I cannot believe that almost a week has flown by since my last post! Don and I have been ever so busy. During the last week, we've done some shopping, ran into a few old friends neither of us had seen in a while, completed a couple of trial runs in preparation of our wedding, put up our Christmas tree, and myrid of other things too numerous to mention.

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon in Rita's salon, where we experimented with hairstyles for my wedding. I had done a bit of browsing online for some short, yet elegant, hairstyles, but discovered very few for weddings. There's a ton of long updo's that are absolutely gorgeous, however, I'm not desiring to add hair extensions as I've been receiving far too many compliments since I've been wearing it short. I took along my long sheer sleeved white satin blouse that I'll be wearing for my wedding, with the gorgeous black heels that Don discovered and choose for me to wear, in hopes that they would assist Rita in envision something elegant for me.

What I should have remembered is that Rita can do the most amazing things to my hair, and amaze me she did! She created a very soft, feminine, style that was very stylish from the front and sides with a ton of curls in the back. I never imagined my short hair could do that! Using several bridal floral picks I'd brought along, Rita experimented placing them within my hair. We decided to remove several flowers from one, placing it a bit above and behind my right ear, while strands of pearls we'd removed from other floral picks were tucked and woven into the curls in the back. After spraying with hairspray to hold everything in place, she sprayed my hair with this magnificant fine silver glitter spray. The final result was so enchanting, we both immediately exclamed, "This is it!"

While there, still sitting, relaxing, and simply visiting with Rita, a few of her other patrons {Who gave me the most wonderful compliments on the clothing I'd choosen, my shoes, and my hair!} the topic of conversation turned to "the groom" when a lady inquired who I was getting married to. Can you imagine my surprise when I learned that she and her mother {who was also there} had watched Don grow up? They both knew the family and shared so many stories with me about Don as a little boy, and both mentioned his good natured spirit, his soft-compassinate heart, and his determination to not the Cerebral Palsy he was born with interfere in his life. As I sat making a mental list of all his personal attributes, hoping to discover something I can use during the ceremony when we exchange our thoughts and words to one another, I was reminded all over again of why I'm marrying him!

Bows...

Today, I created bows. These will grace the garland, white lights, and tulle that we will add to the our front porch. Seeing them come together, is helping to ease some of the "I've-got-to-get-some-of-this-stuff-done" feeling that I've recently been feeling. After dinner, I believe Don and I will begin tackling the dreaded lights, rearrange the hutch, and begin decorating another one our Christmas trees!

I wish I could write that I've been so busy this past week that almost all of our wedding preparations are complete! The truth is that I've accomplished very little. Perhaps, that's not entirely true, but the "to do" list certainly seems longer than the "no longer on the list" list. There's certainly hasn't been any lack of inspiration, its the motivation to actually get up and go that has plagued me. Thankfully, Don's has "kicked it up a notch". He's been so busy, I "almost" feel guilty! Our front porch and sidewalk has been repaired, the fallen leaves from the enormous amount of trees had been removed, {okay, it isn't like there's a forest in our front yard although you'd never know it when it comes to cleaning it up!} A few days ago he brought down the Christmas tree and all the trimmings down from the attic. But I hadn't touched them and then there they sat, attempting to add to the guilt I was pretending to feel, LOL!

This past week also came with its share of surprises! I ran out of printer ink, find out the candle votive holders that I thought we'd use as wedding favors are no longer available, discover that the black skirt I intended to wearing isn't at all what I am desiring on my weddding day, and what do you mean that the contractors are here to remove and replace our fence and our recently cleaned yard is now a mess once again from our neighbors leaves?

By Sunday, I needed a break from the break I'd been taking! So we took a road trip; did some shopping for the final purchases for decorating; had an enjoyable lunch, and arrived safely back at home in time for meeting with our minister. Thankfully, Chuck came prepared, a folder of ideas for a non-denominational wedding, filled with thoughts and ideas, and was very open and receptive to our suggestions. I was relieved to say, "Let's do it!" to so many of his ideas, with only one change. Don and I will share an "impromptu?" moment" saying something to one another prior to exchanging our vows. Neither of us will have any clue what the other is going to say. Huh? Of course, my imagination, began racing at a hundred miles an hour, wondering if this is the "wisest" thing to do. But I'm trusting it and believe it will add a "personalized" feel to our wedding.

The remainder of the week wasn't much better. It seemed as if everything I attempted wasn't coming out right. So after several failed attempts, I finally realized there's a time for everything and this wasn't it! That realization provided me some much needed time to relax, enjoy, and be grateful! After spending Thanksgiving Day with Don's family, we gathered up little Miss Wonderful for an evening visit with my parents, then kept Alexxis overnight so Mommy and Daddy could get in some Black Friday shopping. Spending the time with family and friends was just what the doctor ordered and I'm happy to say, I've one Christmas tree decorated!

Desiring to experiment some more using Photoshop, I purchased a few more digital kits I'd been coveting. {I see how that can become addicting! So many beauties to choose from!} I narrowed it down to just two and those were from and are Snowflakes and A Little Christmas by Rhonda Farrer. I thought I'd use some of those designs along with the 'Tis the Season kit and design some quick pages to print for use in a wedding album for Don and I. Undecided as far as what size to actually create, I went with resizing them to 8x8's since the dates on the calendar are getting closer than they actually appear, reality struck that I'm probably not going to get a guest book created in this short amount of time. So I reconsidered that and am leaning towards simply making and printing some 4x6 cards for our wedding guests, perhaps binding them together so I can add them to our Wedding album at a later date! I can work these pages in to a 12x12 and make the entire album interactive! Of course, that will be a major work in progress but so fun to do!

Later in the morning, I shared a few hours with Miss Adorable. Alexxis discovered a box of newly purchased shatter-proofed red and gold Christmas ornaments and had a blast playing with those. Of course they were glittered, so by the time she was through both of us were ordorned with a Christmas shimmer and shine. Later, we went out to lunch with her daddy and grandma Nancy and our conversation turned back to wedding preparations, cake decorating, and planning. I returned home for a short rest prior to going and assisting Don at the store. Hey! A girl has to earn some $$$ to pay for all these wonderful little goodies that need to be purchased yet.

Today, promises to be yet another busy day. In just a little while, our home will "come alive" as we begin to get ready to make a trip to Garden Ridge to purchase the white tulle, lights, and greenery for decorating the outside of our home. Unfortunately, our trip will have to be cut short as we'll be meeting with our minister @ 4:00 this afternoon to discuss the ceremoney, do a brief rehearsal, and make any last minute revisions and changes. Hopefully, there won't be two many of those. I believe if we have any energy left, Don and I will begin moving the Christmas boxes down out of the attic so we can take inventory of what we have, fix anything that requires fixing, so I can begin the interior decorating this week. I'm excited as that is what I so love to do: decorate! Anything and everything!

Before I sign off, I want to say, "Thank you" to everyone who has visited and left me a comment recently. Those words mean so much to me and I appreciate them dearly. It's nice to know that the words I write here aren't just being sent out into cyberspace, read only by my sister {who NEVER posts, LOL!} I wish things were not so... in fast-forward mode so I could respond to everyone personally... in the future, I promise! {*ta-ta for now....*}

My FIRST ever digital scrapbook page!

Some time ago I mention desiring to learn how to "digital" scrapbook. Having Photoshop CS3 on my new computer has provided me the wonderful opportunity to learn how to use the program and how to digital scrapbook. I don't believe I'll ever be digital only; as I love playing with my stash of paper arts supplies; but I can certainly see how using certain elements of digital kits will assist to enhance my scrapbooking pages, albums, and paper arts projects in general. This new-to-me activity is known as "hybrid scrapbooking" in the scrapbooking world.

After many failed attempts, frustration, and near tears experiences attempting to create a simple, old scrapbook page, I began searching for some tutorials for using both Photoshop CS3 and digital scrapbook pages. This lead to yet another frustration as there are so many versions of Photoshop and a variety of software programs available for digital scrapbooking, that I finally determined that I needed to be more specific in my search. I soon discovered Designer Digitals and downloaded their "Getting Started in Digital Scrapbooking" ebook tutorial and printed it off. Not really certain, where or how to begin, I decided to also look for one free digital kit to download and play with while I attempted to learn. The kit I choose is the Harvest Spice Collection © 2007 Shabby Princess Designs of www.ShabbyPrincess.com and this is my first digital layout:



I know I've a lot more to learn, but for today, I'm extremely excited to have accomplished my first digital anything! Thank you so much " and for the tutorial and the kit to use. I cannot wait to be able to experiment and learn more! Now to figure out how to add the journaling.....

Ahhh, relaxing....

How can it be Wednesday already? Why, it seems like just yesterday that Don and I went shopping and I found a beautiful white satin, hidden button-up shirt with sheer white sleeves and a sash that's dressy enough to get married in, yet not too formal. Paired up with a long, black velvet skirt, a pair of black heels, and I'm in there! I believe it's perfect for "our evening wedding/entertaining at home" event. Okay, that was on Sunday, but where did the last two days go? All I've managed to accomplish is some light housekeeping, cooking dinner, cleaning up afterwards, relaxing, and spending some time with Amber and Alexxis.

Yesterday, while curled up on the couch, still in my jammies at 4 o'clock! {Don't you love those days? when you've no where to go and do?} I took a break from working suduko puzzles to watch Oprah. Did you see the show? I loved the "Knock, Knock, its Nate!" with Nate Burkus. Did you see the winner, Kirsten Hollister's home? WOW! I loved it!!! Very European... Kirsten's inspiration for her home's decor was influence from two years of living in Switzerland. She mixed both old and new items in their space, giving a lot of her furnishings a patina, creating the perfect place to LIVE! No fear or attempt to avoid the everyday wear and tear, as any imperfections, such as nicking or chipping, only serve to enhance her home more and fill it with additional character! Here's a few of the pics, although none reflected what I saw in my mind's eye!







I loved the crowns in the eye-catching vignette of an urn filled with seashells. Just the right touch of whimsy; perfect for her Northern European decor! And did you notice the chalkboard in her breakfast nook? It was like it was taken right out of some of the home decor blogs that I read online. Kirsten used a vintage mirror, removed the mirror, and painted the backing board with black chalkboard paint! Her color scheme seemed more muted to me on TV than what is shown here in these photos taken from Oprah.com; however, I loved the chocolate! I've been drawn to varying shades of gray, whites, beiges/soft browns lately --- soft and muted tones with just a small amount of color, with a lot of white and black touches and accessories
added in. I know that probably isn't a look everyone would love, but I'm simply fascinated with it right now, like pewter, aged, tarnished silver, zinc, and faux mercury glass patinas. Perhaps its the simple, understated look that I love. Anyways, whatever it is... I know what I like when I see it, LOL! I did notice the tri-tone monochromatic paint on her bedroom walls... beautiful! And that comforter and matching curtains, how pretty are those? Add in the fact that they are not quite aqua, nor a bright turquoise and I like them just a bit more. {I know aqua and pink are huge in the blog world right now, but honestly, I love the look more in someone else's home. That stems from years and years of living with that aqua color in my childhood home's kitchen and living room. I'm still not ready to see it again, LOL!} Another idea I loved was the use of vintage feedsacks to create slipcovers for Parson chairs! I don't remember whose home that was featured in but great stuff!

I also couldn't help but notice the Show Nate Your Stuff feature, located here: ! And No! I'm not submitting my work-in-progress home, but my mind instantly thought of several bloggers, like Sara Duckett and Heather Ballard of who should submit photographs of their beautiful homes!

While blog-hopping recently, I followed one link to another and somehow ended up on some French Canalblog blogs. Although at first, I couldn't read them as they were written in French. That was until I stumbled upon Google's translations! But what I noticed most was no matter what part of the world we're from, most of us woman love our homes, look to magazines for inspirations, love our arts and crafts, handcrafted things that accent our home's decor. Trends are bi-hemisphere; whats love in America is cherished in Paris, Belguim, Switzerland and our lives are truly centered by love and loving our family and friends. That's what it is truly all about! {*smiles*}

Wedding planning and preparations...

The past several days have been spent in a flurry of activities as we've been making preparations and the final decisions for our upcoming wedding. Invitations and RSVP's have been written, addressed, and are ready to be mailed. I need to make a trip to the post office for several booklets of Christmas themed stamps, get them stuck onto the envies, and return them for mailing. Our wedding vows and actual ceremony has been written and revised a zillion times, before I finally came up with one we both love! We need to schedule an appointment with our minister for further discussions and suggestions.

Earlier in the week, Don and I did a little shopping and christmas/wedding browsing. We purchased a nice pair of black men's slack for him for the wedding and looked for him a pair of new black dress shoes. While, I, on the other hand intend to take inventory of my closet prior to purchasing anything else. I did pull out a beautiful black dinner dress and long sleeve jacket that I could wear. It's a cocktail length dress, beautiful embellished with a silk leaf design, although I'm uncertain if I desire to wear black on my wedding day. I'm thinking red would compliment his black and white attire nicely, perhaps I can find white and red cocktail dress, anyways there are always more decisions, decisions.....

Since we're hosting this small, intimate wedding and reception here in our home, we've decided to keep things as simple, yet elaborate, and as low-cost as possible. I can assure you that attempting to accomplish "simple" and "wedding" all in one event, hasn't been an easy feat! I thought we'd make a checklist of what we want, what we don't want, and go from there... sounds easy enough, until I hear Don say things like, "there may be more people show up" and "we can't turn them away!" I think to myself, "Isn't that the point of sending out invitations and RSVP's? So, you know who's coming and who isn't?" Anyways, we decide to plan for 5 more "unexpected" guests....

We previously decided to decorate our home for Christmas, using the tradition pine green, bright red, and gold color scheme. It will compliment our home decor nicely and any items purchased will be a wonderful reminder of our wedding day year after year.

Having an evening wedding ceremony, scheduled at 6:30 p.m., deciding what foods to serve was probably our biggest challenge. We're thinking we'd both love to greet our guests as they arrive, mingle a bit, have the ceremony, and jump straight into the champagne toast and cutting our wedding cake. Together, we consider all of our options before deciding to skip the unity candle lighting. We decide on offering a few appetizers {finger food style] both a meat, cheese, and veggie tray, and a dessert station consisting of sugar cookies, petit fours, brownies and perhaps, some other christmas themed candies. This will allow us to us to mingle and enjoy the company of our family and friends, be quickly set up vs. having an eleborate wedding dinner to stress out over!

We'll use our wedding cake for our centerpiece on our kitchen table, all dressed up in fine linens, surrounded by charger plates, our frost white Corelle dinnerware, and champagne flutes. Coffee, cold drinks, and champagne for a toast! Then, it's on to eating, drinking, and being merry!

Then, my thoughts turned to entertainment... what to do here? We won't have room for a band, a dj, then it hit me! Couldn't we design a couple of video cds using photographs of all our years together, pictures of times spent with family and friends throughout the years? We could use our favorite love songs for background music and this could play on the TV screen without anyone needing to babysit it! Sounds like a great plan to me, now I need to start getting that prepared!

Speaking of preparations....

Yesterday, I raked and cleaned our front yard. Our trees there are still filled with leaves and with wind continuing to blow, the yard was quickly recovered a few hours later. Hopefully the weather will remain warm enough to continue this process for another week and begin to decorate while the temperatures remain in the high 40's/low 50 degree range. While taking a few breaks from raking leaves, I made a couple quick sketches of how I envision the front of our home to look on our big day. Here's a sampling of those:



After calling my hairdresser, Rita, scheduling two hair appointments with her --- one a few weeks prior to the wedding for any cut/coloring that may need done; and the other for styling on my wedding day, sprucing our home up, I began tackling my paper art supplies, cleaning, and clearing but leaving a few of the items out that I'll need to create our party favors, napkin rings, ect. with. Shortly thereafter, Christine and Deb stopped by for a brief visit. We discussed getting together soon to create! Perhaps, I can find some time this week to gather up some supplies, get what I need printed out, and enjoy their company while I work creating those things.

Don arrived home and we decided to have dinner out. Afterwards, we stopped at The Dollar Tree, browsing for ideas for the wedding favors. I stumbled upon some beautiful snowflake frosted votive candle holders that would compliment the frosted coasters I've been coveting for wedding favors. I don't know why I didn't just purchase all that I need instead of the three I did for a floral arrangement I'm planning to create. I did purchase twelve gold trimmed champagne flutes; at $1 each; those were a great bargain. I wiped them out of all that they had so when we're out we'll check a few other Dollar Tree stores for more, providing me the opportunity to purchase more of the candle votives. Anyways, as you can tell, the fun continues... {*very big smile...*}

a glimmer of hope

Feeling a bit intimidated to begin creating any of my loose leaf pages today, I decide to begin by creating something small. I hesitated to even get started, wondering "what if"... I've forgotten how to create; if it, or worse yet, I, am not good enough; and what happens if it turns out differently than the way I expected it to?

I knew in my heart there was only one way to find out and that was to push my doubts aside and go with the flow. What's the worst that could happen? Perhaps, I'd waste a bit of ink, paper, and glue? Feeling braver, I decided to create a smaller book that could be attached to a book cover for my project later. As I worked, the ideas started to flow and I simply allowed the piece to take me where it wanted to be. The words are a reflection of the thoughts and feelings I experienced along the way.

I scanned it using a sheet of black cardstock to present a border for the scanned piece although it isn't actually attached to anything. I love the contrast, prehaps, I'll create a black book cover or use black in my cover design as I continue to work.

Now that our remodeling/decorating project is nearly complete, my mind almost instantly begins asking, "Now What?" I know we have the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and our December 8th wedding will soon capture more and more of our attention so whatever I may begin has to be something that I can easily lay aside. I also have more organizing that I'm desiring to get started and finished up, one them is re-organizing my art supplies that I'm keeping in our home.

Lately my heart has been whispering, "create art" and I've listened whenever possible for me to do so. I completed a few little projects that I haven't yet shared as I haven't taken the time to photograph them yet, but for quite some time I've been longing to begin working on a new altered book. Somewhere along the way, my desire changed as I don't want to be limited by any book binding and the amount of space I can use as far the page size and the thickness of a book, so I've decided to simply create some loose-leaf collages and pages. I figure I can use eyelets and metal rings to bind it all together and add some created book covers to at a later date. With that thought in mind, I remember the Art Idea Journal Round Robin that I had participated in a few years ago, so I headed out to the studio to gather up the journal and sat comfortably in the house last night reviewing it. I must admit this project has been one my favorites ever since completing it and it is filled with a wealth of information and ideas for creating with paper arts. I feel bad that I've neglect using it before now!

To remedy that I headed back out to the studio to put together some papers, embellishments, and adhesives to get me started. I was already set to start playing when I realized that I had an obligation to a member of a longtime group to fulfill first. So, I worked on creating a card to get into the mail today. Now that is out of my way and I can begin to focus my attention on this for awhile. I don't like having too many unfinished items in progress, in fact, I find it distracting, and before I know it, having too many things going on all at once inhibits me creatively. So, the game plan is to have my crazy quilt project to work on when I'm uninspired working on this altered book form, participate in a some ATC swaps as I can create a few extras to incorporate into the book, and both of these things will allow me time to enjoy other areas of our lives. So, expect to see more of an eclectic mix here on my blog, some of them splattered with ART!

Here is a picture of the lamps that we purchased in our living room. They are wooden based with beautiful gold leafed acanthus leaves.


This photgraph is the entire room as it looks this morning. It also demonstrates why we need lighting, not just for performing certain tasks. It is an overcasted, partly clouded day here in Ohio and room needs the light to warm it up and say, "Welcome Home."



Aren't they gorgeous? Well, Don and I think so and that is what is truly important, living with what you love!



While talking with my sister, Mary, via telephone last night, our conversation turned to our recent decorating. Mary loves the room and believes Don and I have done a fantastic job at a substancial savings for everything we purchased. We also talked about the quality of the furniture, during our conversation, I mentioned that not only do we love what we've accomplished, but that we're preserving history for these pieces will one day become tomorrow's antiques. {smile} I loved that thought, perhaps one day my granddaughter, Alexxis will treasure them as much as we do today.

Because "Every Day Matters"

Yesterday, I took the day off from the flurry of our recent activities. I spent time simply relaxing, uploading the previous pictures and descriptions, creating the flipbook, and enjoying the early morning and afternoon hours of the day. It felt great to see the results of all of our recent hard work, taking a moment to be creative --- even if was on the computer, and just savor these moments of being in the here and now.

Don arrived home shortly after 4 p.m. and we began traveling to Polaris Parkway having decided to have a nice steak dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. Along the way, we discussed a few stops we'd like to make, purchases that we'd decided that still needed to be made, and expressed our intentions to stop at Lowes and Home Depot to look once again at pendant lighting. We've been discussing the possibility of replacing the ceiling fan over the newly decorated room with a new ceiling light fixture. {I cropped it from the previous pictures because I really dislike how it looks in the room but trust me, its still there!}

After eating a wonderful dinner, talking with Keith the new assistant manager, we made a quick trip into Target to pick up a bottle of shampoo I'd forgotten to grab earlier in the week. We took a brief tour through the Christmas section, simply looking, before making our way to the checkout.

Our next stop was into Old Navy where we purchased some new socks and a winter hat and mittens for little Miss Adorable before heading next door to World Market to see what offerings may be there in table lamps fixtures. That proved to be a wasted effort as I don't believe paper lanterns or patio lights are going to work, but "Hey! you don't know, til you know!" Upon making our way back to the Jeep, I mentioned perhaps we just ought to check out JC Penney's. I'd seen a set of lamps online that could possibly work in the room at a price that wouldn't put a major dent in the pocketbook, so perhaps it would be worth taking a look there. So, Don, following my lead, turns to inquire of someone exiting their vehicle about the location of JC Penney's at the Polaris Mall directly across the street. Having the information we needed, we ventured over to the mall, found the store easy enough and a parking spot.

Yesterday, many retail stores offered "Super Saturday" sales and discounts due to a predicted drop in the Christmas retail season and Penney's was no different. Upon entering we saw signs offering everything in Home Goods at 20% savings on already lowered prices. As made a detour for a restroom break, I continued on to home lighting and browsed through the lamps available. That's when I spotted a set of lamps, already on clearance, with a 20% off. When Don caught up with me, I began showing him and a sales person approached us to inform us that any purchases made over $50.00 were eligible for another 15% off. Quickly doing the math, we decided these were the lamps for us! We made out with a beautiful set of lamps at a substantial savings. Perhaps, needless to say, after purchasing the set of lamps, we decided to skip shopping for the pendant lighting; we'll need to save some $$$ and purchase one in the not so far off future.

For the Birds nchantin A flipbook I created and love!...

They That Wait...

Hanging above the recliner is this framed picture. It was a gift to me from Don many, many years ago. I cherish this picture for so many reasons, however probably the most important one being it reminds me to wait for God, to trust him to know what is best for our lives. The verse is one of my favorite biblical verses:

And they that wait
upon the Lord
shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up
on wings as eagles,
they shall run
and not be weary;
they shall walk
and not faint.

Isaiah 30:34

A sweet seating area

Directly opposite the wall niche is this seating area. The leather recliner was purchased a year or so ago, originally for use in my studio as a place for me to sit and unwind with a good magazine or book and a cup of tea. We swapped recliners between our home and the studio and I love the look the leather provides with the sofa and tables. It assists in creating a nice, cozy, intimate seating area for us to sit and entertain our guests, as well as provides a great conversation area. Did I mention that by strategically placing the end stand directly in front of the window deters Chaos from attempting to "get at" the mailman? LOL! I'm certain our mailman appreciates that!

The planter...

This planter was another recent find on our trip to Home Goods. I love it! Not only is it a perfect accent currently for our livin room, I can utilize it on our rear deck or back yard. I love multi-purpose accessories and bringing the outdoors in!

The planter by itself gets a little lost in the living room niche but contiains two shallow wells in which I added some faux berries into one and a nest in the other. I'd love to be able to add an actual plant, something that would assist filling the niche in, perhaps this isn't as crazy as my previous thought and idea, LOL!

Living Room Accessories

A thing of beauty is a joy forever;
Its loveliness increases;
It will never Pass into nothingness.

— John Keats

Corner Curio Cabinet

This is the curio cabinet that I instantly feel in love with as we entered Dalton Direct Furniture. Although it isn't currently lighted or wired for lighting, I know it is something we can add ourselves. I felt that adding this piece would assist us in providing an asymetrical sense of balance to the room, help to fill a bare corner, and provide unity to the height and scale of all the furniture placed within both sides of our living room. I've accessorized it using a few of my garden clotches, my collection of bird figurines, and another nest filled with eggs!

The Total Package...

This is the current area of our living room. Don and I are so happy with the progress that we've made even if we had to complete this project a little at a time. It's definitely been well worth the wait! We both love this space, everything from the color scheme we've choosen, to the pieces of furniture, right down to the accessories that we so carefully chose together from items we've already owned. We're still continuing to look and shop for just the right table lamps and we both desire something a bit chunky at the base with a graceful curve to reflect those in the sofa and endstands. This is a room we can live and love in, not too feminine nor masculine and reflects both of our personalities to a "T". We've accessorized using only a touch of silk greenery and all of our figurines reflect our love of nature! I couldn't resist adding at least one live plant to room, having a two year old lab named Chaos and our 17 month old granddaughter, Alexxis, in our prescence almost daily may turn out to be a challenge so we're taking a wait and see approach to how this is going to work; but overall, both beauty and beast are very well mannered --- at least the majority of the time, LOL!

Please excuse my use of adding a rug underneath the recliner. I assure you this a temporary solution to prevent the recliner from sliding and damaging the wall behind it.

Directly across the room...

Is where I've relocated our hutch. To the left of it is our kitchen doorway which I cropped from the picture. Anyways, the hutch is filled with a few of my favorite stoneware dishes and accessories, the Tea Rose Collection of Pfaltzgraf. I collected these dishes over the years, many were gifts to me from family and friends. They've been well loved and used over the years to celebrate many Mother's Days, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners. Some even contain a few cracks and are chipped but I cherish them all the more. There are even more of this collection on a long shelf above the opening in our rear kitchen area, while other pieces are stored in a cabinet.

I accessorized the top and tabletop section of the hutch using a few of my favorite home decor items, many of them hold special memories and remind me of some of the travels Don and I have made over the years, of our favorite places to shop, and family celebrations.

I'm desiring to add some greenery to the top and perhaps a small area rug or a co-ordinating runner on the floor one day... it's one of those "I'll know what it is I want when I see it" type of things that provide us something to look forward to. {smile}

Entryway

This is the view of the west half of our living room, what you'd see if you looked to the left as you entered our home. Although this area appears to be small, I can assure you it isn't. This area of the room measures 11'6" wide by approx. 13'; of course, I'm estimating that from when we previously laid the hardwood flooring in the 11'6"x16' area and am accounting for the 36" front door. Please keep in mind that the above mentioned area isn't shown completely as I found the area leading directly opposite a bit boring, LOL! It is the doorway to our kitchen with the hutch beside it on the living room wall. Anyways, we have a good size area for inviting family, friends, and guests into our home so "Come on in!" I'm more than happy to take you on a tour and show you the final results of what's been keeping us so busy the past few weeks!



Just to the right of this photo, you can see the previous "pass-through" window. It's long since been drywalled in, however, this "niche" carries a lot of Don's family history. When his parents lived in our home many, many years ago and after they put on the bedroom additions, they once utilized this area as a dining room, hence, the favored knickname of "pass-through window" as dishes and dishes filled with food once "passed through" this area. Today, I utilize it for displaying decorating accessories and am searching for that just the right touch to assist with filling it in. I'd love to add an actual piece of a tree limb to rest this planter upon. Wouldn't that be amazing to fill and change out seasonally using faux silk flowers and perhaps some moss to assist forming a piece of nature nestled in the wall. I know that may sound a bit "off the wall" but then again, your talking to the girl who once had an entire grapevine filled with greenery and white lights draped above her living room mirror. I'll have to find those photographs to share as I received a lot of nice compliments regarding it from family and friends.

We managed to accomplish a bit more today,. The computer and all its components have been moved to Alexxis' nursery/laundry room area of our home. The hutch has been relocated to where the computer desk previously resided and the recliner and one end stand has been placed where the hutch was previously located. Sounds easy enough, huh? Typing it out makes me wonder why it took me half of the day, LOL!

I had one bare spot on one of the living room walls that was sort of annoying me but with a little quick thinking, I'm discovered a temporary solution that I'm happy with it. I borrowed a plant stand and two potted plants off of our rear deck. I merged the plants, a spike and a geranium from one pot, into a larger pot of coleus. I tucked the potted plant into a hammered bronze planter, placed it on the plant stand and viola! one bare spot is now gone. It assisted in adding a sense of balance to the room.

Earlier today, I captured some photographs of the living room to put on my blog. Unfortunately, by the time I cooked supper, cleaned up afterwards, ran a few errands, I didn't have the time to upload them to the computer. I'll try to get them posted in the next few days.

Tommorrow promises to be yet another rewarding day. As I continue to plug away, purging, sorting, organizing before we go for an early evening dinner out. I think I desire a bit of pampering, don't you? Anyways, I've some items to return to the studio and I'm desiring to clean and organize the bottom portion of the hutch so I can store some scrapbooking and rubberstamping supplies to keep something close at hand. I've had an idea for creating me a journal-like structure --- anyways, we'll see how that goes!

Alexxis - Halloween 2007

After arriving back home, dropping off the warehouse purchases at the store, we made our way over to see the little Miss preparing for her first Trick or Treat! Isn't she adorable in her little Elmo costume? Here's mommy attempting to get things straightened out and look at that smile peeking out!

Unexpected Wedding Decor - Preparations and Planning

Our trip on Wednesday proved to be a very successful one, although we're still searching for those "just right" living room lamps. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, not too cold or hot, and traffic wasn't too heavy as we traveled to our destination. Leaving earlier than we originally intended allowed both of us some much needed leisure and together time.

Our first stop was into Home Goods --- Don & I so love this store! We can always find something for our home there and this trip was no different than many others we've previously made. The store's main focus is Home Goods with a focus currently on Thanksgiving. We discovered many theme dishes and autumn designs, and discovered that they're beginning to set Christmas as well. Since we've been recently discussing our thoughts and ideas for our December 8th Evening wedding, making notes of an even longer list of "Things To Do" in preparation, we decided to look at Christmas decor while we were here. We originally had no intentions of purchasing anything other than a pair of table top lamps, until we found some items that were perfect in every way for decorating our home for our upcoming Wedding & Christmas!

We're desiring to start by decorating the outside of our home to greet our guest as they enter so finding this wreath to hang on the front door and a matching table top greenery to lay on the coffee table proved to be just the ticket. The green, red, and gold will work magnificantly with our home's existing decor.



We, also discovered a gorgeous white holly tablecloth, a tailored red center runner, and a package of gold charger plates for use on the kitchen table. Paired with our Frost White Corelle dishware and our wedding cake for a centerpiece, we believe will provide us an amazing kitchen display.



We also couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase these lovely gold glitter candles. Won't they be beautiful scattered thorought our home? I thought so.

After we made our way to and fromthe warehouse, we stopped for a nice, quiet lunch before heading into Garden Ridge. There we found those gold napkins, perfect for pairing with a Christmas themed set. The pearl white party favor boxes will be adorned withred and gold curling ribbon, perhaps holding a golden jingle bell and a tag that includes our names and wedding date. The bells will be for our guests to ring at the end of our marriage ceremony. Together these could double as table top decor as we visit and mingle with our guest prior to the ceremony.

Anyways, we're happy with our purchases, stoked to find them so unexpectly. One more thing out of the way!