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

No We Are Not Moving

Sure looks like we're moving, doesn't it?  Feels like that would be easier some days!  But, no, this is just getting all the "stuff" out of the way to do our renovations.  

I will certainly not be in a big hurry to junk up these shelves again!  It will be a great time to purge.  With the "end" of home schooling in my sight, I will most likely donate anything that smacks of homeschooling to our local group.  Unless that is, one of my kids wants some of it in case they eventually choose to home school their own kids. :)

Hubby will most likely not be happy with me for posting these pics since it was certainly not his finest work.  But that is why much of it is coming off and is getting re-worked.  There was a stressful, long trip to Lowe's last night where we discussed what he would remove and what he would add to make it look more professional.  

Of course, you must understand that this was actually his first experience with woodworking of any kind, at the time we were both pretty content with the result.  Now that he has so much more experience, we are both eager for him to improve on this.  

                           

More of our floor waiting to be put down! :)

Blessings, 

Ronda

First Room Done (pretty much)

This room has actually been done for a few days.  My excuse is the same one, remembering to get pics at a good time of day.  I don't know that is a good excuse or not.  I guess if I was a great photographer, it wouldn't really matter what time of day.

First a reminder--

All woodwork in the music room was this color and this was the wall color, although, in these pics, it looks lighter than it was.  You can see why I have doors on the lower shelves ;) I tried to go back through some old photos to find a pic of the carpeting, but you are just going to have to take my word for the it, that it was BEIGE.

And now...

 So here is the first sign that I am a terrible photographer...shadows!  But you can see my white trim, the new gorgeous floor and the new rug (yes, it was too loud in here, so we had to have one!)

 Don't look to closely or you will see that we need quarter-round under the book case.  Haven't decided yet whether we will do the whole room with it, or just that spot.

 I purposely avoided including the boxes of books and frames pictures that are sitting in the room.  But they are there-- 3 of them!  Going to try to wait out the entire 30 days for my paint to cure before putting things back on the shelves.  Bad experiences in the past with things sticking.

Good shot of my wall color-- which btw, is Toll Booth from Valspar, if you were curious.

Hubs is hard at work on the next section of flooring.  I have actually completed my next portion of woodwork.  Next big decision-- are we (meaning him) painting the ceilings?

Blessings,

Ronda

Do You Resolve?

I know, I know, it several days into the new year and I am just now talking about resolutions.  But I have been thinking about what I was going to say when I finally got around to blogging.  Of course, when I start writing, things don't look nearly as profound as they did in my head!

For those of you curious about how all of our projects are going-- room number one is pretty much done, needs to have some things put back into it, furniture moved around.  Letting the bookshelves dry for a while longer so that the books don't stick to the paint.  I am quite anxious to get a pic up for all to see.  I am loving it!  Even my 22 yr old son says it looks great!

So, back to my question...did you make a New Year's resolution?  I gave it serious consideration.  Always at the forefront of my brain is losing weight.  The 10 extra pounds I have packed on over the last year are making my clothes uncomfortable and I know for sure that I don't want to go back to where I was 2 years ago.  But why make the New Year's resolution, only to break it the next day and then beat yourself up.  It will always be a daily struggle for me, and daily I will make a new resolution to eat better, exercise more and keep those pounds off.

What did you resolve?

Blessings,

Ronda