painted furniture

Last summer I met Shelly from shizzle-design and she introduced me to CeCe Caldwell  chalk paints.  I hadn't done much furniture painting, and she made the process look "rather simple".  There was very little sanding or prep work that needed to be done.  This sounded like my type of painting!

I chose to work on the furniture in my girls' bedrooms.  I went with a quart of the Carolina Sun and a small container of Simply White.  Because you can water the paint down, I was able to get all of their furniture painted! Here are a couple pieces all finished.

Oh, I'm just keeping it real with all of the extra accessories here! No staging is taking place today.

After I finished painting the girls' furniture. I decided I wanted to paint something for me. I had my Poppop's stand in our dining area for years and I was ready to "change it up" a little bit. One thing that is hard for some people, is changing something that belonged to someone special, or painting over real wood! I could relate to both scenarios. However, once I painted the stand in Cinco Bayou Moss, I loved it! It really added that something "special" to the corner of the room!

What painting projects have you done, and have you ever used chalk paint?

life

I love blogs! I love to read blogs. I get so much insight from blogs.  I have learned and grown from blogs. With that said, my own blog, has fallen to the wayside.  I think we will just call it pure laziness.

As summer is here, and since I am a teacher, I have my "summer list" mentally forming in my mind. One of my "to do" things, is start up my blog again. Or should I say, "write".  My youngest daughter has been faithful to keep asking me if I have blogged lately.

Well, since it has been so long since I blogged, and my blog is about domestic living, I wanted to show you a couple of changes that we have made to our home this past year.......

A spring and summer mantel, with a homemade sign that I made with my Dad over Christmas vacation.

Speaking of my Dad, here is our fall project 

We tiled our backsplash.  I say "we" very loosely. It was mostly my Dad, when he and my Mom visited in the fall. I'm very thankful for all the hard work that he has put into our home.  We decided on a gray subway tile backsplash with a gray grout. I was back in forth between the gray, and the white. I love the added color.  However, with the new tile, we ended up wanting to paint the walls a gray color as well. You know how it is, one thing leads to another!

Well, that is the short list of previous updates to our home. Since, we are coming up on the 10 year mark of building our home, I have a couple of minor home improvements up my sleeve for this summer.

Stay tuned!

the "B" word

Now that I got your attention, you are likely wondering, "What is the 'B' word"? That would be budget! I'm not going to talk about all the different areas of financial planning, but I do want to take a little time to talk about the food budget. First of all, I am no expert when it comes to saving money on food. There are a number of great blogs that focus on sales, coupons, and getting the most for your money, that have far better tips and insights into saving money on food. Please feel free to share your favorite websites and tips below!

One thing that I always tell my students (Yes, I teach a foods class at a local high school), is that purchasing food is always a balance between money, time & energy! In general I don't purchase a lot of prepackaged convenience foods because I enjoy cooking and controlling the food that I am preparing. Here is a great example of how I saved money and made my own convenience food.

  Last week I purchased a 10 pound bag of potatoes. They were on sale for less than $3 a bag! So, last Saturday I peeled a majority of the potatoes, cooked them up, mashed them, and froze four containers for another time. I saved a lot of money compared to purchasing a small container of frozen pre-made potatoes, but I also spent a lot of time in the process. However, I would also have to note that my family likes the taste of the homemade mashed potatoes better than the instant ones from the store, and that makes the time & energy worth it for me.



So, my questions for you:
     1. What is your favorite blog for learning great tips on how to save money?
     2. What has been your experiences when it comes to balancing money, time and energy?

     3. What would you do with a 10 pound bag of potatoes?

Running is Dangerous to your Health

I'm finally at a point where I can write this entry. First of all, I'm not a runner. Yes, I have run a couple of 5K races and I have logged in a few miles in my shoes, but after knee surgery and some "extra" pounds, my mileage has come from walking.

Now, on the other hand, my husband is a different story. He started running and caught the bug. However, on February 23 his running came to a screeching halt. He went our for an early morning training run around 5:15 AM and around 5:50 AM I got a phone call from a complete stranger telling me that my husband had fallen, and that his arm was likely broken. This is not my normal wake up call. So, after seven hours in the emergency room, I was on my way back home with a husband and his broken humerus bone. I'm very thankful that he only had a broken arm, especially when we think about all the other "what ifs" that could have happened on an early morning icy run.

We have made some changes to our plans, like staying in the West Michigan area for Spring Break, and walking the pavement, rather than pounding it. But overall, we are enjoying this chance to slow down. I'm also learning a lot about "nursing" and realizing I'm very thankful that God did not have me go into the medical field.

I will be back soon with more from the "home front" of domestic living!

i heart

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day? I have a few items that I display, but for the most part I don't spend much time decorating for this holiday. I have found that it is great just to add a couple of extra touches to my winter decor! Isn't it great to be able to use red all winter long!

One thing that I did different this year, was to place the heart window adhesives to my girls' bathroom mirror. They were so excited when they came home from school and noticed this addition to the bathroom! By the way, I store the plastic like hearts in between plastic wrap so I can use them from one year to the next.

2012

After struggling with my computer, camera and blog, I am finally back to blog land. I've still been reading your blogs, just sorry for my absence and my lack of commenting. I think I need a tutorial on all the new changes with blogger. Any suggestions? I'll be back soon with some new posts!

Christmas Tour

A number of my favorite bloggers are hosting Christmas tours this week! I hope you get to check them all out! This year I found myself simplifying my decorations and putting less accessories out. Someday this might change, but for now the simplicity works for our family.

This first picture is a close up of our front porch. I got some birch logs from my parents property! Just a galvanized bucket with some natural decorations!

I still use a lot of red in my decorating. It could be, because red is my favorite color! I've seen so many beautiful homes that have an all white theme, with just a touch of greenery, but I still keep my traditional red going. Will see what happens in the future!

Here is our mantel. These are the same blue shutters that I picked up at a garage sale, and spray painted. I just add some seasonal decorations.  I like to be able to use decorations year round, and make simple changes for each season or holiday.



Some of our built-ins.



Here is the vase that I got from my Grandmother. Just switched up with some Christmas greens!

I switched this vase to the table in our dining area. Typically it is on the mantel, but I wanted to simplify the corner stand. I'm using some leftover fabric from a craft project. It has red in it, but it isn't a Christmas fabric. It should get me through the winter months, since it doesn't "scream" Christmas.

Here is some of my everyday  glassware with a Christmas touch added to it!

My changeable sign with JESUS - the reason we celebrate!

Lastly, here is our tree! This is the first year that we put the tree in the front window. We have a nine foot tree and we typically put it in the entry area of our home. We just decided to try something different this year!

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy all the other tours!

Linking up with the following:

Jennifer Rizzohttp://www.jenniferrizzo.com/