Valentine's Decor

This post will mostly be pictures.  Just a few weeks after the New Year I put my Valentine's Decor out so don't ask me why the day before Vday I'm posting pictures.  I know it doesn't make sense, well nothing makes sense to me here lately. 

Of course, there is always some type of plate on my plate stand.  This one comes in second place to the Halloween plate that I made.



Dining Room

Kinda cheesy but for the holiday, I like it :)

Letters came from Hobby Lobby and then I added the

red polka dots.

The table runner came from Pottery Barn, years ago.

Kitchen Wall

I am so sorry that I can not find the link for the red Valentine print. 
It's a couple years old now.

The gray and white striped print can be found here.

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.

Psalm 28:7

Blessings to all ~

Carla

My Mema Would Say

I remember when I was a little girl my "mema" would always say, "however you spend NewYear's Day is how you'll spend the rest of the year."  Well, I know it's an "old wise tale," but if it was true, the rest of my year will look like this.

• spent a late morning in bed with my hubby
• nice hot bath (undisturbed)
• got all the laundry done 
• Christmas decorations completely put away
• quick trip to Walmart and Lowes (they had exactly what we needed...scary)
• nice dinner with leftovers for lunch this week :)
• proof read Jonah's GSP application
• another nice long bath, this time I turned on the music and lit some candles
• plucked my eyebrows
• painted my nails
• posting on my blog before 10 p.m. and then heading to bed

Just a few of my highlights on this first day of 2013.  Now if my "Mema" is correct, the rest of my year should be smooth sailing.  Ha!!!  Love that lady, God rest her soul.  Hope that everyone had a wonderful first day of the New Year.  May God Bless each and everyone of you throughout  the upcoming year.  Really is it......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Blessings to all~

Carla

A Few Pictures of Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful day.  We truly enjoyed our day together as a family.  I think the kids stayed in their pj's all day and with living 3 states away from family we didn't venture out of the house all day.  Even though it was sad not being with our family for the holidays. 

Every year Rascal gets a Christmas present... a gift bag of dingo bones and every year, he takes one bone out of the bag at a time until he has every bone out of the bag and they are all nice and neat in a little pile.  Then he guards them for the rest of the day, slowly chewing on then.  It's hilarious!!!  It's the first gift that we do just because it's so much fun to watch.

The kids went shopping for Phillip and I this year, they thought it would be neat for Phillip to have a electronic dart board for the bonus room.

The kids dressed in their Christmas pj's, of course always a tradition to open the night before Christmas.

I told Phillip that the only thing I wanted this year was a camcorder,

we haven't had one since the movers stole ours in 2007.

I can't get over the fact that these BIG BULKY headphones are back in style.  They were in style when I was in like middle school and that seems like forever ago.

We surprised Courtney this year with an iphone.  As she was unwrapping her present I called the new phone, which was in the box, the phone started ringing and her face was PRICELESS!!!!!  She needed a new phone, her other phone was a piece of junk!!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father...

who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Blessings to all ~

Carla

Merry Christmas!!!

From Our Family to Yours!!!

Merry "Ruff"mas

Jonah took this picture of Rascal while playing around with my camera the other night.   You gotta love the little guy, he's such a good sport but he does get he fair share of spoiling so it all works out in the end. :)  

What a "Ruff" life he has???

Blessings to all ~

Carla

A Few Touches of Christmas

Wrapping paper, with pretty bows, I just love it!!!  Yes, I am pretty OCD about the paper and bows.  Hobby Lobby has the BEST wrapping paper, buy it when it's 50% off and you will not regret it.  By the way if you are wondering I snapped this picture prior to placing the presents under the tree.

 I love ornaments.  I think they tell a story at least on our tree they do.  So every year I try and either buy an ornament from somewhere that we had traveled or I purchased a fun one like this one.

Poinsettias are so pretty but something makes me like them more when they are
mixed with live foliage like this one that sits on the corner of my desk.

My wonderful, talented neighbor made this advent calendar for our family....she's got way

 more talent then I could ever imagine!!!

And they were calling to one another: "Holy holy holy is the LORD Almighty;

the whole earth is full of His glory."

Isaiah 6:3

Blessings to all ~
Carla

Trick ~ or ~ Treat

The days of holding the kids hands and walking door to door while trick ~ or ~ treating is LONG gone for Phillip and I.  Tonight he and I did not even sit at home to greet any trick ~ or ~ treaters that came by the house, sorry to any that may have paid us a visit.  No, Phillip and I enjoyed a date night, dinner for two and a little shopping, while our kids went to a Halloween Party and did a little Trick ~ or ~ Treating with their friends. 

WOW, how times change when you have teenagers! 

 

But I will say this, they still look adorable in their Halloween costumes.

 

Courtney my little Indian Princess

 Jonah, my BINGO, LOVIN' old man, which I will say was hilarious to watch him move his mouth.

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!!!

 

Blessings to all~

Carla

 



Happy Halloween

I left a  few surprises for my spooky little goblins this morning.

Tea cookies from Riley's bakery, yum!!! If you live in the BG area, then you know just how good these little cookies are and my goblins loves them. 

Then I got a little creative, not really, but I thought this was an adorable Halloween treat using Tic Tacs?? Brilliant - and it's got it's own packaging, how simple is that!

You can get the free printable at Somewhat Simple, as you can see they have more then just the Jack-o-Lantern Seeds.

Aren't they cute??

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in Heaven.

Psalm 119:89

Blessings to all~
Carla

A Little More Fall

I am not sure about you but September flew by for me and here we are just days away from the end of October! We had a tease of warm weather or what some people would call an Indian Summer during the middle of October.  I will say that I certainly enjoyed the warmer days but now I am afraid we are getting ready to see the temperatures that do not agree with my body, the days were the wind is chilling.  I am not my any means a cold nature person at all.  I guess old man winter in right around the corner.

At the beginning of Fall I decided to dress up my galvanized buckets that hold my mums on the front porch.  I used my cricut to cut the words "welcome fall" out of vinyl.  I love the simple touch that it added to my buckets. 

Another Halloween decoration share before Halloween comes and vanishes.

I made this Halloween plate last year, actually I've made several, between friends and gifts, it's one of my favorites.  It takes the longest to make because of the different fonts but I love the colors and how fun it is. Notice my little FAT black cat, I am not a cat person at all, even when it comes to Halloween things, but I just adore this little FAT black cat that I received in a "BOOED" packaged about 9 years from my neighbor, isn't he cute!!!

"Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and He will say, "Here I am!"

Isaiah 58:9

Blessings to all ~
Carla

Flashback Friday

I thought it would be fun to pull out a Halloween picture of when the kids were little.

Halloween 1998

Courtney, our "lil pumpkin" was 5 months old and Jonah, our "fierce lion" was 2 1/2 years old.  Seems like just yesterday.  (click on the picture to enlarge in you wish)

 

12 days til HALLOWEEN!!!

"Train up child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Proverbs 22:6

Blessings to all~

Carla

New Shelves with Fall Decor

  Finally, I have my shelves!!! Thanks to my Hubby!!!

 I have a 5 foot wall in between my dining room and my kitchen that is basically a walkway, so you really can't put furniture there or it seems crowded.  I've had in my head for some time to hang two three foot shelves on this wall.  I didn't want floating shelves, I already have those in my living room and I really wanted something that was made out of wood, real wood, so I could paint them  and change them up if I desire and they would last.  So this past weekend my hubby made them and painted them, I was as tickled as a kid in a candy store!!!

As you can see, I mainly used my Fall and Halloween Decorations as a quick fill on the shelves, I may just change out the seasonal items until at least after Christmas.  You never know about me, I may change it up tomorrow. ha!

My owl is new to the my Halloween decor this year, I fell in love with him the moment I saw him.  He's different from the everyday jack-o-laterns, witches and ghosts.

I found this Halloween Subway Art here and printed it at my local Sam's for less then two dollars.  The cute little pumpkins my MIL made several years ago, I have several of these pumpkins in different colors, fabrics and sizes through out the house that she has made.

I like my sign and in fact I am thinking about making a December 25 for Christmas in green and red.  I really think I should :)

Prior to hanging the shelves I took down this mirror that was, well out of  it's place on this wall since the day I hung it there but I did just because I really had nothing else to put there at the time and no where else for the mirror. 

                                    

What I had not realized though was that everyone seem to use it, so I found this cute round mirror to hang with the shelves. I love the color, however it's not really the right color for this area. I think I made tone it down just a little with some white paint but still let some of turquoise show through.

Happy October!!

In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

Colossians 2:3

Blessings to all ~

Carla

9.11.12

I'll never forget that day, watching the second building collapse, seeing the video footage on t.v., watching everyone run for their life and wondering what was going to be next.  I remember everything about that day.  I was stunned, it was a paralyzing day in America.  Jonah was in Kindergarten and it is said that his age group will be the last to remember this day.

That night a large group of us meet at church for a prayer.  While we were at church Jonah was drawing, like normal and he drew a picture that I still have today of what he had seen either on t.v. or heard others speak about during the day.  A picture of the towers and a airplane blowing up, all through the eyes of a innocent 5 year old.  A very sad day in history, one that will never be forgotten, especially today as we remember the survivors and those who we lost on that day.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous run to it and are safe.

Proverbs 18:10

Blessings to all~

Carla

Happy Labor Day

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day.  Since we had a busy weekend, and the weather is rainy, I am baking banana nut muffins and watching the Switched at Birth marathon with Courtney.  Looking forward to a four day work week.  YIPPEEE!!!

Blessings to all ~
Carla

Fourth of July

Well I wish that I could say I was able to sleep in and enjoy a relaxing morning of leisure this morning but that surely was not the case at my house. Phillip had to work a couple of hours this morning and the kids had to be at Kereiakes park to get their morning run in by 6:30, so needless to say my alarm went off at 5:20 on my day off…..UGH!!!

The kids finished their run and we arrived back at the house around 8:00.  Fighting the temptation to crawl back in bed for a nap, I instead made breakfast and assigned everyone chores to do. With that being said, one momma, two teenagers and two hours later, I had a clean house except for the mopping the tile floors. Which I decided to do after the running in and out of the house was done with for the day.


In the spirit of things and I am not sure why I didn't take more pictures of  my decorations, I guess I was either wrapped up in getting everything clean (ha!) or enjoying the day.  Again, another one of my plates that I decorated, this one is a plastic plate that I bought at Walmart back at Christmas, I love the stripes!!!  I printed this print off last year or the year prior and sadly I can not remember where I printed it from. The print is from Landee see, Landee do.  Thanks Shannon for reminding me where I saw it at.

 As for the enjoyment of the day, Courtney ditched us, as she has been doing a lot of here lately.  I guess it’s a teenage thing that I’ve just got to get used to.   She turned down the sparkly clear pool for the mucky lake with her friend Bailee.  As for the rest of the us, we stayed cool in the pool until later this evening when we headed out to Alvaton Church of Christ for Festivities and Fireworks.

Jonah and Morgan, along with Phillip and I getting ready for the Fireworks!!!

Jonah was a little bummed this year that he was not able to set his own fireworks off since we are under a burn ban in the county. Praying for rain!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July!!!

He is before ALL things and in HIM ALL things hold together.

Colossians 1:17

Blessings to all ~
Carla

2012...Really!!!

Really, is it 2012, already!!! Seems like just yesterday Phillip and I were getting married, yet this year we will celebrate our 19th anniversary. Here's just a short summary of what happened in the world in 2011....

• Death of Bin Laden
• Prince William and Kate got married
• A tsunami and earthquake hit Japan on March 11,2011, triggering a massive 23- foot tsunami. The 9.0 magnitude offshore quake, the largest in Japan's history
• 9/11 – 10 years of Commemoration
• New York passing gay marriage law :(
• Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs dies on October 5th (1955-2011) 

Blessings to all ~
Carla

Memorial Day 2009

Today, I'm remembering the men and women who have served and who are serving for our country's freedoms. Several men in my family has served, and I'm so thankful for their sacrifice.

Happy Monday!!

Merry Christmas

Well, as some may know, I had issues with our Christmas card this year. The one you see here, was my pride and joy however long story short, it was very pixelated (sp? if a word). This was card number 1, card number 2 which I ordered online and returned, I was displeased with...after three attempts, the third one I was happy with and a Christmas card finally made the mail and hopefully arrived before today. If you were over looked I apologized, there is a story behind the addressing of the cards also but I'll save that for another day, maybe.

Anyway, to all my friends, family and fellow bloggers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009

Blessings to all-
Carla