I know these little tricks come in handy to me every day!It was a pretty great year for DIY projects around these parts.

I kept my $7 lanterns and my stools from the Fall mud room and just filled them with various Christmas bits and bobs.. A dollar store Christmas tree, dollar store ribbon, and left over burlap and pine cones.You can see just a bit of the hand painted sign I made last year when I seemed to have a bit more time on my hands.. How nice will it be when we have the wood floors one day?.

Kennedy decorated under the windows with whatever she felt like from the Christmas boxes.. Yup, that’s Dora!.I really haven’t bought much new this year at all in the way of Christmas decorations, but having a new (old) house to play around in has made all my leftover stuff from past years feel brand new.. More Christmas fun to come soon!Have you been outside to play today?.Today I’m reminding myself to always keep my family’s health and wellness at the very top of my list of priorities.

I thought you might enjoy remembering this with me.We’re planning on starting a garden next Spring, so we had to dig up the grass in a section of the property because there wasn’t any garden from when the last owners lived here.. We decided to tackle the huuuuuge task this fall so that we’ll have a nice level area to make a skating rink for this Winter and then in the Spring, we can get right to work planting.. It’s really just a dirt rectangle right now, but we have plans for a white picket fence around it with gates on either end and berries planted all around.Maybe next year.

Maybe.. Lucky for us the old owners left behind a whole bunch of amazing garden tools for us, which made the job really fun.. A rusty old red wheelbarrow.

You know getting to use something as cool as this would make even the most reluctant gardener at least a little tempted to get to work..Her husband refused, as husbands do, but eventually she got her way.

They started on the big project of adding onto their little farmhouse.It looks like this is the time when they got indoor plumbing and electricity as well.

The stairs to the basement were even boarded up and a new back hall leading downstairs was added on.It was a big undertaking, but they got it done.. One day, it was all finished and it was time to move back in.