A Happy Thanksgiving

We are loving our new family room!  (Yes, I know I haven't posted pictures of it yet.  We're still working on some details.  As I write this post, my husband is putting together a cabinet that will go in the room.  Things are coming along, but it's not quite "done" yet.)

One of our primary reasons for adding onto our family room was that we love to have people over.  We really wanted a bigger, more comfortable space for friends and family to gather.  The way our house was originally designed, there was a small family room on one end of the house and a small living room on the other end.  Neither space was large enough to host a big group of people all at once.  Our previous family room was 20.5 ft. x 12 ft.  After the addition, we've slightly more than doubled the space at 20.5 ft. x 26 ft.  Already, we can't believe it wasn't always this big.  How did we live in such a small room before?

Since we love to host and since we now have a nice big room, we invited both of our families over for Thanksgiving dinner.  We are blessed to live near both families.  Not everyone was able to make it, but we enjoyed the holiday at our house with both sets of parents, my aunt, and my husband's sister.

Due to the family room project, our dining room is kind of a storage area right now.  So we decided to serve dinner in the family room.  We recently bought a 5-ft. round folding table, which comfortably fits the eight people we had over.  Some of my pictures of the table turned out disappointingly poor (That will teach me to load them on my computer and not just rely on how they look in the camera viewing screen), so they don't quite capture how pretty everything looked.  But at least you'll get the idea.

I found the burlap-looking tablecloth on clearance, and I have already used it several times.

I love decorating with natural elements and textures (hence, the burlap).  I bought the acorn and berry napkin rings on clearance quite a while ago.  Since they were in the clearance bins, I couldn't find a whole set of either type, but I love how it looked to alternate them.

I've had the tealight candle centerpiece for a long time, but I hadn't taken it out of the box until now.  It worked really well on the round table, and the glass candleholders are amber tinted, which coordinated well with the burlap tablecloth.  To make the centerpiece more Thanksgiving/fall-ish, I put mini pumpkin candles around the centerpiece.

Sticking with natural elements, I used place card holders that are made from real wood and look like little tree stumps.  I used cards that said "I am thankful for" and then added each person's name.

I really loved the table, but of course, what good is a beautiful table without a great meal?  I am all about keeping things simple when it comes to entertaining, so everyone contributed dishes to this year's Thanksgiving feast.  My mom and dad brought the turkey and stuffing.  I made rolls, pumpkin muffins, "Pink Jello," applesauce, crustless pumpkin pie, and baked sweet potatoes--most of which could be made in advance.  And my in-laws and aunt contributed to the sides and desserts, as well.  We ended up with a bountiful, delicious feast!

I'm especially proud of my pumpkin-shaped Butter Rich Rolls:

I got the idea online (http://www.thistlewoodfarms.com/simple-pumpkin-rolls).  I used my own roll recipe with dough made in my bread machine.  Instead of pecans, I used fat pretzels that I cut to the right length.  They turned out so cute!

In addition to having a great meal, I really wanted to do something special to focus on the reason for Thanksgiving Day and to establish our own new tradition for Thanksgiving at our house.  I got the idea from Pinterest to have everyone write what they are thankful for in a book and then add a group photo of all the guests who joined us.  I found this really cute book online, and I'm excited to make this our family tradition for many years to come.  It will be fun 20 or 30 years from now to see what we were thankful for in 2013.

We had such a great Thanksgiving!  I hope that you and your family had a wonderful celebration, too!

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." - Psalm 107:1

We've Been Busy!

Recently, someone asked me if I was still blogging.  Given that my last blog post was in May, and it's now November, you might think that I've given up and abandoned the blogging world altogether.  But that's not true.

We've been really busy!  Around the time of my last post, we embarked on a multi-month project that is still not quite finished.  We decided to expand our family room.  I mean dig a big hole, build new walls, knock out an old wall, the whole shebang.  We slightly more than doubled the size of our family room and also expanded the basement underneath the addition.  All other projects got put on hold while this has been going on.

This has been a BIG project!!  And although a lot of bloggers give updates and pictures all along the way, I'm more of a wait-for-the-big-reveal kind of girl.  So, I promise that a big reveal of the new family room is coming, but I just can't bring myself to put it on the blog until it's really ready.  So stay tuned.  It will be worth the wait.  We LOVE the new room.  It's getting close to being "done," but we aren't quite ready.

For now, I'll just whet your appetite a little by showing you my fall mantle.  Here's a hint:  The Amazing Grace art coordinates perfectly with the rest of the room.

Master Bedroom and Bathroom Makeover

My now-husband and I dated for about 13.5 months before we got engaged.  In all that time, I never once saw the second floor of his house.  He told me his bedroom was ugly and that it would need work before we got married, but it wasn't until after I had an engagement ring on my finger that I saw it for myself.  "Ugly" was quite an understatement.  When I finally got to tour the upstairs, I think I just kept repeating, "Wow."  Everything in the master bedroom and bathroom was original from 1978--mashed down blue/tan/multicolored carpet, powder blue toilet and shower, blue tile floor, and a very-1970s vanity lamp hanging from a chain.  Moreover, the master suite was laid out like a hotel room:  The toilet and shower were enclosed in a separate room, but the sink was in the bedroom.  I have often wondered what they were smoking when they designed this room.  It wasn't just ugly, it was very impractical.  But don't just take my word for it.  Here are the "before" pictures to prove it:

 

 

 

 

My then-fiance had been waiting for a decade to redecorate the bedroom.  He kept thinking that someday he'd have a wife, and then it would be time to change it.  Well, "someday" finally came.  About three weeks before our wedding (yes, just three weeks!) the master bedroom and bathroom were completely gutted and major renovations began.  My husband did some of the prep work, but we hired a contractor to do the rest of the project, which included moving a wall, rearranging plumbing, converting the shower to a tub, enclosing the bathroom into a separate room, and much more.  Literally the week of our wedding, I was at Sherwin Williams picking out paint colors.  Crazy?  Yeah, a little.  But we were anxious to get it done.  Like any project, there were some delays.  The night we came home from our honeymoon, we had to move tools to the side of the room, sweep the floor, put down plastic dropcloths, and put our mattress on top (only to move it out again in the morning when the workers came back).  Let's just say, it was a little bit of a stressful first week at home.  But in the end, the renovation was totally worth it!  We absolutely love our bedroom and bathroom now!

It was awesome to have a "blank canvas" to work with--to completely design the master suite from top to bottom--the decor and the layout--exactly the way we wanted it.  It was so much fun to pick out all of the individual elements--tile, granite, cabinets, light fixtures, furniture, colors, fabrics, wall art--and see it all come together.  I am so pleased with the final result!  It is elegant and romantic, while still warm and comfortable.  Two bedroom walls are painted a deep red; the rest of the walls are "blonde" (a golden beige).  The fabrics on the bed and window treatments are gold, deep red, and brown.  In the bathroom, the walls are blonde, and I brought in the red and gold with the shower curtain, window valances, and towels.  We went with cherry woods and oil-rubbed bronze for all the metal fixtures.  And we installed a whirlpool tub, which I use frequently--it's so relaxing!

We've come a long way from the hotel-style 1970s powder blue room that used to be there.  It doesn't even feel like the same house anymore.  This bedroom is truly "ours," and we love it!  Here are the "after" pictures: