It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Recent picture I took of my cousin's daughter - Savannah

The fire is cracking in the fireplace, the snow is gently falling outside, the presents are wrapped, the cookies are baked and I just boiled the potatoes for Grandma's potato salad.

We're going to have a WHITE CHRISTMAS this year!!

My nieces and nephews - Johnathon, Brittany, Katelyn & Matthew

Well, I need to cut up the rest of the potato salad ingredients and make a cheese ball and then carry everything out in the snow. Shurtz's are gathering at mom & dad's tonight.

I hope everyone in blogland has a Very Merry Christmas!

Thankful for Friends

"We wish you a Merry Christmas" is the song they sang at my back door Saturday night. Two of my grade school friends stopped by with a few house warming gifts and to visit for a while.

I hung the new pot holders on the cabinet already. Love SNOWMEN!
They checked out the progress on the house, we told a few stories and had a few laughs. I didn't think to get the camera out while they were here, not that they'd have let me take their picture anyway.


They also gave me this cute t-shirt! I'm getting ready to put the flannel snowmen sheets in the washer and get them on the bed.
Thanks Deb and Sherry - hope you both have a very Merry Christmas!

Snow, Fireplace and Christmas Decorations

Well it doesn't show signs of stoppin'
and I brought some corn for poppin'
and since we've no place to go (tadada)
Let it Snow
Let it Snow
LET IT SNOW

Sunday morning here in SoIL and we finally have our first SNOW! I love the snow!
I really need to be at work today since I have a board meeting tomorrow in which I was given the shortest amount of time possible to get the financials done and then on top of it have to forecast the rest of the year to determine bonus checks. But instead I think I'll sit at home in front of my fireplace and enjoy the scenery. Big thanks to Dad for getting firewood out of the woods out back and starting a fire yesterday while I was at a photo session.

My thermostat is set on 60 and didn't kick on until around 6:30 this morning. Of course I didn't carry wood in last night and had to treck out in the snow early this morning to keep the fire going - well worth it though, I love the feel and smell of wood burning.

Oh forgot to mention, I am officially living in my house now!!

Moved in the day my first house guests arrived (day before Thanksgiving), well truth be told I had to pack an overnight bag with clothes in it after my house guests were here because I only had enough moved for it to be liveable (didn't get around to clothes) and it rained that entire week.

My first Christmas tree.

I'm not ready to show you pictures yet as NO room in my house is done. I've been super duper busy this fall with pictures and have worked 60 hours plus the last two weeks and expect about that many hours this week too so 'things' at the house have been put off. But on a good note, come Thursday afternoon......I'm on vacation until the new year! That vacation isn't going to be a relaxing time but rather a "I'm getting stuff done at the house" vacation. I"ll relax some, but I'm ready to get a few projects marked off as complete. I won't really be able to relax until I get things done.

On the agenda for Christmas break:
*build kitchen island
*faux tin tile ceiling in kitchen
*molding on kitchen shadow boxes
*lay flooring in kitchen
*seal basement floor
*paint basement walls
*maybe build a few shelves in basement
*do a funky treatment on north wall in living room (knocking it out in spring so as of right now it's totally unfinished and ugly - have an idea on cheap treatment to mask look until remodel)
*hang blinds and window treatments in bedrooms and kitchen
*fix paint on kitchen cabinet doors
*hopefully get my handy-men to finish the tile in my bathroom, run electrical hookups to rest of outlets and move my satelitte connection
*re-arrange living room

*lay flooring in closet
*get bed set-up and bedroom put together (matress is on the floor right now), the room is painted but that's about all I can say about it
*maybe if I have time and weather permits, get crown molding installed in two bathrooms

I think that sounds like enough work for a vacation. Here are a few of my Christmas ornaments......well, it's time for me to design a few photo albums and then start working on company financials spreadsheets so I don't have to go into work at 3am tomorrow morning to get them done in time!

Quick Update....

Just a quick post to let you'll know where things are.....the drywall is getting finished this weekend!!! I can't explain how excited I am - this means that next week I can start to:

Clean, clean, CLEAN
Prime and Paint - the entire house
Install my fridge, microwave and stove
Apply the back splash in the kitchen
Get all the light fixtures installed
Tile the shower in both bathrooms
Install the stool and sink cabinets in both bathrooms
Install the kitchen/dining room ceiling - excited about this can't wait to share pics
Clean, clean, CLEAN some more
Wash all my dishes and put them in the cabinets
Remove the last of the carpeting and try to clean the hard wood (sanding it in the spring) - any suggests to remove carpet/padding marks without sanding are appreciated
Clean out the fireplace and haul a couple loads of wood - starting to get cool here
and then start MOVING IN!!

Time left before my first house guest arrives: 20 days
In that time I also have to get 5 more sessions already shot edited (one of which is a wedding with LOTS of pictures), attend and take a few pic's of a friends wedding next week, 7 photo sessions to shoot(which of course all need to be edited for possible Christmas gifts) and I'm decorating a wedding Nov 20th with fresh flower arrangements- only 40 tables, no biggie! Plus basketball has begun so I 'have' to attempt to attend as many games as possible every Tuesday and Thursday night.

This post isn't meant as a complaint in any way, shape or form - I'm LOVING life!

Ceiling Work!

When I purchased my home, it had these ever so lovely acoustical 12" spongy ceiling tiles in the entire house. If you've driven by my house you've probably seen these tiles neatly stacked up at the end of the driveway waiting for the trash man to pick up. You wouldn't believe how many 'locals' have commented on the neat piles of the ceiling tiles (that would be my father who neatly stacked them up).

The only room that still has these tiles is the mudroom. It's a winter/cold weather day project so they'll stay up there for a few months or so. I need to get the actual living space in working condition before I tackle this room.

As of Monday night, most of my ceiling looks like this (below)......drywall!! I'm not entirely sure what type of treatment I want in the living room so in the beginning it'll be flat white paint - exciting, I know. The kitchen is getting a faux metal tile application. Hopefully I can start on that next week sometime.

The two bedrooms have pine tongue & groove boards in excellent condition. I was hoping the entire house would have these, but no such luck. Let me rephrase that, it has tongue & groove boards but they're covered in felt and layers of wallpaper. I'm going to leave the natural wood in the two bedrooms. I have to caulk the cracks so the insulation will stop falling down and then I'm either going to varnish or white-wash them. May start with varnish and then white-wash if I decide the wood is too dark (rooms are only about 12x12).

Johnathon just LOVED taking the nails out of the ceiling! Can't you tell?

I've received some strange looks and comments on leaving the ceiling the natural wood and not covering it up. I think it'll give it a rustic look. I may hate it in the long run but want to give it a try and besides, what's it going to hurt to put a layer of varnish on my ceiling?

Congrats Lindy & Isaiah

If you haven't heard yet, Lindy & Isaiah are new parents!!

A couple months ago they officially adopted their little foster bundle of joy - De'von. He's in the picture below of them before they headed to the hospital, isn't he just a doll?

Around 6pm on October 18th, Josiah James Stonecipher came into this world at 19 and 3/4 inches long and weighing 8 lbs.

If you know Lindy and the medical issues she's had, you know how much of a miracle and blessing this baby is. Congrats again to the new parents, everyone in Illinois is so very happy for you two.

Thanks to Aunt Eileen for posting a few pics on Facebook (which I then stole for on here - don't think she'll mind).

Bathroom Tile

I've been having issues determining what I want to do for the tub/shower surround in my bathroom. I made a trip to Lowes and purchased this tile (looks a little darker in real life). I was happy with my purchase and had convinced myself this was what I wanted.

Then my brother informed my that a tile that heavy (these are stone tiles) has to have a backer hung, it can't be hung on the sheet rock. So they'll have to tear out the sheet rock they just installed.

I stopped that quickly and decided to take the tile back (actually it's still sitting in my bedroom - that stuff is HEAVY, need to get it back to Lowe's soon). Now once again I need to decide what to do in my bathroom!

If you know me very well and have been in my bathroom at different times through the year you know that I typically change my bathroom 2-3 times a year. So I'm thinking to keep it as simple as possible I'll just put up white 4" ceramic tiles. My sink/vanity is white and the tub is white so white tiles on the tub surround will fit in nicely. As an added bonus I can change the wall color and accessories in the room to just about any color I desire and my tile won't clash with it!! Isn't what I originally thought about doing but the more I think about it the more I come back to white tiles..........

I'm not sure I'll have time to tile the bathroom next week but everything else should be complete. Before and after pictures of this room coming soon.