Man vs. Wife Decoration Date Night

JT and I were trying to do something fun for date night on Friday and as a foodie all my ideas included eating out. We wanted to do something different from just going out to eat so my dear man came up with the brilliant idea to write names of different areas in the house and with a budget of $50 come up with something to put in that room. I really wanted the 2^nd guest room and JT wanted the Living Room… well, I got the Kitchen and he got the Guest Room (slightly upset wife). We gave each other 30 minutes to come up with a design plan and off we went to buy the materials.

I decided to red-do the knife block in the Kitchen because I saw a similar design here  with a green color scheme that fits our kitchen and included my favorite color Purple.

 I spent about $15 total so I was way under budget. The items I used for the knife block are

• Medium sanding block
• Multi-surface spray primer
• Indoor/Outdoor Spray paint
• Polyurethane spray (already had this at home so it was not part of my budget)
• Newspapers

There are numerous tutorials online and you can find different ideas on the internet.

Well, here is what I ended up with and I was not too happy with it.

Before

Materials Used

After 1 coat of Primer and 2 Coats of Paint

 JT on the other hand put up curtains in the guest room which I have been convincing him to do.. He did spend very close to the limit but I say he won the challenge.

Guest Room with Curtains

While I was out of town, JT looked at my browsing history to find the exact knife block I was looking at. He found a match and bought extra accessories to give me something close to what I wanted. He put in two nights of work sanding, priming, painting, waiting for paint to dry, and painting again.  

This is what I saw when i returned home....I’m such a lucky girl. 

 

Knife Block Re-Done

Love It !!!!!

 

Pictures of Operation Christmas Child Boxes

Here are the pictures of the 4 boxes I prepared and sent off to Samaritan’s Purse through my church

Girl Age 10-14 Contents

Girl Age 10-14 Finished Box

Boy Age 10-14 Contents

Boy Age 10-14 Finished Box

Girl Age 5-9 Contents

Girl Age 5-9 Finished Box

Boy Age 5-9 Contents

Boy Age 5-9 Finished Box

Finished Boxes Labelled & Ready to go

Finished Boxes

And guess who was pretending to be ignoring me while his little brother was no where to be found

M-Big Doggie

It was fun to go shopping for these boxes and I pray that as each year goes by I will be able to do more and more and continue to bless others in appreciation of how much God has blessed me.

Turkey Blitz 2011 - Sanctuary Tulsa

This evening the hubs and I had the opportunity to go to church to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner baskets for needy families.

It seemed like we had almost 200 people there and we assembled somewhere around 230 baskets of roasting pans, pie tins, pumpkin, milk, jello, cranberries, cherry pie, chicken broth and so many other canned goodies.

I am all about giving to those in need especially this time of the year and I am in awe of how willing people, and especially families with small children in my church community, are to serve.

Here is a video I found online of Sanctuary’s Turkey Blitz 2011. I had such a great time and I am so blessed and thankful to be part of such a giving community like Sanctuary.

And did I mention we had dinner first at 7PM and we were able to finish packing all 230 baskets before 8PM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Operation Christmas Child & Being Thankful

One of my absolute favorite things about Christmas since last year has been Operation Christmas Child. I have a desire in my heart for Children’s Ministry. Right now though I prefer working with children under the age of 2 that cannot really speak yet but that’s a story for another day.

I was able to purchase items for 4 children – 1 boy and 1 girl Age 5-9 and 1 boy and 1 girl age 10-14 at the dollar store.

I am so blessed by God and it is a good thing to be able to help out children in need. I specifically decided not to get things for children under 5 because so many people focus on the younger children and I believe that older children need something for Christmas too.

If you can, I would encourage you to do something for someone in need of hope and love especially this holiday season. It may be donating a few dollars to a local homeless shelter to feed people during Thanksgiving and Christmas, Operation Christmas Child, saying a little prayer for the less privileged in the world or anything that you want to do.

I will post pictures of my gift boxes and a list of items I put in each box in a separate post.

Just remember in everything give thanks and appreciate the people in your life because they are worth way more than material things.