Bathroom Humor

I said I would be showing David’s bedroom and bathroom. However, he has asked that I not show his room for privacy reasons. Translation: I don’t want to keep my room clean enough to get a picture. The joys of teenagers!

But, I draw the line at keeping his bathroom clean. And he hasn’t objected to showing it off. Of course since it is not for exclusive use I have decorated it to my taste and demand that he maintains my cleanliness standards. So here you are—my purple and peacock room. These are the same decorations we used in our old home, so they may look familiar. They were just cheap masks purchased at a festival that I had framed in shadow boxes. I love the color purple!


Our downstairs half bathroom is very tiny but still deserved a personality of its own. We let our sense of humor shine through and I love to see guests come out chuckling. Many years ago we purchased Mayberry pen drawings. There’s Andy—with a Mayberry sherrif’s badge in the frame. Barney Fife’s picture proudly displays the one bullet that he kept in his shirt pocket. And the one I think is funniest of all—Ernest T. Bass and his rock. So far everyone that has used the bathroom has come out laughing and asking where they could get one.


I have enjoyed having lots of walls and the ability to show a bit of who we are on those walls.

What A View!

The view from our bed last November

A different angle of view from mid-December 2009

The view from our bedroom window - January 31, 2010 at 7:15 am

How would you like to wake up every morning with a different view out your bedroom window? That is exactly what we have and often the view will show drastic changes before we even make it out of bed. As the sun rises over the mountains the changing colors and shifting fog create a show of the glory of God.

Our bed and two Steve Hanks paintings

We positioned our bed so that we could see the best view. We even placed the cushioned lovechest that Rich gave me one year for Christmas right in front of the window. The size of the bedroom is wonderful for our bed—an oversized king size poster bed. The bed is so high that I must use steps to get into it. The size of the bed dwarfed our old bedroom, but it fits nicely into this room. The only issue is that the top knobs of the bed can’t be used without hitting the ceiling. One of the pieces of furniture that would not fit into our previous home was a restored working 1904 Victrola housed in a mahogony cabinet. We found this little treasure early in our marriage and it has been a treasured memory of a romantic weekend excursion.

1904 Victrola with Steve Hanks painting above it

We couldn’t fit the armoire up the stairs, so all the clothes that we had stored in it would need a new home. We have used my lovechest and also two night stands we had before purchasing this bed.

This is the area to the right of the bathroom door

The art work we chose for this room are limited edition prints from our favorite artist—Steve Hanks. His watercolor paintings are so soft, while still so sharply accurate, that many mistake these beautiful pictures as photographs. The paintings just seem so perfect for this house. They are so timeless and unusual that you have to stop and take notice of them. I also have two Steve Hanks prints in my sitting room. I have always felt that the pictures I hang up in our home are a reflection of who we are and what we feel is important.

Cast iron cross on glass-top table under Steve Hanks painting

We have a wonderful and large bathroom attached to our bedroom. It holds a Jacuzzi tub that the whole family has spent long hours enjoying—of course, surrounded by lighted candles. It also has a separate shower for those normal have-to-get-ready-in-a-hurry days. I have placed a bench outside of the shower which is very handy.

The view from this window is the same as from our bed

The beautiful curtains in these rooms were the same that hung in the livingroom in our previous home. They are perfect because they fit the tone of the room, but allow the view to be seen clearly.

Jacuzzi tub and shower (and candles)

Next I hope to show you David’s rooms—his bedroom and “his” bathroom.

Welcome To Our Home

We had just gotten settled into our home when it was time to decorate it for Christmas. Now that the decorations are down and put away it is time to begin showing it off to all my visitors.

It has been fun, but a bit challenging to find just the right place for everything. Somethings didn’t fit where we had planned to place it, like a large cherry armoire that couldn’t fit up the stairs. But, other items that we had not used in our previous home have now been able to put to good use.

This home allows us to have his and her “playrooms.” My room is upstairs and is right next to our bedroom. I have made it a combination of a sitting room and craft room. It has been very handy over the holidays being able to have all my ribbons and craft materials handy. This room is also right across the hall from David’s bedroom and I can sit on the sofa and keep an eye on him if he is a little too hyper at bedtime.



I wanted to make this a very “girly-girl” room but without the pinks and ruffles. I couldn’t find the perfect curtains, at least in my budget. So I checked out a local fabric shop that carries upholstery fabrics. They just happened to have in the “sale room” bridal lace, which is where I found a length of lace designed for a bridal veil that was beautiful, but very inexensive. It was just the perfect size for the long, narrow windows in the house. I only had to cut the length in two and then sewed a satin ribbon to the top of each length. To the ribbon I sewed thin gossamer ribbons. I then tied the thin ribbons to the cafe rod.

It was so easy and since I already had the ribbon, both windows only cost me the price of the fabric ($15.00). I also purchased small silver frames and printed black and white pictures of us to hang from the rod.

This is a warm and cozy room where I can store my genealogy research, scrapbook supplies, fabric, decorating books and completed photo albums. I can also spread out my materials on the floor while I’m working on a project—and not worry about someone walking on it. This is also my sentimental room since I have some of David’s baby toys in the room—a little wooden rattle, stuffed animals and a wooden hobby horse.



This room was the one I had originally planned as David’s bedroom. However, since it is an old house, the closet was not built at the time the house was. The closet in this room also serves the master bedroom. The double doors of the closet don’t allow for privacy and David decided as a 14-year-old he would much rather have the smaller of the two bedrooms, with the privacy.

Over Christmas this is the room that David slept in. We pulled out his old twin mattress, which is usually stored under his grown up bed. He liked having the doors of the closet open so he could see and hear us at night. He doesn’t like change and this was reassuring to him.

I love my room!

Making Life Beautiful

I came across the most amazing magazine, life:beautiful – Faith For The Journey magazine. The wonderful scene on the cover grabbed my attention, but the content in the magazine was what made me want to buy the magazine. This was the first time I had ever seen the magazine, but their web site shows the first issue was published last year.

life:beautiful magazine

Though the magazine is geared to the contempory Christian woman it has a small town timeless feel to the articles. While Biblical verses are used throughout the magazine, the use is not forced. The verses compliment the articles and convict with the verses and not by heavy-handed beating-you-over-the-head with the author's point of view.

The photography is amazing! The articles deal with a wide variety of topics, almost all of which I was interested in. There are crafts to do with the kids, dinnertime picnics, recipes for cold soups, organizing the home, how to organize a yard sale and more.

My favorite article was about fairs—town, county and state fairs. It brought to my mind my own childhood when we attended our county fair several times. Even though we have taken David to the county fair, I now want to make a trek to the state fair with our family this year.

One of the articles has helped us decide on our summer vacation. In "Fireflies," Campbell Cloar's remembrance of summers past and the fireflies captured reminded me of my own childhood summers in Tennessee. We had originally planned on going to Florida again this year to visit grandparents, but will put this off until Christmas. We are now planning to visit relatives in Tennessee and visit Dollywood. The last time David was there was as a toddler, so he is looking forward to the trip. Most of my cousins and their families still live in the Greeneville area so there are many children for him to play with.

The women in the magazine look like I could relate to and be friends with. They take care of themselves and their homes. This magazine advances the idea that you can be contemporary and still be modest and desire to deepen your relationship with God.
If you haven't seen the magazine yet it is worth checking it out for yourself.

Free Labor

Today was such a glorious day and there was so much yard work to be done that we felt it was a great day to start. I raked up lots of leaves that fell since the fall, while I had David bag them up. Next our good friend Dan was delivering a couple loads of much-needed mulch to the church playground and he offered to take us to get a load of mulch for our yard. Since we don't have a truck this was a wonderful offer!

Next is a trip to our friend Peg's to get plant and flower clippings for the front of the house. Peg is always so willing to share the product of her green thumb with those around her. I recently found out that many of the plants that have grown in her garden were originally cuttings from her mother's garden.

We have also had alot of strong winds recently which have resulted in tree branches and twigs littering the yard. Since we have a "man's grill" which uses wood we will keep the larger branches for cooking out.

A Lovely Addition

Last night as my wonderful friend and Creative Memories consultant Leslie Hawkins delivered my order, she brought me gifts!! She knows me so well that after filling my Memory Maker card she brought over my free gift. She of course gave me the opportunity to order a different one, but she had picked out just what I would have. It's a cute little frame called "mini everyday display." It's perfect for my kitchen, the frame is black and since my kitchen is red, black and white it goes perfectly. Of course if that wasn't great enough she also brought me gifts from a contest- little red magnetic hearts for the frame (again my kitchen color) and stickers. This will hold my menu list for the week perfectly and a message board or reminder board for the family. I had been looking for something to fill this spot and now problem solved. Thank You Leslie!!!

My Mini Everyday Display

One of the things I love about Leslie is that while many of her customers attend our church she isn't there as a salesperson. We have attended churches where I felt that the only reason certain members were attending was to make a sale. One woman would greet each new visitor with "Hi, I'm _____ and I sell Creative Memories." She also once stated that she was the church's consultant, when there were actually two others I knew of that sold the same thing.

Once she even held a workshop during church hours and invited church members. She also liked to pressure people, like asking at least once a month, if they would be consultants under her. She once complained that she had asked that of three people who then became consultants under other people. I wonder why? I know I wouldn't want her always telling me how I needed to sell more.

Also for anyone not up on what Creative Memories is doing—they are changing their album sizes. If you've ever used their 12 x 12 pages and tried to use 12 x 12 paper you know that the paper is wider than the pages. So this year they are fazing out the current pages and putting out what they call True 12 x 12 albums and pages.

So make sure if you have any albums you still need to complete, or were given an album you just haven't gotten to that you purchase the pages before they are dicontinued. Those sized pages will not be around for much longer. So if you need to order something to complete those albums and don't have a consultant check out Leslie's site.

Leslie also has a great log sheet that can be used to figure out what albums still need to be completed before the pages are gone.

Bedroom Window Dress Up

Before

After decorating most of our bedroom I have not been happy with the unfinished look of the window treatments. I didn't want something heavy looking or too frilly. So after looking around and not finding anything that fit the bill I decided I needed to make up my own topper.

What I did was very easy and inexpensive. I took some thin branches, tied them together with some floral wire towards the middle. I then hot-glued flowers and a few leaves that matched the colors in our room. I used large binder clips to attach them onto the curtain rod. I only used one bunch of the flowers to complete both window treatments. They will be easy to take down if I ever choose to change the colors or the style of the room.

After

A Warm Welcome

As friends enter our home each season they will find the entrance has changed with the season. I love changing this area every month or so since it is the first impression people get when visiting us.

We keep the same picture up, which I never tire of and the table, which when turned sideways allows the leaves to come up and the table can be used for entertaining. The other items I currently have on the table are decorations for the month of February. The wreath and holder were half-price Christmas items I bought at Target. I love the deep, saturated colors in the wreath. The large picture on the table is of David on his first Valentine's day. I love the sweetness and innocence reflected in this picture. I also placed my bowl of potpourri and lights on the table. I love to place items with a variety of heights and basically uncluttered.

So often we decorate and leave things as they are. Let's face it, who can afford to completely change each month? But a little change like this keeps the creativity going and is very affordable. Also the little wicker chair next to the table was a prop for my photography. I made my own cushion to match the trim and placed a little bear with a hometown shirt on him.

A Romantic Touch

Gift from a friend

Several years ago a friend gave me a wonderful and versatile gift. It's very simple, beautiful and inexpensive to make.

All you need is a small decorative bowl; place some potpourri in it (mine has red); and add a small string of Christmas lights.

I move this item to different locations throughout our home. Sometimes it's in the bedroom. Right now it's in our living room. As the lights heat up, it brings out the beautiful scent of the potpourri. It is easy enough to change the colors with the season, lilac for Easter or burnt orange and brown for fall.

An Update on Mrs. Walker

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that we have a dear friend, Mrs. Walker, who has been in the hospital and rehab center to regain her strength since 2 days after Christmas. Great news! Mrs. Walker is supposed to come home this morning. Please continue to pray for her, for her daughter Peg, and for her son-in-law Dave.

Living in the 50s

Before

Have you ever walked into a room and felt you had entered a different time zone? Well, our main bathroom was like that—green and black tile half way up the wall, all the way around the bathroom.

While the tile makes it very practical and easy to clean I still wanted to bring the look into this century. So I had to find a way to draw the attention away from the 50's look and give it some character.

So I started by choosing evergreen, black and royal purple—yes, I said purple.

After

I had purchased some peacock masks many years ago and had them mounted and framed. I thought that they would be perfect in this room. I rag-rolled the entire top part of the walls, used purple towels and a purple mat.

The final touch was a floral arrangement of peacock feathers in a back vase. Presto! Everyone who enters the room comments on how much they love the walls. I love that it has a bit of whimsy and fun and we could all use a little of that in our lives.