My Cottage Charm

Guess what I’m going to do with these….

2012-01-28T14:48:00.001-05:00

Howdy!
Can you all guess what I’m going to do with these drawers? Remember when I was telling you I was able to glean some things from the old 1916 house that was being torn down in our town? I got glass door knobs from all the old doors, I got a bunch of old drawers that I made into under the bed storage….you can see those HERE. I also retrieved some old doors and these drawers.

These drawers were part of a butlers pantry in the old house……I’m questioning their paint color choices, but hey I’m from KY and my boys think they’re just great this color! :0) Go UK! lol

There are 8 drawers in this piece and I’m seeing LOTS of storage!
I can’t believe how well made these things are…just look at that old bead board they used to build this unit…and that’s on the BACK! They sure don’t build things like that any more!

When I pulled these from the old house, they were in pieces…I sat down in the middle of the floor of the old place and started putting them back together with my trusty hammer…..they were grimy, and so was I by the time I got them back together, but I think they’ll be worth the trouble when I’m done with them! :0)

Got any ideas what I should do with them?

Oh…the reason I haven’t posted in a few days is that I was at the dentist’s office for three days straight, so I wasn’t feeling much like posting anything. My hubby is changing jobs so we decided to get some dental work done before our insurance changes over next month. I had a cleaning, a crown and some old fillings replaced…I survived. :0) Going to the dentist has never been my favorite thing to do (except for the smooth feeling you get after a cleaning), but I have to say, I didn’t even feel the shots or anything this week..so that made me a happy girl! I also am lovin’ that my old mercury fillings are getting replaced with the nice white ones. Doesn’t take much to make me happy! lol

Ok…so now guess what I’m going to do with the old bank of drawers!

Blessings and Hugs!
Missy

Technorati Tags: what to do with old drawers,how to use old drawers

Another Birthday!!….It’s busy around here!

2012-01-21T14:12:00.001-05:00

Today our Lincoln turns 20 years old!

Where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital!

Just watch him grow up right before your eyes…..

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

We love you!
Mom and Dad :0)

Happy Birthday to a Special Guy!

2012-01-15T21:38:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

I’d like to introduce all of YOU to my daddy….he’s a special guy!

Won’t you all leave him a birthday wish or two…I know my mom will show it to him, and I’m sure it will make him smile. He’s given our family so much to smile about over the years!

Thanks so much!

Love you guys!
Missy

A “SPECIAL” Delivery…

2012-01-11T13:58:00.001-05:00

Well today was a wonderful day!
This morning I heard the doorbell ring and looked out my bedroom window to see our mail lady, Darla, standing at my front door. I opened up the window and yelled down for her to just leave the package she had in her hands because I was a mess.…still in my pj’s, no make-up and hair in a sort of ponytail. (you know the half falling down kind) :-0

I went downstairs and grabbed my package out of the rain and got all giddy when I saw who it was from! Cindy, from Cindy’s Fractured Fairy Tale! Now if you don’t know Cindy, you’ll have to hop on over to her blog and see the amazing talent this gal has! Anyway, I ran upstairs and plopped on my bed to rip open the large envelope. (yep, it felt like Christmas again!)

Here’s what was inside the envelope……

Isn’t it a lovely little package…all tied up with a purple bow and vintage earring. Just so pretty. I grabbed my camera to take a couple of shots because I just knew I would want to remember what special care she took in wrapping my surprise. And OH, what a surprise it was!

Just look at what was inside that pretty little package all tied up with string….
This is now one of my favorite things!…..

Yes, she sent me a painting that SHE painted just for ME! I’m always telling her what an amazing artist she is, and she got on my blog and looked around to see my house colors and actually painted me this beautiful picture. Yes…I cried. You blogger friends sure know how to make a gal cry!

When Linda, from Itsy Bits and Pieces, sent me those beautiful ornaments for Christmas I cried…
Remember these??… Beautiful and so special!

When Patty, from Lemon Lane Cottage, sent me the beautiful baby blanket she handmade for Sweet Pea, I cried….

Either I’m getting mushy in my old age, or you gals are just amazing. (I think it’s you gals are just amazing!)

Now back to my beautiful painting! It goes in so many rooms in my home that I’ve just been walking around and around looking for the perfect spot. I still haven’t settled on where it’s going to hang, but it’s just perfect….in every little way!

I promise, these pictures just don’t do it justice….It’s so deep and realistic. (and I can still smell the paint…it’s so fresh!)

Cindy is SO talented..you just have to go over and see the amazing cows and sheep she’s painted. They’re so light and airy…almost misty. :0) I’m tellin’ ya, she’s good!
Look how good my painting goes with my throw I just got from TJ Maxx…it looks so pretty with the pink. See why I’m having such a terrible time trying to figure out where to put it…it looks good EVERYWHERE! :0)

Thank you Cindy, from the bottom of my heart….you’re such a blessing and a joy to have as a friend!

Love you Cindy, and ALL my blogging buddies. I just can’t imagine if I had never started this blog…oh how many wonderful relationships I would be missing out on!

I am blessed.

Missy

Technorati Tags: cindy's fracture fairy tale,lemon lane cottage,itsy bits and pieces,oil painting,rose painting

Guest Posting

2012-01-10T07:51:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I’m guest posting over at It’s So Very Cheri today. She asked me to do a post on my laundry room…..and you all KNOW how much I love to talk about my laundry room! lol

You can go HERE to check it out if you’re not sick of it by now! :0) Or if you’re new to my blog and would like to see the post on the big reveal, you can go HERE.

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: how to decorate a laundry room,laundry room decorating ideas,It's so very Cheri

How to Organize (even when you’re sick!)

2012-01-05T09:35:00.001-05:00

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days, but I’m fighting a nasty sinus infection and am just not feeling so hot! I think it must be the weather here in KY….one day it’s almost 60 and the next day it’s 16….holy degree difference Batman! :0)

Since I’ve been sick I’ve been watching TV at night because my head has been hurting too much to sleep. I watched a mini marathon of Hoarders and I’ve decided that show disturbs me, BUT it makes me want to clean house and organize…a lot! (how do you not know there are dead cats in your house?? Oh my!)

After watching several episodes I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to start cleaning…sick or not! I swear all I have to do is watch a couple of those shows and it kick starts my cleaning gene every. single. time. ! (that and I took a 12 hr Sudafed that made me hyper as can be! I’ll NEVER do that again!…well, at least until it’s time to organize again in the middle of the night! lol)

Since everyone sleeps upstairs I decided to start organizing my kitchen. (I apologize in advance for no before pictures….remember it was in the middle of the night and I was in a crazed cleaning frenzy from watching that show!) I started in my corner cabinet where all our coffee, tea and mugs are stored. I have kind of developed a plan when I organize.

1. I first remove everything from the area that I’m organizing
2. then I throw away and condense as much as possible
3. then I put it all in like groups.

For instance, I had multiple boxes of the same tea, so I condensed them into one big jar and threw away the bulky boxes. I also try to put things in areas that make the most sense. The reason all our coffees and teas are in that cabinet, is that it’s closest to the tap water and the coffee maker, so I don’t have to run all over the kitchen to make a cup of tea or coffee, it’s all right there. I also try to re-use things….see the three big glass jars?

We buy cherries at Sam’s Club every year to make chocolate covered cherries for Christmas, we save the jars and re-use them. (and yes, those jars will eventually get little tags that say coffee, tea and creamers….cause I LOVE tags!) Oh, please ignore my scratched up cabinets…it’s time to paint them again after a couple of years of abuse….glad the scratches are only on the insides! :0)

I left specialty teas in their own boxes because there weren’t very many of them and they’ll be gone in no time flat! (did I mention I like hot tea?) :0)

I put our mugs on the 2nd shelf because it was so shallow and there was no wasted space. The plates etc on the top shelf are just extra we use when we’re desperate cause I haven’t had time to run the dishwasher. (can you say, “not enough time in the day”?!)

The next cabinet I tackled was the dreaded baking supply cabinet!

I condensed as much as possible by putting like spices together…i.e., I had 4 bottles of cinnamon which I was able to condense down into 2. (don’t ask me why I had 4 bottles….who knows around here!)
I also put in a little hanging basket shelf…those things are wonderful! They make an extra “shelf” so you can use all the space in a cabinet or closet..I have them in several areas of our home. I put all my sprinkles and baking spices in the little shelf area and stored my Wilton cake decorating books underneath.
(Have I ever told you I used to do wedding cakes….lots of wedding cakes! Don’t really have time anymore, but it sure was fun when I was doing it!) See the Tupperware container on the shelf? I put all my MANY cupcake papers in there….it takes up much less space than all those little cupcake paper containers and it closes up and you can stack them..I love containers!

Next I did this….

Not much you can do with an appliance cabinet…I just wiped it out and rearranged. I think I should purge some appliances, but I really do use them all. Such dilemmas!

Under my sink (and hopefully everyone else’s) is always a mess. To me, it’s the hardest place in the house to organize. I have grand plans to build some kind of storage device down there, but for now it was purge, straighten and close the door. :0) So eventually this will be my before picture instead of my after! (oh, and see the Finish dishwasher detergent box (the blue and red one)…that is the best dishwasher detergent I have ever used! Just sayin’)

The next area I tackled was the cabinet beside my stove. I keep all my pots and pans in that cabinet because…well, it’s beside the stove..duh. :0) I have my crockpot down there that I got as a result of a review because of my blog….I love blogging!

Here’s the other side…more pots and pans and some Pampered Chef stoneware. After looking at these photos, I’m thinking I need some new cookware…mine is looking a little shabby. :-/ I rearranged everything and made a little more space. I keep my cutting boards vertically down there for more storage space. (hey look, you can see my pink house shoes in the reflection! lol)

The next cabinet is the one that we re-did when we did our cottage kitchen makeover….we put glass in the doors. When you put glass in your kitchen cabinet doors, you really better be sure you’re gonna have pretty stuff to put in it, or at least make sure it’s super organized. I chose to keep all our regular dishes white and glassware plain and clear..it makes for a much neater looking cabinet.

I know this post is going on and on, but I was up all night organizing, so somebody needs to appreciate all my work, so stick with me! lol

I did our cutlery drawer next. I have found that stacking our forks, spoons etc, makes it much easier when unloading the dishwasher…..not to mention it just looks nicer. I did a little purging in the drawer areas of our kitchen and just straightened them all up a bit…..

Can you see my affinity for pink even creeps into my utensil drawers! I would LOVE to have all the Kitchenaid utensils in pink, but I just can’t afford them, but hey I got two!

Cookbooks and baking pans oh my! To say I have a lot of cookbooks would be an understatement, but I have managed to get them all in one cabinet on one shelf. Here’s half of them….

and here’s the other half…… :0) Again, all my pans to bake with are in the cabinet on the other side of my stove for easy accessibility.

The last place I organized was the bottom of my hoosier cabinet. This is where I keep things I don’t use very often, or items that I keep extras of like pasta’s, cake mixes and sugars.

I put labels on the front edge, inside the cabinet, to show where everything goes……. (looks like I need to add some shelving paper too. Nothing like pictures to make you see your stuff in a “real light”)

Oh…I did want to show you that my pantry that I re-did at the beginning of last year, is still nice and neat. That was one MAJOR re-organization and prettification project, but I still LOVE the outcome! You can see that project HERE.

Well, that’s it. That’s what happens when you take too much Sudafed and watch too many episodes of Hoarders when you have a sinus infection. Most people sleep….I organize. Pretty much sums me up in a nutshell! (I’m a nut) :0)

Hugs to you all!
Missy :0)

Technorati Tags: pantry makeover,how to organize,organizing your home

Things you don’t know about me…

2011-12-31T21:13:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it’s 2012 already…time goes by so quickly and the older I get the faster it goes. Does it seem that way to you too?

I thought, to start off the new year, I would tell you some things about me that you don’t know. Not sure anyone will be interested, but these are things that made me who I am today, so you might know me better if you read them. :0)

In the hospital where I was born, I was the last baby to be born there. There was a set of twins, then me….then the hospital was torn down and I believe there’s a Kmart there today. lol

I was pretty poor growing up, but I don’t think I ever knew it, my parents always tried to make my childhood special. I remember my daddy coming home one day with a box…it was a baby alive doll box. I thought it was just a box because I wasn’t used to getting toys out of the blue, but my mom and dad took their last $10.00 in the bank and bought me that doll. I kept it for a LONG time, but if you remember baby alive dolls, you could feed them real food….let’s just say I fed mine and it didn’t come out, and baby alive doll food stinks when it’s left inside the doll. YUCK!

I grew up in a little house out in the country…..we had an outhouse, a smokehouse, a pigpen, (with a pig named Arnold), a garden, a well and a pond. I remember one time I was playing with dish liquid, trying to make bubbles, and I spilled the bottle and it came within inches of dripping in the well…oh boy did I get in trouble! I would have ruined our drinking water if it had gotten in the well….. God was looking out for me even then! lol

I learned how to ride a bike when we lived in that house. A purple bike with a banana seat and a high back. It looked sort of like this, but with a high bar in the back…

I had to learn how to ride my bike in the grass….with a hill….and a fence. I can assure you I hit the fence more times than I can count trying ride around the house and flying down the hill. I finally figured out how to ride my bike and ran in the house exclaiming, “I rode around the house nine times”! I was so excited.

I recently went back to the old farm to take pictures of the house, but it had been torn down and big barn is there now. I sat in the middle of the road and cried…..it’s hard to see your childhood home torn down. BUT our pond was still there. I had a pet duck that used to swim in the pond…my dad was skimming rocks in it and hit the duck in the head by accident. I thought sure he had killed it because it’s little webbed feet went up in the air and it was down head first in the pond. I suppose it was just addled a bit, because it eventually came back up and was ok. I sure have a lot of good memories of that old place! One summer we had a chicken disappear, we couldn’t figure out what on earth happened to her. One day she came strolling back to the farm with a trail of baby chicks behind her….now how fun is that?! I kind of miss living on a farm.

We eventually moved from there into a trailer park….my mom made it into the prettiest home. She has a knack for that.

I made a lot of good friends living there….one of which was a boy named Michael Todd Johnson. We got along really well (ok, most of the time), but I remember one day he stepped on my foot with football cleats on and cut my foot open. I mean really OPEN. He picked me up and carried me to Mrs. McCall’s house….she was a little old lady that lived in the park, she used to be a nurse, so she cleaned it up and put steri-strips or butterfly bandages on it. He apologized to me for years for doing that…I still have a scar. Ok….you remember I said Michael Todd and I didn’t get along ALL of the time? Once before school, he took my umbrella at the bus stop, and was poking me with it..then he hid it and wouldn’t give it back. I can’t believe I’m telling you all this, but I punched him in the nose….he went home with a bloody nose and missed school that day. He never took anything of mine again, and we were very good friends for years! LOL Oh…and I’ve never punched anyone in the nose ever again! :0)

We lived in that trailer park from the time I was about 10 until I was 15. I met my hubby (TJ) right before we moved from that trailer park into our first house…a real house that was ours. I remember he came over to visit us in the trailer and we already had everything packed up…I think he thought we were REALLY poor because when we eventually got moved into the new house, he looked really surprised to see pretty things all set up in the house. I only lived in that house for a short time because my hubby and I were married young. I was only 17 and he was 19 when we got married. We had our first son 3 1/2 years later, and 2 more sons later on. We’ll be celebrating 27 years of marriage on Valentines Day….I told you time goes by fast. Now here we are celebrating New Years Day 2012…not sure where all those years went, but I know I enjoyed every single one of them.

I am so grateful to have a nice home and beautiful things now, and to have a husband that goes to work every day to provide for us. I guess I just wanted to start off this new year with a grateful and happy heart while reminiscing about what’s made me who I am today.

I hope the new year holds peace, prosperity, health and happiness for each one of you!
May God bless you in this new year~!

Missy

Technorati Tags: 2012,Happy New Year,vintage baby alive,banana seat bike,farm animals

Favorite 2011 Posts!

2011-12-28T21:32:00.001-05:00

I thought I’d do an end of the year wrap up and hit some of my favorite posts from 2011. My ALL TIME favorite before and after is my…

LAUNDRY ROOM
Before:

After…..

I just never get tired of looking at my laundry room before and after pics! I still LOVE my laundry room!

Then there were the chairs from Target my hubby bought for me last Christmas, but I didn’t re-do until sometime last summer…

TARGET CHAIR:
Before:

After:

I really liked this tutorial because it was so cheap and easy and made such a HUGE difference in my cottage kitchen. :0)

CABINET FEET TUTORIAL:
Before:

After:

The next tutorial after pics just amazed me…looks like a totally different space! LOVE it!

DOOR HEADER TUTORIAL:

Before:

After:

This before and after was SO easy and made such a HUGE difference in my boys bathroom….don’t know why I waited SO long to do it!

MIRROR MOLDING:

Before:

After:

This makeover took some serious time and effort, but it was really worth it…it still looks like the after picture almost a year later….so I KNOW it was a good makeover! lol

PANTRY MAKEOVER:

Before:

After:

I got my new camera in 2011 and had to have a cute cover for that plain black strap…you KNOW I had to make it more girly! lol

CAMERA STRAP TUTORIAL:

Before:

After:

This is my boys linen closet in their bathroom…it didn’t have any shelves in it when we bought the house, I remedied that situation!

CLOSET ORGANIZATION:

Before:

After:

Then there was the old drawers from the 1916 house that was torn down in our town. They went from this…

UNDER THE BED STORAGE DRAWERS:
Before:

To this…
After:

I also got to attend a couple of fun blogger events this year too!

The first was a Bloggers June Jaunt with a great group of gals, but headed up by Gail Wilson, from My Repurposed Life.

Our whole group…

Beckie and I in a Peddlers Mall in Indiana.

The next bloggers event was a craft party with Traci, from Beneath My Heart….we had a wonderful time!
This is me, Traci and Gail, from Gleanings from Gail.

Here we are with our crafts…what a fun day!

I would never have believed when I started this blog that I would have made so many wonderful friends. There are many wonderful people out there in bloggy land and I’m SO blessed to know YOU! You guys really know how to make a girl feel special and loved.

I truly hope you have a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Love you all!

Missy
I’m linking this post up to Rhoda’s year end post on Southern Hospitality.

Technorati Tags: blogger,blogging,Year end wrap up 2011,2011 blogging,infarrantly creative,beneath My Heart

Christmas Treasures Vignettes….

2011-12-20T09:45:00.001-05:00

I have so many wonderful memories attached to almost every Christmas decoration I have. I remember bottle brush trees from when I was little, so they just have to have special spots in my Christmas décor…..

This is a very simple vignette, but I wanted the trees to be the main focus….something so simple can be so pretty when they’re all grouped together under glass. My mom gave me the cloche’ many years ago, so the whole thing reminds me of family and Christmas from years gone by.

I have some of my most treasured antique ornaments behind glass. My mom gave me the old bowl, and it’s filled with well worn ornaments from times past…

This next set of ornaments holds a very special place in my heart. I received this entire set, including the silver compote, in the mail this year from an amazing blogger friend. She is one of the nicest ladies I’ve ever had the pleasure of “meeting”. I hope to one day meet this gal in person and hug her neck, but until then…you know who you are, and you’re a treasure among treasures and I love ya dearly!

Aren’t they just beautiful! I have to tell you, when I received the box in the mail, I opened it from the bottom and out came the silver piece first and I was just in love…I thought that was all that was in the box and I was thrilled! Then I noticed more things…I started unwrapping the carefully wrapped ornaments one by one and sat there in my upstairs hallway and cried like a baby. It sure was a wonderful surprise…..what a blessing! You know, all of you are blessings to me! Every time I see how many people read this blog..I stand amazed. Every time I read your sweet comments, it makes my day brighter and my heart swell…I really do love you guys!

Old ornaments are one of my favorite things in the whole world and they’re getting harder and harder to find, so I treasure the ones I have so much! My favorites are the indented ones….especially if they’re pink! Do these ornaments just scream my name or what!?!

Do you all love old ornaments too, or do you prefer the newer stuff? I wish I could go back in time and gather all the things I love from years gone by and bring them back with me to today…wouldn’t that be fun?!

Hope you all have a very Merry CHRISTmas and a blessed New Year!

Missy

Technorati Tags: christmas,cloche,bottle brush trees,vintage ornaments,indent ornaments,pink vintage ornaments

Christmas Foyer Window

2011-12-17T06:36:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! Today I wanted to show you my Christmasfied foyer.
I started out by hanging our white fuzzy stockings…I filled them with some old toys from years gone by. :0)

See the pink lantern? I got it marked down at TJ Maxx for $7.00….it was red, which would be fine for traditional Christmas colors….but I’m a pink girl, so it got spray painted pink. Besides, I’m using it all year long, so it definitely couldn’t have stayed red…Ya'll know my house has no red in it at all! lol (oh and it has a flameless candle in it, which makes for a festive little light at night!)

The little pink trees came from Michaels last year after Christmas…they were half off….I bought three. I love my old glitter tree…I don’t even remember where it came from, but it’s a Christmas staple in our home now.

Here are my Dollar Tree vases I made filled with fake snow…also from the Dollar Tree. Have you seen it? It came in a little clear baggy inside a can and it was a fine powder….you add water and poof, you have snow! (ok..you have to mix it up..then poof!) :0)
I added my white bottle brush trees and a couple of old books for some height and voila’! (I sound like a magician…poof and voila’!) LOL

OH…you see that cute little snowman? My middle son made that in 5th grade….I treasure the things my kids made growing up. He’s 19 now and I wouldn’t take anything for all his little Christmas projects we’ve made together.

So that was my Christmas-y foyer!
I’ll do another Christmas post later this week and show you a few little vignettes around our home.

Merry Christmas!
Missy

Technorati Tags: how to decorate for Christmas,Christmas mantle,tj maxx,Christmas foyer

Christmas Gift Idea….Delicious and Fun!

2011-12-12T08:22:00.001-05:00

I told you all about our wonderful Choir Christmas party we had last weekend, and wanted to share the treats I made for each choir and band member. I found this idea from Pinterest and thought it was a fantastic idea for a gift for a lot of people.
By the way, if you aren’t on Pinterest, if you’ll leave me your email address, I can send you an invitation…if you click HERE, you can follow my boards too!

First I went on Ebay and found two buckets of these Wilton Cookie Cutters…they ended up being less than $20, which is pretty doggone good for 36 gifts!

Then my mom helped me out by baking me her FAMOUS Coca Cola cake in a shallow pan. (hers is better than Cracker Barrels any day of the week!!) This recipe works great because the icing is like fudge and accepts the cookie cutters without getting smashed. This reminds me…. I need to get her recipe!! (you could also do this with fudge!)

I took each cookie cutter and arranged them on top of the pan of cake first, so I could maximize the amount of cookie cutters I could get on top of the cake.

Then I gently pushed them down into the cake. I went ahead and did them all at once, so I wouldn’t mess up any of the cake, taking them out one at a time.

I used a little icing spatula to remove each of the cookie cutters. Guess who got to eat the little pieces that were left?! Oh yeah baby, we all munched on that! (this picture is making my mouth water….that icing tastes exactly like rich, creamy fudge!)

After I lifted the cake filled cookie cutters out of the pan, I wiped off the outside of each one so it wasn’t too smudgy….you want to make a nice presentation. :0)

You can decorate them with candy etc, if you’d like at this point, like the ones below. This picture came from Laurie’s blog…. Tip Junkie.

I bought some really cute little bags to put my goodies in….

Then I put one cake filled cookie cutter in each bag and had an assembly line going with Carson…I bagged, he twist tied. :0)

We actually took it a step farther and made hand made gift tags and put them on with red pipe cleaners, but I forgot to take a pic of that part and I had already given them all away when I remembered. Sorry…bad blogger! lol

I thought this was a wonderful idea for giving gifts in large numbers. You could give them out to your neighbors, church choir, friends or whatever.

Have a Merry Christmas…it’s getting closer!! (Carson lets me know this each day!) lol

Missy

Technorati Tags: christmas,how to make gifts for a group,What can I give a group of friends,Christmas cookie cutters,cookie cutters,coca cola cake

Our Christmas Mantle

2011-12-05T13:12:00.001-05:00

I can’t wait to show you all the decorating I’ve been doing for Christmas, but first I have to share with you the crazy, but fun week I’ve had! Wednesday night at church it was my turn to take part of the snack, but apparently we had more bringing snack than we realized…we had SO much food that we ended up sharing with the men’s class in the other room! lol Then Thursday was our bi-weekly homeschool co-op group at church…we always have fun when we all get together. :0) Friday night was our annual ladies ornament exchange…we play dirty santa and steal each other’s gifts, and the third time it’s stolen the gift is dead and belongs to that person…what a hoot seeing a bunch of ladies from church “stealing” from each other. It was all in fun and we had a ball…and ate WAY too much! Saturday night was the Christmas party at our house for the choir/band/media groups at church! I was a bad blogger and didn’t take a single picture, but it’s because we were having SO much fun it was ridiculous! We had platters and crockpots of food covering every surface in the kitchen…our church people can cook! I believe at last count we had 31 people, but we had some others drop in and out all throughout the night, so I’m still not sure of the accurate count. I handed out door prizes all throughout the night and we just had a wonderful time fellowshipping! You’d think by now we were done partying wouldn’t you?! Nope…we had our 45th Anniversary at our church on Sunday….what a day! We had most of the pastors represented from all 45 years and had multiple speakers all through the day. We had an amazing spread for lunch and stayed until about 4:00 in the afternoon, but didn’t have church that night, so we stayed home and watched movies, snacked and played games. What a crazy fun week! (that’s why I’ve been missing in action on this blog…I didn’t have a spare second!)

Ok…now on to Christmas décor!….hopefully you stayed with me through that whole novel I just wrote! lol
Today I want to show you my Christmas mantle….I love it!

I decided to use my vintage skates, crystal garland, and the cutest little fluffy owls you’ve ever seen! (oh and that window is one of the ones I told you about my mom asking the guy in the drive thru of the bank for! lol)

Here’s a little broader shot so you can see everything. That chair usually goes where my Christmas tree is sitting now, so I just scooted it over in front of the fireplace because we needed that extra seat for the party and I won’t be using the fireplace for a while anyway.

I got the NOEL letters last year, after Christmas, from Walmart for .25 each…I LOVE them! You should have seen me after decorating with them though….I had glitter all over my face. :0)

Here are those adorable little owls I was telling you about. I have to tell you that I got them from last years ornament exchange….and yes, I did have to steal them for the 3rd time to make sure they went home with me. (don’t judge me!) LOL See their sweet little nest with the golden glitter eggs….so stinkin’ cute!
(they came from Pier 1)

See the little trees on the ends of the mantle? I got those from the Dollar Tree….I bought silver and gold and stacked them, because I knew I wanted to have both colors on the mantle and I thought it would be a good way to tie them both together…I think it worked out just fine.

I nestled some gold balls, poinsettias and berries into some greenery that I lit up with white lights. I made sure to arrange things at different heights and levels so your eye would have a smooth transition from one item to the next.

OH, I have to tell you what Carson said when he came in the room after I had finished the mantle. Here’s the conversation:

Carson- “mom”?
Me- “yes, Carson”
Carson- “I just have to tell you….”
Me- “tell me what honey”?
Carson- “I just have to tell you, I think that mantle is your best work ever”.
Me-

That made my day!

One final look…..

I wanted to get all my decorating finished early this year so I could take time and enjoy the holidays with my family. I want to make sure my kids remember the true reason for this beautiful season……..
Jesus came to this earth as an infant babe to offer himself as a sacrifice that we might have eternal life….HE was the first Christmas gift. Let’s all take the time to stop and remember the first Christmas gift, the one true gift, as we give to the ones we love this year.

Merry CHRISTmas everyone!

Missy

Technorati Tags: How to decorate a mantle,how to decorate a mantel,Christmas decorations,Christmas tree,how to decorate for christmas,ice skates,decorating with owls,owls

Sweet Pea turned 1!

2011-11-22T16:14:00.001-05:00

Can you all believe it, my Sweet Pea turned 1 on Sunday!
It really can’t have been a year since she was born…time sure flies!

I thought I’d pay a tribute to her and show you a pic every month over the last year….you can watch her grow up right in front of your eyes!

Here’s the day she was born…..11-20-2010

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months (thought this was funny) :0)

10 months

11 months

12 months….or 1 year old!!!

Yep, she enjoyed her day!

I know this picture is blurry, but she was so excited over the soft little dolly her daddy bought her, I just had to show it to you anyway. He was so happy she liked it. She kept giving it hugs and kisses!

She also got a lot of clothes and a singing Elmo…what a blessing she is! :0)

Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday! (I’ve been baking all day long…pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake and a strawberry cheesecake! I feel a diet coming on already!)

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: 1st birthday,Sweet Pea,Elmo

It’s a Big Deal…actually two.

2011-11-17T07:23:00.001-05:00

This is my hubby.
He is very humble and never boastful, but he’s received something special.
He’s a fabulous drummer….been playing since he was 3 years old. Seriously!
Well, this special thing that’s happened to him is this…
He’s been been asked to be an endorser for Sonor Drums, a world renown drum company. This is quite special.
He’s also received an endorsement deal with Supernatural cymbals..they’re an up and coming cymbal company.
He’ll probably roll his eyes at me when he sees that I’ve written this, but I’m proud of him.
I have watched him grow so much lately with his new position as Worship Minister at our church, I stand amazed.
God is good.
We recently hosted the KY Worship Conference at our church, this picture was taken right beforehand.

Just wanted to share some neat news and let my honey know how proud I am of him.

Love you guys!
Missy

Our House is Infested! Well…sort of. :)

2011-11-05T22:20:00.001-04:00

Before I get into this post, I wanted to thank all of you for your comments on my Sweet Pea Ladybug post. I’m sorry I didn’t get to get back to everyone individually, but we were hosting KY’s Worship Conference at our church and we were in charge of putting it all together, and to say we were busy, is a major understatement! (We’re worship leaders at our church..in case you’re new to my blog) So thank you all so much…we love our little ladybug! (and I love all of YOU!)

Now, on to the post! :0)

We have mice…..cute little mice cut out of paper that is! LOL

Carson and I had a great time putting all our little mice into place!
We found the template on Martha Stewart’s website..you can get them HERE if you’d like to cut some out as well.

The first time Sweet Pea came to visit after we put them all up, she just kept pointing and saying, “what’s that, what’s that”?! It was so cute!

The template didn’t include the little mouse “holes”, so we cut them out on our own….after all, mice need a place to live too. :0)

We put the mice all the way up both flights of stairs and I do have to tell you they creeped me out the first couple of nights because I had forgotten about them, and I’d go up the dimly lit stairs going to bed, and they’d scare the bejeebers out of me! It was funny! lol

Carson is really enjoying our little critters….I’m just glad they’re paper and not the kind that leave little “gifts” behind all over the house! :0)

Hope you’re having a nice Fall season!

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: mice silhouettes,fall decor,how to decorate for fall

Our Love Bug - Ladybug!

2011-11-01T17:13:00.001-04:00

Our Sweet Pea was a ladybug for Halloween….
Just indulge me please…I’m a gloating Nana! :0)

She loved my mums!….

She loved them so much, she tried to kiss them! (that’s how she kisses….she opens her mouth and says mmmm-whah, then you get your kiss!)

Sweet Pea with her daddy…He loves her SO much!

Lady Bugs can fly… :0)

Her favorite game….smooches and giggles!

These two are my favorites! :0)

Yay for my daddy!….

I LOVED being a ladybug!!…. (can you tell?!)

Thanks for indulging me! lol
Can’t help but love a ladybug!

Missy

Technorati Tags: halloween,ladybug,trick or treat

Making Your Entry Inviting for Fall!

2011-10-25T16:08:00.001-04:00

Hey ya’ll! First let me say thank you for all the sweet comments you left on my last post on “how to upholster chairs”…you guys are too sweet!! I’m still waffling on a couple of things about them, but I’ll save that for another post, cause I want your opinions. :0)

Sorry I haven’t posted in a bit, but my life is literally not my own these days. Do you ever feel like that? I wouldn’t know what to do to have a day where my house and laundry was all caught up and I could do whatever I wanted. Do those days exist?

I digress…

I wanted to share some of my fall pics with you, I decorated a couple of weeks ago, but am just now getting around to loading the pics and showing you what I did. (see, I told you I don’t have five minutes! lol)

We have the sweetest couple in our church that raise corn and they bring me corn stalks. For two years in a row, I’ve come home to corn stalks on my front lawn. Don’t you just love and appreciate people like that?! :0) I made fodder shocks out of the corn husks to go on either side of my door, I just love them! (and they provide a little privacy by covering up my side-light windows!)

Then I brought out this little lady……

I’ve had her for a while and I love everything about her…from her burlap hat….

to her worn out buttons….

I just think she’s sweet, and she stands by our door as proud as a peacock, welcoming each guest that comes to our home. (and she always has a smile!) lol

Then there’s this little fella…

I put him out by my bench, to guard over our pumpkin…he’s pretty cute..if I do say so myself. :0)

Of course we have to have some lovely flowers to adorn each side of the door too….what’s any season without flowers!|

Aren’t they just lovely?!…

I even like the look and texture of the corn tassels!

I’ll leave you with a few more shots of the front of the house, all decked out for fall! (and a few more pics taken with my macro lens…I just love close up fun shots!)

Happy Fall Ya’ll!

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: fall decor,how to decorate your entry for fall,pumpkins,scarecrows

How to Upholster a Chair Tutorial

2011-10-14T07:15:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! I promised you all a tutorial on how I re-did my kitchen chairs in my Kitchen Chair Reveal Post, so here it is!

Here’s the before and after photo of my kitchen chairs…they were on sale for 2 for $139.99 when my hubby bought them for me for Christmas LAST year! (can you say procrastinate?!)

When they arrived at our house they were not assembled…that was actually good, since I was going to tear them to smithereens anyway! lol

Here’s a picture of the back section. I had to CAREFULLY pry the upholstered piece from the back..it was glued and nailed into place with some tiny little brads. Then I had to remove about 1,000 staples PER chair! (I swear my hands were killin’ me by the time I got all those staples out!

I had to remove the piece of fabric they had in the back too…more staples!

The seat was much easer…I just flipped the chair seat over, removed the screws that held it on, pulled out the staples that were holding the fabric into place and pulled off the old fabric.

Here’s what I was left with on the seat………

Here’s what the back looked like. (I just stuck it back into place to show you what it looked like.) It was just a piece of oval wood with foam rubber on it…no rocket science to this chair…….

After I removed the back and the seat, I started sanding. My hands were completely black with all that paint by the time I got finished. I used a medium grit sandpaper on my orbital sander to sand everything down. I did have to use a piece of sandpaper and sand by hand on some of the harder to reach areas. (can you see the HUNDREDS of staple holes on the inside of the oval…that’s where I pulled them all out!) Yikes!

I had already picked out my lovely fabric at this point, it was just lying around waiting for me to get to it…I just LOVE this fabric! It’s a Waverly print called Norfolk Rose.

It was time to get these chairs primed and painted and I KNEW I didn’t want to do all that painting with a brush. I opted for a Harbor Freight Spray Paint Gun…I was very blessed that we had a store in the next county over, but you can find them online at
Harborfreight.com. This bad boy was only $14.95!

I hooked it up to my handy dandy air compressor and started to spray paint. (you most definitely could use spray paint in a can if you didn’t want to mess with a spray gun!)

Here are my chairs after two coats of primer and two coats of paint. I used a color from Lowes called Betsy’s Linen. It’s just a nice creamy white color. My hubby actually picked up the paint chip for it while we were in the store, and I knew it was perfect the minute I saw it! (although, I must admit I didn’t want it to work since I hadn’t personally picked up the chip myself…but it did! HA!) :0)

In this picture, I was trying to figure out exactly how I wanted my pattern on the fabric to fall on the chairs……….

I started upholstering with this air stapler after I figured out where I wanted the fabric to go. I would HIGHLY recommend using one of these pneumatic staplers.…I can’t imagine trying to do this with a regular staple gun. (unless maybe it was an electric one) I honestly would even go rent one of these if I didn’t have one handy. (I borrowed this one from my dad…it’s about the only nailer I don’t own!)

To upholster the seat I made sure the fabric was in the right place and then flipped it over. (make sure you have a nice allowance of fabric too, better to have too much, than not enough) You need to put a staple in the center on each side to start. You’ll want to make sure you pull it so there are no wrinkles in it and it’s nice and tight. (but not so much that it would tear the fabric when you sit on it.) Then just go around and staple the whole perimeter of the square seat, folding the corners in as you go. (like a hospital corner, on a sheet) Then you just screw it back to the seat frame…just reversing what you did when you removed it.

The back was a smidge more challenging, but still not hard really. I just did the same as the bottom, starting to staple in the center section of each side all the way around. Then I went back and kind of pulled and gathered so it was nice and tight, but without making gathers along the sides. Here it is right after I got it fully stapled….

Then I went around and used scissors and cut off all the excess around the whole thing. You REALLY want to make sure to get as much of the bulk off the back as possible, or it’s not going to go back in the back of the chair.

Here’s the silk rope trim I used to go around the sides. See how it has the little edge on it…that part is where you’ll be stapling, so you won’t see it when you put your chair back together. This particular one was about $3.00 a yard, but I used my 50% off coupon at Hobby Lobby…score! You’ll leave it a little bit extra at the ending spot, so you can tuck both ends in, so the ends won’t show.

You can see in this picture, how the rope is the only thing that shows once you staple this edge onto the side of the upholstered wood piece that goes in the chair back. You don’t see any of the edge I’m showing you on the rope trim after it’s installed.

I cut out a piece of fabric a smidge bigger than the back of the chair and stapled it into place, (short staples!) so you wouldn’t be able to see the unfinished back of the oval I had just upholstered……

After you get that back piece stapled in, then you can put the oval fabric piece into place. This was the trickiest part of the whole chair. To get this piece to stay into place, I had to use a brad nailer (it was an electric one) and staple THROUGH the front of my fabric. I had to make absolutely sure that brad wasn’t so long that it was going to poke out the back of my wood on the chair, but it had to be long enough to hold the back into place. You can see in the pic below, where the brad went it through the fabric. After I got them all nailed with the brads, I went back and tugged on the fabric until the head of the brad went under the top of the fabric. This particular one made a tiny little fray in the fabric, so I just put a dab of clear finger nail polish on it. (it’s the only one that did it, but I wanted you to see it and know the fix.)

Here’s the finished product!
It really wasn’t THAT bad. I think the absolute worse part was pulling out the bajillions of staples! :0)

If I forgot to mention something, or you have any questions….feel free to ask!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial on how to upholster a chair!

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: how to upholster a chair,how do you upholster a chair,how to upholster a Louis chair,waverly fabric,waverly norfolk fabric

I Made This Just for YOU! :)

2011-10-12T13:35:00.001-04:00

It makes you think…doesn’t it?!

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: enjoy life,vintage rose,blog button

Kitchen Chairs….REVEAL!

2011-10-04T16:20:00.001-04:00

Howdy Ho! I am finished with my kitchen chairs and wanted to show you all what they now look like!

Let’s start with the
BEFORE:

Chairs my hubby bought me from Target: (2 for $139.99)

This was my inspiration photo:

Here’s what we started with in our kitchen….

Here’s what we have now:

One more before and after!..

They don’t even look like the same chairs!

I LOVE my new chairs!
I’ll show you how I re-upholstered them soon!

So what do you think? Do you like them better than my old ones now? I sure do!

I’m in Love!!

Missy

Technorati Tags: how to upholster a chair,kitchen reveal,chair before and after

How to Decorate a Mantle for Fall. It doesn’t have to be Orange! :)

2011-09-27T16:52:00.001-04:00

I decided to decorate my mantle for fall this year in greens, blues and vintage ironstone.…who said you have to use brown and orange?! :0)

See the old lantern? That was my great grandfather’s barn lantern….he would use it every morning to go to the barn and check on what was going on around the farm. I love using things from my family! The ironstone bowl was a purchase from a friend after they dissolved her mother in laws estate…it’s so old and I adore it!

The old windows behind the ironstone pots came from the old 1916 house I got to go through and glean things from. They were the old transom windows above the doors…I grabbed three of them! (ok..I didn’t grab them, I took a ladder and had to painstakingly remove them with a screwdriver…but it was SO worth it!)

The old window that’s behind the wreath was a gift from my mom. She was in line at the bank and a guy had a truck bed full of old windows. Oh YES SHE DID…she rolled down her window and asked him what he was going to do with them…he was going to throw them away! She took 10!

The old platter was my grandma’s….my mom gave it to me.

I got the little wooden box and milk bottle from a tag sale…I think I paid a buck a piece for them. I got the old blue ball jar from my mom…it’s filled with vintage buttons. Oh how I love old buttons!

I just love my fall mantle!

How are you decorating for fall?

I’m linking up with Layla’s Mantle linky party over at The Lettered Cottage!

Missy

Technorati Tags: how to decorate your mantel,how to decorate your mantle,fall decor,how to decorate for fall

First day of Fall and new labels!

2011-09-23T09:15:00.001-04:00

Fall…don’t you just love it?!

Since the the Autumnal Equinox is happening today…we’re gonna start getting cooler and more fall like from here on out…hooray! I LOVE fall…but I will miss good spray painting weather! :0)

I thought I’d show you some cute fall decorating ideas I found on Pinterest, maybe you can glean some ideas for your own fall décor! If you don’t already follow my boards on Pinterest you can go HERE to follow them!

(you can go to my pinterest boards and look under the one labeled fall ideas to get the point of origin for these pics)

Ok…I’m putting this last one on here for fun…I just thought it was too cute!

Aren’t all those photos lovely and inspirational?!!
I can’t wait to get busy decorating!

Hey, just so you know…I spent about 6 hours this week re-doing all my labels for my blog. Every blog post I’ve done since the beginning of time is now in my labels on my side bar. I have one label called decorating, one for how to build, one for DIY, how to’s etc etc etc. I hope it makes it easier to find things on here!

It looks like this on the sidebar:

Hope you all have a wonderful first day of Fall! (and happy Friday too!)

Missy
PS…I’ll be posting my kitchen chairs VERY soon!

Technorati Tags: fall,how to decorate for fall,labels for blogs

Best Banana Bread Recipe

2011-09-16T15:28:00.001-04:00

I figured while you waited for me to work on my chairs, I’d at least give you a great recipe for a snack! :0)

This is a really good recipe for a nice, moist banana Bread…
Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
5 tablespoons milk
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ cup margarine
1 cup mashed bananas
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional, but why would you leave them out! yummy!)

Directions
1.Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter or margarine. Beat the egg slightly, and mix into the creamed mixture with the bananas and vanilla. Mix in sifted ingredients until just combined. Stir in milk and nuts. Spread batter into one greased and floured 9x5 inch loaf pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until top is brown and cracks along the top.
Enjoy!

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: banana bread recipe,moist banana bread,what to do with bananas

New Kitchen Chairs…

2011-09-11T15:45:00.001-04:00

I have been wanting new kitchen chairs for a LONG time, but couldn’t find what I was looking for that didn’t cost a blooming fortune!
I have lived with these for over 20 years and think it’s time for a change…

You see, I want something that looks like these…minus the burlap, it doesn’t quite fit in my décor, but I LOVE the shape of these chairs!

My hubby knew what I wanted, and for Christmas (yes LAST Christmas) he bought me four of these. (they’ve been in our garage since last year waiting on me!!)

We found them at Target and got two for $139.00 with free shipping. The only problem is they don’t go with our house, so I decided to re-do them. Yes…I know, they’re new. I’ve gotten so much flack from people telling me I shouldn’t reupholster NEW chairs! Well why not I say?! It’s the shape of the chair I was going after, not the fabric! lol
So stay tuned to my next post to see what I dared to do to these babies!
Have you ever done anything quite as crazy as “messing” with a new piece of furniture to make it into what you want it to be? Please let me know I’m not crazy!!
(Sorry I haven’t posted in a little bit, but I’ve been crazy busy around here trying to teach school to my little guy, help my hubby with getting stuff ready for leading music at church, (he’s the worship leader) and getting ready to have 30 people over for a cookout! Yes, I said 30! We’re having a cookout this coming weekend for all of the band, choir and audio people at our church. I’ll be honest…I’m a little freaked out with everything that still needs to be done before Saturday…ya’ll know how many projects I get going at once….and lets just say I have a lot of clean up to do before they all come over! lol )

Hope you all have a blessed week!
Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: how to upholster a chair,target chairs,oak pressed back chairs

How to Add Molding to Mirrors

2011-08-31T12:56:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! I don’t know about you, but I HATE the big slab mirrors builders always seem to put into new homes. We’ve been here about 4 1/2 years now and I couldn’t take it anymore! I decided I had to do something to improve the look of the mirror in my boys bathroom.
This is a picture of my boy’s bathroom BEFORE: .……………..

I’ve been working on giving it a little facelift and thought the mirror would be a great, quick project to help it along in it’s renovation.
I went to Lowes to find some molding. (have I mentioned that Lowes is my favorite store on planet earth?…guess I’ve said that a few times huh?!) Well, while at my favorite store, I found this molding…….

I believe, in the store, it was called Howe and it was $18.80 for an 8 ft long section…I had to buy two, but I sure couldn’t buy a huge framed mirror for that price, so it was still economical, but you could do this with any molding. (so you could go cheaper if you’d like)

First I measured my mirror, it was 36” wide, by 42” tall…I actually cut my wood a little bigger so you wouldn’t be able to see the mirrors edge when I installed the wood. I decided to make it 37” x 43”…..that gave me 1/2” all the way around to hide the edge of the mirror.

I set up my handy dandy miter saw………….

and put the setting to 45degrees, like this…

Then, with the thickest part of the molding (that will be your outside edge) to the back of the saw, you make a 45 degree cut toward the middle, like this…….

Then from the point of that cut, you measure the width (or height, depending on which piece you’re working on) and mark the back edge and make another 45 degree cut in the opposite direction.
You’ll end up with four pieces that look like this….

Pay close attention to the fact that you cut the ends at a 45 degree angle slanted in, so each piece is in the shape of a trapezoid. :0)

It really is that easy….just measure twice and cut once! You can always make another cut, but you can’t add the wood back on once it’s been cut off. :0) (also make sure your measurement are from point to point..that will be the measurement of your width or height of your mirror)
Ok….now this is an important thing to know…when you paint your pieces of wood, make SURE you paint the back of the edges, because they WILL reflect in the mirror and will show if they’re not painted. My wood came pre-primed, so all I had to do was give each piece a couple of coats of paint………including the backs!
To install the wood, use this……….

If you’ve never used a caulk gun before, I’m including a vlog of myself at the end of this post that shows you exactly how to use the gun…I promise it’s not hard. :0) (oh, and don’t make fun of my accent……I can’t help that I’m a southern girl!…and for some reason my lips look funny…ignore the lighting and just try to learn something! ) lol :0)
Apply the Loctite Power Grab to the back pieces of your wood like this….

A squiggly line works better than a straight line, but make sure not to get too close to either edge so it doesn’t ooze out the edges when you install it on the mirror.
I started by installing the bottom piece of wood first, then added each side piece…and finally the top. I made sure the cuts were lining up and everything was straight…

Then I used some painters tape to hold it in place while it dried….

After it dried, I caulked any cracks where the mitered edges came together and just touched up the paint.

This pictures is the reflection of the back of the piece of the molding in the mirror….this is why I said you need to paint the back edges of the molding. They REFLECT! :0)

Here’s the finished mirror! I still have to put in all the new things I bought, but you can at least see the after pic of the mirror.

MUCH better, don’t ya think?!
I’m going to be doing something with that vanity soon….I’m not sure whether to paint it, just buy new knobs or what. Any suggestions or ideas?
Okay..here’s my VLOG if you’d like to learn how to use a caulking gun.

How to use a caulking gun

Blessings
Missy

Technorati Tags: How to use a caulking gun,how to caulk,how to add molding to builder's grade mirrors,how to make mirrors pretty,how to add molding to a slab mirror