It's a par-tay!

The Nester, of "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" fame, is hosting a lampapalooza party! I have been on a lamp kick lately so I thought I would join in on the fun. I just did 2 posts on lamp re-dos so I will link to them here and here.

Next on my list, like THIS weekend, is a fabu burlap lampshade re-do. Just like what Rhoda did. I think I have the exact same buffet lamps that she does. I got them at Lowe's years ago. The silky shade is a little too formal for me, so bring on the burlap!!

Now go visit The Nester! Now, go now! Soak up some ideas to try out yourself at the lampapalooza. Her blog is chocked full of lots of incredible ideas. Easy ideas and best of all she gives you the OK to do your own thing...throw caution and any preconceived "decorating rules" to the wind!

The craziness before the calm

Blonde rascal's last day of school is this Friday. As we all know, the last week of school is jam packed with stuff.

Last week his class presented their "Living Museum" project. Very fun idea, research someone who has contributed to society and then present yourself as that person. SO cute.

Here we have adorable Emily who chose the smart Sacagewa.
Landon chose the stately Teddy Roosevelt.
And then, then there is my boy....Yep. Johnny Depp. Trust me it was a stretch finding what Johnny has contributed to society, other than entertainment. I could hardly tell blonde rascal to say that Johnny drives a Prius and supports the legalization of marijuana, now could I?!? Anyway it all worked, I just made up some stuff about Johnny Depp....kidding!

It did make me giggle that he chose him. I was like do your thing boy....don't be like everyone else and pick someone dull. Enjoy your research!

In college, I was a communications major. I had to give LOTS of speeches. The O-N-L-Y speech I remember in those 4 years was one where we had to pick someone notorious to research. I chose Charles Manson. It was faaasssinating. Everyone was scared of me after that, but I got an A. The research was enthralling, how he could brainwash those young people. Watching "Helter Skelter" did in fact scare the crap out of me. That was just an added bonus, as I do love a good scare.

So who am I to fault my little progeny for choosing someone interesting to research? Keep it real, always keep it real son.

(By the way, he got a 100%.)


Last Friday was Buddy Field Day. Lots of sweaty kids.

This game made me laugh...what is it called...bats in the belfry???Dizzy and weaving running children are funny! They were like little miniature drunks.

B.R.'s teacher is priceless. We love, LOVE, love her. She was totally worthy of me making her a quilt as an end of the year gift. However, insert us starting a new career and life 90 miles away while still living here...and the time somehow slipped away from me. Instead, I have had this blog bookmarked for months. I copied her and made this cute gift....
Finally, yesterday was award day. I won't bore you with how fabulous and brilliant my son is, he is you know, by rattling off all of his awards. I'll just show you how cute he was...

....getting congratulated by his fantastic principal.....


...and exiting stage left. Done with 3rd grade! It is bittersweet because we are so ready for summer but at the same time we will miss this school. We have had a wonderful experience at his school. However as he starts in the fall at a new school in a new town we will love it too. A lot of my love for his school came from me being involved and volunteering. Getting to know and build bonds with the teachers and staff. Which I plan on continuing at his new school! Besides all that, even if we had not been moving to another town, the district changed the boundaries so he would of had to go to a different school next year anyway. Change was in the cards any way you look at it.

Saturday we are having a garage sale at MIL's house. Not fun, never fun. It does make moving easier because as I tire of packing... I just say forget it I'm selling it! Plus whatever paltry profit I make gets turned into a decorating fund for the "new" house. Wheee!

Remember

We have had a relaxing weekend at the "new" house. Well....if you call moving boxes and some furniture....horses and hay...relaxing!

This house has a flagpole. I have always wanted a flagpole!!! Just in time for Memorial Day I bought a flag to fly. Hubs, my little Eagle Scout, raised the flag for us.

Today I will remember those who have fought, are currently fighting....

...and those who will soon (sniff, sniff) fight for our free country.
The Marine flew to 29 Palms, CA yesterday for a months worth of desert training. His company is combat ready. They will deploy to Afghanistan in late summer or early fall.
I am so proud of him I could just burst.

Have a wonderful relaxing day!

I love fellow bloggers... and good customer service

A few months back I stumbled across "Cynthia's Cottage Design" blog. It is delightful....her house is soooo very charming. It is like a cute one of a kind store, I would love to leisurely walk around in it, admiring everything!

I think I read through all of her posts in one day...I am sure that was AFTER I had cleaned the house top to bottom, had dinner all prepared, bathed the dog, watered the steers...I would never sit idly on the computer vegging out. Har.

I came to this post and coveted the Susan Branch print about the small house. Our "new" house is small, I am a Susan Branch fan, it caters to the warm whimsical feel I want....so I had to have it.

(By the way, I dare you to read that post and NOT want a dutch door! I would die for one of those. Hubs would think it is impractical. I say practical schmactical.)

I emailed Cynthia and asked if she remembered where she got it. In the meantime I did my usual search...E-bay, google, SB's website and turned up nothing. Cynthia kindly emailed back saying she got it at a Hallmark store, not very recently unfortunately, and gave me the name of the company named on the back of the print. I googled the company and they were out of business.

I figured it was a long shot but I emailed Susan Branch's customer service dept. explaining what I was looking for. I got an email back THAT day that said the print was no longer in production but that they would look for it in the warehouse. I thought that was an impressive turn around time for a response, but figured I would never hear from them again.

Much to my delight they emailed the next day saying they found it and for me to call them. I called, paid, praised them for their stellar customer service and 3 days later I got the print. Kudos to the employees of Susan Branch!

This weekend while I was spray painting anything that stood still, I rummaged around in my box of picture frames, found a gold one that I did not like...and the rest is history!

(Go ahead, click on the picture to see it close up. That farmhouse kitchen is sugary sweet adorable, no?)

Thanks Cynthia! Thanks Susan Branch! Call me Susan... let's do lunch! ; )

I'm a lamp tramp

I can't help it. I guess it is all the little nooks and spots in our new house that just are screaming for some warm lamp light. I have been buying up inexpensive lamps any chance I get. And then there is painting and re-shading the lamps I already have.

There was a rubbed oil bronze blah blah blah lamp at the WalMartz that I really wanted, but even it was $49! I know in the grand scheme of snobbish decorating finery, $49 is dirt cheap for a (cheap) lamp...but in the world of a family whose main bread winner is now self employed, $49 is a lot for a WalMartz lamp!

This weekend at the "new" house, now that all the walls are painted (praise God) I went out to the barn and rummaged around in the boxes of junk we had already moved and cracked open some spray paint.

Remember this piece of work that I showed you guys a few months ago????You all agreed that it was ugly....and I have no argument there, it IS ugly. It was on clearance at Stein Mart because it was ugly. They then marked it down even lower because some of the adornment on the swirly arm had broken off. Then I had a coupon on top of that. So basically Stein Mart paid ME to take this ugly lamp.

I surgically removed the gaudy thingy on the bottom and glued a little somethin' somethin' over the broken swirly arms and then blasted the whole darn thing with cream spray paint.

Now it sits on the corner of the bar in the kitchen just where I have imagined it would.......holding a cookbook.


Or just a good book....
(I love the background clutter in this picture. It summarizes our weekend warrior house renovating so well. There is a tube of caulk....I now hate caulk and have terrible nightmares about it. A thing of disinfecting hand wipes that I am going to put in one of the barns that has a toilet...but no sink. That drives the germ-a-phobe in me crazy. Glass cleaner. And finally a supply of 6,000 BBs for a certain 9 year old boy.)


And lastly my favorite.......the sweet, sweet plate that blonde rascal made me for Mother's Day.


I picked up this...ahem...."gem" at the Goodwill store a few months ago...Cheesy? Yes, without a doubt. The shade did not even originally go with lamp, but it was still in the wrapper... and they had paired them together for $3. How could I say no?

Again with the creme spray paint. (I use the WalMartz brand spray paint....99 cents a can people, whadda ya have to lose?) Blonde rascal said that momma bunny's eyes looked angry, can you blame her... she's carrying those dang babies around in a basket for cryin' out loud. So I painted over those angry eyes really well.

I ripped the pastel plaid trim off the shade and replaced it with brown polka dot ribbon.....Exactly the touch I was looking for in the hall bathroom. For $3.99....that's what I'm talking about!

Bye-bye plain mirrors

The hall bathroom in the "new" house is a great size but it needed a little refreshing you might say. It has mainly been cosmetic updates, which I will show sooner or later. The one thing that I knew had to happen was this. Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is brilliant.

I followed her instructions and just like she said, it was easy peasy.

Here is the before...still in the midst of a renovation mess, just overlook it please!

And after framing the ginormous mirrors....It is shocking to me the difference it made, I keep walking in there looking at it.

The mirrors are really big so it would have been expensive to replace them not to mention a pain to get them down. I needed 5 eight ft. pieces of that fake wood molding stuff. I think they were $8 a piece. So for $40 I got a totally updated look!

The Day My Life Changed Forever

May 9, 2000 I gave birth to my first and only born...a healthy bouncing baby boy! My life has not been the same since. The change that happened in that moment when I saw my squirmy, gooey newborn was that I instantly knew fierce, undying, unconditional love.


This is as far back as my digital pics go...and I am too lazy to go scan some adorable newborn pictures so here we have birthday #2. Chubby cheeks and all. Squeeze him!


Birthday #5

And now when I look at this big happy kid...
... I still see that little boy face with fat cheeks. I probably always will.

9 things about my 9 year old blonde rascal on his 9th b-day...

1. He l-o-v-e-s cars. Any and all. Real or pretend. He has since he was tiny. 100,000 hot wheels and he knows them all. I see him running his Daddy's car lot one day!
2. He is all boy.
3. He is funny, keeps us in stitches.
4. He loves to laugh. Oh how we laugh together.
5. He is indeed all boy, yet he has a tender heart.
6. He has a compassion and love for animals.
7. He doesn't take life too seriously (wonder where he got that from?)
8. He randomly busts out with some wicked dance moves.
9. He would eat candy all, I mean all, day long in his dream world.

Last night we took this rambunctious crew...
to do this...
They had a blast. After photographing the event, I joined in on the next race. I smoked 'em. Yep, I showed all those little punks how it is done.

Two of his besties spent the night. It was a long night...for hubs and I. After my head spun around somewhere about 2am I think they finally went to sleep.

As the last hoorah, right before their moms came to get them this morning, I sent them outside with silly string.I think that burned off the last ounce of energy they had...I hope!

Yay for Craigslist!

I do not like bright overhead lighting so I am always on the lookout for cute lamps. I am also cheap, so finding affordable lamps that I can reinvent makes me really happy.

I found this pair of lamps a few months ago on Craigslist, $10 for two.Pretty cute all on their own, especially for $10, but they were begging to be re-done. I want a lamp to put on top the dryer in our new laundry room...or I should say laundry hall. I am going for a little bit of a shabby chic look.

So I cut off the fabric, leaving the lining.Then in classic southern engineering style, I winged it with scissors, some fabric that was on clearance, ribbon and the glue gun. Of course followed by shaking up the trusty can of cream color spray paint and painting the base.
Granted it should NOT be examined by a lamp maker (who?) or anyone with even the slightest perfectionist tendencies because it is certainly not perfect....but it was in the budget and just what I was looking for!

I do see now that I will have to spray paint the cord too.

God Bless spray paint. Don't ever pass up a cheap ugly lamp...just paint it!!

A better method

...or more self discipline to organize the photos I download from my camera as I download them, either way I have to do something. That is why I have not posted many "new" house pictures cuz I am tired and lazy and don't want to hunt through them all!!

I started out using iPhoto cuz it is easy (duh) and then when I got my Canon precious love, then I decided to use the Canon software....which goes without saying is much harder (duh) than a foolproof Mac product. I had grandiose ideas of mastering the editing capabilities of the Canon software thereby becoming a stellar picture taker/photo editor. I have thrown in the towel and gone back to iPhoto, so from here on out it is smooth sailing in the picture organizing dept.

On that note, the note of how I am a Mac girl until the day I die, we had the satellite hooked up last week at the "new" house for the Internet. The nice installer man said that we would have to call him when we brought our laptops to the house cuz he'd have to walk us through the blahblahblah of getting our computers set for the blahblahblah and the wireless router blahblahblah. (I am a computer moron which is exactly why I have a Mac) Anyway I thought yah we'll see about that. I took my Mac baby to the house, turned it on and was connected to the Internet all by its little self like magic. Or should I say like Mac.

Next time you are in the market for a computer, do yourself a favor and RUN from those PC's. Trust me.

Why, besides the fact that I adore Mac, am I babbling about this? Because I am tired and I keep using "cuz" and blogging at night is a bad idea for me because I turn into a pumpkin at about 8:30pm. Just ask my pesky brother-in-law Mark. He thinks I am a complete dork, for many reasons no doubt, but mainly because I go to bed early. He can go for days w/o sleeping. I think he is a robot.

There I go babbling again.

We were at the "new" house again last weekend and I am proud to say I am DONE painting walls. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. I will never paint again. I hope we like Tobacco Road for the rest of our lives. All that remains is baseboards in the master bathroom and touch ups.

That does not include spray painting various and sundry re-purposing ventures. Bring that on baby!

On an equally exciting note, there was nary a sign of a scorpion, dead or alive, this weekend. Amen.

I'll shut up now and show you 2 before and "almost" after pictures....

Here is the before , which was taken right before we closed.

And the almost after....
Hard to tell a whole lot because it is a total in the midst of remodeling pig sty. Now that the painting ordeal is winding down I will have time to organize and primp. Anyway, the big difference being the floor, counter tops and back splash. Well...that and the light fixture and sink/faucet and after all was said and done we decided that white appliances were not cutting it with the new updated look. So, stainless are being delivered Friday. Oy.

Next we have looking at part of the living room, dining room, kitchen...Notice the stark white walls, tile in dining room/ wood in living and the doorway next to the kitchen cabinets. That doorway went directly into the master.

And almost after....New laminate floor that I am hoping after I mop it 10 or 12 times all of the construction/moving dust will come up! Crown molding added, yes I painted that, and the lovely Tobacco Road on the walls. Nice. Notice where the ladder is, there is no longer a doorway. We moved the entrance to the back hallway in order to have a true isolated master.
Yep, that is the back of the old oven sitting in the dining room. And that is our new sectional that is totally "family movie night/napping/curling up with a good book/conversing" worthy and I can't WAIT to park my big butt on it for a few hours sometime soon!

OK that is all for now. I. Must. Sleep.