Disney World

We just returned from Walt Disney World and we had the best time.  By we, I mean, Bob and me, and our 2 daughters and their husbands and children.  We had so much fun!!!

Bob and I flew in a day before the kids arrived to just relax and check things out a little.  We hadn't been to Disney in 25 years, and things have changed ~ a lot! 

 We arrived at Magic Kingdom on Saturday night, right about parade time.  This is the wall of people that greeted us.  For those of you who know him, you can see Bob glancing back at me, on the right.

Love that pink castle!!

We were there in time to watch this parade.  I captured a few of the floats.  Most of the characters appeared on the floats, which of course appealed to our kids.  We saw the daytime parade, the next day, Sunday, with all of our family, but I don't know if any of them saw this parade.

We stayed the night at the Wilderness Lodge.  This is a poor shot of our room.  We were the last room at the end of a very loooong hall.  I couldn't believe how long it was!!  It was just the warm up for all of the walking we did during the week.

Our first character!  Pretty exciting!

Now we are all together on Aladdin.  That's Jessica and her family and you can see Laura with the camera in the carpet in front taking pictures.

On Main Street there is a balloon person ~ of course we had to get balloons.  I included this picture because you can see the top of L or J's head, I always was in the background taking pictures over their heads so this was a common element in my photos.

Let the fun begin!!

Laura is posting day by day on her blog so if any one is interested you can link here.  I found it helpful to read about peoples' experiences when we were planning our trip.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Same story, second verse:

{aka Jessica's posts}

Day 1

Day 2

I will probably do one more post with a few of our other photos.

Tweaking

Today was so windy and cold and icy !!!  Brrrrrrrr

I just stayed in and did a little cleaning {finally} and did a little tweaking of something that just bugged me.

This is our light in the dining room, it was here when we bought the  house and had cream shades with fringe.  Not my liking so I removed them.  But the bare bulbs were a little ... bare, and so I thought red shades would look good.

 I bought some red shades, and I like the red, but don't you think they are kind of small?  Me too, but I couldn't find any that were just a little bigger, without spending a lot of $$.

 Good old Hobby Lobby came to the rescue with these.  Now I know that no one but me will ever really tell the difference, but it just looks better to me.  What do you think, can you tell?

 Definitely better.

 Joining the Boring to Better Party at Kim's.  Be sure and check out some REAL projects, there is a lot of talent in blog land.

A Work In Progress

I missed Kim's party last week because we were on a family vacation to Disney World!  We had the best time with our 2 daughters and son-in-laws, and our 4 grandchildren.  I plan to do a few posts about our trip once I organize my photos a bit.  

But now, on to my current Boring to Better!  {or as you will see, working towards better}

In our house, things don't change around too much.  I'm not one to rearrange furniture, or even move my accessories around too much.  And it's funny, because when I was growing up, my favorite thing to do was to rearrange my bedroom.

I think I have changed because my married life is the exact opposite of the life I had growing up.

I lived in 3 houses as a child.  2 in the same town, and the other a big traumatic move for me in the 8th grade.  That's it.  My grandparents lived in the same house their whole lives.  So I think moving things around was a lot of fun when everything in my life pretty much stayed the same.

Well, I married a corporate guy, and we have moved A LOT.  In fact, this is our 9th house in 33 years of marriage.  And that doesn't count a few apartments along the way or the fact that we lived in one house for 11 years.  {our previous home}  Just about the time  I would get the last room wallpapered and the last accessory in place we would get the call to be on the move again.

Now the only reason I told you {or bored you} with that story is to explain where I am going week by week with my before and afters.  As I have said before, we have been in our current home for 3 years, and I am basically taking you room by room to see the changes we have made.  The changes are usually the biggies ~ paint, new flooring, new window coverings.  I don't do a lot of explaining about the "stuff" in the room.  I hope once I work my way through the house I can go back and do a little tweaking of the little things and have a few more "before and afters."

  Once I get the room "done", I don't usually do much to it.  But every now and then there is a room that just bugs me, and I can't get it to look the way I want, or I don't even know WHAT I want and that is what is going on in our library.

The previous owners used this room as an office, and that's about all it is good for because it is small.

This is the room after we moved in ~ we called it our basement, because we had the movers put the exercise equipment in there until we figured out what we were going to do with it.  You can see the faux painting and the awful tile on the fireplace in this picture.  {and my moving mess:-) }

You can see the wall color better if you click on the picture to enlarge it.  The windows had 2"blinds and you can just make out the bottom of the ceiling fan.

 So, the first thing we tried was painting it red, which I like OK.  We put new stone on the fireplace and replaced the carpet.

 Added plantation shutters and my Ballard black desk.  This picture below shows you how small the room is ~ that's it ~ wall to wall.  Cozy I guess.  And with the desk, it was kind of an office.  But we don't need an office, we need a library.  I love books and have a lot of them.

 The boxes are stacked up to hide the computer stuff on that wall.  I am sorry the pictures are so dark, when I took them I didn't know I would be sharing them on my blog someday:-)

 So, we gave the desk to our daughter and when our new kitchen table arrived we put the old one in here.  I thought I would skirt it to the floor  {picture a beautiful yellow and red toile :-) }and have romantic dinners by the fire and play games with the grandchildren and so on.  Yeah, right.  {I seldom cook !}

 I had to buy a little table to put the computer junk on and I hate the way it looks.  So that has to change....

SO, this post really is moving on toward the better I hope.  I am in the process of changing it yet again and I am hoping that it will at least function for me the way it should.  I really do think you have to use the room the way it works for your life and not just how it would "look" the best.  Probably the best look for this room is the first way I had it with a small desk and a little reading chair.  But it just doesn't suit our lives.


 I bought a bookcase, and am going to bring my old loveseat out of the garage and turn this room into a library.  In my perfect house all of the books would be in the same room in the house, and in this house I have to store them in at least 4 other rooms, but I think I will be able to get all of my fiction in this room and have a little space to grow and that thrills me.


So stay tuned for even a little better!


Linking to Kim's Boring to Better Party.
And, as I am working on being inspired to get this room right, I am linking to Vanessa's Inspiration Fridays.

Scripture Memory ~ Verse 3

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

For Emma

Kelle Hampton has a wonderful blog.  I discovered it last year at this time, just after the birth of her daughter, Nella.  Her post struck a chord within our family, because 5 years ago our family faced the very same ..... I don't know the word, it isn't shock, really, it was just unexpected.

It is our Emma, my niece

and she is beautiful

and funny

and loud

and wild 

and very sweet.

And we love her very much.

She, like Nella, is a rock star.

They all are.

Please go to Kelle's blog to see the whole video.  We are leaving in the morning on vacation and I don't have time to figure out how to make this video fit the screen.  It is so worth your time.

A Great Start To The New Year

Bob  had to present at a conference last week and I decided to tag along.  {He didn't have to twist my arm!}  It does make it difficult to start all of the healthy living habits and exercise I'd like to start when you begin your year with vacation, but I'll take it!

We had a lovely suite, and I was loving it even though we arrived late at night.

 Our bedroom is through the door next to the TV.

 Everything was just lovely.

 We could even see the pool from our 9th floor balcony.

 But look at what awaited us in the morning!  I had opened all of the drapes before I went to bed in anticipation of this view and it didn't disappoint me!

 Sorry this one is so dark, but this is the view as you open the door, long hallway and the ocean at the end.

 You feel as though you are on a ship, with this view out every window.

 Bob worked in the morning and golfed in the afternoon and I did this...in the morning I sat on this balcony with my coffee and book.

 In the afternoon I took a nap here on another balcony.

 This is a view of our hotel, we were on the left end, we had 3 balconies, the one angled one you can see and then there is one to the left and to the right.   They were all very large.

 This is the other thing I did in the afternoon, after I visited the spa, I brought my book out to the beach and read.

 On our last morning we were up early to catch our flight home.  I thought I would catch the sunrise.

Absolutely beautiful!!  I could so get used to this!!!

Not Boring!

Today I am going to share a project that we had done the first year we lived in our house.

Under our front staircase we had a coat closet.  I don't have any before pictures, but I think you can picture a small closet underneath the stairs.  In this picture below you can see the doorway ~ right around the corner from our little entry chest.  Of course, the is the "after" door.

 It is a small wine cellar!  Really, not a cellar at all, just a small wine closet, but cellar sounds better, doesn't it?


We left the door trim, and had an iron gate made for the opening.  It swings in or out.   {the grandchildren think it is a jail!  I promise we don't put them in there :-) }

 We had a slate floor and countertop put in and a small wine rack.

 I hung my plates from the wine country on the side curving wall.  There were a few different plugs and things on the wall and the plates hide them nicely.

 I hung some sconces on the other wall for a little candle glow.

 And this last picture is a "today" shot.  The only change we have made is to paint the baseboards the same red as the walls.  In the above pictures, you might notice the baseboards sticking out like a sore thumb.  Bob took care of that, and it looks much better.

I am linking to Kim's Boring to Better party.  Go on over and see all of the fun projects.