For a long time when asked “So, what’s your next book going to be?” I met them with a blank stare.

It matched my equally blank brain. I had NOTHING!

But during the last six months since I stopped working full time, I have been brainstorming ideas and spending a lot of time reading books about the craft of writing.

Fearfully, I think that I’m going to attempt a fiction novel next. I say fearfully because I’ve never considered myself a fiction writer. I’ve got a journalism background and I’m quite comfy in my non-fiction world.

But there is a story in me that wants to come out. I had just started writing (like 3 pages into it) when Jen told me I needed to stop and go read ”Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go”.

I’m half way through and I’m loving it. First, because it’s super practical. Second, because it’s confirming that my thought process on the novel so far, is right on target.

I’m desperate to sit down and start pounding away at the keyboard but I know that I need to finish “Hooked” first.

3.5 years ago the kids came home.

2.5 years ago we re-adopted them (an AZ requirement) and they officially became citizens.

Today we finally have the paper to prove it.

Two “Certificate of Citizenship” papers – otherwise known as the most expensive piece of paper EVER.

$550 each – just to prove they are citizens should some future employer or government agent ever demand it.

That’s it, the last piece of adoption paperwork.

I think.

But it had good lines. And the uglier it is, the cheaper it is, right.

There were about 3 coats of paint on it but after a lot of work it began to look like this…

And now it looks like this…

It’s a good thing that “shabby chic” isn’t really my decor style in the house or I’d totally keep this. But alas, it is for sale.

On to the next project. (If you’re in the market for a black kitchen table with 4 arm chairs (all solid maple), stay tuned.

The kids put a lot of work into the day. Upon arrival we had to play “How Well Do You Know Your Child”. Each student had answered 8 questions – favorite color, movie, food, etc. We had to write our child’s name on the one we thought was theirs.

Can I just say that’s a lot of added pressure for an adoptive mom. I knew I was going to be in BIG trouble if I screwed this up. I narrowed it down to the 4 cards that had purple as their favorite color and went from there. The one I finally settled on had “none” for four of the answers.

Whew, I guessed right!

The kids served us cake, fruit and tea as we looked through the book of poems they’d been working on all year.

The last page was “My Mom”.

I love the second from the last – “Even though she has four kids she has it under control.”

Ha! Guess I have them fooled

Those nasty gold seats had 3 layers of fabric on them. A thousand staples later and all four seats were re-upholstered. (Really, redoing chairs like this is SUPER simple – all you need is a staple gun.)

Paint, distressing, wax and the set (which came from two different stores really) became this…

Mark helped me move it into the booth at the antique mall on Sunday afternoon.

By Monday it was gone. I priced it at $199. Probably could have asked $250 but I didn’t want it to linger in the booth too long – got more stuff to get in there soon.

I was really pleased with how it turned out.

It spent the first 4 years of it’s life looking like this.

What can I say, it was my “country” decor phase – lots of mauve and blue. It is a beautiful set and exactly what I had wanted as a 22 year old fresh-out-of-college and still pretty newly married. Mark’s parents even paid for half of the set (there’s a loveseat too) as a housewarming present for our first house.

It spent 4 years in a living room that rarely got used. In our next residence the couch was in the den and the loveseat was in storage. When we moved to Arizona in 2000 I was kind of done w/ the stripes and it got slipcovered in a basic tan twill with some pretty rose print pillows. Seven years ago when we moved into this house they got new slipcovers to match the new colors and then looked like this…

Can I just say, I LOATHE SLIPCOVERS.

My annoyance with them quadrupled when we added two kids to the family. I guess we use the room a lot more, because I am constantly tucking and re-tucking and IT DRIVES ME INSANE!

So I began to mutter under my breath every time I was re-tucking them – you know, really grown up behavior

Mark had but one request – the new set needed to be leather (or at least “pleather”). Our family room set is, and it’s been amazing for 15 years – easy to clean after kids, etc.

Oh, and of course it has to be a good deal, because living room furniture is not really high on his financial priority list

So six months ago I did a freelance job and set the cash aside in an envelope for my sofa fund – $500.

We did a little looking. Most of the upholstered stuff that gets to thrift stores is pretty trashed. I would sporadically go into Craigslist stalking mode. Then I’d set it aside for awhile. We found one couch at Big Lots that was $300. It was comfy, but not my favorite style. We decided that just a couch would work in the room, so we kept it in the back of our minds. But, with neither of us working full time, it got shoved even lower down the priority list, even though the money was still set aside.

So I started praying about my couches. That either God would help me not be frustrated OR, pretty please, could He help me find a really good deal on a used set

Yesterday I had 3 out of 4 kids in the van with an hour to kill before the 4th got out of basketball, so I dragged them to my favorite thrift store for furniture. As we pulled up, I gasped!

Sitting outside was a leather couch and loveseat in a nice medium brown color. I barely got the van in park before I jumped out. Of course no price on them so I had to ask. $400…but furniture was half off that day…so $200. The couch was definitely “worn in” but still in pretty good shape. The loveseat, however, had a really bad spot on one cushion.

I called Mark, all excited. We went through the “what do you think”, “I don’t know”, “can you come look at it” routine. Mark has severe allergies (especially cats) and that was our one concern when it came to buying used. I was REALLY leery of buying something without him. (Mostly because I didn’t want to hear about it later if he didn’t like it.) So he drove down and we discussed some more. Obviously the loveseat wasn’t in great shape, but I figured either we could put it in our bedroom with a blanket over it, or just donate it and we’d still have a $200 couch in a style I liked. Mark wasn’t feeling it however, and figured for an extra $100 the Big Lots sofa was a better choice. So we went with Mark’s gut (‘cuz his gut is always right as much as I hate to admit it sometimes) and we walked away.

Today after Mark left to pick up the kids from school I was stalking Craigslist again, and saw a brown leather sectional advertised for an INCREDIBLE price. It was only 8 months old and looked (from the one picture) practically new. I emailed the owner and hit refresh on my email every 90 seconds until I got the reply that yes, he still had it, no they didn’t have inside pets, yes it was a smoke-free home, etc.

I practically tackled Mark when he walked in the door and dragged him to the computer to see it. Couple emails back and forth and we were headed to the owner’s house. By God’s amazing providence we still had Mark’s parents pickup truck which they had almost picked back up yesterday.

They were pulling the set outside as we pulled up and I was giddy. It looked amazing. We looked it over, double-checked about the no cats thing and happily handed over the money.

So now this sits in my living room…

Price?

$150

I almost felt guilty….ALMOST.

Of course on the way home, with it all strapped into the truck, Mark had to throw out a “Aren’t you glad I didn’t let you buy that one yesterday?”

“Yes dear…you were right dear…”

Don’t you love that God cares about the desires of our heart – even when we know that it’s not something hugely important in the scheme of things.

P.S. That bench/coffee table? $10 at a garage sale, cleaned it with a damp rag and painted the legs

Many of you are probably familiar with the Restaurant.com deals where you buy a $20 gift certificate and it’s worth double or more at their list of restaurants.

CoupAide has partnered with Restaurant.com to provide a simple and efficient fundraising platform while giving your friends & family a way to save a ton on some of the best restaurants in their town.

If you’re an adopting family, CoupAide has a FANTASTIC giveaway going this week with over $600 in prizes (including cash for your adoption).

GO HERE to find out how to start a fundraiser and enter.

HOW IT WORKS:

• You start a fundraiser page – email all your friends and family the link.
• They pay $20 and get a $50 e-certificate that they can use on Restaurant.com (18,000 restaurants to choose from)
• You get $10 for every e-certificate sold.

Pretty stink in’ simple!

- Restaurant.com gift certificates are accepted by over 18,000 restaurants. Use it while you’re in or out of town.

There are great organizations building water wells around the country, but unfortunately 1/3 of the wells built in the last 20 years is broken.

In India, Water for People is addressing this issue by training well mechanics who are trained and equipped to fix those broken wells. Each trained well mechanic will care for 50 wells which means clean water for 5,000 people.

The Adventure Project’s goal is to empower 186 people to become well mechanics in India. Every $550 we raise helps one mechanic receive:
*Training classes
*Tools and spare parts
*A one-year stipend to help an entrepreneur launch their business.

BUT WAIT….

Today, on World Water Day, if TAP can raise $25,000 the Prem Rawat Foundation will match that $25,000. That means 90 trained well mechanics = clean water for 450,000 people! (PRF is awesome – they matched last years fundraising effort as well!)

Help me raise $275 today and we’ll fund one well mechanic and help TAP reach their goal. No donation is too small!

DONATE NOW

The top put me off from having him buy it, but a few days later he was back, and it was half off. So I figured why not. I had no idea what I was going to do with the laminate and I wasn’t sure how paint would do.

Then it hit me…chalkboard paint!

But I wasn’t sure how the chalkboard paint would look with the wood. It still seemed off. That’s when I started looking at Pinterest and blogs on rehabbing furniture and it all began to come together. And now my obsession has started and I have a garage full of furniture projects.

Here she is all done….and already sold to a friend who is going to use it in her new scrapbook room. What fun!

Then a few weeks ago a new antique & collectibles “mall” opened on our side of town. Individual dealers rent booth space and sell their wares. Mark’s parents own a couple booths at their central Phoenix location and so they also rented one out here and said we could put stuff in it. I had a few things in the house that I put in there,  just little decor items, that sold pretty quickly. Then I started to think about some crafty stuff I’ve seen on Pinterest. I bought some really cheap wine & martini glasses that I’m putting chalkboard paint bases on (so guests can write their names).

Then my thrift store shopping got the better of me and I decided to go BIG!

I’ve always loved furniture and refinishing or painting it and I immediately saw the potential in this beauty. At $100 I couldn’t pass it up. By the time I’d walked out of the store I’d also bought four cool retro 60′s chairs that had tons of possibilities.

The problem was, I was falling in love with the armoire and already figuring out how I could rearrange the furniture in my living room to make room for it. While it’s built for a TV on top I’d just add a couple shelves and use it for storage.

I showed Mark some of the really cool stuff people are doing with vintage furniture and how much they’re selling them for (kind of amazing). One of my FB friends saw the picture of the armoire that I posted and said she had the exact same one she’d bought in a really pretty custom blue and paid $1,000 for it. Wowzers, yeah, maybe I should sell it.

I think I convinced Mark of the viability of my new obsession, because he took me out yesterday and showed me some new thrift stores that he likes.

At the first stop we headed back to the furniture section, and guess what I found?

Hee, hee. It’s a bit bigger than the other one and even has two drawers and a shelf in the bottom. Half off – $125. So one for me, one to sell

After 3 or 4 stores, we ended up with a van full of stuff and Mark had to go back and pick up the armoire and a table and chairs in his dad’s truck.

So my garage is full of stuff that is going to be revamped and made into some fun stuff. I’ll post pics as I’m finished but here’s some of the stuff I’ve got piled up to work on.

Here’s a few of my “inspiration” pieces.