How many people does it take to replace a light fixture?
At least four apparently (counting a photographer). And two pets. You can’t see Buddy. He is hiding. The ladder is scary. And, yes, I AM helping. I am holding a flashlight, since you can’t have the lights on when you are replacing them. Thanks for the help, mom and dad!
Yay for new light fixtures!
Christmas decorations are just lovely, aren’t they?
Here is my favorite part of the decorations.
I particularly enjoy the ornament sitting on the floor.
Buddy the Christmas Cat loves the tree too.
The other day when it was cold, we built our first fire in this house.
My nativity is on the mantle with a sign that I just love.
Those stockings we bought the year we were engaged, and I love that we wrote each others names on them.
Here is a decoration that came from my hubby’s side of the family. His grandmother always used this tree and it was something he really liked.
Here is our Turkish nativity scene.
And here is a nativity scene that we had when I was little, which is now our on dining table.
This could easily be the most random ornament on our tree. Its from our honeymoon: a Christmas manatee!
And here are some other special ornaments on our tree. I love that our tree is full of ornaments that make me remember special things. My hubby loves superman and my mom got him this one year. The round ornament is from Turkey. And the other ornament is from our church.
I leave you with a picture of what Christmas is really all about. The birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world. Who loved us so much, before he even knew us. Who desires to forgive us of all our sins and have a relationship with us and bless us, so that we may bless others.
“I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Remember last week when I talked about rearranging at my house? Well on Thursday, we stayed up really late and rearranged the things we talked about. I am very pleased with the result. Now at about 12 something, I remembered that I was going to take before and after pictures. Well I forgot to take them, so I had to go back and try to find a before picture from when we moved in. So here is the best before and after I can find.
Goals: get the computer into the living room, set up a second place to watch tv, make the hub’s desk a more useful place.
We moved the chair out of the bedroom and the bookshelf from the living room in.
before
after
We moved my desk into the living room (in the place the bookshelf was) so that whoever is on the computer is in the same room and hanging out with whoever is watching tv. (No good before picture. Imagine a bookcase there.)
And the blue chair from the living room ended up in the office with the tv since we got a new tv that was given to us. (This wasn’t a good before, it was when we were moving, but there was a desk where that blue chair is!)
before
after
Whew, is anyone tired yet? We sure were!
And to Lydia, thanks for the magnets in the giveaway! I used them to make a fun collage on my ugly yellow filing cabinet! 
Apparently, lots of other people are having the same urge to work on things in their home.
Check out this “Before and After” event over at BooMama’s website.
At last some pictures of what we have been doing around here. You can click the pictures to see it better.
Today we went to petsmart and petco to try to find Gracie a bed. She is a pretty big dog. Not that she is fat, but she is long when she stretches out. So we wanted a big bed, which means a very expensive bed. After not finding anything, we remembered an old egg crate that we had. I realized I could just buy a sheet or some fabric and make a removeable cover for it. So we went to Joann’s Fabric which is right near our house and got fabric for a bed, and also some fabric to cover our throw pillows on the couch. It was interesting trying to plan out how to make it. It is a little large for the egg crate. And it was really hard to sew the corners. And I forgot to cut off the selvages (raw wierd edges) before starting so you can see part of it on one end. But it turned out pretty well and the fabric cost about $14 which is way cheaper than any dog bed we saw at the stores. Sewing fun! Here is Gracie on her new bed! Isn’t she adorable!?
Here is our kitchen, which mom and I painted. Buddy says hi. He really likes sitting in the window seat and looking out.I want to make a long cushion and some throw pillows for the window seat so I have a nice cozy spot. I also want a bistro table to put in front of the window for a breakfast table. This kitchen has so many cabinets!
I really like the arrangement I came up with for the mantle. You can’t see it, but our old entertainment center is sitting on the floor in front of it and there are various boxes around, so it doesn’t look as pretty in the actual room as it does in this shot where you don’t see the mess. This is the second move where we have tried to get rid of our old entertainment center. Last year we wanted to buy a new one but it didn’t work out so we used it anyway and it was just fine. This time didn’t fit into the plan so well. You’ll see in the next picture.
Here is our sitting area. The fireplace is to the left, I am standing in the kitchen taking the picture. Cliff came up with this seating arrangement which I really like because it is more conversation-oriented and we aren’t getting cable so we won’t be watching tv as much. Notice our bunny ears on top. We actually get 8 good channels. The light blue pillow is one of two blue ones that is finished and the red fabric near it will be another two pillows. I thought I killed my sewing machine trying to make a buttonhole for the blue pillow. I got a giganto knot around the needle and it made an awful noise. Luckily I was testing it on a scrap so it didn’t ruin the whole pillow. I haven’t been brave enough to try it again, but I will eventually.
Here is our bedroom which is mostly done except for hanging a mirror on the wall. I am standing in the doorway to the bathroom.
Here is our awesome walk in closet. I can’t really get a good shot but it is really big! All our luggage is in there and there is space for linen and my shoes get shelves!
The guest room is all ready for you to come visit. I would like to show you a picture of our lavender guest bathroom (I did not make it that color, it is a bit bright but not awful) but it has a wierd layout so its hard to take a picture of it.
And now…I’ll be totally honest about how this process is going. Here are the rooms that still need a little something…
The “formal” living room is currently our storage for books which have no bookshelves to live on. We don’t have furniture for in there, so the current thought is to make it a library. We only have one bookshelf because at our old apt. there were built in bookshelves. We have mentioned the idea that Cliff could build us some but I doubt that will happen.
Here is the mess that came from my dog bed and pillow making process. The dining room was fairly clean before that.
And here is the office which is still pretty messy, but a lovely shade of light green. I want to get a desk at ikea that is just a plain top and legs, and then I will have a big workspace for sewing or scrapbooking or whatever. So all my stuff is still in boxes. And I left Cliff’s stuff in boxes because I figured if I put it all away in his desk, he wouldn’t know where anything was.
So there it is, my pictoral update on our house, the good and the bad. We really like it!
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