What the wind brought to Nashville.

We arrived in Nashville among the floods and tornado warnings. Yes you read that right. On Monday Feb. 28th we were among the crazy drivers heading west into the tornadoes and torrential rains. It took us over 8 hours to drive from Knoxville TN to Nashville.

We closed on the house on March 1st despite some last minute closing hiccups.

Let me forewarn those of you entering into the real estate market soon . . .it is crazy stressful. All the years of being extremely lenient has now made all parties involved overly cautious. Even one blemish on your credit and it is a show stopper. So all those financial guys saying to pay attention to your credit score and what is on it are so correct! Also realize you must have all papers ready . . .and I mean ALL. If you have pages 1 - 8 and 4 of them are blank they still need all 8!

I promise to post some pictures soon. As you can imagine moving 600+ miles away with two small kids is overwhelming stressful. I am so happy to report that both my kids are doing great and we have some sweet friends who have made the transition very sweet!

We have met two of our neighbors and hopeful once all the rain lets up we will meet more. I do absolutely love my house which is slowly feeling like home. The first two nights here I kept thinking someone was going to kick me out in the morning and tell me to go home. I still feel like a visitor most of the time but now that I am able to start unpacking my craft room it is starting to feel a little more real.

Here are a few pictures of just some of the many things I love about this house. I promise to start posting more pictures soon as we have made some color decisions! The first was easy . .my 8 year old daughter wants a pink room! :-)
We had a very modest master bedroom in Richmond but now we have a very large one with a sitting room no less! I have no idea what I am going to do with the space.

Love the LIGHT!!! I snapped this photo of the hallway. I love the light and the arch above. I am standing in the family room area looking out to the front door.

The VIEW. I still can't believe the view we have from both the front and back of the house. The above photo doesn't do it justice so I promise to post more.

Saying Goodbye and moving on!

This past week as we prepare to make our move to Nashville TN I have been on a rollar coaster of emotions. If you could hug a house I would. I realized this week how much I put into my house both literally and figuratively! :-) Yes I look forward to starting over in a new home and the home we have the fortune and opportunity to purchase is wonderful. But this is the home where I brought my babies home to. This is the home I have laughed, cried, mourned, held celebrations, dinners made so many memories in. It is near impossible to picture another family here doing the same thing.
I also want to warn those entering the real estate market to be careful. We had to major hiccups that I truly thought were going to make every hair on my head turn gray! Two areas to watch out for; Appraisers and Banks. We had the unfortunate luck of getting a highly incompetent appraiser. You might think well no big deal you request a different one. Yeah one would think in a fair and just world this would be true but no it isn't. Secondly banks can do almost anything they want to like pulling a loan out from under you at the last minute! :-)
I plan on keeping everyone up to date on our progress but it might take a little while. Hope every one is eagerly awaiting spring as much as I am.

New Home!!!

Well our 4 + month wait to sell our home finally paid off. We are under contract and boy does it feel good (most of the time). I don't remember another time in my life when my emotions were on a roller coaster, not even during my two pregnancies!

If all goes well we close on our existing house at the end of February and make our way to Brentwood TN closing on our new home on March 1st. Yes I said new home! We are very blessed to have everything fall into place so wonderfully. God is so in the details as I am very fully aware that this was not done of my own will.

Here are some pictures of our new home. I am so excited to share these and hope that this year i will be able to share with all of you my decorating journey!

Soon it will be what color, fabric should I use! I can't wait for that. Right now though I am overwhelmed with all the things that I will need to accomplish before the 25th. But if you have any color recommendations please post them. I have tried a variety of greens by digitally covering the areas on my computer but can't seem to come up with a color that really speaks to me for the kitchen/great room!

I do have a few crafts/DIY items to post before boxing up this house so stay tuned!

Can you guess what this is made from?

I have had numerous comments on the way I display my holiday cards. I LOVE mail. I mean I even can detect the sound of the mail truck before it reaches my neighborhood. So needless to say I really enjoy getting all the holiday cards in the mail. It seems such a shame to me to put them in a basket, or a pile somewhere. I am not sure exactly where I got this idea but here is a picture of how I display my cards.

If you guessed a tomato cage you were right. I spray painted the cage white and turned it upside down. I put felt pads used for furniture and other objects on the bottom to not scratch my hardwood floor. I twisted the top portion together and secure with some floral wire. I glued some ribbons using a hot glue gun into the larger wooden bowl found at the craft store (which I had painted and glittered) and then glued the small bowl on top (actually the bottom of the bowl). This went on top of the "tree". Then using a variety of ribbons, I lost count at how many rolls, I tied all the ribbons around the rings of the "tree". This way I could have the tree out without it looking plain. I use small wooden clothes pins to attach the cards as I receive them to the ribbons and the tree itself.

Having two children born both in February I usually keep it out to display their birthday cards too.

By the way it is really hard to find tomato cages in the dead of winter. I did manage to find them at a local Southern States store. So if you get the urge to create this you might wait until the spring!

How to information & New Years Send off!

I apologize for the delay in getting this information out to you! I found the inspiration and instructions for the snow men I posted previously from a Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts magazine. These came from Johanna Parker, you can find her instructions here. I am in absolute crafters envy . . .her designs are just so whimsical and fun! I did enjoy working with this medium and plan on experimenting sometime in the future.

Right now my crafting adventures have to be kept to a minimum as we have our home STILL up for sale. I am very much looking forward to the time when my home won't be on display and can craft to me hearts desire. It is looking like we will possibly build when we relocate to Nashville TN. Which also means temporary housing of some manner. Has anyone reading this blog ever done this with two small kids? I know I am jumping the gun but I am a planner and a control freak. This basically boils down to insomnia because I go to sleep running all the what ifs, do we stay here and finish out school, how will this affect my children questions running through my head. So please post and share any tips you may have.

I truly hope that all of you are looking forward to 2011 with a full and joyful heart. With everything going on in the world I am fully aware that this is a daunting task for some. I know that the only way I can face 2011 with a full and joyful heart is because God loves me, is for me and even though it is hard sometimes I need to trust in that.

My seven year old daughter reminded me of this the other day. We were in the car and she said "Mom you know what I like about myself? I like that I have parents, that God made me and that God loves me!"

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to each of you.

I was listening to some Christmas music yesterday which led me to dwell on the baby Jesus. I wondered if he was a fussy baby, if he had croup, if he gave his parent's trouble with sleeping. Did he fall asleep easily, take naps, spit out his veggies. Then I realized how awesome it is that our Lord, our savior, our redeemer was a baby, cried and was cared for by Mary. How awesome is this that I can today ponder these questions that he was fully human and needy of a Mother's affections.

I hope that each of you are able to spend a moment reflecting this. That you are known by him and are loved abundantly. May you realize you were loved so much that God give Jesus to all that will believe in him.

Merry Christmas and may you fully realize the Lord's blessings in your life!!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all that celebrate it!

I love making my own Christmas Cards and the Creative Memories Storybook software helps me so much in creating these. Last year I purchased a few vintage postcards and used those to create my cards using the Storybook software. I was in one of my favorite shops around Easter last year and discovered a few vintage Christmas postcards and purchased them. I have so much fun scanning these in and creating my own cards using bits and pieces of each vintage postcard. Above is actually an Easter postcard that I found of Mary. I love this picture of her and cropped her to convert her to a Christmas Card. I think it captures the true meaning of Christmas so wonderfully.

Below are the other three cards I created using the software, our own family pictures and bits and pieces of the vintage post cards. I love the modern card of just the two kids, very different from the traditional feel of the other two. I used some of the tools in the Storybook software and I think this took me literally 2 minutes to create. Sometimes simple is better!

Enjoy!!!