Seem's like FOREVER!

Hello friends,
Seems like forever since my last blog post. I hope you all are doing wonderful. I have so much to share, some great, some not so great, but that will come in some kind of series of posts so I don't weigh anyone down with reading into a long blog post. Picture is my current view ;)

Many Blessings,
~Donna

Clean Slate!

I titled this post "Clean Slate" because I really feel like the picture of the before and after of our new (to us) home represents how we want to proceed with our life after my husband retires from military service.

It's been a long 20 years and we are ready to start living life on the other side of the gates! My husband actually has 23 years for service with 20 of those years active duty. I am so proud of him and his dedication and determination to be the best trained soldier..

So back to the house- My hubby took some leave to travel to the state where our home is to check on it and to also get it Homestead. Without doing that, we would have an enormous tax bill because it would be considered a vacation home.

When he arrived at the home he first noticed how over grown everything was and it had an abandoned look to it, even thou the previous owner visited every couple months (supposedly) and had the lawn mowed at least once a month during the growth season. Here is the before and after of what my hubby had done while he was there to the front of the house..

Before (top) After (below)

The title fits well I think :)

Blessings
~Donna

Happy Summer 2017

Hope everyone's summer has started off great :) Not a lot happening this summer for us. Hubby is away again this summer training and we (the boys and me) are here in Alaska. Thankfully for our last summer. Alaska is beautiful don't get me wrong, but if you are anything like me and have interests that don't involve hiking, fishing, hunting, boating, then you understand my happiness!

Sense my hubby is away and I get really bored when I am not at work, I either purge unwanted stuff or I decorate and change things around. Last time he was away which was a couple months ago I purged the basement and got rid of 1.5 truck loads of stuff. This time I will do a little more purging and a little redecorating.

Here is my summer decorating outside...Enjoy! Side Note: I said in early spring I wouldn't be decorating outside this year or planting, but I just couldn't help myself :)

Thank you for stopping by!

~Donna

New Chapter and name!

With our next chapter starting and with the purchase of our home, I thought it fitting we name our cottage/farmhouse. Hillsdale Cottage it is :)

Many blessings,
~Donna

We bought a house!

We bought a farmhouse/cottage! It's been a roller coaster of a couple months, but I am so thankful to be at this point and to be able to share our wonderful news. I still cannot believe it!

                       Three amazing acres on a mountain (photo credit from the listing agent).


So thankful and blessed. Can't wait until next spring when we move back to the lower 48 and we start renovating the home :)

Many blessing,
~Donna

Life

Life has certainly been happening around home! So much has happened since my last post. I have been working, my husband has been training a lot. My oldest son joined the army and is now at AIT to train for his MOS. My 17 year old finished high school really early, he managed to get all his credits to graduate a couple days prior to Christmas break. So proud of him!

I have a few exciting things to share, but not right now. Some dotting of i and crossing of t's still need to be done before my announcements. Very excited! But until then I will leave you with this nice picture from our weekend trip to Denali National Park!

                              Chucks of ice that buckled under pressure from the water below.

                                                                     Denali mountain!

          The baby moose on our way out of the park! Going to miss seeing these amazing creatures.

Have a wonderful week
~Donna

In Flux!

Since we are still in  state of getting settled into this home I wanted to share some photo's of what the house currently looks like. Mind you there are rooms that haven't really been touched or they are in a state of "flux" ;) I like that word..lol..Fits me well these days!

But for today I am going to show you the front of our home!

I decided this year that I wanted to keep things simple and fresh. I love driving up to my home and seeing some of my vintage pieces sitting on the porch and my pillow that I bought from a fellow blogger Our Home Away From Home and  Etsy Shop owner. She does such an amazing job making pillow slip covers. Her home is so beautiful and her talent for sewing is outstanding!

I got a little creative with my monogram wall art. I couldn't see going out an spending a lot of money decorating the outside of the house and in all honesty we don't want to ad to what we have to move back to the lower 48 when my husbands assignment is completed here in Alaska. So I bought a monogram from Michael's that was 60% off (left it as is) went into the garage to see what scrap wood we had and built my own wall art. Total cost under 10.00 for everything! Everything else on the porch I already had with the exception of the plants in the containers...Low cost decorating is right up my alley!!

I will share the inside soon :)

Blessings,
~Donna