PB Knock-offs

You might say that I have Pottery Barn taste with a thrift store budget...or that might just be how it actually is. For some reason, I just hate to spend the $ on something that I can make or replicate myself. The following pics are a couple of my recent finds that are PotteryBarnesque. I bought some old sweaters at the local Goodwill and sewed pillow covers out of them. Cozy! For the mantel, I've been picking up some things here and there and have come up with this combination. I also threw in a picture of some recently hung photos....since we actually have some pics on the wall now! The white D isn't finished yet...still trying to decide what color to paint it.

Christmas 2010

Our Christmas this year, involved a little less time off and a little more travel. With my job, I don't have as much vacation time or flexibility as when I did working at a University. But we made it work and got to see family. My parents came in to visit a couple of weekends before Christmas and we ended up taking advantage of my Dad and his mad electrical skillz. We changed out almost every light fixture in our house which has definitely updated those rooms. He was also able to install an outlet so that we could use our dryer that we had purchased right after we moved to OH. They ended up leaving a little early due to an impending snow storm since they had to drive all of the way back to SIL.
Since we were leaving for CHI after I got off work on Christmas Eve Eve, we decided to have our Christmas on Wednesday night. Nothing too exciting just a relaxing evening at home. B was pretty excited about his new movies. He loves his VeggieTales! We were in Chicago visiting family from Thurday night to Tuesday morning. It was a great visit minus my being sick and GG being sick. I'd like to say that we rolled with the punches and were able to adapt to a new gameplan last minute. :-) It seems that I didn't take a awful lot of pics over Christmas. These were the only ones on my camera. Sorry, if you were missed!

Advent

This Christmas season we have tried to be more intentional with our family time leading up to Christmas. We started off the season with a list of family activities in our Advent Calendar that we could all enjoy together during this wonderful season of anticipation. B is still very young, so planning activities has been pretty challenging. Also, Jeff has been traveling, so we missed some days. But overall, we are doing pretty good with taking time to sit down as a family and enjoying our time together during such a busy season. Below are a few activities that we have done recently.


B decorating wrapping paper.


B and I decorating Christmas cookies.

Big Boy...Little Bed

We have started the transition to a toddler bed...pray for strength...

Ladies Craft Night

I hosted a ladies craft night at our home a little while ago and totally forgot to take pictures of everyone and their neat projects. The theme was reusing/repurposing picture frames. I had several samples of different ideas that you could make your own to fit any size or style of frame that you had lying around. One of my favorite ideas was a butterfly display that had caught my eye several months ago. I chose a plain 5x7 wood frame that had no glass and painted the frame white. I then glued black, textured cardstock onto the cardboard backing and used a white chalk pencil to chart out where I was going to put my butterflys. I punched out 19 small butterflys from a variety pack of black/white printed paper and arranged them on the grid. For a little pop of color I used one bright yellow butterfly in the arrangement. This will be lovely little piece of artwork for our gray walls in our bedroom.

Gobble Gobble!

I apologize for the slim pickings in the blog postings of late. Got a lot on the 'ol list that needs checked off. Anyways, we had a quiet Thanksgiving Day here at our house with just the three of us...well actually two of us since B fell asleep before we even got to eat lunch. I made a simple turkey breast in the crock pot, some sweet potatoes, stuffing and gravy and called it a day. After lunch we took our cue from B and took naps. Then we got up and did some Christmas decorating.
On Friday, I had to work. Jeff and B had a "Daddy Day" all planned. They went to a model train store, then to the Holiday Tree Festival, home for nap, and then we did a little Christmas shopping.
The rest of the weekend was spent at home, catching up on cleaning, laundry, and "to dos".









That was one sad lookin' Santa. He just did not have it together. I think B knew it too...he didn't want to have anything to do with sitting by him.


Oh, and I meant to post these numbers a couple of weeks ago but never go to it. Here are B's 18 month stats:

Weight - 32lb 10oz, 97%
Length - 35", 97%
Head - 19.5", 90%

Hangin' With the VIPs

This past weekend we had our second to last game of the season and the weather, as expected, took a turn for the chilly. We are talkin' S-N-O-W. Fortunately we were blessed with a room in the very nice and thankfully soundproof, press box at the stadium. This allowed for a more comfortable viewing experience for the coaches' families and a more confined space for the little ones. B, as usual, watched the first half of the game and some of the band at half-time but also took in a Veggie Tales movie. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when the custodian came in to clean that room and saw all of the mouth/lick marks and fingerprints all over the glass window in front of the bottom seats. Those kids really know how to have a good time! :-)
Alas, the game ended in a loss for the Pioneers. But hopefully the story will end differently next Saturday. In our last game of the season, the Pioneers will take on our alma mater, Olivet Nazarene University. Got to root for the Pioneers!!