Something Old, Something New

    I just finished the wall gallery for my dining room, complete with de-saturated colored photos of my family, and weathered barnwood frames. I'm in love.

I ordered these frames from www.rusticbarnwoodframes.com , based out of Oklahoma. GREAT prices, and an insanely beautiful and unique product! Plus, I'm in Eastern Canada, and the shipping was still reasonable, AND I didn't get any massive hits from Customs, which is awesome! I love these frames because......

a) Every one is different; each has its own special nicks, scratches, and weathered coloring. I like that.
b) They match this piece of driftwood I found on the beach!!!

And, just for good measure, the new home I found for my $2.50 shutters!!

Looking Ahead

    We've reached the final year of our 3-year posting, and up until recently, I've felt as though, "The Countdown is On!" Officially, we have only 8 months (and 14 days...but who's counting?) left on our posting...which, with all the technicalities, will work out to be about 1 year and 5-ish months.  I've looking forward to the coming months since the day I left my home in NB, knowing how excited I would be to someday return and be close to my family again.
   
     I don't want to make where I live sound like the armpit of Canada: it's a beautiful place, with welcoming people, and a breathtaking landscape. We're lucky enough to be in force housing, we have a great church, we love our jobs, and we've made so many wonderful friends. But there's just that can compare to being close to your family. And until recently, what got me through being so far away from them all was my Mental Countdown: "Just 2 and 1/2 more years.".... "Just 18 more months." .... "Next Year".

So what do I do now that, "Next Year" might end up being, "2013"...

Isn't it funny how easy it is to calmly say that, "God's in Control", when deep down we actually feel like we are? Maybe it's only me who suffers from, "Let Me Do It My Way!!" syndrome...but somehow I doubt it.

When I firmly believed that the only place we would be considering for our next posting was closer to home, I had no problem smiling and reassuring myself that my God would work it all out according to His plan for us. Maybe because I believed He would work it out the way I thought it should work out? Now that we're looking at other options, one's that are not my first choice, I'm finding it so much harder to TRUST.

Which, I guess, is the whole point. I'm not actually trusting HIM if I'm trying to do it all myself.

If I leave work to go to Sobey's, the Mall, and then Home Depot, I can't just drive and figure out the quickest route as I go: I'm the kind of person that absolutely must figure out my route before I even put my car in drive. When I go to yard sales, I draw a map: I have to know which roads to take, where I'm going first, second, third, etc. before I leave my house, or else I get flustered. I am NOT a fly by the seat of my pants sort of girl.

Now, my life is way bigger than yard sales (not to everyone I guess...but to me it is :)   ), and I have such a difficult time not having a plan. But Matthew 6:34 tells us, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." (NLT) There's a toughie. In my marriage I'm the worrier. I worry that the curtains will catch fire (in all fairness) and that not getting an oil change on time will, "Wreck our truck". I always buy travel insurance. I pay the bills way ahead of time for fear that there will be some hold-up, the payments won't go through, we'll get bad credit, and we'll never be able to buy a house (Hey, I'm reasonable, if nothing else! ). So you can imagine how anxious I must feel, not knowing what house, or town, or province (or territory, for that matter...) I might be living in a year from now. It's a stressful thought.

If you get a moment, send up a little prayer for my sanity. And my anxious heart. Because if there's one thing worse for the heart than red meat and salt, it's anxiety!

Hope you have a BEAUTIFUL weekend!

Wednesday, March 17th

A little over halfway through our trip, and it's going by too fast. As usual.

So far, I have: 

- Arrived just in time for my newest nephew to be born (literally: he was born an hour, to the minute, after we arrived at the hospital);

-Eaten meat for the first time in about 3 months (it's better than I remember...);

-Given the Small Human more hugs and kisses than he probably wanted; 

-Taken more pictures of the VERY Small Human than he probably wanted; 

-Become very jealous of the fact that here, it's 15 degrees and sunny every day, and where I live it's a consistent 5 degrees that feels like -10 due to the daily wind, drizzle, and fog. 

- Soothed my jealousy with the fact that in 1 week, we'll be in a very hot, very sunny place. 

               

Bring on the Whites!

                                                                 @ countryliving.com

    It's that time of year again. You know what I mean. The time of year when you get so sick of winter, and all you can think about it how excited you are to start decorating for Spring. No? I guess it's just me then. ALL I can think about right now is WHITE! Every winter I want my cozy, chocolate brown and tan and pale yellow decorating...but now with Spring just months (or weeks??? Sigh...I wish) away, all I can think about are soft whites, grays and blues....all with the appropriate amount of fading and distressing of course :)

                                                                  @ countryliving.com

                                                                    @ decorpad.com

                                                            @ dreamywhite.blogspot.com

  I love this girl's blog! Who says you can't have a fireplace-less mantel? This was my original plan for THIS piece. As it turns out, the problem with antique mantel is that in olden-olden days, folks thought it would be super fun to put a layer on melamine over the first 4 layers of paint...followed, of course, by another 4 layers of paint. This didn't work out so well for me. Someday soon, when I realize that the fireplace-less mantel police will not come after me, I have BIG plans for an oversized, soft-white, lightly distressed mantel.

                                                       @ dreamywhites.blogspot.com

DIY Burlap Wreath

So this was my, "I'm-home-sick-with-a-cold-monday-project". It's the easiest (1/2 hour), cheapest (2 rolls of burlap that I had leftover from Christmas, plus 1 wire hanger) wreath I've ever made (and I have made MILLIONS. That's a lie.) I love it already and can't wait to get a big ol' plaid ribbon for it instead of this boring black one! 

Check out the step-by-step process (where I got the idea) here!

Finally!

                              

 At long last, my bedroom set is finished. What used to look like THIS:

Now looks like.......THIS! :

Isn't it amazing how our dresser got thinner and taller?! (Welcome to my humor at 10 pm...I hope you enjoy it...)

This bedroom set included the headboard, highboy dresser shown in white above, and the long, low dresser shown in the first picture (originally with a mirror attached, but I thought it was ugly, so....)

I decided to only refinish the tall dresser and bed, as this set will eventually be going in a guest room, and I don't think there's any reason for a guestroom to have two big dressers!

For now, our only issue is trying to fit all our clothes in only this dresser and our closet...my clothes have been very slowly creeping into The Husband's half of the closet :) I'm so happy to have this set done...but now need a new project. I think I'm going to try to find an old bedside table to finish, to go with this set!

To check out the CRAZY awesome paint and toner set I used, click here!

This paint is so thick, and so easy to apply, and comes in close to a bazillion different colours!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Christmas 2009 at The Hawks' Nest (Again with my cleverness...)

Welcome to our Little Home!! Since most/none of you can come visit our Little Home on our Little Island, I thought I'd post a blog Christmas tour. Because that's how much time I have on my hands :)

Come on in!!

This year, my tree's theme is A Very Country Christmas. I love it even more than Toffifee, and I'm leaving it up until April.

So far, These are the only ornaments Mr. Dog has tried to chew on. So now they've been relocated to a dresser.

THIS is my new hall tree. I got it on Kijiji for FIFTY DOLLARS!!! Are you jealous yet?

I found these stockings at Canadian Tire. There were only 2 left, and with their little pom poms, they were too cute to leave there :)

Have you noticed my star obsession yet?

THIS. This...is...a little RCMP officer Christmas Cookie. Can you guess who decorated it. I'll give you a hint...he's older than 4. Shocking, I know.

My small but cozy dining room. It's way more fun when it's full of people :) So come visit!!

My wheel in the corner is very non-Christmas-ish, but I love it too much to put it away for the holidays :)

Leftover Christmas balls from last year's tree, "A Very Chocolate & Golden Christmas". Yes, I name my Christmases. What? You DON'T name your Christmases??

A little bathroom decor, with colors that really don't go with the whole rest of the house. But it's a rental, so whatever :)

My wrapping theme this Christmas: Brown packaging paper with whatever ribbon I can find :) You doubted that my gifts would match my tree's theme?!

Thanks for visiting our Little House on our Little Island. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!