Home Improvements

It has been awhile since we blogged. I guess we have been busy with the start of school. McKenzie and Matt are doing great at their new schools. McKenzie is enjoying making new friends, her teachers Mrs. King and Mrs. Armstrong and GUES. Matt entertains us daily with the cute things he says about preschool. McKenzie is the type child that tells all and Matt chooses if and when he tells us anything! He started Ms Mary's preschool a couple of weeks ago. He really likes his teachers Ms. Michelle and Ms. Ann. He goes every morning from 8-11. I really like this schedule, don't have to give him up just yet! He is enjoying coming home and resting and playing in the afternoons. Hopefully, this will ease both of us into kindergarten next year.
I really haven't had a lot of time during the day to myself since Matt was born so I am enjoying my three hours each morning. It has given me time to get some projects done around here. Here are some things that we have done...

First, this is the old entry hall fixture.

I didn't like it, so I found this cute iron carriage house style one from Ballard Designs. I love that catalog. They have the cutest things.

We are slowly marking things off our list of home improvements. The first thing inside I wanted to tackle was the mantle. I really didn't care for this style mantel. I wanted something different. I found a great carpenter through my aunt Betty. He built her mantle. He is super creative and says he doesn't build two mantels just alike. I think he did a great job. It is not painted yet so I will show after photos soon.

The second project was tackling our boring, bland bookcase. I wanted to use moldings to dress it up and make it more like a piece of furniture. The same carpenter helped with this, too.I like the way it turned out. I am going to have it painted to match the fireplace mantle.  They will be painted a color called sand fossil. Our den is  dark so this is really going to brighten it during the daytime.