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.