PAINT AN ACCENT PANEL WALL

First of all, all of the credit for this design goes to Emily at Jones Design Company.   After seeing her "Painted Wallpaper" office over a year ago, I stored the idea away in my brain knowing that I wanted to do the same someday. I finally found the perfect spot! This is a paneled area over a built in desk in the office that I'm in the process of overhauling.  I painted it dark, the same color as the ceiling, which is "Wrought Iron" by Martha Stewart.  After staring at it for several days, I decided it needed a little something to take it up a notch! I'm not posting a full tutorial, just showing a few photos of how the wall progressed. This is the point where I was REALLY wishing I was finished!  Just keep painting, just keep painting... I used this paint, and I love how it seems to light up and shimmer just a bit.  The color is Pure Gold.  Total cost for this project: less than $1.50-one lit......

CONTINUE READING »

INDIAN TACOS

My mom fixed one of my favorite meals for my birthday party.  Actually, it's just about everyone's favorite.  Emily even requested Indian Tacos last month on the Fourth of July, but we stuck with good old hamburgers and hot dogs that day. While on a mission trip in New Mexico years ago, my mom received this recipe from a Creek Indian lady, so she learned from a pro! Here's the recipe for the Fry Bread: Indian Taco Fry Bread 4 cups flour 1 Tablespoon baking powder (fresh!) 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons sugar 1 Tablespoon shortening-cut in 2 Tablespoons milk Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Add 1 cup warm water (more or less) until dough is soft-not sticky.  Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth.  Try not to add too much flour as that will make the bread tough.  Let dough rest for at least 15 minutes (Mom just turns her bowl upside down and covers the dough with it while it's resting.).   While dough is......

CONTINUE READING »

IT'S MY PARTY...AND WHAT WAS IN THE BOX

Thank you so much for all of my thoughtful birthday wishes!  Our weekend was busy.  A sweet group of friends took me to breakfast a few days before my birthday, and then on my birthday my hubby -he's the best!- and I enjoyed a long breakfast and a bit of shopping before all of the partying got kicked off.  When the kids came home from school we opened the first round of presents and then headed to my parents' home for a big family shin-dig.   I know you've been on pins and needles all weekend, so here's my big gift!   My sewing machine is ancient.  While a workhorse, it basically just sews straight or zig-zag seams.  I've always thought it would be great to have a machine that would do some fancier stitching and monogramming, although those are usually in the many thousands of dollars range.  Ray shopped around all by himself and found this good, reasonable alternative that should be great for some special projects here and there.  I......

CONTINUE READING »

ANTICIPATION

Today is my birthday.  My 40th birthday.  Other than not quite knowing how that happened,  I'm o.k. with it. This huge box appeared in the living room last night.  It's driving me crazy.  I'm reminded of how my kids surely feel on their birthday when they have to look at their gifts all day and wait until the evening to open them.  I usually have a pretty good idea of what my gift will be, but this time, I'm clueless.  I used to not like surprises so much but as I get older I really do! We are partying with family and friends this weekend.  I'll keep you posted when I find out what's in the box. :) Have the happiest of weekends, friends!  ...

CONTINUE READING »

BLACK INTERIOR DOORS

As promised, here's a look at my freshly painted interior doors. Well over a year ago when toying with the idea of using black, I painted the interior of my front and back doors only, as well as the  french doors that lead to the office.  I immediately loved the difference! I apologize in advance for some shadows and less than great photos.  My hallways have ZERO natural light so they are a real challenge to photograph!  I have so much to learn....and apparently there's a mysterious spot on my lens showing up! My master bedroom...an open door to my next project! I don't even mind the brassy knobs so much anymore.  In fact, I kind of like them now with the black doors and am no hurry to switch them out like I was before painting. As far as procedure goes, I started with Sherwin Williams Solo paint (said to be the same as the "ProClassic" line, they just had to use Solo because the base was so dark) in Tricorn Black Semi-Glo......

CONTINUE READING »

FURBALLS, FIRST, & FIVE

Alright, I think I'm back to a regular blogging schedule!  I limped along with the blog through the summer but the kids are back in school, and I have lots to tell you about!  Today is a quick little family round-up of some things we've been up to lately, but I have some fun house things to show you the rest of the week. We lost our almost 15-year-old cat in February, right when the kids were really starting to enjoy having a pet around.  There has been begging ever since for something new, and Dad was always happy to take them to PetSmart to look at the cats for adoption.  Well, they saw these two on one of those trips and couldn't stop talking about them.  They are right at 6 months old, brothers, born and raised this far in the shelter.  No way we could take one and not both of them.  We went back to see them 2 or 3 times, and after Ray & I had decided we could get them, we told the kids that we could take them home with us.......

CONTINUE READING »