House of Havoc

Yes, I am talking about my house. Actually, the title is the name of a new book I am reading, House of Havoc written by Marni Jameson. I am not finished with it yet, but I am loving it so far. It really puts perspective on living with a family and pets.
Having pets is not my excuse for this disaster. My sweet little kitty, Annabelle, is by far the cleanest member of our family. She eats in one place, she potty's in only one bathroom (the litter box), she bathes herself, she has a built in alarm that causes her to meow outside of my door daily about thirty minutes before I really have to get up. All in all, it is not her fault that the house is a mess. Nor is it mine...It is these people who I live with. Anyway, this ideal that keeps popping into my head(put there by Satan ,of course), really isn't attainable for me. This book gives many pointers on making your house beautiful and neat. It also reinforces most of my previous design decisions. Now, I can be happy again with my world of brown. Dirt is brown, so brown furniture is sort of like dirt camo.
What I love most about the book, is it makes me feel like my current standard of living is o.k. You should read it and feel good about yourself too.

My favorite things

 

I really don't know what I am doing blogging. I should post more, probably. I have noticed that I write way more than most do on their posts. I haven't quite figured out a theme or my purpose for blogging. I love to read other's blogs and one that comes to mind is My Favorite Things, because of the title. So that's what I think the point of my blog is, carrying on about my favorite things. So here is the list of my favorite things...
1. God- I am ashamed to admit he doesn't always get the attention that the other things on my list get, but without him I could do nothing.
2. My husband and children- My husband, Andy is so much more than I ever dreamed of. He is very patient and loving and easy on the eyes. He is very smart, and stubborn-he is always right. He is also gone until Sunday,hunting, which I am not mad about, absence does make the heart grow fonder. I love him more since we've had these three little boys. I see what a good Daddy God has turned him into, which has made him a better husband as well. Speaking of our three boys, they continue to delight and aggravate me. They delight me way more than they aggravate me, but it can be a lot on one's nerves-the endless energy of three males. I would not change them for anything though.
3. My brother Chris- he is my oldest and best friend. I have other brothers, two to be exact, and I love them to death. Chris is two years older than me but was only one in school. We've always been close from the time I was born, we have been mistaken as twins. He has been through all of my life's melodramas with me. He helps me gain perspective on a lot of things. I hope I help him do the same. He also makes me fall on the floor laughing. He remembers everything and everybody, and can mimic most.
4.Books and magazines- I love to read. I always have. I don't even remember learning to read, which is amazing to me considering how much I love it. My favorite books to read are fiction and usually are Southern in subject. I guess I like to read what I am familiar with.
5. Creating- I like to sew and draw. Both of which have been on hiatus lately. I don't really love the mechanics of sewing so much, but I do love the satisfaction of turning just a plain piece of fabric into something. I rarely draw unless it is for the kids, which is sad. I was so touched this Christmas, my mother-in-law got me a box of art supplies,it brought tears to my eyes.
6. Design- I love picking things out and drawing up room arrangements and floor plans. Not to scale,of course,because I don't like math.
7. Laundry and cleaning- haha! Just seeing if you are paying attention.

Anyway, if I have anyone that actually reads this and wonders the point of it all, that is it. Just rambling on about the stuff I like. It is not a compete list. I do like my friends and lots of other things, but due to privacy and all, I'll leave it at this.

Blue chairs

 

I was feeling kind of yuck earlier and did not quite feel up to blogging. Still feeling gross, but now feel like blogging. I have been doing a little window shopping. I recieved my weekly email from Neiman Marcus (because I such a good customer and all-haha) and much to my surprise I am ahead of the trends once again. How do I keep doing this? I think I am going to become a color forecaster. Again, kidding. But blue has been on my favorite list for quite some time. Unfortunately, I am not one who is daring and buys or upholsters something in such fabulousness as these. In the back of my mind is,"I am going to have to love this forever and brown just never fails". So,I have a house full of brown furniture. I try to shake it up with some accent colors, but the look just doesn't quite reach what I have in mind. So today ,I have decided that I am going to gamble on my thrift store finds and go for it. If I don't have the photo, I second guess and think well, I know I thought it looked awesome somewhere. Not quite the photographic memory I used to have. Now that I have my photo references, maybe I can get back to work. Maybe I'll do a before and after and a comparision to the Neiman Marcus. Let's see... Goodwil vs. Neiman. What can I say, I guess I am a dreamer.
But in closing, I came across some paint in a post today that all of us fixer uppers would like to use. It is by Country Living.

It is very thick and dries quickly and just has so many awesome qualities that you need to go over to thedevinehome.com and read all about it.

Under the weather

Not feeling very well these last two weeks so I have been reading alot and trying to keep my head upright. The lack of desire to do anything at all is extremely shocking to me. I have managed to stay on budget because I don't feel like leaving the house.
I did drag the two younger ones down to Old Tyme Pottery while Daddy and Sam went hunting. I bought nothing! I also halfheartedly began working on the caned chair in the garage. It is now bright blue. I saw a picture of a very simliar chair in some magazine which inspired me to go out on a limb with the bright color. It is an improvement, but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the sea of neutrals around here. I try to funk it up a little bit around here, but I don't think it's working. I guess I need to leave my projects alone until I feel better.

Dream Family room

While enjoying my morning blog feed, I noticed how all my blogging friends always compile these very enjoyable collages of killer home goods. Ha, ha I thought, this would be an excellent endeavour for me as well. Another diversion from spending money. Not that I could buy any new furniture anyway, but if I could start from scratch this is what I would do. Today, anyway...
I would use two of those awesome tufted sofas on each side of the fireplace. The gold console would be topped with the pottery lamps, family photos between the lamps in various earthy looking frames. I would buy two of the burlap and linen chairs, put a small table in between them, a sea grass rug on the floor and use the coffee table I already have. Voila, instant "please don't let the kids in here" territory. This look is very appealing to me, as I think it so light and cheerful. I can imagine how cheerful I would be, trying to keep the room light and cheerful. Not so much. So fun to do this, because it gives me some perspective on what I already have. There are no worries that you can't come in and put your feet up.

One down...

 

One project down, many more to go. This is my version of the command center in Southern Living. While their's is much cuter, I did not want to put a bunch of holes in my cabinets. I bought dry erase magnet boards at Target and used spray adhesive(that I already had) and my nemises, the glue gun to adhere the fabric to them. The boards were very cheap so you need heavy duty magnets to keep anything on them. I already had a very nice magnet board and the killer magnets that you may be able to see, but alas, it was not large enough. Unable to find anymore of similar quality ,I used the inferior ones. They are very plain, I will admit, but the will soon be covered with more schedules and important reminders from school.
Tomorrow, I guess I have to tackle the laundry after CBS. No more fun projects.

Pontential

 

This morning my devotional was on the subject of gifts and discerning the gifts that God has given you. Excerpt from the Purpose Driven daily devo...The Bible says, "Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do." (Ephesians 5:17 NLT) Don't let another day go by. Start finding out and clarifying what God intends for you to be and do.
Begin by assessing your gifts and abilities. Take a long, honest look at what you are good at and what you're not good at. Paul advised, "Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves ...." (Romans 12:3b NLT)

That is some food for thought for a Monday morning when the Hubby is out of town, and the night was filled with a fevered sick child.
My evaluation of myself is usually not really too positive. I have some pretty cool gifts, but I am sometimes covetous of the gifts of others, like the gift of scheduling (I have never been able to schedule my babies sleeping or feeding). I have nursed them all to sleep and tried (most of the time unsuccessfully) to slip my boob from their mouths and lay them down. Don't get me wrong though I loved it and I miss it and more than likely I will do the same thing again, hopefully. But I am envious of my friends with impeccable houses and routines.
I have a difficult time scheduling myself. For example, while I am typing away, I have this window from 9 to 1 for the laundry. My plan was to sit down and make a list of housecleaning chores, but I am blogging. Hello, ADD.
I think one of the gifts God gave me is seeing potential. I see such awesome potential in my children. I see their gifts very plainly. My Sam has the gift of leadership , John has the gift of strength, and Jack has the gift of joy. They have other gifts as well but these were most evident to me this morning. They are so precious to me and so funny.
My gift of seeing potential extends to different areas. I see the potential in lots of junk, especially my two biggies-furniture and fabric. I see furniture everywhere, the roadside, thrift stores, that I just know that I could transform into something fabulous. I look at magazines and websites and think well there's that chair I saw at Goodwill covered in burlap and linen. I can do that. The other potential biggie is fabric. Now, I don't just buy whatever catches my eye, it has to be a deal too. I just think of the endless assortment of projects that could be completed with fabric, pillows, tablecloths, chair pads, curtains, and on and on... This gift of seeing potential in junk gets me in t-r-o-u-b-l-e. See, my husband does not share this gift, to him my treasures are just junk. It can also cause something to rise up in me that is not a gift ,far from it actually, and that is discontentment. So I am trying to focus my unusual eyesight on just my kids that way we can all be happy. Nevertheless, I have some junk in the garage that is dying for a little TLC. Hopefully, I can do something with this stuff before Andy takes it back to Goodwill. So I leave with this last little tidbit that it totally plagiarized from the Purpose Driven Devotional..
God shaped you for a purpose and he expects you to make the most of what you've been given. He doesn't want you to worry about or covet abilities that you don't have. Instead he wants you to focus on talents he has given you to use.
The lovely pictures above are awaiting their "potential" makeover. Along with the command center I posted prior to this, they will be posted when they are complete.

Gifts from God

This morning my devotional was on the subject of gifts and discerning the gifts that God has given you. Excerpt from the Purpose Driven daily devo...The Bible says, "Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do." (Ephesians 5:17 NLT) Don't let another day go by. Start finding out and clarifying what God intends for you to be and do.
Begin by assessing your gifts and abilities. Take a long, honest look at what you are good at and what you're not good at. Paul advised, "Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves ...." (Romans 12:3b NLT)

That is some food for thought for a Monday morning when the Hubby is out of town, and the night was filled with a fevered sick child.
My evalutation of myself is usually not really too positive. I have some pretty cool gifts, but I am sometimes covetous of the gifts of others, like the gift of scheduling (I have never been able to schedule my babies sleeping or feeding). I have nursed them all to sleep and tried (most of the time unsucessfully) to slip and lay them down. Don't get me wrong though I loved it and I miss it and more than likely I will do the same thing again, hopefully. But I am evious of my friends with impeccable houses and routines.
I have a difficult time scheduling myself. For example, while I am typing away, I have this window from 9 to 1 for the laundry. My plan was to sit down and make a list of housecleaning chores, but I am blogging. Hello, ADD.
I think one of the gifts God gave me is seeing potential. I see such awesome potential in my children. I see their gifts very plainly. My Sam has the gift of leadership , John has the gift of strenghth, and Jack has the gift of joy. They have other gifts as well but these were most evident to me this morning. They are so precious to me and so funny.
My gift of seeing potential extends to different areas. I see the potential in lots of junk, especially my two biggies-furniture and fabric. I see furniture everywhere, the roadside, thrift stores, that I just know that I could transform into something fabulous. I look at magazines and websites and think well there's that chair I saw at Goodwill covered in burlap and linen. I can do that. The other potential biggie is fabric. Now, I don't just buy whatever catches my eye, it has to be

a deal

too. I just think of the endless assortment of projects that could be completed with fabric, pillows, tablecloths, chair pads, curtains, and on and on... This gift of seeing potential in junk gets me in t-r-o-u-b-l-e. See, my husband does not share this gift, to him my treasures are just junk. It can also cause something to rise up in me that is not a gift ,far from it actually, and that is discontentment. So I am trying to focus my unusual eyesite on just my kids that way we can all be happy. Nevertheless, I have some junk in the garage that is dying for a little TLC.

New year, New Projects

At the start of the year,I, like so many others, feel the need to organize. While I love Christmas to the point that I start thinking about Christmas cards in September, I am so glad to see all the boughs of holly ,magnolia and fir go. Even though it's not, my house seems so much cleaner for a few minutes.

So with the thought of organizing and fluffing (Aunt Sunny's term for re-arranging),here are some photos that have inspired me. The top photo is from the Pottery Barn catalog. The two bottom ones are from Southern Living.

Whenever I sew pillows for myself, I tend to take short cuts and try to rush to complete them. These however, have encouraged me to actually take my time and add the little dressmaker details that will cause me to keep them around.

The how-to for the kitchen command center is on the Southern Living website under Solutions here http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/solutions/. Do I really need to supply a link the Pottery barn website. We all know that one.

I am going to attempt a combination of the Pottery Barn organizer and the command center, hopefully I can post the results.

Elizabeth Allen-the nicest person ever

I have recently discovered this wonderful designer via the world wide web, while looking at bedding. I am fixated with bedding, fabric, etc... So when I stumbled upon her wares at Layla Grace.com, I was smitten. It was an odd series of coincidences which led me to find it,but that is another story. Any old way, she has a fabulous array of beautiful fabrics all on her website Elizabeth Allen Atelier. I am still dying over them. Here comes the best part... I noticed on her web site that she has a store, so I called the number listed to inquire about purchasing some items on the website. I left a message with my very best "Southern" (trying not to sound too redneck) voice. Unfortunately, most of the items I was inquiring after had french names. I thought for sure my message was going to end up on you tube, or something akin to the Walmart people emails. I was definitely not expecting a return phone call.
Elizabeth Allen, whom I now refer to as the nicest person ever, returned my call.
That was huge to me. Not only that, but she spent at least thirty minutes trying to help me piece together bedding, after looking in her storage building for some of the things I asked about. I don't know about you, but I was shocked. She was so nice and so patient. Putting together co-ordinating patterns is one of my favorite things, second only to getting a good deal. I can't divulge all my secrets, but suffice it to say, I killed two birds with one stone with her help. Anyway, sometimes you get the nicest surprises when you least expect it. So Elizabeth, not that you'll read this, but if you do, THANK YOU-YOU ROCK! A formal thank you note will also be coming your way.