GET INTO THE PICTURE...

I posted this picture of myself yesterday on my personal Facebook page...

It was taken this past summer at a family wedding.

And it garnered many LIKES and comments.

  Someone even said I was STUNNING...I don't think anyone has ever told me that before.  :)

I have to say that I LIKE the picture too...and that's why it got posted. 

 Not so that I would get praise, although, that was kind of nice.

I'm not sure if you are like me, but there was a time, not so long ago, that I wouldn't allow my picture to be taken. 

 I preferred to be behind the camera taking the pictures, than being a part of them.

Then in November of 2009 I was diagnosed with Leukemia. 

 The next day I sat down and planned my funeral. 

 I sorted through boxes and boxes of pictures trying to put together a few "good ones",

 that could be made into a slide show for the service.  

YEP - that's how much of a control freak I was...

BUT

There weren't hardly any to be found. 

So I am posting this today, because I want to give you some advice. 

 If you are the one that shies away from being in the pictures, fading into the background, 

because you don't think you are pretty enough, or skinny enough to be photographed

 - STOP -

 You need to know that 

YOU ARE ENOUGH...

YOU ARE AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL

- even if you have a few pounds to lose or are having a bad hair day.

Get into the picture! 

 So that your family has a record of you in their lives.

Don't wait until it's too late.

Cheryl

New Home Tour...the Living Room Edition!

OK friends today we are touring the living room at the "new to us" house.

Things are pretty much settled in here...so grab a drink and take a look around!

The walls are a caramel-taupe and match well with our area rug from the other house.  

When we acquired the house, this room had brown micro-suede curtain panels that matched well with our furniture, but I felt they made the room look too dark.

  I lightened them up by switching them out with lovely aqua coloured faux silk panels that I purchased for just $10/panel.

  A great bargain that made a huge difference in the feel of the room.

For extra storage I took the mirror off of this dresser that used to be in the office at the old house and turned it into a sofa table behind the loveseat.

I am quite thrilled to have this bookcase wall. 

 It provides great storage behind the doors and gives me plenty of space to decorate above.

This is the same furniture we had in the living room at the old house.  

And there is Sloan sneaking in on the action.

Oops...forgot to move the speakers from under the table before I took this photo!!

The buffet resides in the entryway here..for now. 

 It may get moved into the kitchen, but for now I'm liking it here.

This is the view from the entry.  

That's it for the tour of the living room.

Stay tuned for more "new to us" house tour later in the week!

Cheryl

Sharing over @:
Cozy Little House
Life on Lakeshore Drive
It's Overflowing

A Tour of the Kitchen..at the "new" house!

Projects are getting completed around here faster than I can photograph them.

Case in point, the kitchen faucet.

It used to look like this...and yes I picked this out of the garbage to show you.

  McG had started the project before I could get my camera out and

 the bad blogger that I am, I hadn't taken any "before" pictures!!

We had purchased a new faucet before we moved in since we knew that the old one had seen

better days.

Last night McG installed it for me...and NO I didn't take pictures while he did it. 

 He's been completing so many projects in the last few days,

 I've just been staying out of the way unless he asks for my help.

Here it is!

As long as you are here checking out the new faucet, I figured I'd give you a tour of the kitchen.

It's raining here this morning, so I apologize for the dark photos.  

Dark tomato red walls and walnut cabinetry.

Not really my colours, but I will work with them for now.

I'm envisioning a light aqua or grey walls with white cabinets.

I have already changed the cabinet handles out as well.

They used to look like this, brass with beige centers.

Now they are a more modern and streamlined brushed nickel.

I have yet to find a good place for the garbage pail, so for now it's sitting at the end of the island.

Hope you enjoyed the tour...I'll be back later this week with more of the tour of the new house.

Cheryl

An Outside View of Our New House...and some plans for the future

Hi there!  

Things have been moving along here and we are pretty much settled in on the inside of the house.

We have officially been here a week and some major things have gone on.
The most dramatic of which is the trimming of some trees in the side lot.

When we bought the house, there were 5 huge pine trees that covered the side lot.  

They looked like this...

You can just make out a little of the house behind there and their shed.  

The side yard, looks like this today.

The day after we moved in, some of our friends called to stay they wanted to spend the day helping us.
 I knew that McG was a little stressed at the prospect of all the work we had to do in this house, so I thought that getting outside and doing something destructive might help.
  I told the men to bring gloves and get ready for a big project.  

We wanted to open up the side yard and the view of the house from the street.
 The men made quick work of trimming the pine trees up to fence level.
 The trees still provide great privacy from the neighbours, but having them trimmed up gave me a place to make a little garden!

You can tell how far they came out into the yard by the way the grass is growing.
They were only able to get three of the trees trimmed that day, leaving two more for another time.

I thought I would also show you some photos of the outside of the front of the house.

It is a pre-fabricated home that was built in 1969.  

We have plans to take off the shutters and paint the exterior a dark charcoal gray with white trim.

The doors we plan to paint a dark orange/red colour.

What do you think?  

Do you have any suggestions of things to do?

I'd love to hear your ideas!!

Cheryl

WE MADE IT THROUGH THE MOVE!!

Well...we made it through! 

 There were many long days and nights, but everything got moved over quite seamlessly.

If you follow me on Facebook...(and if you don't, you should!!), you've already seen the sneak peek I posted a few days ago.  

Then again, the way Facebook has been behaving..you might not of!

Here it is...

It's only the first arrangement.  

Some pieces have already been moved around or  moved out of the room.

I apologize for the dark photos...this was taken the first night we were in the house - but I thought it looked pretty good for only being in the house a few hours!

The olive green wall colour was here when we bought the house and our furniture looks quite nice with it.

 For now the walls will stay the same colour. 

As you can see not everything was unpacked. 

 There are still many boxes in every room, but I'm working hard to get everything into its new home.

  I will have to have another yard sale. 

 Even after all that I purged and got rid of, I still have too much stuff for this smaller home.  

I'm down to "the good stuff" - all of my favourites, so it will be hard to part with some of it.  

I will be posting the new house room by room.

I am still trying to style my new bookcase in the living room.  

We've been in the house officially since last Friday and we've accomplished so much already.

I can't wait to show you!!

Cheryl