Update on Latest Projects

I blogged about some of my latest projects here and here. 

My projects included:

1. An old School Blackboard
2. 'Fresh Eggs' sign
3. Small Coffee Filter Wreath

 I finished two coffee filter wreaths; a large one made with brown coffee filters and a small one on which I painted the edges pink.

I finally finished the old school blackboard.

It started it's life as a white board with a yucky oak frame with some kind of shiny, but cracked finish.  I wanted it to look like one that could have hung in an old school classroom so I sanded off the old finish on the oak frame and stained it dark walnut.  Then I painted the board with blackboard paint. 

It's really large, 24" x 36".  I posed BD by it so you can see how really big it is.  He's really big; he weighs 85 lbs.  I'd love to show it hanging somewhere, but we're moving a month from today, so I'm packing and don't want to put any more holes in the walls of the rental.

I have to add as a side note that the Rustoleum blackboard paint is a really cool color before you put any chalk on it.  I might want to have that color mixed up in a semi-gloss for a piece of wood furniture.

Last, is my 'Fresh Eggs' sign.  It's not entirely finished but has to do for now because all projects have been put on hold until after we move.

I still plan to add a small frame of stained wood and do some work to make it look old.  So far it's coming along just as I imagined it.  I plan to hang it over the windows in the breakfast room or over the cabinets in the kitchen in my new house.  I'll show it again after we move.

What have you been working on?

Cindy

My Old School Blackboard was featured 12/3/10 on Facebook at Rustoleums's Paint Ideas

Linking up to:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's Tuesday's Treasures


Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint party


Re-Store Interiors Re-Stored-It Wednesday


Blue Cricket Design's Show and Tell party


Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrify Tuesdays

Doorposts of our House

This afternoon, my husband and I took our Bibles and Sharpies to our new house that's under construction.  We wanted to obey God’s command to write His word on the doorposts of our house from Deuteronomy 6: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  Deuteronomy 6:6-9

We wrote something in every room of the house and chose verses that correspond to the activities that we’ll be doing in that room.  Below are the verses we used.

(This post is very word heavy with few pictures but full of scripture.  Scripture is New King James or King James versions.)

At the front door and back door we used  “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15 and “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” Psalm 127:1

By the door from the house to the garage we used  “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD they God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1:9

Over the big garage door we used  “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Hebrews 13:5

In the breakfast room where we start the day we used  “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you.  He will not leave you nor forsake you.”  Deuteronomy 31:6

On the foundation of the house we used  “You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.”  Hebrews1:10

Over the place where we’ll have our computers in the family room we used  “You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me . . .”  Psalm 139:5  . . . and underneath are the everlasting arms.”  Deuteronomy 33:27

Over the place where every bed will be we used  “I will both lie down in peace and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”  Psalm 4:8 and I added this also to the master bedroom, “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me.”  Psalm 3:5

In the music room we used Psalm 100:1-2 “Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness, come before His presence with singing.” and Psalm 33:3 Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.” (My husband will practice in this room for the symphony orchestra in which he plays.)

In the attic we used all of Psalm 100.

In the dining room we used Psalm 23:5  “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.”

In the laundry room we used Psalm 51:2 “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”

In the bathrooms we used Psalm 36:9 “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.”

By the kitchen sink I used some of my favorites: Joshua 1:9 from above and Isaiah 1:16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.  Cease to do evil.” and added Psalm 26:6 “I will wash my hands in innocence; so I will go about Your altar, O LORD.”

By the phone we mostly use for talking to the kids we used Isaiah 54:13 “All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children.”

In the pantry we used Psalm 81:16 “He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.”

In the family room along the wall on which we’ll have our TV we used Psalm 141:3-4 “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.  Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.” and Psalm 101:3 “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.”

In my craft room we used Exodus 31:3-4, 6 “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works . . . I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you.”

So now our entire house is covered with God’s word. 

Cindy

A Few of My Favorite Things

The blog 320 Sycamore is having a link party today where we share at least 5 of our favorite things. 

Since she says ‘things’, I’m not going to mention people but if I did, I certainly would put my husband and my four kids on the top of the list only just behind God.

Anyway, here goes:

#1 – My dog Scout who I also call Guy, Doofus (because so often he is) and Big Dog.

#2 – Roses

I have to have them growing in my yard.  It’s essential.  I prefer shrub roses to hybrid tea roses because I like for my roses to look pretty growing in the yard, not just in a vase.

Betty Prior - my all time favorite rose
photo - Antique Rose Emporium

New Dawn - probably my favorite climber
photo - Antique Rose Emporium

#3 – Plates

I love to collect and display them.  I have 7 or 8 sets of china.  What can I say; I’m addicted.  I especially love to hang my plates on the wall.

Country Living

#4 – Goebel Angels

Goebel is the same company that makes Hummel.  I have a few Hummels but I love any Goebel stuff.  The angels have such cute little faces.  So guileless. 

I have a wonderful collection of Goebel angels that I’ve been collecting for well over 20 years.  Since the collection fits perfectly in this cabinet, I don’t have a reason to get any more.

#5 – Primary Colors in my home

I love muted colors and natural colors, but I always come back to primary colors with some green thrown in.  This has been going on since I began keeping house in 1983 so I don’t think it’s going away.  This is my latest fabric choice of which I just ordered 12 yards to make roman shades for the 5 windows in the breakfast room in my new house:

Covington - Wilmington Multi

So there are five of my favorite things.  What are some of yours?

Linking to:

320*Sycamore’s My Favorite Things

Project Update

Before giving an update on my projects I want to show you something I made about 15 years ago that I still love and display in my home.

I made it out of a 10" styrofoam wreath form, two sizes of white beans and blue, wired ribbon.  I used tacky glue to hold the beans on the form and it took hours to make because the beans kept sliding off the wreath.  If I ever make another one I'll probably use hot glue.

Now on to my project update.  The first finished item is the coffee filter wreath for my daughter.  You might remember that I already showed the wreath form and the coffee filters here.

My daughter asked if I would paint the edges of the filters pink.  That way it would look like a carnation and also fit in with her decor.

They turned out real pretty, don't you think?

I'm not sure how she wants it to hang so I haven't added ribbon.  Originally I expected the filters to meet in the middle since this is a small wreath form.  That didn't happen, but I still think it looks a lot like a carnation.  It is different from my brown coffee filter wreath shown here.

I'm still working on my 'Fresh Eggs' sign.  Here it is in process:

More on that in another post.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Thursday!

Cindy

Linking to:

The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday

My Latest Projects

My Latest Projects

I’m working on four projects right now.  They are as follows:

1)     Old School Blackboard

2)     ‘Fresh Eggs’ sign

The design has been drafted and the board has been primed

 

3)     Small coffee filter wreath that will look like a large carnation

The filters should meet each other in the middle so it'll look more like a large flower than a wreath.  It's for my daughter.

4)     Spray paint more jar lids to match ALL the others

I LOVE this shade of red!

Stay tuned for the finished projects.



Once these projects are all done, I have to start packing for our move at the end of December.

Cindy

Not Just Another Coffee Filter Wreath Tutorial

There are so many great tutorials out there in blogland showing how to make a coffee filter wreath so I didn’t want to do another.  My favorites are at Dearest Home, On Ruby Lane’s using a rubber stamp on the filters, oo-la-la and Manuela at The Pleasures of Homemaking.  Manuela made a square wreath that I just love.

Instead of showing how to make the wreath, I decided to give some tips for making the project much easier to do. 

Tip #1 - I bought a package of 200 brown coffee filters ($1.29 at HEB in Austin) and used them all.  Some of them didn’t separate easily so I separated a bowlful before beginning to hot glue them to the wreath form.  When the bowl was empty, I just filled it again.  This saved a lot of time that separating one and gluing, separating another and gluing, etc. would have taken.

Tip #2 – Anyone who has used a hot glue gun knows about hot glue burns.  Whenever I use my glue gun, I always, always have a bowl of ice water nearby in which to dip my poor burned body part after touching the hot glue. 

Tip #3 – Tip #2 doesn’t help me avoid burns, it only helps when I get one.  After burning myself two times in the same place, I decided to use the end of a spoon to hold the hot glue-drenched coffee filter down to protect my fingers.  You can see how I did it here:

I borrowed Erin’s idea at It’s a Wannabe Decorator’s Life of using jute upholstery webbing in the place of ribbon. 

I love how the brown coffee filters that all look alike come alive when made into the wreath and the light casts shadows all over.  Isn’t it pretty? 

I hope some of my tips help save other burned fingers.

Cindy

I've linked to the following:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia Tuesday's Treasures

Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday

Lucky Star Lane's Lucky Linky Tuesday

Nikki's Nifty Knacks Gettin' Crafty on Hump Day

Blue Cricket Design's Show and Tell

Temporary Home

My husband and I moved from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area to Austin, Texas in June/July of this year.  Our house in DFW was still on the market when we moved so we had to rent.  We couldn’t get anything less than a year lease so I resigned myself to living in the rental for a year. 

Calico Corners

I unpacked all my china (7 or 8 sets) along with lots of other things.  Since then, our house sold (praise God) and we began looking at new houses.  Well, with the housing market being what it is, we really wanted to take advantage of the low prices and incentives and build sooner than a year.  Our builder was able to work with us and our landlord to get us an early release on our lease.

So, now we’re building our new home!

Country Living (I think)

They poured the slab on Friday a week ago and began framing on Tuesday of last week.  We go over in the evenings and walk around our house and take pictures.  I’m so excited.

My future new home

This will be the fourth house I’ve owned and also my fourth new house.  It seems I always build a new house.  Just because I’m familiar with this process doesn’t mean I don’t still get all excited with each new home.

Back in September I got to go to the design center and pick out tile and carpet for the floors, granite for the kitchen counters and tile for the backsplash (I picked subway tile), kitchen and bath cabinets and wall colors.  I have so many great ideas for decorating the place.  I’ve begun a notebook and file of ideas for each room including wall colors, window coverings, furniture, pictures for the walls and decorative elements to make the place into ours.

Sarah Richardson Design

The pictures interspersed in this post are some of my inspiration photos that I’m using to help me with the design of the place. 

Elizabeth at Blue Clear Sky did a blog on Ralph Lauren and his style here.  This is her inspiration for their guest bedroom. 

Ralph Lauren via Blue Clear Sky

I can’t wait to see how it comes out.  I love the blues and browns and tans along with the natural elements such as leather, wicker and wood and the chunky pottery and white dishes.  I also love how Ralph uses denim, ticking, leather and florals together. 

My family room will have a red gingham denim sofa and two mission style leather recliners.  I was trying to decide whether to add lots of blue and white for a red, white and blue palate or to use red, brown and yellow.  And then I watched Sarah’s House on HGTV online and saw this master bedroom and fell in love with the pillow fabric on the bed.  The designer is Sarah Richardson.

Sarah Richardson Design

I’m thinking of using something like this for the roman shades in my breakfast room and as accent pillows in the family room.  It’s just so happy. 

I found this fabric at Calico Corners online:

Calico Corners

It’s called Wilmington Multi and looks very similar.  I just need to go visit it in person and get a sample and live with it for a few days before making a firm decision.

This is my inspiration for a corner of the family room where my husband and I will have our computers.  I want lots of white cabinetry to hold stuff and some open display space for some of my really neat stuff.

Barclay Butera

I love the natural elements in this picture and hope to use some of the ideas in this picture in a secondary bedroom. 

I’ll keep y’all updated on all the exciting happenings as the house is built.  Until then, my husband and I will live in our temporary home and dream of our new one. 

Cindy

P.S.  Check out Susie Davis's blog for a really great giveaway worth like $275 including a gift card to Pottery Barn and another to Williams Sonoma.