Photos for the House

I have an abundance of photos. We have been trying our best to find just the perfect pics for our stairway wall. I can't really call it a stairwell because it is open to the living room. The sale is ending on Tuesday, so tonight I had to sit down and make some decisions.

Here is the one that will be in the living room on a large wall that leads to our bedroom. The print will be 30x40. Since it is so large, I had to clean up quite a bit of monkey waste on the patio. This is one of my favorite pics from India. This is where the man that built the Taj Mahal would go to view the Taj. This was taken just after sunrise.

oops just saw more I need to clean up :) will have to do that.

And then at the bottom of the stairs - will be on at the landing. This is another one of my favorites from India. These two are seriously my favorite two of things. I have some that I really like of Eric, Ashley, Prem and his family.

In case you don't recognize it, it is the Taj Mahal. We were there at Sunset.

Going up the stairs, we will have three pics. I am not sure in which order. Dean wanted to add some color. These are certainly more colorful than the India ones that I picked out. I hope the three different skies look okay together.

 The Tower Bridge- The Tower was one of my favorite things in London. Fascinating! I thought the crown jewels were the least interesting part of the tour. I could have spent a couple of days instead of a couple of hours. It was so very interesting.

 

Dean really, really liked riding the London Eye. It was pretty, but I have to confess to being very, very nervous.  The pictures were grand, though. We did have a few others of Big Ben in the daylight, but riding the eye at Sunset made London look spectacular!

And then, we have Stonehenge. It was so cold. It was almost miserable to walk around, but it was interesting.

We have one other place -at the top of the stairs on the top landing there is a niche with a light. We decided to do another India pic there. At least I think so. That is the last one we have to make certain. At the moment, we are planning to use the one below. It is from the Buddhist Monastery we visited.

What do you think? I noticed my cropping is off and I have green lines on a couple of pics, but I have already fixed that as well as erasing all the monkey poop. Much nicer to clean up in photoshop and not in real life :)

Websites are not nearly as fun as refinishing furniture!

I have spent the week working on my websites. I bought a basic site for both of them, but I have had to personalize them. Well, I did a little more than that. I have changed backgrounds and colors and lay outs. It has been a lot of work! I am really happy with how they are looking.

Hopefully, by next week, I can get back to the business of photography and maybe work on some more projects. I'll keep you posted.

The first one is almost finished! The second one needs quite a bit.
www.pamrowellphotography. com

www.pillowtalkpics.com

Next, I have to work on some branding - that is more creative!

Finally - a project years in the making!

Many years ago, in town far, far away (at least 10 years and Clairmont, Wyoming is a long way) I acquired a church pew. The old church needed new pews. We hauled new to them pews up in a trailer. The youth and workers cleaned and stained the pews and put them in the church. There were a few old pews from the church there. Parts to make two pews went home with us to Longview. It was one of those projects we planned to do, but never did. We hauled the pieces to El Paso. Again, it sat in the garage. We hauled it to Round Rock. I figured it would stay in the garage here. I was wrong!

I like foyers, welcoming foyers, that it is. This house doesn't have one. It has an area at the front door, but no real separation. A few weeks ago, Dean hung up the crosses and the Greenwood church memorabilia. Dean grew up in the Greenwood church. Before Joy Anna was born, he had the honor of designing their new (at the time) building.  We have a painting of the original building, a print we bought in Baton Rouge of the new building and a couple of commemorative plates. There are a few other things that are special to us in there, too. There is my prayer square from the Nicaragua mission trip, a Jesus Loves Me print a friend made me when Joy Anna was a baby and a scripture plate one of my Sunday School girls made me several years ago. The crosses in there all have meaning, too. Not just the obvious one - mission trips and gifts from special friends. When he was hanging them, he left room for a church pew under the crosses on one wall.  Because it had sat so long, I didn't really have a lot of hope to have it completed.

This morning, he suggested we work on the pews! Woohoo! I was so excited. We pulled all the pieces out, and I took a few 'before' pics.

 When I was working on the buffet, Dean had taken the ends out and cleaned them up.

 This is the back and the bottom. They look really, really bad.

This is spider's nest. It was one of several in the pew rack. I thought it was pretty cool.

So, have I mentioned I am married to a perfectionist? This pic below shows him figuring out how to get the exact measurements while figuring out the best places in the wood to get those exact measurements.

 Now, don't get me wrong, I know the measurements needed to be exact to make it fit right. So, finally he got all the pieces cut exactly like they needed to be.

Remember last week we had to buy a new sander for the buffet? He really likes that thing. He decided he would sand all the pieces and then we would stain them. This is where the perfectionism comes in. He likes old things, but he would rather them look a lot newer. I, on the other hand, was looking forward to seeing them with wonderful patina. I wanted to see the scratches and bruises. There is even a name carved in one of them! I can just imagine all the people sitting there, singing hymns, listening to the preacher, praying. Mamas and Daddies making those wiggling youngsters sit still. Yeah, patina seemed like a good thing to me.

I saw a link on Pinterest for making wood look great without refinishing. I was all for that. The link is: http://missmustardseed.com/2010/06/oil-vinegar-not-just-for-salads/ I thought this might be the perfect thing.
He wasn't crazy about the idea. He very grudgingly said to go ahead and if we need to refinish later, we can. I think we won't have to!

The 'recipe' calls for 3 parts oil and 1 part vinegar. Any kind. I had some on hand, so I just used vegetable oil and apple cider vinegar. Best smelling furniture cleaner ever!



Here is what I learned. Only make one batch at a time (3/4 c oil to 1/4 cup vinegar) I had a lot of wood, so made double the first time. Not a good idea because as my rag got dirty, so did the mixture. A little goes a very long way. I went through 1/2 of the double batch and a single batch. I needed a little more, so I made another single batch just to get through. I knew I could use it to touch up if we needed it as we were putting the pieces together. I went through 4 cleaning rags. They were filthy! Just dip in and rub over the wood. If you make sure you get into the scratches and dents, it has a really nice depth to it.

Another thing - keep the dogs away for a bit. Mine were fascinated by the smell. We caught both of them sniffing it and trying to lick it. After it was dry, they lost the fascination. Dean kept mumbling we were going to have bugs. I read several more articles online during a break, and this seems to be tried and true method. I think if it was going to attract bugs, someone would have mentioned that.

I am not complaining about Dean! I love the fact that he is jumping right in and helping me on all these projects. I do get frustrated that my way is never the right way. If it is really important to me, I stand my ground - like black for the buffet. We really have had fun doing the projects.

Here is what the wood looked like before:

The wood was very thirsty. It soaked it up. I had figured I would need to wipe it on and then rub it off. Nope. Wipe it on, and it drinks it right in. I covered everything twice to make sure. There was minimal excess.

After I had all the pieces cleaned and refreshed. we got the fun job of putting them back together. This was a challenge. It took us a little bit of muscle, but we finally got all the pieces put back together.

We ran out of time on putting pew #2 together. We needed showers before the ball game. I don't know how hot it got today, but it was a real scorcher. Showers were necessary. Tomorrow, we will put pew #2 together and find a place to put it. We did them both the same length, so if we move where we can have them together, they will match.

The pew finished! Doesn't the wood look great? This is the one where there is a name carved - they tried but it is not very deep, so it is hard to read. I didn't see it all in the dry wood. It showed up after I added the oil. You can see where legs rubbed against the seat where it is raised slightly. The arm rests are worn more. Lots of hands rested there.

And my foyer finished!

Thinking I need a rug there. Maybe move the the green pot? I have a few more hymnals I need to stack on the pew.  I think it is very welcoming. I like looking at the different pieces in there and thinking about the memories and friends and family they bring to mind.

Another Pinterest Project (with modifications)

If you know me, you know I am not an organized person. I am having to work very hard to figure this out. I have been thinking about it a lot lately. What did I do wrong in the past? What can I do to make it different now?

One thing I have always heard is "A place for everything and everything in its place."  Sounds simple, right? Maybe for some people, but not for me. One thing is I have never had a place for everything. Part of that is too much stuff. Part of it is not enough efficient storage.

I have been working on the too much stuff. I have gotten rid of so much stuff. Enough? Probably not, but I am still getting rid of things daily.

Now, I have to find a place for everything. I have conquered the kitchen and the laundry room. It really is making a huge difference. I can clean those rooms up so much quicker. Tonight, we had family over for dinner. Because everything was put away, and I knew where it was, I was able to get everything ready in just a few minutes. Clean up was even quicker.

One major clutter problem for us is what we bring in from the car or motorcycle. Keys, purse, camera bag, Dean's computer bag and back pack from the bike, everything from his pockets. How does he carry so much in his pockets? We walk in the garage door. The laundry room is directly to the left, and the living room is to the right. I have been putting my things on the dryer. Dean puts his bags on the sofa. He puts his keys and pocket stuff on a ledge by the dining room. This is not efficient for us at all.

After the buffet was in place, we had empty space in the laundry room shelves. It is just the right size for all of our bags! Woohoo! That really made me feel better to have a home for the bags. That left keys, change, sunglasses, wallet, and various other pocket items.

There is small little wall outside the powder room next to the laundry room. I have a little vintage magazine rack. I don't know the history on it, but it is unique. There is a shelf at the bottom where we each keep a pair of flip flops.

I got rid of most of my magazines when we moved in an effort to declutter. The empty shelves made it seem that much more bare.

In the process of sorting and getting our family photos ready to hang in the loft, we had a few items I decided to repurpose. I have been looking at Pinterest a lot. So many cute ideas. I decided to try a couple of ideas and make them work for us. One idea I liked is a key rack. The other was a frame for writing notes. Hmmm, sounded like a good place to start. I tried two separate frames. That would look nice, but there was no place for all the pocket stuff. I decided to combine the two frame projects and add a shelf.

 I must say this frame was a real pain. Really. I think the frame was built around the glass. I thought I would never get the glass out. I took the above pic after i had gotten the glass out and cleaned it. It had been in our garage for years. A lot of years judging by the dirt on the glass and frame. I had already cleaned it up. Oh, and I had taken the lovely photo below out of the frame. Yep, you can see why it was sitting in the garage.

I had primer left from the buffet project, so both pieces got a nice coat of Zinsser Over Stain Primer. I still have a lot of the green paint from the bedroom project. I told you it would be making more appearances. Both pieces got 3 good coats of the green. For some reason, it just didn't seem to cover as well over the white primer. Cheap paint. What can I say?








Today, I made a trip to Micheal's for some scrap book paper. That was when I had 2 more great ideas.  The first was 2 divide the frame in half and use 2 patterns. One would be my side. One would be Dean's side. The next idea I had would make the paper changeable where I can change it for the seasons!

I only bought enough for two today. I knew I had some scraps here that might work, and Micheal's didn't have Christmas paper that I liked. Above is my Fall look - it should work for October - November, don't you think? Because the paper is glued to poster board, it is thin enough to store behind the one that will be showing. That way, I don't have to worry about a place to store the other seasons' pages!

Here is the finished product! We each have a place for notes. We have 5 hooks for keys and plenty of space for our other things. I do need to add something where Dean can drop his change. There is a dry erase marker Velcroed to the back edge to the left. If we put it up right, it is hidden. We talked about adding coat hooks under the shelf for jackets in the spring and fall. That would mean we would need to find a different place for the magazine rack. I have decided the laundry room is just one step away. We have hangers and hanging space there. Jackets will be fine there.

 We even got a couple of magazines in the mail! I think it looks great. Hopefully, it will help us give us a place for all those things coming in from the garage. I think we will like writing notes to one another, too. Sometimes, he leaves before I am fully awake. If this had been up last night, I could have written him a birthday message last night. Instead, I had to text him.

There are still a few more projects going in the garage. Stay tuned to see what we come up with next.

A Buffet Redo

When we moved from the house in Longview, we packed up our china and serving dishes. When we got to El Paso, we never had a place to unpack them to. Because of that, they stayed packed in boxes for 4 years! Yep. Very unlike us, we didn't entertain much over that 4 year period. When we moved here, we wanted to get them out and actually use them. That was a good thought, but we didn't have a place to put them here, either. That put us on the search for the perfect piece.

We are on a pretty tight budget. We lucked out on the piece we bought the first week that is in the living room. I am going to remake it into an office space. The price on that was unbelievable, so I was hoping that I would find a piece for the dining room at a bargain price. That didn't happen.

After several weeks of shopping, checking garage sales and craigslist, we finally found a real bargain on craigslist. We bought the piece for $50! So what if it is from the 70s. It is a sturdy piece. I was thinking a coat of paint would make a big difference. I researched and checked Pinterest. I had a plan!

Notice the beautiful insets and hardware? I was going to make it work anyway.

I took off the doors and all the hardware. I then taped and papered off the inside. I Wanted to leave the wood inside. I confess part of the reason was less to paint. While I was taking the doors off, Dean suggested we put the doors back on inside out. That way, we don't have all that attractive inset, carving and hardware. I thought it was a great idea.

I bought Cover Stain by Zinsser. It was 18.00 at Home Depot. I had several small rollers. I was set.
 

 Remember I am married to Dean - a perfectionist. Sometimes I wonder why he picked me. I am so far from perfect. I don't mind a more casual look. Maybe some shabby chic. Maybe some antiquing. Dean, not so much. Since I am asking for some help, I am trying to make this as much like he would like it to be as possible. Compromise is interesting some of the time. I digress. I was going to explain that I put two coats of primer on to get a perfect cover. Notice the perfect theme? That comes back to bite me a few days later as we tried to put the doors back on.

Because the doors meet and don't have any dividing boards, they had to meet just right. Two layers of primer and two layers of paint really add on the thickness. Oops. We didn't plan for that. this is when things slowed down. We had to do some sanding and painting. Just the sanding blocks was not cutting it, so we invested in a new palm sander. I know we have one, but Dean hasn't gone through all the tools. I will be glad when it is cooler and he can do that. It surely will make some of our projects a lot easier to have the right tools. We probably needed one anyway. Ours was really old. It was an old hand me down when we got it.

Finally, after about 10 days, we had it completed! It is a really heavy piece. We moved it in last night, and I filled it up.

 Here is the final product! Looks great, doesn't it?  Don't the raised panel doors look so much better than the heavy carvings?  I am not sure how I am going accessorize the top quite yet. I don't want a lot, so we can use it to serve from when we have parties.

And here is the dining room. I need to get some artwork for the walls. The house is shaping up!

More projects coming soon!

The Powder Room & A Table Redo

We have a pretty little powder room in the new house. It is right off the living room, so it gets a lot of use. I had an old table I got from my grandmother. I knew it needed a mini makeover.

 

It was already painted. It looked like spray paint. We decided just to paint it like it was. I really liked the color we bought for the bedroom pieces I posted about last week. I bought a gallon of it - for $11.00 for the gallon, I couldn't see paying that much for a quart. I think it goes well with the wall color, and since everything in this house is painted that same color, I figure I can use it in several places. If you follow me here, you're going to be seeing it a few more times. In fact, I have a project going in the garage right now.

 

There you have it - the finished product. Below is what it looks like in the powder room. I need to find something to do with the kleenex box - I will have to check Pinterest for that! :) 

Singing in the Rain

Tonight Dean and I had a date night. Yeah, yeah, I know. We are always by ourselves, so every time we go out is date night. Not really. Tonight, we actually planned dinner and a movie. Admittedly, we didn't plan it until about 3. That was when I found out that today was the 60th anniversary of Singing in the Rain.

This has been one of my favorite movies since I was a little kid. Joy Anna and I have watched it more times than I can count. I like everything about the movie. It makes me laugh. I like to sing along. It is always fun for me.

I didn't know if it would be crazy busy and we might not get a ticket, so we left early and went to get the tickets. We  got them, and then headed over to take advantage of the buy one get one at Pasado's. We took out time and enjoyed dinner and conversation, before heading back to the theater.

The movie was great. So many details I had never noticed. To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement.

On the way out, Dean told me he had never seen any of that. I found that hard to believe, because of the number of times I have watched it. I realized I must have watched it when he was out of town. Joy Anna says she knows that is the reason. She and I would always do old movie marathons when he was gone.

This has been a productive week. I have made a ton of progress upstairs in the loft. It looks so much better up there. I really want to put a craft area up in the loft, but Dean doesn't like the idea. Not sure why. I guess he just likes an empty room sitting up there. oh well. While Dean was working today, I was very productive. I did my Thursday chores (more on that in a couple of weeks). I sold some homeschool books.I finished painting the buffet. Tomorrow I will go to the gym and hopefully get the doors back on the buffet. once I get it in the house and get it filled up, I'll post pics of the redo.

Tomorrow, I need to be productive on the photo biz. I need to get out and start pounding the pavement and book some clients. Starting over in a new town is very had. I have to do it. The cut in pay is certainly causing us to have financial difficulty. I need to help make up the difference. I have applied for a few other part tiem jobs, but no luck so far. Tomorrow I have to get busy!

Laundry Room Organization

I am not an organized person when it comes to the house. I can organize a project. I an organize things in my head just great - just not always in real life. Last week, I posted my pantry. It is working great! It is so simple, it had to work.

Next up to organize was the laundry room.

I have been doing really well since we got here at keeping the laundry up to date- even folding socks! That is a huge thing for me. To make it easy, I used laundry baskets for different loads of clothes. I put the baskets in a shelving unit. Dean has been great about sorting his laundry into the baskets, too. When a basket is full, it gets washed. Very simple!

I have a shelf over the washer and dryer. It allows me to hang clothes right out of the dryer. of course, there were things stored there. I didn't like the jumbled look. The laundry room is in the front of the house. The only nice window in the front is in the laundry room! Odd, huh?

I have quite a few empty boxes. I found 4 that were the same size and shape. They each held 6 gallons of milk or tea and came from Super One in Longview. I cut the flaps off and covered them with brown paper> the paper was left over from the movers. It was wrapped around a large frame.

I made tags for all the boxes and the baskets. I mounted the tags on brown paper left over from a recent wedding. Because I used found items, the whole makeover cost me 6.00 for the rings and the glue stick.

Because we don't have a lot of linen storage, I am using baskets to store extra towels, sheets, and various other items. It helps to know what is in each basket. Once I get a buffet that will hold my punch bowl, I will have even more space in the laundry room.

Below is my pic for July 6th

Bedroom makeover part 1

Dean and I have not had a headboard for our bed since at least 1983. After we got rid of the bed that had real springs and ticking mattress, we didn't have a headboard. Anyway, we have debated options for years and years. We wanted something different - out of the ordinary. We talked about fireplace mantles. We considered doors. We looked at covering something with fabric. Dean designed a great one that was supposed to be part of the remodel, but since we moved before the remodel was finished. Well, a lot was left undone on the personalizing. We have come up with lots of great ideas, we just never did anything.

We were determined to do something when we go here. We had to - the bedroom is off the living room. It is sort of visible. Yes, that means I have to make my bed everyday. Sort of cut down on napping.  Below is what you did see when you walk in -tall walls and lots and lots of that color - everything in the house is that color including the ceiling.

We started looking at ideas again. Not long after we moved to the house in Longview, we took the screen doors off. The one in the back had a duck on it. We didn't hang on to that one. The one in the front had great swirls. I had thought of painting it to put on the front porch. When we moved, I hauled it with us to El Paso. Again, I thought about painting to mount outside. Never did.

One day, after we got here, Dean suggested making a frame for it and using it for a headboard. Great idea. Until we dug it out of the garage and took it to the bedroom. No need for a frame - it was perfect like it was! Great news as sometimes Dean turns simple projects into big deals. Yeah, he did it with this without a a frame. I can't imagine what it would be like if had to build a frame. The frame had separated, and of course that would never work. So, we had to start on a 3 day journey to repair it.

On the left, is the broken part of the piece. On the right is Dean's solution. Clamps, bungies, and a yard stick. After day 3 of JB Weld not working, I suggested tie wraps. Yep. They worked great!

Also in that room was a little wicker and table. It was a freebie. And an awful color. I wanted a certain color, and I couldn't find it in spray paint. We did it the hard way and brushed it on.

The wicker was falling apart, so we just clipped it out. We left it in the rocker, but the table just had to be cleaned up.

I had purchased some great pillow covers in India. I had not bought pillows to go in them, because they are so expensive. I decided to go to Ikea. They were even 6.99 there. They did have some .99 pillows. They were standard size, but not very fluffy. I just stuffed them in the covers - it worked great! It was time for Dean and I to have new pillows, so we bought 2 pillows. I went through all of the extra pillow cases and found a couple that went with the decorative pillows.

I am not finished in there. I still want to get a rug for the wide open space in the floor. I also want to do some work on the dresser and bedside table. I purchased it for 65.00 at a thrift store in El Paso. A great find, but it needs a little cosmetic help. I will be working on that in a week or two.

For now, it is looking so much better.

As I get more done in here. More to come . . .

And my pic of the day for the 3rd is below

Pinterest & My Pinterest Boards

I really do like pinning on Pinterest.

I do use the pins - I have made quite a few of the recipes. I have been working on some projects that I found there. I will post some of these as I go.

I thought I had enough boards to make it easy to use. I was wrong. I have an mmm, mmm good!! board - that has great recipes on it. A LOT of great recipes. I can't ever find the one I want. I am going to go in and divide it into sub categories.  The same thing with My Style  - I am going to make sub categories there, too. 

Stick around for before and after pics of some of my projects!

Pantry do-over

I still need to blog about the wedding - I am going to soon. I just need to take plenty of time to do that. Ashley & Eric did an amazing job on the photos.

For now, I am just trying to keep my head above water. Unpacking is an ordeal. It is fun, but there are times it is a real emotional roller coaster. I like to keep things because I am sentimental. Lots of memories being unpacked. Good memories. It just makes me a little sad that the kids are now grown up, married and moved on.

Anyway, I am starting some redos at the house. I have been doing some browsing on Pinterest and found a few things. We are doing some re-purposing. We are starting in the kitchen and the master bedroom.

I spent the weekend redoing my pantry. After years of selling Tupperware, I have an abundance. When we used in Longview, I used the modular mates a lot. I didn't in El Paso, because I had no pantry. It just didn't work right there.
 

I moved the two softsided coolers and about half of the grocery bags (white bag to the left) to the garage. Everything else stayed and I added so much more! I have almost the whole floor empty now.

 I added 2 boxes of cookbooks to the shelf on the left. I added pitchers to the top shelf. There are extra Tupperware pieces in there. I even added my cast iron cookware to the bottom shelf where it is easier to get out than under the cabinet.

I saw a pin on pinterest where a blogger used adhesive tiles on wire shelves. I don't really have a problem with them except under my cookbooks and under the cookware (because I didn't want the iron to scratch the shelves)  I didn't want to use the adhesive as we are renting. I didn't want to have to clean the adhesive off the shelves. We bought .68 cent tiles that were just flat (Dean says they are called VCT -vinyl composition tiles). I used them under my cookbooks and one under my cookware. Worked great! Everything is organized and neat. I have so much more room in there.

Oh, I don't usually keep a stuffed animal in my pantry, but the photo challenge this month is to take a photo with the same prop every day. I am using the little bear. He is resting against the basmati rice.

I have completed a couple of small projects in my bedroom. I am going to wait until a few more are complete to post. I will work on more tomorrow.

There are a few pieces we still need to acquire. I need an island for my kitchen. I have been looking at some different options where I can remake an island from another piece of furniture. I need a buffet for my dining room - again repurposing might be an option. Also on my list is bench and a rug for our bedroom and a desk and a floor cloth for a craft room - after we decide where the craft room is going to be. The loft gives me the option of seeing the television and sort of being in the room with Dean. That also leaves the other bedroom open for a studio. However, a craft room in the bedroom will allow the door to be closed. Hmmm. Lots to think about, but I need to finish unpacking the loft before we can really make the call. Tomorrow, I will work on the loft and a few more bedroom projects. I love being creative and getting to make the house into a home.