What a differnce a year makes!

Couldn't let the year pass without giving a shout out to all my peeps. You gals in blogland are the best and it's hard to believe that just one short year ago, I didn't even know what a blog was. None of you were in my life and now your names are so familiar to me it's as if I've known you my whole life. Just like having a baby, I almost can't remember what life was like without blogging. It has changed me in so many ways for the better. At the risk of being extremely mushy, I love you guys. Ha! I do! And with props to Sally Field, you like me, you really like me!

I can't begin to imagine what things the great Wizard of Blog has in store for us all in 2010. What new friends will we meet? What new ideas will we be inspired by? What new piece of furniture will be transformed and saved from eternal doom in a landfill.....okay, I'm getting a little carried away. But truthfully, as I sit here and look around at my surroundings, I didn't have more than half of the pieces that are in this room with me right now. And it's all because of blogging! Ha!

So to you and yours, have a very Blessed and Happy New Year. Be safe tonight and sleep in tomorrow. Watch some football or a cheesy parade (around these parts it's the Mummers). Eat some comfort food. Maybe even blog. But most importantly, spend time with your families.

Until next year!

A Blizzard, A Look-Alike, And More News!

Cheese and Crackers! Has it really been two weeks since I posted??? Yikes! I hope I didn't lose all of my followers. Well alot has been going on here at MDB, including the Blizzard of the Century! You may remember hearing about it just before Christmas. The whole East Coast got slammed and here in South Jersey we got a whopping 2 feet!
The picture at the top is my trash can which I moved close to the back door before the storm. It was still snowing at that point.
This was the next day.



The kids had a ball of course and it made for a beautiful Christmas.


It was so bad out that it's the only time I can remember in my life that Church was actually cancelled! Fortunately things cleared up a bit and we were able to go to Christmas Eve Eve Service. Our church started this tradition about three years ago and my family quite enjoys it. We go to church on December 23 for the family candlelight service.

Now this next part of my post is truly amazing and for those of you who have already seen this on BJ's blog, Sweet Nothings, you know what I'm talking about. The day after Christmas I was catching up on my blogging and I came across this picture on BJ's blog of her granddaughter Deeds on Christmas morning.

Isn't she just the cutest thing?
Well, my entire family did a double-triple-quadruple-take upon seeing that picture. Here's why:
This is MY daughter Amy:

Is that not the darndest thing? Of course I showed Amy's picture to BJ on the spot and the two of us had a good laugh over it. So far we've been able to fool just about everyone into thinking that Deeds is Amy, including AMY! I showed it to her and she said "what's that I'm playing with Mommy?" Isn't that a hoot! Even her sister and BFF thought it was her.

My last bit of news is that my home has been chosen to be on the local Christmas House Tour NEXT year! I'm half-excited, half-scared-to-death! Of course I'll be browsing blogland for lots of inspiration and I know you will all be wishing me luck. The downside is that I have to keep my decorations up until Jan. 4th so that the committee can come see my decorating to pick a theme for my home. I will be dying to take them down by that point. Funny thing is, I feel like I JUST put them all up! As usual, the entire Christmas season was a blur. But I'm looking forward to the New Year and everything that HE has in store for me in 2010.
May you all have a wonderful New Year!

More Christmas Love

Call it insecurity, call it insanity, call it what you will, but after seeing all of the beautiful decorations in blogland I decided to sprinkle a little more Christmas love around my home. And I did it without spending a dime. Just went shopping in my storage closet and here's what I came up with.



I do this every year. I do a little bit of decorating. Then I go on the local House Tour, come home, and do a little bit more.




I think I'm done for now.



At least inside. There's always more I could do outside!



Oh and before I go I just wanted to get your opinion on the wallscape I just created in my living room. It's not Christmasy, but I thought I'd throw it in for good measure.

I don't think it translates very well in this photo - looks better in person. Gimme your thoughts.
Thanks!

Christmas Tour Of Homes 2009

Merry Christmas everyone! I am joining the Nester's Holiday House Tour. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and come on in!


















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Thanks for stopping by. Have a very blessed and happy holiday season!

Some Christmas Love and a Reveal

I have been enjoying every second of every minute of taking in all of your spectacular Christmas decorating - the Home Tours, the How-To's, the Recipes and everything in between! It has been something I've been looking forward to all year since I starting blogging back in February. I just knew that Blogland would be especially wonderful at the Holidays. And you have NOT disappointed! There is just so much to take in and so much inspiration out there that the Holidays for me will never be the same. I will now always look forward to the great ideas I get from all of you wonderful people.

Around here though, the decorating hasn't been what my family is used to at Christmastime. I usually start decking my halls right before Thanksgiving, and then after I finish the local House Tours, I sprinkle a little more Christmas love around the house. Something has changed in me this year. I knew a while ago that I wouldn't be going crazy this season. I don't know how I knew, I just knew.

Last March, my husbands dear parents lost everything to a fire. It was right after I started blogging so I'm not quite sure if I even posted about it. How do you post about something like that anyway? I barely knew any of you yet and I guess I just didn't want to be a downer on my new blog. Of course we offered for them to live with us while the house was being fixed, but my sweet FIL has Parkinson's as well as other health issues that prevent him from going up and down the stairs. So they had been living in a hotel room. For over seven months. They just recently moved back in to what is a gorgeously rebuilt home, but it didn't have anything in it. No furniture, no pictures, no rugs, no nothing. So it didn't feel like home. So that's where I've been over the past month and a half.

I have been striving recently to establish myself as a wanna-be designer. I have taken on a few "clients", er, "friends", willing to trust me with their decorating woes. It has been fun and a good way for me to get my feet wet. It is still a work in progress and I'm still learning, but I think this is the direction the Lord wants me to go in.

My In-Laws, whom I love dearly, entrusted their whole house to me. Thanks to Craig's List and Home Goods we've been able to turn their "new" house into a home on a shoestring budget. It is all I have been able to think about since we began. They are thrilled with the results and I can't wait to share the pictures with you all. I will be doing a post soon on the big reveal of their home - please stay tuned.

So that has been the best Christmas gift to me. Being able to help these amazing people that I have come to love as my own parents is the most precious gift I have ever received. I am so grateful to them in so many ways. God is Good!

Now, here are a few pictures of what little decorating I was able to do around here. Since I only put out about half of my things, I tried to make a big statement in just a few strategic spots.

My Dining Room table all gussied up. Don't you just love apothecary jars? They make decorating for the seasons so darn easy!


My mantle. I always switch this up every year and do something different. This year I was able to incorporate the "M" I purchased from Crafts, Etc. using the gift card I won from Sherrie's blog - thanks again Sherrie!!


Last year I purchased the lighted wreath and garland from Sam's Club and I needed to hide the cord so I got the idea to use gold chargers.


These gorgeous trees I picked up at Kirkland's a few years ago and I put them on my great-grandmother's old desk.


I will be joining the Nester's Holiday House Tour on Monday so I am saving the rest of my pictures for that. But before I go, you may remember me doing this a couple weeks ago:



I cracked up after reading all of your comments. Most of you agreed with me that I am nuts. And alot of you wondered what the heck I was gonna do to fix this:

Yeah. I wondered that myself.

After much consideration and alot of reassuring my man that, yes, of course I knew what I was doing! I did this:


Then my wonderful sister helped me by rearranging the furniture to help with the flow of the room and voila!

Instant open floor plan! And I love it! So does the man. So thanks for worrying about me and I hope you like the results.
Moral of the story: don't be afraid of a little thing like a sledgehammer. We are women, hear us roar!