Our New Mantle!

We finally have a mantle!

Here is a bad, sad picture of what was:

This is what the house came with.

It's not very exciting lol

AND

There was no place to display anything or hang up stockings!

~No place for stockings is just not gonna fly in my home~

*haha*

So my lovely and talented husband

built a mantle for us :0)

He was kind enough to put up with my craziness. He followed my vision

and thankfully is great in math, (I wanted it at an un-standard angle)
and was able to figure out some crazy angles.

Here's our new mantle:

I painted the ugly gold that was on the doors black so it'd just blend in.

The molding we chose has oak leaves and tiny acorns on the bottom

and egg and dart on the top.
~and was on sale for $20~

WE LOVE IT!

With the nice topper and a coat of fresh paint it is

 such a huge improvement on what was there before!

AND

now Santa can find our stockings!! hehe

I'm looking forward to dressing it up more, especially for the holidays

but I have a billion other small projects I'm trying to get done before Thanksgiving!

Have a great weekend!

ConGratuLatIoNs!!!

Yesterday my dear husband became an America Citizen!

I can't believe we finally made it to this milestone in our lives,

and I'm so happy and excited in our future.

Congratulations Honey!!

I'm so proud of you and so happy for you!!

He's already been totally American LOL

but now it's official :0)

He was blessed enough to actually win the green card lottery a few years back

(I didn't even know there was such a thing before that)

 And now the journey is finally complete with his citizenship!

Now he can vote and have his voice heard..and he might even have to do jury duty

...haha, no escaping now!

An old Painting..

Well....

I finally have my dining room looking a little cute -at least as cute as it has been since moving in!

I also have a new painting I made that I want to share

- BUT -

The batteries in my camera have died and I can't find the charger!!

I "put it up somewhere safe-a place I knew (at the moment) I'd be sure to find it"

But, as usual, when I do that -I'm never able to find those "safe"things!! haha

So in the meantime, let me share with you an old cartoonish painting I did of myself and Sher...

I always smile or laugh when I see it..

I tried to capture the funny face he gets when he's near a tasty dessert! haha

Wish me luck on finding that charger!

The Goof Troop

Our Family Portrait:

(dad,mom,me,sister,hubby,sister)

HAHA...

me and my honey

My cool punk mom and baby doll sister:

My young beetlejuice sister

This was our beverage for the night,

Red clotted tea with eyeballs.

The eyeballs were frozen lynchee fruits with blueberries stuffed inside.

Here's my husband in front of our purple gray potato salad,

Everyone had a hard time taking the first bite of this stuff -it looked totally gross lol

Molded bread..DELICIOUS!

It get's it's green color from spinach.

Homemade caramel apples (YUM)

and lady finger cookies

We had a TON of fun!!

We just acted like dorks, played musical chairs,

and scared a couple trick or treaters along the way.

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

I'm sooo itching to drag my Christmas things out,

but I have a list of projects to get done before Thanksgiving lol

Halloween Eve!

Now...I didn't get to do ALL the things I wanted to do for Halloween

BUT we shall still have some fun!

Today I need to work on finishing some things for our costumes.

I also need to clean the house then make it dirty again by decorating LOL!

We will be having a small family costume party/dinner.

Halloween is usually boring so I decided to make an effort to have some fun this year!

Sher and I will make these goodies tomorrow:

YuMmMMmmm!!

Also to make are some "lady fingers"

Also on the menu will be ribs, purple potato salad, moldy bread and clotted tea..

LOL Hopefully it will all work out well.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! I can't wait to hang out with my family, act like dorks and scare a few trick or treaters! hehe

Chair Face Lift

We originally had 4 of these little chairs but over the years 2 fell apart!

They have served us well..as a place to sit and eat our meals, as stepping stools, etc.

They have however acquired too many scars, lol...

Such as: different color paint splatters, joint compound splatters, scratches...on and on..

So I decided to give the last two left a little face lift! I sanded them down a bit and painted them with some leftover paint I had that was used in my art/craft room.

Ta Da!

Here are the freshly painted chairs:

This color just makes me happy.

I WAS going to give them a little sanding around their edges to warm them up a bit, but something tells me that will happen naturally...

I bet by December they will look nice and broken in! haha

One small project I get to mark off of the long list!

Woo Hoo!

Bathrooms

Our Bathrooms finally received a little attention

Here's the before of the hall bathroom:

Another shot:

Here's how it is now :0)

I painted the vanity black with red popping out a little underneath.

Made a new shower curtain, added some of my own artwork and painted the walls.

Sher actually picked this fabric out, he has good taste -I love that toile.

Here is our master bath, this is the only before I have.

It's not exactly done though, there is SO MUCH we need to do to it such as:

Raise the super low vanity, new sinks, new floors, well...NEW EVERYTHING ALMOST LOL

But for now we added a window mistreatment and a painting done by me..

To help it become a nicer place to be...

We have one more powder room to go..we have some cool plans for it too so hopefully it'll all work out well..

The dining room is under construction also now..curtains are done -chandelier is up and now we are in the process of designing and building a mirror for the space! Hopefully soon I will get to share that with you ..chairs are also on the "to do" list -so fingers crossed on those! :0)