paint

After my busy monogramming season, I decided to take a few weeks off from sewing and catch up on a few projects around my house.  I discovered the world of chalk paint and LOVE it!  Chalk paint allows for quick and easy updates to most any wood surface!

Here are a few projects I've done:

 

I used latex paint on the China cabinet.  I roughly sanded it and primed it and then added 2 layers of paint.

 

This picture doesn't do this little table justice.  It's an earth tone greenish/blue and adds a lot of character to my living room.  My husband hasn't caught onto the "rough" paint look and said it looks like I missed a few spots.  He'll catch on soon enough.

 

This beauty has always been a favorite piece.  It belonged to my in-laws.  The wood had chipped some and with our dark brown couch, it got lost in the mix in our living room. I brightened it up with a coat of white chalk paint.

This is my $20 find on a yard sale page.  Luckily, I knew the seller of the table and chairs and he gave me a great deal.  Our dinning area is a bit small, and the table we had was a bit large.  I was worried that this table was going to be too small, but once I got it into the dinning area, I fell in love. I sanded the top and stained it a dark cherry/espresso color.  I then used antique white chalk paint and painted the chairs and bottom parts of the table.  I sealed the top of the table to polyethylene.  I love how the table has little drawers!

snowflakes and earthquakes

We have had crazy weather as of late.  Never in my 20 something years of life have I experienced a winter like we've had so far this year.   A month or so ago, schools shut down because temperatures rang in into the negative numbers.  No snow, no ice, but bitterly cold!

A few weeks later, we enjoyed our first snow fall of the winter.  We didn't get a lot of snow (or what us southerners call "a lot"), but it was enough to shut schools down once more, and we did manage to get a day off from work.  In fact, it became so chaotic in parts of our state that there were major traffic jams and states of emergencies. 

A few weeks after our first snowfall we had what the weather folks were calling a "catastrophic" snow storm.  Schools shut down prior to the snow, businesses let employees go home early, and there wasn't a lick of bread or milk in any store around these parts.  At our house, we received about 5 inches of snow.  That's "a lot" to a southerner.  We were preparing for an ice storm, but luckily, we manage to stay in the clear, but parts of our state got hit pretty hard with ice.  We enjoyed a few days off work and school and had many hours of cuddle time, cooking and baking, and playing in the snow fun!

If all this crazy weather wasn't enough, last Friday we experienced a 4.2 earthquake.  It scared me to death.  My first thought was Jesus was coming back!  It was the most bizarre feeling.

I love snow and I certainly wouldn't mind a few more flurries before it gets too hot, but Mother Nature can keep her earthquakes.

And if all that wasn't enough, we were in t-shirts and flip flops this past weekend.

Go figure!

 

hush that fuss

Since my family and I started going to church on a regular basis, I feel that God is working in our (mine and my husband’s) lives tremendously. I feel so close to my husband at church. God’s amazing love is so powerful and strong, it’s truly indescribable. I know one of the things I pray most about is for God’s strength to work through me to raise God-fearing children. I want my family to thirst for the love of God and beg for his mercies.

With all of that said, I fall short on a daily basis. I'm guilty of "losing my cool" with my kids at times. What mother hasn't? That guilty and nauseating feeling when you know you just yelled at your own flesh and blood because you are tired, because they spilt milk on the floor, or even dripped pee on the toilet is sometimes too much to bear. This subject has weighed heavy on my heart as I have found myself more and more stressed out trying to work full-time, have a side business, and go to school. Who wouldn’t be in the nut house already? The point is my number one job is to be a Godly wife and mother to my family. I want my house to beam with the glory of God and I want my children to feel safe and secure at all times. I want to not only teach my children how to love in a Godly way, but I want them to see it daily through the love my husband and I give to them.

Today, I want to take the pledge to not yell. I want to take the leap of faith that God will provide me the wisdom, strength, and patience to always see my kids as just that, kids. No more crying over spilled milk, literally. This is not to say that I’m throwing discipline out the front door, because children need boundaries and they must learn to follow rules, but I want to discipline my children in a way that will teach them in a productive way and I want my children to know forgiveness, because God knows I’ve had to ask for it daily. Between proper discipline (instead of yelling) and the understanding of forgiveness, my prayer is for my children to want to work harder to be Christ-like.

I once saw a quote that said, “Families that pray together, stays together.”

Lord I pray, oh how I pray, that my sweet family always turns to you, our Lord and Savior, for guidance and also to learn to lean on each other for love, guidance, and wisdom. I pray that your merciful hands cover my family always and that we open our eyes to you always and forever. In your name, amen!


If you struggle with the stress of being a mom, on top of all the stress of "life" in general, take a moment to read these post:

http://theorangerhino.com/10-things-i-learned-when-i-stopped-yelling-at-my-kids/

http://theorangerhino.com/12-steps-to-stop-yelling-at-your-kid/

http://www.handsfreemama.com/2013/05/22/the-important-thing-about-yelling/

a few projects {home}

 

{Updated frames & pictures}

 

{I took most of the black frames and painted them to give the hallway more color}

 

 

{Name art I created. I love how these turned out!}

 

 

{I love this airplane. So cute. The books behind it were my daddy's when he was a child. I love the colors of them. 

little things {and big goodbyes}

When the house I grew up in sold a few weeks ago, we all should have been elated. In this economy, anything that sells should be celebrated. That's not the case here.

Truthfully, I feel as though I'm being selfish, and in some ways I most likely am, for getting caught up in losing what I called "home." In the grand scheme of things I'm lucky to have had a home. However, my sadness doesn't come from the drywall and wood that made this house; it comes from the memories made within those walls and the beautiful land that made it "home."

I rode many hours on the golf cart, 4-wheeler, go-cart, and even scooter on this land. I raised my cows, mowed many acres of grass, and pulled many weeds at the family nursery. This house held many birthday parties, graduation parties, Christmas', Thanksgivings, Easters, and even a wedding.. The last Christmas we had as a "whole" family was at this house. I miss my grandparents coming in the door just to come visit. I miss having my entire family around the dinner table. Although I can't bring back my loved ones, this house held the memories of the ways things used to be. The laughs, tears, giggles, late night talks, and early mornings held within our time on Rays Church Road are something I have always cherished, and will continue to cherish forever.

This move was the end of something beautiful. My parents are getting divorced and "home" will never be "home" again. The dynamics of my family will never be the same and my heart hurts. In all this pain I truly believe there is beauty. I know the phrase "beauty through pain" is becoming somewhat of a cliché, but I firmly believe it can happen. I'm marrying the love of my life next month, I have two beautiful boys, and my own home to make memories with my little family. The growth I've seen from my loved ones during these difficult days (and years) is amazing. God has held my family tightly and I know without a doubt HE got us through these dark days.

home makeover {small budget edition}

First off, let me apologize for all the black boxes on my blog. Apparently Google+ albums control your Blogger pictures. If you delete anything on Google+ you lose what is on your blog. Bummer. Big, big, big bummer. Weeks worth of having to go back and try to figure out which pictures were where in my near future kind of bummer. But let's not dwell on that, I'll get us up and running normally soon, I hope.

I finally uploaded the pictures of all my redecorating. My OCDness and girly nature kicked into overdrive when I moved into a bachelor pad. Poor Chris, he never knows what's going to change around here these days. I think I'm almost done with the redecorating, but don't hold me to that. One trip to Target or Hobby Lobby could result in more rearranging, hammering, or painting than my sweet Chris would care for, but he loves my anyway, so we're all good!

 

It's all still a work in progress, but so far, I'm loving it!!!

brightness {bring your sunglasses}

I love color! Bright, beautiful, bold colors. I have no shame in my game. Walls are meant to be painted and by golly I'm ah-paintin'em'! I often times find random pictures to formulate a color scheme for my webpages or cupcake toppers that I make, but this time the random picture is for my bedroom and bathroom.

source

Aren't the colors just lovely? 

As soon as I saw this picture, off to Wal-Mart I went with my mind spinning with ideas. I was always told not to paint your bedroom red. Supposedly it will give you nightmares and bring bad luck, so turquoise won that battle by a long shot. However, that did not exclude red from the bathroom. Oh, red paint, how we have a love hate relationship now. Who's bright idea was it to paint red walls anyway? Oh, mine, ahem. 

Anyone want to take a lil' gamble on how many coats it is going to take to make my walls pretty red? 

Hint: I've already got one coat on and it ain't lookin' perty.

Here are some  photos of the rooms. Please excuse the fuzzy, used my cell phone instead of my nice camera, can't really get a good feel of what it really looks like pictures. 

I'll be posting more of the progress soon. As well as other things we've been up to!

Happy Thursday!

My New Best Friend

I have a new best friend!

Vinegar! Yes, I will say it again, V-I-N-E-G-A-R!

Why?

If you are anything like me, you get distracted easily due to a hectic life! Unfortunately, my laundry suffers from my attention deficit disorder. Not that I don't put the laundry in the washing machine, I just forget to get it out! If any of you have ever done this, you know the horrid smell that comes with forgetting to get the laundry out of the washer getting distracted with other house chores.

Well I found this new little trick! Add 1 cup of vinegar and your normal amount of detergent to the horrid lovely smelling load of laundry and V.I.O.L.A. it will smells so fresh and so clean!

This trick also works on children's clothes. You know, the ones were your toddler has drooled so much on that they smell, well, like soured drool. Lovely smell isn't it. Well this trick works great! I tried it today!

I hope you are having a wonderful 4th of July! I better be off to get ready for the fireworks tonight!

Catch you guys on the flip side!