The Saturday Six

One.

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I have an incredible weakness for cozy Christmasy places. And yes. I know Christmasy isn't even a word. But I LOVE pictures that look like they crawled right out of a Thomas Kinkade painting. So you can imagine my sheer delight at this post by Susan.

Two.

I must have a soft spot for loveliness {I mean more than usual} this week...check out this post I stumbled upon. Ryan and I love to drink up life, and it looks like this writer does too. Makes me want to be even more intentional about finding the lovely blessings in every day.

Three.



I'm sure you've seen this on Facebook this week, as it's been making its rounds, but just in case you have NOT...watch it and weep, baby!!

Four.

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One of our listeners, Kathy Cramer, brought some chocolates to the BeadforLife party - and I'm not going to lie - they were uh-mazing. I could eat DOZENS of the turtles. She makes them all...want to drool over chocolate? Go look here.  

Five.

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I'm not sure how many of you watch the Goldbergs, but I am convinced with each episode that passes, I am Mrs. Goldberg. On the inside. Her boldness flies right out her mouth, and mine sort of dies on my tongue - but in my heart, I fear we're the same.

Six.

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The weather outside is frightful...seriously, seriously frightful. Ryan and I drove around in it last night for a while and I had to resort to my winter theme song of Jesus Take the Wheel. So what better thing could we do this weekend than take Kelly's Christmas Tour of Homes? I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!! 
 

BeadforLife

Well, I'm only a week behind in posting about this one!!

Last week, the station hosted a BeadforLife "Christmas Shopping with a Purpose" open house. If you've never heard of BeadforLife, it's an organization that teaches women in Uganda to make beads, soaps and lip balm, and then they sell the products so the women can get out of poverty and take care of themselves and their families.

At the parties, 100% of the proceeds go right back to BeadforLife and according to their site, they operate their administrative expenses on 13% or less of what they receive. All the rest goes to eradicating poverty. This is the second year the station has hosted a party for them, but last year the party was the day before I left for our wedding, so I didn't get to go! I had a BLAST this year, working with all my buddies and meeting people who stopped by to say hi and to shop!

I thought I'd show you some pictures from our day. Last I heard, the stations party generated $18,000 in sales, and we'll soon find out how many online sales {party stayed open a week after the actual open house} also went toward it. That's pretty amazing!!!

The beads are actually made from paper. They are intricate and gorgeous - and there are all shades of every color.

They have necklaces, bracelets, and earrings in a variety of styles...

And they go with anything. I have five bracelets that I wear together as a collection, and I usually wear them at least three times a week. Worthwhile investment!

I love all their stuff, but the neutrals are my favorite. They're rich and stunning...

 Hadn't seen this style before. I love chunky bracelets, so these were fun!

 A treasure trove of the multi-colored strings....

 Hands down, my favorite bracelet style was this one. If I owned one of these in every color...

 Lynne's favorite lip balm...

 DARLING jewelry pouches. I managed to remember to only shop for GIFTS. Not for BEKAH.

 Soaps...

 Baskets...

 One of my most favorite pictures I took that day:

 For the party, they arranged all the jewelry by color and there was a table for each color family. Kind of like shopping at Charming Charlie's. :) This was the blue table.

We were open from 11-7 and had probably over 400 people come through in those hours. And as a little treat...we had some yummies from Fort Wayne Chocolate Fountain.

All in all - a very fun day and we loved being able to help the women of Uganda!

A Shafferland Winter Wonderland!

Y'all, last weekend, I decorated SEVEN trees in this little house of ours. This is the first time in two years that I have put up allllllllll the trees, and I won't lie. I think Ryan was afraid when he saw just how many tubs of Christmas decor our attic housed.

I adored transforming our home into a Christmas wonderland. Thought maybe you might like a tour? Welcome to our home!

A wreath resting on a rocking chair...

 And a little poinsettia/greenery/pinecone goodness...

 And a wreath on the door....

Come in!!

In our living room, we have our main tree. It's this gorgeous, full slim tree that this year I decorated with glittery green balls, gold balls of all sizes, some gold mesh and green poinsettias. Never done this combination before but I LOVE it.

{Please excuse the cat and the wadded up blanket...it's a real house. We live here.}

 Too cute. I had to share. This was before she began attempting to CONSUME the tree.

And also in the living room...our fireplace. It was an experiment but I loved the final result!

 Our stockings...

 I call this piece: almost-free Pinterest Project. I found three pieces of scrap wood in our garage, leftover from Ryan's construction projects. Bought a bottle of acrylic red paint and painted hte wood. Used some cream paint I already had to paint letters. DONE!

 Apparently she's expecting the stocking to be filled NOW!

I love my little kid nativity I bought a couple of years ago. So much character.

And now...for our live tree. The lovely Ariel. We purchased her on our anniversary and we use her for "our" tree. It holds the ornaments we've collected as a couple. Several from our first Christmas together and several more we collected this year in our adventures.

 Ornament made from last year's tree trunk.

 And some travel treasures.

 

And added just this week - my newest Pinterest project. A big ole glittery "S" tree topper. I am so in love. {With Ryan for drilling a hole in it and adding it to the top while I was gone!}

And then if you would...step into our dining room to see the S'more tree. Been collecting S'mores for almost a decade now and LOVE them. I have so many that the tree had to be balanced pretty delicately.

Also in the dining room - our bookshelf with some Christmas decor:

Our house was my grandparents' house, so I made a shelf with their photo and family Bible open to Luke 2:

 ...a whole bunch of "joy" stuff I've collected over the years. {You know, since it's my name and all.}

 Saw this one on Pinterest too: the little Christmas village characters in a cake plate {since I have no cloche} - with epsom salts for snow. Shut. Up.

 Love. It.

 And under the table...all the little tins and boxes I've been given over the years - like a little fake gift display!

And then there's the kitchen tree. Next year I think I'd like to do a coffee themed tree in here, but I like this little guy for this year. It's our gingerbread tree...next to the bread box, appropriately enough. :)

I gave Ryan the manliest tree I could muster for his bathroom:

And our new bedroom tree theme: a Colts tree!! It's just a start...and I want to add to it in the next few years.

We have one more tree - in our office, but I forgot to take a picture of it! It's a hodgepodge of what's left. So you're not missing much by not seeing it. :)

I leave you with a couple more random photos. Our mistletoe - coming and going:

And our printable section:

Thanks for visiting our home this Christmas! Hope you enjoyed it!!