We’ve been in the process of a very long remodeling project – very nearly done now, just minor details remaining.  Since we are mostly do-it-yourselfers, it’s a long process indeed.  After that the ball moved more into my court for a decorating makeover.

Uhhhhhhh….

Not my forte.

I finally threw up my hands in defeat and enlisted the services of a sweet friend from church who is an interior decorator.  And a genius interior decorator at that.  She allowed me to use about an hour or so of her time to walk through my house and throw lots of ideas my way, even using stuff I already had!

As soon as she left, I immediately used one of her ideas to spray paint some frames I wasn’t too crazy about.  By doing so, they were changed into something I love.  With spray paint.  Imagine.  And here I thought everyone was kidding about the wonders of spray paint.

From frilly silver frames to a nice satin black

Did I mention that while I was spray painting them that our friendly neighborhood snake came out to visit.  I think he wanted a new coat.

*hahahahahaha*  I crack myself up.

Fast forward a couple of months.  I put the rest of the list of to-do’s from Monica’s suggestions on the back burner as I dove into homeschooling research, piano lessons, and, well, life.  Then this week a sudden change in plans for some friends’ upcoming nuptials resulted in their rehearsal and rehearsal dinner being held in our backyard and on our deck.

Being the delightfully fully female woman that I am, my mind immediately looked around my home and thought, “Oh no, I’ve GOT to finish the house.”  Which made complete sense considering everyone was coming to hang out in the backyard.  Of course.  But if you are female, you understand that this does not matter.  It must be as close to finished as financially and physically possible.

Enter Hobby Lobby.

I ever so gratefully entered Hobby Lobby and encountered and 50% off sale.  They knew I was coming and would be in desperate need, didn’t they?  Love it when that happens.  I found the frames I needed for a picture project for my piano studio, a piece of art I fell in absolute love with also for the piano studio.  Wanna see the almost-finished piano studio?

Photo frame collage - Piano Studio

Monica suggested a cube-layout of pictures for above my desk.  Yes, I know one or two are crooked.  I’ll get there.  I also know a couple of the mats are a different color.  I’ll get there, too.  But when pressed for time…it’ll do.  I love it, tho!  I love looking up and seeing my whole family in the great pictures that our friend Jess took last summer.

Dance Me to End of Love - art print above digital piano

This is an art print by Jack Vettriano called Dance Me to End of Love.   I’ve always loved it.  We have another print of his called Singing Butler hanging in our living room as well.  I saw it on sale for 50% off at Hobby Lobby and couldn’t even bring the letter N-O to my lips.  I know it probably needs to be a little bigger for the space but we’ll work on that later.  For now, I love it.

Almost the full effect in the studio...

So the piano studio is almost done.  I need some book shelves in the corner where I am standing the take the pictures, and Monica suggested some tall greenery behind the other corner of the grand piano.  I do have a desk chair for the desk – it’s just not put together yet.

The Homeschool Classroom

Monica suggested getting canvases and letting the kids paint to their hearts’ content and hanging them on the walls for the classroom (former formal dining room).  G’s canvas was fairly minimalistic.  S’s was wild and crazy.  Are we surprised?  Not in the least.  We can all tell who guided the middle canvas.  Yes, there is a slight uphill slant to the canvases.  Mommy apparently can’t hang straight.  We’ll straighten them later.  Or just have fun as I watch everyone tilt their heads to the side as they look at them.  :)  Anyhow, in the future, this room will get some coats of paint, shelves, a computer, etc.  Lots of work to do here before fall.

Ready for the living room?

Couch - before.

Scary, I know.  You might want to avert your eyes.  Dogs, kids.  Dogs, kids.  Stains.  If anyone tries to sell you on microfibre and how easy it is to clean, don’t believe them.  It’s a lie.  Monica made a great, easy suggestion for making slipcovers but since I don’t have that kind of time I thought I’d trying buying bed sheets to use as slipcovers on our L-couch.  I chose dark brown jersey (t-shirt material) sheets and wrapped the fitted sheets around the top cushions and the flat sheets around the bottom cushions and draped around the edges.  What do you think?

Living room!

I’m SOOOO excited about how well that turned out.  I bought new throw pillows also.  Hobby Lobby had the crosses for 50% off and S helped me pick out several to put in the empty space on that well (where there used to be a doorway).  Yes, there is a train table as a coffee table, why do you ask?  ha!  It has since been moved to G’s room.  No opportunity to get a real coffee table yet but I have my eye on one at World Market.  Maybe later this summer.

So while we are not yet complete with the home redecorating project, I certainly got a major part of it done in two days!  Perhaps hosting spur-of-the-moment large parties motivate me…who knows?

Anyone home redecorating big or small you would like to share?

Going Home

• I really want to redo my blog header up there, but I dread the thought of re-learning how I actually did it.  Maybe if I did a header every few months, the steps wouldn’t leave my head so quickly.
• I have a secret desire to a fabulous photographer.  I LOVE photo blogs and am hopelessly addicted to them.  I’m a photo-blog-stalker.   Maybe some day I’ll be able to get a fancy-shmancy camera and try it for myself.
• S loves to dance and sing for us.
• And she’s really loud, too.
• Huntley is still my shadow.  He never leaves my side and in fact often steps on my feet as he follows me around the house.  That’s pretty annoying when you wear flip-flops.  Crazy-lovable-huggable dog.
• After the kids are in bed, Huntley jumps on the couch and owns it.  Completely and totally.  Last night, he even stretched himself out with his head on a pillow.
• This past weekend, Chris took the kiddos and went up north a bit to visit his parents.  I love the quiet weekends of relaxation.  Sometimes a mom just needs a few days of quiet.
• And the kids got to see snow for the first time!!!  I hate that missed it but we’ve got some great videos of them playing in it.  So fun.
• A G funny story for you:  He got some Spiderman stickers from the treasure box at school and they were the kind that if you moved them back and forth, you would see a different picture.  I opened the package and moved it back and forth to show him and he loved it.  He took the stickers and stuck them all over his short and wore them like that all day.  When Chris got him, G ran up to him and said, “Look, Daddy!  My stickers!  And they move!”  With that, he moved his upper-body back and forth to make the stickers change pictures for his daddy the same way I moved the stickers themselves back and forth earlier in the day.  But since the stickers were stuck to his chest, his solution was to move his chest, too.  I laughed so hard.

Giggles, Going Nowhere, Growing Up, Uncategorized

• This time of year is crazy for us!  Birthdays, Thanksgiving, more birthdays, Christmas, more birthdays.  Hard to keep up!
• That includes not keeping up with the blog, too, of course.
• My parents and aunt and brother and his family came down for S’s birthday.
• THREE!!  Our little girl is THREE!!
• Then came Thanksgiving.  Whew.
• The next day we (my family plus my parents and aunt) joined Mike and his family in Orlando at DisneyWorld.
• Magic Kingdom, more specifically.
• Of ALL the days we have outside activities, it was cold in Florida on that day.
• By cold, I mean mid 50s.
• It’s ok to laugh.
• S’s entire goal was to see the princess’ castle and ride a carousel.
• Check and check.
• She loved it!
• G got to ride so many more rides now that he is older and he had a blast!
• Being there with family made it that much more fun.  Can’t wait to do it again – when the temp is, you know, low 70s.
• Yes, that would be perfect.
• Nana and ‘Pa and Judy were like kids again, riding everything G did.
• If Cinderella’s Castle is this amazingly gorgeous, can you just imagine how incredible Heaven is going to be?  If human hands can create this, God’s handiwork is going to knock our socks off.

Going Nowhere, Growing Up

Again, just the chapter title of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love hits the heart of the matter.  In chapter five, he examines whether calling yourself a Christian makes you a devoted follower and if there is such a thing as a “lukewarm Christian.”  Lots of food for thought.  Here is the next in my series of favorites quotes from one of my favorite books:

• The chapter is called “Serving Leftovers to a Holy God.”  Ouchy.
• God doesn’t just want us to have good theology; He wants us to know and love Him.  (As is often said, it’s all about the relationship, not the religion.)
• Matthew 28:18-20 [The Great Commission] ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Some people claim that we can be Christians without necessarily becoming disciples.  I wonder, then, why the last thing Jesus told us was to go into the world, making disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that He commanded?  You’ll notice that He didn’t add, “But hey, if that’s too much to ask, tell them to just become Christians – you know, the people who get to go to Heaven without having to commit to anything.”
• Each of us has lukewarm elements and practices in our life; therein lies the senseless, extravagant grace of it all.
• How many of us would really leave our families, our jobs, our education, our friends, our connections, our familiar surroundings, and our homes if Jesus asked us to?  If He just showed up and said, “Follow me”?  No explanation.  No direction.  When you think about His disciples in that way, well, WOW…
• Many of us believe we have as much of God as we want right now, a reasonable portion of God among all the other things in our lives….But the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it’s about eternity, and nothing compares with that.

God Stuff

Bleh.

Lukewarm food.  Lukewarm coffee.  Lukewarm “hot” chocolate.  I mean, they don’t it HOT chocolate for nothing, right?

Lukewarm.  The entire point of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love.  Here we are at Chapter Four.  My favorite thoughts, convictions, hit-you-between-the-eyes lines:

• My caution to you is this:  Do not assume you are good soil.  (Referring to Jesus’ parable of the sower)
• Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live?  Do you see evidence of God’s kingdom in your life?  Or are you choking it out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money, and thought on the things of this world?
• Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ?  Or do the words “half-hearted”, “lukewarm”, and “partially committed” fit better?
• Luke warm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives.  But only a part.  They give him a section of their time, their money, and their thoughts, but He isn’t allowed to control their lives.
• Luke warm people ask…”How far can I go before it’s considered a sin?” instead of “How can I keep myself pure as a temple of the Holy Spirit?”
• The truth is, their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.
• Jesus didn’t say that if you wanted to follow Him you could do it in a lukewarm manner.  He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”

Uncategorized