Watch Me Grow

Merry Christmas

Our first White Christmas was PICTURE PERFECT!!

Merry Christmas

from Dave, Bonnie Katelynn, and Madeleine

What a Beautiful Morning

A Picure at 5am from my back deck

Inspiring

Yesterday, while watching OPRAH, I got INSPIRED.

The them was "This is the Year to Live Well." She had her party decorator, Colin Cowie, as her special guest. It started out showing all the decorations for the wonderful weddings and parties that he has designed, but then it got really good.

He talked about simple things that you could do in your own home to live like royalty.

Some of his ideas included, always dressing to impress (not ME) and being prepared for special occasions with extra gifts in stock ( I love stashing presents- just in case).

But the one Inspiring moment was seeing his closet. He said that you need to have an organized room and closet, because it is the first thing that you see when you wake up, and the last thing you see at night. It can totally determine you mood for the whole day.

I totally to this to heart and first I started organizing my closet. I had SO much fun I almost forgot to pick up Maddie at school ( yes, I made it in time). I move all of my formal dresses upstairs (into the unused part of Kate's closet), after all I don't use them everyday. I hung, and color coordinated all of my sweaters, sweatshirts, slacks, dress shirts, etc. I folded all of my PJ's nicely and approximately the same size (In the show, he said to use a cutting board and fold them exactly all the same, but I am not that neurotic). When I was finished I had 3 BAGS of garbage and old clothe that I pulled out, and I was extremely happy with the outcome. I LOVE IT.

Now I am happy to say that I am halfway done with my bedroom (except David's stuff) and I will be one organized woman (Yes even under my bed). YEAH!!!!!!

Finnally

****Update. I posted the after picture of the final room. scroll down to see.***

After almost four years and a lot of persuasion on my part, I finally convinced David that it was time to paint a few rooms in the house. (He was supposed to be gone this week and I was going to do the painting without him knowing.) I decided that Maddie need to have a girlie room after putting up with a tan room since birth.

Before we could start David add a nice chair railing to the middle of her room.  

Then we tapped of the carpet and use the airless sprayer to spray the walls and get a nice even coat. I really though it was interesting to see the amount of mist in the right picture. Finally it was done. And the finished product is......

Pink! Pink! Pink!!!

Maddie absolutely loves her room. She even wanted to sleep in their last night instead of sleeping in sissy's room (a real treat), but I was afraid there was still too many fumes present.

I also decided to do two other rooms.. First, we did the laundry room.

Before we had a lot of extra items that were put in the laundry room because they seemed to work. The large cabinet next to the door we had our home teachers help us move into the basement next to our spare fridge. In it's place I hope to be putting in a folding table and over head cabinets to store stuff in. We also finally finished the trim in our house. The laundry room was the last hold out. Now after almost four years of living in this house it is DONE.

And the final product is......

I really was looking for something bright and cheerful. Yellow seemed like a natural color. This picture actually doesn't do the color justice. It is YELLOW. I think it looks great. Now I just need to decorate.

The last project for the week is to get my sew/craft room painted. It was painted a soft yellow (way too light) before the carpet went in, but with all the moving around really needs a new coat, but I don't need another yellow room.

Here is the before picture. However it is only half done right now. I will post the after picture soon, so check back later....

See the after picture? How do you like it? From yellow to Green!! Plus it is finally organized. Thanks for all the help mom:) Now all I need is some decorations. Any ideas?