Shaking out the cobwebs...

I am back (again)! It's been an interesting month since I've been here. Both for the good and for the bad. My father in law was hospitalized for a couple of weeks. They found a tumor in his stomach that turned out to be an aggressive and rare form of stomach cancer. Praise God, the surgery to remove it was successful. However, following his surgery, he had a stroke. This was really the more devastating of the two events. His prognosis for both is good. He is regaining his strength each day and thankfully it seems he will be able to fully recover soon!



Because of this family emergency, my husband was gone to the hospital pretty much all day, every day for two weeks (after just getting home from a trip for work). This left me to take care of our little one and hold down the home front. We also made several trips to the hospital all while trying to prepare for and celebrate the holidays. But we are so blessed! It turned out that my father in law was able to come home before Christmas and we were able to celebrate all together. I hope your holiday was as blessed as ours! Here we are on Christmas Eve:


I have also had a couple of exciting things happen in the last few days. First off, I won! I actually won! Whisperwood Cottage was kind enough to host a wonderful giveaway last month for what should prove to be a fantastic book, The Find by Stan Williams (aka The Elegant Thrifter). I haven't received the book yet, but I am eagerly awaiting its arrival. Also, if you haven't spent time on the Whisperwood Cottage blog, don't even hesitate... go there now! She has great ideas (such as her recent wreath make over) and inspiring makeovers that WILL make you drool (such as her master bedroom makeover, my personal favorite). So, thank you again to the Whisperwood Cottage, not only for the wonderful giveaway, but for hosting a wonderful blog that I enjoy so much!


The other excitement is the new year. Notice I didn't capitalize that. New Year's Eve is not my favorite holiday since we usually end up being very low key. In fact this year we stayed home with our little one who is dealing with her first cold... pretty minor in the scheme of things, but still has thrown her off her regular game. So back to my new year... It's a wonderful time to re-evaluate, re-configure, and re-organize both the tangible and intangible. I've never been big on setting resolutions of the new year, but this year is different. I want to really focus on being better... as a mom, as a wife, daughter, sister, friend, homemaker, etc. I am planning to share some of my resolutions here as a way to keep me accountable. So I guess I am giving everyone permission to call me out on those resolutions!! (one of which does involve being a better blogger!:))


I've rambled and I apologize for that. I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts, projects, and ideas here in the coming days and weeks. So if you feel so inclined, come on back and see what 2010 brings for me while she sleeps!! (And while you wait for those posts, be sure to check out a FANTASTIC giveaway at Beneath My Heart. Traci is hosting a $75 giveaway for Lisa Leonard jewelry... one of my favs! You can check out the giveaway here. Don't miss it!)


~Alisa

A few of my favorite things

I am so excited... my first followers! :) Thanks to PK from Room Remix and Miss Mustard Seed from Mustard Seed Creations. These ladies write two of my favorite blogs! So glad you were able to stop by. And if the rest of you haven't visited their blogs yet, then you must check them out! They are so creative and inspire constantly!


In order for you all get to know me and my home, I wanted to share some of my favorite things. You see, as recently as a year ago, I only thought about accessorizing with new, contemporary items. Slowly, I have been seeing the light! I now feel like I get so much more from homemade or antique items in my home. They just add so much character and history! So, here are a few of the items that I feel bring some interest to my home.

I had this little nook off of our mudroom and knew I wanted a table or something there. But it's an odd size area, so it took me a long time to find something to fit. I found this table at a resale store and loved it immediately. I still have some accessorizing to do, but love the start.

A close up of the pictures above the table - These are pictures of doors my husband and I took in France last year (we were so lucky to be able to go because of his work!!). As we walked around Paris, I noticed how beautiful the doors were and started taking pictures. I knew I wanted to do something with them. For now, I have them displayed here.
This is a very recent addition. I am pretty certain it's not even in it's permanent position yet, (thus the cord isn't even hidden yet!) but I am really loving this vintage fan. Again, it has so much history and character. This was something I found on ebay.
I found these decorative balls at an antique show a couple years ago. But they aren't actually decorative balls. I am told they are antique Japanese fishing net floats. I loved the variations in color. The picture really doesn't do the colors justice. They are sitting in a "bowl" that was fashioned out of a vintage grain scoop.
And you've already seen this, but I wanted to tell you more about it. You may notice that each "coin" has a number 13 on it. 13 is a significant number for our family and we're obviously not superstitious about it! :) Anyway, these are from coal mines. Each miner would have a number. When they went into the mine, they would take their number off of a board with all the tags and put it in their pocket. This was so if there were any incidents, it would be easy to tell who was in the mine at any given time. I found them at a vintage store and loved the patina and of course, the number. I decided to display the tags by using a shadow box. I covered the back with burlap and used small straight pins to mount the tags.

I will share more of my favorite things - new and old- with you over time. I'd love to hear about some of the favorite things in your home!

A few fall touches

Being the mom of a three month old, I don't feel that I can really justify the time to do any major seasonal decorating yet. But, I couldn't go the whole season without adding at least a few fall touches. I wanted to share a few of them here with you.

I am sure wheat is considered "so last year", but I still love it!

One side of the mantle holds a brown vase and a shadow box that I'll post more about later this week.

I also changed the filler for my hurricanes in our dining room. I like using more natural elements for fall, like the filler shown here.

I have a burlap runner for this buffet started, but not yet finished. In due time, I suppose. I feel that is kind of the story of my house though... lots of ideas but no finished rooms! I'll be blogging more about that too!

So, in light of the ongoing quest to decorate for seasons or just decorating in general, do you think there is ever a point where you are "done" with a space? Or is it truly a never ending project? I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

So much for commitment...

So I was adamant that I was going to keep up with the blog. ummm, yeah... It's only been over THREE weeks since I wrote already! **sigh*** Anyway, I am back.

I spend a lot of time each day getting great ideas from so many blogs online. I just don't have the time or funds at the present to take them on. However, I am filing these great ideas away for when I have both of those things! Most of the ideas are crafty or decor related. I do have some home projects in mind that don't fall into those categories though. For example, I want under cabinet lighting. Scratch that... I NEED under cabinet lighting!

from www.renovation-headquarters.com

Also, I have a window seat in my closet. That's great. I don't sit in my closet often, but it looks kinda cute. However, I can think of plenty of better uses for the space. A few options are to take the top off and hinge it. I'd want cedar or some treatment on the inside of the box and then I can use it for sweaters or other longer term storage. Another option would be to take the seat idea out altogether and put in more shelves or drawers or even a vanity. It is a nice little place to keep my jewelry or even my make up. No matter what I choose, I'd just like it to be a more functional area.

I would like to switch out the light fixtures on the front of the house. Our current fixtures are just visually too small. I don't know if the physical size is too small or if it is because they have too much white that doesn't give them enough presence. Either way, I have the new ones picked out (our builder used it on the next house they built...bummer). I just don't have the funds on hand to pick them up.

This borders on decor, but I want to get a large shelf unit or have a built in unit built for my little girls room. I know how much little girls like to display things (as do mommas!). I also know how many more books and toys are in our future. For that reason, I want to have ample space in her room to store things. We'll need to get bins or something for "closed" storage, but a large shelving unit would get us on the right track! I think this one might work:

From the Linnarp collection at IKEA

If I went with this shelf, I'd paint it white, do beadboard for the backing and add a small crown moulding to top it off.


These are just a few of the most "pressing" projects on my mind. So many ideas for decorating and crafting too...maybe those will be my next post!! :)

~Alisa

Project Update

Well, after many hours of work, we're much closer to being done with the surprise bathroom makeover. My husband scraped up linoleum and adhesive for many hours. I spent a few hours prepping the walls (the price you pay for pulling down wallpaper). The mudroom is painted and only needs flooring. The bathroom needs at least one more coat of paint, flooring, and then the installation of the sink, light, toilet, trim, and towel ring. Okay, so it felt like we were a lot closer to being done before I made that list! :)

We'll be working again tonight. It's how my husband and I will be celebrating our third anniversary. Not exactly romantic, but at least we'll be together.

More to come on the make over... hoping the room is complete by Friday so we can actually relax and enjoy our weekend! :)

Hawaii and a new bathroom

What on earth can Hawaii and a new bathroom have to do with each other? Well, they have my parents in common. My mom and dad left for Hawaii on Wednesday of this week. That was the day that I told my husband that I felt really bad that I hadn't thought about doing a surprise room make over for my parents while they are gone. He encouraged me to still consider doing it.

My first step was to call my sisters. I couldn't go into the endeavor without having the support of my sisters. I know my parents have been talking about re-doing their half bath, but I needed my sisters to reassure me that this wouldn't get me banned from the family or anything! Now that I have them backing me up, if anyone gets banned, we all get banned. We deteremined that my dad should definitely be okay with the change. But, my mom... well, she may not be ecstatic upon first seeing the change. Time will tell. They will be home in 8 more days.

8 more days...we have to redo a bathroom in 8 days and take care of a 2 month old and go to work. Should be interesting. We have all of the components ready to be installed. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly. I'd hate to have my parents come home to one less bathroom in their house!

I snapped a couple pics to remember how UGLY this bathroom was before we started. After photos to come soon!

Wish us luck!

-Alisa

Copy Cat

Tonight while my husband (we'll call him S for the sake of the blog) was changing our little one's pants, he was talking to her, cooing and overall just loving on her. This is normal. He is so sweet on her, it's amazing. As I watched and listened, we heard her make what seemed like the same sound that S was making. Thinking that it might be a fluke, he made the sound to her again. She repeated it! We both looked at each other in awe. Our little girl is growing up!!