Waves of Progress

This year has been the year for upgrades on "this old house"! I know I should have been blogging more about it, and I have intended to more, really I have. It's just that I get caught up in everyday life and get engrossed in reading everyone else's blogs, and don't give attention to mine as I should.


We have done quite a lot, though, and hopefully I will manage to post about all of it before the year is out. I do want to show you a "quick" update that was made just today. Here's what I mean by quick. A NEW MICROWAVE OVEN!

I know this is not very exciting to anyone else other than me, but I am pretty excited about this little beauty considering what she replaced.  The picture below doesn't show the broken handle and how yellowed it had gotten.  Trust me, it was pretty bad.  I didn't know just how bad until it was removed completely.  Yuck!

My husband is such a DIYer!  It would have been $150 to have this installed by the store where we purchased it.  He says, "thanks, but no thanks"!  He has saved us tons of money!  I sure am thankful that he is willing and able to do these kinds of things. 

He did say that this project was a little more than he had anticipated~

The difference it has made in the kitchen, though, has been well worth it. 

Oh, by the way, it matches the new fridge that the Lord blessed us with a couple of months ago.  I have intentions of a blog post about that too.  Little by little,  in  "small waves " the kitchen make-over is taking place! 

You will never believe what my husband did after he got through installing this microwave.  He began tiling the floor in the upstairs guest bathroom!

Progress on upgrades is looking up!  He is such a busy man and I am so grateful for all his work. 

I'm linking up to A to Z's  Tips and Tutes

Art I Heart!

Ladies, I wanted to share with you one of the neatest things I have seen in blogland decorations!  It is

an easy, inexpensive, cute way to have art on your walls.  It's the kind of project I can do!

Here's the materials you will need:

Picture Frame

Whatever Art that you want to hang.

String

Craft clothes pins (I call them baby clothes pins)  I think they're so cute!

Tiny nails and hammer

Scissors

and, ah,  probably a ruler.  I'm so bad about not measuring.  But if you're a perfectionist, you will probably want a ruler or some way to measure.

Here's what you do! 

First, get your picture frame.

Wait! Before you do, let me tell you about the deal I got on the frames for my art project at

Hobby Lobby's 90 percent off sale.  They were originally $39.00.  Can you see what I got them for?  Yes, you're seeing it right....$3.99.  My daughter Rebecca, at Plesant Lines,  brought them to my attention. I think she bought a doz. of them( JK).   I grabbed a couple.  Thanks, Bec!

So, first, you turn the frame over and remove the back.

Then remove the glass (unless you want to leave it in there).  I removed it.

Then you cut the string to the desired length (I placed the picture inside the frame at this point just to see how long to cut the string.)

Then with the tiny nails and hammer, nail the string to the frame in the corners of the frame. You could use tacks to do this or even tape if your picture is not very heavy.

Then you remove the picture from the mat.  The first one came off easy for me, but....

  with the second one, I had to get my husband's help.  It was stubborn and didn't want to come off.    He has patience with things like this and I knew he wouldn't tear it.  I might!



My next step would have been the finishing step - to hang the picture on the string with the  clothes pins, but then I discovered the writing at the bottom of the pictures.   Now why would they go and do that?!

So, my next step is to cut the "wordy" stuff off.  I had two pictures (don't know if I mentioned that), so, guess what I did!  I put 'em together, and cut them both at once. (actually "eyeballed" them, shhhh, don't tell)  Now if one is crooked,  so is the other one! Surprisingly, they turned out ok.  You'll see later, that with the look I'm going for it really doesn't matter!

OK!  Now, we're ready to hang the picture on the string with the little clothes pins.  I couldn't wait to do this part. 

Actually, I forgot to take a picture of this step!  Ha! Ha! Well, have you ever hung clothes on a line to dry?  I sure have.  When I was a young girl growing up that's the ONLY way we dryed clothes!    It's the same thing.

So now I will give you  what I'm sure you've been waiting for; the final step.  The art... on the string... in the frame.... even hanging on the wall!  See it doesn't have to be perfect!  There is enough perfectionist in me, though, that I do see something that I will have to "fix" with this picture.  It is the staples at the bottom of the frame.  Do you see them?   They will have to go....someday!

                                                              Here's the one on this side:

Here's the one on the other side:

 I like the look, because it serves several decorating purposes, I think.  The black frames make it a little modern.  The string and clothes pins make it a little country for sure.  It is,  I guess, what would be called an element of surprise.  Who would expect to see art hanging up on a string unless it is has just been painted and is drying.  Ha ha!  Do you think I will be able to fool anyone with this?  Probably not! 

 The main reason I like it is this;  look at how easy it would be to change the art.  Oh yes, my friend,.....with the seasons!   If you come to visit me in the future, don't be surprised it it's changed!  Hey, seriously,  at Chirstmas it would be a great place to hang Chirstmas cards!

Well, there you have it for my "Art I Heart" project.  Yep, I "heart" it because it was cheap, easy and quick and I guess it looks ok!

I'm linking this to Traci's at Beneath My Heart's DIY Project of the month Party.  Thanks Traci! 

Why White????

Good Question!  As for the answer, I don't know if I can answer that or not, but I'm going to try in this post about the painting of the living room. 

Early January (20ll), I casually told my husband that we needed to paint.....soon.  Well, he took me seriously.  So seriously that at church the next service he asked a painter in our church to come and do some painting for us.  He told me after church that he was coming the next day!  Yikes!  Wait!  I'm not ready!  Yet I knew that here was my chance and that I better get ready!

Soooooo, after many hours, (I hate to admit that, but yes, hours) on line actually doing what I call a "crash course" on interior painting, (thanks to Maria  at http://mariakillam.com/home.htm)  and after many trips to Lowes and thousands,   several paint decks and samples,  I always came back to, yes, you guessed it, WHITE!

I really don't know why except that when I look at pictures of all white rooms, my heart just seems to kinda pitter patter!  Words like, peaceful, clean, restful, pure, relaxing come to mind!  I know it is not the look a lot of people are going after, and on most of the home decorating shows, they really look down on all white.  Oh well, I still like it!  Acutally, I remember when we first built the house 16 years ago that I really wanted to paint the walls white, and the woman at the paint store talked me out of it.  That goes to show it's always good to go with your first choice!

Another reason is because I like to change things up so much, and what "color" goes with everything any better than white?!!!!

I have loved painted white furniture for a loooong time and have much painted white furniture.  My kitchen is white as well.  It is just something that I never tire of, and as one avid white fan said, when you get started on white, you just want more white!

Sooooooooooooo, there are some of the reasons.  I guess there are others, and if  I think of them I will add them later.  For now, I guess the answer to my own question of "Why White?" is "Why Not?"

You can see the way the living room looked before here.   Also below are some close ups of the before wall color.   It was a creamy color which was OK, but I like the white much better.  The actual name of it is "Spare White". 

Before white and with the "touch up" mud.



As you can see here, it had a sort of brownish tint to it.



Before when compared to the white trim.



This is an after white paint shot taken by grandaughter,  Abby.  Without looking at the items which are not supposed to be in here,  (bench, black and white picture on fireplace, etc.), you can see how much brighther these walls are. 

I still have quite a bit to do in this room, but I really do like the way it turned out.



Up, Up and Away!

You know you have a tall house when then front window is so tall that it probably has only been washed twice in 16 years.  Not because I don't want it to be washed, or wouldn't wash it;  it's just that it is almost inpossible to get to.  Unless you have some kind of lift or high reaching ladder.  And it doesn't hurt to have some wonderful weather! 

We have actually had both of those this week;  gorgeous  weather nearly 70 degrees (I personally think we live in the south!)  and a big old lift of a thing rented to put new lights in at the church parking lot.  So, while we had it we took advantage of it and my "Lonnie Love" cleaned the window in front of the house. 

You know what else happened with it????   The grandkids got to go on a ride with Papaw in it...and you know what else????? so did I!!!!!!!!  Oh yeah, I decided, why not?!!!!!!!  Wow!  I could see all around in that thing; as our neighbor was seeing us.  I'm sure wondering what in the world we were doing!

It made me think of when we were young and riding the farris wheel at the county fair!  Fun times!  Olivia said we were going on a ride for Valentines Day!

2 Projects of 2010! Enjoy and Be Inspired!

  I've enjoyed looking at the wonderful projects of 2010.  Wow!  There are some talented ladies out there.  I didn't get a project done every month like some did,  but I do have a couple that I am glad I took pictures of  and can share with you.  At the time, I didn't know there would be a "recap of projects".  Next year I will know!  The first one I did was in January.  I had seen on some blogs the word "home" used in different ways and loved it, and wanted to try making my own.  So I sat out on a snowy winter day to do so.  You can see the the steps to my snowy day project here.

Project Snow Day 2010

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The second project was a little later in the year;  September, I think.  Anyway, I actually "lost it" on this project.  I, once again, got the idea from, where else, but blog land!  I started seeing how different ones were removing the doors from their kitchen cabinets.  I got the "itch" to do this; especially since my white 90's cabinets were not quite so white anymore.  You can see how I "lost it" here.

Losing the Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Before

After

I'm joining the 2010 Top Projects at SouthernHospitality.