My House Jewelry

As I have mentioned before I have a small house that we just moved into a few months ago.  I loved this house from the first moment I saw it on the internet.  There of course was a few little things I had to change about it to make it "me".  The dining room is smack in the middle of the house and it had a pewter modern chandelier.  When a friend mentioned she wanted a pewter chandelier  I quickly text her a picture and she bought it from me. Then I sold a piece of furniture too big to fit in our new house and I was able to get this chandelier that I love...

 The minute I saw this on Home Depot online I thought this is exactly what I am looking for! As a added bonus it was very affordable..$169.  You can find it here.  It has an aged iron look with beautiful HEAVY crystals. Not plastic ones like you would expect for the price.  I love white antique chandeliers like my daughter has in her home but I just felt like this was the most practical for our house.  I couldn't be more pleased. Thankfully since I have no patience my daughters were able to put it together pretty quickly.

The view from the kitchen

The view from the living room

Looking into the sunroom

So as you can see, you can see it from 1/2 the house..I can even see it from my bedroom. Candice from HGTV always calls sparkly chandeliers the jewelry for your house and I am so pleased we have such a lovely piece of house jewelry!

I am a strong believer that material things don't matter in the scheme of things and its who you are as a person and the people that are in your life that are whats really important.  I thank God though that he does allow me to have these little treasures that brighten my days! They are just like the icing on the cake of a beautiful life.

Chantel's Bedroom

So as everyone has  probably figured out there is not a lot of color in my house due to my love of painting everything white....but there is one room where this fact isn't true...

Chantels Bedroom.

This room has a history of being a bright color...you can see the excitement on Chantels face when she first saw this room and she said "This is the house for us and this is my room!"

These pictures show Janae and Chantel working on painting the room. We had to primer over the green and than use a paint with primer to totally cover that neon green.

I painted this little corner desk to Chantel's specifications



I gave Chantel a couple of my mirrors and she did this with them--which I think looks lovely!

What 13 year old girl doesn't love Justin Bieber?



I am really proud how Chantel decorated her own room and made it "her place".



Dreaming of a White Halloween...

I am so not a halloween person. But the decorator in me wants to decorate for Labor day, so I do halloween my way. No orange and black here (unless it has something to do with the Oregon State Beavers and then thats a different story..) I made my first white pumpkin of the year.  Well ,this is actually my second one made this year, but I gifted the first one to my daughter so that doesn't count. I worked on this last night because I wanted to have it for my first post to link to White Wednesday.

I can picture this at an October wedding....

Ribbons, beads, rhinestones, and glitter..I love it all!

I can so picture this turning into Cindrellas carriage at any moment.

Another white share for today is the hydragena in my yard that is still hanging on while everything else is getting ready for its long winter nap....

So beautiful..love them and they last weeks in the house.

Happy White Wednesday!

A Special Gift...

Today I recieved a call from Mother in laws best friend, Clemmie. At first I didn't make it to the phone and as I was checking my missed call  I got a text, "Please call me as soon as you can. Clem" I thought "Oh my goodness what has happened?" my mind went crazy and I knew my Mother in law was okay because I had just exchanged text with her.  My father in law now lives in Oklahoma and I know Clemmie talks to him regularly, so the worrier in me thought, "Oh no something has happened to Papa!". So I called her right back and she said she wanted to meet me for a beer. I said when and she said "Can you come now?" I freaked out thinking she had to tell me something in person..what could it be? I told her, "what's wrong?" she assured me everything was fine and I was at our local sports bar within about 2 minutes. She told me.."it is never too late to properly thank someone for something they did for you..and since you took our wedding pictures that I treasure so much as your gift to me, this is my thank you gift to you"...and she gave me this...

This is a watercolor she did from a picture of Chantel that I took in the tulip fields when she was about 3 or 4 years old. I was so touched I almost cried. I love it! She had it professional framed but it was in a wood color frame and so I ever so carefully taped it and painted it white tonight. It will be alright with Clemmie.  I will treasure this painting forever. I am usually the one giving out the hand made gifts and so it is so exciting to me to be on the receiving end this time! Chantel was so touched to when I brought it home and showed her. My husband was also touched..he has known Clemmie his whole life and having some of her art in our house is an honor.  But I am sure many of you will laugh at this..when he first saw it he said, "Oh, thats really nice. Where are you going to hang it after you paint the frame white?" I guess they all know me well.


As you can see the frame just had to be white :)



Mrs Tea..for me!

This weekend both of my daughters and I went to some "extreme couponers" garage sales. I love those sales!  If you don't have them in your area they are ladies to do the extreme couponing and then sell thier overstock.  It is so awesome! They get things way cheaper than I can with coupons because I guess they know all the tricks. Anyway-they had a few random things for sale too and I got this "Mrs. Tea". I had never seen one before and I think its adorable! It was only $3.

People that know me realize this is so perfect for me. I am a total tea addict. All summer I have been enjoying my sun tea brewed daily. But now that we are in fall (gulp-are we really?) I figure my sun brewed tea days are numbered. So now I have this little lovely to brew my tea for me. I drink ice tea all winter long.



I love a good Venti Black Iced Tea no sweetner at Starbucks

Though I love iced tea (I switch to decaf after 5) in the evening I love to enjoy a hot cup of Tazo Rest..it totally relaxes me!

So as you can see I really do love my tea!  I haven't shared this here yet but I owned a Dairy Queen for 20 years and whenever the customers would ask if our tea was fresh my employees would say, "Oh yes, Sandy drinks it almost as fast as we can brew it".

So I thought I would end this post with a little look at something coming soon.  Here is a bunch of faux pumpkins I have collected from Goodwill..you can bet they won't be orange when I'm done with them!

Have a great week!

Yippee!! I'm Back!

When my computer decided to die yesterday I was so bummed.  I had no way to get a new computer at this time.  We looked on Craigslist and at other used places and I just wasn't  sure about buying one that way.  I thought I could save money and maybe sometime after Christmas I would be able to get something.  Then I got really bummed..because I thought of all the new blogging friends I've started to make and the fact that I want to start a Etsy shop sometime soon and even my husband and kids thought that it was really a bummer that I didn't have a computer now. Chantel said I have been in a happier mood since I've had my blog (don't think I was in too bad of a mood before) and I am sure I have been because of all the positive comments and everything you get with a blog. All the seasonal decorating and stuff I always like to do will be all the more fun when I can share it with others. Then there was the fact that Wyatts math teacher is having them do thier homework online, I am in the process of selling our old house and the buyer and the title company always e-mail me, as do Gages doctors, and how in the world would I pay my bills without a computer?!

My old computer was really something else--it was a laptop I bought about 7 or 8 years ago. It was so overloaded with old games and stuff the kids played when they were little plus thousands of pictures, and the fan was broken so I had to keep fans blowing on it when it was on. I probably just finally totally overheated it. It was slow--but actually pretty good considering...

So as usual Janae came to my rescue. She offered to loan me the money for a new one. She said it was no big deal to her and she hated the fact I wouldn't be able to blog without it. I asked my husband and he agreed though we hate to owe people money we really need a computer. So Janae, Chantel, and I went to Best Buy and got a really good deal on a laptop with a great processor (so I'm told) and he said it would be fast. Oh my goodness--it is really fast! I am so so happy and so so thankful to Janae for coming to my rescue! My kids are all so awesome.

So I don't like to do a post without a picture so I'm posting this picture of my son Gage and how he and Duke sleep most nights..I know I will sleep much better tonight knowing I have this awesome new laptop!  Thanks to everyone who sent thier prayers.

My sweet boys, Gage and Duke

My computer blew up

Please pray for me to get a new computer. My computer finally totally died. :[ Not sure what I am going to do yet. I am writing this on my kids' Wii. At least I can check on my blog on the Wii. Can't believe this happened right when I just started blogging. :[

Homework

It is that time of year again. After a summer of having fun we're back to hitting the books--and I say "we're" because it seems that parents have to be involved in homework these days just as much as the kids. I even have to sign to say I helped!  So tonight Chantel was not too happy about her World Geography homework. Can you tell?

So I did my parental duty and helped her look up a few flags that she had to draw and things like that and at one point I said she was going to have to work on it herself awhile because I needed to take care of Gage and stuff like that.  Pretty soon she tells me she has found someone else to help her with her homework...

I am scared to see her first middle school grades!

My Glam Bath

When I first started this blog..you know way back like 3 weeks ago....I asked my kids what I should have as the subject of my first post. To my surprise both Wyatt and Chantel said, "Our bathroom". I couldn't believe it--in my immediate family I never get too many compliments on my decorating. (except from my oldest Janae) I think they don't want to do anything to encourage me. The more I decorate, the pickier I am about the house being clean, and everything being right where it is surpose to be--so tweens and husbands usually don't want to encourage the madness.  So anyway when they said the bathroom I was surprised because I thought I might have gone a little girly crazy in there. My son Wyatt said that it is girly but it is unique and nobody else has a bathroom like it so he thinks its cool. I so adore him. I didn't think a bathroom should be my first post..but now that I am up to like post #17 I decided its time to share the bathroom.   

 Our bathroom was a standard contractors bathroom..you know--large unframed mirror and beige floors and counters. I wanted to make it more unique yet do it on our "Kool-aid budget".  So I had seen a posting from an amazing blogger that me and about a million other people follow. mirror inspiration here

 I glued the frame of one of my many mirrors that I have picked up at Goodwill and garage sales over the years with a silicone I believe. I looked up on the internet that it is safe for the mirror underneath and that the mirror can be removed with acetone. Then I did what I had done on the mirror at our old house and I found at Goodwill this really long fabric drape. It was white and believe it or not I thought it needed some color.  I dyed it until it became the perfect blue I wanted in the bathroom and then with t-pins I stuck it up around the mirror in a fothy and flowing way. (okay maybe "fothy" isn't a word but you know what I mean)

I don't know why but I have always been charmed by Kewpie

This lavender brings back good memories of going to the lavender festival with my daughters last year.

This picture and night light are both from HomeGoods.  The blue in this picture is what I was going for when dying the swag.

Believe it or not I found this mirror at Goodwill for $2.99 and it was just a little dirty and I cleaned it and now I think its perfect! It is made out of a kind of ceremic plastery stuff--it is really pretty.

I bought this on ebay like 15 years ago before I became so thrifty.  I paid a lot for it but I love it so I guess I'm glad I did.  Notice the shower curtain--I so love it!  I don't know if you can see it very well but there are roses along the top and bottom. It is so so glam!

                  So that is our bathroom--it is actually the bathroom next to the kids room and the one that guests use.  Thanks for stopping by!                                                   

Janae's birthday #22

Today my oldest daughter turned 22.  Hard to believe since in my mind I am in my early 30's--though my body thinks its in its 50's.  I felt lucky that I was able to spend the whole day with her. Janae and I are so much alike--we have almost exactly the same taste in decorating and the things we like to do.

I am on what I call a  Kool-aid budget. (That is when you are so broke you can't afford beer). With birthdays I have to be creative...and thank goodness I have been blessed with a creative gene. Something I inherited from both of my Grandmothers and my Dad I think. Since Janae is such a girly girl and loves all that glitters and sparkles it was fun making her birthday gifts!

I was so busy making her gifts I didn't have time to make homemade cupcakes!

Got this fake pumpkin at Goodwill and had to make it pretty so it would fit in at Janae's house.

This is how it turned out--so Janae.

Janae and I went to the "Street of Dreams" this year and in one of the houses saw a tulle covered lampshade and so I decided I needed to copy it.

Perfectly girly!

I created this pillow because I thought it would look beautiful in her livingroom.

In real life it really sparkles!

I knew she would love this one because I made it for her furry daughters bedroomsee it here

Bella is one spoiled puppy dog (but shhh--she doesn't know she is a dog)

This is what it looked like when I bought it at Goodwill for 6.99

Here it is now

The boys at Sissy's party

Chantel at Sissy's party

Lucky for Janae her boyfriend is not on a Kool-aid budget and he got her this little beauty

So another year down being Janae's mom.  Twenty two years ago I spent 3 days in labor to have this beautiful girl and she has done nothing but bring me joy ever since (okay--well there was a few years in there I wasn't feeling total joy but mostly joy). She was born on my Grandmothers birthday...Grandmas first great grandchild. We lost Grandma last year--she would have been 94 today. Happy Birthday Grandma! Happy Birthday Janae!