Happy 2016!

I hope this finds you all happy, healthy and excited to start the New Year.

I was thinking what my 'word of the year' was going to be and the one word that kept coming to my mind was CALM.  Life is so stressful and I'm always looking for ways to live a more calmer life.  CALM it is.

I've missed my blog, and you.  I feel my life settling down a bit,

which is a great thing.  My new normal has developed a much needed routine

that frees up a few moments here and there for a little selfish alone time.

That means I can start my blog back up again.  I love Instagram, but that's what it is...instant.

A quick photo to share what's up, but not truly documenting your passion, or obsession (however you choose to look at it).  I am NOT a Facebook person.  Tried it and truly do not like it.  You will 

find me either here, Flickr or on Instagram.  It's that simple....and calmer.

So here's my year in review.

My hubby and I celebrated out 30th wedding anniversary.

2015 brought yet another damaging storm.  Everything is now repaired, but I'm praying 

we never have another one!  Two years in a row is plenty, thank you.

We are now empty nesters.  It was decided to redo our living and dining rooms and I couldn't 

be happier with the results.  We even purchased new furniture.  Trust me, all this was a big deal to us because we don't normally do things like this.

Of course one thing leads to another, so I redid an old buffet that we got years ago.

Which also lead to redoing an old church pew so I could display all the beautiful pillows I've received from friends.  Let's be real....it's the pillows that make this photo perfect.  So  much love on that church pew....from prayers of past church members to all the quilty love.  It's truly a blessed spot!

I'm very proud to say that my hubby and I did all the work on the remodel ourselves, with the help of my precious family members and great friends.  We are blessed!

We decided our sweet dog, Sadie, needed a friend as we were all missing Stubby so much.

Stubby took his first breath in our living room, which is where he took his last 15 years later.

We were so blessed to have his help raising our boys.  With that said, we knew our next dog

needed to be just as special, so we adopted a Jack Russell.  Let me introduce you to Sam (Samantha if she's in trouble).

She keeps Sadie very active.  Who am I kidding?  She keeps us all active!  She LOVES people

and will try and go home with anyone that stops by.  The Culligan man, Schwan man, UPS, Fed Ex,

friends, family....you name it.  She drives most people crazy with her love,

but to us, she's the perfect fit.

My sister and I went to Virginia Beach in the fall to help celebrate our friend, Karen's 40th birthday (quiltingfairy if you follow her on Flickr or Instagram).

In the front row you have Mary (Fairlymerry), Mel (crandons), Karen (the birthday girl!), Jackie (chloeandme), Marci (marciwarrenelmer).  Middle row is Mia (mlrdesigns), Chen (mushyhead), Kat (katmama), Katy (lethargiclass).  Back row is me, Sarah (arbonnegirl), Amy (amysewvt) and Greta (gretters). 

Such a great trip, and though I've met some of the gals from our Ohio trip in 2014, it was great to meet even more of our IG/Flickr friends in real life.  True, lifelong friendships have been formed.

The creative talent among this group is amazing.  It is truly a blessing to call these ladies my friend.

This year was also my aunt and uncles 60th wedding anniversary.  Our cousin asked my sister and I 

to help with the planning and decorating.  It was SO much fun!  My hubby set up a painting station in the barn to paint a million and one (or so it seemed) branches for the center pieces.  Steph (my cousin) and I were 'happy' campers by the time we were done with all that spray paint.  LOL

And my house looked like a winter wonderland that weekend we put all the center pieces together!

Now I have to share a proud mom moment.  My youngest son was picked to compete in an electrical apprentice competition at a state level.  Meet Iowa's #1 4 year electrical apprentice!

I could not be more proud of him!  Since he won at a state level, he'll move on to Nationals in Florida later this year.  I wish him all the best and thank his sweetie, Amanda (isn't she beautiful?), for putting together is great photo collage of the competition.

So that's a recap of 2015 in a nutshell.  I am really looking forward to 2016.

I will be blogging for sure every other week.  Anything extra will be a bonus, but I wasn't going to start my blog up again unless I knew I had the time to commit to it.  I look forward to sharing all my creativity and hope to be a tiny bit of inspiration in your world.  I know I always love reading, and looking at what others are doing to help keep my own creative juices flowing.

I wish you all great blessings for 2016.  Remember, it's not about having the biggest and the best.

It's about living a good life, so in the end, you can look back and know you've done everything you can to leave this world a better place.  

God bless!

XOXO

Cindy