I am so thrilled to tell you about one of the coolest DIY books I have ever seen.

{It may help that I know the person that wrote it.}  hee.hee.

But seriously, I am so excited to tell you about Ana White’s new book, The Handbuilt Home.

 

If for some reason you have never heard of the famous Ana White, here’s an introduction.

Ana White is a mother and homemaker from Alaska whose popular blog Ana-White.com is one of the most trusted resources for helping people improve their homes by building furniture. An avid do-it-yourselfer, Ana is a self-taught furniture maker who learned her skills while building her own home. She has designed thousands of furniture projects, inspiring people to create attractive, budget-friendly pieces.   {source}

 

Why do I love Ana White?

Because she is a mom and blogger just like me.  However, she is extremely skilled with power tools. 

She began sharing all of her DIY knowledge of furniture building on her blog which has taken her on this wild ride of being an author of her very own book!  I love celebrating this milestone with her!

Ana was a speaker at Haven 2012, and we were so honored that she flew all the way from Alaska to join us.  It was so much fun to make my online friend my real life friend at Haven.

Ana’s book is beautiful to look at but also very informative.  My husband was actually loving the book with its great illustrations.  Seeing the project details all laid out in easy to follow instructions with beautiful photos to boot makes tackling these projects at home even more doable.

 

Guess what?!  To help you get a feel of the The Handbuilt Home, Ana has provided an excerpt from the book of her Farmhouse Bench project.  You can find that free project here.

 

Would you like to own your own copy of

The Handbuilt Home?

 

Well, all you have to do is leave a comment

and you will be entered to win!

Yay!!

The giveaway will end at 9pm est on Friday, Nov. 2nd, and I will announce the winner on Saturday, Nov. 3rd, 2012.

Winner must be 18 years of age or older and a US citizen in order to win.

 

Hello, friends!!

Did you have a great weekend?

We had a busy one as usual.  Jonathan sang at a church on Saturday night, and I hope to share a song with you soon.  I spent most of the weekend working on my Home Depot Holiday Style Challenge.

I was listening to Christmas music all day Saturday and was drinking hot chocolate to get my Christmas mojo on.  It’s crazy!  But I finally got my tree looking the way I wanted, and I look forward to sharing it with you. 

 

Today, I wanted to take a moment to share some highlights from my Best DIY Projects of September linky party.

I truly appreciate when bloggers take the time to link up their projects to my party, and I love spotlighting them on my blog.  Please take some time to click on each picture and visit these wonderful bloggers.  Be sure to leave a comment and share some bloggy love.

 

A French Country kitchen by Stacy from Not Just a Housewife

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A beautiful fall mantle from Christina’s Adventure

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ASCP Painted Floors by Holly from Storywood Designs

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A Laundry Room Reveal by Gina at The Shabby Nest

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A cute Lighted Pumpkin Topiary by Amanda from My Heart’s Desire

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An Organized Craft Cupboard by Becky from Organizing Made Fun

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A gorgeous “Mom Cave” by Jenny from Evolution of Style

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DIY Wooden Book Crate by Lori from Family*Love*Home

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Fall {Pine Cone Flower} Wreath Tutorial

from Janet at Today’s Fabulous Finds

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A Shutter Wall by Kari Anne from Thistlewood Farm

Thank you to everyone who linked up!

My next monthly party will go live on October 31st!

I hope you will join me!

Also, the THREE winners of the Nature Pride’s Giveaway are:

Author: Jessica @ Dear Emmeline (dearemmeline@*****)
Author: Morgan (morganmoeller02@********)
Author: Sharon @ mrs. hines class (thehineshouse@*******)
 

Congratulations!  I will be emailing you soon!

 

Happy Friday, y’all!

Guess where I am right now?

I’m teaching 4th grade at my boys’ school!  I am filling in for a friend of mine whose daughter is having surgery.  So, all next week, I will be teaching these sweet little kiddos too!

Did you know I have my Master’s in Elementary Education?  I think most of you do, but for any of my newer readers, there’s a little FYI.

I taught for 6 years before my first son, Jonathan was born.  I LOVE TEACHING!

Well really, I LOVE the kids more than teaching.  They are so, so , so, precious to me!  I just want to love on them and tell them how special they are. 

So please think of me and keep me in your prayers next week.  Teaching all day will change my normal routine quite a bit, to say the least. {wink}

I hope you have had a good week.

I’ve enjoyed doing a little “pinning” this week.

Here are my favorites…

{click on “source” to view where each picture was found}

Enjoy!

 

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For more great pins, click on the button below!

 

 

Have a blessed day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 20% off entire order of $150 or more
• Online only
• Valid 10/24-10/28

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 Thank you to Mirror-Mate for participating in this giveaway by providing 3 frames. Mirror Mate allows you to Transform your bathroom mirror in minutes with a custom fit frame frame. They custom cut the frame and send you a complete kit. It’s easy! It’s the 20 Minute Mirror Makeover™ that gives your whole bath decorator style.********************************

And 3 of my personal favorite sponsors…

 

 

 

 

 

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Wow!  Can you believe that we had that many wonderful sponsors participating in these giveaways?!  We couldn’t have had these giveaways without them! 

I am so grateful that they showed so much love to our amazing blogging community. 

Please show some love back to them by visiting their websites and supporting their business.

THANK YOU to the sponsors

and

THANK YOU to everyone who participated!

Traci

 

My boys were on Fall Break the week before last.

We didn’t  have any money to travel anywhere, so we decided to try and “knock out” a bunch of projects around the house.  Cy took 3 days off work to get things done.

We made a deal with the boys.  We told them that we would make a check list of all the things we needed to get done each of the 3 days.  If we got everything on our list completed, we would do something fun each night to celebrate.

Here was the catch:  They had to help us complete the things on the list!

They were totally up for it!

We spent three days working on the fireplace…

 

And filling in nail holes….

 

And sanding walls….

 

And painting walls….

 

And filing in more nail holes….

 

And constructing a newel post…

And painting a fireplace and trim work….

 

 

And filling more nail holes…

We worked our tails off, y’all!  And we got everything (well, almost everything) checked off our list.

The boys worked really hard all three days.  They helped us a lot outside too.  They cleaned up around the yard, and picked up all the scrap pieces of wood to put in the burn pile.

So to celebrate our hard work, we partied each night!

Night #1

Movie Night!

 

We went to see Hotel Transylvania in 3D.  It was really cute, and we had a great time!

Night #2

Bowling!

 

Night #3

Laser Tag and Skating

 

 

 

 

 

I put together a little video to highlight the fun.

(Please don’t judge my dancing skills.  I had roller skates on.) 

 

 

Have a blessed day!

Hey y’all!

I hope you have had a wonderful week!  It has flown by for us, and I am looking forward to a great weekend.  We will be going to a corn maze with Dad and Janet, and attending our church’s Wild West Fall Fest.  Both of those activities are going to be sooo much fun.  And I will get to spend some much needed quality time with my sweet sister too.  Can’t wait!

What are you doing this weekend?

 

Here are my favorite pins from Pinterest this week.

 

Enjoy!

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Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27

Have a blessed weekend!