Christmas time is here

O.k. maybe Christmas time isn't quite here but I just love Christmas so much that I can't contain my excitement any longer. There is just something about this season that makes me giddy, I think it's a combination of things like drinking Caramel apple spice by the gallons, my love for baking and decorating my home, snow frosted trees reflecting the sparkle of Christmas lights and not to mention the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who I happen to love a lot. I have goose bumps just thinking about it. Anyways our life is a little chaotic this year with building a house and going though our current house deciding what is needed and what is not in a fashion that still allows us to move. I have to admit that because of the chaos I pondered the idea of not decorating this year because we have such high hope of moving into our new place so soon after Christmas......but then I came to my senses and realized that I was being ridiculous and not decorating is not an option. So I will be decorating and so I thought would share a bit of what you may see at our house come the 1st of December.

Joy is my Theme this year and I love this set up....so I think I'll copy it

This tree is very similar to the style of ours but I also love the ornaments in the window

Last year I made this amazing Gingerbread house with a good friend and her amazing mom, this year I think if would be neat to make a white one.

I love bells. I think lining the path to our house would be so charming, unless Honey thinks they're balls to play with and takes off with them. That would not be so charming.

What I love about winter

Moving to Saskatchewan has caused me to render up some feeling about winter that I will not share because the mere thought of them bring tears to my eyes. However I will share the wonderful things that the changing of the seasons brings to us that putts a smile on my face and fills my heart with joy

#1: Blankets to cozy up under

#2: I'm not a huge fan of hot drinks but Apple cider I love, especially with whipping cream and caramel ;)

#3: As I drove through our soon to be new neighborhood yesterday I watched as families put up there Christmas lights... I love the twinkling of Christmas lights

#4: Christmas baking (this is my favorite cookie)

#5: Snow angles

#6: Snow covered trees, so pretty

#7: And of course Eloise, this was my favorite Christmas Story when I was younger and now it's been made into a movie, it's a children's movie but I love love love it and watch it several times every Christmas

An Electrical experiance

So 5 very long days, 1 Electrician, 1 Carpenter, 8 trips to Home Depot, a large amount of fast food, a bag of Halloween candy, at least a dozen energy drinks and 1 visit from the police (apparently people don't like it when you're still working on your house at 3am oooops) later our house is now wired and ready to go. One of Joel's closest friends came in from Alberta to help us out and he did an amazing job.

Michael and Joel Hanging pot lights with my friend Plumb bob square pants

Michael's 400th trip up the ladder

many wires

Many Wires from a different angle

House Pictures

Since I told my friend Jo-anne that I would post these pictures 2 weeks ago I figured I had better actually do it. Nothing to exciting yet but we're getting there. We did finally get our door which was back ordered so I am really excited for that because I love my door.

The Front (you can't really see the door but trust me...it's pretty)

and the back

the inside is a tad bit caotic so I have yet to get any decent pictures of anything in there...maybe next week :)

Numbered Wine glasses

remember the DIY Hurricane a couple posts back when I had great ambishions for a busy weekend, well here is the result of one of the projects.

So here they are, hand etched wine glasses

a close up of #1

A still and quiet Place

This week Joel (my wonderful and dashingly handsome husband) started his 1st 7 week stint of in class learning in his carpentry program. I felt like a proud mom as I loaded up his backpack and handed him an apple as headed out the door. O.K. so there was no backpack and he doesn't like apples but I still felt like a proud mom. As he drove away I entered the world of being, for the 1st time, the primary financial provider of the house. I thought to myself "o.k. Domnique time to bring home the bacon, lean bacon, but bacon none the less" It's day 4 and aside from my stress level being unusually high do to a lot going on and a lack of time on my hands I've found myself sitting here...at work... pondering the concept of a still and quiet place.

When life gets busy and as a direct result stressfull I tend to lose the ability to filter out the not so important from the important. I usually find when this situation comes about that my creator lets me go just long enough to really make his point. Well this time around he obviously didn't feel it so necissary and gave me what I call a God smack. It's pretty much the equivillent of running down the hall, your body going one way and your head turned the other way and just as you go to aline your head and your body it happens......you run right into a wall, which for the record I have acutally done and will never forget how quikly my actions were put in check.

" Be still and Know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" Psalm 46:10 (ESV)

God Smack translations

Be Still = Dominique slow down, breath, take a sip of water

KNOW = I love you, trust me, take my hand

I will be Exalted = Dinner can wait, laundry can wait, cleaning can wait, everything can wait, I have so much more to offer

The Picture above is of Joel just outside our cabin doing his favorite thing.....fishing. Since the day I meet him he has said that being in God's creation is where he meets Jesus, it's his still and quite place. I'm not sure that I've found that still and quiet place that I undoutably meet Jesus but until I find that place I'll continue to accept the randam places like at my desk at work that I do meet Him.

Plans for a D.I.Y. hurricane

So I'm sitting at my desk at 2pm on the Friday before the long weekend counting the minutes until I can escape from my desk and head home. In order to pass the time I've decided to write about some of my plans for the next 72 hrs of freedom. I love long weekends when we get to stick close to home because in Saskatchewan, the land of lakes and cabins, people clear out of the city at a rapid pace leaving behind quiet streets and the perfect time to shop and walk by the river and enjoy a slower pace of life...it's amazing. Joel's family also owns a wonderful cabin on a beautiful lake and I love going up there...but not when everyone else is up there also. So here I am anticipating pure bliss. So what's on the menu for the next 3 days? Well first of all what I've been waiting for my entire life (o.k. that's a bit extreme), the designing of our first kitchen. We'll meet with the cabinet lady tomorrow morning and hopefully soon I'll have a picture of what life could be like cooking in a kitchen that will fit more then one person. The thought of being able to cook with my husband seriously gives me goose bumps. Also, I have some big plans for some DIY (Do-it- yourself) projects. Joel thinks I'm crazy and wishes I could join him in his weekend asperations of being a bum but I'm thinking not. He's been working really long hard days so I will support him if that's what he would like to do, he deffinetly deserves a break. Anyways, here are a few or 4 of the projects I have planned for the weekend

Project #1: Joel has been building a beautiful bench and coat hanger type thing for our front entrance so we're/I going to paint that and then I'm going to look for some fabric to make a bench cusion.

Project #2: turn some plain, nothing special, cheap wine glasses from wal-mart into something I'm very excited about. I saw this done on someone elses blog and I had to have some, so now I will...hopefully, assuming nothing goes wrong that is :/

Project #3: Joel's great aunt gave me all her canning stuff so I was thinking I would like to try and make Salsa and maybe some jam. I've never canned before so the outconme is to be determined

Project #4: last but not least involves some cheap lanterns I bought at Ikea, I'm not sure what the plan is with these yet so we'll just have to leave that one as a mystery

anyways, I've successfully wasted 47 minutes and at the same time figured out how to get paid for writting my blog. Although I tend to complain at times about my job it deffinetly has some perks and I am very blessed by it.

I'll keep you posted on my weekend progress.

have a great long weekend