Top Ten Projects of 2011

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends!  We had a whirlwind trip to Minnesota to see Jason's side of the family and then headed home in time for his school Christmas Eve service.  I'm so glad I got my wrapping done ahead of time otherwise I would have been one tired, busy momma on Christmas Eve!  This week we're relaxing at home while working on some projects.  I loooooooove having Jason home this week.  I'll soak up as much of him as I can and keep him busy!  We have lots planned for this next year, so I hope you'll join us as we continue to fix up our home project by project.

I haven't been blogging for even a year yet, but decided to join in on Rhoda's Top Projects of 2011 Party and Jen's Favorite Projects of 2011.  Those fancy ladies have amazing blogs and there are so many fabulous projects linked up already!  After checking out a few links, I am certainly motivated to get my buns in gear in 2012.  Before I get immersed in all there is to do at my little home, I'm going to recap my favorite projects we've done this past year.

10.  Little White Tray

9.  Nautical Knot Art

8.  Little Gray Table

7.  Antler Makeover

6.  Rural French Chairs

5.  Our Wine Cellar

4.  Living Room Crown Moulding

3.  Dining Room Table and Chairs Makeover

2.  Dining Room Corner Cabinets

1.  DIY Window Boxes

What a year it has been!  Thank you, faithful readers for reading every day and for your kind comments.  I admit I felt almost foolish starting this blog but have found such enjoyment in sharing our home projects with you.  I hope you'll stick around for 2011 when we finish our fireplace, work on our kitchen cupboards and tile the backsplash, and redo our master bedroom!  We have lots more planned, so stick around!  I'll love you forever if you do.

Oh, and my little sister Amelia has a blog!  She was featured on Nat the Fat Rat's blog and wrote such a sweet, honest post about her baby girl, her husband, and her Christmas tree.  I hope you'll check it out.  I love her and am proud of her!

I'm linking up to:

Southern Hospitality

Tatertots and Jello

Thrifty Decor Chic

A Snarky Comment and Some Christmas Love!

Rats.  That's right, folks.  I received my first snarky comment today.  Let me just tell you that it stung a little bit.  I knew that it would be coming and felt okay with it.  You can read the comment here.  After stewing about it for an hour or two, I realized that the thing that bothered me the most about it was that this person obviously does not understand what Christmas is all about.  The reason we celebrate Christmas is because Jesus was born.  Jesus was born because He came here to live a perfect life, suffer, and die a horrible death in order to save the whole world.  Plain and simple.  That crown of thorns tree topper reminds me of this every time I look at it!  After all, people hang crosses in their homes and wear them around their necks.  So my dear friends, (and that includes you, anonymous), I wish you a Merry Christmas!  As you celebrate Christmas, I pray that you remember that your Savior loved you enough to be born in a lowly stable and die in your place.

I won't be blogging any more this week.  Our Christmas festivities begin tomorrow and will continue for a couple of days.  I'll be back sometime the week after Christmas.

So from my family to yours, I pray you have a Merry CHRISTmas!

Our Home For Christmas 2011: The Finale

Welcome to our Home For Christmas Tour!  Today I'll share with you one space I haven't shared yet during the tour and will review some of my favorite decorations in our home.  I hope you enjoy the tour! 

As I was pulling out all of our decorations this year, I wondered why I go through this whole ordeal for a few short weeks that are already full to the brim with church,  parties, shopping, and who knows what else.  Every year I go through the hassle of cleaning the house while trying to figure out if a certain Christmas decoration should go in the living room or somewhere else while simultaneously covering my dining room floor with fake snow and glitter.  Getting ready for Christmas is sometimes a mess and well, kind of a pain.  I felt like I was nesting before the birth of a child!  In my head, this analogy seemed to work.  I am preparing for the birth of a child!  Not just any child though, but the Christ-child!  As I focused my Christmas duties on Jesus instead of the decorations, baking, and shopping I felt happier.  This birth is the most important birth in all history.  That tiny baby born at Christmastime is my Savior!  I love preparing for this celebration!  With that in mind, welcome to our home!

I'll begin our tour outside where I made this wreath to hang on our front door.  I kept it simple so that I could keep it up all winter long.



I also decorated our window boxes and urns with greenery and made my own dogwood sticks.  You can read more about that here.



Next up is our living room.

I made this crown of thorns tree topper this year instead of putting up our old star, which wasn't one bit sentimental to us.

You can read more about our living room here.

Our dining room is decorated in the same colors as our living room.

 

You can read more about our dining room here.

 Our kitchen decorations were pretty natural this year.  Some were even "food related."

 You can read more about our kitchen here.

Henry and Oliver's room is up next.  They helped me decorate their little tree.

Our basement family room

(which is very much still a work in progress)

The decorations in the wine cellar were kept pretty simple as well.

You can read more about the basement decorations here.

And finally, our master bedroom.  I haven't shared the decorations in here yet!

Thank you so much for looking around our home!  

I hope tonight you are feeling full of joy and hope in the coming birth of our Savior instead of hectic and exhausted!  Don't rob yourself of the most precious gift of that tiny baby in the manger, our Lord Jesus!

Merry Christmas!

I'm linking up to:

Nesting Place

Our Home For Christmas 2011: The Basement Family Room

Welcome to our ongoing Home For Christmas Tour!  Today I'm showing you a space I've never shared before on this ol' blog.  We finished off this basement area of our home a couple of years ago by painting the exposed ceiling, concrete walls, and adding carpet.  Jason is in the process of building us a fireplace and will hopefully complete that project in the next few months.  I am looking forward to sharing the completed process.  I'm also ecstatic to have a mantel to decorate!  Please understand that this basement is not complete by any means.  We need new lighting, a rug, a color scheme, some toy storage, etc.  The list goes on and on!  I'm thinking these projects will be tackled this spring and summer.  Since this is where our family spends a lot of time playing, relaxing, and watching television, I thought I would share this space with you!  I hope you enjoy the little touches of Christmas we added to our family room.

We have a tiny tree for our basement where we put those extra ornaments that aren't quite beautiful enough to make it onto the "fancy tree" but still deserve to be displayed.  You know the ones I'm talking about!

As soon as this room is finished, the TV will be hung on the wall, most likely above the desk.

Also, let me apologize for the dark, shady pictures.  I have no idea how to photograph this dark, poorly lit basement!

Here is the fireplace, which has yet to be painted, stained, and have some moulding attached to various areas.

Some of the decorations down here were just kind of thrown together because of the on-going fireplace project.  We're just keeping it real here, folks!

I added just a few decorations to the wine cellar to give it a festive touch but kept it pretty simple.

Thank you for letting me share one of our favorite places to be at our house.  It may not be perfect, but it is getting better and it is home.  I'll be back later to share some of the last pictures of our home for Christmas.  Have a wonderful day!