First pictures of the Amazing Garland!!!

As soon as hubby got home tonight I asked him if he knew where the camera was, of course he did, it was on the shelf right next to the hook where I usually hang it. But of course I didn't see it because I didn't want to turn on the lights to look because I have all the Christmas lights up and I love how they look and I didn't want to ruin the mood by turning on overhead lights!

So these are the first pictures of the garland in my dining room. I am going to try to get some better pictures tomorrow when the sun is out and hopefully the room is clean! :) We don't have a fireplace in our house, and I really miss decorating one for the holidays, so I make do with what I have and what I have is a whole wall of bookshelves with our "homeschool" hutch in the center. We keep all our books, posters, pens and homeschool whatnots in there. You can see just a glimpse of the branches that I hung on the ceiling above our table. That will be a separate post! Feathers and japanese lantern flowers along with the huge pinecones I collected while we were at Sequoia National Forest this past summer. When I saw them, I knew I had to have them for decorating this Christmas.

I love, love, loooovvvveee these sayings that you rub on. I found this one on clearance at Target ($5) woohoo! I think it looks great on this mirror that is on top of the hutch - - I also wonder why it was on clearance when it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.....hmmmm maybe it was just a God treat for me!

Oh where oh where has my camera gone?

I have just finished the most wonderful garland and hanging branch thing - - maybe I will come up with a good name for it yet - - in my dining room. I so want to post pictures, but it seems my camera has grown legs, so I will have to search for it tomorrow, but as soon as I find it, you will see pictures. It looks fabulous!!!!! Can't wait to share it!

Things always have to get worse before they get better!

You know how when you clean or organize a room, you have to make a bigger mess to get there? Well that is what I am smack dab in the middle of! I decided that my work room needed some organization. I couldn't find anything anymore! So if I am going to re0organize, I am going to re-decorate at the same time! Below are some pictures of the during stages. Keep checking back because very soon I am going to post the final results and I can say, it was worth the mess!!

Found three pairs of Jason's pants in that room, he has been waiting over a year for me to fix something on each of them. The craziest part, when I sat down to do it, it only took me 5 minutes to fix all three pairs! Should have just done that when they ripped last year! The old set-up. Can you see why I couldn't find anything or function in that room anymore?

Just another view to torture your eyes with!

Not only am I re-doing this room, I am also re-doing the kids room and at the same time pulling out all of our Christmas decorations to start decorating the house for "Tour of Homes" which takes place in three weeks. Tour of Homes is an annual fundraiser hosted by the post's OCSC. For the tour, there will be 9 homes that are opened up for people to go through and look at how it is decorated not only for Christmas, but what you have done with your home. Since we live on post in Army housing, everyone has the same general house, so it is fun to see how people get creative and make it their home. There will be somewhere around 150+ people going through our home. I will post pictures once I get it all decorated, in the mean time, I think I may have just stressed myself out talking about it! AAAGGGHHH!!!! I need to get moving and get out of blog world!

Another re-upholstery job

This is the before picture of a chair I just re-upholstered. The fabric that she chose to recover it in was absolutely beautiful. I wanted to keep it all for myself, but I didn't :) Here is the chair after. I think it turned out great - - sorry the picture is a little grainy I should have moved the chair away from the window. Oh well, next time!

I'm Waaaayy behind!!

Well, since it has been such a long time since I have posted, I thought it was time I try to catch up, post some pictures and write some words! Life here has been CRAAAAZZZZYYY! First off, after two years of waiting and lots of prayer we have finally sold our house in Indiana! As my good friend Autums says, that was the longest running episode of "This Old House." It was high time for that show to be cancelled and the Franklin Family to move on! I will save you (and my fingers from having to type) all of the drama involved with selling our house! Many of you know that we bought it as a foreclosed home and worked on it for 2 years. We were planning on living in it much longer than we were able to, but God and the Army had different plans for us. We are thankful for the experience and the lessons we have learned are irreplaceable, but I do have to say that it is going to take alot of convincing for me to buy another house for awhile! I have posted some before and after pictures of our house for your enjoyment. :)

The house as it looked the day we moved in.

After two years of work!
Front porch before

A beautiful sunroom after

Living room fireplace before

Many hours of sanding and sweat later!