Bedroom Furniture Make-over

 

My sweet hubby finally agreed to let me paint our bedroom furniture.

We bought our bedroom suit about a month before we were married in June 1981.

Who would have ever dreamed that the furniture we bought when we were 20 and 21 years old would still be gracing our bedroom with its presence 33 years later?

 

But here she is in all her glory before her recent paint job.

 

And the After.

 

The dresser (before) is peeking into the right of this picture (below).

 

 

The dresser ~ After

I even repainted her accessories (hardware) with Krylon Brushed Metallic in a Nickel finish...

and replaced the two tarnished gold metal drawer pulls with pink glass ones!

Miss Southern Belle is enjoying her newly painted home.

 



This post is linked to:  Pink Saturday  Show and Tell Friday 

                                     Remodelaholics Anonymous    Frugal Friday
                                       Flaunt-It Friday     Furniture Feature Friday

Color My World!

I'm over my whining spell about the time change and now I'm working on adding color to my grey surroundings.

I started out my colorful journey at the plant nursery where I bought some bright plants and flowers that can handle the winter chill.

I snapped this picture of the ornamental cabbage after bringing it home and setting it on my front porch where the afternoon sun was bringing out its colors.

Below is the same plant on this cloudy day (first large plant on the left).

It's funny how the sunshine affects the color, isn't it?

I think sunshine has the same effect on me...it just brings out my color.

ornamental cabbage, kale, and pansies

  

 I surrounded the cabbages and kale with many, many pansies.

Pansies always make me think of children's happy smiling faces.

I still have this brave, lone, little bud on my front yard rosebush.

I found this picture in a store yesterday while out and about in town.

It's very large and took the saleslady and me quite a while to squeeze/wedge it into the backseat of my car after my purchase.

It took even longer to get it out once I got home, even though I had help from my son!

Sweet hubby hung it over the living room couch last night and I think it carries on the Color My World theme quite well.

And last, but not least, I went through some of my many pounds of cotton scraps with ideas of making some colorful throw pillows for the couch.

Below are pictures for happy-scrappy throw pillows I found on Cluckclucksew.com.

(The links below the pictures will take you to the tutorials.)



Sprocket Pillows



Petal Pillow



And today?

Well, I should be cleaning house.

But.....

I may go out in my backyard and walk around barefoot instead.

The day has started out warm with just a little peek of sunshine here and there but

thunderstorms are expected later today and then cooler weather behind that.

So I think I'll just play hooky from housework and enjoy this "snappy new day!"

Don't Try This at Home!

Please, come on up and join me on my front porch. 

I have a story to tell you. 

It's a story that taught me some lessons.

See this beautiful, innocent jalapeno pepper? 

 If you look closely you will see what looks like dew drops on it.  But really? They're tears.

The tears are for what its brothers and sisters did to poor me this week.  Being so proud of the bounty from my little square-foot-garden, I gathered up all the full-grown pepper pods from my two plants and carried them into my kitchen where  I washed them, cut them open, took out the seeds and membranes, then chopped them into tiny pieces for the freezer.

A little voice in the back of my head said, "Sherry, when you were a little girl, didn't your mother have a bad encounter with a sink full of peppers?"  Searching back through my memories, I remember coming into our house one summer day and finding Mama fanning her hands around and groaning because they were burning so bad after having them submerged in a sink full of peppers and water most of the morning.

"Oh yes," I said to the little voice, "but she had them in a sink full of water and mine aren't in water, and anyway it won't happen to me.  Besides, I cut them up all the time with almost no burning." 

And back to work I went. After chopping all the peppers up and putting them in a freezer bag, I washed my hands.   

That's when the trouble began!  Such intense burning!

I sluffed it off, put my bag of peppers in the freezer and fixed a sandwich for my lunch.  But wait!  Now my face is burning!  My lips are on fire and I haven't even touched them!  I did, however, touch the sandwich that touched my lips.

I'm thinking I may have a real problem now, so what do I do?  I Google it!  I found much advice, and was comforted (just a little) to know that I am one among many sillys that have cut up peppers without heeding the warning to WEAR GLOVES. 

I found one very entertaining blog post with almost 300 comments full of advice. I tried MANY of them: rinsed my hands in alcohol, rubbed them with a baking soda paste (this helped my burning lips but not my hands), slathered them with calamine lotion, washed them with very HOT water and dish soap (TORTURE!), rubbed them on stainless steel, rinsed them in lemon juice, soaked them in milk, rubbed them with aloe gel, and poured witch hazel over them (my own idea). I drew the line at peeing on them~yes, one of the commenters on the blog was adamant that it would help, but I never found out. 

Nothing I tried helped. Finally giving up on the treatments, I just laid my hands on an ice pack for rest of the day to wait it out.  In fact, I melted down several ice packs we had stashed in our freezer. 

Sweet hubby cooked supper for the family while I groaned. 

Oh, and did I mention, our air conditioner had quit and had been out for two days when this happened?  The Alabama heat and a sweltering house didn't help cool my hands any.

I was afraid that I would be up all night cradling my ice pack.  This burning lasted about twelve hours, then it slowly subsided. So sweet!  Finally, I was able to fall into a peaceful sleep, with an ice pack on my nightstand ~ just in case.

At least I learned some lessons from my pepper encounter:

• Listen to others' advice to wear gloves when chopping up even ONE hot pepper.
• Never think, "It won't happen to me."
• Listen to that little voice in the back of my mind.  God put it there for a reason. 
• Appreciate any day without pain!

Thank you for sticking with me through this story. 

Now, with a little help from my plants, I want to wish you all a very happy

Red, White, and

Blue Independence Day weekend,



our blueberry plants

with a big splash of Pink thrown in for my Pink Saturday friends!

Enjoy!

~Sherry~

Just a Busy Little Bee

The sun is just beginning to peek through the trees in our backyard this morning as I'm out hanging out my first load of laundry.

I wanted to get an early start for my busy day.

My laundry is now finished.

I've watered my garden.

I've taken my early morning walk.

I've got a little time to enjoy the outside beauty before beginning my inside chores.

The Blackeyed Susans are cheering me on as I check off my To-Do list.

One in particular teaches me a lesson as I pause to snap its picture.

It seems to ask me the question, "Do you have to be perfect to bring beauty into the lives of others?"

I spread out my newly completed Log Cabin quilt table topper.

Another cheery spot to my morning.

Looking around for a special centerpiece for the table, I spy my gardenia bush right outside my breakfast room window and it's covered with heavenly scented white blooms!

Perfection!

The reason I've got such a long To-Do list today is because sweet hubby and I are heading out on an anniversary celebration trip!

This post is linked to:  Outdoor Wednesday, Whatever You Want Wednesday, Show and Tell Friday

Playing on a rainy day

This is quite the rainy day in our neighborhood. It follows on the heels of quite the rainy night. But that's okay. I turn on all the lights in my little spot of the world and everything is bright and cheery here.

Since I did today's homey chores yesterday, I have the whole day (until time to cook supper) to just play and indulge my inner giggly girl's whims! Believe it or not, she first wants to play house. So we catch up on a little sewing.  Just little odds and ends of things. Then I take out my ironing board and lavender water spray. The bottle's original lavender water is long gone, so I replaced it with tap water and a few drops of lavender essential oil. Mmm, it smells even better than the original stuff.

My little inner girl (I call her Little Sherry) wants to iron her newest favorite sweater. And while ironing, Little Sherry and I start thinking of how best to accessorize the new antique sweater.

So we move on to our closet where we choose a creamy color skirt and pearly accessories to go with the soft pinkness of the sweater.

There's nothing like pearls, whether real or make-believe, to make a girl feel even more girly.

We choose our pearliest looking purse to complete the look.  Now we have the perfect outfit all picked out, wrinkle-freed, and smelling of heavenly lavender.  We're all ready and waiting  for our next sunny day.

Aren't we blessed to have a whole rainy day in which to indulge our playful mood?

~ Sherry and Little Sherry ~

This post is linked to:  Frugal Friday, Show and Tell Friday, Pink Saturday

Being Happy With What I Have

I was so excited to find out Rust-Oleum makes a paint kit for cabinets!  They promise no stripping, sanding, or priming!  I had to rush right over to their website and take a look at this miracle kit myself! They even have a Kitchen Makeover Virtual Tool so that you can dream in living color!

I've been wanting to paint my cabinets for ever so long.  Only one thing has kept me from it, well not one thing, one person, my loving husband.  Lest you think I'm married to a man that doesn't care about what I want let me first tell you that with a little urging from me he put in a white ceramic tile backsplash and had our old laminate cabinet tops replaced with quartz. He lets me choose the color scheme in every room.  He tries his best to make me happy.  But he draws the line at painting our cabinets. He loves the natural look of the oak grain shining through.

But that doesn't keep me from dreaming of freshly painted cabinets.  Which would I choose?  Something very light?

Or something more traditional?  These Gingerbread glazed cabinets are beautiful with their Pebbled Ivory countertops.  But wait a minute!

They're not really that different from what I already have!

Okay, I'm contented with what I have again, for right now. :)  But this warmer, sunnier weather has got me wanting to make something over!  Think I'll go have a look at my summer clothes.  They might could do with a little sprucing up in some way.  And I don't think hubby will mind a bit.


This post is linked to:  Show and Tell Friday

A Happy Valentine

 I'm up bright and early this morning to begin my favorite day of the year! 

I have BIG plans!

Our special supper is in the Crock pot ~ pot roast and vegetables.  I made extra rolls a few days ago and have them stashed away in the freezer all ready to pull out and finish cooking to go with our meal this afternoon.

Now I'm going to get my special Valentine treats all baked up for my guys and my household chores done this morning while the temps are still quite chilly.  Because....the weatherman has promised us a sunny day with afternoon temperatures in the 60's!  As soon as my work is done I plan to go outside and play in the sunshine!

Want a peek at my thrifty decorations?  I made everything from supplies I already had.  And they make me quite happy.

My wishes to You from A Happy Valentine!

May Your Day be Blessed!