I heart faces- Kisses

Hey this is Kyle here. http://www.iheartfaces.com/ has a weekly contest and the theme this week is kisses... So here is one I took of Jenni and our dog Nevin... They love each other alot... Head over to the sight to check out some other awesome photographers..

A tale of two chandeliers...

we bought two chandeliers this weekend. Yay! One for my craft room and one for the entry way. I hope to get them hung soon and have pictures. Here is a link to the one for the craft room.

http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans-Interior-Decorative-Lighting-Chandeliers/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xr5Zapy8/R-100665765/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

In other news I also found a cute little curio cabinet for

the living room this weekend. The living room is coming along quite nicely now I just need those darn laminate floors.

And last I will leave you with my kitchen inspiration... White cupboards with butcher block countertops and beadboard backsplash, this project will come once the laminates are in..

Photo from countryliving.com

~Jenni

A quest for Shabby Chicness...

Now that the holidays are over I feel I can work more on decorating the house! I love decorating and well although we have lived here seven months now, weve barely gotten anything done on the house besides most of the painting. We painted the upstairs, except for the master. The office, which will be my future crafting room is painted a beautiful dark pink, the hallway upstairs and going down the stairs is a lovely shade of gray called vintage grey. The bathroom was also suppose to be a lovely shade of light gray called bay waves but I guess the paint swatches lie because it turned into a lovely shade of light blue, which at the time is driving me crazy because I a m realizing I cannot stand it because it is pretty much baby blue. I am going to repaint it a very, very light shade of grey, almost white. I just simply cannot live with the blue. And for the loft we chose to paint the one wall navy blue, one wall is cream because it is the same wall from downstairs and the rest extends into the hallway so it is vintage gray. Then the downstairs is all cream! A beautiful softened white. The only crazy thing is I decided to paint the downstairs bathroom a deep dark red. This does not go with the shabby chic decor and the lightness of the rest of the main level but I will make it work somehow.

So anyways my living room is starting to shape up. I feel I have finally found my decorating style. Something I would never have thought of myself actua lly. A love of all things old, tattered, floral, white, pure, and beautiful. A style called Shabby Chic. I find myself loving going to antique and thrift stores, seeing the beauty in offbeat treasures. Kyle and I just went friday and I found these:

And I found this little glass container:

And here is some more of my living room decor, we also have a hutch and a trunk we are repainting white and this spring once tax time hits I h ope to put in dark wood laminate floors and two chandeliers! One above the kitchen table and one in the entry way.

Well I need to get to bed so that is all I have to say for now... Happy New Year!

Jenni

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men

I've got Plenty to be Thankfull for....

"To look back and think that,
This baby would one day save me,
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that,
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die

So I could one day pray for You to save my life"
Relient K- I celebrate the day

I can't believe Christmas is in only a week! It came up so fast this year. I am suppose to have dinner for K's side at my house but then there is that issue of spending time with my own family on Christmas and you don't want to upset anyone and I think to myself when did this become so confusing, when did Christmas become a chore rather than what the holiday is truly there to celebrate. Things were so simple when I was little, the parents planned and took care of everything and all you had to worry about was what kinds of things that wrapping paper was hiding! I know I did, I was the kid who could barely wait till church was done so we could head out to have dinner because than after dinner with my dads family it meant PRESENT time! And then of all things I had to try and go to sleep that night while anxiously awaiting more presents in the morning. Four o' clock rolled around and I was out of bed digging in my stocking. But this year more than ever I am realizing what Christmas is really about. It's about a birthday. The birthday of our king and savior. It's about celebrating an amazing God and the life he brought into this world to save us all. That is Jesus Christ. Celebrating Jesus Christ. And so this year I could care less about the presents that I get or the food that I eat or the lights on my house but instead just celebrate a person, the person who saved humanity whom was God. And I think about all hes done for me and I am amazed. So I just wanted to write this because I know the holidays are stressful and I was feeling the best of that today but we must remember what to really celebrate and think about what God has done in our lives the past year. Here are just a few awesome things for me (and Kyle) this year which God has done and blew me out of the water:

-Purchased a home and moved out of the apartment which depressed me
-Payed down debts
-Blessed with Nevin Arthur
-First Year wedding anniversary
-Constantly provided money whenever it appeared there was going to be none- This has been amazing this year, even just today I was a little worried about money for some last minute gifts and stuff and viola a check appeared in the mail for 150 that was part of our damage deposit that our landlord had originally decided to keep.
-Blessed with Jackson George
-Provided car at a reasonable price
-Both have jobs
-Healed some relationships of loved ones
And many more.
And thats what I want to think about this Christmas, how amazing Christ's love is for us and that he did send a baby onto earth to save us all...

Romans 8:35-39 (New Living Translation)

35 "Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?36 (As the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep."*)37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,* neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So I sort of suck at this blogging, not that anyone reads it anyway but I have not written in forever. But as I sat here in the glow of my Christmas tree I got the sudden urge to write a little from the heart. A few things have happened since my last blog, we now have not one but two fur babies. Call us crazy but we got a four month old puppy. His name is Jackson, and he came to us escaping death in Kentucky. Hes a great little guy, spunky and bouncy, yet always looking to cuddle. He hasn't let the horror of his first four months get him down. Still trusting and loving despite what he's been through. and that is something I admire in him. For he could have decided that all people were bad and became and angry dog or he could have chosen that all people are scary and become a scared timid dog, but instead he decided to take a chance and love us. I hope that I can be this kind of person in life. When somebody hurts me or bad things happen I hope I can let it go. I don't want to live in hurt or become bitter because of my circumstances. As the verse says these things that happen does not mean God does not love us. Because he will always prevail. I had a time with this a few weeks ago. Something happened that made me livid mad. Our new car got stolen right out of our driveway. It wasn't a brand new car but new to us, boughten from Kyle's grandparents, and also Kyle's imac computer was in the trunk. I was shouting and hollering and I just felt so hurt that somebody would do that. that they would take what wasn't theres and what they didn't work for. But as I sat there being mad I watched Kyle who's music, pictures, videos, everything had been taken and hes just as calm as a sloth. He never once has complained. he just takes things and lets them be. and I think God showed me through this experience that things are just things and to just let the situation be, to move on and to continue to trust there is good in people. And so the next day albeit still a bit mad, I told God I forgave whomever stole those and to please show them the error of their ways so they may someday ask for forgiveness from their father. Ha! And the next day I found the car. Or I should say God gave me back the car. No computer but we will work something out. Or I should say God will work something out. he sure has shown that the past year, but that would be a whole nother long post.

Life.

Lamentations 3:28 (The Message)

^28-30When life is heavy and hard to take,
go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions:
Wait for hope to appear.
Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face.
The "worst" is never the worst.

Wow I haven't been keeping up with my blog. Maybe its because I feel life has been one crazy thing lately. Where do I start?! So we bought a house, got a dog, my brother moved in, trying to find a new job, school, and the stress of trying to make it all work... See I tend to worry too much about stuff, like I freak out over maybe not having enough money or not making my sales at work, or a random assortment of other things like not knowing my dog couldn't eat the nylabone after I let him chew it up into little pieces, yea a piece could get caught in his intestines and sever them about six months down the road, so I am sort of letting go and letting God on that one. I know he spit most of the pieces out, I just am praying to goodness he's ok. Because let me tell you amidst all the stress of life that little dog is a gift from God. Not to be bragging or anything but the little guy adores me and it's totally a wonderful feeling. He follows me around and sits on my lap, and even trys to lay on my computer when i'm on it to get my attention... I think God knew I needed a little pal to love and take care of. He is pretty much mine and Kyle's kid... Such sweetness. But anyways back to my worry problems, it is pretty much the biggest lesson God has been teaching me lately. That God is in control. Like sometimes I feel when I worry hes yelling at me saying "JENNI! JENNI! Am I not the God of the entire universe? Do I not solve huger problems than yours? I promise you no matter what happens to your silly little material things, I LOVE YOU, and you have amazing other people that love you, this is all that matters in this universe so quit worrying!" It's like sometimes that I forget how huge God is and what he can do when we trust in him. I like these words from a third day song Call My Name: "
Call my name, say it now
I want you to never doubt
The love I have for you is so alive!"
God is not just sitting around up there, his love is always alive and working. So yea...
And no matter what happens God must be my focus.
So I have a job interview tomorrow. Its for a position for TCF in corporate dowtown Minneapolis. I really hope I get it. I could take the train when it starts in the fall and get to work like in a half hour, and take the bus for now. fun fun..
In other exciting news I have been having fun decorating the house, still a ton to do but we did get the spare bedroom painted... DARK PINK!!!!!!! Woot woot! I will post pictures soon.. Its so pretty.. But anyways that is enough raving for tonight.
Luv,

Jenni