressing, you would probably really enjoy these veggies. Try it next time you have something to grill!

IKEA purchase...

Some of you may know that I recently made a trip to Charlotte with my friend, Elizabeth (and my parents). The purpose of the trip was to check out the brand new IKEA store there. I previously had never been into an IKEA before but had seen certain items they sell and had heard lots of different things about it. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with their first baby (yay!), mentioned in an email to me awhile back that she would like to get to the IKEA in Charlotte before the baby comes. From there, the wheels began to turn and the plans began to be made. It was decided that we'd head up on a Friday to Lexington to my parents' home to stay overnight, and then make a day of it Saturday in Charlotte, inside this massive store. And we did just that!

It took us almost 4 hours to get through this store, folks. Unbelievable! But I had such a great time looking at all the really innovative things they had and the prices they were selling these things for were even sweeter to look at! Most things are priced so low you just can't hardly pass it up! They had this one bookshelf thingy that was just so reasonably priced and set up in a "pretend" bedroom so nice that I just had to get it. I thought it would be the perfect thing to put beside the bed in our guest room (which, as you know, is a room that I haven't done much with yet -- been looking for "just the right thing(s)"...check.).

Saturday, I set to work putting it together, with a little help from Jeff (it was just awkward to hold and try to drill the screws in at the same time). It went together pretty easily and then we set it up in the guest room. I just think it's cool. And Jeff likes it, too (ding, ding, ding!). Watcha think?

rose-colored glasses...

I've had a sheer curtain up on the back patio door for awhile now but wasn't ever really okay with that because it doesn't make me feel..."unwatched" at night. :) Some of you know how my imagination is and that sheer thing just wasn't cuttin' it -- I always felt like someone could still see in and see everything, especially at night with lights on and such. It's not like we even have anything behind us -- just a bunch of trees and semi-developed land (I think the plan is to put something back there eventually so they've been out there with big equipment from time to time, but nothing is being built so far), but it is what it is. I can't help how my mind runs away sometimes.

So, I've been keeping an eye out for a different curtain/window treatment to go on the back patio door. I've not been diligently searching but when I find myself in the "curtains section" of any store, I usually will browse to see what I can see. I've been looking for something in the sheer "family" but with color so that I don't feel so...um, exposed at night.

Well, I finally found a really fun, printed, somewhat sheer curtain that had some of the colors I'd been wanting to use in the kitchen/dining area, but something that wouldn't look bad from the front door with our furniture, etc.

The photos really don't show the real look/colors of the fabric; I took the photos about 4:30pm-ish today so the sun is at the back of house shining in. The main color is brown with olive green, mauve and reddish-pink dots all over. It's fun. I think it will work for now.

new "outlook" on life...

Oh.my.word. Exactly 2 months since my last post...I didn't really have any idea it has been THAT long. I'm sorry, peeps. Those of you who still check the blog, anyway. God bless you for being faithful to check, even if I'm not faithful to post.

In my defense, though, there really hasn't been much going on with the house lately. We did make one small change, however, in our master bathroom. I haven't really shown any photos of that room of the house since we moved in, primarily because I really didn't know how I wanted to decorate it. We're just using a shower curtain we already had and "making do". I think I have an idea of how I want to decorate it now, but I haven't gone to see what's out there that will fit my decor idea. I promise I'll post photos when it's complete.

The recent small change that we made was to replace the mirror in there with another that has a cabinet built in. The mirror that came with the house was massive and really nice, but just flat on the wall. With the extreme lack of storage space in that bathroom (we don't have a nice closet like in the guest bathroom), Jeff decided that we needed to create some space ourselves by hanging a mirrored cabinet up in place of the flat mirror.

I would like to preface the photos by saying that he took care of this during the day one day while I was at work. So he's the one that took the before and after photos. The before photo is horrendous with all the stuff out on the counter, etc. (something I would've cleaned up before taking the photo) but Jeff says, "I was proving a point. We needed the cabinet." Point taken.

snow!

Let the records show that we have snow at the coast! Actually, we've had snow one other time that I can remember in the 7 years that we've been here. It was relatively soon after we moved here, I think, and we were really surprised then. Just as I am now. It's just not something you see when you live as close to the beach as we do. But I'm seeing it now, and I.am.loving.it.

I've always loved the sight of falling snow and maybe it's because I don't live somewhere like IL where they've had enough snow this season to last them until Jesus comes back, probably. Growing up in the piedmont of NC, getting snow was a treat and usually meant being out of school and getting to enjoy it from the comfort of my own home with my family. I know that's not the way it is up north...and I'm sure that has something to do with my attitude toward snow. But it is what it is. And I'm totally digging the fact that this all started about 10am today and has.not.stopped. It's now almost 5pm and it's still coming down. We had a few pockets where it eased up a little or trickled down to almost nothing briefly, but for the most part, it has dumped about 2.5 to 3 inches in our "neck of the woods". And counting!

It amazes me how different a town or neighborhood can look after snow has fallen. On the way home from work today around 2:30pm, I was noticing that. Things that ordinarily are dark and maybe not so noticeable suddenly catch your eye. That patch of woods that doesn't really look that big? The snow reveals just how far back it goes! And everything seems so quiet...the neighborhood is just tucked in tight by this clean, fresh blanket of snow. I took a short video of our backyard as the snow was falling...so quiet...

Of course, I took some pictures, too, because, after all, this is a "first" for our "new" house (that's not as new as before, but new nonetheless) and it has to be documented! :) Beautiful...

more progress!

I have more progress to report on my craft room! Jeff's been working here and there as he has time to get the corner unit ready to install on what I'm now calling "the lower level" of cabinets. On Tuesday, he got it all glued up before dinner so that it could dry while we ate. We actually had our friends, Joey & Amy, over for dinner Tuesday, so Joey was able to help Jeff get the corner unit in and then they went ahead and installed my L-shaped desktop! It.is.so.cool. See for yourself!