March!

It's March already! Hard to believe, but then again not. We all know this year will go by as quick as the last one did. I think the clocks go forward next week? Seems early this year but I think Easter is early too, March 29th is Good Friday. Speaking of Easter, I decided to get out a little decor for the table this week. We have been invited to a friends house for Easter dinner which will be nice, but I still wanted to set the table for a few weeks like I normally do. They may look all the same, but I tried to snap a picture from each corner of the room..

I got the zebra chargers at Hobby Lobby in the after Christmas sale. I think they were 99c each!I thought they'd look good with the chairs, and I think they do.

 

I wish my wood floor actually looked as nice as in the picture! It's a lot lighter than that and needs to be refinished. It has a lot of scratches on it. 

Of course all the Easter decor will be put away by the time you come over Nenna :) I think I'll look for some Sunflower decor for the Summer.

I also got started on painting the basement this weekend. It's a mess right now, but you asked for some pictures, so here's a couple.

 

The walls don't look that yellow, it's actually more of a gold color. 

Don't worry, the bar will be open 24/7 when you arrive :-)

More Snow!

We had another winter storm yesterday, it snowed ALL day well past 9.30pm. I think we have at least 8" of snow, and it's due to snow again tomorrow. Looks like Spring is a way off for us, and there's my neighbor in TX mulching her garden beds already and planting flowers! You may be getting bored with all the snow pictures, but here's a couple I took this morning....

 

It's funny because on the other side of the house there's hardly any snow on the deck. The wind was blowing and it all accumulated on this side.

Not much else going on around here. I have been knitting as I alway do ;-) And I finished a sweater for myself (I recently finished a cardigan for Jason, but haven't taken any photos yet!). It's been a while since I took any modeled shots of my knits, so I got Jason to take some yesterday.... during the blizzard!

It's kinda hard to see my new hair cut and color, but it was the sweater I was showing off ;-)

 I'll try to take some pictures of the rooms in the house this week Nenna. I am hoping to paint the basement soon so I'll take some before pictures for sure.

What a conrast!

So the last time I posted I showed beautiful pictures of the sun shining on the trees outside making them look golden. Today as I look out the front I see this . . . .

 

Yes, we got more snow last night, about 4 inches or more I think. AND we are forecast to get more on Saturday and Sunday! Jason is leaving on Sunday to go to Maryland for a few days work. I'm hoping he gets a chance to snowblow the snow off the driveway before he leaves and hopefully it won't snow much after that, or I won't be able to go anywhere. My van has no snow tires and I can't get up the driveway with all the snow.

 

On a different note, I'm trying to eat healthy again, following WW. Here is breakfast from yesterday... scrambled egg on English Muffin with smoked salmon, YUM :)

 

 

Beautiful!

I was sitting at my computer desk yesterday, which looks out on the front driveway. Jason had gone up to get the mail (when I say gone up, I mean he walks up the driveway to the mailbox on the side of the road). As I looked out the window I saw this....
 

 The sky was very grey (but we didn't get rain!) and the evening sun was shining on the yellow grass and trees! It looked amazing, so I had to grab my camera/phone. You can see Jason up at the mail box in the pic below.

I love the views we have here. I never tire of looking out of the window :-)  Can't wait til you're here Nenna!

Room by Room

Our dining room is very small! As you can see it's really just a niche big enough for the table!!! But it serves a purpose, and has pretty views :) The table has been cluttered for a few weeks. It's one of those spots where you just dump things (a hot spot as Flylady calls them). So I finally cleared it off last week and polished up the table. I have removed the small table that was in there against the wall (it's now behind the sofa in the living room) and placed the other two chairs at the table, making a total of 6 (actually in these pics there's only 5 because I hadn't carried the other one up from the basement).

 

 

Just before Christmas we got a new kitchen table and chairs. I don't think I've taken pictures of them yet, so here they are. I love the animal print on the chairs. The table is a glass top. 

 I need some accessories for the buffet. And I want some shelves on the wall there too.

Next up - the bedroom!! I will try to take pics of our master bedroom ;-) Need some pictures on the walls in there too. It will motivate me to get them hung if I know I will be taking photos.

 

Moving Around

I changed the living room around after Christmas, these pictures are for Nenna, but they aren't very good, the sun was too bright and cast a lot of shadows in the afternoon. I will try to take evening pics soon Nenna.  Here is a photo of how the living room looked at Christmas. If you remember the sofa was facing the tv/fireplace, but it wasn't a very good set up for when people came over and you wanted to sit and chat.

 I moved the sofa to the right side of the room, and the wicker chairs to the left, leaving an opening so the room looks more spacious. We can still see the tv, but I think it's a better layout for when people come over. Now I just need to get rid of the grooves in the carpet from where the sofa and chairs used to be... they drive me crazy!!

 And I wanted to take a picture of the lovely blue sky we had that day (which we have nearly every day, I might add). Can you see we got snow! Got more last night too and we've got about 4" outside this morning.

 

Kristen and I got our hair cut last weekend. I forgot to take a picture when we got home and we've since had it washed of course, but here is Kristen. She got layers in her hair, finally, but it's hard to see here. Her first layer is just under her chin. She really likes it. I got mine cut, colored and highlighted. Will have to try and take a pic, next time I wash it ;-)

 terrible lighting, she's not really that pale!!!!!

 

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.