finishing touches . . .

"Give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love" Psalm 107:8








"May all who enter as guests, leave as friends"

Today we wrapped up the finishing touches on my living room make over project. I bought some wall shelves at Target a couple weeks ago and we got those hung and decorated this morning. The vinyl sign on the wall "May those who enter as guests, leave as friends" was a gift from Ben's mom a couple of Christmases ago. I loved the idea but hadn't hung it yet because I knew we would be moving out of California where we were at the time. It is the perfect addition to my make over project! Thanks Dorothy!

Other "finishing touches" came from a Blessings Unlimited party I had at my house when Ben was gone to his conference in Los Angeles. For those who are not familiar Blessings Unlimited is like a Pampered Chef business but the products are things for your house that have Scripture on them. The idea behind the business is to get Scripture in your home in different ways. With most Christian book stores being closed now online shopping or this business is one of the only ways to get this type of stuff.

The vase with the red flowers came with two signs one says "Peace" and the other one says "Light," both have a different verse written on the flip side. Another great feature about the vase is that you can flip it upside down and it doubles as a candle stand/holder! Love it! The table runner was another Blessings Unlimited product, this one my mom bought me. Thanks mom it is PERFECT with our living room theme, okay maybe it's more MY theme than Ben's but he loves the final outcome.

All in all I am enjoying the finished product and feel like it is much more homey now.

pillow project

As part of my living room make over I decided to copy Pottery Barn's pillow case pattern to recover some of the throw pillows on our couches. The colors of our living room are green, brown, cream/tan and red as the accent color. Back in the fall I looked into buying two pillow case covers from PBarn only to find that they would cost $30 on sale and charge an additional $30 to ship to AK. Really, $30 shipping for 8 oz. of weight? No way. Ridiculous. Another true confession I am not a seamstress. In fact I think I've sewn something with guidance using a sewing machine two times in my life.

For this simple but technical project for a non-sew-er I went to the professionals for assistance, Pam and Marlene Kroon. As luck would have it they were having a quilting, sewing week together so my sewing idea fit right in with their plans. Wednesday I went over to Pam's house to meet with my seamstress mentors and we wipped out a pattern in a few minutes and a couple hours later I was driving home with two new pillow cases that cost me approximately $7.00 a piece to make. Not bad. It feels great to make something you really want or like and save a ton of $$ in the process. Thanks Pam and Marlene for your assistance! The pillows fit perfect with my living room make over!

introducing my Ruger 308 . . .

Here my friends and family are the looooooong awaited pictures of my Christmas present this year. Ben bought me my own personalized rifle. By personalized I mean it fits me like a glove! For those who don't shoot or own their own guns, shooting with a gun that doesn't fit your body is like running a marathon with shoes that are way too big. The specs you ask? I have my very own compact, Ruger, model 77, 308, stainless laminate rifle. Even I am learning a bit about ballistics. :) I'm already in the running to be the next Annie Oakley. Okay, maybe not THAT good yet.

This past week was my spring break and Ben and I went out to Willow to go shooting. We . . . by we I mean Ben sited in our rifles. He took his 3006 and I had my 308. I LOVE shooting my gun it makes all the difference in the world to shoot a gun that fits perfect! Due to my competitive nature we HAD to have a shoot off. I know, REALLY compete with a man who has been shooting since he was 4 years old (no lie) and yours truly has been shooting half a dozen times in my LIFE. I wasn't afraid of failure I wanted to see how close I could get to Mr. Shootist himself. Take a look at the groups that were on the target. Ben shot the two right handed diamonds and I shot the two left handed diamonds. We both got 5 shots per target. Two of my top shots went right through each other. Three of his were overlaid. The middle grouping was a free shoot of mine after the competition was over.

living room make-over . . .

So I have had a bee in my bonnet this spring to remodel our living room. It started with wanting to paint it to make it warmer and more homey which then led to many other ideas. :) A couple of months ago we settled on a color, Athenian Green and I took a Tuesday off (Ben's day off) to stay home and have a painting party. I thought about surprising Ben and painting one one of his trips this Feb/March but being that he professionally painted for years I figured it would be better to do it together and have it look really nice . . . professional. I LOVE being married to a handy man!

We also, as you will see in this post, got a print framed that we got a couple of years ago with wedding money. I've been wanting to hang the picture for several months but knowing we were in transition moving to CA and back to AK I waited. Ben LOVES the picture as any serious hunter would. I've done other work this week to "remake" the room but I will post that a little later. I'm not a Joani Kroon/Curtis or an Amanda Bacon the home making queens but it is fun to test the creative juices and make your home feel more welcoming and more like us!