Friends!

My kids are so enjoying hosting and hostessing their new found friends that live just down the road from us. For rural kids company is a big deal!

So, today I have 4 little boys and 4 little girls. They are all playing so nicely together. It has been two hours and not one single arguement (that needed my attention).

One of our guests is quite the story teller and had his audience captivated.

It's here! It's here!

The long awaited sandbox is here!!



Hubby got a few days off and was able to build the kids the sandbox that he's been wanting to bless them with.

I haven't seen much of them since!

Thank you, honey!!

Oh Dear...

...I always have such great ideas...until I go to complete them.

I finished my wallpaper project...a little early. After completeting one wall I just don't have enough to finish the other! There's enough to complete about 1/3 of the other side. Arrrrrrgh. I thought about doing one of those walls that has 1/3 one thing on the top and 2/3 something else with a trim to cover the seam but I just saw on a decorating show that is soooooo 90's!! Oh well. I'll figure something out.

Here is some detail of the paper.

Now that the paper is up I think I might paint the laundry room the same dark blue that is on one of my walls in the living room. If you sat in my living room then you can look down and see the blue wall, the kitchen, and the laundry room. I think the blue laundry room would go well while the kitchen contrasts in the middle. Maybe...

They're always watching!

As you know I am working on a couple of projects and have rearranged my kitchen.

Well, apparently the children are following suit. They have decided it is time to rearrange their play area outside.

Isn't that just the cutest??

They really are watching us aren't they? I'm so blessed that my little girls are learning to be Proverbs 31 women!

Project #2

The other project that I am working on is my front porch. I have lived in this house for EXACTLY 11 years to the day (today is our 11th wedding anniversary!!) and I have never placed anything on the west side of my porch. There are 2 lawn chairs on the east side and a small unstable and wobbly table that I wouldn't dare place one of my glasses on and that is it.

We are rural Okies. Rural Okies don't use their front door...they use the mud room door. Why would I be thinking about the front porch when the only time I'm on it is to sweep it once a (three) months?? Hubby and I used to sit out there all the time. What happened? It wasn't a comfortable place to be anymore when the table got wobbly!

Here is a picture of a front porch from Country Living:

I immediately fell in love with this picture and knew this was my porch. Someone must have sneeked over here while I was at Wal-mart, decorated it, took the picture, and then left with all the stuff! Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the before shot of my porch but I think you can all use your imagination of what "nothing" looks like! Here is a shot of my during:

The lattice was given to me by a very sweet fellow home educator. She just would not take anything for it and told me to use what I would have given her on something else for the project. Thank you...you know who you are!! There is another piece that will go behind the loveseat but we must first construct a bracket so that we don't have to damage any of the vinyl siding.

I purchased the Pier One wicker love seat off Craigslist for $40. It is still in excellent physical condition. Metal frame and still quite sturdy. As you can see it needs a paint job and the rust colored cushion is quite faded to a light pink. The cushion is still in excellent physical condition and is weather resistant. I will try dying it first. If that does not give me an acceptable effect I will re-cover it.

I found plenty of sheer fabric at the Salvation Army for $12.99. You can see it lying on the storage container. It is brand new and I would have paid double or triple for what I purchased so I am pleased overall with the price.

I have a small table like the one in the original picture and picked up some brass pots to spray paint black to hold a citronella candle and a plant.

My patio storage container will be painted white and placed on the other end of the porch. This will hold all the pillows and cushions when not in use.

Learning to Think Outside the Box!

I wanted to sell my bulky bakers rack that consumes my kitchen and gets in my way. It is a baker's rack. Baker's racks belong in the kitchen right?

Well, outside the box, you can put a baker's rack anywhere. I've been needing a folding table in my laundry room but are monies our committed to other areas right now so I just couldn't remodel at the moment.

I had an a-ha moment (no, it didn't hurt!). Can I take the upper shelves off the base and not loose the sturdyness of it? YES!!!!!!!!

So I removed the upper portion and placed the baker'r rack in my laundry room and stacked the two shoe shelves that I had in the laundry room and placed them in my kitchen! That was totally free. (The three trash cans you see are actually my recycling bins...glass, plastic, and cans.)

Now I have more room in my kitchen and can open my bottom cabinets and use the pull out shelf that I paid extra to have but couldn't use! This kitchen wall will be part of the wallpaper project. I'm just doing one wall at a time. I have found that I will get projects done if I do segments instead of trying to get it all done at once. With the 5 kids' needs I get quite a few interruptions and distractions. They are my priority during the day...not the projects. If I do one wall at a time then I only use about two hours of my day, my kitchen isn't a disaster area, and I can still function and return to the rest at a later time if needed. Baby steps.

I am tempted to spray paint the upper shelf rack from the baker's rack and hang it on this wall in a place to my liking where the baker's rack used to be. I still bake and could use the extra drying rack space. I will also be finding an old frame, painting it to my liking and have a nicer border for my VERY highly used calendar.

Two New Projects

I have 2 projects on the burner since I lost a week volunteering for VBS last week. We had over 150 children come and had 36 salvations!! God is good!!

My first project is that I am wallpapering my kitchen with some wallpaper that I found at the Ezra House in Coweta for $3. It matches perfectly with my countertops and floor.

An of course I forgot to take my before pictures so I will just have to give you one of my during pictures:

The stain glass window stays because the people who owned the house before us had this house since the 70's when they had it MOVED to the 3 acres that it is currently on. (I've moved myself many times...but never a HOUSE!). They made this window themselves so I just can't bear to part with it since it is a part of the History to this house.

The walls are real wood paneling (that were already painted when I moved here so don't shoot me!). Right now they are bluish gray. All the white stripes are the spackling that I have placed in all the grooves. I will sand those down tomorrow. It is almost time for me to cook supper so I don't want the dust around getting in my food. Since it will be cooler after supper I will be working on the other project that is outside.