Christmas came early!

I woke up this morning with the intention of taking my little elf out for more Christmas shopping for our "big guy" but instead now plan to clean up the house, catch up on laundry, and cover a shift at work tonight. Needless to say, the day I was ever so excited about quickly became one I was less-than-thrilled to face. I did do plan on squeezing in some present wrapping, and managing to take some photos of our holiday decor. But, the most pleasant surprise, (as it often does), came to me when I logged on to take a quick look at my favorite blogs and noticed The Kelton's Cozy Cottage had chosen a winner for their latest giveaway.

And, the winner is... Moi!

Considering I'd probably lose my head if I didn't have an ever-so-necessary neck to keep it in place at the end of long days of motherhood, being a lovely and supportive wife, tackling household projects (which could consist of a simple ten loads of laundry or taping, priming, and painting just about anything), rushing to and from work, and managing to 'be there' for whatever friend or family member may need me, a glass of  wine is my 'self-prescribed dose of sanity'. Soooooo, as you can imagine this lovely little gift will surely get plenty of use!

Aren't they just gorgeous?!?!?!

Thanks again to The Kelton's!!! Be sure to take a look at their blog and follow them through their "adventures in their 1949 fixer-upper".

these are a few of my favorite things.

1.) finding a fabulous 'new-to-me' blog through another blog I loooooove!
2.) coming across a fabulous give-a-way on the new blog I am happy to have found!
3.) entering to win this little piece of loveliness...

4.) (a little off the subject but equally as wonderful to me) the changes made to my sweet ole' blog ;)

and....

5.) sharing the opportunity to win something fabulous from here, with all of you lovely readers!

ANYONE can enter so be sure to head on over to high-heeled foot in the door by Saturday Dec. 19th at midnight EST and enter to win something special for yourself (or someone you love enough to share such fabulous-ness with) this holiday season.

If you love something fabulous and FREE (and who in the world doesn't?!?!?) check out another uh-mazing give-a-way over at one of my favorite blogs! What a season of giving these ladies are making it out to be!

I'm off to play elf and wrap presents with my boys while cookies bake and fill the house with the sweetest aroma of the season. Be back tomorrow, finally, to share some of our holiday decor.

well, that's changed.

Things around our home are constantly changing. Mostly, it's my mind, but that usually means so does our decor, or more accurately, my ideas for our decor. But in this instance, I'm referring to how our lives have changed.

Before October 31, 2007 a Saturday night consisted of dinner out and a movie or dinner and drinks with friends. Or maybe shopping, and take-out then a late-night snugglefest curled up on the sofa watching the latest new release. Or maybe, it was spent away from home at a hotel for the weekend to relax in their hot tub, or with family playing cards and drinking wine. But here we are, two years plus after that oh-so-special date and our Saturday nights go a little more like this....

 

Pizza delivery, a couple diet cokes, candlelight, and of course...

 

a third party. :) Do we still take an occasional Saturday night to ourselves to have "us" time and a dinner where someone waits on us and makes seventy-three and a half trips back and forth until we are happy with what we are eating or drinking? We. Sure. Do. Do we miss having every Saturday night to just the two of us? Not. A. Chance.

We spent Saturday night together at the dinner table with what I must say was quite a delicious dinner and despite getting up a few times to get our picky-eater something more appealing to his eyes and his little belly, we stopped for a moment and made a point to really appreciate where our lives are now. Married, happy, healthy, and with a precious little boy who sees us as his whole world. Well ok, maybe the occasional new toy is his whole world but more so, us. :)

Things change, and, in this case, change is good.

I'd love to stay and type but that precious little boy I just referred to is now up from his nap and immediately noticed I turned the Christmas tree off while he was snoozing. "Tree on mama", he says.

Hope to be back soon with photos of our holiday decorating, that is, if we ever find a tree topper we love. Anyone know where to find a star tree topper that isn't made of gumball machine plastic and blinky lights? No offense to anyone who loves those. ;)

feeling inspired.

Thanks to the lovely (and always inspiring) Holly over at life in the fun lane I saw this post the other day and immediately fell in love with the knobs and pulls she used on a dresser for her master bedroom. Considering I've been stressing for months over ideas on how to turn Jack's very neutral nursery into more of a little boy's room that will suit his style personality better, I immediately wondered what that hardware could look like on his dresser, in his room. A quick call to Anthropologie to see if they had them in stock.... exactly 6 pulls left, just what I need (plus two knobs) and, we. are. on. our. way.

Me, and my adorable companion....

...are off to shop for his room.

be. still. my. heart.

i give thanks every day.

...but every year on Thanksgiving we all seem to make a special effort to stop and give thought to the things we are most thankful for. Often it's the every day things that we seem to cherish more than anything. It can be said that most of us find ourselves thankful for the same things: family, friends, a roof over our head, food on our table, warm clothes on our back, and having memories to hold on to of loved ones we've lost, just to name a few.
I'm thankful for those things and feel eternally blessed. But, for me, there's so much more to it...

-living with two heartbeats for 9 months.
-my first kiss as a Mrs.
-the moment we welcomed Jack Trenton to our lives.
-hearing that first cry.
-a saturday morning breakfast with my boys.
-kind deeds, particularly from strangers.
-having a heart to heart talk with my best friend; my baby sister.
-the moment I realized he was proposing.
-marrying the man that refused to give up on me, even when I'd nearly given up on myself.
-watching my 'baby' learn something new and seeing the pride on his face.
-the first time Jack laughed.
-my first tattoo.
-Travis' surprise 30th birthday party.
-celebrating Jack.
-looking at my son and envisioning my husband as a little boy.
-childhood memories of an afternoon fishing with my grandpa, using anything but worms as bait.
-the moment I met my husband, and knew right then, I was going to be his wife. (true story)
-the sunday morning I got "two pink lines".

These moments are what I live for. The memories that will be as clear when I'm a little old lady as they are now, at the age of twenty-five and at only the beginning of what I believe will be the best years of my life, as I live out my dream... being a wife, and, a mother.

These are my perfect moments. These are what I am most thankful for.

What do you find yourself feeling most thankful for this year?

opinions. everyone has one, right?

Now is a time I find myself wishing I was lucky enough to have a whole slew of followers because I need opinions people! I'm so gracious for the seven that I do have and I would love your thoughts, on a few things actually.

1st.) Please take a look at the previous post and let me know what you think about the bar area. Close it in with lighted shelves for cookbooks and ironstone? Or leave it as a small 'bar/eating' area?

2nd.) We have a HUGE empty wall in our living room and want to install a photo ledge similar to this one over at The Lettered Cottage. Our dilemma is, should we install one? Or two? It, or they, would be the entire length of the wall but sans the beadboard. Unless of course within the next few hours I can convince Travis to go ahead with the beadboard because I'm all for it!

Here is the big expansive wall. (17 ft. ceilings and just over 10 ft. wide)

 

Nevermind that big (unromantic) recliner in the corner. I want to replace it with an upholstered chair or an arm chair and a reading lamp.Other than our huge furniture and our buffet-turned-entertainment center (thanks to craigslist and some RL 'roadster white' paint) our living room is a big blank canvas we're working on adding some coziness to.

We sure are looking forward to hearing your thoughts/ideas/opinions!

cotton fluff and so much more.

I've been putting off posting photos of our kitchen just yet because we still had a short list of things to finish. However, considering we added two more fairly big projects to that list just this morning, I figured I better just share the kitchen now in it's current state and look forward to a big finale later.

There are things you'll notice that still need done:

-replace the missing baseboards
-change out the existing light switches and plates/plugs for white ones
-touch up walls and cabinets
-spray kitchen/back door knob and garage door knob black

(*a surprise for later* that big oak table will be replaced with a farmhouse table with mis-matched chairs and you won't believe the story it has behind it! But that also needs sanded, primed, stained/painted)

and, as of this morning we added:

-install beadboard to the ends of cabinets and underneath bar area
-install moulding along tops of cabinets for a finished look

So, as always, we have a loooooong way to go. But, on the flip bright side of things we've already come a looooong way.

Remember this?

Builder's oak. Faux wood trim. Mustard walls.

And to be completely honest, this was even after a few updates we'd already made. The walls used to be brick red, with those oak cabinets, and a very golden laminate floor. The kitchen felt like a dungeon.

 

But now, after we:

ripped up flooring, laid new tile, painted all doors and trim white, changed out our light fixture 'globes', removed the ugly mini-blinds, painted the window casings white, installed curtain rods and the neutral striped curtains (I'm already considering raising the curtain rods to the ceiling and changing the curtains to the super long white 'Lenda' curtains from Ikea), had the kitchen painted with Behr's "wheat bread", and went through the very long, tedious and frustrating process of learning not to spray primer through our sprayer in order to get Behr's pretty shade of "cotton fluff" on the cabinets, it looks like this...

(be sure to click on the photos for a full view)

 

I am so proud of those frames! I got two packs of 2 for just $7 each. Added mats, and a photo of each of us with our birthday cakes this year, along with an internet image of a rusty old "3" in the one hanging by itself to represent our little family of three and I love love love it. Makes me smile every  morning. ...and I'm not usually a smile-in-the-morning kind of gal. ;)

 

 

Travis made the comment it was starting to look modern so I made sure to add plenty of  not-so-modern touches since that is not the look I was going for. Hope you noticed... the raw edged burlap table runner, the lovely little (and growing fast) collection of white dishes and ironstone, the mason jar candle holders, and the pretty little frames with images I've found on the internet or typed myself because after all, everything seems a little more appealing when it's FREE. ;)

Now here is where I need the help of anyone who took the time to read this post! Please please please, tell us what you think about building in that little "bar" area with bookshelves after we install the beadboard? I'd fill it with cookbooks, ironstone, maybe a few masons in a wire basket.

I know the wall above there looks so lost, but we hope once we have beadboard on the side of the cabinet and moulding along the top that it will look more 'finished'. I'm also considering a collection of plates there or art deco letters spelling out 'BAKERY'.

Let us know what you think? :)