and the Winter Weather Teacher-loving Wonderland begins!!

blog envy, bedroom before photos & Christmas decorations

I have been enjoying my Thanksgiving break!  The week has flown by though!  I have been working on grad school work, shopping, cooking and putting up some Christmas decorations in the new house (not to mention nursing a really, REALLY painful toothache & root canal!).

I wish I had more time to blog.... Lately I have really been spending a lot of time reading blogs.  I must admit that I have a bad case of blog-envy!! However, I know that at this point and time I do not have time to put into my blog.  One of these days I want to have a really nice personal blog (like this one but more focused on clean eating, recipes, and decorating) and a really nice art teacher blog, too!

I can't wait to be done with grad school!! I will be done with this semester next week!! YAY!  After that I have 12 hours left.  I plan on taking 9 hours next semester and then the last 3 in the Fall.

I realized the other day that I am completely overwhelmed when it comes to decorating this new house.  So, I have a new plan of attack.  I will complete one room at a time.  For some reason, I am beginning with my Master bedroom.  I guess because it it the closest to actually being done.

I'm getting really sick of looking at these blank walls!


Bedroom Before Photos
Here are some photos of my bedroom AS IS.  I should be getting my new bedroom furniture delivered sometime soon.  Notice the crappy curtain panels on the tension rods.  Those WILL NOT be around for the AFTER photos.

You will have to stay tuned for the AFTER photos.  (Be patient, It will probably take me awhile!)

Here is another room that I am working on now too.  (This one is easy so I can do 2 at a time! ha!)  This is my extra upstairs bathroom.  I had all of the green towels and accessories from our apartment so when I found this quatrefoil print green shower curtain at Walmart (Better Homes & Garden brand) I just had to have it!!

Here are some photos of my inside Christmas decorations this year.  I bought all new Christmas tree decorations this year (My old Christmas tree was really primitive and just wouldn't fit right in this house)  So, I went to the Hobby Lobby on a mission.  I came out with a bronze/copper tree skirt, two HUGE spools of damask print bronze ribbon and a massive package of copper bulbs.

 I found these tiny pre-lit entry way trees at Big Lots packaged with 2  pre-lit 9' long garlands, too (which I used outside around the door).  The trees were only 36" tall and were too small to use outside on my porch where I wanted.  :(   So I had to improvise! I put one on a plant stand covered with some (really cheap...I'm talking 1$ a yard) gold fabric that I bought on clearance at JoAnn a few months ago.   I decorated them to match my tree!!  and I love them!

 I bought this apothecary jar at HomeGoods for $9.99 and its a big one!!  Some smaller ones were $14.99 so I'm not really sure why this one was cheaper.  Anyway, I filled it with red bulbs that I bought at the DollarTree.  I also found some really large peppermint stick candy canes at the DollarTree and stuck those in there too.  I finished it off with a $.50 berry pick from Hobby Lobby.  I'm not happy with the overall look of this table, but its ok for now I guess. I'm having a hard time finding "homes" for all of my goodies since we gave a LOT of our old furniture to Goodwill.   I really love the little Japanese looking light (gift from my MIL) because it gives off a really cozy glow at night.  Some day I get it all situated the way I want it!!

I guess we'll be back to school on Monday.  :(   I'm looking forward to snow days already!

trying to win a Mint Floor cleaner!

Am I a Black Friday girl?....or a Cyber Monday girl?

I. <3. Online. Shopping.

There is nothing better than shopping when sitting on the couch!  I love being able to compare deals on various stores websites all at once.  I love being able to search customer reviews too! You can't see reviews when you are at the store.  Plus, I really enjoy sleep...so getting me out of bed before 5 am on my day off is NOT gonna happen!



I am participating in Infarrantly Creative and Tatertots and Jello’s Blog Hop for a chance to win a Mint Cleaner. It is the revolutionary machine that cleans your hard floor surfaces for you. 

Click here to join the blog hop and a chance to win!

The Mint Cleaner is available at the following places:

Amazon

The Mint Cleaner

HSN

Bed, Bath & Beyond

photos of the house.... including new counters/sink!

Its getting close! (part 2)

It's getting close!!

house almost finished !!!

first post in a millenium

The house is coming right along.  I haven't posted any new pictures in forever because....well, because I've just been lazy about it.  I've been posting pics to Facebook, but it takes me longer to post them on here.  Grad school hasn't been too time consuming this semester (and for that I am so thankful!) but I've been busy with getting stuff for the house....and driving over to look at the house....and looking at stuff online for the house.  So, blogging about the house has not been at the top of my priorities.

I'm going to try to catch up. My last post was about new things for the house.  I tried through 2 different online companies to get the light fixtures that I mentioned in that post.   However, I was unable to get them because they were backordered until the middle of November.  So, we needed lights ASAP so we went to Lowe's and picked some out.  They hung them up yesterday.  I think I actually like them better than the ones from the Internet.  I really like the ceiling fans we bought.  They look really nice.

The painters have been working hard in the house this past week.  I think they will finally be able to paint the walls sometime in the next few days.  Jesse and I keep driving over there each evening, anticipating seeing the wall colors.....but they are always white when we get there.   I'm just a little nervous about the choices that I made with the wall colors.  Its tough to decide in the store while looking at a 2"x2" square of the color, ya know? 

I can't post pictures right now because I'm at school....but I may be able to upload some in a little while.   But, I will post pics soon!!

Lost Camera

I haven't posted new pictures of the house for awhile.  I had misplaced my camera and I just found it today. So, the next time Jesse and I head over there I'll be sure to take plenty of new photos to post on here.  They have finished the deck.  They have built stairs in the garage.  They poured our walkway to the door and our driveway.  They have been working on the drywall still.  I think they might be laying tile soon.  I think the brick masons are supposed to be there this week to finish up the brick on the front of the garage.  We might even have our kitchen cabinets delivered this week!  (I can't wait to see those!...They are made by hand by an Amish man).  

We....excuse me, I mean...I picked out our light fixtures.  Here is a link to the one that will be in our dining room.  And this one is going in the bathroom.  I liked these lights because I was able to get all the lights in the house to match. I got them in the brushed nickel finish.  We also picked out our ceiling fans.

We also bought our kitchen faucet.  (and I LOVE it!) 

We had to pick out our tile last week.  We were at the store for an hour and a half.  It took awhile to make up my mind, but that was mostly because the tile salesman wouldn't leave me alone to think.   I hope it all works out!  Its really tough to make a decision like that!

On Friday, I went to pick out our carpet.

I still have a lot of things to pick out!  I think my next mission will be cabinet hardware...which sounds kinda fun!

Drywall is up! Siding almost done.

I am still super excited about building this house.  I love going to look at it every night.  I cannot wait to move in a decorate.  The fun stuff is coming soon... They will be painting the walls and putting in the carpet, tile and floors soon!  I'm looking forward to seeing my kitchen cabinets!!

They have started to build our back deck.  Love it!

Drywall in the living room.

This is the tray ceiling in the master bedroom.

I love the high vaulted ceiling in this bedroom!

They are almost finished with the siding.  The front of the garage will be brick eventually.  I think they are supposed to be working on that this week.  Do you like the siding colors?  Initially I wanted the two different sidings to be close to the same color.  Jesse wanted more contrast.  I think I like it though.  Its growing on me.  I'm thinking that I might like it more when it is all finished and the garage has the brick on it.  

More pics to come soon!!

more house pics

Here are some more house pictures, they have finished about half of the siding.

Electric & plumbing work being done

Look! It's the faucets that I picked out!

This is our master bathroom shower. It will be tiled. (That reminds me, we need to go pick it out)

My tub!

Electric panel that is in the garage.  

This photo was taken while standing in the "breakfast nook" and looking towards the powder room.  You can see some of the electric work they've done.

Back to Work

I'm back to the daily grind of school. Summer is gone already!! It's so hard to believe. So far it looks like I will have a pretty good semester though. I'm just happy that they are smaller than the ones I started with last year!! I had 37 students in each of my classes to begin last year. This time the largest is 30. My students seem pretty good, too. I'm not going to make any promises because students tend to behave like angels for a short period of time....but turn to you-know-whats before long.

I danced a little jig on Monday when I thought that I was going to get my classroom for my planning period. I had to share it all last year and, being an art teacher, sometimes I need to cut paper and set materials up for the day. But, (you knew it was coming) yesterday I got a message that I was going to share my room on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a college class. No big deal, I thought. Only 2 days a week. That's not bad! This morning I was standing in the hallway talking to Mrs. Cole and Mrs. Anderson, when a young guy in a shirt & tie waltzed right into my classroom like he owned the place. He said he was teaching college English in there on Mondays and Wednesdays!! AHHHH! I'm not even going to think about Fridays now because as soon as I do...they'll be someone who needs the room then too!! :( I am a little bummed about this right now. I'll never get my hopes up again.

I'll be posting some new house pics soon. Gotta get back to planning.

Paint Colors

Keep in mind that these photos are NOT of my house.  hahaha.  It will be a while before we are painting the walls.  However, I did select the paint colors from Sherwin Williams the other day.  So, I wanted to share my choices.  I really think they are going to work really well!  What do you think?

  This one is my favorite! This color is called  Restrained Gold.  It will be going everywhere downstairs in our house.  The dining room is going to have a chair rail and I plan on painting  the lower half of the walls some variation of a chocolate brown.  But..other than that little bit, everything downstairs will be this color.  I will probably paint the powder room a different color eventually, too.  In such a little room like a powder room, I think I would prefer to have a brighter color. 

The photo above is the color that I chose to go upstairs in our house.  It is called Latte and will eventually be in our bonus room, extra bedrooms, laundry room and upstairs bathroom.  I may end up painting some of these rooms different colors in the future (you know, like for a nursery!), but I was only allowed to pick 3 colors for the whole house.  (or pay more $) So, I decided to go really neutral and then paint it later if I want.

Lastly, the bedroom above is Jubilee, the paint color that I selected for our master bedroom. I am not a huge fan of blue, but this is a very gray blue. I think it will look really nice with the tray ceiling in there.  I told them that I wanted the master bath painted this color too....but I'm not so sure anymore.  I might have them go more neutral in there so I don't have to worry about matching the tile with blue.  

House Pics from Sunday

More House Pics from Saturday

 

I can't wait to spend some time sitting on this front porch!

This will be our "media room" eventually.  

House Pics from Saturday