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Archives for April 2013

The View From My House

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The view from my house is cheery today! The clouds are staying at bay for a little while longer as I prepare for good friends coming from out of town.
 This will be a very busy few days for us. Pastor Ken Dyck (writer and founder of Freedom Session) and his wife Bonnie will be coming to speak at all four weekend services at our church, teaching our Freedom Session class on Sunday evening, and also presenting a conference called Discipling a Broken Harvest for Pastors and Church Leaders all day Tuesday. We get to have them here in our little guest cottage, share meals together and attend a lot of meetings!
My hubby and I have been very fortunate to have been involved as Directors in this awesome ministry for the past three years. We have seen so many lives dramatically changed as people become real with themselves and others and begin walking in freedom! Old things becoming new!
So, I’m off to make sure the cottage is all in order, shop for food, have my nails done (an important part of having house guests is to look as good as the house does), do some cooking ahead and then just enjoy our friends when they get here. 
The nice weather isn’t expected to hold but I expect that we will have a sunny time of  fellowship nonetheless.
      Blessings,
 
 

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Typography Transfer Project

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When one of my daughters was a little girl (the one who doesn’t like it when I tell her “naughty” stories) she had a very strong sense of her own identity. She proved this by writing her name everywhere and with any available “tool” at her disposal. . . a sharp rock to etch her name down the sides of our new Honda station wagon; red lipstick to leave her mark on her auntie’s baby blue carpeting; and a felt pen to leave her signature, three feet up from ground level, around the entire outside of the church we attended at the time. The problem was that by signing her name, she always gave herself away! Haha, LOVE that girl!

I have an appreciation for words and letters myself and enjoy the use of beautiful script in home decor . . . furniture, pillows, bedding, towels . . . it’s enough to make me want to start writing poetry on my walls right now! Before I get to the walls, though, I decided to start small. There are several methods for transferring letters onto walls or furniture and one of the best sources I’ve found is at The Graphics Fairy. Head over there to check out her 12 Easy Image Transfer Methods.

 
For my project I used only paper, a soft pencil, a ballpoint pen and a Sharpie. So, starting with the vintage ironing board that I previously blogged about, in “A Chalk Painted What?“, I set to work creating a phrase. For my mom, Monday was always washday and Tuesday was ironing day. Therefore . . .
 Below is the ironing board before, which I painted with homemade chalk paint (recipe here) before adding the lettering.

 I chose a font I liked (don’t ask me to remember what it was), enlarged it to the the desired size, and printed it out on my home printer. If you want really large letters, simply print one letter per page.

 The next step was to turn the letter (or word) over and use a soft lead pencil to fill in the back side of the printed letter. It is okay to go outside the lines here! 

 I then taped my words where I wanted them on the ironing board and began carefully tracing the outline of each letter with my ballpoint pen. This transferred the pencil markings I made in the previous step onto my board.

 After tracing every letter I pulled off the tape and used my Sharpie to fill the letters in. How easy is that?

 Whatcha think?
 I’m lovin’ my little ol’ ironing board 🙂

Anyone can create beautiful lettering with this method. Give it a try and let me know what you come up with. I love getting pictures of the projects you create from the tutorials I’ve shared with you. It makes me so happy 🙂

    Blessings,
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Goodwill Junk to French Laundry Sign

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I’ve been dreaming about redecorating my laundry room for quite awhile now and it is probably going to be quite awhile before I can do anything about changing what I have.  You see, my long narrow laundry room is also where I store my cleaning supplies, craft and sewing supplies, furniture refinishing supplies, games, seasonal decor, wrapping paper, and all sorts of other junk! Oh, and it is also where we kennel our three dogs when we are away from home. One big dog kennel sits under what should be a sewing counter and a large dog bed takes up the entire end of the room. It sits in front of the washing machine so when I do laundry I have to lean sideways to throw clothes into the washer, unless I want to walk around with dog fur on my socks.
There are so many beautiful laundry room remodels that I’ve seen in Blogland. Every time I see a new one I drool and I dream and I think to myself that when I don’t have to use my laundry room as a kennel anymore . . . THEN . . . I will create a beautiful space in which to do my laundry (by the way, don’t even think of telling me I should just get rid of the dogs). 

 One amazing remodel I came across recently was from Tricia at Little Cottage on The Pond, which you can view right

Tricia had a french laundry sign in her room (La Buanderie) that caught my eye and gave me the inspiration to make a sign from an old junk piece I’d picked up at Goodwill (hey, if I can’t have the whole room I can start with one small thing).
This is the piece I had sitting around (on the counter in my cluttered laundry room). It had been attached to something, maybe a mirror or a frame, at one time.
When I picked it up I didn’t know what I was going to do with it but COME ON, it was $1.99!
I barely finished reading Little Cottage’s post before I started painting with ASCP Old White chalk paint.
I wanted this sign to look old so I used my hair dryer after each coat to ruff it up a bit. The hair dryer method can also be used to get a crackle finish but I just wanted to give it a ruff texture for later sanding.
You can see in this picture that it looks thick and awful . . . just the look I was going for!
Next was the lettering. I used Tricia’s La Buanderie sign as a reference and practiced drawing it out on a piece of paper (several times) until I had the look I wanted.
Then I used a pencil and drew it on my painted wood.  There are several typography transfer methods that can be used if you aren’t comfortable drawing freehand, but I wasn’t going for perfection here.
Here it is after a little distressing with my sandpaper block,
 . . . and here are a few shots after applying dark wax.
Tada! It is finished.
So now to hang it in my laundry room. I won’t scare you by giving you a picture of the entire room. I CAN’T! I will give you a picture of the one wall that has begun accumulating some inspiration pieces. Here is my La Buanderie sign hung over a cross stitched picture that I found at a garage sale.
Here is an ironing board that I bought at one of our lovely local shops and blogged about in A Chalk Painted What???  In that post I shared several uses for vintage ironing boards. If you click HERE you’ll see it as a buffet, an entry hall table and a plant stand! Note: I’ll be sharing the typography method used here in a soon upcoming post.
I found this funny little clothes pin bag at a church garage sale.
I think my laundry room is beginning to take shape . . .
Ackkkk!  As long as you have tunnel vision!!!

I know, I said I wasn’t gonna scare you but I’m trying to be as authentic as I can! 

“Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.” Proverbs 4:27
Maybe a little out of context but I’m takin’ it!

So here is my inspiration wall. If I look past everything on the left, and everything on the right, and everything on the floor below, I can see a beautiful and peaceful laundry room beginning to reveal itself to me.
Dreaming of great things to come . . .

   Blessings,

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Prayer and Meditation Places

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Where do you go to escape when life gets a bit too crazy, when hard things happen, when all you seem to hear is bad news?  Where do you escape in the good times?
Do you? 

I am so incredibly busy with both real responsibilities and self-imposed busyness that at times I long to escape this whirlwind called life and go to a place where I can just BE STILL.  I have a hard time doing that in my own home. My eye will catch sight of something, the arrangement of items on a bookshelf for instance, and I will feel compelled to get up and fix it, move it, rearrange it, until it looks just right.
There is something wrong with that. Our homes should be our greatest places of rest, right? So what do you do?  Sometimes I just have to close my eyes to everything that is around me and enter into my own “happy place.”

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Come along with me and I’ll show you some places of escape I’ve added to my Pinterest board entitled:
“Prayer and Meditation Places” 
(an idea stolen from a speaker at a recent women’s conference).  

One of my favorite places to be is near the water.  
Floating in warm tropical waters would be an ideal place to talk with God.

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Or sitting at the end of a dock, bare toes skimming the surface of  cool waters, watching the changing sky as sunset draws near.

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The mountain setting of this riverside chapel would be a perfect place to pray. I can almost hear the dancing waters, happily singing praises to their Creator.

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 The water looks cold here but as I close my eyes I can imagine the soothing warmth of the sun upon my back . . . God’s touch.
 
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A time of prayer in this secret sheltered place would be nice. . .

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 . . . or in this Spring garden!

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 One of my mom’s favorite songs went like this, 
“I come to the garden alone 
while the dew is still on the roses
 And the voice I hear falling on my ear
 the Son of God discloses
 And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
 And He tells me I am his own . . .”

 Have a seat and listen . . .

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 A walk in the woods can bring one closer to God and you never know when you might be surprised with a reminder of His promise.

 

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I can just imagine how peaceful it would be to have my quiet time, while sipping my first cup of morning coffee, on the porch of this summer cabin.

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Oh how exhilarating to fly way up high, as close to God as I could get!

  But just as nice to sit with my best friend at dusk and be still.
 
 Places with beautiful architecture always make me think of God, who far surpasses our human efforts at creativity.

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 Sunshine bursting through the clouds reminds me that at any moment I might see Him face to face!

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As wonderful as all of these places would be for prayer and meditation, when it comes right down to it, I really don’t have to leave home after all.  My absolute favorite place to be still and listen to God speak to me is also the most comfortable place in my home. I need only close my eyes to the distractions around me, refocus my attention, be still and listen.

 
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Psalm 63:1-8

You, God, are my God,

earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you,

my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land

where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Two things God spoke to me in my quiet time today:
1. Persevere
           2. Be found in Me    

I hope you’ll take some time out to talk to God and ask him what he would like to say to you?

 Blessings,


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Guest Cottage Before & After

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I shared a few before and after photos of the little guest cottage that sits on our property when I did a post about myself and why I began blogging. If you‘re interested in reading that post (it is pretty amusing) you can link back right HERE!
Today I’m just focusing on the cottage remodel. What it looked like before, a few of the snags we ran into during and the end result. Note: When I say end result I don’t ever really mean it because every time I walk into our cottage I see more things I’d like to do, especially since I‘ve become hooked on blogging and found so many of you great bloggers who’ve inspired me with a plethora of new ideas!
So I’ll start off by saying,
 Come on in!!!
 I want to begin with a couple of  “afters” because the “befores” are so amazingly ugly that I’m afraid I’ll lose you along the way!  
Here she is, our sweet little guest cottage.
 This cottage was built in the 1940’s as a fishing cabin and has had two additions (by previous owners) over the years, bringing her to a grand size of approximately 400 square feet!  

This first “before” is actually not so bad because new white cabinets were added not too long before we bought the place. We were able to reuse the cabinets, but first we had to take them down and remove the funky square wood pieces that were secured in place with about a gazillion hard-to-remove nails. You’ll get a better view of that later. They made the whole place incredibly dark inside. Ugh!
 The ceiling over the original portion of the cottage is beadboard, which I love, so we were able to keep that as well and lighten it up with paint.
 So, here it is with the cabinets taken down and the square panels removed. I sort of liked the horizontal beadboard on the walls and would have tried to paint over it but it was installed so haphazardly (by another DIY-er) that it wasn’t really an option.
 When we started getting inside the walls we found two things: Carpenter ants (out came the exterminator that very day!) and some really scary wiring.  There were even areas with burn marks on the insulation. My husband, Dr. Professor, began reading electrician’s manuals trying to figure out how to rewire it himself. Thankfully we have friends that care about us enough that they led us to a good electrician who was nice enough to allow my hubby to work side-by-side with him, so he could learn all about it (learning new things is my hubby’s hobby).
 The ceilings in the first and second additions to the cottage were done with acoustical tiles. I would’ve loved to have added beadboard here but it wasn’t within our budget (especially after the electrician’s fees). A fresh coat of paint over the stained yellow tiles is already making a big difference in the picture below.
 Here we have the living room area where you can better see the wood squares. If you look over to the far left you can see where I actually took some blue paint to see how it would look if I just painted over them. It was a no-go! They were so warped and buckled that it would’ve looked just horrible.
 So off they came revealing more poorly done paneling which we ended up covering with beadboard panels.
 Here is a view of the bathroom before. The walls were sponge painted over paneling by the previous owner. In this picture I’ve begun filling gaps between the panels with wood putty, and texturing the upper half of the walls for painting. The bottom half will have beadboard panels.
 We were able to salvage the newer cabinet below, just replacing the top and the faucet.
 Another close-up of the square panels, taken in the tiny bedroom, in hopes that you’ll get the full effect. Just looking at it I can begin to smell the fragrance of burn coming from behind the walls! Can’t you?
 New insulation going in. I really enjoyed that part of the job as things began to look cleaner!
 This was a funny little nothing area off the bedroom. We decided to turn it into a closet/dressing area.
 So, enough of the “befores”. I’m excited to show you how we were able to turn this OLD cottage into something NEW and I’m kinda proud to tell you that most of the hours put into it were MY hours. Hubby worked on it when he wasn’t working his real job and we had a few things done by a good friend and handyman.  This was the first big DIY project I’ve ever done and it was extremely rewarding/hard/fun/exasperating.
Below is tiny peak at the kitchen with new hardware on the cabinets, new black laminate countertops and a faux tin tile backsplash.
 We put up sheetrock in the kitchen and I painted it a cheery yellow (hubby’s idea). The ceiling and trim are painted in a soft gray color.
 The not-so-old oven was still in good condition and ties in with the white cabinets, so we avoided spending money there, but the old black refrigerator (a cast-off from our main house) was gigantic. We replaced it with an apartment sized stainless steel fridge (on sale!).
 The beam between the original cottage and the first addition was covered in, what else, but funky square panels. We covered it with some beautiful rough boards and left the color natural . . .
   . . . to tie in with the new laminate flooring.
 Here are a couple views of the living room with the beadboard panels we installed.
 You can see the contrast more clearly here between the white walls and the gray trim and ceiling. I saw this color combination used in a coastal magazine and fell in love with it.
 Next is the completed bathroom. It still has the big hot water heater in the corner but I‘ve attempted to hide it with some old shutters. The limestone counter top and faucet are new.
 Almost everything that we bought new I found on sale. I love these mirrors that tilt so I was really happy when I came across this great buy.
 Below is the tiny bedroom. I found an iron trundle bed on Craigslist so that this room can be used as a sitting area during the day and, when you pop up the trundle, a queen-sized bed by night.
 There is a peek-a-boo view of the lake and Mount Rainier (on a rare clear day) from this room. Two windows make it nice and bright.
 Here is the closet/dressing area which I’ve put some storage pieces in for clothes. It can be closed off to hide any messiness.
 I’m going to zoom in a bit now to share some details with you. First off, every piece of furniture in the cottage was purchased used. This was a pine armoire I found on Craigslist. I painted it white with gray trim, added wood appliques and crystal knobs. It has an area to hang clothes in the top and drawers in the bottom.
 I repainted some antique chairs and recovered the seats with new fabric.
 All the rattan furniture is also from Craigslist. It was in really good condition so I left it natural for now and just recovered the cushions with Sunbrella fabric. I love how stain resistant this fabric is.
 Before, the cottage had a big, dirty, ugly gas heater. I love this cast iron Lopi stove.  It is both pretty and it heats the whole cottage.
 I found this old iron bed that someone had made into a bench and made some bright pillows from beach towel fabric to use in the bedroom.

 Hung above the bench is a painting that my mother-in-law did when she was just a teenager. She is 94 now! She told me I could repaint the frame. Are you kidding? I love it!
 Oh no! I lied. This was one piece of furniture that I bought new at Idea. I painted it turquoise and added a bar towel to the end.
I simply couldn’t resist buying these fun shell hangers.

 We used outdoor light fixtures from Hampton Bay on the inside of the cottage,
 and similar light fixtures on the outside, except in black. Are you ready to see the outside sitting porch?
 It’s a covered porch and it wraps around two sides of the cottage.
 This is a really old dining set (above) that I spray painted. The seats I recovered with some of the same fabric I used on the interior furniture.  I found the fun retro glider at Lowe’s (so inexpensive!) and I spray painted an old metal table that my daughter left behind when she fled the nest.
 In the summer I hang these gauzy fabric panels around the porch. They can be closed for privacy while one takes a little nap.
This is the view of the lake looking between our main house and the neighbors trees.
 It is such a peaceful place to just sit and relax.
The DIY work we did on our cottage isn’t perfect. It definitely has it’s rough spots (I call it quaintness), but we love having a guest cottage where our family and  friends can stay when they come to town. We also rent it out on a short-term basis only. We’ve had military people stay while awaiting base housing, medical professionals doing rotations at local hospitals and clinics, ministry people who just need a place to get away. Occasionally I slip up there myself just to look around and enjoy the lakeside cottage ambiance.  I love the feel so much that I’m beginning to pull together a few coastal touches for my own home that I’ll have on display for the summer season.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of Patti’s Lake Cottage. That is what I’m calling it for now until I come up with a name that feels just right. Ideas anyone?
       Blessings,
I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties:
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Thursday:
Friday:
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