First Project of 2015

We've been fairly quiet on the house projects since early summer when we did the hang-out space for the kids.  I've been busy with lots of sewing projects and we've had a fair amount of just regular life happening around here.
Since we generally have a two week vacation with Christmas and New Year's, Steve wanted to tackle something good sized with the time.  He knocked off quite a few smaller projects last week and this week we did a really fun photo wall in the living room that I just love and then we started working on painting Jessica's bedroom.  This might be a record... we started on New Year's day in the afternoon and I finished it today (Jan 2nd) just before dinner time.
Of course I don't have before or after photos because it was a marathon of painting and I didn't stop to take any.  Bad excuse, but I'll try to get some shots after we put the furniture back tomorrow and update this post.
The one fun thing we did tonight was this neat little art photography project.

Photographs of signs by my amazing hubby

Sorry for the really awkward picture, but I took it with my phone and it's on a tiny wall just by her door that is awful for trying to photograph.

Steve went out this afternoon and photographed all the street signs in a few different towns and we printed, framed and hung them tonight as a surprise.  She actually hasn't even been upstairs to see it yet.  Hopefully she's going to like it. :-)

Her room done is the 8th room painted in the house and leaves us just 2 more rooms and 2 hallways to paint - all since we moved in less than 2 years ago.  I'm stunned at the progress we've made in such a relatively short space of time.  

Actually her room wasn't awful as it was painted and was fairly neutral in color, but she wanted a light, brighter color on the walls as a backdrop for her eclectic style.  She chose the same light color she'd had in our Merrimack house (Creamy Buttermilk - by Glidden) and we had the very nice paint guy at Home Depot color match it in Behr paint for us.  

Now to figure out some window treatments, and get some things hung on the walls.  Then Steve is going to build her a custom book shelf & storage unit against one of her knee walls (she has a windowed dormer on one wall).  A great way to start the new year and the last semester of high school! 

Praying that God blesses all our projects in 2015 to be as fairly easy as this one. 

Blessings on the journey~

A Happy Birthday

So it was my birthday.

 And all four of our kids were here and my parents came up... and Mom even made me a double chocolate fudge cake with lots of candles to humor the kids.

Steve bought me a beautiful pellet stove for our home.

Saffron thinks it is for her.

We had a lovely day together.  There was LOTS of laughter and that is what makes for a truly Happy Birthday in my book.  God has truly blessed me far beyond my grandest dreams.

A neat giveaway

Several of the blogs I read regularly do giveaways.... I think it is really neat and fun!
Sarah Mae at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee has a great one right now... check it out here.

Day at Deerfield Fair

Yesterday we spend most of the day at the Deerfield Fair. It is an annual event in our family and we always have a great time.
Lots of eating of things that are not really good for you and lots of laughing with family and friends. Sounds like a great day to me!
After dealing with major traffic in the first 10 miles of the trip from home, the rest of the day seemed like a breeze! The weather was great - cool, partly sunny - and we met up with some family friends and enjoyed a lot of fun.
The kids love to see the animals and even got to see a newly born baby calf in the dairy barn.
They missed actually seeing the birth by about 30 minutes or so and Jess was disappointed - she thought it would have made a marvelous biology lesson. The rest of us were glad to have missed it.

Steve took this photo just after we arrived at the fair and met up with our friends.

I had a really terrific day and felt so very blessed to have been able to share the time with everyone.