Life has curve balls

Well, this is just a word to let bloggyville know that life's about to get crazy here!  We are all gearing up for the wonderful holiday season and everyone is getting too busy to even stop and take a breath.  Everyone is showing off their gorgeous decor, giving ideas freely, and receiving in return.  I have been getting Christmas out and getting it ready to make the house come alive.  I have family coming for Thanksgiving so I have been staging in the garage.  The second they leave every trace of fall is outta here and Christmas is moving in!  Last year we went out of town for Christmas and had just moved into this rent house in Sept.  The unpacking was complete, but I just never got around to decorating for Christmas, so this year I was going to do it up right!

Then came the curve ball!  Isn't life just full of them!  You have to laugh!  Really, what's the option?  Wallering in self pity?  Complaining and having a hissy fit?  No, we're trying to take the whole thing in stride.  We opened a letter this week from our mortgage company that turned out to be not a letter for us, but a letter for the owners of the home we rent!  Oops they have the same mortgage company!  This house is going into foreclosure on 12-03-09!  So we have to start packing!!!  Fortunately our property manager has another home coming available in this same neighborhood on the first.  I'm going to check it out today and make sure it is wheelchair accessible enough for the hubby.  If not then we will really be scrambling for a house to move to.  We know that there are probably things we could do to stay longer, but really if we don't have to deal with the drama we don't want to.  So now, instead of decorating, I'm packing.  We really hope to be moved completely by the middle of December and be able to at least enjoy the rest of the season!

This has cemented the plan for selling our home in Houston and buying down here.  We want to put down some roots and not be worrying about paying rent to a home that's not being paid for!!  This next year is going to be a wild ride!!  I think I will need this blog to be my sounding board, just to think and process what all is going on!  As soon as we sell we hope to build.  The idea of that makes me super excited and makes me want to throw up! LOL  But the idea of having a home built that is perfect for us is so awesome!  After living for 15 ish years in homes that are minimally wheelchair accessible we can have it done exactly right.  We can choose all the fixtures and it will be just how we like it in every way!

Our home in Houston was a typical rancher and we did so many remodelling projects just to make it livable for the hubby, and to make it less 60's and 70's velvet wallpapery!  Living with half the house in the garage, or no shower for two weeks!  I'll be thrilled to have a home that doesn't need updating!!

So you can be sure that there will be pictures!  My poor little craft room/office makeover will have to start all over again at the next rent house!!!!  And I will have to figure out all the furniture placement and where to hang pictures.  There will be lots of pics here and lots of what do you think....should the couch go over here?  LOL  My hubby hates when I ask him those kinds of questions!

Okay ladies!  Let the Thanksgiving madness begin!!!!

You can go home again

Who says you can't go home again!  Last week I spent the week sleeping at my momma's house and hanging out with my family and  friends, both old and new.

I grew up in the suburbs of Houston and growing up I always considered where I was born home.  Home was an itty bity town outside of Fort Worth.  After I was grown I always thought longingly of my summers spent visiting my Granny and Papa.  Going out to my Papa's home place and playing with the smelly cow dogs, picking fresh veggies from the garden and hanging out in the trees in the evenings as the day cooled down.  I was an only child there, the only granddaughter of a granny with two sons and four grandsons!  My granny taught me to sew, bake, quilt and to starch a pair of jeans until they stood up all by themselves!  My papa came home everyday from working in the trainyard filthy stinky dirty, but he left every morning with fresh clean starched and line dried work clothes.

Now that I've moved away from where I grew up, I have those same nostalgic feelings about Houston.  Tuesday night I went to "my" Beth Moore bible study with some of the girls, then went to eat afterwards.  Beth was right on and I laughed until I thought I would wet my pants and wished I would've worn steel toed boots from all the toe steppin' she was doing, just like old times!  I spent the next day visiting with my sister in law and my niece and nephew.  We went to the fire station and visited with my brother in law and let my niece play on the fire trucks.  My niece is going to be two in January and I promise you, she's the smartest girl on the earth right now!!  :)  She came and stayed the night with me at my mom's.  Mom watched her for a couple of hours so that I could meet up with a few friends from school.  The ladies that made it were girls that I had gone to school with since kindergarten!  Very fun!  We talked for hours, then it was back to moms to tuck in my little sweetie pie.  She went shopping with me and my group of girlfriends from church.  We had such a good time at lunch.  Then we went shopping!  Boy have I forgotten how much work it is to have a little one with you!  She was so good and only had one minor meltdown.  The meltdown ended as soon as I turned onto the shoe aisle.  She lifted her little head off my shoulder and said, "Shoes!!  I like shoes!"  Yep, you guessed it ,shoe diva in training!!

Saturday morning I had coffee with another group of old friends and saw another friend from high school.  As I headed home to my hubby and youngest son I was feeling homesick.  I needed to see my guys!  My boy shot his first deer while I was gone.  He texted me immediately!  But, I missed them.  When I got home we piled up in my bed and the boy unloaded.  He talked for an hour straight!

 Yep, you can go home again.  It's true, home is where your heart is.  When I visit my Granny, I feel home in my heart.  When I visit my parents, I feel home in my heart.  However, when I'm with my hubby and my boys I just feel home.  Where ever we are, if we're together I'm home!

Creating Vignettes

Hi y'all.  This morning I'm getting ready to head off to Houston for a few days.  My son turned 22 this past weekend, so I'll be taking him and his precious other half to dinner, I'm going to hook up with my Bible study girlfriends and go to Beth Moore's bible study tonight and tomorrow I'll be going to dinner with some girls from high school that I haven't seen in 23ish years!!  There will also be serious snuggling with my brand new nephew, can't wait to meet him!!  I will also be dragging my mom and possibly son's girlfriend all over Houston shopping at the stores we don't have down here!  Any bloggers in the valley that need Houston provisions speak up! :)

I wanted to post a few pictures I took this weekend.  A post on Maria's Blog a few months ago about vignette's inspired me and I've been kind of playing around with doing it.  I'm not good at it, it's something I've always had problems with, you know, the finishing details.  Maria's post made it seem simple enough.  Let me disclaimer this by showing you a picture of how the table by the couch usually looks

Of course the boy is in school right now so his glasses and most of his pens aren't there, and I did throw away the empty dinty moore can before taking the picture!  Now here's some pics of a company's coming side table.

You southern girls will recognize my secret little habit in the background!  Me and Sonic, we are like that I tell you!  Isn't this picture so much better than teenage boys nightstand?  So peaceful!

The flowers are in my granny's baby bottle!  I thank the Lord for her packrat ways!!  I have so much family history from her!

This is the other side table.  This table was my Papa's night stand, it's scratched and beat up, I've gorilla glued the heck out of this think, it was in pieces when I got it.  I will probably paint it the same color as the other side table when I get around to it!

Y'all be sure to notice my little violet plant!  This is the first one I've ever been able to keep alive!  Despite my cats best attempts to kill it!!  It just keeps blooming and blooming! :)

This is my old, but new to me gateleg table in my breakfast area.  I've been sanding away, little by little.  It should be done by Christmas, I hope!  But I wanted it to look nice and have a focal point so I put this together.

So, you like?  See any tips that would make any off it better?

One more thing, this is to show nannykim what my new spray paint trigger looks like, I think hubby bought it at Walmart, but I know I've seen them at Lowe's!

Love this thing!!

Alrighty, I'm off to load the car!!  You ladies have a good week! :)

Met Monday Makeover!

Why??  Why, oh why, didn't anyone tell me?  I mean, I've read about it.  Others have raved about it, but I just didn't think it was for me.

I'm talking about spray paint!  My new BFF.  Every time I have used it my finger just can't hang with the can.  I cramp, I just don't have the finesse that I need with that stupid can!  My dear sweetie has heard my complaints and brought home the most amazing trigger for the spray paint!  I have to run and give him a kiss every time I come in from the backyard after applying a coat!  I have been spray painting like a mad woman!  I'm making up for lost time!  All those years?!  I've got several projects going that I need to finish before the entire family shows up at my from door at Thanksgiving!  My office will be my sons temporary quarters while he visits and it has to be done!

This brings me to the second installment of my office redo.  I am doing this on a zero budget.  I am revamping and restyling.  So, here's a before picture of my chair and a bonus peek of what my desk area looks like when I'm in the middle of a project!  I have to have everything I need all around me so I'm just keeping it real!  You can see my new spray paint stash, every bit of that is used up now! :)  My chair has been around!  I bought it used from craigslist about two years ago and it's been used daily by me and the kids, it looks tired here, dontcha think?

Now for the amazing after!

Isn't it great??!  All spray painted and recovered!  I purposely didn't take the pictures in the office because I want to show it all off  when it's done! :)

Stay tuned, there's more where this came from!!! I'm participating in Met Monday at:






Be sure and run over to Susans and check out everyone's fabulous metamorphasis projects!!!
Night y'all

Soul Searching

So, where have I been??  I've been regrouping!  I have been focusing on some God details in my life.  I started this blog at a time when I was desperately struggling.  Desperately struggling in so many areas of my life.  Honestly I had been in that place for several years, it came upon me slowly and built.  Very sneaky!  I felt very removed from life outside my home.  My home didn't feel like my home, I felt lost.  I started really working on making my home feel loved it, not just lived in.  I felt that blogging about it and being conscious of the changes would help.  It didn't help, because my blog is brand new and haven't found my voice or any real focus I didn't have much feedback.  This just made me feel more lonely.  I was looking for a sense of community in the wrong place.

In June 2007 my little family up and moved 350 miles from our "home".  We left behind my son, my parents, my brother and his young family, my husbands parents, three of his siblings and all of our nieces and nephews and their children.  Plus, my very tight knit group of girlfriends.  You know that group of ladies you raise your children with.  The ones who you swapped babysitting and carpooling duties with.  Our move happened very quickly.  About six weeks after we found out; we were moved lock, stock and barrel.  I was in school full time and had a son struggling with a drug problem.  It was very simply like the Jerry Springer show at our home at times.  But it was the home we lived in for 18 years and our community was there.  Moving away separated me from my support system, and my beautiful son, my oldest, when he was in the depths.  I know now that was God's doing, he needed to "lose" our support to find his own in that battle he faced.

The stress of this entire situation caused my fibro to be severe and all of this side effects that come with it.  I had begun to feel that everything wrong with life right now was because of our move.  Because I moved with the conviction that God was moving us here, I felt guilty about feeling this way!  Financially, emotionally, physically, mentally...all of it.  It was all messed up because we moved away.  In the last few weeks I've spent some serious time soul searching.  Searching for God, searching for my life back!  It's said that when you feel far away from God that it's not Him who moved.  I had not walked away from God, I had just not spent time on the relationship, the most important relationship I will have on this earth.

For the last few weeks I've been seeking God's face.  Really seeking change.  And...I found it!  I have crawled back into God's lap and in the process, I found myself again!  I've found my passion again, I've remembered why I was passionate and I have discovered that for me, God is life.  Everything is just too hard to do it alone.  Even with my husband supporting me in every way he could, it was still too hard.  It's not his job to be my God, it's his job to be my husband and he does this very well.  It is also not my children's job to be my God, or my friends, and none of these people can even help me in my relationship with God.  It's just me and Him and I need to find Him, and hold on tight all by myself.

Now, I want to continue this blog.  I do love doing all the fun decorating and sewing and crafting, I love sharing and getting feedback and ideas.  I still need to find my voice here.  I will, I used to write.  It's in here somewhere!

Thanks for reading and allowing me to be transparent and I hope that this encourages someone out there in blog land to spend a little time soul searching!

So what do you think???

I'm moving along with my little craft room.  Yesterday I bought the paint to get the two bookcases and my sewing machine cabinet painted.  I think I'm going to paint my chair as well.  I'm going to recover it and that leads me to my question for y'all!

I picked this fabric up last night thinking it would be a good choice to recover my office chair with.  I love the colors!  I'm just wondering if it's not too serious for the room?  Maybe I need something a bit more whimsical?  What do you think??

My craft room overhaul!

I'm blogging today and linking to Susan's Met Monday!

Several months ago I decided that I wanted to do more things crafty and creative.  I actually felt that I really needed to get back in touch with that side of me.  When I went back to school a few years ago I really had to set aside all things extra, school was all science and logic, no room or time for creative thinking in the nursing program.  When we moved here the teenager pretty much took up in the living room like he lives there.  I can't complain, because he's not locked away in his room ignoring the rest of the house, I'm actually happy that he wants to be a part of the household.  Hubby has his home office to go to.  It's where he goes to work everyday.  That's completely his space.

Me, I didn't really have a space and I was feeling it.  Y'all know that craft projects aren't always done in one day and that often they are messy.  That really leaves the dining room out!  You see my dining room the second you walk in the door!  The only space left was the master bedroom.  So, I was working ON the bed.  Each evening I would put everything on the bed onto the floor next to the bed, on my side.  My side of the bed is not that big, so it was a careful tiptoe to the my side of the bed.  I grew more and more frustrated!  One day I had just had enough and I did a major overhaul of our little rental house.  Our third bedroom was completely taken over by our ebay business.  It was being used as our warehouse, storing our products and mailing supplies.  I moved our "warehouse" into the formal living room that was really never used.  I wanted a space that I could close the door on either to work without interruption or to not look at the mess I've created!

This summer I went and picked out paint.  I'm not a professional, but I love color!  I also love to paint!  Y'all know that as a mom, everything you do gets undone, daily.  I do laundry, cook, clean...and the next day it all needs to be done again!  When you paint, it stays painted, you can walk in everyday and say to yourself, I did that and it's not undone today! Ahhhhh!  I wanted the room to feel light and airy, fresh!  I have an antique chair that's upholstered in a nice lime green and blue stripe, I knew I wanted that chair in the room.  I chose colors from a chip card with a sunroom picture on it.  The green for the walls is Valspar Garden Fairy.  The ceiling is Valspar Summer Sorbet.  I also got a gallon of  Bella Mint from the same card to use as an accent.  Here's the colors all painted and done:

It was okay and I lived with it, my son hated it and said it looked like a babies room.  I had to admit that it was paler than I had wanted, just not lime-y enough, although I knew that the Garden Fairy color was not lime-y I kind of chickened out and went light!  I hate that!  I know not to do that, and still I do it!  You'll notice that the ceiling just doesn't look like I thought it would.  The blue just doesn't look right!  I painted an old window the ceiling color and hung it on the wall, it was TERRIBLE!  That's when I knew that I had to do something else.  I got out the Bella Mint and painted it on a small area of the wall just to see what it would look like:

Much better!  That's the color I was going for!  Here's a look at the paint on a larger scaled comparison:

What a difference!  It looks so much richer!  Not washed out and baby roomish like the first paint.  So here's the paint done, you can see the ceiling blue looks much better with this green.

Here's a close up of the wall color:

Here's the window I painted the ceiling color:

Obviously the room is still in progress, but I'm much happier every time I walk in.  I'll post the completed room in a week or two!

Hope y'all like the progress!

Fall is here and so are the butterflies!

I just had to blog! I have had the windows open all day! Fall has finally shown her face way down here in south Texas!! Yesterday it was in the high 90's and today it's in the 70's! The wind is from the north and so fresh!!

BUT, the most exciting thing is that I went out just a few minutes ago and the first of the Monarch Butterflies are here!!!! Hundreds and hundreds of butterflies are coming from the north and headed for Mexico! Every year they come through, usually we start seeing them in September, but I guess its just been too hot. I will get off now and go sit outside until its too dark to see them! I tried to take some pictures, but I can't find my cord to plug it into the computer, I thing the teenager has it. If any of them came out I will be posting them soon!

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Project ADD

Hey y'all! Sorry for the extended break last week. I didn't even mean too, it just happened! I've been plugging along with all of my projects. My usual MO is fully intact, lots of projects at once. I'm not sure if its that I'm easily distracted, overly ambitious or a bit of both?

Last week my hubby surprised me! He called me and told me to meet him at Lowe's. Okay, off I go and he let me pick out a new hand sander! My old one was just square and one of the arms didn't hold the sandpaper well. He's been watching me sand - by hand - on all of my projects around the house and I guess he felt sorry for me! LOL Now my sander has a round wheel, the iron shaped attachment with a long skinny attachment for tight spots! So I have completely sanded two of my six antique chairs and I've been working on doing a spindle-y leg or two at a time on the chairs and the table.

One of my other projects is a mid-century modern bar. I found it for $50 at the Salvation Army. I removed all of the doors and I've sanded it and it's getting wiped down and ready for primer tomorrow.

I am also working on a cross stitch project of the 23rd Psalm. I've painted my little office space - again! That's a post for another day! Plus all of my little crafty projects that I sell like my altered notebooks, smaller cross stitch projects and I've started working on Christmas-y things and three quilts for some new babies in my life. I'm thinking of opening an Etsy shop, but I'm not sure about that. See easily distracted!

I'm really having super guilty feelings about painting that bar/soon to be tv cabinet. I know that there must be some law somewhere I'm breaking by painting teak wood!! It really is gorgeous wood and if I still lived in Houston I probably would have craigslisted that puppy for a pretty penny, but here where I am there just isn't the same market. I keep telling my self that I can always sand all the paint and primer off and restain it. If that's not something I can do, please don't tell me!! Or do tell me! Oh, I don't know. I guess I have gone too far to stop now!

I'm going to go work on my tablescape for tomorrow!

Hasta!

Cabinet makeover reveal!!

Well howdy y'all.  I've had a bit of a rough week.  We had a small front come through and the low pressure really messes with my body.  I've been in quite a bit of pain, so I've been moving slowly.  I did however finish my project!

First here she is again, in her sad sad state, fresh out of the storage building:

Okay, so I cleaned her very good, then she got sanded and primed:

So after she was good and dry I painter her, I used valspar latex enamel in flat black:

Gorgeous right?!  Well, that's not the end of the story.  I love to paint, I paint a lot!  However, this is my first dive into painting furniture that will be heavily used.  I thought that I would need to seal the paint to ensure that it wouldn't come off.  I used a satin poly.  It was awful!!!  Oh, I didn't take pictures, it was too bad.  I was mad.  I couldn't even look at her like that.  The next day as soon as she was dry enough, I started sanding, again.  I sanded every bit of the shine off, primed her, again, and painted her, again.  I DID NOT poly her again!  Now she was beautiful again and I just didn't know what to do.  Fortunately, this is the blog world!  I got some great advice and boy did it take a weight off of my shoulders.  Joan, at fortheloveofahouse told me just to let the paint cure really well and it should be fine!  By the way, if you haven't been to fortheloveofahouse, go, really!  Her home and makeover it has received is AMAZING!  You will love her blog!

So while my girl was drying from her second coat of paint, I took some fabric from my stash and glued it to poster board cut to size for the back of the cabinet.  So without further blabbering....introducing my new kitchen storage/display cabinet!!!

I only put a few things on there for pictures.  I'm not going to actually use her for another week, to let the paint cure really well!  Well there she is!  Hope you enjoyed her journey from ugly duckling to gorgeous black swan!!!
 

I'm participating in Between Naps on the Porch's Met Monday!  Be sure to go over and check out all the great before and afters there!



Have a great weekend y'all!

Bookshelf Fail!!

Hey y'all!  This evening I had planned to post over at Susan's for Met Monday.  I've been working on a bookshelf all week.  Just a little at a time so that I had plenty of time to visit with my boy and his girl while they were here.  Last Sunday I had a huge week planned, my son called late Sunday evening to tell me they would be here the next day!  This week, all of those things are back on my list for this week, including the bookshelf.  WHY???  Because I felt that it needed to be sealed, and I used a satin polyurethane.  By last night I knew...I hated it!!!  HATED IT!  All the love was gone.  I got the sandpaper out and by bedtime last night that little sucker was sanded and primed AGAIN!  Here it is last week:

Here is is before Saturday:

And here it is now:

Look familiar?


This time I have a flat sealer to put on when I'm done painting.  (insert huge sigh here)  Anyone else ever have something like this happen?  I was so close to being done!  I haven't done anything on it today,  I'm just too mad, upset, whatever.  This little hiccup is on top of the Friday night hiccup.  I've been working on a cross stitch pattern and I am getting to the end of it, I used the wrong color on an entire area!  Oh, I haven't taken it out, I can't look at it.  It's not huge, very easily fixable, just frustrating!

I will post something for Met Monday tomorrow!

Thanks for empathizing with me tonight!

Night!

This was a good week

Well, my oldest and his girl are safe and sound at their own house today!  It's kinda lonely, my two boys bicker nonstop when they are together.  They debate everything!  It completely drives me crazy, but that's how their relationship works.  I miss Jennifer too, she will jump up at a moments notice to go get starbucks, or browse through barnes and knobles for hours.

My projects I had hoped to complete by the time this weekend is over were put on the back burner for the most part so I could enjoy the kiddos while they were here.  I am nearly finish with the bookcase and I will be showing it off for Met Monday!  It turned out so good!!

In this next week I will be getting the huge piece of furniture taking up the entire hallway in my house painted and into the spot where it will live.  Hang on folks it should be interesting. Why?  You my be thinking.  Well, this will cause a major overhaul of the room, and so that will be the perfect time to make the headboard, I've already gotten the fabric.  I want to paint an antique armoire that in there, paint another little old  table, get all my new bedding up and find or make some new curtains.  In other words, the bedrooms getting a total makeovr!  If I'm not too overwhelmed I'd like to be slapping coats of paint on the kitchen table and chairs as I go and kill two birds with one stone.  Oh and while I've got the white paint out in the bedroom, I have a few things that have been waiting there turn to get painted white, I'll throw them in too!

So I thought I would wrap up the week with a few family pictures we took before they left!

That's all folks!

Tablescape and life!

Good afternoon blogworld!  It's warm here as usual, but super nice because it's overcast!  


I'm posting a tablescape today for Tablescape Thursday!





I decided to do a bit more dressy tablescape today.  I set it on my formal table.  I used my fall dishes and some of my crystal with my nice silverware.  I tried to make it feel welcoming, but special.  Hope you like it!!

In life news, my Daughter in law passed her cosmetology exam!!

She was so excited!!  She came out of that building smiling from ear to ear!  Of course my youngest son and I were cheering like crazy for her!  Tonight we're taking her out to celebrate!

Also yesterday, I made it official!  I change to a fall purse.  It's as fall as it's gonna get around here, so I bit the bullet and did it.  Actually I love getting to change seasons with my clothes, all the darker colors are fun to wear after the bright tropical feel of my summer wardrobe.  Here are the two main summer purses I carried this year:

The first one I found at steinmart!  I get most of my purses from there!  The second one I found at Payless!!

So this morning here is me all dressed for fall

Yes I know I'm wearing shorts and short sleeves, but it was 100 here yesterday!  This is my fall.  My fall purse is a Michael Kors suede purse that I got for christmas two years ago.  After Christmas I found the matching shoes at Marshall's for $15.00!  I love my orange suede shoes!!!  I'm not super big into labels, but my sister in law is, she always buys me name brand, so I'll not argue! :)

What are you wearing for fall???  Any new favorite accessories?

I thought I would leave you with a few pics of the in between of the shelf I'm working on.  Work is going slowly because son and daughter in law are here this week and I'm not just here at the house by myself.

Notice the barey perceptable cat prints on the shelf!  Thankfully it was dry before they checked it out!  It's nearly done!!

And I'll leave you with a picture of my oldest son and dil:

Well, that's all folks!