Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From our house to yours, 

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and Blessings for the New Year!

Merry Christmas...

from our house to yours!

I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas Season! I was really hoping to have more pics for you and some better posts...but we're having some "technical difficulties"... 

Then the Christmas tree crashed to the floor... *BEFORE* I'd taken any pics of it, naturally. The little guys were quite pleased, as it soaked all the gifts and they were able to read through the wet wrapping paper and found out what they're getting! ;) 

But the tree has been replanted in the stand, the gifts dried out, and the mess all cleaned up.  Again. And now I think we can relax and enjoy the Season! 

I've totally missed out on the Days of Christmas posts this year, but I will catch up with a few rather lengthy posts in the next few days...providing nothing else crashes in the night...

Brick by Brick...

Little by little, we're getting the old parsonage all slicked up!

  Our latest project was to tackle the old crumbling (and slightly hazardous) sidewalk pavers and build a new brick sidewalk. Sound like fun? It sounded pretty easy...

But it took a lot longer than we'd anticipated!

First, to dig up all the old pavers...

 And make sure to get you some good help!

(Actually, I believe the only time they touched the shovels was to pose for the piccy. Good help is just so hard to find these days...)

 This little guy was the official sand taste tester. He thought it was good. He "helped" Daddy lay all those bricks!

Tada!

SO much better!

I think it's beautiful, especially considering this was the preacher's first shot at brick laying. I'm seriously starting to wonder if there's anything he couldn't do ;) With Google and a little ambition, we've learned how to do all sorts of things!

 I thought I'd throw in the waaaay back there before pic, just to encourage myself with how far things have come...

 It really has come a long way, baby!

Day 4

I got all Dr Suess-like for my porch decor. Making the wreath was the most fun I've had while decorating this year! I'm loving the funky - whimsy look, it makes me smile :)

Porch Redo and a Lego Birthday

I've been pondering the idea of painting my wicker porch chairs black, and it finally got the best of me. I took the plunge, and now I'm wondering why I waited so long. I'm really loving it with the freshly recovered houndstooth pillows. The Alabama fan in me is subtly popping out. Ok, that word, subtly, just looks so weird. That IS the right way to spell it, right? Or did spell checker just fail me... 

Anyhoo...moving along.

Here's a shot of the porch before I got the itchy spray paint finger...

And here she is now.

I was tickled pink to find the porch swing on craigslist for a mere 30$! My hubby was less than tickled about hanging the said bargain swing. What started out as a simple hang-up-a-swing project turned into a discovery of lots of rotten wood, pulling it out, and repairing it project. Good times, I tell ya. 

 The newly painted chairs are *subtly* sporting a touch of Alabama pride, too. 

I'm well aware that the wicker is totally falling apart. But a few cans of Krylon fit in the budget much better than new porch furnishings at this time. Maybe next spring...

Those of you that know me, and my flip-flop-wearin' summer-lovin' self, will be so proud to know that I actually planted some fall flowers. Go, me! Baby steps, people. Soooo hard to let go of warm weather...

 After a trip to the pumpkin patch, we brought home our pumpkins and had a paint party. I painted mine white to go in the ORB planters.

We got a little more creative with some of the others...

Thanks to pinterest for the fun idea!

 Jackson and I had birthdays last week. We celebrated with a little lego party, per his request. He wanted lego star wars, but we made a compromise and settled for just plain legos instead. Whew. I had a hard enough time making a regular old lego cake - not so sure how I would have fared with the star wars. 

He was pretty happy with it, so it was worth the effort ;) Actually, I kinda had fun playing with the fondant. It was my first time, and I must say it's rather addicting! All I need is another hobby. You know, for all my spare time...sigh...

Jackson turned 8, and Mommy turned thirty-something. 

But who's counting?!?

Fallishness Continued...

You'll be proud to know that I finally gave in

 and tossed the very dead ferns. 

(I guess it's time to end the denial. Summer IS over. Sniffle...) 

I replaced them with some fallish mums. We'll see how long they can survive my black thumb of death...

 I totally cheated with the wreath. I just jabbed some fall picks from my stash down into the boxwood wreath that was already there.
I never even took it off the door.
(cuz I'm lazy like that...)
They may all fall out in a few days, but I'm cool with that. 

When they fall out, I'll just poke some Christmas picks in there and I'm all set for the next season. 

Now, that's what I call efficiency. 

(Ok. So maybe it just sounds better than "lazy"...)

Curb Appeal. Phase 2

One more phase of the "spruce-up-the-exterior-of-the-old-parsonage" is now complete. Just to give you an idea of where we started, I'll throw in the before pic one more time...

And here she is today, showing off her freshly painted foundation, porch, shutters, and doors.

Porch and door before:

And after!

What a difference a coat (or 5 or 6...) of red paint makes! It's also amazing the what a little pressure washing can do. Our steps and sidewalk look brand new!

Now if I could just find somebody to volunteer to landscape the whole place.

Any takers?

Anywhere?

Rats.

Introducing...The QUEEN of patina

Come on, meet my newest treasure.

(At this point, she kinda looks like Fred from the Cars movie... me thinks she could use a little "rust-eeze")

I've been wanting one of these old metal gliders FOR. EVAH. My great Aunt Effie was about to send this one off to the scrap metal place, and I was only TOO happy to take her off their hands!

I sanded, and sanded, and sanded some more....till I was sore all over. I'm pretty sure I burned several thousand calories.

(I figure I earned that big fat gooey brownie.)

After sanding like a mad woman, I primed it with Rustoleum primer, then gave her a good coat of "Celery" by Krylon. Then, naturally, I sanded some of it back off in spots to show some of that rusty goodness. Can't have it looking too new and shiny - that would ruin it's character.

Then we proudly set her right smack dab on the front porch.

Ain't she purty?

A twin size ruffled sheet over a piece of foam made a dandy cushion...without me having to sew a single stitch.

I totally LOVE this thing! And it makes the most delicious creaky sound when it rocks :)

(By the way, dontcha just LOVE the house across the street?)

Aunt Effie was also sending a neat old wringer washing machine to the dump.

Well, what's a girl to do?

I told her I'd take it!!

(this is the part where my sweet hubby was banging his head against the wall...)

Now, I need some ideas...what should I do with it?

Oh, and if you need me....I'll be out on the porch.

I'm linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday!