what's working for us Wednesday

 

We are working on some habit building over here.  These punch cards that they get to whole punch themselves are working for us right now.  

What is something that is working in your home right now?  

Kelly

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

are you dying eggs this year?

This was us last year.  Cute boy!

I'm not sure that egg dying is going to happen around these parts this year.  

Am I inundating you with enough posts right now?  

Just want all who are curious to know that we do not have a baby here yet.  :)

Kelly

baby on the way

green

I love how very green everything is in Alaska.  

Ferns are one of my most favorite plants.  I need to buy some to plant at our house.

I wonder which kinds do well in Colorado?

Their little fiddleheads are so magical to me.  

Don't you love all the different shades of green in that one small patch of earth?

Kelly

what I wore Wednesday

One of the very first blogs I ever discovered was Charming the Birds from the Trees.  

I was actually looking for some bird clip art for a project for my classroom and stumbled upon her blog.  

I guess she's the one who actually got me hooked on reading blogs and then considering writing my own.

She used to do posts called What I Wore Wednesday and I thought they were a lot of fun.  This is coming from a girl who used to write down her outfits in her younger days.  

The Pleated Poppy also does a weekly link up called What I Wore Wednesdays.  I am linking up there today.


A while ago I saw this polyvore board on pinterest and it just grabbed my attention for some reason so I decided to try out my version yesterday.

jeans rolled up into capris (hand me downs but I think they're from the limited)

a gray shirt from ross

silver and coral accents

coral colored nails are perfect for reading the itsy bitsy spider!

shoes from Target

toe ring from Sam Moon

this is a totally cheesy shot but let's just go with it, okay?

I don't claim to be a fashion blogger.  

bracelets:  James Avery a sweet gift from friends at an important time in my life

rhinestones handed down from my great-grandma

crystal beads a gift from the high school student who helped in my classroom one year 

Necklaces:  glass beads from a street vendor in Venice during my study abroad in college

choker with beads majorly on sale at White House Black Market many years ago

Do you ever pair silver/gray and coral?

What is your favorite thing to wear these days?  

Kelly

egg dyeing

We did our egg dyeing last Wednesday.

It was REALLY messy but we had a whole lot of fun!

Do you dye Easter eggs?

Kelly

new kitchen color & flowers

Since I alluded to painting, I thought you might like to see a picture.

I am really liking it! I feel like it makes a big difference.

Thanks to my sweet husband I have fresh blooms scattered in vases all around the house right now too.

Kelly

sneak peek of crafty space progress

the stripes

the stripes . . .

ARE

DONE!!!

(photos taken pre-touch ups)

Plus we have baseboard, trim on all windows and doors, cabinets installed (but still need drawers and doors), bookshelves installed, etc.

We're coming along!

Oh and I went with the bottom color contrary to popular opinion.

It is called "crumb cookie".

The top color was "country beige".

Believe me, it really does look good and the people I got to ask in person liked it so I think the lighting in the photo just wasn't the best.

Okay, I need to go wash brushes . . . not my favorite part.

Kelly

is it crazy?

to not want to choose a paint color because of it's name?

"Country Beige" . . .

It just sends 80s shivers up and down my spine.

So, not telling you which is which, do you think I should use the top color (two stripes) or the bottom color (two stripes) to stripe the wall in my family room?

(I realize the lighting's not the greatest.)

Thanks for your input!

Kelly

three

Happy October 3rd and happy eve of our 3rd anniversary to us.

{photo taken of a university elevator floor number on a recent visit}

I looked back and realized that I never posted about our "rehearsal dinner" for our wedding so I thought I'd do that now. (I'm also retro-publishing part of this post back in it's chronological order as well.)

The venue where we got married had a lot of different events all the time so you didn't get to book it for an entire weekend or anything. Basically we got it for the day of our wedding and that's it. I think there was a high school homecoming dance there the night before our wedding.

We didn't have attendants and since our family members who took part in our wedding doing music, readings, etc. are all polished speakers, performers, etc. and our preacher is very accomplished at doing weddings and we certainly weren't his first, we decided that a formal "rehearsal" in the space was not important to us.

(Sidenote: our wedding ended up starting about an hour late because the deejay we hired did not have all the equipment he needed unfortunately. I guess if we'd done a rehearsal with him then the delay wouldn't have happened but it just wasn't practical given all of the logistics in play and it was fine in the end.)

So back to the night before the wedding . . .

We decided that we what was really important to us was actually getting to spend time with all of the wonderful friends and family who were coming to our wedding, particularly the many, many people who came from out of town and who we don't get to see just every day.

My old youth minister, Greg, once said that there are two times in your life when everyone you know and love is going to gather in one place. One of those is your wedding and the other is your funeral. Obviously, you only get to enjoy those people at one of those events. His point was to soak up that time with the people you love and who love you at your wedding rather than getting overly focused on details and things.

So . . .

we went a different route than the norm and had a big social at a park and invited everyone who was invited to the wedding to come the night before and hang out.

We made it simple by getting sandwiches, chips, soft drinks, etc., nothing fancy, and everything was just serve yourself.

That meant we got to enjoy

family

old and new friends

big hugs from people we hadn't seen in a while

beginning to be hospitable together as a couple

sweet conversations

watching our friends and family from both sides join together and pitch in to set out food, etc.

This was actually one of my favorite parts just watching all of the people that we love individually meeting each other, smiling, laughing, talking, working, eating and playing alongside each other. It was neat.

We talked and caught up on each other's lives.

People came from Alaska, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, other parts of Texas and even overseas. I may even be missing a place or two.

It was so very special to us!

We had simple decorations.

Many handmade by friends.

There was laughter,

football

hugs

and smiles!

I think it was absolutely perfect for us and I'm so glad we did it.

What a wonderful night that in some ways seems like so many more than three years ago.

Kelly