No Longer Pink

Here are before and after photos of some work I had done on my "formal" living room sofa. I found this sofa at the end of last summer at a garage sale, and it was a while before I could have it reupholstered. But it's finally done (Merry Christmas to me), and I'm SO happy with the results!

Before, in all its rose-colored glory:


And now that it's been recovered with this fabric I love from Hobby Lobby...The After:




Like any project or item I buy for my house, this was incredibly inexpensive. If you're in the area, I have a furniture upholstery place to recommend! They are so reasonably priced...way less than anyone else in town, and oh my, was that lady fast! I just dropped it off last Friday and was impressed that she said it would be ready in two weeks. I thought that was amazing. Actual turnaround time: 6 days. And I'm more than pleased with her work. It's called Kelley Furniture Upholstery, and she's in the phone book. I Heart Ms. Kelley!

Now that some basic furniture is in place, I'm excited to accessorize that room, find just the right things for the walls, and pull the look together. It will continue to be a slow process, as all of my decorating projects seem to be, but I'm enjoying the process nonetheless and feel really blessed to have this sofa.

A Chair Makeover

Here's a chair I bought at a friend's moving sale, before I gave it some love:

To make it more "me', I just had to stain that light wood a darker color! And I recovered the seat:


And it was cheap! Chair was $7 and the fabric was left over from that yard I got for $2.99 for the window mistreatment project. So with very little money and time spent, there's room for one more rear end to sit in my family room!

And Now For the Simplest Window Mistreatments Ever...

Taking a cue from The Nester, I've decided to "mistreat" the itty bitty window on the door in my family room that goes into the garage and to join in her blog party today. It's not the most magnificent window dressing ever. Some gathering and layering would have been cute. But this is all I need! I just needed to add color and texture, and my garage isn't the prettiest view so I did want that covered up. So here ya have it! My first ever window mistreatment. See! I didn't even iron it before I showed you! I guess I'm learning a thing or two about "imperfect beauty" from that Nester. I decided to do this on Friday, and 15 minutes, $6, and one hot glue gun burn/blister later, here is what I pulled off:


Not bad for NO sewing, don't ya think? For a girl with no skills, this mistreatment concept is right up my alley!

See the before?

And once again, the after:

Bookcase, Before and After

Just wanted to show you a recent painting project that I think makes a big impact in our family room. We're not going to paint the walls but they're quite a bit lighter than I prefer. So I wanted to add some warmth to the room in another way. Sweet Shelly helped me paint (well, so did our husbands actually) because I am so inept with a paintbrush. Really, some people get all the skills. Others of us have none. I totally stole the idea for this new look from Shelly's house. But I don't feel bad because I'm pretty sure that the first time I went to her house soon after we met, I told her in no uncertain terms that there were about fifty-three things in her lovely home that I wanted to copy exactly. She could have ended the friendship there. But she didn't. So I'm assuming she feels complimented or something. Of course, she is moving to another state this month. I don't know what that means. But anyway, Shelly, I really appreciate the inspiration as well as the manual labor!

Here is the way-too-white built-in bookcase that I never really tried very hard to make pretty, before we worked the magic :

And Ta-da! Except for the few empty areas that will soon be filled with more books that I'm going to steal back from Joel's office, here is the finished product. After:

Oh yeah, I already changed up a few things since taking that picture, but you get the idea of how much of a difference the black paint makes. And here is another view of it from the family room, looking into the kitchen (I like the black and white contrast; it adds a little drama.):


Pay no attention to the two missing lampshades on the chandelier. They're broken but no worries. They've already been put on the honey-do list, and I have full confidence in his abilities.

New Addiction

Sorry for the lack of postings this week. I had written a really long post one night and realized it was really late so I had better wait to publish until the next morning when I would be able to tell if it made any sense or not. I don't know if anyone else has to do that, but I just can't rely on my usage of the English language at certain times of the night. Upon re-reading it the next morning, I realized how very boring it was. I wrote it and I thought it was boring, so I'm sure you would have thought the same. I was writing about my new addiction as of the last week or so: grocery coupons! I have learned a few new "tricks" recently about saving money on the grocery bill, and while I've tried using coupons before in an effort to save money on groceries, I have never been that successful. I'm realizing what all I had done wrong. I'm learning about new savings opportunities and resources, and I'm just having a blast with it. Two weeks ago, I was completely overwhelmed by the prospect of implementing some of these money-saving strategies, not thinking it was possible to do it well at this stage of my life. It takes too much time, I thought! I'm already not very skilled with time-efficiency. But it's a miracle! I'm doing it! I'm really doing it! And while I'm an amateur and have just begun, I've already seen incredible savings on my grocery bill. And that is such a thrill. I was telling friends, it's like working out...once you start seeing some results from your fitness efforts, it becomes so much easier to make time to go to the gym. Similarly, I have found plenty of time to plan and prepare for these grocery trips, and the savings I'm seeing just drives me to save more and more! It's like I've been in competition with myself all this week, trying to get better and better at this. And if I were completely honest...a competition with my mother too! She's queen of this, and I'd like to find one great deal or bargain...just ONE....that she doesn't already know about! That will be quite a challenge. So, that's what's been occupying much of my brain these last couple of weeks. I decided this time to spare you all the details of what these strategies actually are, but trust me, if you're interested, you can let me know and I'll be happy to share! Because it's exciting to me! And if I can have success in this area (with my struggles in the areas of organization, time management, details-orientation, productivity, and being the most physically tired this week than I can remember), anyone can!

And for those of you who have been asking to see nursery pictures, well...it's still not ready. But I'll give you some sneak peaks. I'm waiting on the rest of the bedding for the daybed (someone is making it and should have it ready pretty soon), some baskets to go under the crib for storage (because right now it just looks junky with all this stuff thrown under there), and I have one whole wall that is empty. I have a few ideas for the wall but haven't decided exactly what I want, but I think it won't be decorated until long after she's here because that wall might include pictures of her. But anyway, here's what the bedding looks like:



And my sweet friend Ame hung Parker's letters on the wall this week for me. I can't explain it, but it seemed too overwhelming of a task for me. God bless her servant's heart! She's great at making stuff like that look pretty. Much prettier than I could do, that's for sure!

And here's a glimpse of some of the fabric for the daybed:

It's been fun this week hearing of exciting news from a couple of friends: Alissa and Angela. I'm thrilled for them that God is adding new life to these families. Girls, I'm praying!

Nursery Addition

And then sometimes my parenting thoughts are a whole lot more shallow....

I was about to order the Ella chandelier this week for Parker's room, but then I happened upon this Shabby Chic one at Target, which matches her nursery decor a little better, I think. It's very similar to this one and this one at PBK but costs waaaaaay less. Yay for Target. I am excited! Here is what it looks like:
Purchasing this for Parker just made the reality of her existence sink in a little bit more. We are really having a girl! She has a chandelier in her room! Yippee! And watching my husband get excited about hanging it in the nursery just thrills me to death. He's so amazing with Jonah, but I am pretty sure he is going to be a great "girl" dad as well. He may not admit it often, but I can tell he's getting excited about some of this girly stuff. Can't wait to watch his bond with her develop. It will be sweet, I know. And he can't be caught too unprepared for "girl drama" since he is, after all, married to me. He's just going to need a double portion of grace for the double portion of drama. You can all start praying for him now. =)

The Beginnings of Parker's Nursery

Ok, this week I got the crib sheet we ordered, so I threw it and the crib skirt on the baby bed. Obviously, it needs some ironing work, but I had to just go ahead and see what the pieces looked like together, since I didn't know if they'd match. They do! I think I'm going to use a light pink solid-colored bumper with it. I have to admit....I'm really giddy over this!

Here's the sheet up close:

I've been blessed with some great deals on Parker's nursery bedding. So good that you wouldn't believe me if I told you. So I'm hoping that with what I save, I can splurge on something like this. Joel isn't exactly all the way on board with that idea yet, but I'm pretty sure he will be. =) So, for those of you who have been asking me about nursery decorating plans, there's you a little update.

One little thing about Jonah before I end this post....you know that old Sunday-school song that goes, "I've got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart..."? Well, he's been singing that lately. But I've realized that the meaning of this particular fruit of the Spirit is going to be a little complicated for us to teach Jonah due to the fact that he has a great-aunt named Joy. The first time he sang that song on his own, he finished and then excitedly said, "Let's do Joe now," referring to my aunt Joy's husband, of course. He sang the entire song again but inserting Joe's name every time the word "joy" came up. Yesterday, I overheard him singing, "I've got daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy down in my heart..."
I do not doubt that this will make for some very interesting theological discussions at some point whenever we decide to address it. For now, it's ok with me. It makes me smile!

The Rest of Our Week....In Pictures

On Friday, our playgroup gathered to decorate Christmas cookies. It was very fun. Jonah has been offering his "artistic" work to everyone he sees. He was very proud of his creations. He was very focused and did really well with the icing and sprinkles. Or at least I thought he did. Until he stood up at the end, revealing extremely messy clothes. He had to go topless for the rest of the playdate. Also, I learned a lesson about chatting away with the other moms and not checking in on him enough when he's playing in another room with kids. I walked in to find that he had colored all over his face and partly over his chest with a purple marker. I did not get a picture of that since I was trying to act pretty stern about it, which was pointless because it was really funny. Probably funny because he just was serious and wasn't trying to draw attention to it. He was just playing like normal with all these marks all over himself. He's so into arts and crafts activities right now...the cookie decorating was so fun, he had to decorate himself too!



This morning, two of my college girlfriends, Angela and Lizzy, came to visit. We hadn't all hung out together in a long time. The last time the three of us did was right after Jonah was born and they came to visit me in Bartlesville. Lizzy brought her four-month old baby Autumn, and it was so fun meeting her little daughter for the first time. It really was such a fun time hanging out with them for a few hours. Thanks for driving to Tyler to see me, girls! These girls are fun, and we go a long time without seeing each other and don't always keep in touch as regularly as we used to, but we always pick right back up when we're together and always seem to laugh a whole lot. I almost peed in my pants a few times today with them and their silliness.


Here are Jonah and Autumn. Yes, she's wearing leg warmers! It was adorable.



This next part will be boring for those of you who actually come to my house regularly. But for those of you who might care to see my newest home update....(it's been a LONG time since I've done anything new to my house)....here's a picture of my kitchen with my new island/pub table my husband gave me for Christmas. He also rewired some stuff (you can tell I'm good with electrical terminology) and elongated the chain to swag my chandelier over it. It looks great!



The only things left before that room is completely decorated are chandelier lampshades and new window treatments. I did pick out fabric this week to have my curtains made:



It's sooo not what I thought I would pick. I didn't think plaid was my style. But I thought the fabric was beautiful in person. The solid one is actually a green, but you can't tell in the picture. Hopefully, the window treatments will turn out how I envision. I'll post a finished product picture when it's done.

And here's my pregnant belly. (18 weeks!) This was taken on the second of three consecutive days of having a complete stranger ask me about my pregnancy. So it wasn't a one-time thing that one day. Ignore the crazy eyes - Joel was not taking the picture how I wanted him to, so I was giving him "the roll of the eyes."

After church tomorrow, we'll be celebrating Christmas with my mom's side of the family at my aunt Joy's house. I'm so excited! I'm sure you'll see pictures of our get-together. I'm a little picture-happy right now. Merry Christmas, everyone!

My Chair Needs Help

That consignment sale has started selling furniture and home decor too. I went back for this parsons chair I saw:

However, neither the style nor color matches anything in my home, and I needed it for my yet-to-be-furnished "formal" living room, so I bought this brown slipcover to match the blue and brown color scheme:


BUT....I'm having issues because I don't know how in the heck I'm supposed to get the wrinkles out of it!! It says cool iron only, but it's been folded in a package for who knows how long, and those wrinkles are not giving up easily. I tried ironing the reverse side, but it was to no avail. Does anyone have any wisdom to share on how to get this velvet slipcover ironed and the pleats to actually look like nice, tailored pleats that resemble the picture on the package??? HELP please!!! I know some of you out there actually know something about this stuff. Please help out poor clueless me.

Garage Sale Treasure

Just so you know....I've turned into one of those people. For the last several weeks, I've not been able to stop myself from going to garage sales on Friday and Saturday mornings. I LOVE it. Here's a picture of last week's fun find/re-do. At first the tray looked like this:

And I'm sorry if you own a poinsettia tray. I, however, did not want a poinsettia tray. So here is what I did with it:

I think it may end up on my coffee table, I'm not sure yet. But, I love it. And go ahead and ask me how much it cost. 50 cents! Yeah, that's right.

My nephew Nathan is in Tyler for a week, and he's staying over at my parents'. It's been really fun seeing him. I am going to be one sad aunt in September when Nathan turns FIVE years old. Five is old. I'm sad. Anyway, Jonah ADORES his big cousin, and they have played so hard. We will be having Nathan over and going over to my parents' a lot in the next week, spending as much time with him as possible. Last night, my parents kept both boys, and I got in a crazy productive mood. I decided to repaint my kitchen. I've been planning to do it ever since I first painted it and it came out a horribly wrong yellow color. I didn't actually get home with the paint until almost 10:00 and spent the next several hours working on this transformation. Ok, I really doubt you'll be able to tell any difference in this picture. You may not even be able to tell a difference in person! But trust me, there is a difference! Subtle. But it's there. Here's the before, if you recall:


And FINALLY.....not so bright. It's a darker gold color:



So that's what I've been up to so far this weekend. Hope everyone is enjoying theirs!

One Window Down, Five More to Go!

See the beautiful window shade my mother-in-law made for the window in our bathroom. I think she did a great job! It's one of those roll-up shades that you tie, but it's just left down in this picture. These kinds of shades are good options if you need window coverings but are working on a small budget, because it doesn't take much material at all. If Candy's up for it, I'll have her do more!! =) I still have five more windows I need to do window treatments for. I got new curtains for the formal living/dining room too. Next up: the kitchen windows. As soon as I pick out material and save up the money to buy it!

We've been busy having friends visit.....my dear friend Meg came to stay a couple of days with us last week, which was soooo fun. I love her and am so thrilled for the lovely things God is doing in and through her life right now! She's Jonah's "Auntie Meg" - but Jonah calls her, "T Meg." It is cute, and it has stuck with all of us! Also on Saturday, a friend since junior high that was my college roommate, Amber, was in town, and we were able to meet up and hang out for a little bit. That was fun catching up, and it's just going to have to be something we make time for ever so often, because I've missed that girl a lot! My parents are back from their ten day vacation - we've really missed them around here - so we're looking forward to some good Gigi and Papa T time this week, and my good friend Kelli is coming to visit for a day later in the week, and I'm SO thrilled about it! I need to hug on her baby some more....I haven't had near enough chances to squeeze his sweet chubby thighs!! Spending time with Kelli is always a huge blessing and will be so fun, and it's what I'm most giddy about this week.

I'm reading a good book right now called The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre. Its subtitle is "Have we tamed the Son of God to fit our lifestyle?" I cautiously read certain authors associated with the "emergent church," but I must say I LOVE this book and have found it so far to be soundly biblical and strongly convicting. I've only read a few chapters so far, but it's challenging, and I'm sure I'll be posting some quotes soon and telling you more about it. I think its teachings/principles have the potential - if I let it - to be completely life-changing...and if a bunch of us all cooperated with God on this stuff, have a profound impact on our generation. More to come on that.

Ta-Da!

Here are before and after pictures of my new (old) dining table. The project is nearly complete. There are a few touch-ups to be done, but it has already been put to use several times. I love it! I think I may have found a new hobby: hunting for really old pieces of furniture and refinishing them to make them look prettier! Hopefully there will be more of these opportunities in the future. But let me tell you, I am no expert. However, I do have FRIENDS who are! And I take advantage! =) Seriously, I have had a few "consultants" who have walked me through the steps and let me borrow tools and have graciously lent a helping hand when needed, and I am so appreciative. Joel is just hoping that the new table motivates me to cook more!

Here's what it looked like when I got it:


And the finished product:



So fun! I feel really blessed.

Well, we had planned a day of swimming with a friend in Lindale, but her son has a skin rash that might possibly be contagious. So those plans, sadly, got canceled this morning. We didn't want to take any chances. But I think Jonah and I are about to head off to the pool for a while, because I had already gotten my hopes up for a TAN today! I'm going to drop him off for a nap at my mom's house while I head back to the pool this afternoon. I'm excited to have some time alone to sit in the sun and read, journal, and really pray through some things. I'm seeking God's heart on some ministry opportunities that have come my way lately. I only want to do what He wants me to right now, and it's so hard not to say yes to all of them, because they all sound fun. But I want to guard against getting over-committed, and I want to make sure I have the time to stay at home enough with my son to really focus on some character training during this really important stage of his development. But my mom and I have recently agreed to coordinate the women's Bible studies at our church. I'm SO excited about the task, but I know God will just have to do it through us, and it won't be about us, that's for sure, because it is a big job. A little overwhelming even. I've never been in a church where there are so many women's Bible studies offered. They offer about 8-10 in the fall and spring semesters and usually half of that in the summertime. It's amazing to be in a place where there are so many gifted Bible teachers and women who are interested and passionate about being in the classes and studying God's Word. It really is incredible. But all that to say, things have to be organized way in advance. We just met this week about what our role will be, and we have a mere two weeks to coordinate EVERYTHING for the fall studies....figure out studies, find teachers, set up schedules, purchase studies, etc. It will be a busy two weeks! I plan on leading a study in the fall....Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow. If you've ever read or taken that one, feel free to comment on anything you learned or gained insight on. I'd love to know! Those things I know I'm going to be doing, and I'm so excited about those ministries. They are my passion! But I'm also prayerfully considering some other things too....the big one being a return to MOPS next year as a discussion group leader. I'm excited about the thought of having a group of moms that I can relationally invest in, in a more organized way. But I've also loved doing that with any moms I come into contact with, through playdates, playgroups, coffee dates, etc., and I know that MOPS would limit me from being able to devote as much time to those relationships and get-togethers. I'm just dying to know what God wants me to do! So hopefully today, He and I can sit and chat about it and I can hear from Him. And maybe He will be gracious enough to let me get a good tan too! =)

Reupholstering Chairs

Well, I'm halfway finished with the chairs project. Joel helped me last night and we recovered three chairs. I'm so happy with them! You don't understand, the home improvement projects that I'm told are really simple to do are always disasters when I attempt them. (i.e. wall-texturing). But anyway, these are not perfect, but they are definitely not disastrous. I'm pretty excited. I totally forgot to take a picture of the chairs before we touched them, so I'm posting a picture of the ugly, old, dirty material that was on them previously, so you have an idea:



And here is the finished product:


I'm hoping it's ALL done soon! Jonah has been so sweet, he's gotten his play hammer and "worked" on the chairs with us the whole time.
In other news....I'm a brunette once more.

Important Update....

Ok, I realized I couldn't let any of you see those pictures of the kitchen without telling you that that is not the color yellow that is going to stay! We are going to re-paint it sometime this spring....going for a more gold looking yellow...much more muted and more in the family of tans. The color on there now is absolutely not me....not what we were going for. =)

Weekend in Review

We had a good weekend, although nothing went as planned! Yep, God has more lessons in store for me on trusting Him when plans change and circumstances are beyond my control! Jonah came down with a stomach virus....you don't want to know the details. But it was awful for him. He has never really had diaper rash, so this rash caused by diarrhea has been a shock to the little guy. He was really sick on Friday, but he is feeling good now. He went to the doctor today, and his ear infections are finally cleared up - praise God!!! We finally found an antibiotic that worked. It's been two and a half months since his ears have been clear, so we were pretty excited about that. I got sick on Saturday and was throwing up everything by that night. Is there anybody who doesn't have a stomach virus? It's really going around here, and it's bad. But my bout with it was very short thankfully. Anyway, all this to say....our friends Holly and Shane Hill were supposed to come and stay with us this weekend, and we were so excited. They were our very first couple-friends when we got married and lived in the Dallas Metroplex, and we miss them lots. However, Jonah, Holly, and their little boy Tyce, all got sick on Friday....just a little bit before they were to come, so obviously, they couldn't come and spend the night. But everyone was doing much better on Saturday, so they did drive to Tyler for lunch. They came to see our house, and then we met our friends Justin and Kate Hooper and their two boys for lunch at Mercados, which I am sure I've mentioned on this blog before....it is the BEST Mexican food you will ever eat. Anyway, the Hoopers, Hills, and us all used to go to church at FBC Euless, and the Hoopers moved to Tyler about a week before we did. We were glad to know of another young family living here when we made the move. It was a really great time with Shane and Holly but seemed WAY TOO SHORT! I was pretty sad saying good-bye....I really miss that girl.

Today has been such a nice day. For the past two days, the weather has been warm and pretty enough to go for a walk. I'm excited! Our latest news....we are joining a gym this week, and I'm thrilled. I'm sooo in need of it. Joel is going to do the paperwork tomorrow, and then I'll be starting to work out again. I'm planning on taking a turbo-kickboxing class, and I'm a little intimidated but also excited for it. I've only done regular kickboxing before, but I'm heard that this is way more fun because it involves dance moves too. We'll see how it goes. The calendar this week is pretty full, and I always like that. Tonight, after Jonah goes to bed, I'm going to meet some girls at Starbucks for a moms night out; they are all wives of Pine Cove directors (which is a huge Christian camp here, for anyone not familiar with it), and all have little boys around Jonah's age. They're all sweet girls, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. All of the mommies know that you have a better chance of having complete conversations and actually getting to know each other if it's away from the kids, so this should be good!

The Lord is definitely teaching me so much right now. I'm so thankful for that. Pain, without learning from it, is just unbearable to me. But He's using a variety of methods to teach me, not just hurt. Because of a project I've been working on, I've been hanging out in the book of Hosea for a while. It is my favorite book because the Lord has used it in such big ways in my life, and so many times, to nurture my love-relationship with Him. I love to be reminded of His perfect love for me and the type of intimacy that He desires to have with me: "In that day," declares the Lord, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.'...I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion." - Hosea 1:16, 19

I know my sister-in-law Amy would like to see the hall bath we recently textured and painted and the new stuff in the kitchen, and others have asked to see some pictures of the house. So here are a few. I'll have to make sure the other rooms are more clean before I take their picture and put on here! But I'll post more some other time.