31 Days of Settling: A place to live

Our main living area is getting quite the work out! In this one small space, we have had to combine three spaces from our other home: the living room, family room and office! So far it seems to be working rather well! Cozy, but it works!

Here's the overview:

Yes! The bar area looks a lot better! (And the vintage baskets and suitcase serve an important function: storage!) 

You've already seen the mantle, but here is another picture of my "cozy spot!" 

(That tall lamp is just temporary... A little redundant. It will probably just go to storage.) 

Oh, and since you already caught a glimpse of it, here is the little bookshelf in the mini hallway: 

And that's it for today! Just a couple more rooms to share tomorrow!!! 

31 Days of Settling: An (almost) finished bedroom

Tonight was our home study update!! Whew! We tried our best to have our place looking spiffy, buuuut.... I was actually vacuuming when she arrived (hey, she was a few minutes early!!) ;) so we did our home study update with the vacuum cleaner on center stage in the living room! We have a super sweet social worker, and she didn't mind a bit, fortunately! :)

With all the work getting ready for the update, I figured this room was the best it's ever looked, so I grabbed some quick pictures! 

We live this room! As I think I've said before, this is the biggest master bedroom we've ever had! We are really enjoying the space! (And glad there is room for a baby in there too!) here's the overall view:

(Somehow in bedroom pics, the bed always looks huge!! It's really just a queen!) 

How do you like my new (well, new to me) rocker in the corner? I love it!!

I actually bought it at a thrift store the Friday just before we found out that we had been selected by a birth mother! The arms are worn super smooth with use. :)

This is Mark's corner:

(And yes, I DO have a "thing" for unique chairs...) ;) 

And here's the "almost" part of this room: 

The armoir is decorated, but the bookshelf ends up being a catch all... Gotta work on that! I also have a few more things that I may hang in my corner, but I'm not set on it. I might just wait and see. 

And that is our room tour! I'll try to share the rest of our little place in the next couple of days. It is, after all, almost the end of the 31 days! :) 

Days of Settling: Day 24

I'm not sure that putting the date in the title is still the best idea... Cause I don't always get the pictures up here the day that I work on an area... Oh well... :)

Soo... Tuesday, I got some things hung up in our bedroom! It's feeling a bit more homey in there!

I also did some work in our other bedroom! (I eventually need to get a dresser in there for the baby! Right now all the clean clothes are hanging out in a laundry basket.) I made a path!!! Want to see???

Before: 

After:

Hooray for paths!!!! ;) 

Actually what helped the most is putting our shelves in the closet: 

Now all those random things laying everywhere in that room have a home!! It helps to be able to organize a bit! We should be getting a lot more done this weekend... We have a home study update next week!!! 

Days of Settling: Update

Thank you all so much for your kind comments!! I'm so excited to be able to share our news with you!! It is wonderful to have the support of so many friends!

While we have been busy with getting ready for baby, part of that getting ready has been to continue to get settled into our little place here. And yes, I have made some progress in that department! 

One of my main areas of focus has been our bedroom. My parents came over for a bit last week and helped hang a few things!

Thanks to them, my curtains are hung as well as my mirror! 

The reality is, I still have a bit of a box issue going on in there, but hopefully we can get those moved to storage soon! (And make room for baby!!) :)

I'm enjoying the curtains! This is the first curtains I've hung in our bedroom since we've been married!! Crazy, huh?? I guess curtains seemed so hard because I wasn't sure what worked. 

I also got my pantry better organized! And I love having this hook for my aprons and my shopping bag storage. 

My dad also helped me hang this picture in our living room: 

And to get the full perspective, allow me to take a few steps back: 

Yipes!!! Ok, maybe that wasn't such a great idea... But, that picture was taken a few days ago and the top of the bar is a little clearer now, thankfully!! 

I've also done some more organizing as well as decorating, but I think I'll save that for next time! ;) A big thank you to my parents for their help!!! 

31 Days of Settling: Day 16

Well, I didn't get before pictures today, and I didn't feel like reconstructing a before picture this time. I guess you all will just have to use your imagination. :) 

I finally cleared off the whole dining room table (instead of just an end for eating)! And I put on a pretty fall arrangement (which was mostly already arranged, so that part was easy!)

I also put the finishing touches on the top of the piano. I hung the mirror Monday and put on a few things. Today I added just a bit more to make it more welcoming and pretty. :) 

I love having this hymn picture here. So perfect for the season!! 

31 Days of Settling: Day 15

Or maybe I should call this day 14 1/2, since I did this Monday... :)

Here's our fireplace before:

And after:

I'm glad to have a few of my fall decorations out! Yes, the curtain rods are still out, but hopefully soon they'll actually have curtains on them!! :) I love the cozy glow of my lights. It was interesting decorating this mantel because it is much longer than the one at our house (although not any deeper). It's not perfect, but it's fun and inviting! 

31 Days of Settling: Day 14

Whew!! A very busy day today! I got quite a bit accomplished, but don't have all the pictures taken yet, so I'll show more tomorrow!

For now though, I found something fun to go in our kitchen! I knew I wanted to hang this, but I was really starting to wonder where it was hiding! Glad I found it though, and it will be fun to change around.

This board was actually in our family room in the old house, but I know it will get a lot more use in the kitchen, and I will have a lot more fun with it here! 

31 Days of settling: Day 12

Well, I guess this should technically be day 11, since we did it yesterday... But anyway... :)

My next main goal has been to get our bedroom looking more livable. Big thanks to my mom for coming over and helping me with this corner yesterday!! Here's a before (well... Restaged before actually... We had started organizing before I remembered to take a picture! Oops!)

That sure doesn't look very cozy!! 

Much better!!!! :) a little bare, maybe, but still a nice reprieve from all the clutter there was before! :) 

31 Days of Settling: Day 2

Well, this blog series is already starting to motivate me. In between laundry and typing up our kids' church Christmas program (which we will be having in two short months!!)... I did get a few things hung up this afternoon. Here's the sad little before. (It is a pretty bathroom!!)


And some afters: The basket on the toilet holds washcloths - not a whole lot of storage space going on, so I'm having to improvise! Still, it is a bit more storage than our last master bath had. 

The opposite wall:

And a panoramic picture for your viewing pleasure. :) (It is impossible to get a pan picture in this bathroom without catching yourself in the mirror. So, "hi!") :)

So, our last house had an enclosed shower. No need for a curtain in there - a pretty one anyway. Any suggestions on how to pretty this up? (And it has to be cheap! I can't go spending lots of money here!) :) I'm not too good at pretty shower curtains. Even our big bathroom at the last house never got one, although my intentions were good. :)

31 days... Of getting settled.

Well, 31 more or less... We'll see if I  actually post each of the 31 days in October... Wait! Can it really be October already??? What an adventure the past couple of months has been!!

We are moved into an apartment! That in and of itself has been a journey. I won't give you the long version, but the short version is that God provided a very nice apartment in the complex that Mark and I lived our first year of marriage. 

That's the good part... The hard part has been trying to fit from a three bedroom house with two living areas, into a two bedroom apartment. It is a very daunting task. 

However, I thought if I brought you all along with me this month as I make some effort in getting us settled, that it would inspire me to just keep plodding! And it will be fun to look back on what we have accomplished. And, hey, maybe you even have some tips for me! I'll take any help I can get!! 

First off, I wanted to start with a pretty picture:

The welcome mat I bought before we even moved out of our home, and I saved it for our apartment. The burlap wreath is the same one from last year. That has been one of my most used projects, I do believe! 

Not pictured above: the beautiful mum from my parents to really cheer up my front door! But here it is... It's really starting to bloom out! 

That's the fun part... The NOT so fun part is what it still going on inside... 

(And will you believe it when I say, that is an AFTER shot from Saturday??? Yipes! Inspiration needed ASAP!) 

So it may be baby steps at times, but I will try to post a progress photo every day... Except probably Sundays, that IS a day of rest, after all. ;) 

Finished Object Friday: It's in the Jar!

Hmm... I'm thinking that I should rename this "Finished Object Weekend!" Or maybe work a little earlier in the week to get posts set to publish... Thursdays are always busy for me, and by the time I get sat down, I don't always feel like writing. BUT... It is still Friday, so I'll share! ;)

WAY back in August I made a little something that I planned to share. However, I wanted to be sure that my little project would work out ok before I shared it with you. Good thing that I did! But you'll find out about that in just a minute. I made one of these:

I'm sure you've seen them around quite a bit. They are nothing new in the blogging/Pinterest worlds. :) I snagged a jar out of my mom's cabinet and used a pump we didn't need from a new bottle of hand sanitizer, so the project cost me basically just a bit of time.

Oh, and I made it to give my mom, so she did get her jar back! ;) The trick for me was drilling the hole. I ended up making a bunch of little holes with my little hand drill. Really there has got to be a better way to do it, but I'm sure it requires differnt tools than I had on hand. Here's what I ended up with - with the addition of some hot glue to try to seal it. (and that's where the time comes in...)


Nope. It didn't work so well... the lid ended up rusting from the water that got trapped under the pump and the glue fell off inside. Yuck. So a few weeks ago, I brought it home for a repair job - I just used some silicone calk we had on hand and sealed it up really good - both sides of the lid, and I even sealed it a bit where the ring meets the lid. And, I'm glad to say, even though I didn't get a new lid, it seems to be holding up really well! So the trick is to calk it - no hot glue. Live and learn. :)

Glad it works now! I think it's pretty with the blue dishsoap - my mom's favorite color! ;) Has anyone else made one of these? Maybe you did better than I did the first time around! I'd love to hear what you did! And I'd love to see any other projects you've been working on!

First day...

of spring!!!! :) just wanted to share a quick picture that I didn't get on my spring decor post. I am having fun with my mom's old partial Scrabble set!! :)