Weekend Project

My son and I finally got the main bathroom painted today. I have put it off forever because, in my humble opinion, there is nothing worse than painting around all the trim in a bath. We chose a soft gray but, unfortunately, the gray had an underlying blue tint. Still, it is a very sophisticated color even though the photos don't show well because of the vanity lights.

It would be nice to change out the oak towel rack to something more modern, along with a new mirror and light fixture, but my duplex is a rental. So....we won't go that far.

Overall a very productive weekend. With a cleanly painted room, I am now inspired to paint the other bathroom. And God knows I have needed some inspiration!

Between cleaning, painting, and grocery shopping, I baked a new Pinterest recipe, cinnamon cake, to try out on the family. Looking forward to spending a Sunday afternoon with them all, especially the amazing Charlotte. On the menu is steamed carrots, stuffed pork chops, and roasted greenbeans. Since I don't cook everyday, my palate is looking forward to it. I cooked the sausage and onions for the stuffing after painting and stuffed the chops ahead of time so that I only have to shove them in the oven after church tomorrow.

At the end of the day, we got a little snow, which is a big deal here in South Carolina. Around dusk, we had quarter-sized flakes. I shamelessly turned on my Christmas lights on the back fence so we could watch it fall from the window.

I'm glad it didn't amount to much, though it was pretty. I still prefer warmer weather and I am looking forward to spring and getting the garden planted!

Never a Dull Moment

It's been surreal these last few weeks. Since losing my job, I have been at turns excited, frightened, and busy. It's also disconcerting to have my days wide open, sort of. It seems that when people know you are available, your dance card fills up pretty quick.

For someone who is usually disciplined, I can't seem to stick to a daily plan. Is this normal? Any hoo, I am just hopping from one project to the next. So here is what I have been up to in a schizophrenic sort of way:

I adore by brand new and tacky pink flamingos plucked straight off the shelf at Big K. Can we say, "Whoo-hoo!"

I can perform girl magic with a staple gun and some duct tape. I am also pretty handy with spray paint. Here are my etsy knock-off wine bottles. I just have one more to spray paint and then I am going to stencil them.

I also started stripping the dark Bombay stain from my coffee tables and end tables and here is where they stand now:

The goal is to sand them and try my hand at white washing. In the meantime, I finished spray painting my $7 chalkboard from Hobby Lobby for the dining room. 

While I have been trying to get my projects complete, I have been helping my daughter get her nursery ready for the new grandbaby (photos coming!) and it is the height of the growing season. Here's how my garden is growing:

And between all this there were two baby showers and a beach trip!

Unemployment is not for the lazy! I also have a mound of photos I am still organizing and scanning from Mom.

I got my first batch of photos scanned and mailed off to my cousin in New Mexico. Only thousands more to go, sigh! Then there is my brother's website that I promised I would try to integrate Word Press with, which I would be working on now except I can't get the passwords straight. What the heck was I thinking!

Oh yeah, then there is the job interview I went on, publishing the magazine, lunching and catching up with a lot of friends, and my trip to the Billy Graham library in Charlotte with my son and his girlfriend. It is no wonder I am crazy and unfocused. 

All of which brings me to this conclusion. I NEEDED these pink flamingos, yes I did. You see, now I can sip cocktails after dark and bask in a pink glow while slowing losing my middle-aged, I am most definitely in a crises, mind. Care to join me?

The Morning After

So before church this morning, I chose to give my oriental ginger lamp her overdue pedicure.  Here are the before and afters:

                                    Before

                                      Much Better!

I picked up the lamp shade yesterday for $5. Even using tape, I still had to clean up the base because I don't have precision painting skills, but it was an easy fix and it really is a gorgeous lamp. The little bit of black paint that seeped under the tape came off with no problem with a Q-tip and acetone. Here is a shot of the bleeds:

I also recovered one of the graphic lamp shades I purchased new but then didn't like. I had the idea to recover them for the candlestick lamps I picked up a few weeks ago to light my buffet, which I still have to repaint turquoise. My friend Doris suggested I use Mode Podge and it worked really well.  Here they are straight off the truck:

The fabric that I chose is a beachy Tommy Bahama knockoff that doesn't scream pink flamingos or stripped bass. I got it for the incredibly expensive price of 12 cents at a local thrift shop. (It was originally a quarter, but fabric was half off that day. Go me! BTW, I gave them a quarter anyway. It was for charity, silly!)  I like the pastel contrast with all of the dark wood in the dining room:

I think this sexy pair is going to look great on my new turquoise buffet. I am waiting for all of the glue to dry so I can trim the hems with a razor blade. When I turned on the lamp, you could see the uneven hem. Ugly! I will say that this is not a one-dimensional drum shade and it probably took me over an hour to glue it because the bottom of the shade is wider than the top of the shade. I will never intentionally recover a fabric shade with this type of dimension. But like it or not, I have one more to do.

 

I know that everyone wishes brass would go away but it will be back! Mauve, God forbid! The hinges on my dining set are brass and the mirror you see in the background is a true relic. I picked it up about 12 years ago at the Herald's Largest Yard Sale when I didn't even have a wall to hang a mirror on. I moved that baby everywhere I moved. Somethings are a classic and you just know it.

I am no designer but I hate for styles to dictate my home. I have made many mistakes trying to find my own style, particularly being too trendy, but I have learned that just because everyone else is yinging, you can still yang. So you can stop curling your lip at my brass. Before you can say, "in a skinny minute," you will be sitting in a house full of out-of-style brushed nickle wishing you listened to me. Get what you love and learn the art of mixing the classics with contemporary. Trust me, you will be a happier homemaker!

Someone Needs a Pedi!

This pretty little girl needs a pedicure. She was my $3 yard sailing find and, although I think she is gorgeous, she needs some serious grooming. So in addition to hunting for a bar stool to go with my new desk, I have some sanding and painting work to do today. Have a good Saturday everyone!

"New" Old Desk

One of my projects on the truck from last week's yard sale take was this butcher block table I found for $10. I have been looking for a computer desk and this was narrow enough to go in the master bedroom but needed the Lori touch:

So I got to sanding, painting, and polying;

Excuse the mess people but this is my workroom, otherwise known as the spare bedroom with no bed! Any hoo, here she is completed.  I have to find a chair YESTERDAY. Because of its height, I can't sit at the computer and type until I find a tall chair or bar stool. Ahem, any of you Rock Thrillians who have a spare, call me!

 

Nice, huh? Just hate all the wires dangling! This is actually a very large wall, and I have my eye on a painting and a print, I just have not been able to pry the money out of my wallet yet, so for now, no gorgeous staging! I'm happy though, for $10 and some paint, it's a steal! Next project is repainting the base of the gorgeous ginger lamp I picked up for $3.

Inspiration

I am so going to make this lamp!  Has anyone tried working with rope and glue before?  My decoupaging was a disaster!

Free = Sweet!

Hmm...she's a little bit country but she's as sturdy as a cedar tree and built to last.  I was a little unsure of the plaid but the colors are not screaming and a) she is green like my walls; b) according to original owner never sat in but once; and c) she's free! Red is one of my favorite colors and was the third color I was going to introduce to my room.

I love to mix styles but this may present a challenge.  I have decided to put up a privacy fence in my backyard between my duplex unit and my neighbor.  You know what they say, fences make for good neighbors! I really need to create an oasis.  I called the powers that be to come mark the lines.  Here's what I came home to:

I think I may be in over my head.  Gee, is it green=sewer and orange=electric, no no, orange=communication lines.  Yellow=dang! I forgot.  Seriously, I wrote it all down.  Everyone has come by except for the first place I called--the power company. I really hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew.  You know when you start a project and you're pretty confident you can pull it off.  I was doing okay until I realized I couldn't even lift the 80-pound bags of Quickcrete off the truck.  The young man who put it in the truck didn't even break a sweat, grimace, or almost drop the whole bag!