And We Spoke of Things to Come...Pink Saturday 6/12/10

It's Pink Saturday once again and a summer thank you to Beverly of How Sweet The Sound for hosting this when she could be on vacation. ;-)

This past week I visited 3 new chicks I hadn't been to before: Jingle at itistimetothinkformyself and The Paint Splash and Rebecca at BellaMaison.

Soon...very soon!

And the eyelashes are almost back to normal! I took this picture 6/9/2010 and the lashes suffered a little bit from all the mistreatment recently with the glue-ons and the eyelash extensions, but recovering and filling in quite nicely. While this is not a great shot I'm—again—shameless in showing it to you. ;-) Holy moly, I look like Ms. Pelosi! I'm going to stick to my original eyelashes from now on, chicks!
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Changes in Where I Create

If you have read my blog for any length of time you know I've been painting my house pink but especially my sewing/craft room and my office/painting room. They're pinker than the rest of the main rooms are going to be but everything will still be pink. In doing them one at a time it gives me more time to take everything down and put it back up without a HUGE mess in this 1800 sq.ft. house. I don't like having chaos in my life if I can, at any cost, avoid it.

In doing that I haven't put everything back on the walls yet. I'm "thinking" on it before I do it. Well, I did put a few things up and I'm "rethinking" them! So indulge me a minute, please, and let me digress for just a moment.

I was at a blog site a day or so ago and saw a couple of gingerbread houses—the regular small ones. I thought of a friend of mine whose hubby makes them and asked her if I could show you a couple of them. She agreed so I'm putting them below for you to see. NOW, we're talking GINGERBREAD houses!! Yes, these are huge. The one in the second photo is 85 lbs, chicks. He has won 3 awards and is on his way to winning another one this year. Have you ever seen anything like this? He's meticulous in doing this and I think quite an artist.

Not sure what this is a replica of but look at its detail.

St. Ignatius School in Ohio.

This one is a replica of a chateau in France owned by Yves St. Laurent's. That's supposed to be ivy on the front. Isn't that spectacular?

This one is a Masonic Temple in Ohio
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Now on to my office/painting room. I'd call it an office/studio but I'm not good enough of an artist to call my humble abode "studio." Anyway, I had the roses paper lanterns over the vintage school desk but someone said they thought they would look better over the window seat. I think I've always agreed with that, just been too lazy to change them and waiting for more inspiration to "HIT" me. It hasn't yet! But I did change them from one side of the room to over the window seat and I really like the way they look.

From here to............

Before

.............After

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I think it was Sharon who was recovering a footstool she bought for $1.00 at a garage sale. It was a leather one and wasn't as bad as one I redid. Okay, now, I don't want to steal anyone's thunder and I certainly don't want to be described as someone with bad taste but I think I absolutely deserve the prize for "most drastic or dramatic change" in refurbishing. Take a look at this footstool in our family room and I can't even claim I bought it at a garage sale to redo; I actually had the "bad taste" to have bought this and a chair like it in the early 70s. I plead "tastelessness" for even considering buying such a piece of work! The things we do when we're young! Sheeeesh.....

Underneath
Refurbished with my cover on it that I made a couple of years ago.


I also received another MEME to post. This one has come from Miss Linda and she wants to know six random facts about me. I think you'd love visiting with her also. She has lovely white furniture with cats! I can't believe it but she does. So again I want anyone reading this to put six facts on their blog and notify me when you do so I can come and read your "deep, dark" secrets also. :-) Please don't be shy. I truly will read your posts and leave a comment if you let me know you've done this.

Fact #1: I memorize numbers. When going down the street I'll look at license plates and try to remember them so I'll know my friends when I see them in their cars and can wave hello. I think this is a symptom of my OCD!!

Fact #2: I got sick one night and threw up all over my hubby's chest. Yes, I did. But he's such a sweetheart he just cleaned me up and put me back to bed.

Fact #3: I look in the mirror and at my driver's license and see my motherrrrrrr!!!

Fact #4: I absolutely love LOVE LoVe donuts and pastries! If I could live on them I would but I'd weight 5,000#! Don't even tempt me. I ate chocolate covered donuts when I was pregnant with my daughter and gained about 40# with her.

Fact #5: I am not a party girl or social animal but am married to one.....uuuuhhhh, a social animal. He loves parties and socializing and I hate it. I'd much rather be at home reading, blogging or crafting or even doing housework than socializing. I do love lunches with a few people though.

Fact #6: I hide my hubs' magazines regulary and don't tell him. I usually make him look for them, but I have been known to forget hiding them and then they're discovered weeks or months down the road! I have to be extra special to him for him to forget my lapse!

There you have it: The Life and Times of a Boring Housewife! Hah........

I Had Lunch with an Artist Today.......

I went out to lunch with a small group of older women from my church today. We went to a deli that specialized in gourmet sandwiches. I had the chicken salad sandwich and brought half of it home for another meal. It was a sweet day and I enjoyed myself socializing with these women.

One of the women brought her sister-in-law, who is an artist. (She lost her husband about 6 weeks ago and one of her sons several years ago. She seems very lonely.) We talked about painting. She is supposedly a talented artist. I don't know as I've not seen her paintings yet, but I'd love to visit her home and view her art.

I told her my passion for wanting to learn how to paint - especially a rose. She understood. We chatted mostly about color, light and mediums of paint. I asked her how it was to paint with certain paints and she answered with a few hints to help me.

Towards the end of the luncheon I knew that she knew what I was talking about when she said she loved beauty. My heart leapt with joy as she uttered those words. I realized we were kindred spirits. She looked at me and I knew in that instant that she understood: I live my life beautifully. I live it beautifully in every single way I can. From making my home beautiful to making everyday chores beautiful to making myself beautiful to helping others to see the beauty of life not spent in luxury or wealth or exotic places but in the commonness of everyday life and a life well spent and the beauty of spiritualness. Oooooh, not in the world's view of beauty; I'll never achieve that kind of beauty, although, hubs tells me that I'm the most beautiful woman he's ever seen and I've seen him peaking at those "other" beauties. ;-) He'll sometimes remind me of the day when I walked down those stairs 47+ years ago into his waiting hand to marry me that day. I was no beauty then and am no beauty now but to have him think so is beyond "beauty" to me. Feeling beautiful can MAKE you beautiful. I want my countenance to "radiate" beauty. I would like to think it does.

But back to that lady. It gave me great joy to find someone who understood what I meant about my passion for living beautifully. This is my passion. It will not be taken from me by any mortal person. This is my life and we only get one chance at it here on earth. This isn't the dress rehearsal; this it IT. I shall live it as beautifully as I can. No one has the power to do that but me. Only I have the power to do otherwise.

And I'll have Love Bunny's eyes checked for new glasses soon also!
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I couldn't sleep the other night and got up about 4 am deciding that I was wasting time. I finished putting up the roses wallies and then made 2 cord covers for the paper lanterns. Can you see my "C" initial above the school desk? I'm very pleased with the room. Just need to get some shelves up now and I'm through with my office. It's now a place I love to spend a lot of time in.


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Practicing in my "new" painting room. Today seemed like this is the type of rose I'm doomed to paint for a while. ;-) I'm satisfied.....until I can get a class somewhere. I have a new book with patterns in it. I'll try that and see where it leads me. *Sigh*........

Vintage Desk - Step 2

My daughter gave me these paper lanterns a couple of years ago. (We exchange things a lot, but it's to her advantage because whatever I "borrow" from her, she'll inherit! AND in much better frou-frou condition! She's a girly-girl also. *Wink*!) But I cannot figure out where in this room to put them. Only a 60 watt bulb can be used so they don't throw off a lot of light but it is soft and pretty anyway. What do you think? Should I put them on either side of one of the desks or one over one desk and one over the other? Desks are across the room from one another.~*~

My little cherubs, I blog and post these - and all- pictures to help you get ideas for your homes. (I believe the way the world situation is going that we'll be spending more time in our homes and trying to make them a refuge for us.) I show so many photos so that you can see the process by which you can create something from a ratty vintage school desk. So bear with me while I tell the story below. *Sigh*........................

I decided I want to cover the drawers on the vintage school desk instead of painting them. The sides, legs and back of the desk will be painted white but I wanted to give a bit of pizzazz to it. So I am covering it with some roses fabric remnants I have left. I have a ROOM full of rose fabrics!!! I need to start using some of the scraps. Love Bunny has spoken. ;-) Well, he's "suggested" I do something with what's in there.

A couple of friends have suggested using fabric softener to adhere the fabric to the item being covered and I'm trying it. I use the Suavitel and it is the best smelling stuff I've ever had. My laundry room smells like it and everyone traipsing through that room always comments on how good my house smells. Hahhhhhh.......they should have been in here the other night when hubs burnt our popcorn!! Maaaaaan, I tell you, I burned Glade Angel Whispers candles the whole day after and it still smelled like burnt popcorn!! Will he hear the end of this one???? We'll see how long it takes the smell to dissipate before I make a decision on that one!

First drawer to get covered. I just dipped the fabric in the softener and stuck it to the drawer and let it dry.

The original stickers on the pull-out board the teacher put there are still on it. I'm leaving them on. They say: hot lunch, milk, cold or absent. I don't have the heart to take them off........

I kept waiting for the fabric to dry and then..........it hit me!! It wasn't fabric softener she recommended; it was liquid starch! DUH moment......totally embarrassed. I didn't have any. Okay, I now have the best smelling drawers in the state of Idaho. Can ya smell me over there in Oregon?!?! Hmmmm??? Maybe Montana or Wyoming??? Yep, sure smells wonderful here now.

Ya still with me?!?!? So hubs and I went to Red Robin for dinner and then tried to fit a bit of shopping in for liquid starch. It was cold and we had to go to 2 stores to find it. So then I come home and put the starch on and this morning it isn't adhering quite as well as I'd hope for so I used just the tiniest bit of Mod Podge to hold it on. I figure if I don't put on much I can just peel the fabric off if I ever want to change it again. I'm sure hoping this works.

This bottom drawer is just one deep drawer although it has 2 handles and looks like two. So I got a bit creative.

Would you look at the way they used to keep the drawer from falling out! I've never seen anything like it and I'm from that generation. I guess I wasn't too much into looking at the back of drawers at that point in my life. ;-)

This is the pencil drawer and I'm telling you that is a lethal weapon on the back of it! If I ever need to confront a burglar I'll just tell him to hold on a minute while I pull my drawer out! I figure at that point he'll run from the house screaming for fear of my lunacy.

So here it is so far.

So my creativity extended to putting a bit of trim over that little "divide" on the deep drawer and then putting a paper rose on it with the ol' glue gun.

Close up of the rose with a bit of added "fluff" - a bit of netting!

Now, I'm not looking for compliments. I'm simply trying to show you how something utilitarian can still be functional when we add to its beauty. I get to live with it (it's mine.......squeeeeeeeeal!!), but anyone can do this no matter what style you have in your home. Just take what I've done and translate it into your OWN style or decor. Country? Use some of your fabric around your home or paint the drawers a different color than the rest of the desk or do a "plaid or faux" paint technique. Use your imagination. Let it run wild with the anticipation of what you're capable of doing! This can apply to modern or traditional or whatever.

Okay, my little cherubs, gotta go paint those handles "Pink"!!
:-) <--------- That's me grinning from ear to ear!!! LOL

Okay, I went out and finished the handles and decided to just update everything for this one post. I LOVE the handles with it! I tramped out to Home Depot and tried to find some I liked better but nope, none I like better than the original ones sprayed pink. So now all I have to do it paint the rest.

:-)<------------still grinning, my sweet chicks!!! LOL

Pretty Doors and Peace and Calm

For First Friday, I recommend you go to my selling blog, La Maison Rose, and look at a few new things I've put on there recently. And to learn more about First Fridays, go to Rhea's blog at sweetnshabbyroses.
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Now for some tranquility in lieu of the past week and all the worldly problems confronting you. Peace, my sweet friends.......

These doors look European or South American to me. They came from a calendar of this year. I only buy beautiful calendars to hang on my fridge so Love Bunny can keep me informed of his activities. One month at a time is placed on the fridge with beautiful magnets to hold them. I walk the walk when I talk the talk, chicks.

Hubs and I have been to Mexico and England and Ireland and simply loved visiting those countries, but we'll never go again. (I ain't flying, chicks!! Never ever again.) But the beauty of the flowers and the doors is astounding. The doors and windows in Ireland impressed me the most. So today I thought I'd just share with you these vintage looking entrances with the roses and foliage around them. Aren't they gorgeous? I also love the cobblestones pathways or streets you see in some of them.

Imagine climbing these stone steps worn with a smoothness and age from years of the pattering of feet running up and down them after a day of shopping or coming home from work. Beautiful in their simplicity. Window boxes abundant with flowers vining down the wall and shutters to keep the hot sun at bay during the day.

This one reminds me of a "secret" little street off the beaten path. Shrubs and flowers in pots and cascading down the balcony and over the window boxes again. Tile roofs to add to the mystique and ambiance. Notice also the vivid sun-drenched colors of the walls. Magnifiquè! Vintage lanterns lining the street and dripping with the patina of centuries gone past.

A secret entrance perhaps? Hmmmmm. More lush foliage to secret the owners from passersby. Hubs and I have rented a condo in Puerto Vallarta that reminds us of this patio. It was gorgeous.

Look at those magnificent doors! Very regal. And the stone step worn away from centuries of use. Can you imagine living here? The scent of geraniums wafting through the window spilling their spicy scent up to you. What a treat that would be.....:-)

This one reminds me of where Jesus the Christ might have lived. I can't explain why but it is just reminiscent of the cave where the stone was rolled away and He was set free for eternity. Even the light on the wall reminds me of His light to the world. Stone steps luxuriant in so many flowers one can barely find purchase for the feet. I weep.

May you have His peace and comfort in the days to come. Times will be hard but with Him you will at least have comfort.

Dieu soit avec vous. Au revoir jusqu'à la fois prochaine, mes amis doux.