Winter Bucket List

Look at the beautiful winter wonder land!!

There are many times I have complained about the treacherous South Dakota winters, but there is no beauty like fresh snow! It makes the long cold winter a little brighter, that morning cup of coffee feel a little warmer, and brings a giant smile to my little mans face. There is nothing like a good old-fashioned snow day. Where you get up and put a fresh pair of pajamas on, grab those fuzzy rainbow socks in the bottom of my drawer, and sip a cup of hot coffee, LOVE it! We have been so blessed to have a couple of snow days already. As every old fella I visit at work says, “the farmers will be happy,” so is this girl! Ps…The above photos are from our backyard, yes those would be our little turkey “friends”. They are little trouble makers sometimes, someday I will tell you my turkey stories.

Winter Bucket List:

1. Hot chocolate bar party

2. Sledding

3. Make a snowman

4. Themed movie marathon

5. Winter photo shoot

6. Girls day-o-crafts

7. Organize our home

8. Start a work out routine

9. Eat healthier (this was healthy, like how I changed that to leave room for weakness?)

10. BLOG!!! 🙂

What is on your winter bucket list; Skiing, snowboarding, Naked Snow angels?

just kidding 😉

God Bless,

Cassie

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

A few weeks ago I ran to the store for our christmas essentials ie cidar, and ventures into the basement for our christmas decor extraveganza. Call me crazy, but I actually love our fake tree. The real ones are messy, and my super hero loves putting our fake one together. I throw some scented pine cones in it and bam holiday cheer from a box.

Now our tree would never make the cover of a magazine. It is full of hand me downs, and handmade ornaments. Someday I will maybe do two and have one of those magazine cover trees as I mentioned here. I even went to the store this year and purchased some of my own holiday decor here. Anywho. One of my favorite coworkers brought it to my attention that she has been stalking my blog waiting to see my christmas tree. She has very high hopes for this tree BTW.

Here are the “kids” helping. It is a full on event in our house. I think my poor husband was overwhelmed, as this was his first full Cassie Christmas decorating experience. We crank the christmas music, boil cidar, and cheerfully sing with the tunes, completely off key! The princess was clearly worried, she burried herself in the pillows on the couch, and continuously gave me this, “what the H are you doing to our house” look.

OH CHRISTMAS TREE OH CHRISTMAS TREE

Lights on

Lights off

Joy to the World ornament nestled next to poinsettia (These started as a pitiful bouqet I cut apart to fill in the tree…ps from the dollar store)

Sleigh bells ring next to another poinsettia

Put your cheesy pants on…I made this ornament to my husband last year, it has a key hanging down the center. It is supposed to be the key to my heart…aaaaaaahhhhh

Happy Holidays!!!

God Bless,

Cassie

John Deer Birthday

 My best friend is super creative! She is always great about throwing a party together, and coming up with great activities for the kiddos. This year was John Deer themed!

 Check it out:

Here are some snapshots of the decorations! The bottom photo is the cookie bar!!

Sugar Cookies

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Popcorn Balls

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Chocolate Chip

+

Milk

=

YUMMMMMMMM!

 Activities:

Top: We filled balloons with toys and candy (two person task btw!) then blew them up. The kiddos got to pop them with a BBQ stick. Great substitute for a pinata

Middle: She got these great foam “hats” and farm stickers. All the kiddos decorated their own hat.

Bottom: She made a John Deer tractor and the kiddos played pin the wheel on the tractor

Here are some great pics of the party guest:

 Top Left: Family picture before the birthday boy made his wish

Top Right: He is in love with John deer tractors

Bottom Left:The birthday boy giving his auntie Love

Bottom Right: At the end of the night we made it through the party……We both were working on no sleep

Getting ready to open presents….Isn’t this chair adorable! She found it and tons of other adorable things on overstock.com

These boys were far too cool to smile….So I decided to tell them I was going to smooch them both if they didn’t…Love their reaction

Future prom date?

God Bless!

Cassie

I am Inspired!!

Love this women’s holiday decor! This natural look is amazing. she has my house whooped!

 Check out The Butlers blog here

What a great way to wrap gifts! Menards has roles of brown paper for cheap! Grab some bags of scented pine cones ( I even put them in our fake tree to make them smell good) from your nearest craft store and some spruce bam! Love it

This framed art is gorgeous and brings it back to the true meaning of Christmas!

Thanks Leigh Anne for your inspiration!

God bless!

Cassie

Intro to My First Place

When I first found this diamond in the rough I insisted that I did NOT want to become a homeowner. My mom persisted that I should really consider this short sale townhouse. She won…It was kind of hot a mess when I first took the keys in hand, but after years of watching HGTV I was very excited. THEN reality set in, and I realized just how much work it is to “update” a home. Of course typical Cassie style I had about a million and sixty-two things going on at once.

Just to give you an idea, here is a list of things we have done in the last two years (I purchased this townhouse in December 2010): bought the townhouse, met the love of my life after sifting through the uh..nonkeepers, went back to school, finished a degree, got engaged, planned a wedding, planned a honeymoon, got married, transitioned into a new role at work, remodeled the townhouse, sold it, and bought our current home. Did I mention I am a mom… What a blur.

Yep makes me want to take a deep breath sit on my buns and relax for about 15 minutes 😉 Now you know why I have such a coffee addiction!

So my plan is to show you room by room what we started with, and what we ended up with. Keep in mind I bought this home, because it was a great investment. Our updates were not extreme, fancy, or custom. We knew we didn’t want to over do it, or it would just eat up the profit. We ended up selling it for $20,000 more than what I purchased the home for. Of course we had realtor fees, update cost, but we still made a great profit!

First room on the list, the heart of every home…..The kitchen.

Lets point out some of the great features in this kitchen..

Those shelves used to have bifold doors (yep pretty sure I took them down during my first trip in the house, you could not open the doors simultaneously with the fridge or stove.)

Not to mention those shelves were a little on the uuuuuugly, awkward side

The custom light fixtures ie the previous owners spray painted the brass fixtures with fake silver spray paint

The walls were very dark

Those miniblinds….Ugh after living in apartments in college I HATE plastic miniblinds

I added tons of clutter just to polish off the ugly 😉

Here is the After

Total Cost: $118

Decor (curtains, rug, mirror): $50

Majority of decor we already had: FREE

Paint: $20

Door hinges: $20

Light fixtures: 2/$10

Shelf backing: $18

Some close ups…be prepared!

Thanks for reading!

God Bless

Cassie