Wedding #2

...and now the wedding is history!  Today I have felt very mentally relaxed after weeks of feeling totally consumed with thoughts of the wedding.  We had a wonderful weekend filled with lots of time with family and a little time with old friends.  The wedding came off "with a hitch" :)  We have now added a new Mrs. Rockey to the clan! 

These are far from professional pics, but here are a few shots at the wedding.  And yes, I am talking to keep from crying! I made the mistake of choosing the song "Baby Mine" for the mother/son dance.  If I had listened to it, I would have been bawling my eyes out.  

This was their first dance.  

Now, life may get back to some semblance of normal.  Then again, it may not! 

Several projects coming up in the near future, including, a kitchen modification, finishing the flooring, painting the music room curtains and making a slipcover.  Now I just need to get to work!

Blessings, 

Ronda

This Post Should Probably Be Rated PG

 Hmmm....this may be a night of many of those "random thoughts!" With the wedding on Saturday, I will be heading up to pick up my folks at the airport on Thursday, then on up to Ft. Wayne.  So for these first few days of the week, I am determined to do as little as possible! :)  Of course, some things have to be done... like cooking dinner.  So during my dinner prep tonight I realized that I was missing a key ingredient in the recipe I was concocting-- a can of enchilada sauce.  So what did I do?  Create my own, of course!  A can of tomato sauce, some onion salt, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, and voile!  Enchilada sauce! And it was good. Great as a matter of fact!  

So here is a shot of my bookshelves since I unloaded all of my boxes again.  The top shelf is not necessarily done.  I am still looking for the perfect item for the top...I'm thinking architectural salvage in nature, a window or a gate maybe.  But...got to be the right item at the right price!  There is about half the amount of stuff on these shelves now!  

Here is a reminder of what they looked like before....

Yuck...

Ewwww....

Double ewwww......

THE DETAILS NOW.....

Among the finds that I added to the shelves was a vintage-look wire basket from Home Goods.

 Some of you may be wondering why on earth I am displaying a tackle box on my shelves!  No, I am most certainly not a fisherman, nor do I have any kind of weird fascination with fishing paraphernalia. That tackle box was my great-grandmother's sewing box! Awesome, right?!  It had been in the attic since my mother gave it to me.  When my hubby brought it down, it was fun to go through it again to see what all she had in it.  Among the expected threads, needles, snaps, and a darning egg, were a few unexpected items.  What looked like a little coin purse held the an upper plate from her dentures, made out of metal.  Wonder what kind of metal it is?  And...hmmm...what is this????  A bag full of....condoms!  What?  No, my little, tiny 80-something year old, long-widowed great-granny was not using those for what you might think.  Those of you who are accustomed to hand-sewing probably already know the answer to the riddle...she used them to pull a needle through a quilt!  Today I use a piece of balloon.

Blessings,

Ronda

Confession Time

Ok, so confession time...I spend far too much time drooling over other people's homes on their blogs! I find myself just jumping from blog to blog pouring over pictures, admiring their knack for decorating.  Really wishing that I had that same "something" that seems to be inborn in them, and also wishing that I had the knack that they seem to have for finding cool "junk" at great prices.  Since my house is getting a face lift, there are many things I want to get rid of, but feel guilty for getting rid of things on which I spent our hard-earned money.  And of course, with getting rid of things, comes wanting to replace some of them with new things!  I am trying to make do as much as possible with what I have, but I admit, some money is going to be spent on "things".  

I hadn't shown a pic of my music room bookshelves since I had reloaded them.  I am pretty happy with the "stuff" for the most part.  I left a lot of the framed pics in a box for now.  You can see my new pendant lights in this pic.  Still hoping the one on the right straightens out a bit! 

In the process of the home face lift, I seem to have developed an affinity for wire baskets :) Here is one filled with old books. 

And while the frames are new, the "things" in them are old ;) (Sorry, Mom!).  Pics of my mom and dad when they were quite young.  And to the far right is a piece of needlework made by my great-grandma. 

I am giving you a sneak preview of our Family Room bookshelves now that hubby has them completely done.  They look SOOOOO much better!  I am holding off on loading them for now, once again waiting on the paint to cure.  So, while I took pics of the whole thing, I just couldn't bring myself to post them.  

And finally, some pics of the Family Room and center hallway so that you can see more of our new floor and the rug.  

Yes, in the above pic you can see the carpet in the Dining Room off on the right.  And it will definitely stay that way at least until after the wedding! :)

Ok, so the drawer was standing open a bit.  But you can see another one of my wire baskets on the bottom!  A TJ Maxx find :)

Blessings, 

Ronda

NO JUDGING!

 What to do on a chilly Saturday in Indiana?  Well, I don't know about you, but I decided to get out the ole sewing machine and do a bit of crafting.  Please bear with me, as I've said before, my photography skills need a bit of work.  And it doesn't help that I am usually in too big of a hurry to wait for the right lighting.

I had been dreaming of making this pillow cover since before Christmas.  It is basic Osnaburg material with the printed burlap over the top.

I've started giving all of my pillows covers, instead of sewing them closed.  It takes a bit more work, but since I am so fickle quick to change my decorating style, I like leaving my options open, so to speak.

And of course, with "new" walls and new floors, and "new" woodwork, new curtains were certainly in order!

 DON'T JUDGE!  I know it looks weird with half of the window painted white and the other half still orangey wood, but when I paint on days when it is 15 degrees outside, I am certainly NOT leaving the windows open long enough for them to dry.

 Yes, Lucy thinks she is a cat and sleeps on the back of the loveseat.

Another do not judge moment-- I know, the curtains against my wallpaper border is a bit busy, but I liked the look enough that I am willing to put up with it until I decide to do away with the border.  (Don't tell DH, but that might be sooner rather than later!)

Blessings,

Ronda

For Sale and Such...

 When my husband bought my new china cupboard, I promised him that I would sell my old china cabinet.  So here are the pics.  It is painted in old white and antique glazed and distressed.  Then finished with clear wax.  The inside is a robin's egg blue.  I am asking $325. If you or anyone you know are interested in this piece, contact me here or on Facebook.

Now for just a few random thoughts. :)
I put 2 coats of Typewriter MMS milk paint on an oak picture frame.  It didn't chip at all, so I took some sandpaper to the edges to give it some distressing.  I am loving the way it turned out!

 However, I am not so sure about the blue matting on it.  I don't think it will go so great in my "new" family room.  But I don't know that there is anything I can do.  I collected Nancy Noel prints for years.  I am officially ready to move on to something else, but a few of them hold a special place in my heart and I would like to try to make them work.

 LOL!  My slippered foot!

And some nice shots of my new rug! :)

Blessings,

Ronda

And In My Spare Time...

I am listening to Pandora accompanied by the pounding of 2 hammers.  Two of my kids are helping DH get ready to lay the flooring in the Family Room.  The carpet is gone.  They are working on laying the sub floor.  The walls are all painted, this time BEFORE we put down the new floor.  I think hubby is hoping this will be done by the end of tomorrow.  We'll see...

Anyway, amidst all the chaos of the renovations, I thought it would be a good idea to add another project. (Do you hear the sarcasm?) My grandma's lyre table had been sitting in the garage since my parents brought it to me in October.  I was getting tired of it being a cat bed, so I thought I should bring it inside and work on it.  First it sat in daughter's room for her to put her little Christmas tree on for the month of December.

You can see the top was in pretty bad shape.  I didn't get a close up of the legs that were splitting.  Hubby did a little work on those.  The cute little claw feet needed a bit of work.

 I tried a cleaning method that I found on line for brass, only to discover that they were plated and I kind of ruined them.  So I chose instead to spray paint them with oil rubbed bronze.

I painted the rest of the piece with MMS milk paint in Linen.  I know, the pics sure don't look like that color...but more on that in a minute.  I was curious to see if the paint would work it's chippy magic, since the end table that I painted did not chip.  Well, I messed up on the mixing and ended making way too much because I had to keep adding water to it.

And you can see, it certainly did chip!!!  When I took my scraper to it, the paint started just falling off.  The only places that didn't just fall off on the legs, I did a little bit of sanding on.

 Since the creamy color of the linen is not really me, and didn't really fit my decor, I decided to use an antique glaze on it.  Since I wanted it to soak into the paint and actually change the color, I didn't put wax on it first.  And it REALLY changed the color.  I'm not sure what I would call the color now, some kind of a mix between gray, green and taupe.  Anyway, it works for me! I finished it off with a couple of coats of spray on poly ( I was too lazy to try to wax all of the details on this piece!)

 I just realized you can see the line in the wall where we stopped painting between the music room and the entryway.  BAHAHAHAHA!  Ah, well, trying to find a good space to take pics right now is crazy!

Hoping to have another room reveal soon!

Blessings,

Ronda

Welcome to My Mess!

Those of you who know me, know how much this drives me crazy!  

 My Family Room has now been in disarray for over a week.  Can I say this again??? I like my house neat!  Ah, the things we can learn to live with for a little home improvement!

Sneak peek of my lyre table that I have worked on between painting woodwork.  Haven't found the perfect spot to set up a little vignette.  One day soon....

Blessings,

Ronda