One (or Two) Projects Closer!

Remember earlier this week when I posted a few teaser pics showing a few projects I had in the works? I actually got one of them finished today! And on top of that, I went ahead and started on another one I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while.

Here’s the little teaser photo from earlier this week:

When cleaning out my mom’s house, I found some great old unfinished wood frames so I took four of them and painted them out black. I might distress them later but for now, they will be solid black. On Monday, I went to Hobby Lobby for white mats and glass. I got these cheap little mats for $1.99 each and when I found out the glass was going to run me $7.00 per pane, I again found a more cost-friendly alternative and picked up four of these:

$1.99 for these too! It has a cardboard back and you can’t tell the glazing is not glass. So for around $16.00 I had 4 mats and 4 pieces of “glass” for my free frames!

Here’s my new black and white gallery I hung in the kitchen so everyone can enjoy seeing them all the time.

(I don’t know why these first few pictures look so washed out….the last two show the true color of the walls in the kitchen)

I’ve had this old butcher block table I bought many years ago at a little flea market for $25. It’s rickety and the base is not real wood but cheap looking veneer. When I was single, I used it as an island of sorts in my kitchen but now that THE MAN lives here, it would not work for him so I moved it. I keep dishtowels in the drawer. I’ve wanted to do a paint treatment on the veneer, maybe a distressed creamy white and on the top (which is real wood) stain it dark to match my table. So I went ahead and did the staining and will tackle the painting another day. If anyone can give me some hints on how to paint that veneer, I would be forever in your debt!

Here it is after I taped off the top. I know some of you would have used some kind of stain blocker or sanded down those water rings, but patience is not one of my virtues, and I like immediate results, so the stains stayed. I think it gives it character, don’t you?

I slathered on about 3 coats of Min Wax Dark Walnut stain, let it seep in for a little bit, then wiped it down. The wood really took that stain – just like I wanted!

More washed out pics….it must be the light, sure can’t be anything I did, right?

I’m still working on the table (below). When I took the tape off this morning, some of the stain had seeped below to the painted part so I will have to fix that before I show it to you.

Don’t forget to re-set your clocks back one hour Saturday night (fall back).

EDITED TO ADD:

(I PREVIOUSLY SAID "SO YOU'RE NOT LATE FOR CHURCH" BUT A VERY ASTUTE READER POINTED OUT YOU'D BE EARLY! THANKS TERRY!)

Wouldn’t You Love To Know What I’m Working On?

I finally got in some time to start some projects I’ve been putting off for some time.     Sunday I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get as many started as I could and of course, that meant NOTHING got finished.    In my defense, I will say that I ran out of “supplies” such as paint, I needed some stuff from Hobby Lobby which of course is closed on Sunday, and then ran out of steam and daylight.    I was doing a lot of painting outside and it is supposed to rain a lot this week, so I wanted to use what daylight I had.    Anyway, here’s just a few of the projects I’ve got going on and hope to finish up and cross them off my never-ending list soon….

   

 

 

 

That’s three things I’ve got going but none completed.     However, I do plan to get at least two of them finished this week and then I can share that with ya’ll.   

I’ll be excited to get a few more things done.    I have two big projects I would love to get started on and finished before Christmas but that remains to be seen.    They involve painting my bedroom and bathroom and COMPLETELY re-vamping my sunroom.    Fingers crossed!

Blogger Appreciation Week

I’ve been blogging almost two years now and it’s been a most fascinating journey.     When I look back at how my blog has evolved during that time, I just have to laugh at how “unsophisticated” my first attempts were!    And while I certainly don’t pretend to have a high-tech blog or  one of the newer .com’s some of ya’ll have, I’m pretty happy at how my blog has “grown up” since it got “birthed”!       But truth be known, there are a few fabulous blogs that have influenced me from the very beginning.       Let me tell you who they are and a little about them.    In no particular order, they are the following:

1.    Joni at Cote de Texas – I don’t know how I stumbled on Joni’s blog but I’ve been smitten from day one.    She has totally turned my decorating style around 360 degrees by her love of linen, slipcovers (or “slips”), seagrass rugs and lots of white!    Plus as busy as she is, she has ALWAYS taken time to answer any e-mails I send her and made some very sweet comments on my blog.    I can’t imagine there is anyone out there that doesn’t know about Joni, but if you don’t, go check her out.

2.   Rhoda at Southern Hospitality – I saw her blog name on someone’s sidebar and being the true Southern girl that I am, the name immediately intrigued me so I checked it out.    This was shortly after Rhoda began her blog and I remember sitting at my desk at work (wasn’t busy that day) and ready her whole blog and printing off some 60+ pages from her blog (I’ve told her this so I wasn’t REALLY stalking her).    We started e-mailing back and forth and I discovered she lives close to my son’s neighborhood.   We made plans to meet as soon as possible and from the very first meeting I knew she was a “keeper” friend.     Since our first meeting, we’ve had some great thrifting adventures, including our whirlwind trip to Atlanta in January to meet up with Eddie Ross.       Rhoda has such passion for what she does and it shows….she’s one of the best.   Her cost-effective, hands-on decorating style is one we can all relate to and utilize in our own homes.     I feel very fortunate to have met this wonderful Southern Belle!

3.   Pat @Back Porch Musings – You know how it is when you meet someone and you just know they have a wonderful soul?   That’s how I’ve felt about Pat from the very beginning.    Although we’ve never met in person, I feel like she’s a wonderful friend.     If she wasn’t so sweet, I would be seriously jealous of her talents – decorating, cooking, gardening and photography!    She just posted her bedroom re-do which I’ve been eagerly anticipating and as I always tell her, she didn’t disappoint!     If you’ve never visited Pat, don’t miss your chance now to scoot on over and get acquainted with this precious lady.

3.   Melissa at A Little Loveliness – Melissa and I met on line a little over a year ago.     Again, this lovely lady is a neighbor, just “down the road a piece” as we say here in Dixie.     She should be an event planner and if you’ve ever seen any of her projects, you will agree.    Plus she has the most gorgeous family ever!    Her daughter Mary Ashley and  my Taylor are little friends and share ballet lessons together.     Melissa is a sweet soul and she lives and radiates her Christian walk daily.  

 

4.   Marian @Miss Mustard Seed – I just discovered Marian’s blog last week and I’m totally smitten with her creativity.    I spent some  time drooling over her blog and I would highly recommend you do the same!    She hosts Furniture Feature Fridays and I decided to play along and to my surprise she picked my dresser re-do which I posted about several months ago as one of her favorites!    I was very honored to be featured with these other talented ladies.   I can’t wait to see more of Miss Marian in the future.

And there you have just a short list of some of my favorite blogs.    There are really too many to mention and I might do another Blogger Appreciation at another time but this will give you an idea of where I get my inspiration from and an idea of some of the extraordinary talent out there.

Ya’ll have a great week!

Feeling Fall-ish and the Motherlode of China

Whew!   What a crazy blog title but I promise it will make a little more sense at the end of this post.

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you know that recently we moved my mom from her home of 40 years into assisted living.   That means getting rid of a lot of stuff.    My wonderful sister Betsy (Bets, you’re the best) has spent the last 5 weekends at mom’s house with me and we’ve sorted, packed, and had a few teary moments going through all mom’s things.    It’s so hard to disassociate yourself emotionally and you finally decide you can’t keep EVERYTHING so you just do the best you can.     In fact, this weekend there is an estate sale going on.    

Now, on to the motherlode!    A few years ago, my mom’s bachelor brother passed away at age 90.     My siblings and I along with mom were his only heirs.     After going through his massive Tudor style home in North Carolina, one of the things I ended up with was this huge box packed full of stuff which went in storage.     When we knew we were going to have the estate sale, I decided to go through the box to see if there was anything in there I could sale.    When I started upwrapping all the things in the box, I was overwhelmed at what was in it.     A beautiful set of china, gorgeous round butter dish and some fabulous crystal.      Here it is all piled up in the dining room (just ignore the pumpkins you see as I haven’t had time to set out my fall tablescape yet):

I think this is for deviled eggs…not sure what it’s proper name is but I love it!

While this pattern is not something I would pick out for myself , it’s just so delicate and pretty I wanted to keep it in the family.

 

This is my pride and joy!    I gave my sister a round butter dish many years ago and have been on the lookout for one for myself….I don’t even remember seeing this at Uncle Charlie’s.

What a sweet tea pot!

Gorgeous stemware

 

 

 

I took a little break from putting all this in protective china storage  to go outside and show ya’ll my only attempt at putting out anything for Halloween/fall.    I just haven’t had the time.

We have this little garden gate we put on the side yard several years ago and I always enjoy decorating it for the seasons.      It’s not much, but here’s how it looks for now….

 

I have not even had time to clean out my flower beds and you can see all the pinestraw that has accumulated….maybe I can talk hubby into taking his blower out there!

And I hung a birdfeeder on a hook right outside the front door:

 

 

 

And finally, I’ll end this post  by saying:

W-A-A-A-R EAGLE!!!!

 

My New Love

This past Monday was our anniversary.    Hubby took off 1/2 day and we went to see mom for a little bit then out to eat.       After lunch, he said we were going to Best Buy….since we’ve been looking to buy mom a new TV, I thought we were going to look at some of the flat screen TV’s.     But to my surprise, he had arranged for our computer guy to meet us at Best Buy and I got a new laptop!    I’ve been wanting a laptop so I could go “wireless” so I got all the stuff you need to make that happen.    By Tuesday night, I was blogging all over the house.     Take a look, isn’t she a beauty?

Happy Anniversary!

October 12, 2003 I took a big leap of faith and walked down the aisle and into a new beginning.      Sometimes it seems like yesterday and sometimes it seems like a l-o-o-o-g time but it’s been an interesting ride!     The story of how we met and how he proposed is pretty neat….you can read all about it here.

Here’s to the rest of our life…..and I can’t wait!

(I look goofy cause we’d been taking pictures All Day and  I was exhausted!)

Drop Cloth Drapes Part 2!

I’ve got some exciting news!    My sweet friend Lindsay is showcasing my drop cloth drapes over at her blog today.      Lindsay features “Teach Me Tuesday” on her blog on, what else? Tuesdays, so today is my lucky day.  

This was a great little project that I really enjoyed doing and I loved the way they turned out.    No one can believe I made these from drop cloths and a black sheet!   Please go by Lindsay’s blog and see if you agree with me that these are the bomb!   (I don’t think anyone says that anymore).

For the full story and more pictures on my drapes, you can check it out here.

Sunday Supper

Fall is in the air ya’ll!    And when it gets just a little nippy here at our house, I’m ready to make a big pot of hamburger soup served with cornbread.       There’s nothing more we enjoy than this simple meal on a cool Sunday night.    

This is really a very simple recipe and I’m sure there are many versions out there but here’s how I make my hamburger soup:

Brown your ground beef and drain off any grease

Here are the ingredients I had on hand.    You can add any number of things to your soup but I was in a hurry and this is what I had on hand.    My mom always adds a little elbow macaroni to hers.     I use a lot of  ketchup and Heinz 57 sauce for a little “kick”.      

Add all the ingredients (above) to the ground beef, adding quite a bit of water.      I start off using about 4 cups of water but add more as it cooks down.     I also continue to add ketchup as needed.       The longer it simmers, the better it tastes, but you can have this soup ready in about 45 minutes if you are in a hurry.

Here it is ready for you to dig in!     You can see little bits of cornbread in the bowl, that’s how I like to eat mine.

While your soup is simmering, prepare and cook the cornbread.      Here’s the basic recipe I use:

1 egg, beaten

1 1/3 cups BUTTERMILK (the secret to my cornbread)

1/4 cup oil

2 cups Martha White Buttermilk self-rising corn meal mix

Heat oven to 450 degrees.     Pour a little oil in the bottom of a black skillet (another secret) and place in the pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes.      In the meantime, mix the above ingredients together and pour in the black skillet after you remove it from the oven.     Bake for about 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven.     Remove and turn out on a serving platter.     Cut into wedges and enjoy!

   

Look at my platter….does anyone remember that pattern from the ‘80’s?