Spring – Old Things New

What I Learned in April

May 8, 2017 by Patti 15 Comments

Let me start off by saying that the biggest thing I learned in April is that I’ve become very, VERY lazy about carrying my “real” camera with me and I’ve relied on my iPhone way too much. While this is good for Instagram, it is not so good for blog posts 🙁

Caution: Poor quality pictures ahead!!!

It has been another busy month, filled with ups and downs and everything in-between. Isn’t that just how life is?

Early in the month I had the chance to attend the Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference in California. It was a huge opportunity for which I’m extremely grateful and I owe a debt of gratitude to my husband for making it happen.

These conferences aren’t cheap by any means and the fact that Mr. OTN was willing to spend his hard earned money to send me caused me to realize (I learned), once again, that my husband believes in me and supports this writing journey of mine. For better or for worse 😉

The setting of the conference in the California Redwoods was amazing, but so was the chance to spend time with my beautiful friends: Debbie Kitterman and Michelle Bengtson – Las Tres Amigas!

I learned, (though I already knew) how much I miss the company of my writer friends when we are apart.

I sent a portion of my book manuscript ahead for review and went in a little fearful of what they might say about my writing. After meeting with the reviewers I was very encouraged and felt ready to push forward with greater intensity. After thinking about their suggestions I also realized that I need to change up my story quite a bit.

I was encouraged to use my life experience when writing this story, but not to think about it as our story (hubs and mine), as doing so will keep me from allowing my characters to step outside of my life own experience. I’ve learned that this has freed me to become much more creative in my writing.

I am having so much fun!

We were invited for Easter dinner to the home of Greenville friends, Mark & Leslie Hoyt. This is the most fun-loving couple I know!

Here’s Leslie after testing the cheesecake. LOL!

In the interest of saving a friendship I’ll share with you a more flattering picture of this lovely lady. I’ve learned through experience that it is always best to share the most flattering pictures of your friends.

I’ve learned, during my third Spring here in SC, that April is my favorite month in the Upstate. All of the trees are so green and the flowers are at their peak. Here are a few pictures from my yard.

Another thing I’ve learned is that I never grow tired of spending time in downtown Greenville and it is also most beautiful this time of year. Hubs and I took an entire Saturday and spent it downtown at Fall’s Park on the Reedy River. Writing, napping, and snapping photos with my iPhone.

After a day in the park and dinner at Pomegranate – a local restaurant with Fabulous Mediterranean cuisine – we went to see our local hockey team, the Swamp Rabbits, play game 5 in the playoffs. I learned that sitting iceside can be a scary place to be!

I accomplished quite a bit of writing during the month of April. I’m writing in my dining room now, which is nice because I can spread out all my books and papers and leave them there (until I have company – then I stash them under the table). I’ve learned that the only problem with writing here – well, anywhere in my house really – is that I get distracted with decorating and wanting to change things up for the seasons.

Case in point: As my eyes wandered away from my computer they were drawn to this plain frame. Very soon it was bedecked with Spring flowers.

April included a Celebration of Life for me. I learned quite a lot in the months leading up to this celebration and one day I will write about it here.

Our month ended with a rockin’ concert by The Newsboys. This is Michael Tait, their lead singer, pouring his everything out on the stage. I learned, that this is one band that does not disappoint 😉

That almost wraps up my April except for:

We’ve had a few dogs in our lives and in the past two years both of our Beagles have passed on. We still have our ten-year-old Boxador Sasha, but things have been a little quiet around here with all us seniors! In April we learned that a dog we’ve been waiting for would soon be ours.

You’ll have to wait until next month for the full reveal of our new CharliGirl!

Until then, blessings y’all 😉

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:

IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, TheDedicatedHouse, Dwellings, ProjectInspired, InspireMeMonday, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, CelebrateYourStory, Making Your Home Sing Mondays, What Joy is Mine/Monday Musings, Darling Downs Diaries, The Art of Homemaking, SmallWonder, MomentsOfHope, Glimpses, SittingAmongFriends

Tuesday:

TalkOfTheTown, HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, CoastalCharm, CedarHillFarmhouse,TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles, Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story

Wednesday:

SavvySouthernStyle, Posed Perfection, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Word Filled Wednesdays, ChristianBloggerLinkup, Mom’s Morning Coffee, Women with Intention, Coffee for Your Heart, MessyMarriage, ThreeWordWednesday

Thursday:

ShareYourStyle, ImpartingGrace, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson,MyRepurposedLife , ADelightsomeLife, KatherinesCorner, I Choose Joy, Thought Provoking Thursday, SincerelyPaulas, ThankfulThursdays, ThoughtfulThursday, Tune-inThursday

Friday:

FrenchCountryCottage, TheCharmOfHome, RootedInThyme, TheDedicatedHouseAnythingBlueFriday, ShabbyliciousFriday, Sweet Inspiration, Faith’nFriends, Missional Women Faith Filled Fridays, Dance With JesusFreshMarketFriday

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents, SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet

It’s Perfect Weather for a Sleeping Porch

April 30, 2017 by Patti 58 Comments

Has there ever been a time in your life when you were absolutely sure about something but you turned out to be wrong? Maybe it was the lunch date you were supposed have with someone, only you got there a week early. Maybe it was the directions to a place you know and have been before, but this time you got hopelessly lost. Maybe it was as simple as laying your glasses down in a safe place and then, when they go missing, blaming someone else in the house for moving them! Nope they were on your head all along. UGH!!!

Mr. OTN and I are quite alike in believing that we are right ~~all~~ most of the time so it often comes as a surprise when one or the other of us is proven wrong. I say often because it seems the older we get, the more often it becomes.

Now I have a new motto:

What does all that have to do with a Sleeping Porch? Well, I won’t go into details, or tell you who was in the wrong. Suffice it to say that I’m thankful that Amazon accepts returns of BIG items and hubby is thankful that I have a sense of humor 😉

Sometimes the best choice is to laugh! Click To Tweet

Today, since the weather is feeling a bit like Summer, I’m finally sharing pictures of our Sleeping Porch. We actually started using it last Summer but I never got around to posting about it, other than on Instagram. I’ll tell ya’, you are missing out on a lot of the day-to-day excitement of my life (tee hee) if you aren’t following along on IG.

Here is a picture of our Screened Porch where we spend much of our time – Spring, Summer, and Fall.

We swapped out our love seat, and two chairs with ottomans for daybeds. This created more floor space in the room and didn’t take away any seating. What it did do was give Mr. OTN and I each our own spot to take a nap.

NOTE: I’ve included links at the end of this post to full enclosure mattress and pillow covers, similar to those I used on my porch as protection against moisture.

I recovered the old throw pillows we already had in this room with thrift store and drop cloth fabrics.

I really lucked out as our local Habitat store had huge bins of fabric samples, large enough to make pillow covers.

For back support I ordered large wedges of foam online and made washable drop cloth covers for them.

I purchased bed pillows to use in front of the bolsters and made envelope pillow covers for those too. Here is link to post I did last year that tells how to make Envelope Pillows.

They are super easy to do!

I covered the beds in fun quilts I found on sale at Stein Mart (they have the best prices on bedding and you can make purchases online) and added dust ruffles that I made from drop cloths. The bed springs are high from the ground (15″) so I can hide storage bins beneath the beds. I keep outdoor pillows and cushions here when we’re going to have a long stretch of rainy weather.

Here are a few other details of our screened porch/sleeping porch. We found this old farm table when we first moved to SC and I added a drop cloth skirt around all four sides. It hides dining supplies and other fun stuff under it’s skirt 😉

The dining table chairs have pillows to match those on the beds.

Maybe you remember these drop cloth curtains (Pollen Proofing the Screened Porch) from last year. I also did a tutorial for Quick, Easy, & Affordable Drapery Tiebacks.

We’ve hung large candles on the porch for those nights when we like to sit in the dark watching the lightening flash. We get a lot of thunder storms here in the Summer.

Since our porch is a warm weather room it has a Coastal theme going on.

Right outside the screened porch is a fountain by which we can lull ourselves to sleep. 😉

Thanks for coming along on the Sleeping Porch tour. I hope to have plenty of guests this year that will be adventurous enough to have slumber parties in the woods with me.

But for now, I do believe it’s time for a Sunday afternoon nap.

Blessings friends,

The following are links to total enclosure mattress and pillow protectors, similar to those that I purchased for my Screened Porch. A good idea for humid climates. They are not only 100% waterproof but also bed bug proof and hypoallergenic. 🙂

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:

Tuesday:

TalkOfTheTown, HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, CoastalCharm, CedarHillFarmhouse, TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles, Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story

Wednesday:

Thursday:

ShareYourStyle, ImpartingGrace, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson, MyRepurposedLife , ADelightsomeLife, KatherinesCorner, I Choose Joy, Thought Provoking Thursday, SincerelyPaulas, ThankfulThursdays, ThoughtfulThursday, Tune-inThursday

Friday:

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents, SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet

Spring Decorating Home Tour

April 6, 2017 by Patti 65 Comments

What do you like most about Spring decorating? I like that it means the cold weather is behind us (fingers crossed) but I also love all the lovely muted colors of Spring. This is really the only time of year that I use peaches and pinks in my home decor, but I think I may need to use these colors more . . . without hubby noticing of course. 😉

My home has some other added color as I recently repainted every room on the main floor. I can’t wait to share it with you.

…

Modern Glam Living Room

February 28, 2017 by Patti 9 Comments

Spring begins in February in South Carolina. At least it has this year with record high temperatures, lots of sunny days, and Spring flowers early to bloom. We can only hope there isn’t a stretch of cold weather in March to ruin our peach crop.

Recently I was contacted by Douglas Elliman’s Florida Real Estate team to share a Style Board highlighting the color of the year, GREENERY. That was an easy fit for me because I love the color green and the first thing I did after taking down my Winter decor was to start adding touches of it around my home.

I’ll share more pictures of that later, but first I want to share the Style Board I put together highlighting a Modern Glam Living Room in greens, golds, and creams. It isn’t at all like the style I have in my own home but I find it quite fun to play around with different styles on Polyvore.

Here it is:

What do you think of my Modern Glam Living Room? I think I could move right in . . . as long as I didn’t have a dog . . . or a husband . . . or red dirt on my own shoes from tramping around the garden.

At the end of this post I’ll share the links to the items I posted to my style board. I don’t make a single penny from any sales on these sites but I thought it would be interesting to show you how much this room would actually cost to put together. Can you guess what the most expensive item is? Second most expensive? You might be surprised!

Anyhoo, here are some photographs of the ways I’ve used Greenery to usher Spring into our den.

I’ve used a lot of boxwood and moss balls because I love the look of green in nature the best. I also have some new pillow covers that I got from a company called Yapatkwa. It is a Belgian tapestry store and their pillow covers are heirloom quality. No, I’m not receiving a commission there either but I like what they have to offer.

Now for the prices and the links to the items in my Hollywood Glam Living Room:

Modern Glam Living Room by patricia-a-krank

Sphere light
$4,009 – popmap.com

Sheep skin rug
$300 – very.co.uk

HiEnd Accents faux fur throw
$100 – jcpenney.com

Inspirational throw pillow
$90 – plaidfox.com

Faux fur throw pillow
$18 – smile.amazon.com

LSA International gold home decor
$29 – amara.com

NDI leaf home decor
$298 – ndi.com

Lumbar throw pillow
$195 – chairish.com

Green couch
$2795 – onekingslane.com

Regency coffee table
$3790 – kathykuohome.com

Safavieh furniture
$218 – overstock.com

Rustic wood furniture
$1263 – kathykuohome.com

Did you guess the most expensive item correctly? Yikes! I’m pretty sure I could find a knockoff for a fraction of the price. My favorite items are the sphere light fixtures . . . but $4009? I can’t even!

So now that I’ve had my Greenery up for a couple of weeks I’m itching to pull down the Easter decor and start adding some pastels into the mix. How is the weather where you are? Are you decorating for Spring or Easter yet? Time is flying by!

Blessings,

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:

Tuesday:

TalkOfTheTown, HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, CoastalCharm, CedarHillFarmhouse, TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles, Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story

Wednesday:

Thursday:

ShareYourStyle, ImpartingGrace, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson, MyRepurposedLife , ADelightsomeLife, KatherinesCorner, I Choose Joy, Thought Provoking Thursday, SincerelyPaulas, ThankfulThursdays, ThoughtfulThursday Tune-inThursday

Friday:

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents, SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet

French Courtyard on a Backyard Deck

April 25, 2016 by Patti 54 Comments

This is my favorite time of year here in the South. The greens are greener, the flowers are brilliant(er), and the weather is perfect for morning coffee out on the deck.

Last year we didn’t do anything with our deck space. We hadn’t yet been here a year and we were still tackling a lot of indoor projects as well as adding several plantings to the front yard.

In talking about what we would do in the backyard we thought about creating a courtyard with pavers, a retaining wall for seating, a water feature, and the addition of a fire pit or fireplace.

We even paid a designer to draw up a plan. It was AH-mazing!

As it turned out, if we were to implement the plan it would cost thousands of dollars and, though a nice feature it wouldn’t pay for itself in resale. So for now, we decided to work at adding favorite plantings to the yard a little bit at a time and foregoing the fancy fire pit. To be honest, with the amount of time we spend on our screened porch (our favorite room) I’m not sure how much we would even use it.

Here is how the idea of creating the feeling of a French Courtyard on our deck began. A couple of weeks ago we had breakfast with our friends Mark and Leslie and afterwards we wandered through a few stores. While we were shopping Leslie picked up the crocheted tablecloth you see here. The round one. She decided she really didn’t need it so I quickly grabbed it myself and told her it would be perfect for the little table on the deck and that we would have coffee there together.

Mr. OTN laughed and said it would never happen and that is when I set out to prove him wrong.

Since then I’ve spray painted the patio set, sewed chair covers and pillows, stenciled the pillows, pulled pots onto the deck, some new and some from different areas of the yard, planted shrubs and flowers, washed the deck, and finally, set about arranging and rearranging everything to get just the look I was going for.

Getting one’s hands in the dirt is such a joy when the temperatures are in the 70’s,

and with the warmer weather it seems like within just a matter of days my new plantings have begun to spread and grow. 🙂

My little boxwoods already need a haircut.

We bought a conical variegated boxwood and a couple of regular boxwoods, and tucked smaller plants into the pots around them.

I also added a couple of hanging baskets.

Last week the little patio fountain that hubby purchased locally was delivered. You see, once I started working my plan he got into the idea himself. 😉

The dogs think our new fountain is the best water bowl ever!

This shows the yard beyond the deck, which is an area of grass bordered by trees. The next step of our backyard plan will involve plantings along the edge of the woods to add more color there as well. Shade lovers such as azaleas and hydrangeas.

Finally, what would a French Courtyard be without a bit of lavender? I have a secret for you. It’s from Hobby Lobby! Since lavender likes a lot more sun than my yard provides I put several faux lavender sprigs into a cement planter and tucked some moss around the stems. Even close up people think that it’s real.

Hubby and I have been spending a lot of time in our little “courtyard” and one day soon Leslie and I will have our coffee here and laugh over what she started by showing me the pretty tablecloth!

Morning quiet time here among the songbirds is a time to be treasured. It is cozy and peaceful, and just what we need to make ourselves slow down from our very busy lives.

So that’s my French Courtyard. We shall see how it fares through the hot humid summer. It will certainly be a test of which plants work best in this location. Trial and error. That’s my motto. Or one of them. I have a lot of mottos. LOL!

Oh how I wish I could invite y’all over to share this sweet space with me. I know that our time together would be simply marvelous!

Blessings to you dear friends,

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:

IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, TheDedicatedHouse, Dwellings, ProjectInspired, InspireMeMonday, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, CelebrateYourStory

Making Your Home Sing Mondays, The Beauty in His Grip What Joy is Mine/Monday Musings, Darling Downs Diaries, The Art of Homemaking

Tuesday:

HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, Elizabeth&Co, CoastalCharm, CozyLittleHouse, NaptimeCreations, CedarHillFarmhouse, KatheWithAnE,
VMG206, TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles, Dream.Create.Inspire.Link, Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky,Time Warp Wife, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story

Wednesday:

SavvySouthernStyle, TheBlissfulBee, Posed Perfection, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Word Filled Wednesdays, A Little R & R, Whole Hearted Home, Mom’s Morning Coffee, Women with Intention, Coffee for Your Heart

Thursday:

ShareYourStyle, ImpartingGrace, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson, MyRepurposedLife, FromMyFrontPorchToYours, ADelightsomeLife, AKAWeekendRetreat, ThoughtsOfHomeOnThursday, MakingBrokenBeautiful

KatherinesCorner, PrettyPreppyParty, YourTurnToShine, Serving Joyfully/Thriving Thursdays, The Deliberate Mom/Shine Blog Hop, I Choose Joy, Live Free Thursday, Thought Provoking Thursday

Friday:

FrenchCountryCottage, TheCharmOfHome, RootedInThyme, TheDedicatedHouseAnythingBlueFriday,

ShabbyliciousFriday, Sweet Inspiration,

Blessing Counters,Missional Women Faith Filled Fridays, Grace & Truth Linkup, Grace&TruthSharingRedemption’sStories, Dance With Jesus

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents, SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet