grace and peace: December 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

The Adair House

About a year ago, my grandparents bought a neglected house in the small town of Adair, Iowa. The house had been damaged in a fire and was left sitting empty. Last Easter I took some pictures of the house after they had cleared out some of the junk. The day after Christmas we went over to see the house finished and fixed.

Thanks to the hard work of my grandparents, brother, and many others, Adair now has a lovely new home for sale--if only I could buy it!

Here are some before and after pictures:

Stairway before

And after

Kitchen before

And after...

Basement stairs before

And after

Upstairs bathroom before

And after

Airy bathroom window

more bathroom shots...

One of the upstairs bedrooms before...

And after

Raven before

And after

The following pictures are shots of the extra details added to the house that make it so wonderful!

Brian's refinished floor

And here are some pictures that I absolutely love...

It was so exciting to see the house looking SO great! I think it's amazing to see my family use their talents to turn something ugly into something beautiful. It reminds me of our Savior. With his grace and mercy we are able to be made new. Our lives are the before pictures in this post, and by what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are able to be cleaned, rebuilt, and made new.

What a great and undeserved blessing.

Get to know our Savior--the master carpenter--this new year.

grace and peace,

Mair

Christmas Presents

Friends---

Here are some of the Christmas presents I made this year. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to having a happy New Year.

The Wolfe family has thoroughly enjoyed their time up north...we shopped, shopped, ate, shopped, and did some skiing! So fun!

Pillows

Crochet Hook Holders--I love how these turned out

A very angry bird...the pig is not pictured

A flower pin

I will blog soon about the trip, and the house my grandparents and brother finished flipping.

grace and peace,

Mair

Friday, December 23, 2011

There's a Blizzard in the Kitchen!

Hello Readers--

In the Wolfe kitchen, there lies a pantry with an expansive, blank surface area. When we were little we would cover this pantry with snowflakes in the winter, hearts in February, and all kinds of art in the months between.

Here's a snapshot of the blank canvas:

As I was sitting at the kitchen table yesterday, staring at the blank wall, my mom and I decided to, once again, create a blizzard of white snowflakes!

Here's what we created:

Much better!

grace and peace,
Mair

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Dipped, Covered, and Coated

At the Wolfe house, Christmas goodies usually consist of dipping something in almond bark. This is mostly because things dipped, covered, and coated in almond bark are amazing...and also because it's super easy!

Here's something new my mom and I tried this year:

Chopped pecans
Craisins
White almond bark

Mix half of the pecans and craisins in the melted almond bark and sprinkle the other half on top! Once you've done that, stick it outside to cool.

Then break it apart

and stick it in a fancy bowl!

It is pretty tasty...and it even looks Christmasy!

grace and peace,
Mair

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Cozy Warm

Keeping my cup cozy warm. This project was super easy...I found the idea on Pinterest (surprise, surprise). There was no pattern, so this one is a little rough:

Can you tell that I haven't had any time to craft until now??? I'm going nuts!

grace and peace,
Mair

Clothespin Parade

My cooperating teacher asked me to make some clothespin dolls for her daughter for Christmas. Her daughter, who is five, loves to make any little item into people. She will play house with crayons, hand sanitizer bottles, and highlighters. So Kelly thought she would love to have some actual little people!

I made 12...here they are: