Christmas in the family room and Before n After pics

Well, I have tried and tried to get some good pictures to share with you,,,,these will have to do and I give a huge applaud to those of you who know how to take great interior pictures!  How do you do it!? I don't like using a flash and I guess I just may have to take a class on how to go over to the "manual" side of my settings!  Yikes!!

I will start with the good ones!

This is the fireplace mantel for this year.

Simple mason jars with off white candles 

Wreaths are my favorite and I added the gingham bow

The fireplace still needs to be completed with a rock front, and lots of beefy moulding!

Darrell really wants to incorporate an old elevator beam from the Hanna elevator..

The tall topiaries at the back are from the garden!  I was walking out to the shop to get Darrell and when I passed them in the one flower bed I thought those would fill in the space perfectly on the fireplace!  Just cleaned off a little dirt and wrapped some ribbon around them!

This is taken standing at the back door, and in the kitchen.

Now get ready for some BEFORE pics

Sorry for the even more terrible Before pictures,,,they were just taken with my iPad when

we first looked at the house.  We removed the window and that is now where the fireplace is, the white door going out onto the deck got a make over by taking the middle section of the door out and replacing it with a garden door insert. We decided to have the family room on this side of the room rather than the dining room.  New paint color is Grey Owl, and allll those tiles are gone!

We removed the closet doors and made a bookshelf instead.

You can see the bookshelf behind the Christmas tree.

To see the FAMILY ROOM post click here

Have a great day everyone!

Kitchen reveal is next...

Sweet and Simple

Farmgirl Friday

From the Farm

Home Sweet Home

Tweak it Tuesday

Vee's Notecard Party...I made it!!

I look forward to Vee's notecard party and thought I may miss the party!  A little late, but I have been working on my Christmas decorating and trying to get a few posts done to share some of the before and after of our DIY renovation as well.

You can visit the back entry here and be sure to visit the living room here.

I just went with a simple theme for this notecard party....SNOWFLAKES!  Most of our snow has disappeared here in Southern Alberta, or atleast in the "banana belt" as I have been told !  I love to have snow in the winter...hoping we see some more in time for Christmas eve!

Have a wonderful day and be sure to stop by Vee's to see what everyone else has been up to.

Vee's Notecard Party

Before n After in the Living Room and some Christmas decorating!

Welcome to a very quick tour of the living room ....before n after.  I will post more this evening on the Christmas details that I put in this room, but for now I hope the pictures speak for themselves and that you will come back later!  Gotta get out the door to work...Have a wonderful day!

It is wonderful having the crunch time of company coming over!!  We have all done it,,,,frantically tried to finish up those last little projects that you have been procrastinating on.  Decorating for Christmas this year has been a lot of fun, reno is 99.9% done and the pictures are being hung where they should be staying for awhile!

A quick tour of the living room today, and I hope you enjoy the before and after shots.  The before pictures were taken the first time we went through the house, so they are not the greatest, but you will get the idea.

This is the first room you see when you come in the back door and are standing in the kitchen

Looking into the kitchen.  

So happy with the results !  New paint color throughout the house is Grey Owl by Benjamin Moore, new flooring,  a total kitchen reno which is definately the heart of this open floor plan.  Will post more on the details and a full kitchen post soon!

Some decorations in the living room.

Darrell's Industrial Farmhouse looking table that he made out of odds n ends from shop.

Check out Karianne over at Thistlewood Farms for the best in the industrial farmhouse look!

Don't ask me what all the medal parts are from but this one of a kind table

fits perfectly in this corner!

One of my favorite platters with some candles, nothing too fussy.

I love wreaths in the windows and have one in just about every window at the front of our house!

The shadow boxes in the corner were a great Homesense find $16.99 each and they have burlap

as the back so you can use it as a bulletin board idea.  :)

I decided to use the blue colors in the living room rather than my traditional colors

I like how it works with the white and the grey colored walls.

Lovin all the chalkboard art that is out there this year! 

These old doors were rescued from the dump!  Yep,,,that is right... the

local landfill!  Of course they were needing a fresh coat of paint, but they fill in this wall

behind the couch very nicely!   I can change our whatever I want for the frames.

That will be it for the living room,,,,our Christmas tree is in the sitting room off of the kitchen.

Trying to get a good shot of the tree has been challenging!  Anyone else have  that problem?

FAMILY ROOM BEFORE AND AFTER CLICK here

Linking to :

Amaze Me Monday

Mosaic Monday

Blue Monday

Tweak it Tuesday

Be Inspired

Its Overflowing

Sweet n Simple

Grace

Love of Family and Home

Christmas in the back entry and a bit of "Before and After"

I have spent so much time this morning on trying to get the perfect picture!!  How do some of you blog girls do it?!!  You must check Thistlewood Farms....oh my!  that girl can decorate and take pictures!!

Anyways, I really do have to get ready for work, so this is it!!  Our back entry used to look like this!!  These are some pictures I took when we first looked at this house....we knew right away that the laundry would be finding a home downstairs and that back wall, with the calendar on it, would be opened up into the bedroom behind it to be the new office.  This was our first reno project when we moved in.

Can you picture it now!!

and here it is now!  Ready for the holidays this year!

Chalkboard art seems to be all the rage in blogland.

I am lovin it!

We usually hang our keys on these hooks,,,but I thought some mini burlap stockings

would look cute on them.  One of my favorite blogs to follow is Happy at Home .  Robin sewed up the cutest little stockings....sewing is not my thing......so what is a girl to do when she would like some cute little mini stockings like over at Robin's house???  GLUE GUN!!

This trio of Christmas trees are one of my favorite decorations to bring out each year.  

This year, I added a bow of twine and called it good!

This old mirror made the move from our other property. 

I actually forgot it was stored up in the hay loft.

It is just right for this entry.

I love its chippy character and the detail of the crown moulding.

The little flowers hanging on the willow branches were an idea from 

Tanya, over at Love of Family and Home.  Can you believe they are toilet paper rolls!

I am still looking for the perfect little jewel to put in the centre, but thought they would look good hanging from the branches with the red snowflakes.

Well, I better get to work!! Yikes the morning has gotten away on me!

Good thing I only work part time!!

Have a great day everyone! and thanks for stopping by the country!

Amaze me Monday

Farmgirl Friday

Sweet and Simple Fridays

Easy decorating for the rangehood...

I came up with this little vingette for the rangehood this year.  I picked these little cards up at the Dollarstore ( 1.25 for 10 cards) and used other items that I already had to decorate this part of my kitchen.  Hope you enjoy it, it makes me smile  :)

Linking to :

Love of Family and Home
Sweet and Simple

Happy December and Holiday Decorating

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas!!  I have had fun finding new places for my decorations,,,,last year at this time we were in a major reno stage.  I think this year, even though there are a few things to finish up with the reno, I am making the place like "home"

A new "winter" look for the ladder!  Its a bit of a challenge finding items that will fit on the skinny little shelves.  My neighbour came down for some hot chocolate and she helped me with hanging the snowflakes .

I love the shadows the snowflakes make on the wall.

Items from the dollar store are just the right size.

The calendar is filling up with some Christmas parties and we are looking forward to having people in for a few meals over the next month.  Had lots of fun at my neighbors cookie exchange this past week as well.  It is coooolddd here in Alberta, so I have enjoyed being inside, baking, decorating and drinking some hot chocolate as I have a look around blogland and what you all have been up to.

Have a great week end everyone!!

Linking to :

Amaze me Monday

Mosaic Monday

Love of Family and Home

Farmgirl Friday

From the Farm

Funky Junk

A trip to Verona and Friday Fences

Contributing to the Friday Fences blog hop today and taking you to Verona!  This picture was from the trip I took with the school a number of years back already!  Wow, where does the time fly.  Sure would like to go back to Italy and see more of that country.  Between our family we have been blessed to make a few trips to Europe......Darrell's been twice, Kaleb has been once, Ben has been twice and I have been once.....Darrell and I have not travelled together though!!  So I think that should be on the to do list!!

Enjoy your week end everyone and to all my US blogger friends have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Linking to :

Friday Fences