Quality Time and Deep Conversation???

OK, so I had to run some errands this afternoon. You know, the bank, Target, Aldi's, Sam's to gas up for the week . . . things like that. So I decided that I would take the boys out to one of their favorite place for lunch. They love it because this restaurant has an all you can eat pizza buffet for lunch. I don't know why they call it "The Pizza Buffet" when they also have fried chicken, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, spaghetti and meat or meatless sauce, mac and cheese, sausage and peppers and salad bar. But anyway, I took them there for lunch and they ran to their favorite booth, got their food and asked the waitress to change the channel from CNN to Cartoon Network. Tom and Jerry was on and this is what I got to look at while I ate my lunch:

There was total silence except for the occasional burst of laughter. I guess I should appreciate the silence but, a little conversation isn't too much to ask for is it?

My New Drug of Choice

This has nothing to do with homeschooling or decorating or anything except that I have to tell all of you about my new drug of choice. I love to browse the organic section of the grocery store and last Thursday I found it:

Good Earth Organic White Tea with Sweet Citrus

It makes the most delicious iced tea. It has orange peel and lemon grass in it as well as some spearmint. It is quite possibly the perfect cup of tea. I even staged a pretty picture for you with a table cloth and my Princess House crystal pitcher and iced tea glass. SEE!!!

You must try it. Caleb said it was "Delectable". Jeremy said it was "the most delicious cup of sweet tea he has ever had". I just plain LOVE it. If you live near a Food Lion, They had it for $3 a box.

A Busy Weekend

OK, so it has been a little while since my last post. I made it through the first week of the new year of school and we are right on track. We had a busy weekend. We are doing some fix-ups to get our house ready to be sold. I just finished painting the front door . . . Yes! I know it is after midnight. We have to leave the front door open over night so the paint has sufficient time to truly dry well. I didn't think of that but, we'll be fine for one night with just the storm door closed.

Any way, this coming week promises to be just as full. Tomorrow we are going to the pool as it is the last day of the season and Judah's Preschool is closed. Tuesday and Wednesday, my dad is coming to help with some more outdoor fix-ups and we will be pricing laminate to replace the carpet in the public areas of the house. It is 10 years old and has seen a lot of traffic. We are leaving the carpet in the bedrooms. It is still fine . . . although I will probably shampoo them. The hall bath is keeping its vinyl as it is neutral and in good repair. The Master bath has carpet. Please tell me who thought this was a good idea. Last summer I took a razor and cut a line in the carpet so I could remove the carpet from under and around the toilet. With 4 people of the male persuasion living in the house, you could only imagine what the carpet was like in that area but that is a whole 'nother post. I put vinyl tiles in the toilet corner and nailed a thresh hold over the cut end of the carpet. It looks fine but the best part of this project is the smell or lack thereof. The rest of the carpet is pretty worn especially right in front of the sinks. We may just lay a solid sheet of vinyl throughout the room. I am excited for new floors.

Other things I'd like to do that would not break the bank are:

1. Replace the bathroom sinks and faucets as they are the very cheapest money can buy and are really kind of dated. I saw plain white porcelain sinks for $24 each at Home Depot and nice chrome faucets with 2 handles (instead of the acrylic ball handle) for $29 each. I have 3 sinks to do so that's not too bad ($159 plus tax). I would love to do what the Nester did in her bathroom but then I would have to paint the cabinets and we have A LOT of cabinets!!! Check it out here: http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/2008/08/high-heels-for-bathroom.html

2. Actually plant live plants in the ground in front of my house. I am a city girl and not that good with plants but we have a huge front yard and in all the years we have lived here, we have had nothing but a driveway and a mailbox in front of our house. It is a great house and it is pretty all by itself but it needs some curb appeal. I just put some pretty potted plants on the porch but I think it needs something more. I also just painted the shutters Black (they were brown) and as I mentioned before, I just painted the front door black tonight. I wanted red but couldn't find a red I liked that didn't totally clash with the Autumn-Colored (Dark ORANGE!!!)roof. I have new black exterior light fixtures that Dad will be putting up for me. The old ones are bronze but not in a good way. The address numbers were falling off the house and swinging around on their nails so I invested in some quality brushed nickel house numbers.

One thing that I would really like to do is paint all my moulding. In the late 90's when this house was built, stained wood mouldings were the style of the day, so we have cherry cabinets in the kitchen and both baths plus matching crown throughout the entire house. I love dark wood and especially cherry stain but having the mouldings that color limits what colors I can paint the walls (or at least in my mind I can't get past it). This would not be an expensive project. It would just be extremely time consuming. I just want white semi-gloss mouldings. Sort of related to that would be to remove the popcorn texture from the ceilings and have smooth ceilings. Our youngest sleeps in a loft bed and he likes to pick it off the ceiling. It is not fun to clean up.

So, I thought I would end this post with some pictures of a few things I've done inside the house.

I used this ribbon to mistreat some fabric scraps for a valance for the sliding glass door in the breakfast room.

Here is a close-up of it tacked to the wall (notice my cherry moulding). I didn't get close enough but, the fabric is white with rust, sage and 2 different purples in a grid pattern. I found some ribbon (the ribbon from the previous picture) in the closet that matched 2 of the colors in the fabric and hot glued them on the bottom. The colors coordinate with the wall paper.

Now you can truly appreciate the popcorn ceiling and cherry moulding situation. Pay no attention to all of the hand prints on the glass. My children do not understand the purpose of door handles.

This is a set of sheers that I already had and a remnant from Hobby Lobby. I love it and the colors in it are the same colors as are in the couch. Again love my moulding!!! I think it needs something more and I have some khaki linen that I was thinking of using as panels on the ends. What do you think?

Here's a close-up. Notice that I left the frayed edge showing in place of fringe. I kind of like it that way.

So, I also did a lamp for Caleb's room and the window in Jeremy and Judah's room but they are sleeping as it is after 1AM now. I will snap more pictures tomorrow. Maybe I will do a showcase of the boys' rooms. I will also try to find some before pictures of the front of the house and then I'll take some new ones and you can tell me what you think and what else you think needs to be done. I could use some good landscaping ideas.

More Mistreatment . . . This Time It Is NOT The Windows

I wanted to post something I just did today to find some space in my house. But first I want to show you the very first thing that I ever mistreated . . . My dining room fixture.

She is not that pretty but when we moved in, she was naked. They had really bright clear bulbs in this thing and clear glass hurricanes over the bulbs. I got these shades at Hobby Lobby for $1 each and hot glued the beading on the edge. That was probably 7 years ago. I really don't like that it is brass but I have gold picture frames and don't know what other color I could paint it. What do you think?

Here is the project that I did in 20 minutes this morning with a full size flat sheet from Walmart ($2.50 on clearance) and my glue gun. Tell me what yo think of my new "scrapbooking supply cabinet". Here is the before picture:

And here is the after picture:

And here is what she is hiding:

Judah didn't seem all that impressed but tell me what you think.

What the heck . . . ?

I am sitting in the office, checking my email and trying to get ready for my very full day when I hear this:

Caleb: Did you take that Nazi off the motorcycle?

Jeremy: The Russian guy is supposed to go on the motorcycle!

Caleb: No, Jeremy! The Russian guy died when Scooby Doo's alien girlfriend showed up to save the day.

Jeremy: Oh, you mean, Crystal and Amber?

Caleb: No not Crystal . . . just Amber.

Jeremy: Whose that in the Jungle Cutter?

Caleb: Oh, that's Napoleon . . . He's French . . . Not like the mustard!

Jeremy: I'm gonna go watch the Magic Schoolbus.

What the heck? Is anyone else confused? And did anyone know that Scooby Doo had a girlfriend?

I am off to do some laundry. Have a blessed day!

Mistreatment Partay with The Nester

I have been so inspired by what the Nester has done in her home that I have decided to "mistreat" some of my windows as well. I will even show you one disaster in the making (which of course I am stuck on). Maybe you can help me.



So here is my first mistreatment. It is a valance that I made for the kitchen window. I had a bag of fabric scraps and a box of OLD ribbon that I got from a lady at church. The fabrics is the skirt portion of a little girl's jumper and I glued the ribbons onto it and used coordinating plastic clothespins to hang it on an existing rod. I hung it at the ceiling and it mostly covers the wall. Please disregard how the wall paper is hung upside down on this section of the wall. It was like that when we bought it. The cost for this project was: $0

The next room I did was my formal dining room. I used some old homemade curtain panels and hung them at the top of the window so they would reach the floor. Then I hung a rod just below the crown molding and hung my nifty mistreated window topper to cover the wall and the top of the lower curtains. I really love this fabric and I had just enough to make it look like a custom cornice board. The velvet covered buttons make it look even more tailored and formal. In the first picture you can see the lampshades on the chandelier that I mistreated with some dangly, beaded trim. Even my husband liked it and he seldom gets excited about decorating. The scallops are not as crooked as they appear in these photos. The cost for this project was: $8

The next room I did was my bedroom. We have 2 windows on either side of the bed but since my bed was not made, I only took a picture of one of the windows. They are both dressed the same. I already had the sheers in there. The mossy green panels were a pair that I had gotten at Walmart at least 3 years ago on clearance. I cut each panel in half and glues the cut edge so the fabric wouldn't unravel and made dumby panels. It has almost a burlap weave but it is soft and smaller weave so it made a mess when I cut it. The toile and gingham were remnants from Hobby Lobby. I hung everything just under the crown molding on rods I already had. The cost for this project was: $6 (for 2 windows) Does anyone have any ideas for the lampshades?





The next room is a work in progress and I really need everyone's help. I started in the formal living room by pairing existing cream colored panels with the striped panels that I made using my glue gun. I have blackout fabric in the top windows because we live in the south and these windows face west. The sun bakes this room in the summer so I cut blackout fabric to fit these windows and velcroed them to the window frame. In the fall and winter, I can take them down and at Christmastime, I take everything down out of this window so the world can see my tree! Anyways, I am having a hard time dressing the top of the window to cover the blackout fabric. I also purchased some wonderful blue fabric on Saturday at Hancock's 50% off sale and some trim. There is a picture of all of it together. Any ideas for me?









I have some other projects and fabrics to play with after I finish the formal living room monster window. Take a look at my clearance finds:




I am thinking about mistreating a round table and a sideboard with these.

I am going to do a cornice or something in the family room with this.

I love everyone's pictures and ideas that I've seen so far. Thanks in advance for the help.

Toothless Wonder

I thought you might all enjoy some pictures of Jeremy with his front tooth missing. He was very excited when it fell out. It was the third tooth that he has lost so far. The Tooth Fairy left him $1 which he was very happy about. I just love when they lose their front top teeth. They look so cute and sound so funny. Then when it grows back in, it is way too big for their mouth.

I am not quite sure but, I think Michael had him laughing and that's why his eyes are closed.