"....and let patience have it's perfect work..."

Patience has been my motto lately. We had to put ourselves on a complete spending FREEZE for the past 20 days, for various unexpected reasons. We didn't even have money for bandaids!

So I've been just...waiting. Lots and lots and LOTS of ideas and chomping at the bit to get started with my home, but just concentrating on cleaning it more so that when I DO want to start painting, for example, it will be ready.

Yesterday we got paid and it looks like it's going to be another extremely tight month. We have more things demanding our money than we have money FOR, so even the small allowance we give ourselves each month, it looks like isn't going to happen.

After doing alot of research, though, it sounds like prep work is 75% of the work when it comes to painting. I have to first clean the area, which in itself takes quite a bit of time, soooooooo many fingerprints!!!! And then I have to spackle and repair the wall's many holes and little indents from various accidents through the years. THEN I have to use painter's tape and go over everything, oh that is also after removing the lightswitch covers, etc. THEN I get to do the priming of the walls. After that, I can paint.

So everything up to the priming is practically free, it's just my time. So I've been working on that.

But today I went to Sherwin Williams to browse and get pricing on some things - I have a 30% off all paint coupon that expires on Sunday. Waaaah! I don't think I'm going to be able to use it because ONE gallon of the good paint costs like $42! Ouch. With my 30% off coupon it would be just $29! That savings is hard to ignore....maybe I can squeeze it out of my grocery money? But then, the argument is that if I COULD squeeze it out of the groceries (and thus live on truly rice & beans, which I actually have a TON of, ROFL!) then theoretically that money should go for the new shoes my husband needs. Or the $180 copay for my dentist appointment.

I told myself that I am just going to be patient. I know I am going to do this - I feel like it is just time. My baby is getting older, I've never actually had a baby this old and not been pregnant (she's almost 15 months). In the meantime, I am looking at color swatches and borrowing books from the Library about how to paint, and doing a ton of research.

Thrift Store Finds!

I'm looking forward to posting some before/afters of different things I find at thrift stores soon! Still working on getting my house turned right side up so I can work in a clean environment - clutter just makes me crazy!

For now, I'll show you some fab finds I got at the thrift store recently. They instantly bring new life into my house and I love how little things do that - especially love the price tag. =)

First - a beautiful pillar-like stand for whatever I want! It cost me $6.99 but I was returning something so only had to pay $.59. The oranges didn't last long (my 11 year old decided to see if she could juggle, rrrrrrr) and now they have 3 pretty candles on them. In the future I plan to put a pretty cascading green plant on it to add some green to my home.

Next I found this GORGEOUS clock! It was $9.99 but I just couldn't pass it up, since I had store credit to use up at Goodwill. I didn't have a place in my mind to put it, but I knew it would look beautiful in my house. Turns out it looks really nice sitting under my Italian Chef I inherited when my grandparents passed away. I enjoy it in my kitchen every single day!

I hesitated when I saw this picture, but it just drew me. The colors are IDENTICAL to what I have in my house, except it's missing a splash of red. It really brings together the browns, greens, and tans so I ended up buying it for $4.99.

I put it above our 2nd computer desk in the family room, a room that has been sadly neglected for the entire 11 years we have lived here. Later, I added the fall bead wreath on the other side and an orange candle below with a black curly iron candleholder. Now this room looks a bit more loved!

Laundry Basket Name Tags

This is my very first project! It seems like all I do every day is clean, clean, clean so it's hard to find time for actual home IMPROVEMENT vs. home CLEANING. But I've been working overtime hard so that the house is clean enough that I can start redecorating, reorganizing, etc.

In our house, we have a family closet of sorts. All 7 of our children have their own laundry basket of clean clothing that sits on a shelf in our family room. Normally this would be in the laundry room or ideally even in a separate larger closet. But that's okay - I like it so much that I don't care where it is!

The problem: babysitters have no idea whose clothing is whose. So I decided to make name tags! Inspired by different blogs and ideas I've seen online, I got to work. My baskets are not matching but I did my best with what I had, and now they look much nicer just because they are *slightly* more uniform looking, lol.

First I did a search for free fonts on Google. Found a site right away, and then found a good Tuscan type font that I loved. Downloaded it onto my computer, then opened a word document and typed the names of my children in large font.

I found some sturdy white card paper and printed the names out. Then I cut them into the same shape as best I could, and glued them onto black construction paper.

Next, I cut the black construction paper into nice even-looking labels, and covered the face of each one with packing tape. Ha ha! I'm finding out that to be crafty you get, well, creative. =) The end results - ta da! (and these ARE white in real life, lol)

Frustrations = Realism

Today I am thinking about all the things I want to do to my home, things that are even simple that would brighten things like cleaning and shining up my kitchen stove burners. Or like just now, I was putting laundry into the ever demanding machine and noticing how badly it needs to be wiped down.

So I suppose that Rejuvenation does not necessarily mean a "project" as in changing the actual color or shape of something. It can even mean cleaning!

But today I am faced with a decision...I can give in to thoughts of frustration and POOR ME and my life in general makes me feel like I am bound hand and foot and I can't do ANYTHING I want to do.

Which of course is a lie becuase yesterday I got to go shopping by myself at the thrift store for 2 hours! So - see how deceptive the enemy is with his darts of self pity?

But what has me feeling frustrated today is seeing so much potential around my home, and thinking how simple it SEEMS to just take a couple of hours or even ONE hour per day, to work on a project.

Instead I look around me and see my real live situation. That tonight I have a birthday party for my DS turning 8, and probably 10 family members will be coming. I still have to 1) make dinner, 2) decorate, 3) wrap the presents, and 4) clean the house and 5) unpack the rest of the stuff from staying at our church this weekend.

Have you ever felt that feeling? Like you just really really REALLY want to just DO THIS ONE THING, yet there is so so so much staring at you and that MUST be done like, within the next 2 hours?

So that is me today. Dealing with thoughts of what is REAL and what is my life and also, how to live my life pleasing to Jesus - because that is what it's all for, anyway, right?

The little secret is that if I was left to my own devices and was able to do my little projects without interruption or work - there would be something else that made me feel like "poor me" and my life is like a ball and chain. Those thoughts have to be dealt with and can't be allowed to live or they'll take over my life and make me M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E.

So this is me today: =) =) =) With a big smile on my face. =0 I know that soon enough I'll get a chance to do my projects. =0

This song has been on my heart today:

Better than gold is faithfulness.
Riches you'll gain that will remain,
And you'll have constant joy and peace.
Firm to your mind faithfulness bind.

Blest are you who in peace or strife (anyone else's kids seem to create strife? Ha ha!)Hour by hour, lay down your life.
Fighting 'gainst lies, deceit, empty ways,
Day after day you're growing in grace!

I'm thankful for blogging, too - it helps me turn my world right side up as I see things in black and white when they're written out! =)

Aaaagh what to start on??!!

Ooooh the agony of actually STARTING!! Ha ha! Here's the thing. Kids go back to school tomorrow, and just today we got back from a 4-day stay at our local church retreat. MAJORLY not on a schedule. Then in just 4 days, we're going back there for the weekend. The weekend after that, DH and I are taking a lil vacation break for 3 nights.

I HATE having my schedule all planned out like that! I crave routine this time of year. Waaah, poor me lol. My problem is that there is just not enough time in the week to do what I need to do, and the weekends are going to be all crazy busy. Read: we'll be GONE.

Sigh.

Oh well, I suppose fall/winter will be here before I know it, with endlessly boring weekends. LOL.

I can't decide what do to first, though. Should I do the bathroom? But I kind of wanted it to be the same theme as the rest of the house, and since the rest of the house DOES have a theme but I can't actually SEE it --- it's hard to match it really well. I guess I'm also kind of conflicted because I love the Pottery Barn style of decor - simple, yet beautiful and FUNCTIONAL with lots of storage, clean lines. Is it lame to have different styles of decor in your home?

The first step I've taken to renovating my home is to get the carpets cleaned. That is happening tomorrow, with a coupon for $115 for most of our home, just excluding 2 bedrooms. I'm paying for that out of my Ebay money and I'm excited - one SMALL step to making my home nicer, and I know it'll motivate me to continue on!

The other quandry I'm in as well, is that right now we are smack dab in the middle of Halloween costume season on Ebay. I can do fantastically well with those if I put my mind to it, and take the time. For instance, this is my costume I have up on Ebay that I got for $2. It's currently at $42 and still has a couple of days to go on auction.

And the thing is, that money is what I am going to use (my extra "egg" money, so to speak) to start slowly but surely renovating my home, doing most of it myself. So I need to concentrate on earning the money now, since I only have about a 6-week window to do it in. I have to scour the thrift stores in my area, some of them several times, and then take the time - it's ALOT of time - to write up the auctions, package, etc, all while doing my normal activities it requires to run a home.

AND all I want to do is surf blogs and get more ideas. And I want to DO them! Not sell things on Ebay. waaahhh!!

I suppose I better go get busy....

Excited for the Future!

I am excited for this fall & winter. Knowing I'm not pregnant, too, lifts my spirits ONLY in that I am glad I won't be sick. To be honest, I was kind of settling in to the fact that I *was* (self preservation technique; accepting, then embracing) pregnant and kind of gearing my mind towards that.

The past 5 days I have been obsessing about cleaning up my house - to the point where I'm like DANG! If I was pregnant I would definitely be NESTING. Hee hee!

When I say "cleaning" -- I don't mean cleaning in the sense of making it clean. What I mean is making it nicer, neater, more of a HOME than a house.

I have PLENTY, and I mean so so many areas that could definitely qualify for the "Room of Shame" award. LOL. I suppose that's too harsh of a word, shame, so we'll tag them as "Room of Embarrassed".

Sound better?

When I see my house with the eyes of someone else walking in who has not been here before...

Ouch. It's cringe time.

And since I don't especially like cringing at the thought of my home, I've finally decided to do something about it.

Six years ago (yes, SIX years, folks. How embarrassing!!!!) we got a nice tax refund and I was pregnant and due in 2 months - nesting, much? I hired my SIL's to paint my ENTIRE interior house. Seriously.

Girls room I painted a fun purple/pink.

Boys room, blue. Main living area - light olive green, some walls khaki (love this combo still!). Main bathroom half blue/half yellow.

My room - an absolutely ATROCIOUS (omg it is SO ugly) sage green with burgundy on the bottom.

Most of the colors I chose were nice, and would have LOOKED NICE if I had finished what I was planning! But then I had a baby, and you know how that goes. Four children ages 5 & under doesn't exactly make for a motivated mommy. So seriously, my walls in THREE rooms are still painted half on top and half on the bottom with no distinction in the middle. No wall border, moulding, or anything. And since there is nothing to tie those colors together, they look really strange. Especially my bedroom. But you know how it goes when you're super busy and trying to just EXIST and maintain; things that are not necessary to live, go unnoticed after a while.

My new interest is also partly due to the thought of the kids going back to school too - I will have four full timers in school this year. For the past TWO years in a row, I have had a Kinder which means I had to drive to the school 3x each day, 5 days a week, for 10 months. Fun, fun times. =)

I'll still have three littles at home each day, but just taking out that one interruption is going to be divine! You know how it is when you have to drop a project or cleaning or whatever, to pack all the kids up and leave. Even if it's just for 10-15 minutes, it really chops up your day and can leave you disoriented, out of your groove, and 9x out of 10, the project is left until the next day.

So back to the original reason why I am writing today.

When I get interested in something, I will research it to DEATH -- all my spare time is spent learning about it, how to do it, the results, different ideas, etc. Then I go after it with the tenacity of a bulldog and don't stop until I get the results I want.

I can totally see that in the weight loss/health arena......I've tweaked things and hundreds of hours training and learning until finally I've learned what *my* body responds to and have the blueprint that works for me. Now I don't really need to worry about it - I've gotten the results I wanted through much trial and error, blood, sweat, and discouragement. But I did it!(okay well mostly, still working on that baby tummy flab but it took me seven babies to get there which is let's see....63 months to get there so...)

I've been bummed for a very long time about my house, wishing I could make it look adorable and beautiful but I just never could figure out HOW.

I knew obviously that we don't have the money to go get an interior designer to tell me what to do, and also to BUY the things she would suggest, anyways. Like custom curtains? Pppphhtt! Yeah right. Plus, with 7 kids? Yikes! Don't want to spend mucho $$ anyways, just to have it get ruined.

(DS 2 got ahold of the green food coloring the other day. Woohoo! How FUN to SQUIRT it on the cream colored couch (suggestion: don't buy that color with kids no matter HOW pretty it is and HOW cheap it is) and on the CREAM colored carpet and on the wall. I have no idea how to get it out because when you wash it, it smears BIGtime!)

So....blogs! I LOVE LOVE LOVE blogs. You can find blogs for just about everything you are interested in. People who have "gone before you" so to speak, tried this or that. And there are always those who are willing to do tutorials with pictures, detailed instructions, etc. REAL people. Who make mistakes and tell you not to do that particular thing, lol! Not some pat article that makes it sound like they know everything.

My new obsession is DIY and interior design blogs. I especially love the before/after "parties" where everyone posts links to their current projects and rooms they have completed. Complete with how-to's! I love it!

I'll be posting some before/afters on here as I do them, and if this sticks (sometimes my obsessions don't, lol) then I might start a new blog about it.

I'm especially excited about moulding and battan walls. I have always loved the look, especially around the ceiling. Wished I had the money to hire a contractor to do it for me. Wished that DH would do it for me. But he has so much going on. I just don't know HOW to do it, it seems so complicated and you need like a special expensive saw, have to measure all these things, etc.

Then I saw this post from a blog I am already learning to love! WOW I could not contain my excitement and I can't WAIT to try it!!!! I'll let you know how it goes - my thought is to do the ceiling moulding in my living room, and in my bedroom too. I would have it in my whole house if I could!

The other thing I LOVE for the girls' room is the battan walls. I just love the look and this is totally something I can do.

My whole house needs repainted - I read that after 2 years you need to repaint because the color fades, etc. It's been 6 years for my house. But anyway, in the girls room I'm probably going to be doing a pink & brown theme. I'm thinking to paint the walls a softer pink than is in there now, (it's like true bubblegum pink now)with the white batten on the bottom. I am so stoked about painting - it's a relatively inexpensive way to really brighten and change a home!

My room is going to be an Italian/Old World theme with fresh sunny yellow walls - what a change that is going to be from the current colors! It's pretty dark in there right now. This is the picture I am getting color inspiration from - love the yellows, reds, pinks, greens, and the strong lines of the black iron.

Welcome, friends!

My story is all too familiar, I'm sure.

Except for the Mom of 7 kids part, hee hee! DH and I got married in 1997 and moved to this beautiful home in 1999 when we were 6 months pregnant with our very first baby, a girl. So fun!

Previous to living here, our first year of marriage was spent in a very rustic (very!) "chalet" with a loft where we slept - the bed we were given was a King and I still scratch my head as to how we even got it to fit in that loft, lol! It was on my parent's 37-acre Christmas tree farm.

So when we saw our current home, we were soooo thrilled that we qualified for a loan to buy something like that!! To us, it was absolutely gorgeous. To normal people, it probably just looked like a simple 8 year-old home painted plain white everywhere and 1100 square feet. It was perfect for us. Here is a peek - our front porch as it looked this summer (errr...before the potted flowers all died...waaah!)

But, I'm not much of a decorator. I have IDEAS in my head and a "look" that I love when I see it elsewhere, but to implement it into MY home only using thrift/garage sale finds and hand-me-downs, Craigslist finds, etc...is really overwhelming, daunting, and seemingly impossible.

So over the years I've made attempts. Some of them were pretty good attempts, actually! But I didn't really know anything. And I don't think blogs existed 11 years ago. So the results is kind of just lame sort of rooms - mostly trashed long ago and in very much need of repainting, fixing small holes made by doorknobs being slammed, the occasional car or sharp object being thrown onto the kitchen vinyl floor.

My bedroom, I have always wished for a sanctuary bedroom. A place where the children are not allowed unless it is a special time with Mom (or I'm in the bathroom and they've followed me in there cuz hey, where Mom is, is THE happenin' place, didn't you know?!! Hee hee). What I currently have is so awful you would probably cringe.

Isn't it amazing how we just live year after year in the most awful looking room? So much so, that we end up just never even seeing it. But wow, if you look at it through someone else's eyes, it really looks different.

My style is a mix, probably just like most people's! I love a mix of Old World Italian, Tuscan, Mediterranean. To me, this is one of the most beautiful homes ever:

Only I would infuse it with lots of flowers in reds, pinks, and yellows - as well as lots of greens. And lots of kids. =)

I long for a home where I am NOT EMBARRASSED to have someone use our master bathroom if someone is using the main bathroom. Or to nurse their baby in, or even sleep in while DH & I are away. You know?

I'm sure you know. =)

So this is my mission this next year. I have grand plans!!! Oh yes, I have grand plans. Stay tuned!