Bookcase Finished, Almost!

Here is my bookcase that I painted. I put a lot of little knick-knacks in it. It was just an old Walmart bookcase we had around the house and I needed something else for display in my kitchen. I think it turned out pretty good. I think I might put some decorative molding on the edges eventually.

My Bookcase Almost Done

Here is how my bookcase shelves turned out after I painted them a nice semi-gloss white.(See the beginning below) We needed some more space for display and for some office storage. This is in the kitchen. It turned out pretty nice and tomorrow I will fill it with my "knick knacks" or whatever else comes to mind.

Two Projects

I have two projects that I started today. With our little remodel of putting an opening between the living room and kitchen, I have several projects that I am working on to go along with the redecorating. Number 1, I am painting an expensive book shelf white to match the kitchen cabinets and will put it next to the computer. Being a collector of too much stuff and sentimental besides, I acquire or keep things out of sentimentality. This being the case I needed more space to display some of Aunt Alice's dishes. (She passed away at almost 97 a few weeks ago) I have a before picture here and when I am finished I will post an after picture. The other project is two little oval bird prints I bought at a thrift shop the other day for $5. Being in love with cottage style, I thought they might look good in our kitchen that is painted a light seafoam color. The frames as you can see here are gold and plastic, but they had a lovely embossed design and I just knew they would paint up nicely and look good on the wall. Here is before picture and I will show the after in a day or so. I love to get ideas from other "cottage" blogs and use all my little "sentimentals" to give our home that "cottage" feel.

"Oh, Sweet Spring"

Yes, I have to say that Spring is my favorite time of the year. I love Fall too, but Spring is the best. I think that it is the season I remember the most from my childhood in Southern Michigan. I remember all the blossoms, and new spring flowers that bloomed around my home on Lake Michigan. My Mom and Grandma's yard was full of flower after flower, blooming in God's sequence as the weather warmed itself from the cool month of February. It is much like that here in Western North Carolina, where we live now. So many of the flowers and trees that are blooming right now are the ones I fondly remember from my childhood. Flowers like the jonquil, forsythia, spirea, lilac and many others have been blooming here the last month or so. I have many of these in my own yard and enjoy their sweet beauty as they bloom for me. I also have some little flowers I have planted like pansies, that show their little faces to the sun until the really warm weather makes them bow their heads and wither away. If the spring green of the tree leaves and grass would stay all summer, I would be so pleased. But, a last, they will soon turn to their summer green which is a darker color. Spring disappears so quickly after it has come. I will miss you Spring, and all the special gifts that you bring for me to enjoy for a while.

Decorating Satisfaction

Changing things in our home brings me a lot of pleasure and joy. Every now and then, I just have to take a room and redo it. It has to be done on a budget but a little paint and fabric can really make a difference and help you feel renewed. In the past month, I have been redoing my bedroom from a Martha Stewart green, from the year 2000, to light blue walls with lots of blue accessories. I bought a blue chenille bedspread from "A County Place", some curtain panels with big blue cabbage roses from "Domestications", a Sure-fit chair slipcover in a light taupe to cover my wingback chair, and a blue rag rug ($19.99) that just popped up at "Freds, of all places, one day. These were the major purchases. I like the way it turned out and it is amazing to me how you can start to redo a room and little things you have around the house seem to fit into your scheme. So here is the finished product, which we are enjoying. The china pincushion doll is something my mom gave me many years ago. She tells me she bought it at a church bazaar when she was a girl in DeKalb, Illinois. I finally made a dress for the poor young woman this week and I think it turned out very pretty. Now she proudly resides on my dresser which I also refinished. It is cherry wood and was my mother-in-laws dresser. I have a collection of Florida plates surrounding my mirrored. We are originally from Florida and I have been collecting them for a few years.

Prelude to My Room Change

I have redecorated my bedroom after 9 years of living in our home. It was decorated when we first moved in and was in need of a new look. I give a little tease today with the above picture of my new rug. The last thing I need to do is make my little decorative pillows for some accent color. I am waiting for my fabric from JoAnn's Fabric to come. When it does I will post more pictures of my "new room".

A Little Snow-Big Flakes

Yesterday, Feb. 3, it started to snow in the afternoon. We did not have much accumulation, but, it did cover the ground in a little dusting. The flakes were big, the kids were excited, the snow pictures were pretty. So, here they are.

"Laundry On the Line"- (a la the country look)

I looked out my kitchen window and saw a whole line of Briggs III laundry hanging on the line.
I call it "a la country". No clothespins. The clothes were just draped over the line. It reminded me of where I live. Way out in the countryside of North Carolina. I like it!

Time For a Little Snow

Here are a few pictures of the little bit of snow we got a week or so ago. Not much but it came down really pretty in the night. We got more snow here in our "neck of the woods" than the rest of the county. The top picture is looking down our driveway to Rockhouse Road. The other picture is in the front yard and as you see there is a freezing flamingo there. I imagine we will get another snow or two before the winter is up. No, that is not a deer in the top picture, it is our dog.

Family Cats

We have a few cats at our house. They sometimes drive us crazy but we still keep them as our household pets. We have Princess, Tippy, Licorice, Hope and Lucky. Three of them were lazily laying around the porch and so I just had to grab a camera and snap their picture. Cats are always doing things that make good pictures.

Fall, Around Our Yard

These are just a few pictures I took around our yard yesterday, when I was following my little grandson Gatlin here and there. The Autumn leaves will be gone soon and I will miss them.

Lindsay's Room Makeover

We decided to change Lindsay's room from apple green to a pretty aqua. It is much more soothing and soft. We painted another bed we had too, just for a change. The dark aqua sheers she had already went well with the new color and I made a valance out of a sheet that went with the bedspread. We are enjoying the new change.

Flowers of Fall

The little garden I planted late in the summer had lovely blooms this fall. The marigolds and cosmos, brought a colorful, bright accent to our yard.

Fun With the Loofah Vine

A few years ago Billy gave me some seeds of the Luffa vine. It is also spelled loofa, loofah, or lufa. A Couple of months ago I decided to plant them along the back of the deck. As you can see by the pictures they have grown by leaps and bounds. They are quite decorative and I have a few luffa growing which I hope to make into a sponge for the shower. The article below explains a little about them and I just thought it might be interesting to some of my "many" readers. If I am successful, I will be giving lufa sponges for Christmas gifts. Ha! Ha!

Loofah Article:

Quite a few people were interested in my recent harvest of Luffa shower sponges. I thought I�d explain a bit more about the plant and the process of growing it. Luffa aegyptiaca Mill. or as it is commonly called, the Loofah, is a vegetable native to South America. It can be eaten when it is smaller. I have stir fried them but only up to a size of about 4 inches. After that they become tough like an over ripe squash. Left to fully mature each fruit produces an excellent sponge. Seeds for this plant are readily available through vegetable catalogs and you’ll only have to buy seeds your first year- one mature Luffa sponge will produce at least 30 seeds. Some will produce many more.
Frost kills the plant and it needs 4 to 5 months of growth to produce sponges. Here in North Carolina I can plant seeds directly in the ground near the date of the last frost and then harvest a modest number of sponges later in autumn. If I wanted a better yield or if I lived further north I would start them indoors several weeks, maybe even a month before the date of the last frost and transplant them outdoors after frost danger has passed. Planting them on the sunny, southern side of your property will help. They are natural climbers and are happiest running up the sides of a trellis or even the outer walls of your home. I sprinkle a few seeds near, but not in front of, one of my south facing gutter downspouts. When the plant sprouts it climbs up the downspout and along my gutters. It doesn’t impede the flow of water and in the fall when the plant dies I easily pull it off of my home. The large Luffa leaves help to shade the hottest side of my house in the summer. I am certain they could be grown just as well on a large trellis. They can get quite long. I�ve grown vines that exceeded 15 feet in length.
Sometimes Luffas left to fully mature and turn brown or Luffas that ripen lying on the ground will have brown splotches of color throughout the sponge. For some people this isn’t a problem. Others however do not like bathing with something that is several different shades of rust. After I remove the outer skin and squeeze out the pulp and seeds from inside the Luffa, I often soak them in a weak solution of bleach and warm water for about 5 minutes. This is especially true of the Luffa sponges I give as gifts. The process usually lightens the color and gets rid of dark brown spots. After doing so I let them dry thoroughly by hanging them up or placing them on a drying rack.� It is also possible to dye the Luffas if you think you’d like bathing with a pink sponge.
I highly suggest you try growing Luffa sponges; even those of you in Northern climates with shorter growing seasons. Each morning as I start my day, I am reminded of my commitment to becoming more self-sufficient when I shower using a sponge I grew myself.