Month: December 2009

Keeping Room Mantle

December 30, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

How do you like my mantle decorations?

It took me three days to decide what to put on it.

It turned out to be a collection of trees with a dove in the middle.

The cross was a gift from our realtor in Montgomery. 🙂

Every house that we’ve visited in AL has one.

The framed photo was a gift from my dad.

It used to hang in our music room.

I found the ceramic dove and the Hallmark photo tree (only $8) at GW.

Can you find your picture on the tree?

Our house is feeling much more homey now that I have our pictures hanging on the wall.

🙂

Unpacking Pictures For Mom

December 21, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

This week I rearranged my plastic containers two more times.

I usually have one cabinet that holds all my plastic, but this time I didn’t have one that big. I am pretty sure I have more cabinet space than before it’s just more spread out.

I think they have finally found their home because I love having the lids so easily accessible and organized in the drawer. I brought all the kids in and showed them my wonderful accomplishment one by one. Partly because I was so proud and partly because I knew soon enough they’d be asking me where it all went this time.

I stowed all my party plastic and paper goods under my island cabinet.

I thought that keeping them there would make them easy to get out and put on the island for guest. Want to come visit and try it out?

These are my mixing bowels and towels. They are between the oven and sink for easy reach when baking. I spent a couple of hours on line this week trying to find some kitchen towels that actually dry things. The ones I bought at Costco 3 years ago are driving me crazy because they push around more water than they absorb. My sister, Courtney, says she uses cloth diapers. I may be buying some this week.

I unpacked my kitchen rugs. I bought these to help sell our house in Montgomery. Joel says they don’t match this kitchen.

Mike helped me organized our office center. It’s not real pretty.. but it’s organized and easy to access. I can watch Joseph Prince pod cast while I work in the kitchen. And I can see the lake from there. 🙂

I worked a whole day hanging these curtains. Curtains are so much harder than they look. I couldn’t get one of the screws to go in all the way. I am planning to iron the package creases out while they are hanging.

See our new discounted, discontinued chair from Macy’s that I bought over the phone last week? Mike loves it and says he’s never going to sit anywhere else. I am glad he’s happy because I picked it out.

Our whole neighborhood in Montgomery hung up Christmas wreaths every year. The house there came with ready with nails to hang the wreaths, so Mike and I found some wreaths 75% off after Christmas our first year there. We only got to use them the one Christmas before we moved.

Here I was baffled at how to hang up our wreaths. There was no place to put a nail. Then I noticed that a neighbor used suction cups. I went to Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart before finding them at Michael’s.

I’ve been to the store way too many times this week. I finally broke down and bought my 7th set of curtain rings because I couldn’t find any of my other sets and I was tired of the kids taking showers in my bathroom. If we move again, remind me to pack a set or two with my suit case. Ok?

I worked on my closet, too. We put everything from the apartment in our closets the night before the movers came so it wouldn’t get lost.

So I had to move all that stuff out first. Then I had to donate a large garbage bag of clothes because not only is this the smallest closet I think I’ve ever had but also I have no coat closet.

It’s built in the corner of the bathroom. If it was 3″ deeper I could open the door all the way.

See how the clothes stick out too far?

I hung my short sleeve shirts behind the door. I’ll switch them out with my sweaters in the summer.

I made this rug for my bathroom in Montgomery. It covered most my bathroom floor.

This is my bathroom floor now.

To be fair. My vanity in Montgomery was in the carpeted part of my bedroom.

I found a place for my linens.

I got creative with where to store these extra large bedspreads that Mamalene crocheted.

I actually have 3 of them. One I use on my bed to keep warm. Hope that I remember where I put the other two when that one gets ratty.

When Mike and I were putting together my bed we discovered that we could raise the bed up higher. I was so happy because it’s always been about an inch too low to store anything under it. Only problem is that now my head board and foot boards are floating.

I had some extra finials left over from my curtain rods and I used them as pretty little feet.

James helped me raise the bed so I could get my drill under the feet to make a hole for the finial feet. Lovely.

Early Christmas Snow

December 14, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

We had our first snow our first night in the house with our furniture.

We’ve been trying not to wear shoes in the house.

Time to walk Sally. Can you see the frame for the new neighbor’s foundation?

Snow tub.

Sally gets excited about the white stuff.

My Christmas card is up. Our garage is full with boxes, so our cars are lined up in the driveway.

Our Christmas tree.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Love,

Jenny

Beautiful Poem/Hymn

December 11, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I finally got some real unpacking done yesterday. I was motivated by the fact that Mike has off today and I knew he’d be bugging me to find his surround sound speakers. We’d found the subwoofer and two of them but couldn’t find the other two.

I needed a clue, so I asked him when the last time he saw them was. His answer: “The kitchen table in Montgomery.” So James and I unpacked two more large “dish packs.” They weren’t there. I unpacked all the bathroom boxes looking for shower curtain rings. I know I have at least 5 sets. I have to buy new sets every move because I can never find them. No speakers; no curtain rings. I unpacked all the flower/nicknack boxes thinking maybe the speakers were put in with the living room flowers. Then Joel and I unpacked all the picture boxes. Judi finished unpacking the game room. Still no speakers.

Next, I decided to unpack the drums. “Maybe,” I thought, “they were wrapped in some padding in a drum.” Judi and I unpacked all the linens. After 7 hours of unpacking, in the last box marked, “Master bedroom items” Judi found a little box with the speakers in side. I was so glad she found them that I gave her a big kiss. I would have never opened the random little box inside the big box.

Basically the only boxes that haven’t been emptied out are the garage boxes, school/book boxes and fabric boxes. I have lots of random stuff sitting around that are not put away and kitchen and bathroom cabinets and closets that need to be organized and curtains to make and hang…

Today’s plan is to take it easy and go to Birmingham to pick up our cuddler recliner.

Here are two gems from my e-mail devotions:

Prayer for December 11

Rest

Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus, and find rest for my weary soul. Thank you for easing, relieving and refreshing me. Your yoke is wholesome—not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant; your burden is light and easy to be borne. I cast my burden on you [releasing the weight of it] and you sustain me. You will never allow me to be moved—made to slip or fail, in the name of Jesus. Amen. (Strength to Overcome Cares and Burdens, Daily Prayers That Avail Much Commemorative Edition)

Matthew 11:28-30; Psalm 55:22; I Peter 5:9

My Goal Is God Himself

Frederick Brook

My goal is God Himself; not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
’Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His—
“At any cost, dear Lord, by any road!”

So faith bounds forward to its goal in God,
And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;
Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard,
Till God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

No matter if the way be sometimes dark,
No matter though the cost be oft times great,
He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark;
The way that leads to Him must needs be strait.

One thing I know—I cannot say Him nay;
On thing I do—I press toward my Lord,
My God, my glory here from day to day,
And in the glory there my Great Reward.

Here’s a link to a nice MP3 of the hymn.

Hymn: My goal is God Himself

Love,
Jenny

Defining Unpacking

December 9, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I have a garage full of boxes and I didn’t unpack a thing the last two days. Crazy. Right?

I built Josh and Joel’s beds when we moved to Montgomery because I was tired of the store bought ones breaking. After one of their bigger friends decided to jump on top of them on Joel’s bed, I had to improve my design. How many twin sized beds do you know of that are designed to hold 500 lbs plus force? I live by the adage “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” so I never redid Josh’s bed. It didn’t survive the move, so I had to make a trip to the hardware store, get out the drill, and spend most of Monday fixing it.

Joel found a great way to arrange their room. It’s the smallest room that they have ever had to share, so we weren’t sure that all their stuff would fit. They had to relinquish their red chair to Judi, but now it looks like a regular room.. not too crowed.

The only other things I did on Monday were write Christmas cards, rearrange the video cabinet Judi and Joel unpacked and my pots and pans. None of it shows since they were all in cabinets before. :-}

Yesterday, I planed out what curtain rods to buy, how to use the ones I already have, and went to buy them. I remembered my coupon and everything.

Then Josh called… he locked his keys in his car so I had to unpack a part of my suitcase to find his key and go rescue him. Since we were already on that side of town, Judi and I went to Costco and got a few things including some of those fancy fuzzy hangers for her. We had to look all over the store to find them. I bought her some earlier this year and she decided she needed more. They come in packs of 50 so I asked her “Don’t you think 50 clothing items is enough?” She said, “No.” If you need some, they are around $15 at Costco.

It took me all afternoon to hang up curtains in just my and Judi’s rooms. At first, I hung the brackets upside down in my room. Didn’t realize it until I was hanging the same brackets in Judi’s, so I had to totally redo mine. 🙂 It’s a pain because they are designed so that you have to remove the finial to take out the rod before you can flip it all over. I am glad I discovered my mistake though, because my curtains were dragging the floor when they were hung the wrong way. I thought I had measured them so they just touched the floor. When I flipped the bracket, they hung just right.

I did accomplish one other thing yesterday. I bought a cuddler recliner over the phone. Mike decided that he wanted to get a cuddler recliner to share with me. He says our couch is uncomfortable. We’ve been looking all over for weeks for a recliner that will look good with our couch. Our couch has very straight modern lines most recliners are big and pouffy, not to mention the whole color and type of leather thing.

We finally found one that we thought would work on sale on line at Macy’s. The only thing was that when we were finally in the house and ready to buy it, Mike called and found out that they don’t ship to our area. There are no Macy’s in our area and they ‘don’t ship to the stores either’ and the data base we looked in said there were no stores within 300 miles that carried the one we wanted.

So yesterday, I called prepared with several friend’s zip codes; one in Birmingham, one in Montgomery, and one in GA. The one in Birmingham was a winner.. but then she checked and they were all out. It had been discontinued. She looked to see if there was a floor model somewhere ‘near by’ and there was one in Birmingham.

I got the number to the store and they actually had one and it was even cheeper than the on line sale price (I hope it’s the right one). She said she couldn’t hold it until the weekend for us.. so I bought it over the phone. Yay! We get to make a trip to Jim and Nick’s Barbeque and pick up our cuddler recliner this weekend. Won’t be unpacking that day either. 😀

Judi decorated the Christmas tree for me yesterday afternoon to make it look a little more like we had unpacked. Today, I need to put the angel on the top of the tree, take Judi to gymnastics and grocery shopping. I have curtains rods to hang in 5 more rooms, I only have curtains for 2 of those rooms, so one of these days I’ll probably have to make some curtains. Have you seen how expensive and cheaply made curtains are these days?

Maybe I’ll unpack some boxes on Thursday.