Have a great day Everyone!
Cheers!
M J
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In my over-active, decorating brain, I look at spaces, no matter where they be, and find a space that could use some light. Light can be anything, not just the visually perceived radiant energy from the sun. Light can be a smile that brightens your day or a pleasant feeling that warms your soul. In decorating, light is anything in a space that pops and catches your attention, creating depth and dimension. In our back yard, behind the fire pit area, was an area that needed some light. Just a bit of attention. I created a little banner with my own sentiment to brighten up our back fence... Being in the woods has always been very calming for me. I grew up camping, hiking, and hunting, sitting under the trees and enjoying the peace. Having this little oasis in our own back yard now, is pretty special for me... This was very simple to make, just a cheap jute table runner folded in half, a few dowels poked through some holes and then my sentiment hand-embroidered with some yarn and ribbon. Took me a few hours to backstitch, but embroidery has always been relaxing to me, just like being under the trees...
Have a great day Everyone! Cheers! M J
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Well, Hello there! Sorry I've been incommunicado for a few weeks here. Life has been busy and not a whole lot has been happening with the house upgrades lately. What I have been dealing with is some self-inflicted discouragement. Even the strongest of us encounter this phenomenon at some point in our lives. I had managed to wedge myself into a piteous state of self-doubt, self-scolding and discouragement. How do we even talk ourselves into feeling so woefully abject? It is a mystery to me still...
The biggest problem with this discouraging state is that we often do not talk about it with anyone else. Do we? We tell ourselves that we shouldn't feel that way and we further scold ourselves only leaving us deeper in the mire. So, how do we pull ourselves out of this self-deprecating void without driving everyone around us absolutely insane?? Good question. The only method that has worked for me is writing everything down on paper. With a pen. That has permanent ink... :-) Write down every nasty thing you have thought about yourself. Every admonishment you have voiced to yourself whether it be in your head or out loud to yourself in the mirror. Write down everything about yourself that you currently detest. EVERYTHING. Then... Walk away from it. Take a walk. Read a book. Do whatever calms you. Come back to those words you wrote with your own hand. Read those words carefully, take them in and feel them as if someone else had written them about you. It feels pretty horrid, I can tell you. This always breaks me out of that discouragement loop, because, I know in my heart, that those around me would never write such unpleasant things about me. We are always harder on ourselves than anyone else would ever be, aren't we? Sometimes, we just forget to treat ourselves as well as we treat others... We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. - Carlos Castaneda Here's to putting in the work to be our strongest selves! Have a great weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J Sorry for another long hiatus! We had our Winter Conference last week and have been busy tying up loose ends and trying to enjoy the holiday season. And, yes. I say Happy Holidays to EVERYONE I meet. I do not know the beliefs of every stranger to which I give holiday greetings. How do I know if they celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Mawlid an Nabi, Omisoka, Yule or Saturnalia?? It's none of my business. All I am doing is wishing each person of ANY belief system an enjoyable holiday season. Plain and simple. Why does everything need to be turned into some exhausting, theological debate? Sheesh... To that end, I have stopped watching the news! LOL! Here are some HOLIDAY decorations for you to enjoy... ;-) Looks a bit pensive, does he not? So cute. The art of building snow people dates back to Neolithic times! Cool... My little Ode to Paris. I loved that city. People were SO diverse and SO kind! Our fresh wreath is adorned with a few loved ornaments and my black and white striped ribbon, of course! The wreath actually originated in Druid and Pagan traditions. Interesting... My usual tray of found objects now holds some sparkle! Oh, and a cute little figurine with a pile of gifts! Gift-giving was also a Pagan tradition - the exchange of gifts between friends. Ahhhh, our tree! So pretty! This tradition dates back to the Babylonians and the Egyptians... I snipped a few evergreen and holly branches from the yard to create a quick swag for the front door with a big homemade bow. Holly sprigs were a Pagan offering to house the fairy people of the forest during the harsh winter season!
Well, I didn't mean this post to be a history lesson! :-) However, browsing the history of certain "Christmas" traditions has been quite enlightening! So many traditions are shared between so many different beliefs. If we can share these little traditions, why can't we share in the love of life? My hope for this world, at this time, for this season is for all people of all beliefs to respect one another. Besides, it feels so much better to love than to hate! HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL!! CHEERS! M J Last time I updated you on the Guest Bedroom progress, but today, I would like to show you how we are faring with the kitchen renovation! Let us start with a "Before and Progress" picture since I cannot seriously call our kitchen pictures "After" pics... There are STILL no doors or drawers! LOL! ;-) Most people that have come over to visit, however, mention that they didn't even notice the lack of doors/drawers! I guess there is something to be said for nicely organized cabinets... There is still much to be done, but for now, the kitchen is fully functional and pleasing enough to the eye... My vision for the coffee/tea station to the left in the above picture came together quite well. I simply taped off a strip of chalkboard paint and used pieces we already had to come up with a functional, fun and organized coffee center. It turned out to be a great way to carve out useful space from an unused area: The island we purchased from Ikea has been the most useful piece! It holds our cookware and is the perfect place to gather fixin's from the fridge and freezer for meals: The new butcher block countertops are beautiful and warm, if not a bit more work than our previous quartz. I have oiled them a few times now and will continue to do so each month. They have started to bead water already, but need many more coats of oil for protection... Gratuitous photo of bright, pretty flowers in our new happy kitchen: :-) Well, there you have it! I hope you have enjoyed this little update on our kitchen. I swear to you, we WILL have cabinet doors and drawers at some point! Life has just been a bit crazy lately. I finally have an appointment for my procedure and after Hubby and I both recover from that, we will be back at it full steam! Anyone who has dealt with any pain or hardship will understand how it can hinder the most ambitious of persons. All we can do is push through the hardship, absorb the lessons learned and keep those lessons for future usage:
Turn your wounds into wisdom. -Oprah Winfrey Have a wonderful Monday Everyone! Cheers! M J We are down to 3 days until settlement ya'll! The only photos I've been able to get are from the ad for the house. They are NOT great photos, but it will give you the idea of how much work we are heading into... Here is the front of the house: The siding and roof are in OK shape. Not thrilled with the dark green front door and shutters, but we will not have time or money to update all of it for some time. The plan is to paint the front door a pale turquoise and put up some window flower boxes in a coral color that will play nicely with the dark green until we get around to the rest. Since the house has been vacant for about a year, the yard is completely overgrown, there are dead bushes, ivy has taken over, there are 3 trees that HAVE to come down just for safety reasons and it is way too much for us to tackle on our own. We will be hiring that work out just to get us started. Here is the back of the house with the screened in porch: See what I mean? Crazy bushes everywhere... And what is with the white railings in the yard to the right? They are also everywhere. Lots to tear out and clean up, so happy we are hiring help! Here is a photo of the living room with the fireplace and built-ins: We love the built-ins, but that brick is just awful. It has had holes drilled all over the place and I am over the multi-colored brick look. It will be painted white along with the shelving. The back wall of the shelving units will be painted the wall color which will be a very pale blue. We will be leaving the mantel the original wood since it is in good shape. Hubby has deemed the space above the mantel to be the TV mounting area which is fine with me since the built-ins give me plenty of space to add some style! For now, the ugly brass fire screen will be taped off and painted with high-heat black paint... OK, I hope you are sitting down, cause now I'm gonna show you the horrible kitchen... Isn't it GLORIOUS?? LOL! Seriously, it is the original kitchen with a few personal "tweaks" by the previous owners. Yes, that is a shelf above the cabinets with the ridiculously tiny railing around it. They even put that railing around the peninsula countertop. I don't know what these people had about shelving and railings, but they are EVERYWHERE! I would cry if it wasn't so damn funny! :-) The plan is to remove a few upper cabinets above the refrigerator and stove, paint the upper cabinets white and the lower cabinets black, and all new stainless steel appliances. Think lots of cleaning, filling holes, sanding and painting. Fun! But it will be worth it when we install the white subway tile backsplash and the butcher block countertops. I have the vision in my head and I cannot wait to get it out of there. It is taking up WAY too much space up there... The living room, kitchen and dining room are all open to each other. We knew when we walked into the front door that this was the house. No walls to move! Here is the dining room: We are both so excited to actually have SPACE in a dining room again. It looks out to the screened in porch and back yard which is at least three times the size of our current yard. Here is a photo of, what I have to say is my absolute favorite room in this house, the laundry room!! You already know I'm weird... This room is a total bonus for me! An entire room off the kitchen to hold a pantry, storage, laundry AND I get a utility sink too?? Awesome! The plan for this room is loads of chrome shelving units, white paint and some cool fabric to soften some edges. There will be a place for Raven's food and water station, a place for Raven's litter box, and a place for the stupid goldfish that REFUSE to die. (Really, we won them at the carnival over 4 years ago and they are still going. I guess we take care of them too well!) ;-)
Oh, and that hideous ceiling light fixture peeking into the frame from above? Happy to say they are delivering a dumpster the day of closing so it can go straight into it... Along with the rest of the lighting in this house! As for the rest of the house, the bathrooms are a mess and the walls are as wavy as the Atlantic Ocean during a Nor'easter... But we can handle it. This house is in MUCH better shape than our first house. Of course, we were also MUCH younger then! LOL! Thanks for hanging in there through this post! I'll have better photos as we move forward after settlement on Friday! Wish us luck! Have a great week! Cheers! M J As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was in Pennsylvania visiting my Aunt and Uncle for a few days and we went to some great vintage/thrift outlets. We spent HOURS strolling through floor after floor of collections of antique, vintage and crafted goodness. So long, in fact, that our feet were killing us after just the first outlet! Of course, it did have 5 floors to peruse. Here are the items I found at that first place: That milking stool had me at Hello! So adorable and versatile. I'll be able to use it as a low side table, a foot stool, a plant stand, you name it. The knitting caddy caught my eye due to the vintage print fabric, but the wood frame is in perfect condition. It will make a great magazine rack. And the milk glass piece... My friends, I have been collecting milk glass since WAY before it became popular blog fodder. It is an addiction I still fight to this day... ;-) The blue and white pottery above was so cheap and lovely, I couldn't pass it up! It now sits below the dreaded half-round table and serves as an umbrella receptacle. Who could say no to those koi fish on the inside?? Not me apparently... LOL! If you've been reading my blog for a while, you already know I had to buy this little weaving... The next few places we visited were overpriced and didn't quite have what we were seeking. Then we happened upon a few shops that were more fun and reasonable. One even had a winery with wine tastings! Yes, Please! :-) Here are the few items I found there: Vintage Pyrex dishes and the cutest wooden Japanese figurine. I've already cooked veggies in the Pyrex and my little girl may get a makeover, I'm still deciding on her colors... ;-) If you've noticed, I have a turquoise theme going on here. I think it may be my accent color in the new kitchen/dining room. Besides, I do have a weakness for vintage turquoise Ball jars. Lucky for me, my Uncle has a collection of these same jars and was kind enough to part with a few! With original glass-lined zinc lids and all... If all that wasn't enough, my sweet Brother and his Fiance picked up a few finds for me as well! (It was a good week of thrifting and gifting!) A GREAT piece of milk glass (yes, my family is well aware of my addiction), hand painted glasses and the kitty plaque I showed you earlier in the week: Well, after going through all of these finds, I now realize it is time for some serious purging when we move. As we grow and change, so do some of our tastes. We are inexplicably drawn toward certain things that make us smile. Decorating is simply the act of surrounding ourselves with those items that make us most comfortable and happy in our living spaces. Why hang on to those items that no longer give us joy? Besides, those items you no longer love, may just find their way into someone else's heart and home to make them smile!
Have a great weekend Everyone! Cheers! M J Happy Monday Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We were busy little bees around our house, getting it ready to go on the market soon. Hubby and I are lucky that we both enjoy DIY projects and work well together. I usually have a vision of what I would like to see and he goes through the steps to get to my vision. For big projects like our next kitchen, it is essential that he has all of the technical aspects in mind as I am trying to figure out how everything will look and function for the everyday. Somehow, it just works! I did get to work on a large piece of art while visiting my Aunt and Uncle last week. I have never worked on such a huge canvas, but Uncle insisted! Let me tell you, there is nothing more intimidating than a large, blank canvas... He helped me through the creative process and I wound up with an abstract piece that is kinda fun: My Dad said I should call it "Avatar" since the trees reminded him of that movie. :-) I was playing around with acrylics and water - spraying water over wet paint and letting it drip at will. It's no Picasso or Matisse, but I think it's pretty cool!
You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. - Maya Angelou I hope you all have a great, creative week! Cheers! M J I am currently on a little solo break visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Pennsylvania. I took the long, winding route so I could enjoy some of the beautiful scenery on my drive. Unfortunately, there were no opportunities to snap any photos while driving (although, I have seen some people doing that - Um, hello! Dangerous!). I arrived yesterday before dinner and we were able to relax, have some wine and enjoy a delicious dinner by my Auntie on the deck watching the sun set. My Uncle is an incredible artist, as I have mentioned before, and we will be working on some art projects while I am here this week. So excited! In other news, I did finish up another of my furniture renovations last week. Here is a sneak peek of a little part of that reno: Have I piqued your interest?? Didn't know I could do leather working? ;-) I'll post about that reno later this week. Until then, I'm off to spend some quality time with Auntie and Uncle! Have a great week Everyone!
Cheers! M J Yup, late AGAIN... :-) I have been giving myself some down time whenever possible lately. I am not going to berate myself for not keeping to some self-imposed schedule that does nothing but cause stress. There is so much going on in my head these days, I am noticing a distinct lack of balance...
Balance every thought with its opposition. Because the marriage of them is the destruction of illusion. - Aleister Crowley If you know me at all, you know that I do not enjoy illogical thought processes or hypocritical behavior. I guess it's the scientist in me to analyze everything to DEATH. It's in my nature, it's how I deal with my world, it's how I strive to understand discrepancies and the sometimes downright craziness around me. I always find two distinct sides to any issue and then I strive to see the grey between the black and white. I like grey. It can be a very soothing color. Live in purely black or white and you live in your own fantasy world devoid of the beautiful variations that can occur simply by balancing your views. A continual, involuntary system of checks and balances is at work in our bodies, however, our minds also need a voluntary balance check every so often. A cleaning out of the cobwebs if you will... Here's to clearing illusions and living with balance! Have a great week Everyone! Cheers! M J Well, hello there! Sorry that I kinda disappeared for a bit, but I've felt like I needed a little vacay from everything lately. So much has happened in such a short period of time that my head was spinning, still is... First, after some nail-biting and tooth-grinding, our offer for the house was accepted!! Woo hoo!! (Imagine me doing the Peanuts happy dance - fingers in the air people!) It was touch and go for a week or so, they asked for everyone's "best and final offer", we indicated that our offer WAS our best and VERY final offer, and then, low and behold, we were the highest offer! Just so you know, dealing with Fannie Mae is a pain in the royal tuckus. Anywho, you can just imagine how much decorating/organizing crap is CONSTANTLY scrolling through my head... Sleep has evaded me. Second, sometime on last Friday, our HVAC went kaput. Awesomesauce!! Not to mention that the guy came out last Monday to recharge the system with refrigerant, which by Friday had leaked into our attic space. Real great, huh?? Good thing there is a solar exhaust fan up there, geez... Glad to report that as of 30 minutes ago, I now sit here mercifully in the AC after sweating it out for 3 days! :-) Third, we finished the back splash in this kitchen and it looks great! Yes, we grouted, caulked and installed new outlets with no AC in the house. Yes, we are crazy... LOL... BUT, look how PURDY... I consider the last 3 days to be training for the new house. It needs some serious updating and I am just too excited to get the keys and start tearing things apart over there! Oh, and we are pretty sure it needs an entirely new HVAC system. Cha-ching!! Hubby and I will need to keep a close hold on the purse strings for quite a while, but we are moving to the location we have been wanting. We cannot complain!
I hope you all have a wonderful week and thank you for all of the good vibes! We so appreciate you guys! Cheers! M J |
AuthorHi There! I'm MJ, a 40-something professional woman with a love for art, crafting and decorating. Here I hope to share my experiments and inspire others as they have inspired me... Archives
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