Life is Good Here

The past few years has been rather hectic... but it has been the best few years of our lives. And it just keeps getting better! :)

I don't know how many times I've done it, but I have been griping about moving ever since the day we found out we were. How stressful it is, how my arms hurt from moving stuff or painting walls, or how much money I have spent on gas going back and forth [again] moving, or how we will spend some money to finish the other house to get it ready to sell etc., etc... But what we [John and I both] always felt but never say as much as we ought to is how THANKFUL we are for all that we have been blessed with... the fact that we have to spend a little bit of money to finish what we started in the other house to sell it is nothing compared to having ZERO house payment when it's all said and done... how I have been blessed with the most wonderful parents-in-law who have looked after me and have taken care of me like I was their own flesh and blood [sometimes, it's crazy but I feel like they love me more than John! LOL].

And, you may be so sick of me saying this by now but I HAVE THE MOST WONDERFUL HUSBAND ON THE EARTH! He isn't perfect, but he is wonderful! I love his smile, his laugh and his very many quirks... and most of all I love his very sincere, generous, loyal, kind, very understanding heart. His skillful hands make all of my crazy ideas come to life. 

 

 

I get so teary when I look back to seven years ago. Who would've thought we'd be where we're at now. We have come so far... People our age are yet about to purchase their first home, but here we are getting moved in to our fourth house! LOL Some people are struggling between chasing after what they want to do with their lives, but John and I are exactly where we wanna be, doing exactly things that we love. :)

Six years ago, at my Uncle Al's and Auntie Lap's home in San Francisco, John was waiting for me to arrive. And I vividly remember them telling John how they are scared of him moving me into a small town because they just thought my city-loving butt won't ever warm up to small town living. Well, it took quite a bit of getting used to, but I have come to love it... except that we make it a point to go to St Louis at least twice a month [okay! maybe more than twice a month!] Sometimes, it just feels good to be stuck in traffic, or get lost in the city, or walk around. You know that thing they say, "You can take the girl from the city but you can't take the city out of the girl" is true.

I may not be living in the city like I'm used to, but life is good and it is beautiful nonetheless. I may not say it more often but GOD aren't I grateful for all this... If I had to do it all over again, I'd gladly do it again and I wouldn't change a thing! Otherwise [these animals] Senior Voodoo, Foozie, Meester Peapers and Iddy won't be where they are now either. I love all our pets! They are a joy to have around.

If I chose to live somewhere else, I wouldn't have gotten to meet the best friends in the world! Crazy enough to eat the stuff that I make in my kitchen... not knowing what's in the food they are eating. lol 

I love my life! I don't think anyone else has it as good as I do. :) And for that, I am so thankful to the One who is The Source of all this... Not just for the stuff, but for the people I love. They make living in this small town feel like HOME.

Dear God, 

Thanks for this beautiful life and forgive me if I don't love it enough [sometimes].

UPDATED Subway {Randolph} Art

Hello all! I don't know about you, but I love pretty much everything I see on Pinterest. It has inspired me to do all kinds of things from paper crafting, sewing, home decorating, baking, etc etc... I could go on and on all day. I even enjoy reading all the funny quotes/sayings people post on there. :)

Do not quote me on this, but I believe subway art has been made more popular by Pinterest. I have seen loads and loads of them on the website. And, I love subway art... except that there is only a few on there that would actually apply to what I want in my home. But I have learned in the past few days that I don't really have to pay a ton of money for subway art or scour the earth for the one I want because I CAN MAKE ONE MYSELF.

... Well, I actually made three FOUR! Yes, four!

 

This first one isn't just a series of numbers. They are important dates for me and John. :) This is also Pinterest-inspired. I wanted to die-cut all the numbers, I've tried, but this font style is too dainty. It actually cut nicely on my machine but it's the adhering and the keeping it all straight and even that posed a huge challenge. So a poster print will have to do... for now, at least. 

 

I made this one [above] last night as John and I were watching TV in the living room. I told him, I want to make something/art that only makes sense to us. Something original. Something that I could post on Flickr or Pinterest that no one can copy but something that someone can draw inspiration from... How about I make something that [pretty much] has all the streets, towns, cities, and countries we've lived in. Obviously, we didn't put all of them in especially our college addresses. John and I moved so much in college! So we just picked out the most significant streets. 

Guess what, John and I both went to MSU. Different MSUs though... But we always thought it was cool that we were both from MSU. ;-) I told him when we first met that it must've been true what my parents always told me, "MSUans for MSUans". My parents are both {MSU} alumni, big frat people. My Dad was a history prof there for a while too before he decided he belonged to the city, being up on top of the hills in a college campus wasn't doing it for him. I was born in the campus. And here we are, John and I  both MSU people. Not frat people, but true blooded MSUans. :)

 

The one above, I actually found on Pinterest except I couldn't find a place that sold it. :( I was a little bummed, so I made it myself. I used a different font style on this. I cannot remember the name. But if you want it, shoot me up an email and I will gladly look for it and tell you. I am a font junkie. I go in font downloading spurts. I download at least 50 font styles at a time when these spurts strike.

I made this in honor of John's love for music. Music isn't only his livelihood, it is also his first love. I have seen him during marching season... His eyes glow when he is teaching his drum line. It's crazy how his demeanor and the expression on his face changes when he is teaching music/percussion.

I love these KEEP CALM... stuff! :) I made this one too. I am thinking about printing it in a large poster size to hang in my kitchen. I am planning on painting my kitchen yellow. This should go well with everything. :)

Can't wait to hang these pretties on my wall. I will be sharing pics. Promise.

What's Coming Up!

Hey friends! I hope everyone's Monday is awesome! Mine, not so much... I have been doing a lot of planning and thinking in the past week and it has been a battle trying to shut my brain off. Seems like every where I look, I find something that I want to do. All weekend John has been working on the finishing the flooring in the other house, while I have been in the new house measuring, looking at fabric swatches, a possible "PLAN B" color palette, etc. etc.

Every house we've lived in [which is now up to four!], no matter how generic, no matter how full of character, John and I always make it a point to put our personal stamp on it. I have posted a ton of photos of the other house and my craft room here, here and everywhere else on the internet. I love stripes and my husband loves tray ceilings and hardwood floors. We have established in more than two or three posts [the fact] that I have been blessed with a very handy husband... He makes things possible around here. :)

In the new house, we figured, we don't need tray ceilings because we love our ceilings the way they are so we are just going to invest on some really pretty [we don't care if it wipes us out] crown molding all over the house. One thing we would love to do though is either this [beadboard]:

Or, this [board and batten]:

 

I think we are leaning towards the board and batten at the moment and we are going to do it in our kitchen right after we get the painter to come and paint the whole room for us. John and I have agreed the kitchen is beyond our painting abilities so we are going to hire a pro to do it. 

In the same way I also love pinch pleat drapes and I love toile fabrics. 

{Pinterest}

I'm not the best in sewing but I know I can make drapes and I know I can sew straight lines and could absolutely follow a sewing pattern to the T. So yes, that's what's going up on all of my windows. :) If we haven't said or showed it enough already, we are relentless at finding ways to get stuff done. If our wallet couldn't stomach the price tag of the particular thing we want, we find a way to learn how to make it ourselves. Most of the time, we always find that the stuff we make aren't too far off from what the store sells in the first place... only we didn't have to break the bank to get it. *winks*

Here's one more thing that we will do down the road...

Lumber Liquidators

We frequent Lumber Liquidators for this particular hand scraped hardwood floor. Isn't that floor on the photo gorgeous? We love the finish and the hand scraped texture! We have seen, touched and walked on it at their showroom. It is on the high end of our price range, but we are definitely investing on great, high quality wood floor. The floors in the new house are in pretty great shape so we have time  to save up for what we really want.

I guess one thing we learned in the how many home remodels we've done is to NEVER BE IMPULSIVE. SHOP IT/THEM! There has not been a major purchase made in any of our homes that we didn't debate on, or shopped for months and have changed our minds on a few times. And if it is a big ticket item, we never order them online unless we have seen it in person and have touched it and checked it out to prevent disappointments or frustrations later on. Patience [even how aggravated I get] is always a virtue. We promise.

See you all soon!!!