Welcome to our home! Please wipe your feet and take off your shoes. (You might trample a kitty). Have some milk and cookies. This is our very first Christmas with both of the girls, and as you can see this has made decorating very interesting. We decided to keep the decorations sparse, so the only ones you will currently see at our house is in this corner. Here is our lovely tree, otherwise known as the kitty playhouse. The girls spend much time climbing the boughs in order to get a better view of the outside. The branch sticking out of the side is supposed to be at the bottom, but the kitties find it easier to climb without this branch in its rightful place. Take note that we have an ornamentless tree this year, since the kitties insist on chasing them.

Over here is our beautiful fireplace, which alas, has almost never be used. We hung the stockings with care, and fortunately they have only been attacked once. The one in the middle was made for me by my grandmother, while the ones at the ends were given to me for the kitties by my mom. Notice we are short one stocking.


Feel free to take a gander out on the balcony. This is a Christmas . . . um, tomato. The first of the season! We are hoping that we will have a bumper crop before the heat picks back up. :-) Although, the plant does look somewhat sad.

Well, thanks for stopping by! Don't forget your shoes, and please take some cookies on your way out!

I would really love the kitchen to be a deep red/burgandy, with accents of green, gold, and blue. However, because we live in an apartment, it's not practical for me to paint, so I've had to find other creative ways to liven up the place. As you can see above, there is storage space above the cabinets, which will be great to display treasured knick knacks!


Here are pictures with a much better view of the clutter.


These pictures show my kitchen before I reorganized. This is actually what I considered "clean." As you can see, the clutter is taking over! My plan was to get rid of unnecessary items, reorganize the stuff, and try to find a more efficient system in the kitchen for doing daily tasks. More importantly, my goal was to make the room a joy to be in. I planned on spending less then $10 on organizational items such as plate stands. Everything else I use I planned to make myself.


Next time I'll post the after pictures and what I did to get the new look. Stay tuned!

So I've been meaning to highlight some of the sites that I especially like that are on our sidebar. These are rather recent websites and blogs I've come across, and I am eager to share them!

DesignTalk: Home Design Help
I came across this website/blog when I was looking for help with my living room, and I really like it! They answer questions about home design and have a lot of great ideas. They are clear, easy to understand, and illustrate their ideas with pictures which is nice for visual people like me.

PDF Online
Do you have a file that you need converted to a PDF, but don't have Adobe Acrobat Pro? Well this site is a great resource for you! It's fast, easy, and best of all - free. They do a variety of documents (including Microsoft Word), and there's no registration necessary. I used this service especially when I was searching for a job two years ago.

DivShare
Since I work in the printing industry, I am often having to transfer really large files to and from clients. When something is too big to email, I recommend DivShare to them. No complaints yet!

What the Font?!
With a clever name, this site has been very useful to me as a designer! I can upload an image with the font I want to identify, and they come back with their options. If you don't have an image, check out Identifont for a similar service.

ChiliTried
For those who are familiar with ChiliHead, she now has a new site with product reviews! I especially enjoyed her review of a just-for-redheads makeup brand. :-) I can imagine this site will be a valuable resource as I continue to learn about how to be a homemaker.

Number Gossip
Okay, this site is just for fun. :-) You type in a number, and it tells you all the cool things about that number. You might appreciate this more if you are a math lover.

Finding Contentment in the Suburbs
Started by Lindsey from Enjoy the Journey fame, a blog about avoiding the common pitfall of always wanting more-more-more money. This site comes at a perfect time for me, as my husband and I are approaching (albeit slowly!) that same quandary. It's not about get-rich-quick, but about being content with what God's given you.

Frugal Living Journal
While we're on the subject of finances, I have enjoyed this website which gives practical tips of living frugally. Being a good steward of God's resources and being content with what He's given to you go hand-in-hand.

Happy Tails
Animal lover that I am, I was excited to see that Mrs. B has a blog devoted just to animals! She already has posted some great advice about dogs, and I look forward to future posts. It makes me want to start a blog about my own pets...

Living in Peru
Okay, I'm not sure if ANY of our readers will find this interesting, but here is a site all about living in Peru - AND it's in English! As most of you know, I grew up as a missionary kid in Peru so I always enjoy finding resources like this. :-) You can read my 10 Things About Peru here to learn more about this beautiful country.

That's all for now! Happy reading. :-) And if you have a site you recommend, let us know!

Life is settling down a little bit again, so I hope to have a few good posts up soon. Work has been very busy the past recently, but things look like they will quiet down again very soon.

I've been meaning to post on several happenings at home, but since I keep putting it off, I'll throw everything into one post.

. . . I still haven't gotten around to cleaning out my cabinets, but I'm hoping to tackle this project this weekend. I'd like to get rid of several appliances I never use to free up my cabinet space, so that I can have more room to buy some bulk products (like flour, sugar, etc.), since I go through these quickly, and they tend to be cheaper in bulk . . .

. . . I recently picked up the Tightwad Gazette from my library--I absolutely love this book and may try to find it at a local used bookstore. In it are wonderful tips and advice for living the frugal life, which she explains is not depriving oneself, but being a better steward of available resources. As a celebrate a year of abundance, I hope to implement some of her recommendations at home. . . .

. . . I've found another way to put my sewing skills to good use. Hubby and I have been needing coasters for our living room, and the ones we have seen at Target and other places have been about $12 for a set of 4, and these were the ugly cheap coasters. I decided to make a set of 8 from my fabric stash, using this pattern. I'll have to post pictures later, since I've been lazy and have not gotten around to taking pictures . . .

. . . And, finally, I want to share that my coffee habit has been harder to break than I originally thought. I was hoping to rely on a morning cup of tea to get me through the day, since I have a limitless supply. Instead, I still buy coffee most every morning. I'm still trying to cut back and enjoy the tea that I have!

So I am in need of some serious decorating help! Paul and I moved into our new townhouse almost three months ago. We like it, but to be honest, the living room feels so... empty and sterile. This is where you come in! I need some decorating ideas. First, here are pictures of the living room now.

The desire:

• I'd like a mix of contemporary (simple, straight lines, contrasting colors) and traditional (inviting, cozy)
  
• I want to avoid having a lot of clutter-y knick-knacks
  
• I have a few prints of some fine art and photography to hang on the walls: Van Gogh's Starry Night, Ansel Adam's Redwoods, Founder's Grove. I also have smaller images of Nighthawks, Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Two Dancers on Stage (1874), and Dance at Bougival. I can hang these in a different room if it doesn't fit, but I just wanted to give you an idea of what I have.
  
• I really like this room look, or perhaps a look that would match this painting (a Mediterranean look).
• I mainly need to brighten up the room a bit.
  

The stipulations:

• I'm not allowed to buy any new furniture (although I can mix and match with furniture we already own).
  
• Since we most likely will be moving in a year or two, I don't want to buy things so specific that I can't reuse it in a new house.
• I am already planning on painting the bottom half of the wall (from the chair rail down), but I don't want to paint the whole wall
• I am planning to buy or make curtains, but I need to decide what color and style (as you see, the windows are quite narrow... about 2 ft.)
• I am willing to buy a sofa/loveseat slipcovers if I can find them for a good price and the color I want. I really hate the sofa but I'm stuck with it for now, so covering it up would be good. :-)
  
• I'd love to have some greenery but I'm HORRIBLE with live plants... so fake plants perhaps?

Okay, feel free to pelt me with your ideas! I think the biggest thing I want is a clear theme or color scheme... I can go from there usually, but right now I just feel so frustrated and at a loss with where to start. So any help you can give will be very appreciated! :-)

My birthday is one week from today! I am very excited, because this is my first birthday spent with my hubby. Even though I've known him for over 5 years, we've always (understandably) been apart for Christmas. I'm not sure what we're doing yet for my birthday, but I hope it's a fun day. One of the perks of being a Christmas baby is that I've never had to go to school or work on my birthday, so I've always been able to choose the daily activities.

Christmas is my favorite time of year! I love the lights, the decorations, the movies, sending Christmas cards, connecting with old friends and relatives, and most of all, the music. I love the Christmas Eve candlelight service, coming up with gifts for everyone, and pretty wrapping paper. I love nativity sets, caroling around the neighborhoods, and church cantatas. And of course I love that my birthday is during this time of year. If I was born in a different season, I would have wanted to have a Christmas wedding like Beth (happy anniversary tomorrow!), but it didn't work out that way.

This year has been fun because it is my first Christmas with my husband. I have been able to, for the first time, share my Christmas memories with him. Here are a few of the decorations around our apartment: