Color is the Spice of Life!!

Do you need a change in your home or office decor?  

Want to add a little fun to your space??  

Need a great gift??

Then check out my ceramic coasters!!

Go from Boring and Weird

To Bold ad Beautiful!

 

Here is a sampling of some of my designs.  

4 for $10.  

Each coaster comes with a cork back to protect your furniture and an acrylic sealant to protect from moisture damage!  

I can ship anywhere in the U.S.  

You can order online at 

www.etsy.com/shop/516MadisonAvenue

or leave me a comment. 

Don't see a color or design you like???  Let's chat.... I can customize for you!

Will you please tell your friends about me?

Yum!

John and I have been making these smoothies for breakfast for the past couple of days, and we are hooked.  

Usually when I eat breakfast, I am hungry again within two hours.  These smoothies have been holding me over for at least four hours.  If you know me, this is a miracle!  LOL

Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

• 1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk 
• 1/2 cup vanilla fat-free yogurt 
• 2 tablespoons ground golden flaxseed
• 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter 
• 1 teaspoon honey 
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ripe banana, sliced 

1. 1. Place all ingredients in a blender; process until smooth.

Because blonds have more fun....

Starbucks has a new BLOND roast... I knew they would come around :)  

I love traveling, and love collecting Starbucks' city mugs!

Where's the best place you've been?

Which one am I using today??  BARCELONA!!!  One of the best cities I've been to!

Something to Think about...

I'm in a Bible study on Wednesday mornings.  We are going through the book of John.  Last week we studied chapter 11 about the Good Shepherd and his sheep.  Some highlights:

-The Good Shepherd (Jesus) knows his sheep and he calls them by name. 

- The Good Shepherd protects his sheep and would lay down his life for his sheep.

-The Good Shepherd takes measures to heal his sheep when they are hurting. 

-The Good Shepherd leads his sheep.

I love that Jesus is my Good Shepherd.  He is the GOOD Shepherd, not the BAD Shepherd.  He is always working for my good, even if at the time it's not what I had in mind. 

I learned this today: oftentimes if there was one particular sheep that kept wandering off, the shepherd would intentionally break one of it's legs with the goal of taking away the sheep's self-sufficiency in order that the sheep would have to rely completely on it's shepherd.  This is why we often times see pictures of a shepherd carrying a sheep around his neck. 

Wow. 

Looking back on your life, can you now see a time when God "broke your leg" in order that you might rely completely on him? Chances are, he is going to keep doing it throughout the rest of your life, but remember that he is the GOOD Shepherd and is working to make you more like himself.  

Something to think about. 

Indescribable

I love these videos.  Please take the time to watch them.  They will leave you in awe.  Please.  

Weekend Projects...

I don't know what has taken John and I so long to decorate our house.  I think it's because we are both procrastinators.  But, as my last blog post told you, we just got a new bedroom set.  It's amazing how new furniture and lighting can make the room feel completely different.
We both found ourselves saying, "This room feels so homey".

SO... this weekend we started tackling our living room.  

We sold our couch, which was frankly, an eye sore, to this cute little college couple. 

 






Then we went out and bought this beautiful, large painting of a street in Italy.  It is on the wall where the couch was.  We want to get a loveseat with some color to go against that wall.

We are working on our other walls in our living room that are just plain. Like this one:

Inspired by pinterest, I decided I wanted to do a picture collage on our wall by our entryway.  

We went from this:

To this:

Enjoy your day!

FINALLY.. A good night's sleep

John and I have gone through many periods of time since we got married in which neither one of us feels like we got a good night's sleep.   We started off our marriage with a matresss that sunk in in the midddle.

Enter:  Temperedic.

Temper-Pedic mattresses get rave reviews, so we thought it would be worth the try. We had some cash from our wedding, so we decided to splurge on a $2300 mattress.  We now ask ourselves

What were we thinking?

Now, the nice thing about Temper-Pedic is that they give you a 90 day trial period.

Day 89:  John calls to say we don't want the mattress.  

We wake up in the middle of the night sweating and we still aren't sleeping well.  

We decided then to look for another NEW mattress.

First stop: Sam's club.  Yes, Sam's club sells mattresses, But.... they really aren't all that comfortable. 

Next stop: Ashley Furniture-  BINGO!

We ended up getting a new 

Sealy's BeautyRest mattress, 

plus a sleigh bed

plus two nightstands 

for considerably less that what the Temper-Pedic cost. 

Our Bedroom was laking ambience as well.

So, we went from this:

To THIS!!!!

AND THE GOOD NEWS Is, WE BOTH SLEPT LIKE BABIES LAST NIGHT!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Mom!!!

Top three things I love about my mom:

#1.  She is a prayer warrior!

#2.  She is organized.

#3.  She is fashionable!

Save the USPS....

 SO, it's no secret that the

 United States Postal Service has been suffering...

Read this article from Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2011/12/06/why-the-postal-service-is-going-out-of-business/

So... My challenge to ya'll...

Send one hand written letter to someone this week.  

Next week, try to make it two. 

Instead of responding to someone on Facebook saying that you have been thinking of them, just send a letter.  I don't know about you, but I still love getting handwritten notes. 

Who's with me?

Labor of Love....

Proudly introducing.....

516 Madison Avenue

My new Etsy Store!  

Intrigued???  Click the link below!!!

www.etsy.com/shop/516MadisonAvenue

Please check it out and spread the word! 

I can do custom designs, so just let me know what you want!!

Saturday Schedule

All that was accomplished today: 

1. Sleep In

2. Chauffer John and Joe on the golf course

3. Eat delicious meal made by Joe

4. Watch football 

Good day!

Cup of Tea

My new found love...

Yum!

Go ahead and have a cup:)

Stevenson Ridge

On our way home from Pennsylvania, John and I stopped in Spotsylvania, Virginia for a night.  We stayed at the Stevenson Ridge.  I have a thing for Bed and Breakfasts, so I started searching online for some that would be a short drive off of Interstate 95.  

Stevenson Ridge is all we could've asked for after a hectic holiday season.  

"Stevenson Ridge is an 87-acre historical property that offers a premier special events facility as well as lodging in restored antique structures.  The Inn includes seven private cottages from the 18th and 19th centuries ranging from 1 to 2 bedrooms."  

I am a sucker for ambience, romance, and cleanliness when it comes to places to stay. So I was looking for something that had all of these things.  Now, at Stevenson Ridge, you have seven different houses to choose from!!!  We ended up picking the Log House. 

There was a lit Christmas tree on the front porch ya'll!  I was already hooked as soon as we pulled up.  Then we walked in and immediately felt at home.  The Log House was so cozy.  It has two floors and is just decorated beautifully with a genuine log cabin feel.  The bottom floor has a bathroom, living room, and kitchen as well as two fire places.  The kitchen had every amenity that you would need.  Upstairs were two bedrooms and a bathroom with a huge shower.  Plus, guess what?  There were two more fireplaces. That means there were a total of four fireplaces all together.  Absolutely spectacular!

The Stevenson Ridge doesn't make breakfast for you, instead, the innkeepers will deliver breakfast baskets to your house.  Ours included muffins, fruit, orange juice, yogurt, milk.  

Jennifer, the innekeeper's daughter, was great and was willing to help us with anything. 

Here are some more pics I took.  The other houses you see are some of the options you have to stay at the Stevenson Ridge. The big white house is absolutely stunning!

 Visit their website!

http://www.stevensonridge.com/

We loved it here and plan on going back some day. My only regret is that it wasn't snowing when we were there.  It would have been beautiful!