Sunday, May 31, 2015

Featured At The Dedicated House




You know how you slow down and can't
help but look when you see a car crash?

I guess there are a lot of people who feel
the same way about a wreck of a house...






I was thrilled to get an email from Kathryn
over at The Dedicated House, letting me
know she was featuring my last post in her
Sunday Showcase as "most viewed".

Thank you to everyone who clicked on
my link, even if it was just to see how
badly I had wrecked my house!

My favorite from that blog party was the
drum table done by JunkChick Life. Of course
 she painted it white and aged it down!

Hope you go over and check out the other features.



http://www.thededicatedhouse.com





Thanks for dropping by! 

Friday, May 22, 2015

Recycling Rooms While Dreaming Of New Stuff






Well, since last we talked I have totally
torn up the house to redecorate...

You know how that goes, right?


You decide to focus on one room -- and that
requires you to move almost every piece of
furniture around in the rest of the house --
it's some freaking law of nature!
While stacking stuff on a cabinet, I think I
discovered the right colors for our house!
The aged-yellow frame on the chicken picture
represents the kitchen cabinets...
and some of the other furniture... 

The aged-creamy-white of the chalkboard
represents most of our white furniture and 
the color of the window and door trim.

I love black, brown, dark green, and deep
rose for accent colors right now...
I think I'm over blue!
 Did you noticed the Restoration Hardware
paint chip? 

That's going on some walls if I get brave
enough to go to the dark side!

Most of the Restoration Hardware stores are
painted with that slate color now. I love how
RH mixes the dark gray color with the bare 
and aged wood look...

Here's my favorite two pieces of RH furniture:
 The St James bed frame and the
Willems table in bare wood...

 
or coffee stain...
Have you noticed that Restoration Hardware
never stocks anything in the stores anymore?

I tried to buy a gallon of the slate paint last
week, but when I took the gallon can to the
checkout,  the saleslady said it was for
"...display purposes only..."

I took the chip and decided to have it color
matched at Home Depot. I like their Behr's
Paint-and-Primer brand better anyway, and I can
buy a smaller sized sample in case I chicken out.




Thanks for dropping by!


Dwellings-the Heart Of Your Home


Miss Mustard Seed's



Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Hand-Me-Down Fig Tree




In 1912, Wild Bill's maternal grandparents...
Will and Mattie Savage
...married and moved to Oklahoma.


It didn't take them long to move back to
Texas. They returned to the little Northeast town
of Whitesboro and spent the rest of their lives
living in that small town.

Early on, Will planted a fig tree for Mattie. The
fig tree grew and provided figs for the 10 
daughters and 2 sons born to Will and Mattie.

Thirty-five years after Will and Mattie married,
their daughter Jessie (my MIL)  married in 1947.
Later when Jessie and Raymond bought a house,
Will gave them a cutting from the his old fig tree. 

Before Jessie and Raymond sold their house in
2006, Jessie gave her nephew Kent a cutting
from her (now) old fig tree.

Wild Bill finally retired in 2012, exactly 100
years after Will and Mattie married.
Our retirement house is just down the road
from Whitesboro and Cousin Kent brought
us a cutting from his fig tree that year. 


Through the freezing snow and ice of the last
few years, our fig tree cutting has survived
and thrived. Wild Bill will soon need to plant
the little fig tree in the ground as it is now
out-growing its spot on the front patio.
Every time we sit on the patio, I think
of Will and Mattie's fig tree and how it has
been handed down through the generations
to land not far from where Will first
planted the original tree for his Mattie.
I often read about how people move their fig
trees inside for the Winter. I'm not sure if
it's necessary to do that as it does seem that
our little fig tree thrives on the cold weather.

While gazing at our little tree, I often think of
this story Wild Bill told me of his grandpa:


When Wild Bill was a little boy, he was out
in the garden with his Grandpa Will. Mattie 
came out to the yard to hang the wash and
Will stared at her with a grin on his face and
told his grandson what a beautiful woman
his wife was. 

Little Bill said: 
"Oh, that's Nanny...she just looks old!"

and Will laughed and said:
"Son, you're not looking at her with my eyes."


Last Saturday, that little cowboy and I celebrated
our 18th wedding anniversary. I sure hope he still
sees me like Grandpa Will saw his Mattie all those
 years later.





Thanks for dropping by!








Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The Ugliest Area




I am tired of trying all the obvious ideas
for finding the right paint color...
you've heard them before, so I won't list 'em.

The thought struck me recently to just pick our
ugliest room and make it over.
Screw the rest of the house!

I knew right away which room is the biggest eyesore
 -- it has to be an odd section of our great room.




Did the builder mean it to be an eating area?
Or a place to put a small conversation grouping?

You wouldn't believe how much time I have
wasted on this issue!

Like Oprah, I'm starting with what I know for sure:

The odd-sized window needs trim to make it tall
enough to match the French doors.

I will never be happy until the trim is white.

All that dark brown furniture is a drag.

The yellow-beige walls are not for me.


So, like Nike, just gonna' do it!

In case you missed me, we were driving back and
forth across the desert from Texas to San Diego
and back...which, as you can tell...leaves a lot of
time for thinking and problem-solving.

Our oldest daughter slipped while out hiking and
broke several bones in her ankle/leg and had to be
med-evacuated by helicopter out of the hills.

She's recovering well now. As a good blogger
does, she got lots of selfies. My favorite is her
hospital pic while waiting for surgery. 
What a trooper:


Thanks for dropping by!