Finishing touches!!!!!

I have been working on finishing some last details from the projects we took on this year.Mostly the kitchen,my hubby added the tin to the side of the copper sink that is exposed and I painted the cabinet edges that showed.The last thing to do is add more tin to the top section where the faucet is.It looks so much better!!!! Also I started a photo project I blogged about in April 2008.Hard to believe I never did it(I did start enlarging the photos but never actually hung them).I finally put up sepia photos that I enlarged on our stairway!!! The xmas photos of the boys inspired me!!!! I am now on a mission to find cool frames.Life sometimes gets in our way of the things we want to do, but I do feel inspired knowing they get done eventually!!!! Tonight we are having a small little New Years Eve party with our younger boys!!! We are cooking sea food and having a bunch of snacks ,very low key but plan on having fun!!! Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!!!!

My sweet angels!!!!

My youngest two boys are at a great age!!!I am having fun with them a lot more than when my older two were younger.I am still stressed out a lot but in a different way.I took pictures of them today and they were very cooperative with my styling of the photos!!!! They came out very cute!!! Too bad it is too late to make xmas cards with the photos!!!! LOL!!!!

Holiday party !!!!!

Today we went to GrandpaClaus's house!!!! My father in law hosted xmas at his house .It was a really fun time !!!! Before we left my daughter and I were taking photos of ourselves and being silly.The other photos are at the party the kids had such a fun time!!!!

Big Pink Tree

I finally am taking a photo of our "big tree". I am not sure what size it is but it is a full size pink tree!!!!! I bought it two years ago and I LOVE it!! I threw our 'green tree' out at the end of last xmas season but I think we will get another one next year when the construction is done and I can move my dining table out of the living room.You can tell in the photo my house is still under construction by the layer of dust that just won't go away on the table,LOL!!!!

Xmas prep

Today I decorated my mantel in our bedroom.I added two of our stockings for Santa to fill!!!! The pink one is from the "Shabby Chic" line(at Target). I really haven't bought anything new this year except my mini tree.I am going to wait until after Xmas and buy it all on sale!!!!!! The kids made a gingerbread house w/ a kit I picked up.It turned out really cute and luckily I took photos because it fell apart 15 minutes after we were done!!! LOL!!!! I think they put too much candy on it!!!

Bathroom update

We are still working on bathroom.We had to break down a glass block wall that used to enclose our old tub and shower.It was a nightmare to break and especially the clean up. On the bright side the bathroom looks huge!!!! I really love the open feel of the room!!!!!!

Birthday party and tiling the floor!!!

It was a typical birthday party at our house!!! My son turned twelve the day after Thanksgiving but we had his party yesterday.(He was actually born on Thanksgiving Day !!!) My husband decided he would finish up on our bathroom project during the party.It involved laying down the dura rock and he decided we NEEDED the clawfoot tub in the bathroom so he could cut the hole in the floor for the drain pipe.My oldest son was here for the day . Hubby had him call a friend to help w/ the tub.My husband was getting impatient waiting for the guy to show up so he was figuring out a way for me ,my neighbor,my dad (who is 70+ and him to lift this thing.It is super heavy so I was not happy about it.Luckily my sons friend showed up to take my place !!!!!! All went well,it took 5 people to lift this tub upstairs and turn the thing into our bathroom. About two years ago the night before we had a birthday party for my youngest,we tore out our kitchen wall.It was just exposed beams when guests arrived.(That year I had to clean all the plaster during the night so our house would look decent!!!! It has been a theme to have some major renovation going on during a party!!!!Sometimes our guests help out too!!!!!! After the party I tiled the floor where the claw foot will go.Today we will tile a few rows that we need on the wall.I will take some photos later today!!!!!

Mini Tree

I have had a xmas tree in our kitchen the last two years.This year I wanted to put a tree but now the space has changed.We have the huge armoire where I had put the tree before.I found a cute mini tree that I can place on the counter.It is a lavender/pinkish colored tree.The kids decorated it . So the tradition of having more than one tree continues!!!!!! The other one is in the living room.Here is a photo of the kitchen mini tree.

Bath tub update

On our days off this week we worked on re-enforcing some support beams we discovered were cut through by previous owners.It was an ordeal to re-support.Our house is in a sad state right now with the saw dust and mess!!!! My husband woke up with a sore neck after doing all the re-supporting and had to go see our doctor .He couldn't move his head and was in a lot of pain After wearing an anti-imflamatory patch and alot of pain killers he went to work .I am working on cleaning the house and making it presentable since we have clients that come to our house.I am hoping we can start tiling this weekend.We did get the sub foor down.I am also trying to decorate the house for xmas!!!! I wasn't going to put up much of anything this year but because we have two younger kids I decided to start decorating. Hopefully they will stay dust free!!!!!

Thanksgiving Day

We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner.We stayed home this year.We had a great time cooking but my favorite is setting the table!!!!! I didn't buy anything special for the table .I gathered my favorite candles from around the house and used my pretty dishes that I bought a few months ago.The table is in the living room right now .We are working on the room that is going to be converted into our dining room My table is almost 8 ft. so I also used seating from all over !!!! A settee on one side and a bench on the other and chairs in between.I love to mix and match!!!!!! Here are photos I took while setting the table.

Bathroom demo!!!!

Once again we are living in a construction zone!!!!! We had to rip out the old bathtub from our main bathroom.It had a crack that kept getting bigger and bigger!!!!No worries ,I hated the tub and have a clawfoot waitng to go in!!!!! This room is tied into our project from down stairs(it is directly above it).We are opening up the wall downstairs and will be moving pipes for this bathroom.At least the mess downstairs is hidden from anyones view at this point since we only demolished one side of the wall ( I can close the door and not see the mess!!!! Now the bathroom on the other hand is very visible!!!!! I will be cleaning up the mess today and the rest of the house for Thanksgiving. Here are a few photos.

November Roses

I was shocked to find my roses in bloom today!!!! It is amazing since my roses barely bloomed all year!!! A nice surprise for Thanksgiving !!!!!!

Loving life!!!!

Today I came home from a very inspiring seminar!!! It was about living in the moment. I was surrounded by people with great energy.My husband and I are super charged!!!!!!We have been in the car a lot lately.We drove to Tennessee last weekend and Michigan this weekend both for seminars. House projects will start up again in the weeks to come!!!! Here are some pictures from the Tennessee drive.

Haunted Mansion!!!!

Halloween is my favorite holiday next to Xmas!!! I love to decorate the house.On one of my cleaning binges I threw out all our old mannequin scary heads so I am re starting our collection!!!!! I decorated the outside a little but things seem to disappear around here so I have scaled back when it comes to outside.Here is a peek at our living room.

Painting the bedroom!!!!

I did a lot of painting projects while hubby was gone.I had been wanting to paint the wall behind our bed a chocolate brown.The rest of the room is an eggplant purple color. I also debated painting our bed off white.The nightstands are an off white color so I thought it would look better than the regular wood . Once I painted the wall, I HAD to paint the bed!!!!! The bed took forever to paint!!!!! I had to do a million coats.It probably needs some more but I am over it!!!! I do love how the lighter color makes the bed pop against the chocolate brown.Here are photos.

Painting!!!!

I finally feel better!!!! My husband is out of town for work so I thought I would do some painting projects around the house .I have seen doors painted with chalk board paint in kitchens and love how they look. I have a door that leads into a small hallway and down to the basement from the kitchen .I thought this would be the perfect door for the look. I love how it turned out.I used a chalk board spray paint.It was an easy project but a very messy clean up.The spray paint dust got all over the floor . Love how it turned out!!!!! Here's a photo