Hard At Work

More and more things are getting done! I'm beginning to really fall in love with our home :).

I was able to talk my mother-in-law into writing on my chalkboard using her beautiful penmanship. Didn't she do a good job?

I just love this quote by David Meeks. It struck me when I read it for the first time. P.S. That's a new chair the photo above :).

I also got a chance to hang a window that was given to us when we were living in Nashville.
Here's before:

And after:

Red Mirror

My friend Carol is visiting, and she is such a great influence on me. She encourages me to be bold in my decorating, and I'm SO glad.

Do you remember what the mirror looked like when I bought it? Here it is before:

And check it out now! I love it, I love it, I love it!

Lucy Pants

Lucy's Grandma (Dave's mom) made some ADORABLE pants with the leftover yarn from the robe she made awhile ago.
So here's the bathrobe...


And here are her new pants! Can you believe how cute they are? Lucy is so lucky :)

Control

This past summer, Dave and I had the chance to hear part of a friend's story while we were working together at Young Life Camp. Brittany shared with us (and the campers) about her difficult family situation when she was growing up. They looked to her to be the "perfect" one who held them all together. She decided that if she was going to be feeling pain anyway, she wanted to be the one who was in control of it, and that was the start of her addiction to self mutilation.

Fortunately, she eventually found herself in a community of friends who loved her and showed her that God wanted to heal her. She realized that it was only when she gave up control to the Lord, she could finally be free of her addiction. I took her story and ran with it. I hope "Control" does her justice.

The song is available exclusively through digital retailers like iTunes. Click the photo (below) to check it out. If you want to share it with friends on Twitter, or Facebook, you can do it right from the iTunes Music Store. Just click the little arrow to the right of the "Buy" button, and select "Share on Twitter/Facebook."

Two Things

And we are once again moving forward with our house project. We bought this chair today and it's so comfy.

Dave and I have a vision of using our eat-in-kitchen space for a conversation/reading/coffee-drinking nook. We spend some time searching for a round, wooden table to fit the space, and we just ordered it online. Don't worry, we're not going to use that bistro table in that space... it's just for reference.

AND... I found this AWESOME mirror! I just love it. It's made out of some mysterious plastic-y substance.

I'm going to paint it, but I don't know what color yet. White is the most sensible, but I want to wait to make my final decision until we choose all our room colors. It could look awesome if I paint it a vibrant color.

By the way... I put the stool in the photo to give you a size reference. I can't wait to paint it and put it on the wall!

Bel Kai Designs

I just got this necklace in the mail from Whitney over at Bel Kai Designs. I love it! There's even a little "L" for my Lucy Love. Please take a minute to go check out her beautiful jewelry.

Thank you Whitney!

Living Room

First of all, I wanted to say a big "thank-you" to all of you who posted links to lighting photos on my last post. I think we've settled on doing a criss-cross pattern to make it feel bistro-like.

Now... I was wondering if you all had some input on furniture arrangement in the living room. The glider that's in there right now is just temporary, but we'd like to get something else. It would be nice to get a love seat, but I'm not sure how it would fit. A chair might leave us with not enough seating. I brilliant friend of mine suggested finding a chair and a half. Keep in mind that we can adjust the angle of the rug as well. Thoughts?

P.S. New carpet is being installed RIGHT NOW!

porch lights

I'm really excited. I just bought these lights to put up on the back porch, but we're kind-of undecided about how we should do it.

Dave wants to string them in a straight line along that horizontal beam.

But I think it would be cool to zig-zag them from the beam, to the house, back to the beam, etc.

I suppose another option could be to wrap the lights around that beam.
Can anyone find any good inspiration photos?

Little By Little

We invested in new door knobs! I couldn't believe how much it totaled up to be, but it was SO worth it. We decided to go with "aged bronze" to match our front door. This box makes me feel like we could have our own hardware store.

But look at the difference!!!
Before:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Sometimes it's the smallest things that can make the biggest difference. For example... my husband brought these flowers home for me last night. I love him :).

Making Arrangements

Here's what I have for my mantle arrangement so far.

I know that the little green branch-y things are a little too sparse. Do you think I should buy more of those and make it more full, or should I add something else?

I definitely don't know very much about flower arranging, so any input would be much appreciated.