A Quick Peek At The Living Room Progress

Well, I'm not quite done, but close. This is a shot of the windows. You can see how the woodwork looks painted. This weekend we'll be going to get the blinds and then I'll put up my drop cloth curtains. Unless I botch the whole thing up, then I'll just cover my windows with a blanket. ;-) lol! Speaking of blankets, you're no doubt wondering what that pink blankie is doing on the love seat. Well, since we get a lot of sun I wanted to protect the couch. Once the window mistreatments are up, bye bye blankie. I'm not done decorating either. Haven't thought all that through yet.

Here's a picture of our tree. It's not fancy, but it's ours. You can see portraits in the corner leaning up against the wall. Great-grandma and grandpa will go up on the walls somewhere.

This week we start on the dining room!

Candleholders: Using What You Have

This post isn't necessarily about something I've made, but rather where I got a little creative and resourceful.

Who doesn't love candles? Pilars, votives, tealights...they can all be used in so many ways and in any room. Many times, we already have holders available in our own homes to set our candles in or on. Look around your house and see how many creative candleholders you can come up with.

I'm linking up with Cindy's Make It For Monday and Kimba's DIY Day.

A Happy Day of Thanksgiving

My mother with her girl

Me with my girl, Hannah

Our annual "three generations" picture

So Much To Be Thankful For...

SIL Steve, Hannah and John

Larry and I

♥ I am also thankful for all of you! ♥

Wishing you all a happy and blessed Thanksgiving surrounded by all you are most thankful for!

Christmas Plate

I'm joining in on two parties. Cindy from Cottage Instincts is having a party, "Make It For Monday". And Cheri from It's So Very Cheri is having a "It's So Very Creative" party. What the heck. I'm always game for a party! Or two!!

This is something I created with stuff I had on hand (wasn't that another party not long ago? lol!). I started with a white salad plate from Walmart ($1.25), mod podge, an image I found on the internet, clear acrylic sealer and a little white and gold rope trim.

I pretty much don't need to tell you what I did. It's kinda obvious! Just smacked the image down on the center of the plate with some mod podge. After it was dry, I put some more on top to seal it. But to make sure it was really sealed well, I sprayed acrylic sealer on top of that after it was dry. It seemed to need a little something yet, so I used my glue gun to apply the trim around the edge. Done!

My Favorite Things Party

I'm joining Melissa from 320 Sycamore for her "My Favorite Things" Party. Here's a list of some of my faves, in no particular order!

Bath & Body Works

Black Amethyst Frangrance

I just recently tried this fragrance and really love it! It's hard to describe, it's just a really nice scent.

Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter

I could eat this stuff every day. Wait. I think I already do. :D

Walking

I love walking. Preferably in warmer weather.

(image is not me)

Ballas Hough Band

Speaking of walking, daughter Hannah loaded my iPod with her playlist since we have very similar tastes in music. A few of the selections were from the Ballas Hough Band (which I had never heard of before). Love, love, love them!

Starbucks
It's the simple things in life that bring us the most pleasure. And coffee does it for me.
(thanks to Jessica from This Blessed Life who doesn't even know I snagged this photo from her. Thanks anyway. I'm lazy, but honest!)

Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum novels

Just plain fun. And funny.

Shopping. Anywhere.

With my shopping partner in crime, Hannah

New York & Company

Speaking of shopping, I like NY & Co.

I like their classic slacks, blouses and cardigans

Rice Krispie Treats

Who doesn't love 'em?

Only thing is, I don't eat them since they are a sugary treat.

But I still love 'em!

It's A Wonderful Life

I like watching this several times every year.

James Stewart is one of my faves

That does it for me. Head on over to Melissa's party. Lots of people are there!

Day With Mom, Repurposing, Buttons Galore and The Hired Man

Hey everyone! Hope it has been a happy Wednesday in your little corner of the world. Here, it was a misty/rainy day, but it could have been worse.

I spent most of the day today with my mother. I picked her up and drove her into the city for an eye appointment. Afterwards, we had lunch and the usual stop at Walmart where mom got a CD player, trail mix, light bulbs, pliers and Tylenol PM. Quite the combo, huh? ;-) I came up short of anything wonderful except for a tube of mascara.

When we got back to mom's house, I helped her unload repurpose some of her things in storage in the basement. One item being a coffee table from the 50's. I didn't take a picture of it since it's still shoved nestled in the backseat of my car. I plan on scrubbing it up good and painting it black. Some other things are pictured below...buttons, lace and ric rac. I've been meaning to pick some up at Joann's or somewhere to have on hand for embellishing more paper cones and picture frames. But when I was in mom's basement near her sewing area, I thought I'd do my best Al Gore green speech and beg some notions off her. Of course she was more than happy to get rid of it since she's in a declutter mode. Take a look at my haul...

See the unopened package of blue ric rac? It's Fruit of the Loom brand. Ha! And I thought all they made were underoos and socks. This package cost 15 cents way back when, probably in the 60's or 70's.

Here's my favorite treasure I found in mom's button tin. Fleur de lis buttons! I have no idea what I'll do with them, probably just look at them and go "ahhhhh". They are sweet!

Progress continues on the painting of the living room as the hired man hubby keeps up with painting the woodwork.

Happy Junking Day

Happy Monday everyone!

I met daughter Hannah from Turley Times for lunch at Granite City today. Then we did a little shopping. We both had to go to Michael's, although Hannah didn't end up getting anything. But she gave me her 40% off coupon...sweet daughter! I got a few crafting supplies, the best purchase being a tablet of double sided designer paper. It's so shabby and pretty! I'll use it for making more cones but the possibilities are endless.

We also stopped at Target. I only picked up a clear glass salad plate for a project (gonna copy Hannah's frosted glass project).

One of my best scores was even before I met up with Hannah. On my way into the city, I stopped at Good Will and the Salvation Army. Pictured below are my finds. I got the milk glass hobnail planter and all the goblets at GW. I'm pretty sure I already have a hobnail planter like that, but oh well! The silver tray was scored at SA for 99 cents. Yay!

Christmas Cone

Cindy from Cottage Instincts is having a fun party called "Made it With What I Had". And in my case, I made it with what I didn't even know I had, or remembered that I had. I'm also linking up with Kimba's DIY party at A Soft Place To Land. Let's get started!

Shout out to my friend and co-worker Kathy who makes these paper cones all the time and who showed me how to make them. As if there's any real secret, but she showed me some different ones she has made and all the creative things she has done with them.

Since the requirements are to make something with what we already have on hand, I had to dig and hunt for some of my supplies. I started off with some Christmas-y scrap book paper I got several weeks ago. I thought it was so pretty and bought it even though I didn't have a plan for it. Sorta came in hand for this project! Using a two-sided stock paper would have been ideal, but I made do with this paper. I used a spray adhesive to stick them together. I rolled them into a cone shape and hot glued it together.

Next step was to find my button box and dig around for some buttons that I could use. Some old, some new.

Dug around for some lace and trim...

And then I started to embellish. I really liked how it turned out. I was so happy I had the tiny string pearls on hand...they gave just the right finishing touch to the cone. And the buttons worked well, too. I punched holes on both sides and used some tulle as the handle. I also stuck some tulle inside the cone...and now it's ready to hang and enjoy or to use as a Christmas gift bag!

Sorry for my pictures. The batteries in my camera died and I didn't have any extra so I used my phone.

A Preview of Coming Attractions

I thought I'd show our progress with the painting of our living and dining rooms. The painting is done in the living room, just the trim needs to be painted. You can see dh taping off the walls before starting on the baseboards. Please disregard the nasty green carpeting. I do all the time.

It's hard to appreciate the color on the walls with my amatuer photography skills and my fisher price camera. The color is called weathered oak by Valspar. It's a nice neutral color. I like it, but wouldn't have minded a darker color. Dh thinks this is fine, though. It'll work because I think dh would have a coronary if I suggested he start over. And I'm just not that mean. Most of the time.

Below you can see just a little area where dh painted the baseboard to see how it looks. He gave the basebaords two coats. Please note! The paint really isn't slopped on willy-nilly at the bottom of the baseboard as it appears in the photo! The carpeting fibers stick up here and there giving the appearance that the paint wasn't applied very neatly. But I assure you, OCD Dh is pretty darned neat when it comes to painting.

So there you have it. I'll post more pictures as we move along with the jobs. We are slow, but sure!

~~~~~~Coming Soon!! A Giveaway!!~~~~~~

It won't be long and I'll have 200 posts! To mark that milestone I'll be having a giveaway. Keep your eyes open for it!!

Church Bulletin Bloopers

churchlady in her office

Remember those church bulletin bloopers we've all seen? Things like "food panty" instead of pantry and things like that?

Well, this church lady can attest that such bloopers actually do happen (I've even done the "panty" one).

Last evening I went to my church office to do a funeral bulletin for a little old lady from our congregation who passed away. Her funeral was this morning. On the back of all my funeral bulletins, I like to write a little obituary. Something just a bit different than the ones you might find in a newspaper. Wellllllll........

When it came time to write about her marriage, my line said, "She was untied in marriage to..."

Noooooooooooo! It's suppose to be united, Nancy!!! Argh!

How dreadfully embarrassing! DH said nobody else seemed to notice it. I wasn't able to attend the funeral due to my other job. But dh sang in the men's choir and as he was sitting in the choir loft reading the obit, he had to exercise some extra control because he wanted to burst out laughing!

I do hope nobody else noticed!!