And then there's You...

You will notice a new song playing on my blog (if you have volume on or choose to listen to them anyways).  Yesterday I came across a new artist while listening to Pandora (side note...what a great invention...I wish I could have it in my car!)  His name is Greg Laswell...I know basically nothing about him...but he has some good songs.  Those of you who know me well enough will know that I bought this song for the piano pieces...and that is definitely true...I was hooked at 37 seconds into the song =)   But the more I listened to it, the more I got to thinking...

See, I know that this artist is not a "christian" artist...nor do I think he intended the song to have the meaning it did for me...but that's why I love music...it takes on a meaning of it's own for each person who hears it and makes it their own.  Basically, I think music is what we make of it...which is why I listen to almost every kind there is!

Anyways...back to my original reason for why I posted this new song.  This song reminded me personally of the consistency of God...of His faithfulness and goodness and everlasting love and acceptance.  See if you listen to the song it talks a lot about life and dreams and love spinning him around and letting him down. Don't we all go through that at times?  Feeling like we are spinning around aimlessly or without purpose...or feeling like we were left down by something...a dream that never came true, or a love that left you hurt...or a day when nothing seems to go right or the way you had planned?  Then he says, "And then there's you...and then there's you..."

 For me, my thoughts do spin me around at times...they distract me, they challenge me...sometimes in a good way, sometimes not.  Like I said, I have no idea what he intended this song to mean, but to me it said "Holly, no matter what you are going through, went through, or will go through...no matter how confusing or challenging life might get, God will always be there, will always be THE SAME."  The song was encouraging to ME...even though the lyrics may suggest otherwise to someone else. At the end  he says, "and how today it sets me down, alongside you."  See if we allow it, we can choose to stop the spinning and simply REST beside the ONE who will not leave or change.

So if you feel like  you are spinning around today... or lately...or whenever...just know you are not alone,  and there is someone who will ALWAYS be there to stop the whirlwind, someone who won't let you down, who won't leave you alone, who doesn't change, and who happens to love you unconditionally...and ALWAYS will =)  If you don't believe me....consider the following...

"jesus christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever." hebrews 13:8
"come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest...for I am gentle and humble in heart , and you will find rest for your souls." matt 11:28
"be still and know that I am God." psalms 46:10
"for great is His love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures FOREVER..." psalms 117:2


Here's to hoping that all of our thoughts, love, dreams, and days bringing us spinning to a stop alongside of Him...

ReNovAtionS & ReSoLutiOnS =)

For those of you who know me at all, know that I absolutely HATE carpet! I didn't used to...but...after having 2 young children and various "NO SPILL" sippy cups (which is a lie..I am just telling you right now...they spill, and I HAD the proof to show you!) my carpet looked like...well I can't even find adequate words to tell you what it looked like...so let's just call it was it was -GROSS, DISGUSTING, STAINED, HORRIFIC...and to sum it up, MY LEAST FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD!!! Here is the proof of the nastiness...

***PLEASE NOT THE COLOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHERE OUR DINING RUG WAS...SO EMBARRASSING***

For about the past year and a half my poor husband had to listen to me complain about this carpet almost daily...and if I wasn't using words to complain, he could surely tell by my deep sighs of frustration every single time I would look at it, or have to get the vacuum out.  At one point I seriously considered just ripping up all the carpet and going with the plywood underneath...i was certain this would have looked better....I mean of course there was the worry of splinters and such...but I was just about ready to take that risk...it was that bad friends...trust me!

My DREAM ( i have lots of those) was to put in all "unfinished" hardwood, sand it down, and paint it WHITE...yes white. I of course realized that this would be a daunting task...but it is what I wanted.  Well, this particular dream didn't quite come true, but I got CLOSE ENOUGH =)  My husband very lovingly explained that there was just no way we could rip out the hardwood that was already in our kitchen and foyer area...it would be too much work and most likely damage the kitchen cabinets that were overtop of the wood...SOOOO, that meant that if I wanted hardwood at all...we had to get it to match the existing wood already in our house.  Ok, so it's not my most favorite color, and I would never pick it on my own, BUT, it ISN'T carpet...so I agreed that this was our best bet!  So a few days before Christmas, we purchased 35 boxes of Bruce hardwood flooring that almost seamlessly matches up with our existing hardwood.  Here it is just waiting to be installed....

So after about 2 days of solid work and a lot of help from our wonderful friends, Randy, Derrick, and Ryan...my entire first floor (save our laundry room and Anthony and I's master bath) were ALL HARDWOOD FLOORS!!!  It is really like a dream come true for me  =)

BEFORE

AFTER

Doesn't it look a gazillion times better =)  So clean and airy and shiney new!!!  Anthony also built two small half walls to give a little bit of separation between our living and dining areas...and they turned out great as well!

I debated back and forth about putting the hardwood into our bedroom also...and am SO GLAD that i decided to do it...here is that finished product!

While all of this flooring stuff was going on...I had a project of my own that I was excited about!  I search Craigslist frequently...almost daily actually...you just never know what you might find!  I must say though, it is frustrating sometimes to see people trying to see 40 year old furniture for over $100...i mean when you can get something new for cheaper...than you don't understand how craigslist operates! Anyways, that is a whole other post I am sure.

THE HUTCH

So I have been wanting some sort of "hutch" to put into our dining room for a long time.  We have 2 large walls and never really had anything "neat" to fill that space with.  So...one day I struck "craigslist gold" when I saw a hutch being offered for $35.  I contacted the guy, and after a few days, I just sent my brother up to pick it up without ever seeing it in person...I didn't care, I wanted it, and it was a perfect price.  Here is the original picture of the hutch....

I was excited when Jarred delivered back to our house to see that it was in really good shape, it is actually basset furniture (which I think is kind of a big name brand..or used to be?)  It was clean and all the glass doors and drawers and such worked...I was thrilled and couldn't wait to start working on it!

First I had to wait until Anthony was done with the floors and took a few days off...then he sanded it all down for me, I primed it and painted it white.  Here is the bottom portion before I got the top finished...

In my mind I saw exactly what I wanted this thing to look like, and it actually turned out even better than I had hoped!  I knew I had wanted to do something fun behind the shelves up top, and something that would allow me to change the look of the cabinet, without too much effort...so I went with Fabric...and I LOVE it...see for yourself =)

 

Pretty nifty huh!

THE TABLE & ChAIRS

This was actually Anthony's idea....to refinish our dining room table...of course I am sure that he thought of it only after I repeatedly complained about how gross the top of the table was...but in any event. He took on the table project and I agreed to redo the chairs. I originally thought he got the raw end of the deal...but I was surely wrong. He did a fabulous job of completing resanding down the table (which was a solidly amish built shaker style type table) and restaining it an antique white color. You can see his wonderful work below...

**side note, the black chair was also a "redo" in which we found a few in our neighbors trash and spray painted them black...love a free (well almost) new look! **

 detailed look at the antiquing job!!

So after my husband did such a wonderful job with the table...I didn't want to mess up the chairs...here is a before picture of what the chair looks like...

I originally wanted the chairs a teal/aqua color...similar to that in our bedroom.  I found a good color, Anthony liked it too, so we bought a quart of paint and I sanded, primed, and painted 2 chairs this color. I loved the way they looked...

But didn't love them in our living/dining area because everything else is a greenish color....so I decided we needed a different color.  A green color...but what color green to pick??  I had the genius idea of trying to spray paint the chairs since the black ones were a piece of cake....well that didn't turn out at all as planned...and I ended up with this...

This picture doesn't even really fully show how hideous the chair looked...it was runny and a horrible greenish/yellowish color...and or course now I needed another color and option...and I needed to reprime all the other chairs too =(  At one point I had 4 different chairs...

So after spending 30 minutes looking at paint samples in different light in our rooms...i picked the color LIME GREEN...i knew it would be bright...but it was the closest to what I was "looking" for in the green color, so I went back to Lowes, got a quart of lime green, and started at it again.  By this point I had already painted and primed these chairs several times...and I knew they were going to each need 2 coats of green paint, plus at least one coat of polyurethane...see what I mean...I think I ended up with the raw end of the deal with dealing with the chairs!

So, I finally had them all painted and brought them upstairs, AND drum roll.....

I didn't like them either =(

Here is what they look like...

They are entirely too bright for me.... and now I am back to square one...but for now (because if i paint one more chair I will go insane) they are staying that way for a little bit.  In some lights they aren't too back...but I don't love them..sO eventually I will change them..again!

On other quick "decorating" sidenote...I also added these fun wall "stickers" to my laundry room

ReSoLuTioNs

I have never really been one to make "new years resolutions"... maybe it's because if I am being honest, I know I probably won't be able to keep them, so why set myself up for failure??  But this year there were definitely a few things that I wanted to do, or start doing, or do differently...or however you want to word it.  Now of course if you are making a resolution, you are pretty much admitting in a round about way that you were not doing something so great in the first place... or you could have at least been doing it better.  So here are a few of my "resolutions"  or, I guess I would rather call them "GOALS"... and the reasons behind them.

1.  I am going to attempt to read the entire Bible this year. My goal in doing this is for a couple of reasons. First, I have never done this before, in fact there are many books of the bible I probably haven't read so much as a verse from...and that is pretty bad for someone who has been a Christian for over 10 years. Second...I read A LOT of books in a year...I think I counted that I have read at least 35 in 2009...some of which were over 800 pages long.  So I basically have been convicted in the fact that I can read that many books, but can't bring myself to read the most important one...so I am changing that.  I will not be giving up reading other books, because I truly love to read, but I just am rearranging some priorities I guess you could say =)

2. I am going to attempt to do some sort of exercise at least 2 times a week.  I don't mean like hard core exercise, I am thinking more like subtle pilates or something. I really need to work on my posture, so I heard that kind of exercise is good for that kind of stuff! Plus my husband is like in totally great shape...and I...even though small and skinny is probably pretty unhealthy actually...so we will make this a goal.

3. I am going to attempt to teach my girls to memorize some simple bible verses.  We are starting with one a month and she how they do with that.

4. I am going to try to do a better job with budgeting my families money. I am the one who takes care of all of that money stuff...and I think for the most part I do a pretty good job...but I want to try to do better and keep track of exactly where our money is going...and I really want to try to do better about putting money into our savings...and our girls savings accounts.

So that's it, those are my resolutions/goals/ whatever you want to call them.  Feel free to ask me about them from time to time...keep me honest ya know!

Welp, this ranks as probably the longest post I have ever written...hope you enjoyed all the before and after pictures...I know I am am certainly enjoying the new look to my lovely home =)

I hope everyone has a wonderful year....and may all your resolutions, goals, dreams, and hopes come true!!!

ok... so it's almost been a month... sorry!

I know it has been almost a month and Christmas is way past and there was still Christmas music playing on my blog...sorry!  I am at least updating the music section today, but don't have a lot of time to write too much!  I am planning a post in the NEAR future entitled "Renovations and Resolutions" in which I will reveal why I have been missing in action the past few weeks =)  Anyways...added 2 new songs for your listening pleasure.

Mat Kearney is one of my favorite artists ever...don't be surprised if you hear a few of his songs from time to time on here =)  "Where do we go from here" is from his Nothing Left to Lose album, and I had forgotten all about it, until I heard him sing it live in the fall...now it's one of my favorite songs that he has ever sung!!
Favorite line .... "the pull of the ocean and the roaring tide is bigger than my eyes, or my design..." (actually i love that entire verse)

Parachute is not a band i listen to regularly, but they do have a fun sound and good songs!  I love the song, She is Love...very cute and relaxing and chill =) I like it because it obviously about a girl, but could just be about the thing we call LOVE too... my favorite line is...
"and when the world slows down, dear; and when those stars burn out, here; oh, she'll be there."


Happy listening friends...i will post again soon...well hopefully =)