Our weekend of lasts...

This weekend we enjoyed some things for the last time...

This year the downtown Holiday Grand Illumination {300,0000 lights lit up trees and rooftops} slash sculpture reveal was earlier than previous years, and luckily we were here to enjoy it... one last time!

The city was lit and the sculptures this year were gingerbread men and women donated by local businesses and painted by locals.

The kids were able to find all the different gingerbread men sculptures in the cool midwest night, lit by the glowing trees that run alongside the sidewalks and storefronts.

A visit to downtown for such a festive occasion calls for a hot chocolate and cookies... or cake☺

We went to our favorite spot, Le Chocolat, to take friends when they come visit us.

Now, we'll have to visit... our spot.. next time we visit..

The artist is a mega Christmas LOVER, considering this was her 'birthday weekend' attending The Holiday Grand Illumination and going on the gingerbread-man hunt was a treat for her.

The next day we took the artist {plus the rest of us} to the movies  and dinner with her BFF.

Seeing the two of them at the table next to the fireplace chatting away... was too cute!

I'm glad the two of them had this time together, a memory to save for ever♡

Sunday morning we had one last visit to the Mexican Bakery, there, we loaded-up on Pan Dulce and Tamales.

☺

We're trying to soak in all the goodness of our town.

Our home...

for now anyway

If you were moving, what would you miss about your town?

Depersonalizing and Painting

I've been busy here in my neck of the woods. Along with ridding my house of the cooties, I'm getting my house ready to sell.  

I made the ROOKIE mistake of jinxing myself by saying, "I must be on doctor's health level; these kiddos have coughed in my face, and I'm still good."  PARENTS, TEACHERS, FRIENDS NEVER SAY THAT. {Cough.cough} 

Parents should never say:
He sleeps through the night- because tonight he'll be up all night
Whew, that nasty cold that is going through the school, hasn't hit us!- And now you have the cough!
My kid would never do that- doing that.
Etc. Etc... don't do the parent jinx!

So, anyway, I'm a trooper I'm a tad under-the-weather but that's not going to stop me!  I've been working on this house in hyper speed, because well I'm leaving in about 5-6 weeks.  I'm quite sure my house won't be purchased in that amount of time {reverse jinx?} but I want this house to look good.  I want to leave behind a nice house, for the new family that will have the opportunity to have such wonderful neighbors.  

We are trying not to spend a penny on this house because we know we won't make one penny back.  So far, we've been able to touch up paint here and there with leftover paint, clean our little hearts out, and donate tons!

Part of staging your house {to sell} calls for depersonalization.
To depersonalize I didn't want to spend any money on artwork for the walls, instead I cutup my favorite World Market gift bags, and placed them in all the family-filled-frames in the living room.  I even used the ribbon from the gift bags and tacked them to the back of the frames, which is perfect because the ribbon matches the curtains in my living room. 

I painted the downstairs powder room for freeeeee!!!

I bought a small can of gray Valspar paint months ago for a project I never did, the paint was $2.00 on clearance.  I'm loving the gray paint in the little powder room because it's located in the kitchen, which is Yellow.  My kitchen is yellow with gray touches :)

I actually have tons to do-- so, that's all the updating for now. Have a beautiful/healthy day! XO