Junkin Around Town

I had to make a trip down to Tampa to pick up some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint from Robyn Story Designs for my honey.  He didn't have to twist to hard to get me to go, lol.  Anyhow, I decided to ask Jen to go since I have been wanting to take her like forever!!!  We spent like two hours in there, no joke.  The displays and details are super amazing, plus they are decorating for Christmas and we seriously were in swoon mode.  Robyn is super talented, crafty, and so generous.  She had a little display table set up with yummy snacks and since we were there so long she decided to serve us lunch, lol. Not joking!!  Well, it was not just for us, but for all of the customers who happen to walk in.  Super Sweet!  We got lots of inspiration.  After it was Jen's turn to take me to one of her favorite hangs and believe me, I was not disappointed!!  We went to Schiller's Architectural Design and Salvage.  A huge warehouse in Tampa filled to the brim with lots and lots of stuff. Stuff that has come out of businesses, homes and I don't know where else.  Seriously, really cool stuff.  Take a lookie here

Cool huh?

 

 

Ya, huge lettering that went across a huge distance

 

 

cute little welcome sign.  Wonder where this came from?

 

long, long rows of old, creaky, beat-up windows that were super cool

 

 

gobs of knobs

 

 

beautiful, old, chippy barn table

 

 

this was the tag that was on it

 

 

a very large ornamental scrolly thingy that would look cool over a headboard or

a multitude of things

 

 

cool retro typography letters

 

 

these old drawers, baskets and buckets that could be used for

so many things.  Really neat!

 

 

old fan that was beat up and probably cooled off many a folk in its day

 

 

very large doors that came out of an old beat up building somewhere.....

 

We had a grand old time in there.  Met Mr. Schiller and Jen

even got a few bargains. An old window and a drawer!

I was swooning but have no room for another thing in this house of ours!!

 

 

 

A Makeover on an Old Beauty

Hubby found this cabinet that someone had thrown out!

He promptly grabbed it, and then gave it to a customer that

he was working for!  He thought that I would not want it.

He's right, I probably wouldn't have wanted it at the time.

They had it for approximately two months

and decided to give it back. They just didn't have the time

to work on it.  When he brought it home, I knew

it had great potential but would require lots

of work.  Since it was HOT here in Florida, we worked out
in the HOT, HUMID HEAT! 
The veneer was lifting off of it.  I knew

that I would either have to glue it down or just peel it off.

I tried lifting off a piece and surprisingly enough it peeled

right off.  After that was done, I gave it a coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

in Old White and the trim in Graphite. Next it was lightly

sanded in some areas and heavily in others. I wanted

it to have that worn look.

Next I applied clear wax and then dark wax - both by Annie Sloan. 

For the top section and inside the drawers, I used tissue paper that

Robyn Story gave me and Mod Podge.

On the top piece, I added crackle to give it

a crackled look, also by Annie Sloan and applied more clear and dark wax.
This was so the crackle would show up.

I used the same hardware that it came with, but had

my son spray paint them with Rust-Oleum  in dark bronze.

This is a Drexel cabinet from the New Travis Court Collection and

even has dove-tailed drawers!  People just do not know

what they are throwing away.

I think it could be used just about anywhere - in a foyer,

maybe a hallway, or even a landing.

Maybe even in a boy's room!

I love it!

What do you think?

 I think I will call it Charles in honor

of the Olympics being held in London,

after Prince Charles. It reminds me

of royalty

A New Year of Clean!

It's time to file, organize, rearrange and clean!

LOVE IT!!

Could anything make me happier?

NO!

Just kidding of course, but oh how I love a clean, organized and tidy home......

That's what I am doing today!

hubby's end of the year files and getting paperwork ready for the tax man so he can get it ready for Uncle Sam!

Our file drawers.

OH MY!

we can't find a blasted thing..

I'm organizing, pitching, and well you know...a good overhaul never hurt anyone right?

My closet!!

All I can say is YIKES!

It hasn't been touched in months and is so ready for a refreshing cleanse.


What are you tidying up today?

My Word

I am most definately reflecting on GROW and how God wants to grow me today...

What's your word bird?

Happy New Year!, Project 365 and My Word

Happy New Year Folks!
First day of the week, new year, time to move on.......

I thank the Good Lord for allowing my family and I to make it another year in His Goodness.

All I can say is that God is soooo good!!

I am looking forward to a remarkable 2012!

Project 365

I am happy to say that I will again be doing Project 365. I am so excited about this.

If you know me, you know that I love memory keeping and this is the perfect way to record those precious memories and pictures. I love it so much that I even bought my chicks one for Christmas. I hope they are as excited as I am. Just think.....one day in the future we can look at them and recall all the fond memories that we have documented.

My Word!

A fairly new tradition for me is to choose a word for the year. My word for 2012 is:

GROW

I feel that I have room to grow in every area of my life:

spiritually

in my marriage

as a mom

as a grandmother

in the workplace

as a friend

as a volunteer

as a student

and the list goes on and on.......

Bible verse for the year

I have never chosen a verse for the year, but this year I will.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Last year I fretted, stressed and worried over what I should do with my life.

Should I go back to school?

Should I find a different job?

Why did I get out of the Navy?

worry, fret, and stress certainly took a lot out of me!

I feel that God kept trying to remind me over and over by putting this verse in front of me. It seemed that everywhere that I went, everything that I read, even in church Pastor spoke on this. My friends and family reminded me about this verse also. It kept coming to me over and over.

Boy, I am certainly like a child who needs to be reminded over and over.

This year I am claiming it!

I may not know, but He certainly does!

I am still going to take a class at the community college.

Remember my word is GROW!!

And GROW I must!!

May you all have a healthy, prosperous, victorious New Year

Blessings Continually!!

 

Our Christmas!

We are growing!  Therefore we cannot all be together all of the time.  Here you will be able to see our Christmas and the Christmas of our expanding family.  Hope you enjoy!
scroll down to mute my music!

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

A Score!

Lookie what I found on my excursion in NC!

Old wooden soda crates and an old wooden box!

from my favorite antique store

I LOVE!

I vacuumed them, then I took them out and hosed them down.

Boy, were they D.U.S.T.Y!!

the top box has 24 slots, I think I will put this in the scrap room and load it up with my pens and so forth. The bottom box is a Coke a Cola box and has a horizontal slat and a vertical slat making four spaces.  Maybe I will put plants in it?  Books?  Ideas?  Wish I had a steady hand to retrace the lettering on the Coke box. 

 this beauty caught my eye right  away.  At the time I did not know where it would go, but I'm loving old, chippy wood containers so I just knew that I could find a spot.

 This is where it is for now, on top of my mama's cabinet

 It needs to be filled with a plant or something....any ideas from all of you creative people out there?

I would also like to fill mama's cabinet with all white!

Wouldn't that be pretty?

white bowls, shells, candles, lights.....

yeah, dreaming again.....

little by little....

Indescribable

One of the many books that I am reading at the moment is "Indescribable" by Louis Giglio and Matt Redman.  It speaks on the heavens, stars, and our galaxy from the viewpoint of a former astronaut.  The psalmist sang that the "heavens declare the glory of God" (19:1).

A few hundred years ago, astronomers believed that there were only about 6000 stars.  Now scientists and astronomers know that there are billions and billions of stars.  As a matter of fact there are more stars in the heavens than there are grains of sand on the beaches and the deserts! 

This bit of information is mind-boggling.

Only God could do that!

Eagle Nebula

If you get a chance, please check out this book. 

Meet Eileen!

This is Eileen and a gift to me from my Secret Santa, Kevin, my future son-in-law.  I LOVE HER!!  Remember how I told you that we draw names and make that person's gift or have someone make it.  Well, this is what Kevin painted....just kidding.  Someone else painted her and OMGOODNESS. I am in love!!  He went above and beyond.  Some friends are saying that poor old Kevin probably pooped his pants when he drew my name and he wanted to make it really good and to impress me so he had someone do it.  Kevin knows that he does not need to do these things to impress me!? Right Kev?  I think he wanted it to be be perfect and perfect it is.  This is the artist who painted her and named her.  Now that I see her work, I want a rooster and a pig and a lamb.... I didn't see a lamb on her site but I can envision one in a meadow just grazing with an old fence post in the background.....

She is just sitting here on my mom's china cabinet, but she will sit on top of my hutch int he dining room where I can look at her every time I walk by....sigh.. I probably will never eat red meat again....

You really went above and beyond Kevin, but I so love her and will treasure her forever. 

Angels for a night

I work at a a school that cares about people and our little community.  Instead of our annual Christmas party this year, we dontated, collected, shopped and wrapped for a few families who are in need this year.  Whether it be financially, spiritually, or just because.

We were instructed to meet at our administrative building wearing all white or as much white as possible.  We were met at the door by the admin staff who graced each one of us with a bell to wear and a silver halo.  We were to be angels to deliver  goodies to a special family.

We were divided up into teams with instructions to knock on the door, and just say that we are the messengers delivering a little cheer. I don't know how the other teams made out, but our team felt very good about our delivery.  It is better to give than receive!  The recipients were very happy. 

It went very well!

DONE and with an "A"

YES!!  I am finished with my one class that I stressed out about all semester...And I am happy to say that I earned an "A"  YIPPEE. 

This is my research paper on the benefits of an all plant-based diet.  I "earned" an A.  I got help from Chick 1 and an editor friend on that one. Also edits from Chick 2 and her hubby on various weekly essays. And a few edits on some other essays from a fabulous friend from work.  Thanks to all of you I passed with an A!
 Plus lots of praying and ideas from my Lord and saviour Jesus Christ!!
Now maybe I can get back to my normal life of scrapping, blog stalking and my own blogging, well at least till my next class in January!!

Babies Coming, Maybe...

gigi decided to get herself a female canary.  dickie just wasn't singing anymore, so she figured that if she got dickie a wife, he would sing.   she named her lady katie. she is pale yellow and beautiful.  she got her on friday, on monday she laid an egg

tuesday, she laid her second!

wow, they work fast!!

drop out

I am sorry to say that I dropped my Algebra course today......I so did not envision this for myself, I do not like to quit, give up or anything of the sort.  I just had to admit, that I had way too much on my plate.  Plus, math is not a strong point.  I told the advisor that when I took the placement test that I probably should not of made it that far.  I was told that I barely made it to that course.  I made it to that class with 3 points to spare.....

Yeah, now I am scared off!!  Should I take a pre algebra next quarter?

Sarah and Kevin engaged!

on a much brighter note Sarah and Kevin were engaged last weekend!!  I have been so bogged down that I have not given it too much thought.  Sorry!!  He called us a few weeks prior and of course we love Kevin and are so very happy for the both of them.  God has certainly blessed us with wonderful son in laws.  We couldn't be more happy!!  Now for a wonderful, Jesus loving girl for our Pumpkin. 

barely above water

Sorry for such a long stretch with no blogging.....

I am swamped with work and school.

I've been back to work and school for almost one month now and doing both is really taking its toll on me.  I am thinking of dropping my math class.......I am so disappointed with myself.  Each day I am hopeful that I will finally catch up and begin to understand this foreign language.  Friday, I had hopes of coming home from work and reviewing a bit of math and moving onto the new stuff on Saturday.  Well, I reviewed but I forgot so much of the information that I had previosuly learned.  I stayed up till 2 am trying and finally becoming so discouraged with myself.....I fell asleep and tossed and turned the rest of the night dreaming of math formulas and no they were all wrong in my dream....bad dream.... LOL....

I got up on Saturday morning and tried again, no luck.  I moved onto the new that was covered last week and honestly I have no clue.....I decided right then and there that I give up!  I am not a quitter!!  I am mad at myself and so very disappointed......

I begged and cried and pleaded with God to tell me what to do, stick it out or be a drop out.

I moved on to my English Comp homework that I have been neglecting badly.  I did get my essay completed,well almost, another essay started, and a bit of studying in for  2 tests that are coming up on Tuesday.  So, basically I have not done any math at all this whole weekend and there is a test on Thursday.  What to do? 

a dream

I really never dream and if I do I rarely remember it.

Friday night I had a dream that I clearly remember!

It was also in vivid color.

In my dream I was standing outside looking at the sky and I was telling someone, I don't know who, how beautiful it was.  I could not stop looking at it and I kept repeating over and over, "Oh my gosh, I have never seen a more beautiful sky.  I can't even describe the beautiful colors except to say that they were yellows, pinks, and every shade of white with all shades of gray mixed in.  As I was staring at the sky, it cracked open and Jesus appeared!  He was hanging there in the air clothed in a white robe with a red sash.  Suddenly I see lots of people rising in the air almost like balloons going up.  I remember telling the person next to me, "that's not really a lot of people!"  I then wake up.  I fell back asleep and immediately went back into my dream.  I was still looking at how beautiful the sky was and I saw it crack open again.  This time I saw Jesus but His body was formed from the clouds and then His body turned into a cross.  But it was His body made out of the clouds.  I woke up again briefly and fell right back to sleep and went into the same dream again.  Me looking at the sky, the sky cracking open and His body being formed out of the clouds into a cross.  I fell back to sleep and slept for the rest of the night. 

When I woke up in the morning I immediately took this to mean the rapture.  Not so many people going up to me means that He is waiting for more.  His clothing?  Maybe the white to signify purity and the red signifies His blood?  or maybe His compassion for the world?  I felt such peace and somehow it just cemented my hope and belief even more.  God has it under control.  He is my hope!!

I do believe we are in the end times and we need to let people know that Jesus is real! He died to save us!  He is waiting for you!