Merry Christmas

Wishing you peace this holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Tree Hunting

Over Thanksgiving break, we went into the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. 

It was a beautiful day, we all had so much fun, and we found the tree within 30 minutes. It was a much better experience this year. (Last year it was cold, one of the kids was sick, and being "newbies", it took us over an hour to find the perfect tree.)

My oldest is taking pictures below. Actually, she and I spent most of the time taking pictures. My husband found the tree. I've created a picture taking monster. :)

We spent the evening decorating the tree. We have a few more touches to put on it, but here it is so far:

The pictures were all taken with the iphone, so they are a little blurry without great lighting. I love our "Charlie Brown" tree with all its imperfections! I am considering giving away our large artificial tree we have in storage. 

Right now, I have boxes and bins everywhere, but when I am finished decorating, I will show you more!

Fun

I took a picture of my kids on top of a hill while waiting for our soccer game to start a few months ago. Using my other photographs and layers later, I came up with this:

I'm having a 12x12 print made of it; it will make me smile every time I see it. I'll remember how silly they were being on top of that hill!

Autumn Mantle

A couple of weeks ago, inspired by the changing colors outside, I painted a new painting for the mantle:

I dug out my orange velvet pillows out of storage, and, instant coziness! (I'm noticing that these lanterns need to be adjusted.) 

Now, I'm thinking of the Winter look, so I'll probably change it up again soon. :)

Have a great weekend!

Indian Summer

We are having a beautiful Fall day here. I went out to capture the last of the leaves with my camera and iphone. 

Most of the leaves are on the ground, but these last few are hanging on!

I hope you all are having a wonderful, cozy autumn day!

Have a Great Weekend!

My dining room looked like this last week:

I made 20 pompoms for a teenage girl's conference at our church last week. I used simple directions from Martha Stewart. My dining room was glowing pink! I loved how they looked in the church. Of course, with the huge lobby area, we could have used oh, about 150 more! 

I also painted two very simple paintings. Here's one of them - it is painted on a 3ft. x 8ft door. The other is the reverse of this, with the silhouette facing the other way.

One of the highlights of the weekend for these 500 girls was a concert by Brit Nicole, who, besides being a great singer, is a wonderful person!

With this conference behind me, I am hoping to get some projects finished. There are so many going on in my head right now! 

Take care, and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

On a Whim

Remember this wall?

I wanted a change:

I painted this 3'x4' painting on a nice rainy day. I wish we could have a few more of those all day drizzles! (The above photo was taken with an iphone. I will have better pictures soon. )

Have a wonderful weekend! I love Fall!

Coastal Living Beach House

Hello there! I am so sorry for being gone so long! I promised you pictures of the Coastal Living Ultimate Beach House several weeks ago, and then....nothing! Well, seeing as how we just purchased our ski passes, I thought I better show you some beach home pictures before the mood is completely gone.

This beach house is in Rosemary Beach, Florida. From the outside, it looks quaint. In fact, it is quite large. It is almost 5,000 s.f.

Here is the floor plan, and the key people involved:

Please excuse my photographs. I tried to take quick pictures, and some have a lot of people in them. I've tried to blur out some faces,  because if it were me, I wouldn't like my face in some random person's blog. :)

Anyway, the entry. It is a circular shaped entry. Take a look at the light fixture; actually, I love all the light fixtures in this home:

To the left of the entry is a hallway leading up to the Master Bedroom:

The master bath:

Another bedroom is in this same hallway(I think this is the right bedroom, these pictures were taken so long ago!):

The rest of the house stems from the other side of the entry. The dining, kitchen, and sitting area are all one big room:

There is a study that branches off from the dining area:

By the kitchen, there is a room called the scullery, basically a huge pantry where they also keep the fridge:

 Also near the kitchen is a tiny, but functional bunkroom:

There is also another bedroom in this area (I may have gotten bedroom 2 & bedroom 3 mixed up):

Upstairs, there is another bedroom:

A girl's bunkroom (how fun is this!!): 

The game room(look at that ping pong table!):

The Theatre room:

The back of the house:

This is a beautiful house; every space is utilized to its fullest. If you noticed the designer on the floor plan above, it is Erika Powell, one of my favorite designers! She did such a wonderful job in designing this house!

The Coastal Living Magazine issue featuring this house should come out soon, (I think October?) I'm going to go buy it as soon as it comes out. They will have way better pictures than mine!

Vacation and Coastal Living

I was here last week:

We were at Carillon Beach, which is near Seaside and Rosemary Beach in Florida's panhandle. I have posted about Carillon before; it's our 3rd year there. Luckily, we missed tropical storm Debby.

While there, my friends and I were lucky to be able to visit Coastal Living's Idea House at Rosemary Beach:

We came back home from vacation and hit the ground running the next day with soccer games, and various sports camps. I have yet to unload my pictures from our trip. When I do, I will share my pictures of this great home (& maybe trick you into seeing some vacation photos!)

I also bought some Annie Sloan's chalk paint today. I had no idea I had a retailer just minutes from my home! I am hoping to paint a big armoire soon.

Checking In

I sort of disappeared, didn't I? This is what we've been up to this summer:

Ran a 10K. My son ran it in under 53 minutes. Not bad for someone who used to have a heart condition!

He wore this bracelet that his former baseball coach/Sunday school teacher made for him. She is awesome. It has the verse Isaiah 40:31 on it.

Our girls have some great friends in the neighborhood. They had an outdoor movie night:

Hanging out:

My son had a birthday:

Arcade games:

Soccer games:

Messing with my iphone:

Swimming:

The summer is flying by! I hope you all are having a great summer!