House Update

We are down to the last few things on the house before we can move in.  While we will not be completely finished, we are moving in so that we can move out of our current house.  Once we are completely out of the current house, we will have it moved.  Our sweet little house is moving to Bremen, Georgia to serve the ministry of No Longer Bound.  Please pray with us that this transition will be smooth for this ministry.  There are so many permits, rules, etc in moving a house, and Bremen is a far jaunt from here.

All of the following pictures were taken with my iPhone.  My light meter in my digital camera is not working - got to get that fixed!  Anyway, here are a few photos of what's been going on.

Keeping Room before paint

Keeping Room with paint

Keeping room doors to screened terrace

Entering Library

Built in desk in library.  To the right is a secret door bookcase.  Farther right is the fireplace.

Dining Room

Ceiling of Lodge Room (formal living room - no media)

Fireplace of lodge room

View of dining room from kitchen

A view of the house while turning the corner on the road where we live

Morning bar (coffee, juice, etc.)

Pantry

Laundry - oh my!  What a mess.  All of the contractors use this room as a staging area.

John's room

Stairs to bonus

My desk nook near kitchen...not as bright in person. :)

Powder Room

Playroom upstairs

Playhouse and fire station built into playroom walls.  I will paint bricks on the fire station after we move in.

Art nook off of playroom

Master bedroom (main floor)

Beginning of kitchen cabinets

Front of house

Thanks for looking  - More updates to come!

Rachael

A Christmas to Remember

Tomorrow I will begin filling my first every December Daily Album!  All of my foundation pages are complete.  Each day, I'll choose either a story to tell, journal about something special, or just record the day.  I will also be using the Journal Your Christmas prompts from Shimelle.  I have all of my foundation pages ready to go.  For my album cover and back, I used some chipboard from the back of a pad of paper, cut it down to 6.5" x 8.5". All of my foundation pages are a combination of SU confetti and crumb cake cardstock.  I cut the foundation pages 6" x 8".  While I do dabble in digital scrapbooking, I wanted to do this album all paper.  I really liked Ali Edwards foundation page templates, but really didn't want to spend the extra cash for the download.  Instead, I free handed the pages.  This took some time, but I really like the way they turned out.  I divided either the top or bottom of the page at two inches, and then drew in a small box for the date.  For my numbers, I used Kerri Bradford's December Daily numbers.  Y'all, these were so worth downloading!  I cut the numbers out of SU chocolate chip cardstock, added the Studio AE 25 Moments stamp set "December" sentiment in Black Cherry Stazon.  I LOVE how the pages turned out!!!!  For the transparency pages in between, I bought a few at Hobby Lobby, and made a few myself.  I still haven't embellished all of those.  My plan is to work on those as I go along.  Now, all I need to do is remember to take pictures each day, journal and then - at some point - put everything together.  Here are the pics:

Cover made using Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas Papers and KBS numbers

I stamped  on this Office Depot transparency with a circle stamp and white acrylic paint.

On this transparency, I used white Staz On ink and a snowflake stamp. Once dry, I added a dot of red Stickles in the center of each snowflake.  Once the photos are placed on the page behind the overlay, the snowflakes will pop right out!

Overlay embellished with Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas cardstock stickers.

This transparency overlay is by the Paper Studio at Hobby Lobby.

I really like this Tim Holtz tissue tape!

One last closeup of the foundation pages. Some have the journaling boxes at the top and some at the bottom.  The colors of the pages alternate.

This year, I also made a countdown calendar for the kids. I purchased the calendar undecorated from Hobby Lobby.  It was so much fun to use some of my old Christmas paper stash and supplies to decorate this. I covered the front of each drawer with coordinating papers, distressed the edges, added the numbers and them embellished each box in some way.  Each day we will fill the box with a small paper with the daily advent scripture rolled up and tied with bakers twine. The kids will love opening the papers and reading the scripture together as a family.  With Advent being a time of anticipation of the coming Saviour, we will remember the anticipation and celebration of his birth while we look forward to His second coming.  (I will also be recording the daily scriptures in my album.)  We also plan to put some special tiny treat for each child in the box as an extra surprise.  I may even do a scavenger hunt with clues that lead to a bigger prize that may not fit in the tiny box.

Have a blessed start to your December!!

Rachael

Scrapbook Starting Point

With the holidays approaching, creative juices and the need to craft start flowing!  I am currently working on an Advent Calendar for my kiddos and plan to do a December Daily album.  I'm going to do a combination of Ali Edwards style album with Journal Your Christmas prompts from Shimelle.  I've gathered my papers - Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas and some cutting files from Kerrie Bradford. In the meantime, while I'm gathering my supplies and deciding on what album to use, I was inspired to do a scrapbook page using the Scrapbook Starting Point post from Shimelle.  Here is the starting point:

 And here is how my page turned out.

Thanks, Shimelle, for the inspiration!  Looking forward to my first Journal Your Christmas!