NEW RUGS AND A BIT OF BLOG HOUSEKEEPING

Hey everyone!  I hope you had a good weekend, but I know in light of Friday's tragedy in Connecticut we are all still feeling sick in the pit of our stomachs.  I pray that the families of those who lost loved ones will feel comfort and know that an entire nation is grieving with, thinking of, and praying for them.

On a much lighter note, when I posted about my new chalkboard wall in the kitchen, I totally forgot that I was going to show you a few shots of my new rugs!  Way back at the beginning of November, I showed you the options I was trying to decide between, and this is the one I chose.

Many of you liked the black quatrefoil-type patterned one, and I really did too.  However,  I wanted something to blend in a little bit more with the jute rug under the table rather than having such a stark contrast.  Also, I've always got my eye out for a new large area rug for the living room, and have in mind something like the black rug for that room.

I am so pleased with the rugs!  They are a nice weight so they are easy to run the vacuum across, and are easy to clean if something gets spilled on them.  And, they hide little crumbs here and there well.   I ordered from Overstock and they really did have a great selection of indoor/outdoor rugs at good prices, and happily my order arrived quickly.  Here is the link for the rugs I ordered if you'd like to look around.  (I have no affiliation with the company, just passing along something I like!)

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Slowly but surely I'm trying to clean up and streamline my blog layout a bit.  Did you see my new social media buttons over on the side?  I love them!  I purchased them from Natalie's Etsy store, Moxie Tonic, and she included very specific instructions for installation, which were so helpful for this low-tech blogger!  Thanks to the tutorial from Kathy at Cornerstone Confessions (another real-life church friend), I also made a button for the blog, finally!

If you follow me on Facebook, apparently all of my posts may not be showing up in your feed.  This probably applies to any of the business/blog type pages that you have "Liked".  Sarah wrote a great post about why this is happening and how to make sure you are receiving updates from those you have liked (hover over the "liked" button on their page and make sure "show in news feed" is checked).  Also, my adding a link to the status may cause my posts not to show up as often for you, so I will probably start putting the link in the comment section.  

Finally, I try to reply to your comments through e-mail, but if you're a "no-reply blogger", I can't!  I've noticed that several of you who are registered through Google+ are no-replyers.  I saw a good tutorial here on how to make sure your e-mail address is linked to your profile.  Even if you don't use Google+, the last 2 steps in the tutorial show you how to make sure that your profile is set up so that you're not a no-reply blogger.

If you don't follow along on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (my favorite!), I'd love to meet you there!  Lots of times you might get some sneak peeks of what I'm working on.  Just click on one of those fancy new buttons up there. :)