Let there be light!

Funny how something so simple can make you so happy when you have done without it for awhile?  

For several months, I fumbled through clothes in the closet in the dark.  Our closet is not big at all, but it sure is helpful to have light when you are trying to find matching clothes.  Shannon didn't seem to mind not having light as much as me.  Guess he doesn't care if his clothes match...

We had a pull chain light since we moved.  It was sensitive.  I broke it at least twice.  Maybe more. After the last break, we just let it sit for awhile.  Then when were out on Thanksgiving, we ran into Meijer for a couple things and Shannon found a motion sensor light for me us!  

Isn't it beautiful?!?!  

Now, when I reach my hand in the closet it automatically turns on and then stays on for a few minutes.  Seriously, I have never been so excited about a light fixture.  

Ahh, the little BRIGHT things!

Repurposed Drawer

This was a fun simple DIY project that I didn't even know I was going to do!

I had been looking for a napkin holder because well, my napkin holder was being used for something else.  Funny, I know.  I had a crock of utensils, salt and pepper shaker and oil dispenser (is that even what it is called??? That does NOT sound right...) that would roam all over the countertop, so I grabbed my napkin holder to corral them.

Well, that is fine and good until napkins are flying all over the place.

My mom, sister and I were out shopping one day in a cute little store that happened to have random odds and ends in the back corner.  I found this!

It was this small square sized old drawer and knob for all of a couple dollars.  And my immediate thought was, "hey! that would work!"  I wasn't even looking for the napkin holder that particular day, it just jumped out at me.

So, I sanded it just a bit, grabbed some black spray paint, and Voila!

I was so excited to get it all put together.  Shannon had to find a new screw for the knob, and once he did, it all came together!

But, guess what?  It's not holding napkins. 

But, it works super well as a catch-all caddy!  So much excitement here, for something so small, but I love it!

Sometimes, you just have to think out of the box! ;)

Fitbit and Shoes!

I wish I could say I love to exercise.  I hear and read about all of these people who just can't start their day without it.  They just don't feel like there day is complete unless they get it in.  I am not one of those people.  I honestly do it out of pure necessity and my form of exercising is walking. Period.  

No marathons, no 5Ks, no cute workout outfits.  No fancy whatsoever. I just put one foot in front of the other and walk.  And sometimes, I don't even walk fast.  I just walk.  But, you know what?  I like it!

I really like taking walks outdoors, but, at this time of the year that's not going to happen, so onto the treadmill I go.  I do like that on the treadmill I can set it on an incline, so I'm walking uphill.  Hey! That's fancy, right?  I really like that I can just get my tablet going with fun videos and blogs and the walking time just flies right by!

But, guess what??? I found a way to make exercise fun pretty!

I love Saucony tennis shoes!

Are these fun, or what?  I just love the colors!  I had been eyeing these for weeks on Amazon, but they were a little out of my price range and my old pair had just a teeny tiny hole in the toe, so I put on some patience and waited.

And then just the other day, I noticed them sitting in my "save for later cart" at half off!  I snagged them up and within two days (Lovin' me some Amazon Prime!) they were at my door.

I wore them for the first time a couple days ago and two of my friends gave me compliments as soon as they saw me!  Maybe they are a bit loud?  The shoes, not my friends! ;)  Addie saw them and said they were so me, but it was funny to her because they weren't "mom" shoes.  Ha!

Now, shoes are just part of the equation.

Enter Fitbit!  A great little interactive pedometer.  I have used many pedometers over the years.  I like the competition with myself to try to get in 10,000 steps a day.  No, I do not get 10,000 in every day. I said I like to TRY.  What is really great is that at midnight, it automatically goes back to 0 and starts you over.

It even smiles at me. And, yes, can you say BRIGHT PINK?  It does come in other colors, just fyi. ;)

It syncs up to my phone to help me keep track and to keep a log, which I love.  It also has a lot of other fancy stuff that I don't even use yet.  I sometimes keep track of my water intake, but honestly, I forget to do that most days!  Or, I do my first Tervis cup and forget after that.

Oh, my, that was a good day! 12,000+ steps!  Of course, I wanted to post that dashboard picture, and not one of my 3,000 day ones. ;) The competition with myself makes exercise bearable fun!

Honestly, I can't wait to wear these super cool shoes and my Fitbit when we go down to WDW next summer. I LOVE to see how many steps I rack up in a day at the parks.  Double the fun!

Nativity Scene

I love our super simple nativity scene.  And when I say super, simple, I mean Mary, Joseph, Jesus and a shepherd.

Addie made this her first year we started going to the church we attend now.  She was in third grade. That is Jesus in a Pringles snack container.  The bodies are made out of clay pots.  And yes, that's straw you see poking at baby Jesus' back.

I really love that it shows who really was there on that very first night.  It's not fancy, but I'm sure the stable wasn't either.

And that's why it's so special...

Luke 2:8-20

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Simple Soap

Aren't those beautiful?!?  

Just so you can appreciate my excitement over a simple thing like soap, let's step back.  

I love to find the simplest way to do something.  I also do not enjoy clutter.  So, if I can find something that will work for many things, I am there.  Enter this.

I had this revelation.  Why not just use this hand rejuvenation soap everywhere I have a soap pump? So, I use this at the kitchen sink, and both bathroom sinks.  I love that I can wash my hands and dishes at the same time.  And, I really love that I have just one bottle of soap to fill all of my soap dispensers. And, I have to say it. It's pink. :)  

But, I treat myself from time to time, especially at Christmas.  And TJ Maxx is the best for finding beautiful, yummy soaps.  So, my bathrooms are now decked out with this.

And this.

And, it lifts my mood every time I walk in the bathroom.  It's just a fun, little extra way to add some holiday cheer and smell!

I still have my hand rejuvenation by the kitchen sink, so I can wash the dishes.  Can't go too crazy, you know!

Decorating for Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I have come a long way in my thinking on decorating for Christmas.  I used to go all out.  I'm not going to even tell you how many Christmas trees I used to put up and decorate.  It was a bit ridiculous. We had a much bigger house then and I felt every room should be filled.  Please don't get me wrong, I truly appreciate the beauty of it when I see it done at someone else's home and I just cannot get over lights and garland and ornaments and candles and on and on and on.  It really does make me happy.  But, what makes me even happier is a scaled back version!

We live in a much smaller ranch home now, which is more peaceful and pleasing to us.  A lot less to take care of!  So, I decorate a bit in the kitchen, which is the first room people see when they come in, and I decorate in the living room.  This year the kids each put a tree in their rooms as well.  They haven't done that for along time, but this year they were both on board!  Those though, were all them, so I didn't have any work there!

Here are the festive touches in the kitchen!

This candle smells heavenly and it crackles while it burns!

Pistachios and M&Ms

These were tins I found at my beloved Hobby Lobby.  I absolutely loved the retro look to them and the colors were perfect!  Behind are sprigs of evergreen that match the look of my Christmas tree in the living room.

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Fun wreaths in each of the kitchen windows!  Shh, these were really candle rings!

We have a larger doorway from the kitchen to the living room.  On the kitchen side I have a garland decorated with reds and greens and on the living room side an identical garland decorated with the colors matching the living room.

I love the whimsical look of these ornaments!

Into the living room we go.

Last year, I bought this Christmas tree.  For years I had a tree that I had to string lights on before I decorated. I know, poor, pitiful me.  But, I splurged and bought a new one last year and Oh. My. Goodness.  Prelit heaven!  I put it up and plug it in and Voila! It's magic.  Addie actually put the ornaments on for me this year.  She did an amazing job.  We don't have many ornaments, but the tree also has pine cones on it and I just love the look!  The close up picture at the beginning of the post shows that a bit more.

It could be because I was a teacher once upon a time, but I have a thing for children's books.  I have kept all the Christmas/Winter related books the kids have collected over the years and put them out each year under the tree.  Even now, they pull books out of the basket and read.  There is just something about reading near Christmas lights that is magical!  

Old favorites.

A have a couple of vases of ornaments on top of the piano.  Addie says it cramps her style because she likes to throw her piano books up there.  She was really wanting the fall garland to be removed. Little did she know or remember that it is replaced with something else at Christmas!

Here is the garland on the opposite side of the kitchen doorway.  These are our two main living spaces! It's a short, sweet tour :)

I used to hang this wreath on the outside of the door.  But, we live out in the country and no one really uses our front door to come into the house.  I know that sounds strange!  I wanted to enjoy the wreath more, so I hung it inside.  I love how real it looks! 

I get to keep this candle out all through the winter months.  It makes the snow and cold more bearable!

And these are a couple old classics.  The kids still love this little snowglobe and the gingerbread box houses the Christmas cards as the roll in.  And oh, my December issue of Better Homes and Gardens just came in the mail!

There you have it!  I love that it's simple and sweet.  I love that it only took me a couple hours to pull everything out and put it up (thank you Addie and Reece!) I REALLY love that it takes even less time to put it all away come January.   

Let the festivities begin!

Portrait Display

I hadn't gotten the kids' pictures taken for three years!  I do not have a fancy dancy camera, so really all of the pictures I have of them are on my phone/computer.  I actually cherish the candid shots I have of them, but I really wanted to get some "real" pictures taken.  Our good friend, Kristi, is a professional photographer and was having a "mini shoot" day, so I jumped on that.  I just wanted a few before Addie actually got her senior pictures...that's only two years away.  Let's not even go there.

It was a cold, blustery fall day.  The week before it was 70+ degrees. Go figure.  But, boy did she get some great shots of them.

I wasn't sure how I was going to display them, but I new the hallway wall was where I wanted them. I looked around online for some shelf ideas.  I wanted it to be very simplistic and I found a picture of a plain, floating shelf.  I showed it to Shannon and so he went out to his shop, found some wood and went to work.  He asked for my measurements and just like that whipped it up for me.  

I wasn't sure what color stain I wanted.  I knew I didn't want it painted white or black because I wanted it to be a bit different than the woodwork and frames so it would stand out a bit.  I also didn't want to go buy a small can of stain just to do this small project.  

Yes, I am cheap frugal. 

I scoured his shop and found some stain from our old house.  We haven't lived there for over 9 years. So, yeah, it was old, but we opened, stirred and wiped it on.  It worked just fine for this project and it was free. Really free, because it was left by the previous owners of our old house.  Okay, it may have been REALLY, REALLY old. We stained it, went out to eat, and then Shannon hung it for me that night.  

I am so happy with the color of the shelf, because it looks so pretty with the fall leaves in the pictures!

I just love the simplicity of the look and of course, love those sweet faces smiling back at me!

Rainbow Book Shelf

Addie had been mentioning how she wanted to arrange her bookshelf in rainbow color order.  She looks at a lot of online posts/pictures of bookshelves.  She loves pictures of bookshelves and libraries. The girl LOVES to read and has since she was 3 years old, no joke.  Her nose was in a book for so many years.  It still is from time to time, but now its more in her phone!  In her defense though, she reads a lot on her phone too!  

So, check out what she did one morning on Thanksgiving break.  I walked in and it was pure joy! There is just something about rainbow order that is so pleasing to the eyes.  God sure knew what he was doing with that rainbow, didn't he? :)

Yeah, I filtered this picture a bit to make the color pop!

School Memories Organization

Okay, this makes me so happy!  Morgan over at MorganizewithMe breathed new life into the way I had the kids' school stuff organized.  My mom kept a little school memories book for all of us girls when we were younger and I loved it and still do!  It's in my memory box right now!  So, I have always kept a school book for my kids, but they were starting to look hilarious with all of the stuff pouring out of the pockets.  And then, of course, I had other tubs to store other random school papers that wouldn't fit into the overflowing pocket.  I so should have taken a picture of those books before I saw the light!  It was pretty laughable.  And really, they couldn't enjoy looking at it at all or writing in it because it was so hard to manuever!  Here is what I did after Morgan got ahold of me.

First of all, thank you Lord, we were heading to Bloomington for a movie that night and so I could justify running into Walmart (right next to the theater!) to pick up these file boxes and colorful folders.  Then I set to work pulling out papers from the overcramped school memories books and placing them into folders.  Their books still have their school pics, report cards and notes that they jot down each year (friends, fave classes, height/weight/goals, etc.) but this file system is much more manageable for cards, invites, awards, newspaper clippings, etc.!  I decided to organize by grade and then at the back are file folders for school journals, essays, tests, art, and portraits.  

Don't they look fantastic??  The school books fit right in the front!

These baskets house the papers from the current school year.  That way, I don't need to open up the file box every time something comes home or is in the newspaper.  My old system was to throw it in the top of the living room closet and then go through all of it at the end of the school year.  This looks much better, don't you think? ;)  No, I do not keep every paper, test, essay. But I do collect all of it and then purge at the end and keep what I think they would like to see later.  Honestly, I don't give them a lot of say in this area, because neither of my kids would take much time or thought to go through it all.  Addie does like to take some of her stuff and stick it to her bedroom wall.  

Here is how I store it for now.  It still goes in the top of the living room closet, but boy, does this make me happy and peaceful when I open the door!  

After I had put them altogether, I showed the kids.  Addie sat in the living room and looked through hers and told me several times how much she loved it and how thankful she was that I had all of this stuff for her!  It is just the right amount of stuff for them to see how much they have grown, changed, or not changed!  She was laughing because she wrote a little essay in second grade about singing and dancing and how happy it made her.  As of now, she really wants to be in musical theater someday, so not much has changed there!

Huge thanks to Morgan for getting my butt in gear and giving me this great idea.

I LOVE this happy little thing!

Gloria Patri

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

We painted the kitchen and the walls were kind of bare.  I wasn't really looking for something for the wall at this time, but this sign leapt out at me while I was in Hobby Lobby the other day.  I liked the simplicity of it, loved the vintage aqua color and really loved what it said.  Growing up, we sang this as our doxology at church every Sunday, so those words are engraved on my heart and in my mind. And are actually pretty powerful words.  I was so happy to have this reminder in my kitchen...the first room you see when you come into my house!

It had a burlap type ribbon attached to hang it.  I didn't really want it hanging on some random nail, so I thought about what would look a little more substantial, but wouldn't cost a lot.  I found a 97 cent cabinet pull and figured Shannon could figure out how to attach that to the wall.  :)

As it turns out, I used my little noggin and asked if Reece could take the Dremel and remove the head of the screw that came with the knob.  Then I could screw one end of the screw into the knob and the other into the wall.  It worked beautifully!

I love how the finished product looks on the wall.  It is a great reminder for all who enter as well!