On to the Next One

I would like to say thank you to everyone for your sweet comments about my new job and the change I am making. Change is never easy and I agree with a lot of you about the best decisions are the hardest to make. Maybe I am insecure, but for some reason hearing words of affirmation always seems to help me feel better about myself or my choices. Is this just me?

On a happy note I actually have some fun photos to share with you. We have been in our home a year now. A whole year! I cannot believe the time has flown by so quickly and I feel like I just posted the house pictures. The hubs and I have this long laundry list of all the things we want to do to make our house feel like our home. It is defintely home and we still have a list of things we have put off, except our dining room. (First image is our before picture, everything below is our after.)

Thankfully we had some extra funds over the last couple of months and we were able to get a new light fixture & slip cover from Overstock, drapery rods on-sale from Lowe's, clearance benches from World Market, and I bought the fabric months ago from Fabric.com. Everything new was on-sale or clearance. The best part is if you are getting a floor model or opened item you can ask a manager for an additional discount. What's the worst they can do, tell you no? In this case, the benches were 50% off and the floor models had an additional 15% off (just because I asked).

Walking into this room makes me happy. I don't spend a lot of money on clothes, purses, shoes, but I will save up to spend money on my home. For me, it's an investment. Something about getting a room just the way you like it makes my heart smile.