Self Portrait Challenge { reflective surfaces 4 }

my world in a spoon





Ok, maybe not my whole world.
But part of it.
Gosh, it sure looks big thanks to convexity!
And I look like a penguin, ha...


last week of Reflective Surfaces over on Self Portrait Challenge...

Self Portrait Challenge { Streets 4 }

Adventures of a Frisbee
by Shel Silverstein





The Frisbee, he got tired of sailing
To and fro and to;
And thought about the other things
That he might like to do.
So the next time that they threw him,
He turned there in the sky,
And sailed away to try and find
Some new things he could try.
He tried to be an eyeglass,
But no one could see through him.
He tried to be a UFO,
But everyone knew him.
He tried to be a dinner plate,
But he got cracked and quit.
He tried to be a pizza,
But got tossed and baked and bit.
He tried to be a hubcap,
But the cars all moved too quick.
He tried to be a record,
But the spinnin' made him sick.
He tried to be a quarter,
But he was too big to spend.
So he rolled home, quite glad to be
A Frisbee once again.


last week for "Taking it to the Streets" with Self Portrait Challenge...

shelves galore

Look at what my wonderful hubby helped me build this week!





Of course, I painted before the shelves went up, which was a whole lot easier. I actually mixed together three leftover paints to get this color, and I love it!

It's all so beautiful, I almost hate to start putting everything back in there.

Almost.

But then I look at all the stuff in my hallway and kitchen, and know it must be done!

Tomorrow. But tonight, I'm putting my feet up and enjoying a Sonic Oreo Blast - yum.

file this

I bought a filing cabinet years ago from a used office supplies store for a good price. While it filled a need I had (lots of stuff, no place to put it!), I was never really fond of it's appearance. Scratchy. Dark. Brown... nothing wrong with brown, I just don't decorate with it, so it doesn't suit my home.

So it sat in my school/computer/sewing room,
like a dark and dreary bohemoth in the corner.





This week I had enough. And when I have had enough, that means business is going to happen and things are going to change.

After
one can of Kilz Odorless Primer
and
two cans of Rustoleum Ultra Cover Aqua...

Self Portrait Challenge - { flashback }

For January, the Self Portrait Challenge theme is "Flashback - 2009".
We are challenged to incorporate into each photo at least two of the themes from last year. You'd think that would be easy, but I'm finding it is, well, a challenge!

Here's my first contribution:



I can't decide which I like more... the unusual cold weather we're having in my part of the country, or enjoying the coziness of my home.

included themes from 2009:
diptych
headless
portals
hats
red

what to do with a huge empty wall

I have this huge wall in my living room that I've been staring at off and on for the last year, trying to figure out what to put there to fill it in.

I found this old chippy iron piece at a flea market recently - it's 80 inches long!



The 11x14 frames are all different, from Goodwill for $4 each. I spray painted them white, and added photos I've take myself - three tree shots and two beach shots.

Next up, I'm planning to paint this wall with pale turquoise...

Self Portrait Challenge - Skill {painting}

This month's Self Portrait Challenge theme is "Skill". Whenever people speak longingly of how they wish they could sew like I do, I tell them I completely understand. I've wished since I was in grade school that my art skills were better than, well, a grade schooler. My drawings are laughable, my attempts at painting aren't even worthy of the title "abstract".

But give me a piece of furniture or a wall, and I will give it a topical makeover - that's the kind of painting I am good at!

And if moving last week from our home of 9 years to a small apartment wasn't enough, I decided to take on the project of painting my china cabinet. Since it was empty, it seemed like the perfect time (except for all the packing and stuff I was supposed to be doing...)

Here it is before it was emptied:

And here is the finished project:







The beautiful glass knobs and floral appliques came from The Bella Cottage over on eBay. She was very helpful in getting them shipped out to me before we moved - Thanks a bunch, Michelle!

+++++++++++++++++++

While I was unpacking last Thursday, the girls ended up spending the whole morning creating with markers, paint, beads, pompoms, pipe cleaners, glitter - basically they unloaded the entire craft cabinet to hone their artwork skills.

s l o w l y

First of all, we are moved in & 95% unpacked as of tonight - yay!

Secondly, something got messed up with our change-over for our DSL, so it will not be hooked up until Monday (arg!!!) I am using Chad's cell phone to connect to the internet with the laptop, so my connection speed is much like dial-up... slow! Please don't be offended if I can't respond to comments or emails with my usual speed - I get to use his phone to do this once a day, usually at night, so please be patient... thank you!

Finally, I thought I'd share a bit about our moving experience. I have moved a lot in my lifetime (this move is #16 if my memory is right), yet I learn new things with each move. Here are a few things I've learned this sixteenth time around, some of which you'd think I would have known by now...

1. Your refridgerator is a lot dirtier than you think it is. You might use it every day, but you don't really realize how icky it has gotten until you take everything out and look at those white walls & glass shelves and realize that once a year is just not often enough for a good cleaning.

2. If you wait to clean the aforementioned fridge until an hour before your estimated move out is complete, it will inevitably take longer than an hour to get it clean, and you'll be sitting on the kitchen floor at 10 o'clock at night with water dripping down your elbows as you try desperately to get little bits to come off on the paper towel (they've moved all around the shelf when you rub them, why won't they come OFF???) Make your life easier - clean it days beforehand, and just eat out after that. That takes care of packing dishes & silverware a few days ahead of time, too.

3. You can never have enough boxes. Especially smaller ones. Otherwise you end up packing your entire pantry in low, wide boxes that end up being so heavy that it takes two people to lift each one.

4. Plastic grocery store bags may not be environmentally friendly, but they are an invaluable moving tool. When you run out of the too-large boxes while packing your kitchen food, grocery bags are the perfect size to reload those groceries into your car to take to the new place. And you know all of your neighbors have some hanging around, so it's easy to get more in your time of need!

5. Pack the garbage bags in one of the first boxes you plan to open - otherwise you will end up using the aformentioned plastic grocery bags for trash, and those fill up fast when you're using paper plates & plastic cups (because you still can't find the box with your dishes, along with the one with the garbage bags!)

6. Make a rough map on a printed floorplan of where you would like the big pieces of furniture to go, and give copies of it to the the people moving your furniture. Especially if those "people" are your husband and his brother, who are being fueled by pizza and beer. And especially if you are still going to still be at the old house the whole time with all the kids while those "people" are at the new place, dumping all of the furniture, boxes, and plastic grocery bags wherever they think seems fine.

7. And finally - wear sneakers. It doesn't matter if it's 125° plus humidity, bare feet for packing and cleaning in the house and flipflops for when you're driving back and forth & unloading stuff (from 7am to 10pm) are just not a good combination. You will end up with sore, blistery feet, not to mention they will be very, very, very dirty. And it will take everything you have to put your feet in the bathtub at the end of the day to wash them off, so you won't dirty your freshly made bed.

momentary absence

I may not be around much - I'm packing up our family of 4 to move out of our home into a 2 bedroom apartment in 10 days. It's hard to believe it is almost here! It is with mixed emotions that I am packing... we've been in this house for 9 1/2 years, both of our girls were born here, and I've never lived anywhere as long as we've lived here. Moving into an apartment for 6 months - ugh! The future in the new house is exciting, though, so I just have to keep that in mind.



I did start my second book for my Summer Reading Groupies goal - Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl. I have wanted to read this book since for years, so I decided to make it happen, and found it at the library last week. I've read about 30 pages, it is fascinating and I have to keep reminding myself that she was a real girl!

Please be seated...

Yesterday I finished the chair I previously posted about starting to refinish. Here's a refresher of how it looked before:

Here it is after a lot of red paint and the cushion recovered with a vintage tablecloth piece:

flea market time again!

My mom & I packed my girls in the van at 6:30am and headed to First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX today...

It was hot hot hot - I think it hit over 100° today! ! I was starting to think the girls would spend more money than me - when we sat down for lunch I had bought nothing, while Claire had bought a My Little Pony for $2, and Nicole had bought a pad of paper & a pen for 85¢. Post-lunch proved to be more fruitful (albeit more hot), and I found a few things:

- a solid (not wobbly at all!) wood chair with beautiful white & green chippy paint and even more beautiful slightly arched back lines - $8
- a metal scrollwork piece, looking like it came from an old screen door, which will find itself newly painted in a light shade of white or green and hung on my wall - $25
- a wood shelf/mantle/window frame of some sort, needs a good wash & will look good hung up somewhere, although I'm not sure where yet - $5

Nicole gave me this note this evening, I guess she had more fun than we had thought (the whining and dragging of the feet must have been an expression of her fun!)

Now is a good time to show you some other recent finds & projects as well...

I picked up this fabulous dresser last week from a tiny local antique shop that I like to check out from time to time:

Here's a wicker chair that used to be my parents, which I rescued from their plan to dumpsterize:

before a lot of wicker repair & paint...


after...


And finally, a new project I am about to embark upon - a solid, heavy chair that I am planning to recover and paint and add rolling castors to the legs - I plan to use it as my new sewing chair. I loved the heart scroll pattern on the back.

Self Portrait Challenge - Fresh {carpet}

We had our 9 year old carpet replaced yesterday, I hadn't realized how bad the old stuff really was until we moved all of our furniture off of it. When the installers arrived yesterday, I took the girls and headed out, and stayed gone until the job was done. When we walked back in yesterday afternoon, I just said "WOW."

I didn't buy an expensive replacement, although I did buy the best padding, and that sure makes an amazing difference. I wish blogs had feel samples so you could sink your feet into this - it is a glorious feeling! I told Chad, I could sleep on it, it is so soft.

I hadn't realized how amazing fresh carpet can be.

For more Fresh self portraits, click HERE.

My Little Secret

By definition of my business, I am required to iron. It is a necessary part of what I do. Without it, you would not see the beautiful outfits I offer; instead you would see a wrinkled mess of fabric, and who would want to buy that?

Now my secret: I despise ironing.

Whew - now that it's not a secret anymore, I feel better with that off my chest.

From the look of a lot of boutique resells I've seen lately, I can tell that many customers are not thrilled with ironing either. I don't blame you. I sympathize with you. I want to help you!

Here is my other secret, which is also about to not be a secret anymore:

I don't iron my family's clothing - only in extreme instances will I turn that iron on - instead, whatever it is, I steam it, with this:

My Little Steamer! (click ^ to go see it on HSN)
Steamers work wonders on wrinkled ruffles, crumpled capris, bedraggled dresses, and puckered peasants. Irons can have unsightly side effects (new wrinkles!) and you often need steam anyway for the best ironed results. But with the steamer, you just hang the item on a hanger, put the hanger up on a shower curtain rod, and steam away. You can steam right there in your bathroom while you're getting ready for the day, so you don't have to run through the house in your skivvies to the ironing board.

I own an older model of Joy Mangano's My Little Steamer - it doesn't have the fancy attachments or the retractable cord like in the picture above - but I still love this thing!! If it ever croaks, I can assure you I will be buying the newest model with a happy smile, because it is worth every single penny.

Trumpet Vine

We have a trumpet vine I planted two years ago, with the intention of having it cover our patio trellis over time with a bower of green leaves and orange flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Last year we had all of about 20 flowers, and I was somewhat disappointed, especially when my girls picked half of those off.

However, this year it seems to have leapt into high gear, and we have hundreds of flowers just beginning to bloom!

Springtime brings delightful surprises...

An Unexpected Choice

In a previous post, I asked for ideas to fill the trifle bowl on my new shelves. I was originally leaning toward fruit before I even posted - what goes better in a kitchen than fruit, right?

But then Rachel posted her suggestion for starfish and/or seashells, and I loved it! I love the beach, and the results do indeed look wonderful with my palette. Some of the shells are from our last trip to visit my grandma on Long Island.

Thank you, Rachel :)

Fun + Functional

I've had this idea for quite a while. The row of cabinets in my kitchen ends right over a perpendicular counter bar, which left this empty wall space. I liked the idea of some small shelves for decorative purposes and to keep some of my cookbooks handy.

I finally bought moulding and a wood plank, primed it all, and waited for my husband to come home on the weekend. Have I mentioned that he is so good to me? He took my plan and some tools, headed for the garage, and made these:


I painted them with the same semi-gloss I used for the walls, and I think they blend in nicely.

Leave me a comment - I need suggestions for what I could keep in the trifle bowl to spruce it up a bit! I want something I can remove easily if I want to use it for dessert (so no terrariums). I have mostly white, silver & light green in my kitchen - shabby chic - no pinecones! If I pick your idea, I'll take a picture of the completed look, add it to my blog with your name, and link it to your blog.

Coal = Cola?

For a project for school today, Nicole had to find as many things as she could from around our house that were on a list of items made from the by-products of using coal. We learned that when they burn coal to generate electricity, the leftover "stuff" is used for many other useful items we use every day.

For instance, we learned that both laughing gas & the carbon dioxide used for soda can come from coal by-products, as well as asparatame (the artificial sweetener).

Here is everything we found around our house, except for cement, shingles, and insulation which are also by-products of coal usage, but they would not fit on our countertop.

What did fit on our counter from the list:

Posterboard
Fertilizer
Moth Balls
Bug Spray
Abrasives
Pens
Baking Powder
Perfumes
Plastics
Paint
Rubber Bands
Rubber Cement
Batteries
Paper Clips
Chalk

Let There Be Light

All that a man does outwardly is but the expression and completion of his inward thought...

- William E. Channing

I get such a sense of satisfaction from completing a project that I have pictured in my mind for a long time, knowing it would bring new beauty in my surroundings. Such it has been with this chandelier, which I found at a flea market (click for before picture!) It has replaced a boring brass piece that I will not miss one little bit.

Rewiring, lots of paint, a "sleeve" for the hanging chain, and helpful wiring/hanging job by my helpful husband finally culminated in this moment yesterday evening:

Rejuvinated

I was thumbing through a Country Living magazine one day, and realized that the reason that I didn't like doing laundry was my completely uninteresting laundry room that had dulled & yellowed with age. At least, that's what I think the reason is... Plus, the door from the garage is in here, so people come through here from time to time, and I was somewhat embarrassed by the general state of things, with the clutter, disorganization, and, well, blah!!

That afternoon I went straight to Sherwin Williams and had them match the shirt I was wearing. No, I'm not kidding! I love turquoise, and it hit me that the shade of my shirt would be perfect for that fresh, clean look that would inspire me to wash, dry & fold.

I had a lot of junk on the shelves, so I had a day of purging, and took a lot of stuff to Goodwill or the garbage can. I bought some new organizer bins & hooks, and a new ceiling light (the old one was dull & yellowy, too, and sometimes I couldn't find a stain because the whole shirt would look like one big yellowed stain thanks to the bad lighting!)

Yesterday, I woke up with lots of energy and an excitement to get this project completed, so I went for it!

Here's the old look:

And here is the new one!

The new light fixture has two bulbs through clear cut glass, it's so crisp & white, I love it! Thanks to my helpful hubby for installing it, as well as his volunteering to help with some of the painting!!

Now, imagine clean white floor tile! That's my next part of the plan, because the lino is in a state of torn & stained sadness, not to mention it drags down the bright, clean look I've created here. We just couldn't do it all at once. So one day soon, hopefully, I'll have pictures of the final look to show you.

All this work for a laundry room? Yeah, baby! It's a breath of new life for this room that deserves beauty to compliment its functionality!

Self Portrait Challenge - Bathrooms 4

Every time I get use my shower, I feel like I'm on vacation. Even though we've had it for 3 years, that feeling has never gone away.

This can probably be best explained by the fact that this same bathroom used to have a prefab shower with a clear glass enclosure and an attached tub. Hard water took it's toll, recaulking never got rid of the mold, and holes in the poorly-installed grout allowed moisture into our walls creating mold there as well. I shuddered every time I got into it, feeling like the worst housekeeper in the world from the horror of it's condition. It had to go.

I never used the tub (used to be the left in the picture below), and now it's replaced by floor space with a laundry hamper & a decorative cabinet for towels & sheets. Some gasped when I said I was having it removed, "Why don't you use it to treat yourself sometimes?" Since I stopped taking baths as a child, I've grown a distaste for sitting in a pool of water that goes from hot to tepid too fast & contains the dirt & sweat I just washed off. Plus, my book gets wet when I accidently put my other hand in the water (presumably to relax) and then pull it out to turn the page, and my glasses get steamed up & spotted. Not to mention, I just don't find standard tubs comfortable at all!

If I want to relax, I'll go lay on my soft sofa or bed.

Or I'll spend some time in my custom-built shower,

where the day washes down the drain, and I can use the massage setting on my handheld shower head.

To see this final week's bathroom-inspired Self Portraits, click HERE