Making a start...

I KNOW!!! I haven't blogged since Christmas day!! There's really not that much been going on since then so not much to catch you up with. Kristen was feeling much better by Boxing day, managed to eat a little toast and some other things during the day but was still tired. She's 100% again now thankfully. No one else got the bug but I did start getting a sore throat on New Years Eve and a stuffy head and nose. I forced myself to go out to our neighbors for their party (I really felt like just going to bed) but I took a headache pill and my head felt better, I just sounded hoarse. I managed to stay til after midnight too with Jason and Kristen. Didn't take any photos though!

I also skyped for the first time on New Years Eve with my family in England, it was awesome. I was on there for over an hour with them, and even though we lost connection right at midnight! we got it back again and I sang Auld Langs Syne with them and watched them play their traditional Sidney the Spider game!! (don't ask!).

Anyway, here we are already nearly the middle of January. I am super excited because my sister has booked her flight to come over and see us in June :-) I think she's probably even more excited than me. I am starting to get the house organized (something I would still be doing if she wasn't coming) so I thought I'd share some before and afters as I go from room to room. That will give me something to blog about right :)

Yesterday we went to Kirklands and bought some things. Thank you MAM for the $$$ which I used in Kirklands. I forgot to take a picture of the office shelves before I cleared them (and the photos aren't very good, I was using my phone. It usually takes good pics, but I was rushing and they are a little blurry. I'll take better ones another time, when we get the desks cleared. 

As you come in the front door, the office is on your left. It has double french doors and built in book shelves. The windows face the front of the house. Here are the shelves I cleared ready to try and dress up with some Kirkland goodies. 

 The sofa is the one we had in our game room upstairs in Texas, it's from Ikea. We had it downstairs here until a few weeks ago when we bought a large leather sectional for the basement (I'll show you that another time).

 And here are the shelves all looking pretty! But you can see I have some packing boxes full of books on the top shelf and my photo albums. Jason will take them down soon then I'll have to add more decor to finish it off.

 I bought the pretty pillows from Kirklands too. The flowered ones are embroidered and have jewels on them. They looked similar to the ones I've coveted from Pottery Barn for months,but are half the price :-)

 A close up of the left side of the shelves. Photo at the top left needs a picture of us in it. I also want to get some ribbon and try to make a bow for the top of it (like I see in Kristen's Etsy shop). If it doesn't turn out well, I'll have to buy one of Kristen's cos they are really pretty.

 So, this is the view when you're sitting on the sofa. You face our ikea computer desks where Kristen and I do school work each day. This is still the messy part of the room and needs a good declutter.

 I still need to add pictures to the wall (above the sofa) and I'm debating on getting some valances for the windows. Right now they have wooden blinds which are nice but I always feel a room is unfinished if they don't have a curtain of some kind on them!!

And lastly, for Nenna, here's a picture I took of Kristen wearing her lovely wolf t-shirt you sent. She LOVES it.

(not so) Merry Christmas

Poor Kiki started feeling sick last night, just as we were skyping with Grandma and Papa (my inlaws). She threw up many times from then until the middle of the night, but had no fever. This morning however she had a low grade fever, and still felt very queasy and tired. She came in to our bedroom about 7.30am and just lay there for a while... her head hanging over a dish, poor thing. 

We eventually came downstairs where she lay on the sofa and opened a few presents (very slowly). We don't have the usual Christmas Eve and morning photos to share, and we're all just having a quiet day now. We had to cancel going over to our friends house to have prime rib with them, but luckily I had cooked a small turkey breast yesterday and made my yummy mashed potatoes. Later I will make a green bean casserole and we'll have a late Christmas dinner. Kiki might not want to eat much though.

We did wake up to 5 inches of snow though, which was pretty, but poor Kiki can't go out and sled in it. 

 Hope you're all enjoying your Christmas Day. It was great skyping wiht my family back in England too.

For Nenna :-)

We went to a birthday party on Saturday, it was at a house in the neighborhood. Our new friends little girl was turning one. Their house is HUGE and has a gym and a WINE CELLAR!!!!!! So, especially for my sis, I snapped a few pics ;-)

This is the bar downstairs in the basement!! What you can't see is the big tv to the left of me there, and the comfy sofa, and behind that is a billiard table and two pinball machines!!

 This is the wine cellar - to die for. It is climate controlled and to the right of me you can see a fountain on the wall. It is a very soothing sound when you walk in there, and you can smell the cedar wood that the wine racks are made of.

 

5 liter bottle of wine anyone?!!

You can see the climate control panel on the wall here.

 

This is the entrance, the wrought iron on the doors have grapes and leaves entwined on them. 

 Right next to the wine cellar is the home gym!

So Nenna, when are you coming over?! :-)

Gingerbread

It's time to decorate the gingerbread house :-) Our yearly tradition is usually to do this after the last day of school before Christmas, but this year we just did it one evening this week when we were all in the mood for it. We had Christmas songs playing and I made extra icing (as the kit never seems to come with enough) and I let Kristen go to town and decorate to her hearts content.

She got very creative this year with one side of the house. It was looking very bare, so she created a snowman mosaic :)

A White Christmas - perhaps!

We are getting snow today, one week before Christmas :) We may actually see a white Christmas for our first year in Colorado. It's snowing as I type this. Thought I'd take a few pictures from the windows and share them with you....

This is the view I see above the computer screen as I look out the front on to the driveway.

To the left of me is the front porch. It's windy so the snow is blowing around as it's very light and dry. 

The driveway is getting a good covering.

This is the main deck out the back, the snow hasn't settled here much either, because of the wind.

 

A close up of the view from this deck

This is the deck on the other side of the house, with a view of our two big pine trees.

 They look so Christmasy when the snow is on them.

And a few pictures taken inside this morning.

 We can't hang our stockings on the fireplace, so I've put them here behind the sofa, on the kitchen counter

Are you all ready for Christmas? I think we are!!

Oops!

I guess I got out of the habit of blogging again! Not much to blog about over the past few weeks, and life as usual has been busy with school every day and taking Bindi on walks to wear her out!!! Yes, she is one little hyper puppy so I have started taking her for a walk in the morning before we start school. Just for about 40 minutes. It does help, as she settles down a lot more and sleeps or just chews toys while we are working. I took some pictures the other day as I headed up the street..

Took this one too when we got back....

 I've also been knitting and made these cute tree ornaments this week. I've got shawls on the needles and socks too, but these were a quick knit so I wanted to try them. There's a bunny you can make too which I think I will do next.

We have snow this morning, about 5 inches!! I may try to take pics later when Kiki goes out in it to play, which I'm sure she will.  I have the fixin's for a lovely breakfast brunch, bacon, eggs, hash browns and waffles, AND Mimosas!!! It's going to be a cozy day at home for us 3. Hope you have a great day too.