J Cooper Photography

I have a love affair with Pinterest.  Not quite the same intensity of affair as The Librarian (oh man will I pay for that comment), but I do love it nonetheless.  I searched for “heart garland” a few days ago when I was having a moment of craftiness and found these adorable examples.

source

source

So the girls and I scurried out to the craft store and came up with our own little version Instagram style.

needed:

double sided scrapbook paper

heart punch or a zealous cutting hand

thread

sewing machine or a granny to do some serious running stitches for you by hand

{ready your supplies – I opted to save my “love” letters for another project}

{punch your little heart out – ha!}

{stitch ‘em up}

{keep on keeping on}

{untangle your mess}

{hang ‘em up!  you might consider taking down your Christmas decor first…or not!}

Easy peasy.  Cute little way to brighten your day

When we moved in…the living room was a big beige box.  I was so grateful for the extra space.  But I just could not get excited about that room.  Big oak french doors leading into a sea of pale beige carpet, yellowish beige walls, and the biggest, UGLIEST, fireplace.  We learned at the inspection that this fireplace was ELECTRIC.  Meaning…that bad boy is simply plugged into the wall.  At first I was glad…that meant I could get rid of it.  But then I felt guilty.  I mean, someone spent a lot of money on that big, ugly thing.  So we opted to give it a face lift and see if we could dress her up a bit!

{inserting a pre-apology that many of the images are iphone captures from before we had our home PC up and running!}

Here she is in all her original “glory”.  It’s hard to tell her scale from some of the pictures…but she is a beast of a thing.  Our living rooms is 24″ long and she is huge!

Sanded down and ready for a good coat of primer.

Feeling a bit happier with a nice coat of white primer to cover up the expanse of oak.

After several coats of “creamy white” Sherwin Williams Pro Classic paint in semi-gloss she was nearly a new woman.  But the tacky metal surround was still really bothering me.  I just couldn’t come to terms with the drab green sponge painted look.  And the flat hearth looked cheap laying on the floor (it was actually just a piece of metal that the fireplace sat atop).  So Mr. P and my Dad built a raised hearth and my mom and I headed out to find some tile that I loved.  I settled on a glass mosaic tile.   I loved the variations of white and thought it added a fun modern touch to the room!

The hearth building in process

Here she is all blinged out and ready for the ball.   One of the most amazing moments of her transformation came when my Dad realized that her ugly brass trim was simple MAGNETIC strips which we could snap off in a jiffy!

Now she is the show stopper of the room and is putting our other fireplaces to shame.

There are still lots of big plans for this room.  Including: hardwood floors (on order and being delivered tomorrow),  board and batten on the walls in creamy white,  new paint on the upper portion of the walls (goodbye body fluid tan), and painted trim (crown molding and window trim).   But even in her current state…this might easily be my favorite room in the house so far.

So that is the rags to riches story of our little fireplace…once an ugly duckling….now a beautiful addition to our music room!

One of the things I really loved about our old house was the amazing natural light.  It streamed into every window…and bounced off the abundance of shiny white woodwork.  So far…light has been seriously lacking in this house.  Not because of a shortage of windows.  But every surface was once covered in a dark, depressing color.   White woodwork lovers UNITE!  Let’s vow to paint any and everything standing still a brilliant shade of white!

I mentioned before that we hired a “professional” to help us out with our woodwork.  We love a good DIY project.  But with 4 little people underfoot we thought the help would really be…well…helpful.  Little did we know our “painter” would paint our foyer staircase in a circular motion.  Little did we know that he would spend 6 days “painting” and “painting” without ever really applying actual paint to his paint brush.  The result was more of a lumpy, bumpy, whitewashed effect which unforunately required an immediate firing of the “painter” and then hours of sanding and prepping so we could re-do his work.  FUN TIMES!

SIXTY THREE SPINDLES, folks!   But this weekend I knocked it out (and by “I” of course I mean: me, Mr. P, Baboo, and Mimi who had the hardest job of all – kid duty!)

There is still plenty to do.  But WOW what a difference!

It was fine before.  Probably if you were a caveman you would have really liked it just as it was.

Dark and DREARY and blah, blah, blah.

Amazing what a few hundred coats of white paint can do!

Next up is replacing the urine yellow walls with something a bit less body fluid-ish.   And for reference…the dining room is to your right…the living room is to your left.  Straight ahead is the family room. We finally took the plunge and ordered hardwood floors which will be delivered on Wednesday.  So there will be a nice continuation of wood underfoot from the entry all the way to the back of the house.  YEAH for wood.  YEAH for white.  Hip hip hoorah!

We went into the weekend with the goal of finishing up the rest of our half started projects (most of them got done!)

Tomorrow I’ll share our fireplace makeover!

We were holding our son and FINALLY able to tell him he was ours FOREVER.

We arrived into Addis Ababa thinking we would have to wait a full day before we were taken to Hannah’s Hope.  But hotel staff presented us an itinerary right when we checked in and we quickly realized that a driver was coming for us in just a few short hours.

I will NEVER forget the walk through the gates of Hannah’s Hope as I anticipated holding my son and never having to say goodbye again.  My heart was jumping out of my chest.  I was teary and blubbery and felt completely light headed (that may very well have been due to the nasty stomach bug I picked up in the airport!)  We walked into the family room of the baby house and I saw him immediately.  My eyes connected with one of his caregivers “Anat” and she snatched him up yelling “Danny Boy…Danny Boy…MOMMY IS HERE!!!!”  I know the special mothers must hate to see these precious babies leave in some ways.  But their enthusiasm for us was so touching!

{Moments into our reunion}

A lot has changed in a year.  A lot hasn’t.  This has been a year full of blessings and growth for our family.  We’ve felt the immense joy and sometimes strain of grafting this child to our hearts.  Our faith and trust in God has grown.  Our other children have stretched and seen first hand the way God provides.  Adoption has done something for our family that I can’t imagine capturing any other way.  It has opened the boundaries of our hearts and set on fire a need to act on the love that Christ has shared.  We have seen God’s redemption first hand in a beautiful way.  Just as he has adopted us into His family…we have chosen Daniel.

A year ago today we took custody of Daniel.  He became ours.  We debated how best to celebrate this amazing little addition to our family and have decided his “Gotcha Day” will be the day he came home and we were finally together as a family.  So this Friday, January 13th will mark our one year anniversary of becoming a family of SIX!

There aren’t enough words to express my gratitude to God for granting us the privilege of raising Daniel.  If you have met him in person…you know what an amazing little boy he is!

And, is that smile the cutest thing ever or what?

{Don’t worry…many more pics to come!}

We finally got the Wii plugged in at the new house.  Television and gaming has taken a serious backseat at our house.  We decided that when we moved…we wanted to restructure our days a bit.  When the tv didn’t have the perfect spot upstairs…we opted to just move it to the basement for good.  That means we are a ONE tv family.  We don’t have a tv on the main floor at all and guess what?  Our kids no longer ask to watch tv (amazing how that works).  No judgement here.  Trust me.  You might have 15 tvs in your house…and if that works for you…embrace it.   But for us there was too much whining and begging.  I really wanted my kids coloring, puzzling, wrestling, or crafting.

It also helps that my kids are afraid of the basement.  Which is ironic since it is a walk out basement with floor to ceiling windows.  But whatever

So playing the Wii has been a big deal. The kids have to find a partner who is brave enough to retreat to the murky depths of the basement with them.

Oh.my.goodness the cuteness overload.

Super Sam was pretty excited that Mr. P agreed to challenge him on the Wii last night.  Sam is the most animated little boy I’ve ever met.  Seriously.  We always laugh and talk about him being a “theater boy”.  You should hear his British accent….move over Oliver Twist!

Ok…enough rambling.  Presenting Exhibit A:  Super Sam is really excited about playing the Wii.

Happy Friday friends!

Super Sam has been on an Old MacDonald singing spree over the past few weeks.  I’m to the point where I can’t have a coherent thought without putting it to a tune.  So this post is brought to you by one of my least favorite children’s songs.  Least favorite because my 3 year old sings EVERY verse known to man kind.  Then he becomes VERY upset when I can’t think of another farm animal.  He doesn’t buy “polar bear” or “chinchilla” either.  And he doesn’t like repeats.  In other words…I’m open to suggestions on ANY animals you might find on a farm…help a girl out.

Speaking of farm animals…let’s discuss HORSES!  I have a horse-crazed 9 year old in my house.  It isn’t anything new.  She’s been a follower since before her 4th birthday.  At one point she actually had a full out horse bedroom (you must click over and see The Tiny Brainiac…be still my heart…her cute factor was through the roof).   The horse bedroom was before I was mean and made her share a room with her sister.  Once she realized she was indeed getting her OWN room in our new house…the bargaining began.  I’m kind of over the whole “themed” room idea.  But a horse lover’s gotta have horses.  There’s just no way around it.  So we settled on “a few” horses in the decor rather than the horse bedding, horse pillows, horse wall decals, horse mural, and horse posters she had in mind.

I’ve had a stack of pictures and knick knacks sitting on her dresser since move in day.  And today I started nailing them up.  No rhyme or reason.  No carefully laid newspaper templates.  I just took a hammer to the wall and got ‘em up there.   Turned out pretty cute I think!

The piece-de-resistance is the paint by numbers horse in the bottom corner.  That was a gift from The Librarian.   I just re-painted the frame to coordinate a tad better.  The owl embroidery hoop has got to go…but that should be an easy swap out.

Now the walls just need a coat of the softest aqua paint and some glossy white trim!

I convinced her to use the handmade quilt I made for Miss Middle a few years ago rather than the horse themed bedding.  By including the aqua in the quilt she was able to squeeze in one of the groovy aqua chairs (Miss Middle has the matching chair in her own bedroom).  The Librarian also gifted her this adorable dresser scarf!

Yeah for a hammer and nails.  It’s starting to feel like we live here!

And I’m serious on those farm animals.  This little guys loves himself some OLD MACDONALD!!!

The house seems awfully quiet now that both The Librarian and The Writer (and their families) have left.  It’s always more fun to have a billion people in your home.  I love having the kids running wild (read: staying out of my hair) when their cousins are here.  And there’s always an extra helping hand to do the dishes or take the baby when your arm is ready to fall off.

But the fun had to die down at some point….so here we are…mid week.  Are your kids back in school?  I wish I could say mine are…but alas…they don’t go back until January NINTH.  Don’t get me wrong.  I do love the little people in my life dearly.  But the time has come (and past) and school is sounding pretty darn awesome about now.

So here’s a little recap of the past few days.

{the littlest girl cousins ringing in the New Year – as you can see they were thrilled to pose for a picture amidst the festivities}

{How cute is my mom?  Seriously…matching party hat and cardi and all…}

{We celebrated Christmas with my sisters and then did a snow globe craft mid afternoon to help us switch gears for New Years.  My mom and I have been collecting glass jars and winter do-dads for weeks.  I spray painted all the lids with hammered pewter spray paint.   We bought a ton of fake snow, bottle brush trees, silver glitter, glitter spray paint, and miniature snowmen and santas.  I was set on some vintage deer and finally found some really cute ones from THIS SELLER on Etsy.  She was so sweet to send along a few extras…even a package of wee itty bitty deer that were beyond adorable in the tiny baby food jars the littlest crafters used.

{The house progress continues.  You do realize that I am going to be making that comment on every post for the next one thousand years, don’t you?  It was time to add some history to the house.  So up went some mismatched frames and a stash of black and white baby pictures.}

{I’m still fixing “the painters” mistakes.  And I use the term “the painter” with great sarcasm and slightly cursing under my breath.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  This is the last area that has to be sanded down and recoated with paint.  Who paints in a circular motion?  Tell me that??  Wait…never mind….we know who…the “professional painter”.  I am looking forward to knocking the entry out this weekend.  I can’t wait to paint the walls as well.  They are actually a very light tan-ish beige which looks urine yellow in the right light – and anytime I photograph them.   Urine yellow…pumpkin poo brown….hmmm…there’s a theme emerging here!  I love my foyer though.  I’ve always wanted a legitimate foyer.  Our old house kind of spilled right into the living room.  This house has a proper foyer….except imagine I’m saying it “foy-yeah” because that is the proper way to pronounce it when you are fancy like me – ha!}

I know most bloggers have moved on to New Years….it’s coming soon.  Although I’m resolutionless and still can’t believe Christmas is already over!

I’m going to try to wrap up the last few weeks of craziness here on my blog over the next couple of days so I can move on to the New Year!

First off…a morning sugar rush.

We did these little mini houses on Christmas Eve morning.  I hot glued the houses together and the kiddos (plus Mimi’s help) decorated them to the gilt.  The little Coopers ingested a wee bit of sugar (The Brainiac MAY have been caught  licking out the sprinkles bowl) that morning.  They were a cute and relatively easy Christmasy project.  Before we went to church, I put them up on some white cake plates…sprinkled in some fun vintage Christmas balls…and VOILA…insta-centerpiece!

Memories are always better when sugar is involved

Our company has left.  The new toys have been cast aside (the girls are too busy planning for their new puppy…more on that coming soon!)…so I guess its back to painting for me!

Nothing really.

We are gearing up for the next installment of fun around here….a second round of Christmas to commence this weekend!  We’ve been lucky enough though to have my nieces here this week.  I am one blessed aunt.  These kids are so much fun.

We took in a movie.

And the littlest girls are busy having a sleep over.  {Can’t wait for the Peruvian Princess to join in on the girly fun this weekend!}

It hasn’t been ALL play and NO work though.

WE HIRED A PAINTER – YEAH!

He was scheduled to start last week and paint all of the woodwork on our main floor in 3 weeks – DOUBLE YEAH!

Yesterday…WE FIRED OUR PAINTER – BOOOOO!

Turns out he didn’t have a clue how to paint woodwork which is kind of an essential skill for the job

So guess what I’ve been doing?  Yep…lots and lots of white paint.  And sanding his mistakes.  And painting some more.

We took a little break from heavy duty painting and whipped up a proper hearth for our living room fireplace.  It had a sad and pathetic little metal sheet on the ground.  It was screaming for a major re-do.

Here’s the before: (remember that I already painted the wood surround)

And here’s a grainy iphone snapshot of the hearth in progress!  Just wait till you see it on the fireplace with the NEW TILE (just waiting on the grout!)

I also had fun on a smaller project over the weekend!  I had a hard time parting with my fun pantry chalkboard wall from our other house and knew I needed one in our new kitchen.  The problem…there are NO full walls!  So I opted for a framed one to hang near the eating area.  I re-purposed a large white frame I already had….had some MDF cut to fit the opening (on Christmas Eve at Home Depot) and painted it with Rustoleum’s chalkboard paint.  It was easy peasy and makes a cute addition to our kitchen!

I know lots of you have already stripped your house bare and are busy organizing your rubbermaid tubs.  But stick with me on Christmas for a few more days, K?  I still have loads of cute photos I want to share and we haven’t even made it to Round Two yet

Hope you are home enjoying those you love!

We have another round of Christmas festivities coming up this weekend so I wanted to be sure to share the first round right away!

We started out on Christmas Eve with a service at our new (old) church

{The Foursome dressed in their “Christmas Best”}

{Dapper Danny}

{”Danny….what do you want for Christmas?”  “Oh…I don’t know…I just like the paper!”

{”Have you been a good boy this year??”}

{Super Sam}

{Miss Middle}

{The Brainiac}

We came home and opened our stockings.  That clever Santa made an early stop at our house while we were at church.  I think it is so sweet how our girls WANT to believe in Santa even though they know better.  EVERY year I make an emergency last second potty break as we are loading the car for church so I can dash back into the house and fill the stockings

The kids also opened their Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve so we’d be ready for cinnamon rolls and PRESENTS first thing!

I was adamant about getting a Christmas picture on the hearth in their pjs.  But then Danny woke up soaked through his diaper from head to toe.  Did I let Mr. P change him before we headed downstairs??? Heck no!  Sat that sopping wet baby on the hearth and snapped myself some keepers first

The kids each got 2 gifts (toys or something they asked for) and a book.  We were worried about having a “light” Christmas this year but the kids were thrilled with their gifts.  Less is more – gotta remember that!

This was also the first year the kids exchanged gifts with each other.  My Mom and I took the girls to Target to help them shop for each other and then topped off the night at Starbucks.  Of course…they picked out the same gift for each other!

Before lunch we hopped out of our jammies and headed to Mimi and Baboo’s house for Christmas dinner.

{Serious Gaga love going on here!}

{And Baboo lovin}

{And Mimi lovin too!}

We topped off the weekend with a fun get together with a few forever friends!  A couple of these gals were my kindergarten pals!  So fun to see old friends!

The merriment is just getting reved up around here!!!