Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Renovations

As Promised updated pictures of the renovations going on in the apartment.....























New light fixtures in the hall and closet! Super cute school house lights for the closet, and great hurricanes in the hall.












New Subway Tile in the Kitchen


Bye, Bye Carpet.....Adam, Adam Meek, Aaron, Brad, and Sean worked so hard, and for pizza to remove all the carpet! They took all the carpet in the entire apartment out. I'm surrounded by the best guys.













Brass shower doors GONE,

















and a new light fixture at the vanity! Super cute with
Milk Glass Globes.



More to come......

Friday, December 25, 2009

merry CHRISTmas

We had a WHITE Christmas this year for SURE! So much snow.....It looked like a blizzard all day yesterday, which made for an extra beautiful Christmas Day! It was Something crazy like 14 inches at Will Rodgers Airport! We just considered it an extra gift for Christmas from above! Jesus being our best gift ever! The blizzard snow also gave us another gift, being stuck at home, it was so nice just to lounge around all day with my precious husband and doggies. A wonderful, SLOW, relaxed way to spend Christmas.
This is us Christmas morning, well actually Christmas NOON! We are soaking up not having kids that want to wake up at the crack of dawn to rush to the tree to open presents. We slept in, and then had some breakfast before opening gifts, it was a relaxed morning for sure!
We had our Christmas time with Adam's family on Sunday night. We all got together today for Christmas with the entire family, but decided to do our gifts with just the immediate family on Sunday night, it was a wonderful time spent with precious people we love, especially this handsome guy, PaPa Buddy. Sure wish he would move here near us, we love to see him!!!

Rhett was ready to open gifts!! He is super busy right now, and so much fun to be with. We all wore our PJ's, and I'm pretty sure his were the cutest!




So Merry Christmas to all!
Love, The Toler's

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the ONE and ONLY who came from the Father full of grace and truth."
John 1:14

Monday, December 14, 2009

Homemade Christmas Crayons


This year, we are having Christmas on a diet :) We didn't put up a tree (hopeful to be moving) and we are keeping gift giving simple. We have lots of nieces and nephews, so I thought I would make crayons and get cute Christmas coloring books for them. Here is how I made them.
I bought a pack of crayons at Hobby Lobby, cut the paper off of them and placed the pieces into a cookie sheet. It took about 3 crayons to make one Christmas crayon.


Here is my cookie sheet before I put them in the oven. I preheated the oven to 250, and I left the crayons in the heat for 5-7 minutes. If you leave them in longer the wax starts to burn and the color separates itself out.


Once I took the cookie sheet out I let it completly cool, and thus the crayons harden. This takes 20-30 minutes. Then I flipped the crayons out of the molds and aren't they cute??? So much fun, I hope the kiddos love them!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Our New Location

When Adam and I sell our house, this is where we will be moving. It is an apartment...and these are the before pictures :) We have been renovating for the past month or so....I will keep posting pics to show the evolution of this place. This is the reverse tour, from the back to the front!
Kitchen

Master Bedroom
Master Closet

Hallway

First & second layers of bathroom wallpaper


In the living room, looking to the left (stairwell down to front door) and right, bathroom

Top of stairs looking into the living room

Front door to apartment

Monday, December 7, 2009

Wildflowers

For the last two weeks, I cannot get away from this.......it's almost as if I'm reminded of it daily as we are headed into Christmas, gifts seem so silly in comparison. Especially when compared to Treasure in Heaven. Heaven is where I want all my treasure to be...and I love that because of that it is also where my heart longs to be. I want to live eyes WIDE open, to be cared for while being careless, I want to be aware of what I have received- not what I will receive, and every time I look in the mirror...I want to see WILDFLOWERS!



Matthew 6:19-34 The Message
A Life of God-Worship

19-21"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
22-23"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

24"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.

25-26"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

27-29"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

34"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Buy our House


The rumors are true....our house is for sale! check it out........we would love to sell it for Christmas! Pictures of where we are going are coming soon!!!!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Starburst, Skittles, & Starbucks, OH MY!

Earlier this month, my sister Ashley and I decorated Tony Morgan's office. He is new on their church staff in Georiga. Jokingly, Ash and I told him they we accepted payment in the form of Starburst, Skittles, and Starbucks! Well, Today I got a package in the mail....
who from?? none other than Tony...and what was in it....
SKITTLES AND STARBUCKS!

Ashley got a bunch of Starbursts, Diet Coke, and a Restaurant Gift Card!
Just wanted to say a big public thanks to Tony!!!

Homemade Pillows

The last few days, the sewing machine and I have spent some quality time together!! Not all good, darn my cheap singer, but alteast I can work it :)


I made some fall pillows. I invested in some great Potterybarn down pillow inserts, and just change the covers. I didn't have any "fallish" pillows, so I went out, got some great fabrics and went to work!

The green fabric is one I already had from a previous project, I added the cute giraffe ribbon, and voila!
The floral fabric is actually NAPKINS from pier 1. They were $2.95 each, and I got two, backed them with brown denim, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! Next is the brown and cream polkadot......I got this fabric at Hobby Lobby! And it was 30% off!! In the back on the other red chair I have an all brown denim pillow, with cute ruffles on it! I love all the cute ruffles that are super trendy right now, so I made myself a cute pillow....but FYI, its not super comfy, therefore; it's found a home on the chair that we don't usually sit in :)

Happy Friday!

Hopeful Dozen


Do you see it????? There's Daddy watching from the water. and Mama on her way...No, then I'll zoom in.


How about now?? I know you can see the mama!!


Now! Im sure you know what I'm talking about! NO? look closer!


Ahhh! There they are 12 baby ducklings ready to hatch!!! So cute! Can't wait to see them :) Hope the snakes don't have themselves a pre Thanksgiving day snack!!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Birthday to ADAM!

October 30th is Adam's Birthday....This year he turned 27, I'm so glad that I have been there to celebrate with him for the last five years, Amazing! More than just the past five years, I'm so glad he is here to be celebrating. Adam almost died when he was born, he had a collapsed lung, along with being a month early, and other problems. He was born via c-section, handed to his mom, and they told her to hold him and love him because He probably wouldn't make it. Completely terrifying!!!!! She did, and then they medi-flighted Adam and his dad to Columbus Ohio for emergency surgery and thankfully he made it through, each day getting stronger and stronger! and now 27 years later the BEST HUSBAND a girl could ask for!
I, along with others pooled our money and bought him a giant tool chest. We still have to go and pick it up, but he was pumped when he found out! I wish I could have surprised him with it, but I couldn't go and pick it up (seriously its huge) so I needed him to help me, so we are going to get it later on in the week.
I felt bad that he wouldn't have an actual present to open, so I went and got him an outfit


...and we went to dinner with his precious parents, we ate at our favorite place (mickey mantles) and had a great night!

We wanted to spend the night with his parents because they leave this week for a month. Adam's dad is a GS for the Church of the Nazarene and is currently over South America, so they will be traveling there to do church work. We are so lucky have such incredible examples to follow in our lives!!!

Happy 27th Adam, I LOVE YOU!

Go Broncho's

A couple of weeks ago, Adam and I went out to support his High School Football team, The Bethany Broncho's!
Sean, one of Adam's very best friends is on the Broncho coaching staff, so we were there to really support him! We sat in the freezing cold, cheering on the team...and it was great! We sat with Amy (one of my bf's) and Baby Beckham.
Sean's family, and countless people we knew...sometimes being in a smaller town isn't the best, but honestly there are way more pro's than con's. Even though it was freezing, being out there with people you know and love, can't help but give you the warm fuzzies! (as my Honey would say)
Sorry Meek, you didn't quite make the whole pic!!!

bad, bad blogger!

I have been such a bad bad blogger! No excuses, just a bad blogger!
I went two weeks ago to my sister's in Georgia. There I helped her work on some projects she has been working on. We finished out a pastor's office at her church,
decorated a man's house top to bottom with donations and thrift store finds, (no pics, I forgot! but this man has been living with my sister, his home was destroyed by a flood and left him with nothing....he truly had joy in his heart, and was so thankful to God for a roof over his head and donations, he was so complimentary of our work and I know we were there to help him and decorate home, but honestly we were the ones that were blessed)
We worked on some installation at her husband's paper mill.
I should have taken more pictures of what we actually did at the mill, and not just goofing around in Andy's office! The machines there are super cool and extra complicated! I wish I had a pic of the machine up and running, but I left my camera in the office while I was on my machine tour! Oh well, maybe next trip...(which will hopefully be super soon, already missing all the Joyner's)
We did get to have lots of fun while we weren't working....we went to IKEA
(oh the greatness that is self timer) we took the boys to Home Goods (and they were so good the whole time)
and of course Ash had to take me to SWOOZIES! I have heard all about it and was dying to go, it was a paper paradise...they had lots of stuff to personalize, invitations, bags, jewelry, gifts, and LOTS OF OTHER STUFF! It was great, I loved it!
Im so lucky to have such an amazing sister, and I love her precious husband, Andy, and all their kiddo's , Annabel, Taylor, William, & Bennett!!