Valentines Day & Laundry

I know you are curious what Valentine's Day and laundry have in common...in our house they are both things I love and are full of pink and red!!  Okay, maybe I don't love laundry, but I LOVE our laundry room (or MY laundry room)!!

Here is what it looked like before when we saw it on our house hunting trip while the previous family was still here (this really isn't even in all of it's glory...the opposite wall had a life-size mural of a clothes line with womens' lingerie and Abercrombie t-shirts on it):

...and this is what it looks like now!

I didn't realize how drastic the change was until I just posted those next to each other!!  We purchased cherry red washer and dryer units, painted the walls "Bella Pink", tiled the floor to match the rest of the tile in that hallway, and gave it a good scrubbing!!

This is what replaced the wall with the mural:

...and this is my most recent craft project!  Todd only owns three different socks in multiple quantities, and somehow they are always missing their partner!

The first project on my new sewing machine is going to be a window covering for the laundry room!  Todd and I did some shopping in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood last week to find a sewing table.  This is what we came home with (the chair is from our garage and isn't staying):

Along with all of the fun laundry activities going on this house (no, really - I loved redoing the laundry room...it was a small and manageable project!) have been Valentine's day festivities!  After getting some inspiration from Pinterest, I made this cute felt heart wreath to take the place of the pine wreath that just came down after the holidays.  [As if I needed to add another project to my list]

...and if you give a mouse a cookie...he will want to decorate the entire kitchen....

:o)

A Little Behind....

I know we are now halfway through January, but you know, I just took down the Christmas decorations and trees in our house on Tuesday!  So, it seems only fitting I do our Christmas update now....before it is Valentine's day!  ;)

We had a great Christmas....and we hope you all did too!  It was so fun to decorate our new house and truly "deck the halls"!

Wreath from my Grandparents
...in our brand new kitchen!

We only enjoyed this for a short time before leaving for the Southeast for Christmas, and maybe that's why I left it up so long....or maybe because I dreaded taking it all down alone since I had amazing help putting it up!  Funny to see that picture, since the foyer is now a cream color and that horrible faux finish is gone!

Traveling for Christmas meant flying into Atlanta and spending several days there with my family and our friends...

I must detour now to share my excitement with our gift giving/getting this Christmas.... I was determined to buy American made gifts for everyone and help our own economy and create jobs this year.  I was so successful and so pleased with my efforts!  We gave Ava Anderson Non Toxic gifts (of course!), John Boo's butcher blocks for family (made in Chicago...I am super jealous I bought these for everyone yet still don't have one for myself) ;o) and sweet puppets for all of the kids!  I'm so glad I stimulated our economy because it made up for the foreign sewing machine I had been dreaming of and received from Todd, my parents, and my brother and the amazing pink Ralph Lauren slippers my sister's family gave me for Christmas!  Another cool gift we got from my sister, brother-in-law and their children was a sheep donation in our name to a struggling family in another country for wool and meat.  Okay, back on track....

....Then, we rented a car and drove to Kentucky to spend a few days with Todd's family and some friends (who I think love Breck more than us!)...

....and we rounded out our trip with a quick pass through Nashville and Birmingham on our way back to Atlanta. It made more sense to bring Breck, and he has become quite the frequent flyer!  He has decided if he is in the suitcase when it comes out to be packed, he will get to go!  So, he camps out!

Here he is just hanging out in Hartsfield-Atlanta Airport waiting to check in for our return flight home!  Such a nut...I could not get over how funny this was!

When we arrived home, we were greeted by all of this fun mail (lots of bills, too!)!  It was so fun to go through all of it and see everyone's pretty cards and gorgeous families!

Yesterday, a group of friends here got together to bind our cards for safe keeping and future memories.  I am so excited to keep up this tradition!

We returned home just before New Years and went to a masquerade party to ring it in with some California friends in their new home!

We are wishing all of you a Happy and prosperous new year!

I love you because:

We made it home after our Tour of the South for Christmas!  It has been nothing but mayhem since our return, but while Todd has been out of town this week, I managed to make this cute show of affection for his return!

I printed on scrapbook paper and inserted it behind the glass.  The glass allows easy use with a dry erase marker for new messages as often as you wish!  Everyone deserves a love note :o)