Year Review 2013

As the new year approaches it seems fitting to reflect on this last year. What a crazy busy year it was! In addition to all of the "everyday" things we kept ourselves busy with, we bought a house 6 hours from where we were living and tried to make it livable on the occasional weekend we were able to travel in preparation for the possibility to return home. And during this crazy time of "everyday" activities: work, volunteering, school, kid activities, and making our new house livable, we started our blog. I must admit that years ago (even after many asked me about starting a blog after seeing many of the pics I posted on my personal Facebook page) the thought never really occurred to me to actually write a blog until after we purchased our new house. I thought it would be awesome to have a place to write about our journey in making our new house into our home. And thus, our blog was born.

Since we were no where near ready to actually write about our new house,

I started our blog with some of our older projects

Pink!

Kitchen Shelves

Just A Little Organizing

and mixed in some new to update our happenings 

Happy Birthday Part 2

Happy Birthday Part 3

while waiting patiently for the time to be right for us to include our new home.

Snow Day! (We built and igloo)

Blue Spring and Easter 2013

Strawberry Icecream Shortcake

Brice Graduation

Hailey Graduation

Teacher Gifts

Bake Sale!

That time finally came in June. We were able to share
our exciting news and that's when our blog really kicked off.

Exciting News!

Moving Days

Front Porch

Front Porch: Red, White, and Blue

Since our move, our home has been

a whirlwind of activity while (at the same time)

trying to settle into a routine.

Our Tree Cutting Adventure
Cutting Down The Bushes
Cleaning Up The Bushes
Cleaning Up The Front Yard
Cleaning Up The Left Side Yard

Side Porch Stenciled Planters
Rock Garden
Side Porch Inside Reveal!
Side Porch Outside Reveal and Rock Garden!
Side Porch Furniture

Hopscotch!

Very Mini, Mini Fairy Garden

We also took time to enjoy the local festivities.

Sandwich Fair!
Wandering Wednesday

After spending the summer cleaning up and adjusting 
we decided it was time to enjoy the holidays.

Our Home ~ 2013

Side Porch Autumn 2013

Hot Chocolate Bar

 Christmas Side Porch 2013

And if you follow us on Facebook or Pinterest you were able to keep up

with what was new when I didn't have time to write a post.

Wow, we have accomplished a lot this year! But, of course, we still have so much more to do. We still have projects we started this year that will be completed in the new year, along with many new projects/ideas to get done in the new year. Our ambitions are big! On the list this year: Finish kitchen and dining room, downstairs bathroom, toyroom/office, family room, sunroom, floors, painting, lighting, plumbing, backyard deck and so much more.

We love being home and close to family. We are enjoying this new journey. And we appreciate this opportunity to share our experiences with all of you while turning our new house into Our Family Inspired Home. We hope all of you have a Happy New Year!

Thanks for visiting Our Family Inspired Home!

Christmas 2012

We're back today with more Christmas inspiration! How is your Christmas decorating coming along? If you are still looking for ideas I hope you are able to use some of our ideas to help with your Christmas decorating. In our Christmas 2010 decor we used white, silver, and red to create a sparkly snowy feel. And in our Christmas 2011 we used green, brown, and silver to create a woodsy/woodland theme. Today, we are sharing our Christmas 2012 decor. We used most of the decor from 2010 and 2011, but wanted to use more red in 2012. So, we changed out the stockings, tree skirt, and pillows, and then added more red to the mantle. I love the reindeer pillows. We're almost ready for Christmas!

When I saw this idea on Pinterest, I decided we needed to make one too.

Hailey and I made it together and she wanted to know what it said.

After I read to her what it said she answered, "Amen".

This was our front porch.

Thanks for visiting Our Family Inspired Home!

Exciting News!

We have been very busy around here. Among graduations and end of school year festivities, we have been packing up our house in preparation of our new adventure. We are moving back to our hometown area! About a year ago, we bought a foreclosed house that sat empty for years and needs lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of work. The past year we have been traveling six hours each way on weekends we had free to work on running water and a few other things so as to make it livable. Now, we will be living in the house as we work on it. Although it will take time, we look forward to making this house into our home. I will post pics soon. But for now, I will leave you with this one. The HOME pillows were my 1st Etsy purchase, here.

Bake Sale!

Our son's class held a couple of bake sales toward the end of the school year to help cover the cost of graduation, gifts for our church and school, and their end of year school day trip. Brice helped make the spring colored cakepops and Hailey helped with the peanut butter M&M cookies. I made the flower shaped candy coated pretzels and bread loaves. These simple baked items were dressed up with packaging, so as to make them much more pleasing to the eye. I used leftover burlap ribbon from another project and stamped the thank you labels. Then, I wrote the prices on sale tags to give them an older general store type look. I used ribbon to tie the labels and tags together. They turned out great and sold quickly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting Our Family Inspired Home!