Christmas 2013

It's Christmas.

I like my chalkboard wall. It's still feels like a simple clutter-free way to decorate.

After I took the photo I added a magnetic calendar over the yellow chair. My friend had made a beautiful one at her house, and I wanted one too. Her's had a rustic red frame and was extra large - both made it look rich and more striking.

However, I opted for a cheap version. I went to GoodWill and found this for $3.99

And I put on command strips, flipped it over and stuck it on my wall. I used magic marker to outline the edges and bought the number stickers and nativity stickers at Hobby Lobby. I cut the tip off one of my star ornaments and hot glued it to a magnet. And this is the result:

Sorry the picture is a little blurry - the sticker details don't show well. But I'm happy with it.

I was low on decore for the tree, so I used some butterflies that will soon go to the Church Girl bathroom. I took leftover fabric from the chairs and put them in the frame and attached the butterflies. I also found $2 packet of name tag butterflies that I added to the tree.

And the matching chairs:

The livingroom as a whole:

In the kitchen I put two wreaths on the window and Tristan's nativity art:

In the Dining Room are the three trees on the windowsill.

And on the front door the wreath my mom made me. I love this wreath because it works for all winter long, not just Christmas. I simply left out any red, and that makes it winter vs. Christmas. I had these sage & white green floral things that my bridesmaids carried, and it was nice to find a place for them in my home.

And that's a tour of the Christmas decore!

Two New Couches

A lot of changes happened here lately, specifically in couches.

First, my husband said he was tired of having the desk shove up under the low ceiling in our bedroom - that he'd rather have it by a window. So we moved it to the toy room - excellent location, and the kids love using the big tabletop desk for playing too.

But that left a long low bank area in our room.
My friend was selling her couch (offered it to me for a lower price on Tuesday) but God didn't give the thumbs up for me (it wasn't fair to her and it wasn't God wanted me to spend $400). She sold it Wednesday and I was disappointed. Thursday a lady I'd never met called to see if I'd be interested in a yellow couch. She'd trade it for a photography session, and deliver it too. God's plans are always so much better than ours.

I found a clearance lampshade for $10, a wooden lamp at GoodWill for $6, and used my old end table and coffee table. I might change it up eventually, but for now, it's all set up happily.

Since the rest of my bedroom lacks yellow, I added some yellow ribbon to the headboard, and some felt flowers.

The pillows were $7 each on end of the season clearance (they're outdoor pillows) and the body pillow was $5 from Target. I already had the yellow placemats under the clock and lamp, so that worked out well.

I was all happy about my new couch when ANOTHER gift was added.

One of my friends lost her apartment in the tornado and was left with nothing. She'd mentioned before that she liked my bird couch, and I felt like it fit her personality well. I wanted to give it to her, as long as I could figure out a replacement. I'd always liked the HomeDecorators Gordan sofa - but they run about $1,500 with shipping. I was keeping my eye on it over Black Friday, but told myself that was silly, I had a budget too small for even a Black Friday price. So I asked God about it and looked on Craigslist in a 3 hour radius. (FYI I have looked on and off for the past two years and never found one that wasn't out of price range or already gone). I was a little shocked to find the EXACT Gordan sofa I wanted Brand New for $280. It was slightly damaged in shipping and missing some nail heads. Two to be exact.

My husband gave the thumbs up and I went and picked it up. It even fit perfectly in the van. And I sold my kids unused train table for $80 and won a $200 story-contest that week. So God totally dropped the whole thing into place - isn't He amazing?

Isn't it beautiful? And for $1.99 I bought a packet of nail heads and replaced the two missing ones.

I got the coffee table this summer at GoodWill. It was in our outside porch but I moved it in. The lines add some feminine to all the masculine. Even our dog matches our very manly black and brown house.

So God gave me two beautiful couches this week. It's been fun. Now I can move my special green chairs into the living room!