pretty homes and white space

Anyone else purging and organizing like crazy??

Hoping I can keep it up even as we start back to school today but I know from experience that usually teaching & keeping us all fed + the life training that comes along with being a family (hello, I'm looking at you, rooting out selfish behaviors and sharp words particularly in these colder months when we are all inside together more) are usually more than enough to keep me busy in any given day, but we'll see.  

I've been challenging myself to get rid of half of what is in any given drawer, box, etc.  I am really enjoying having white space in my storage areas.  

I am also realizing that all of the decor I collected at Canton, antique stores and estate sales over a good 15 years or so from about 2000-2015 no longer really fits my style . . . hmmmm.  

I'm okay with that but also thinking about how to still have beautiful things in my home without spending a bunch/contributing to the "fast fashion" of home decor.  

Any thoughts??

Kelly

happy little corner of my home filled with a sweet gift from a dear friend!  

ten on ten - November 2017

Today was a very normal and happy day.  

We have spent a lot of time at home this week and it has been just delightful.  

Our Fridays are "play and project days".  We let go of the specifics of our routine for the rest of the week and we all indulge in the things we want to do.  Often I feel like as much or more learning happens on these days as in the days when I formally plan and teach lessons.  I know it is good for our spirits too and we return refreshed for the routine on Mondays.  

There was a lot of pretend play happening at our house today.  Kings and queens and princesses and battles.  I love when I hear the mimicking of things we've read in stories and books.

There were also several opportunities to work on . . . interpersonal relationships.  But I truly believe if they can learn to get along with one another they can learn to negotiate many, many other scenarios in life.

This morning found me doing a bit of meal planning.  Do you have recipes stuck in a binder or somewhere from pre-internet days?  

I went on a walk late morning and listened to a couple of podcasts.  I feel like this is my "professional development time"!  

The weather was sunny and while I was afraid I'd be cold before I set out I ended up being hot by the time I got home.  

One of the podcasts I began listening to today mentioned this book, Snow Treasure, so I came home and looked it up.  I am on our library's website multiple times a day!  Such a wonderful resource that we are very thankful for.  

Just capturing his everyday, working from home spot.  

I am so very thankful that he supports me staying home with our kids!  

 a little fridge decor

printable from Ann Voskamp

Cleaning up when we are done with an activity is not a strong suit around here right now.  It drives me kind of crazy except that I realize I am not very good at it either (it depends on what it is and where but my family room counters are rarely clear).  Looking at this chair in a photo also makes me realize how dirty it is.  

If something is feeling too intense (and if you know us, you know our video choices in this house are VERY tame - this was animated cars talking about the fruits of the Spirit) this is how I find her watching a video, as far back from the tv as she can get.  so sweet.

Leftover pork sandwich for lunch!  Adrian made a super yummy pork meal the other night!

deciding where I want to hang this as I ready the house for hosting Thanksgiving this year!

afternoon birthday party for our sweet friend!!

Happy weekend to everyone!

Kelly

one day, zero dollar bathroom refresh

Our downstairs bathroom is fine but it has never been one of my favorite parts of the house.  It is fairly small and feels dark.  These are photos from shortly after we moved in.  

Four years ago, just a day or two after we came home from the hospital with Cora, a leak sprang in the plumbing between the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms (which are stacked on the two floors).  Adrian had to tear out the drywall above his sink and disconnect the electrical to the light fixture and take it out to work on the leak.  He was more than willing to redo the drywall and fix everything then and there but I begged him to just leave the gaping hole in the ceiling and just hang out with us and help me with a new baby and an almost three year old!  

Those days were super sweet times and I wouldn't trade our afternoons of sitting on the couch snugging a newborn during David's naps and watching movies together for a finished bathroom these past four years.  

sweet boy two years ago 

My amazing mother-in-law showed up for under 36 hours in March, a quick stopover visit between two other destinations and announced on the morning of her full day here that she knew what we should do that day, redo the bathroom!  What a fun announcement!  I do not know where she gets her energy and stick-to-it-ness but she is astounding when it comes to projects!  

We emptied walls and took down towel bars bent from children hanging on them and mismatched to begin with. 

I began to rummage through my storage area to dig out various decorative treasures amassed at flea markets, garage sales, etc. and not currently in use elsewhere in the house.  

glue gun and drill employed together!  

Rebecca (my mil) concocted a sort of chalk paint from leftover paint plus a package of milk paint that I once upon a time picked up at an estate sale for $1 and had never used.  She painted all of the dark "wood" - in reality it is plastic - panelling "polar bear" which is the same white we used in the upstairs bath in the fall.  

The original to the house, 1950s towel bars that had previously been in the upstairs bath before the remodel (where I used hooks instead) were lined up side by side for this bathroom.  

The metal grate on the wall is from the original screen door from the house into what was at first the backyard before they added on our sunroom in the 1980s.  I picked up the wooden arch somewhere along the way and have displayed it different places but never yet on a wall and I like it!  The pressure gauge was an estate sale find that has always been one of my favorites.  

We used the mirror that was original to the upstairs bathroom that we had taken out during that remodel downstairs and my MIL wired this neat basket onto the black scrolly metal brackets that I have had forever and never really used much and it became a spare toilet paper holder.  

The Ansel Adams photo was found at the Arc thrift store ages ago!  It is framed in a garage sale frame and hung with some black ribbon over an old sewing machine drawer knob screwed into a neat looking old metal square plate.  

Unfortunately, the leak doesn't particularly want to be fixed once and for all (60 year old plumbing!) so we have left the ceiling open still but I strung up white bulb lights on S hooks leftover from our pot rack when I took everything out of the kitchen that doesn't get used weekly and it is now either gone or in secondary storage.  We also put up a black and white stripe strip of fabric in front of the open ceiling portion which masks it nicely.  The big black iron hook is awaiting a hanging plant, preferably string of pearls.  

This hanging basket set that used to be in the nursery holds bathroom stuff and a plant but I would love to find a more permanent solution but for one day and zero pennies, using what we had works!  

I bought this fabric to cover the swing outside but then I didn't like it and used a 25 cent remnant from one of my favorite thrift stores in town, the Bargain Box run by the Assistance League and benefitting many wonderful projects.  We made it into a "window mistreatment" as the Nester would say and I got to use this pulley that I have had FOREVER and never used.  

My brilliant mother in-law rigged up this pull system with an old knob I had in my collection an an old door plate.  I love it!  

It is not perfect as we did not repaint the top of the walls, etc. (we only spent a day on it afterall!) but it looks SOO good compared to what it has been and I am enjoying using it (and honestly am more apt to clean it) than before!  

Christmas Home Tour

I have been enjoying the Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes each year since I began blogging back in 2007!  (although I believe BooMama was hosting it back then)  

I really enjoy "visiting" with others in blogland and the exchange of visits and comments that goes on as well as seeing everyone's different styles of decorating and also sharing/recording for myself to look back on how I decorate for Christmas around my house.  

This year though, Myquillyn wrote the most thoughtful and wonderful post about the tensions between our lives here in America and celebrating Christmas and what is happening in Aleppo, Syria.  I really encourage you to read it.  You can find it here.  

I enjoy sharing our home with you but even more than that if you haven't heard of the work Preemptive Love is doing, I would really like to encourage you to check them out on Instagram, the web, etc.  I have been following and learning about this organization for over a year and I think very highly of them and the ways they love and serve well.  

Here are six things they shared tonight on their instagram account:

preemptiveloveThe situation in and around Aleppo continues to develop rapidly. Here are six things we can share about the crisis and our ongoing response.
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1. Our emergency feeding program is continuing, thanks to you. Already, your support has allowed us to double our response as more displaced families pour into the Aleppo countryside.
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2. We’ve handed out thousands of sleeping bags, just as winter is setting in. It’s 34 degrees in Aleppo tonight, and snow is expected on Sunday. Each sleeping bag can accommodate a mother and two children. “No one has ever told us they were cold in one!” our response leader said today.
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3. We’re working with a coalition of partners inside Syria, to reach as many as possible with lifesaving aid. We are better when we serve across sectarian, religious, or national lines. Our response is more sustainable when we share capacity, knowledge, and resources locally. We’ve learned this through nearly a decade of serving in Iraq, and we are taking the same approach as we serve in Syria.
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4. We’re one of several organizations responding to the Aleppo crisis, but the needs are greater than all of us put together. More needs to be done. A lot more. But thanks to you, families are being fed. Lives are being saved.
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5. This is a volatile, rapidly changing situation. Reports from the ground are changing by the hour as evacuation deals and ceasefires are made and broken and made again.
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6. We serve everyone in need, period. If you want to know what side of the conflict we’re on, we’re on the side of families whose lives have unraveled in all the violence. We’re on the side of the bombed-out, driven-out, desperate children and mothers and fathers who lost everything. We’re on the side that says violence unmakes the world, and it’s our job to remake it. We will keep showing up with tangible acts of love for as long as it takes.

And finally, a little bit of our home . . . 

David was on top of things bringing in the logs that he has been playing with all summer just as it began to get cold because he wants fires this winter to roast smores, etc.!  

cut out piece of "door art" bought many years ago in Canton, TX and a fantastic book page wreath made by my talented mother-in-law

the hammock swing corner . . .

the hammock chair was a very special birthday gift from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, stars bought ages ago at the Samplehouse Warehouse sale . . . those were such fun days when they had that . . . 

and the color!

water color and oil pastel original art by yours truly :) 

made at our very own Fine Arts Center here in Colorado Springs

busy wall of Christmas cards and all the garlands 

"stockings"

colorful Christmas coffee table

Merry Christmas!  

Kelly

Year in Review - September 2014

The month began while we were still on our road trip

While traveling I only like to eat at places that I can't eat at at home.  

The trip home took us to chowhound!

It wasn't spectacular but it was a fun mom and pop burger joint.

I think this trip was my first time to cross the continental divide by land (as opposed to air).  

It was a neat experience to me.

These pics are actually from August but didn't make the last post.  We had to say goodbye to some lovely friends who were some of our very first friends here in Colorado Springs!  :(  

Boo.  But we will look forward to visits somewhere somehow in the future.  

A good friend and I began diving into the scriptures together in the mornings and it has been really good to me and for me.  God is Good!  He knows what we need.  

I built a chair/blanket/tablecloth tunnel for the kids.

It was a hit.  

Fall decorating, this little squirrel has quite the supply of nuts!  

We had a BIG trip coming up and I was prepping for weeks!  

These two love each other so much!  

Looking online for accommodations.  Do you see one of the places we were headed???

Pushing the cart on a shopping day with Nana and Mama while Brother was in preschool.  

So excited to be surprised by Nana joining me to pick him up from school!  

We took the kids to chickfila for lunch.  I had JUST commented that we were at such as sweet spot because David was big enough to go into the play area by himself and Cora didn't realize it existed yet and so was happy to sit and hang out with us at the table.  When we went in to get David so we could leave, she walked right in, started climbing up to the top of the play structure before I even knew what was happening and was going down the big slide!  She is one brave and adventurous girl!!!

Playing with the nativity in September

When we visited my friend Jenny in May we tie dyed shirts.  David calls his his "tie day" shirt.  He likes it a lot!

Splashing around in the water in our footie Christmas jammies!!

Sweet boy, we let him stay up a little later to read in his bed and he fell asleep! 

My sweet nephew Caleb captured this fun photo!

Getting our taste buds ready for Italian food.  

Another library book we really enjoyed!

Narrowing down clothing choices, matching outfits and packing!!!

Next up, our trip!