Deck Dreaming.....

It's FRIDAY!  Today is one of those laid back Fridays when I catch myself making an impossible "To Do" list for the weekend.  It's usually something like this:

• Football Game
• Kids' Sleepover
• Run 10 miles
• Drink coffee/Eat Doughnuts
• Finish 12 painting projects
• Remodel Deck
• Prepare Gourmet meal for whole neighborhood (you know for that fabulous spare of the moment party I'm going to throw)
• Stay up late watching movies
• Then do it all again on Sunday :)

In reality I will do the following:

• let the kids have a sleepover
• make an excuse NOT to run with Patty (at least not 10 miles)
• drink lots of coffee & eat a doughnut
• paint a little
• watch one movie
• DREAM about a deck redo.

So I'm starting early on the last item and here's some inspiration for what I would like the deck to look like......

(source unknown I saved this long before I was blogging and needed sources. Sorry!)

(Thrifty Decor Chick: http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/)

I dream of a deck that is an extension of our living space.  Can't you imagine sitting out on either one of these with a cup of coffee in the morning or glass of wine in the evening?  Someday, maybe someday soon.......

Anyone else think Bob gets scared when he reads these posts?  It's just a glimpse into his future "To Do" list!

Pumpkin Love

I haven't bought any pumpkins yet this year but I'm thinking that will change this weekend!  My porch feels naked without them.  Dawn across the street is winning the pumpkin war with several on hers making it so festive!!

My dirty little secret though is that I really don't like to carve pumpkins.  Bob is great about doing it with the kids and gets very detailed and creative.  I on the other hand will use anything handy to keep me from having to scrape pumpkin guts but still get fun pumpkins this time of year.  So today I thought about last years favorite pumpkins and wanted to share.....

This one was the menu at our Halloween Chili Party.  A Sharpie marker and no dirty hands :)

The same pumpkin then got a coat of spray paint and a message of "Give Thanks"  The little one next to it was beautiful in gold.

T for Turner or T for Thanksgiving either way it's fun.

The Polka dot was my favorite!  Add one more to the top of a terra cotta pot and it's a Fall vignette (fancy talk for a grouping).

Okay I changed my mind...this one Abby did is my FAVORITE!!!!  In addition to being adorable she has a heart for Jesus that brings tears to my eyes.  Her faith shines brighter than the glow of this pumpkin!

I've stolen borrowed some ideas from blogland for some very cool pumpkins this year and I'll be sharing sometime soon.  What are your favorite ways to dress up a pumpkin?

Ahhh the weekend!

It was one of those wonderful weekends when we didn’t have any big plans but somehow we had a blast, got some stuff done AND was relaxing at the same time.  Friday night we had free tickets to PBR (Professional Bull Riding)  It isn’t often when Bob and I go out without kiddos and bull riding didn’t seem like my first pick but we had the BEST time.  The event was exciting, our tickets included drinks and dinner at the arena, kids were being taken care of by great neighbors and I was with the best looking city cowboy there J

                   (Abby took this picture because we were getting ready to go out on a "date")

Remember that desk I’m suppose to have done by October 1^st????  Well, it got sanded and primed on Saturday!

We all went to an amazing church service Saturday night then dinner out at TJ’s Burger House (a family favorite all the way around)

On Sunday the desk got a coat of paint.  That’s all you’re getting out of me about it until the big reveal!  Bob meanwhile power washed the back deck in preparation for staining in the next couple of weeks.

Does anyone believe I was working as hard as him this weekend…… it’s just I had to stop to take some pictures……yeah no one who knows us believes that :)

I also made some Monster Cookies to take down to those great neighbors’ house for dinner Sunday night.  That’s right they watched our kids Friday night AND had us down for smoked pork and all the fixings on Sunday (for anyone keeping track I didn’t cook a meal once this weekend)

Monster Cookies

6 eggs

½ lb. butter

1 lb. brown sugar

2 c. white sugar

1/8 c. vanilla

½ t. salt

1 ½ lb. crunchy peanut butter

4 t. baking soda

9 c. rolled oats

½ lb. chocolate chips

½ lb. M&Ms

Blend sugar and butter. Add eggs and beat.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Drop by ice cream scoop onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I couldn’t think of a better way to end a great weekend than this.....good friends, good food and a good drink on their deck.

Monday brings laundry, cooking, grocery shopping and some painting but that's okay because the weekend is only 5 days away!

Adventures in Garage Sales

I had big plans this afternoon to spend a little more time than usual putting together a blog post with great content, good photos and maybe even a little how-to THEN plans changed.  First things first…it’s BEAUTIFUL outside!  Secondly Aidan (AKA Homebody Extraordinaire) asked me if we could go to some garage sales!!  I usually have to drag him out of his jammies and into the van to go anywhere after school.  Today it was his idea so I hopped on board and off we went.  We actually didn’t find a whole lot other than a bug catcher that will make him the hit of the neighborhood this afternoon when the “big” kids get home from school but we had fun.  Actually, we had a lot of fun as he declared each sale a good one (lots of visible toys) or an old person sale (the ones that make my eyes bug out at all the good junk) 

So inspired by our adventure I switched blogging plans and am going to share some of my more fun garage/estate sale find the past couple of weeks.

Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to what I like and buy   This purchase is one of those.  I walked into an estate sale spotted what I thought were bowling pins on a table but at closer look discovered they are Jim Beam bottles.  Too fun to pass up at $3.00 for both of them.  Also found out you can get a little bit for them on Ebay, about $35.00, but think they will stay on our bar for awhile.  

Same sale I picked up this vintage dictionary for $1.00.  The silver and red stripes were calling my name….can’t you see it on a shelf with several other dictionaries and Scrabble letters in a tray spelling out something fun?

A fun trip to Hayesville city-wide sales with a friend and our kids lead me to this Pepsi crate.  Can’t really see the metal edges but the wood, metal, rust and red lettering had me at hello.  It was $7.50 but is already being used in the entry so pretty good buy.

Glass Ball canning jars are a weakness.  Today’s big purchase were three of these over sized beauties for $.25 each…. yes that’s $.75 total.  The blue jar I bought at Joanie’s a while back but threw it in there to show you how big these really are!  Think they will be beautiful this spring on the back deck as vases or candle holders.

Finally one of the weirdest but most fun things I bought this fall.  A whole set of vintage pool balls for $8.00.  They wanted $10, I would have paid $10 but they took my offer of $8 so even better J  I plan to put them in a container, set them on a coffee table and just admire their colors and uniqueness.

So after an unexpected afternoon with Aidan “shopping” we are home and Homebody Extraordinaire has returned to his recliner for some down time.  However in about an hour he’ll be chasing bugs with his new bug catcher on this beautiful day!

Touches of Fall

Decorating for Fall is one of my favorite things.  Maybe because I enjoy the season so much or it makes me feel like our home is getting cozy for the coming cold weather and many more hours spent inside.  Whatever the reason I enjoy it.  I try not to go overboard and just add little touches here and there...

Something for the table top.  Fillers for some jars on the mantle in the kitchen/dining area but almost everything includes pine cones.  I'm such a sucker for the little elements from nature being brought indoors.

The mantle in the living room usually gets the biggest makeover because it's fun and easy to change up.  This year I added the bronze frames, wreath over the tin square, amazing blue glass jars (recently bought at Joanie's!) and of course oversized pine cones!

I did get one other new Fall arrangement this year.....

It's my favorite too!  Bob and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary yesterday and I couldn't be more blessed.  He's an amazing husband and showed up with this floral arrangement.  He took the time to pick all my favorite Fall colors and flowers :)

There are a few other touches of Fall here and there throughout the house but not many.  Other than adding some pumpkins to the front porch with a few other little goodies I'm done decorating. 

I am ready to focus on other fun aspects of Fall.....pumpkin patches with the kids, pumpkin spice lattes, sitting around the fire pit on chilly evenings with Bob and making LOTS of pumpkin muffins. 





Grandma's Tea Cart

Some projects hang around for a few days, a couple of weeks or even months.  This one has been with us for almost 13 years.  Not long after my Grandma Taddiken went to be with our Heavenly Father my mom brought me a tea cart.  She said that before Grandma passed she made sure my mom knew it was for me.  I was getting married in 3 months and I like to think that Grandma knew I would someday like a piece of furniture like this for my home with my future husband (who she had met and liked almost as much as I did).  Mom thinks Grandma probably got it out of her parents’ home because my great-grandfather was a woodworker and had projects like this in his shop.  Maybe he got it at an auction and had plans for it, we’ll never know for sure, but I like the fact that my Grandma wanted me to have it.

Over the past thirteen years we have moved a couple of times and rearranged storage spaces probably dozens of times.  Each of these has brought up the question of what to do with the tea cart?  Bob patiently waits while I think about it then tell him to put it back where he found it or find a new space for it even when we really didn’t have room.  I’m not the most sentimental person about belongings but I make an exception for this piece every time. 

We recently finished a guest room in the basement and the tea cart found a home.  I realized it would be a great night stand and when I need it for something else around the house it would be easy to get to.  I finally went to work on it a couple of weeks ago.  I decided to finish it in white paint then distress it since it is older.

 

Two coats of paint and some sandpaper got us to this point.  I distressed it once then lived with it for a couple of days before deciding it needed more distressing.  It’s now FINISHED and in the guestroom.

 I really like the look of mixing rustic with modern and since the guestroom is painted in a blue-gray that lends to modern it's the perfect marriage of the two especially then adding a modern lamp. (Please forgive the poor photo quality AGAIN!  The room paint really is blue/gray and not digny like it appears here! The room is in the basement, it's cloudy outside and I'm ready for a nap) 

My grandma probably wouldn’t understand why I spent a couple of hours painting the tea cart to then sand the paint off but I know she would love the fact that I love it and am using it in my home.

Miss you Grandma…

Two Crafties (Is that a made up word?)

Fall hit hard this weekend at Havenhurst Haven!  I pulled out the Fall décor, cleared mantles then refilled them with anything orange and put out countless pinecones.  All the Fall frenzy also included two quick and crafty projects I wanted to share.

Last weekend while at Joanie’s Junk in Morganville, KS, I picked up a burlap potato sack that had great red type on the front that read Sweetwater.  The red lettering on it reminded me of a Pepsi crate I had recently found at a garage sale so I decided they needed to be together in our front entry.  For only $5.00 I brought the sack home!  Joanie’s is AMAZING and very soon I plan to do a whole post about all the goodies in our home from there but until then if you want more info about how to find Joanie’s let me know…I can hook you up!!  Anyway back to the sack, I bought a king size pillow, stuffed it in a neutral pillowcase then the whole thing went in the burlap sack.  I simply stitched up the open end then hand-stitched across the top and bottom to make it fit just a little snugger.

About 10 years ago I made my one and only true Pottery Barn purchase.  We were in Kansas City with friends when I spotted these purple glass candlesticks.  At the time we had just bought new furniture, in purple, and I thought they were perfect plus the only thing I could afford in the store!

You can see from the layers of dust they have been sitting on a shelf for quite some time.  Still pretty but don’t fit our décor as much anymore.  I bought some sisal rope for just a few dollars.

With a glue gun in hand I wrapped the rope around the base of the candlesticks.  Best part is that Aidan decided to craft along with me….his project involved paper, lots of glue and googly eyes.

Here’s the finished projects put in their place for Fall.

Are you decorating for Fall yet?  Now all I need is a pumpkin muffin for the full Fall experience!

Lamp Makeover

Yesterday was my birthday and it was an incredible day!  I received Facebook birthday wishes & drank a lot of this…

Special deliveries from awesome neighbors….

And ended the day with dinner, cake & ice cream with the family!

One of the other highlights was I finished up a project that has been hanging around for a couple of weeks.  I found this floor lamp at a moving sale.

The base is heavy duty (well-built), three-way bulb wired and a great shape.  It had been marked down to half price so at $10 it was a steal.  A few of the “problems” were the mustard yellow paint with faux antiquing over the top.  The shade had been hand painted in a landscape scene that just isn’t quite my style plus it was in pretty rough shape.  Nothing a little spray paint and fabric couldn’t help.  Bob got right on it and painted the base for me in Rustoleum Colonel Red - gloss.  The color grabs your attention and our entry needed a pop of color for sure!

Then my part started in the hunt for a new shade.  The original is 16 inches in height which is pretty big.  I checked all the usual suspects Target, Wal-Mart & Menards and the largest I could find was 13.5 inches which was just too small.  All shades online in that size were going to run at least $50 which is just not in the budget for my $10 lamp. 

Then yesterday I decided just to go to JoAnn’s to look for material and started rethinking using the old shade.  I plugged the address into the GPS because I didn’t know where JoAnn’s was actually located.  It usually drives me crazy when the GPS takes me on a wild goose chase but yesterday God was smiling on me (remember it WAS my birthday) and the wacky route the GPS had me take took me right by a thrift store that is closing and had everything marked down 50%.  It was almost too good to be true when I spotted this lampshade for only $1.85!!

It isn’t exactly beautiful but I knew I was going to cover it anyway and it was 17 inches tall.  With the shade and a few other goodies loaded into the van I headed on to JoAnn’s.  There I found the perfect material discounted by 25% so the $9.99 a yard was only $7.25.

Once home I covered the lamp with the material using “magic in a can” and attaching ribbon on the rough edges  to give it a more finished look.

If I were to do it again I would be more conscious of the seams of the lamp, material and ribbon matching up so I didn’t need to try to hide so many seams in the back but overall I love it! 

It’s a great addition to our entry.  Here's the breakdown on cost:

Lamp $10.00

Spray Paint $2.75 

Shade $1.85

Material $7.75

Ribbon $2.00

Total $24.35 

Once I decorate for Fall I’ll share a better photo of the lamp in its home next to the bench.

Easy Peasey Pillows

Occasionally, almost daily, I come across a project on a blog that I really want to try out in our home.  My procedure is to save a picture of it then return to the picture obsessively until I decide to take it on or forget why I liked it so much.  Today’s project was one of those I couldn’t get out of my head.  I came across it on a bowl full of lemons several months ago.  She was inspired by some Pottery Barn Pillows and nearly replicated them. The blogger of that site has a lot of great ideas and posts detailed tutorials on quite a few projects.  So if you want a step by step with nearly professionally photos check out her amazing site here:

http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/2011/04/link-party-tuesdays-one-project-at-time.html

Here is her final project….love the pillows!

Now on to how I did it which was from a few 7^th grade home economics classes on sewing and 4-H projects back in the 80’s.  I don’t even own a sewing machine but my neighbor Patty does.  Problem was she had never used it but what better way to “inspire” someone to learn how to use something than a neighbor bugging them about it.  The first week the kids were in school I text her and asked her when we could break it out.  She was here with it the next day.  The amazing part is that why I ran to Michael’s to buy thread she was able to read the instructions (the machine had never been out of the box) set it up and basically had it ready to go…she’s amazing! 

I really wish I had thought to take some photos because we broke every sewing rule and never once measured.  We simply laid the pillow forms on some linen I bought last year for a Christmas project.  Folded the material over the pillow and cut it to fit.  I pinned the sides we needed to sew together (and also to the floor where I was working) then off we went sewing.  I think we both had flashbacks to our moms yelling at us to slow down on the machine but that only caused more laughter.  We zipped up the three sides that needed sewing but left room to stuff the pillow in.  Miraculously the pillow fit, first try, no measuring and very little sewing!!  We’ve decided we are naturally talented seamstresses but we’ll test that theory out on the next project.

Here’s where I started taking a few photos to share.  I made a template by printing the numbers 1 and 2 on typing paper and cutting out with an exacto knife.  I used Bondi font at 1000% as recommended in the actual tutorial. 

Next I pinned the template on and used fabric paint to put the numbers on the pillows.  I should also mention I put some cardboard in the pillowcase to keep the paint from running through to the back.  I didn’t care that the paint was a little thin in a couple of spots or slightly out of the lines because that added to it’s imperfect perfection. 

My first attempt at the fabric paint was with paint marker below because I thought it would be less messy but it didn't work at all.  The paint didn't cover well and the tip got tore up by the texture in the material.

I removed the template immediately and let dry overnight.  Last step was to insert the pillow forms and hand stitch up the area I left open to put the pillow in.  So simple but add so much to the chairs that flank our fireplace. 

Plus they feel kind of Fallish and I’m all about that right now…pretty sure the Fall décor is getting drug out of the storage room tomorrow!