2010 In Review

This has been such a fun year few months of blogging. I'm thankful for the readers who check out my blog.   Since I get new visitors every day I thought it would be fun to highlight my favorite post from each month of 2010.  

AUGUST 

I started my blog! I have been thinking about blogging for better part of the year. To be honest I was NERVOUS. I'm not much of a writer and was worried no one would check out my blog. But to my surprise and delight I have had 1,775 pages viewed to-date! I'm considering this a huge success, since this is my first ever blog. 

SEPTEMBER

We added paneling to hide our pop-corn ceiling. A small victory in my world. I hated looking at that ceiling. 

BEFORE

AFTER

OCTOBER

We gave our bathroom a much need Face Lift. 

BEFORE

AFTER

NOVEMBER

 November was my most exciting blogging month to-date! I was featured on BetterAfter, for our bathroom face lift. Sherry from Young House Love sent me an email on our bathroom redo (yes I'm a dork, I know!). Also our wedding pictures were featured on Polka-Dot Bride.

Plus we tacked some house projects, like creating cheap/neutral art work to replace our personal pictures on a budget. 

BEFORE

AFTER

DECEMBER

 December was a busy month. Just love the holidays, shopping, shopping and more shopping. But wait none of that shopping was for me :(  But that is ok, seeing everyone open there gifts and their smiles was well worth the long lines at the stores. 

This month, I did a few DIY Christmas decorations.

BEFORE

AFTER

2010 has been an exciting year for us. We have worked very hard at saving money to buy a new house. We have been working hard at paying off all credit card debt and very close to our goal. We also have spent a lot of time getting our house-sale-ready. 

But I have a feeling 2011 will be our best year yet. We will be selling our current home and purchasing a new one. Plus a few new surprises to be announced in 2011.  Thanks for all your support in 2010 and stay posted in 2011 to share our exciting new adventurers.

This Week Updates

This week I am off work. A much need break from work. Plus I love After-Christmas-Shopping! Today we scored some adorable items from Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel. Since next Christmas will be our first Christmas in our new (not purchased or found) house, I wanted to make sure we had everything we need.

Here is some of the goodies we found. A few sparkly candle pillars, some reindeer ornaments, and a vintage Christmas stamp set - great for making gift tags next year. 

Crate and Barrel

Crate and Barrel

Pottery Barn

This week on my mini-vacation, I plan to clean out all our closets and pack up or donate any excess item. We have made the decision to put our house on the market Feb 1st. So we have 5 weeks to get this house sale ready. Check back later to see our honey to-do list.  We are close to the finish line and really excited to get our house sold!

My Wish List

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! Last night we wrapped all the presents. I have a large family (I'm the youngest of 10) so there was lots of presents to wrap. We had lots of fun and got everything done!

Now that everyone's gifts are wrapped, I have been thinking of what I hope to get for Christmas. I've been good this year (well I think so)!


I would love this necklace from Fossil - Floret Coin Necklace

Or

New Dinnng Room Chairs from Crate & Barrel - Vienna Side Chair. Ours are failing apart and are beyond repair.

OR

A year subscription to the Flower-of-the-Month Club. I would love a fresh bouqet of flowers every month. Nothing cheers up a space like fresh flowers. 

What are you wishing for this year?

Rave Reviews

I stumbled upon a company called – Rave Reviews. Rave Reviews specializes in staging your home for resales and redecoration.

With some neutral paint and a few inexpensive accessories they were able to turn this kitchen into “sale ready”.

Stop over to their site to learn about their services and see their portfolio.

Also they have a BLOG!!! Check them out, I know we will.  


Hope you have a nice weekend, shopping and baking!

Missing our Christmas Tree

I'm a little sad about our decision not to put up a Christmas treet this year. We decide it would be too much, since we plan to put our house up for sale early next year. Plus we visit family for the holiday. But still I'm a little sad. I'm seeing so many beautiful trees and decoration in blog land!


I'm loving the Beachy Christmas Theme.

Image - Better Homes and Garden

Image - Better Homes and Garden

Image - Better Homes and Garden

Maybe I will have to look for decorations like this after Christmas in all the clearance sales.  Where do you go for the best after Christmas sales?

Easy Christmas Gift

Need an easy gift for co-workers, neighbors, friends, teachers.. etc? Here is an idea that is super easy (no craft talent need) and cheap!

MATERIALS:

• A Christmas Card
• A frame (mine came from Micheal's for $3.00)
• Scissors

Cut the cover of your favorite Christmas/Greeting Card to the size for your frame.

I choose a Happy Snowman.

Insert into your frame. Wrap the gift and your done!

A great way to display some of the beautiful cards you get every year.

What I love

I found a beautiful house on House of Turquoise. The rooms are very grown-up!

 If I had this kitchen, I would never eat out! I would just bring it home to eat!  And these livingrooms are perfect! I love the aqua hutch.

I bet my husband will look at these pictures, and ask why anyone needs so many couches!

Happy Weekend!

Great Find

I love to share "Great Finds" with my readers and friends. We recently meet with a Realtor to see what else we need to do to get our "sell ready".  One suggestion was to depersonalize. She suggested to remove all person pictures, because they tend to distract buyers.

So I have been busy looking for replacements for our personal pictures. I found this really beautiful mirror at Michaels Craft Store for $40.00! It was marked down from $80.00.

This mirror is apart of their "Christmas in Paris" collection. A beautiful mirror that replaced one our wedding pictures for a beautiful price. Stop at your local Michaels to pick up your own.

Christmas Cheer

Since we are planning to sell our house soon, we decided to not put up our Christmas tree. But I still wanted to do a little decorating. Over the weekend I made some Christmas Ornaments and put together a few decorations around the house to bring in some holiday cheer.

I purchased clear, glass ornaments at Michaels Crafts, and put some of the leftover berry stems, inside. I also cut out a few christmas trees out of scrap booking paper and put them inside as well.

A few silvery-gold candle holders and candles and the new ornaments I made and now have a beautiful center piece.

What time is it?

A few years ago I purchased this broken clock at a yard sale for $.50.

I loved the shape of the clock and did not mind that it was broken. Well, fast forward 5 years later and I'm tired of people asking me why that clock did not work.  I decided to lose the clock and make it into a mirror.

I broke out the clock parts and used the always handy super glue to glue in the new mirror.

A simple and easy project for $4.00 (for the mirror)!  I now have a custom mirror. I would love to see any items you have re-purposed! Feel free to email me at beautifulhaven@gmail.com.

Crafts

Since winter is upon us, we have slowed down on the house projects. I'm starting to become a little stir crazy. This weekend I plan to work on some Christmas crafts.

Image from

arbutushunter.blogspot.com

Stop back on Monday to see what I came up with. Have a great weekend!