The thrill of the hunt

This is my back porch. This photo was taken about two years ago.. Since then many things have come and gone, the most unusual thing being the near life-size mechanical pony "Smokey" that came to live with us when Mom and Dad moved last year.
Whatever lands out there, whatever cast-off from other parts of the house.. somehow they just work and it gets "assembled into the BORG" as my husband would say.
Well I don't do as much hunting and gathering or random thrift shopping as I did in past years. And I have learned to start "editing" what I keep and live with. Part of that is just maturing, I think. If you dropped by right now, the porch would not be this organized.. It is recovering from my last decorating endeavor - being a catch-all for the things I moved out of the kitchen during the cabinet repaint. But this picture makes me happy. It reminds me never to question life's little surprises. Part of being a woman is finding a way to live creatively.
On Monday, I spent the day with my Mom. We finally had time to have a real conversation now that the kids have returned to school. We bolted out to the nearest anitique mall to shop for things for the "hoffice". We were on a tight schedule, had a huge wish list and wanted to hit as many of our old haunts as we could fit into one day. It was like going on vacation, I tell you. We enjoyed ourselves, each other's company and all the treasures along the way. She found lampshades for a chandelier, a copper pot for her kitchen, two chairs for Dad's office, a buffet and I found a metal rack to display our scarves on at our next craft fair and a few magazines. But mostly we just enjoyed the hunt.

What's cookin'?

I'm almost done!

How long has it been since I started this project? It seems like forever when your kitchen is torn up, but I think it took me a week and a half by the time I had doors on the cabinets and hardware on the drawers.

All white.. Yeah!
The reupholstered bench that started the whole thing, once you make over one thing in a room, the whole room cries out for attention. This bench was great, but made my cabinets look tired.
The upper parts of the cabinets were already white, I just finished all the lower cabinets. You can see there is still work to be done on the side and underneath the cabinets, the pantry is not done. But one more weekend and I will have it!
This is a close up of the paint application: Clean with Liquid Sander, apply 1 coat Primer, paint 2 coats base color, apply 1 coat antiquing glaze, sand edges, finish with 1 coat poly sealer, spray paint hinges with hammered metal finish.

What's cookin'?

Day One:Katybug showed up today to start painting my kitchen cabinets. This project was started quite some time ago and only now have I felt well enough to finish what I started. It helps that Mom volunteered to help me paint.
My porch is now covered in drawers and cabinet fronts all primed and ready for paint. We took off hardware and emptied drawers and stacked things precariously.

This is where it all began and before I started painting.. two years ago. We remodeled the kitchen cabinets and installed granite countertops when we purchased our home and before moving in. Our ceilings are ten feet high on the main level, and after taking down some decorative beams, I was able to reconfigure the existing cabinets into a new formation and stack them to the ceiling and add crown molding.
Currently: I painted all the upper cabinets antique white and installed lighting inside. This picture below is after moving the cabinets, but before painting and tile work. We also installed plate racks to fill in the gaps that moving the cabinets created.
After painting them, they looked very nice. I loved the transformation, but at about this time I started to have trouble with my foot and thought I might leave the lower cabinets unpainted.
The time has finally come, though, to paint the lower cabinets. Today was the day!
Right now it looks like chaos run amuck. And again it is a sandwich night. Looking at these pictures does allow me to see that we have progressed, even if at a painfully slow pace. Funny, husband did not know when he left for work that I was going to tear the living heck out of the joint and slap some primer around. His response? "Oh, good, another project". End of discussion.

Day Two: I have painted the first coat of off white base paint and it already looks so much better. The fact is that I have been living in denial so long, I didn't know how awful this kitchen looked until I started to paint it! I am guessing I will work through the weekend before I have the project completed. More updates with the finished results.

How Exciting!

This post could get complicated, but the simplest version.. Once upon a time I decorated the home of a wonderful gentleman here in Wichita.. it was my first REAL job that wasn't for family or friends, but a REAL client. As my health would have it, he was my last REAL client. After completing his home, I had to retire from decorating.
But LOOK! His home was featured in Wichita Magazine! http://www.wichitacitymag.com/Wichita/May-2008/Where-a-Blue-Blooded-Scotsman-Calls-Home/

This is what the room looked like when I took the job. He called it a Mary Kay house.
This is during the interum while we waited for the curtains I designed to be sewn. My mother was my assistant and my friend Lori did the faux painting on the columns. Together, Lori and I silver-leafed the ceiling over this beautiful contemporary dining set he purchased. Altogether, we re-purposed, refurnished, re-painted, re-accessorized and updated every room in his home, except the kitchen. The baby grand piano shown in the before picture is now in a study and surrounded by Tony's art.

How exciting. My only real job, and I made it into a magazine (local.. but, I'll take it!). Awesome, fun!

Showin' off a little

It's no secret that I love the Goodwill, thrift stores, garage sales- any form of resale shopping.
This week was the mother load. My friend Amy and I went to Burlington Coat Factory for their clearance sale.. usually not my first stop for clothing, but was assured clearance was the bomb.. $0.99 to $9.99 - practically thrift prices. We were shopping for a friend who gave Amy $100.00 to pick out anything Amy thought she could use, wear or needed. HELLO. Love to shop with other people's money. We found lots, this gal is a size 2/Small. But I was also shopping for myself and my daughter. Found a cart full and had good luck with fits. Spent too much, but was worth the money for how much I got! The table above came into my possession on Tuesday when I went to the Goodwill with Mom. She was looking for a shelf. I was not looking for anything. I was poor from shopping at Burlington. BUT, this great table was there and it had four great chairs. Its an oval refractory table that extends to 10 feet. The chairs were in good shape. It was $100.00 with the chairs. UGH. I didn't have $100.00. There was a lady standing nearby watching us wiggle and bounce and tug on everything to see what the condition was. She shared that there was a KFDI customer appreciation 1/2 price coupon that you could use on your entire purchase. Enough said. See my new $50.00 desk? In the kitchen are the "free" chairs.

Room with a view

I have been all over this house in the past four years trying to carve out a spot for an office. I think I have already said all this.. it is a constant hitch in my giddy-up. I am fortunate that I have extra space in our home to use for hobbies, crafts and sewing, but the rooms are on the second floor. No matter how inviting I have tried to make them, I am always in alone in my crafting endeavors. Nice, right? Except that I am obsessed with whatever flavor of the month my craft might be and if I am in the zone, I can be gone for evenings at a time and never see my kids or hubby. And, no matter how organized my craft room is, it isn't an office. I have lost many an envelope, bill, important school notice in trying to train myself and family to transport mail to my "office".
Our family room is oddly shaped, basically in an L and has two large arched entrance ways, so there is limited wall space. This little corner between one of the doorways and the fireplace has never had a real purpose, it has housed a table and chairs for gaming, been lined with bookshelves and been a cozy reading nook, been a catch-all for furniture that doesn't fit elsewhere, and been the location of the Christmas tree for many years past. Enough already!
Momma needs an office! So I finally got the nerve to make it more officy and less inviting for oddball decorating schemes I come up with in the middle of the night.

I purchased attractive filing supplies, kept things coordinated, tried not to freak out the husband with the endless odds and ends I love to decorate with in my hobby room. It has taken me four years, and five household locations to carve this little piece of real-estate out for myself and my laptop. If you have the ability to carve out a small office "space", not real office even, I highly recommend it. There is work yet to be done, cords to hide, finishing touches and the like, but I am excited to be doing that instead of still wishing I had an office in the first place. While I still have to do major projets elsewhere, this set up has been such a blessing, the kids draw and play games at my desk (I do share), it's great for homework or writing thank-you cards to Grandma. I have been so much more efficient, on time with my bills and been able to keep a decent calendar, keep track of projects I am working on, even do filing while we watch a movie or favorite TV show. I am productive and can still BE WITH MY FAMILY. I am looking at them now, they look like they might be wondering if I am going to the grocery store anytime soon. Does that laptop bake cookies?

My pretty pony

This is Smokey. He was a Christmas gift from Santa to my sister and I when I was about five or six and Jen was three or four. Dad is a CPA, he has all sorts of clients from different backgrounds and businesses. Smokey belonged to one of his clients who substituted payment with trade. That happened often when I was growing up. Dad would trade goods with clients if they were having trouble with cash flow. At five, Smokey appearing at Christmas delivered by Santa, that was not inconceivable, it was not within my realm of imagination either. His appearance in the basement was nothing short of miraculous. I was already a horse lover, a pony rider. Mom was a cowgirl at heart and owned several horses. This was one I could ride without help, without permission, in any weather. Dad had fixed the quarter deposit box so that you could flip the switch and ride without putting in coins. Smokey has two speeds, he goes fast if you pull back on the reins (contradictory to a real pony). There has never been a time when he wasn't set up in my mom's home. Many, many years of play and imagination and dreaming took place on his leather saddle. I remember wishing we could put him on a track and motorize him like a train and ride around the basement. It seemed within reason to wish for my Dad to build. No matter what came or went, Smokey remained. Grand kids played wildly like my sister and I did. Smokey didn't fit in Mom and Dad's new house. But he has more rides to give, more dreams to fulfill. He is waiting on my porch for the next cowgirl or cowboy to bring him to life and ride in the rodeo. Imagination is all it takes.

Seedling

Several years ago I was invited to join another decorator to meet with his client who was opening a gourmet foods shop. Then, the shop was empty, dirty, a shell with no name. Together we planned, brainstormed and dreamed. We dusted, we painted, we hammered, we sawed, we cried, we cursed wildly. We screamed with joy and laughed like old fast friends. My friend had another job to move on to and I stayed at the little shop, working with Glenda and her partner.
Months went by, inventory came, shoppers came, rent came, but success was a little harder to find. Glenda was a fantastic cook, her brother a chef, her parents retired successful restaurateurs. It was clear we could not sell olive oil all day and make rent, Glenda was going to have to cook. The decorating took another turn, and again we were recreating, rethinking, re-purposing. During these tribulations, Glenda was setting up for events, catering and I helped her decorate the tables to display her delicious food.
She found success, Felissimo blossomed. The doors opened to happy customers, hungry souls who loved to sit here in the comfort we created. The atmosphere, the food, the people, she built a great thing. I got to watch people react to it all. It was a marvelous time for me. I grew from a person of some talent curious about working full time as a decorator to someone who could say, I am a decorator, yes, I can do this, here's my card. We planted seeds together. We grew our businesses together, we grew a friendship together, I grew up a little. When I get sad, I look at pictures and books for some joy, sometimes I visit a happy blogger to see what's happy with them. Felissimo means happiness, literally in another language. These pictures are felissimo to me. This time is precious and I love that it is frozen here for me to visit.

Felissimo closed two years ago. I was sad, I went through it all with Glenda, even taking apart our little piece of happiness. But it was glorious while it lasted. Thank you Glenda for big thinking, big living, big loving and delicious food and even better memories. I love you.

Little things that matter

I cleaned in the attic today.. all day. I walked by my bulletin board a million times sorting fabric, sorting donations, organizing shelves.
My bulletin board is covered with pictures, fabric, ribbon, magazine clippings and odds and ends that don't really belong anywhere, but that I can't resist looking at.
Below it is an antique metal trundle bed that I have piled with pillows, but mostly serves as a catch-all for stuff I need to fold, iron or put away.
I got to look at it all in great detail today as I sorted. It's like my constantly evolving scrapbook.
This is KiKi. He was NO HELP at all. We played with all the socks that didn't have mates. He likes them warm from the dryer the VERY BEST!

My Space

A few weeks ago I was side tracked by a few hankies. Cleaning my work space to accommodate a dozen new swatches of cute was a necessity. I had torn things up to decorate the window at Twist. So in my cleaning frenzy, I decided to paint the walls in the adjoining room that I had been using as storage. It's a finished attic room with a skylight that sits over our garage. Formerly occupied by my daughter, it was painted ORANGE. There were boxes, totes, piles, stacks and rejects from all over the house haunting this great space. I had big dreams for this room when we bought this house. Now that everyone else has used and abused it, I get to clean it and redecorate it. I have been all over this house with my creative space, trying to carve out a place that is mine. This is my last move. I am excited about repainting and re carpeting this sweet room. I love it that no one else will bother with it. It has the best light of all of the rooms in our home. It's a diamond in the rough. Now that I am feeling better and after a long absence from decorating, I get to enjoy my hobbies again. I feel so rejuvenated, so alive, so grateful, so blessed. I have been beat up and bruised like this little room, but my little light keeps shining, just like the sunshine that seeps in through the skylight. I can't wait to start living again. Thank you to everyone who has put up with me along this journey and who will still claim me as friend or family. I have not been a pretty picture, sometimes a bad example.
I have much to be thankful for. I am most thankful to those I have been working with this past year who have reached out to me with encouragement and acceptance, know how important you are, how much you are appreciated. I feel like I needed the makeover on the inside and they stood by me through the uglies.

Hanky Panky

Several times a week, I work from my dad's office doing data entry. I take my computer, without it I am useless there. Most of my jobs require that I take my computer with me. Yet on Thursday I walked straight out the door with only a cup of coffee in my hand. No tools of the trade. Fortunately, his office is not far from my home, and I realized my error quickly enough to turn around. It was snowing, I really didn't want to get out of the car. My husband was off work at home and had scraped the windshield and warmed up the car for me. But to go on without my computer was ridiculous. Turing back to retrieve it, also a quandary. I might not want to leave again. To settle my inner battle, I pulled into the parking lot of the Goodwill, conveniently halfway to work and halfway home. I called the boss to report my tardy, make sure I was truly needed at work today. I confessed my location and stated I would be further late, I must go in. The mannequin in the window was wearing a "Lucky Charms" t-shirt. I was feeling lucky. My mother and I have long believed we have "retail" angels. Little angels above who direct us to the best goodies, just at the best time, just when we are in need of such an item. More than luck, a forceful guidance. I was doubtful at first, but have become tuned in to this guidance. I have witnessed my mother describe a seemingly unattainable item she wanted to purchase, to every detail, often giving her wished purchase price, then the item appears on one of our shopping adventures, placed right in our path. She is lucky, she is almost never disappointed in her retail wishing. What might be waiting for me today?
My workroom at home tells the story that I NEED nothing, that I have more than I can manage.
But in the linen aisle of the Goodwill, I find treasures that I can't pass up. Someone like me had a treasure of sweet hankies they were parting with, each one lovelier than the last. I loaded them into the cart and knew I had left my computer at home for a reason.
Happily I left to retrieve my computer and finished my day's work. I rushed home to clean my workspace so that I could enjoy my new goodies. I had not felt like cleaning it for several projects in a row and it was overdue. I had found this lavender linen spray at the Dollar Tree a few weeks ago and thought I had the perfect opportunity to try it out. It made ironing the little hankies a fun experience. My room was clean, the hankies pressed and everything smelled so pretty.
Sometimes it just takes a little inspiration to get us moving, for me all the inspiration needed was a stack of handkerchiefs for the mere price of $1.49 (and half a day's lost wages). I used them today in a window display and was so happy to have them on hand. Unexpected joy.

Wish Jar

I love when I meet other women who are as oddly obsessed with little treasures as I am. I feel healthy, I feel normal, I feel understood and sense an immediate connection. Then I just want to share. Show me yours now! I have loved this aspect of the internet. I love that when I go to look at other blogs and websites they are full of other busy bees like myself. This jar belongs to my friend Lori's neighbor. His mother was a teacher and each time she found a little bit or a little piece, she put it in this jar on her desk. After she retired, she kept the jar and when friends would bring their kids by to visit or eventually when grandkids came along, they would shake the jar, dump it out, oogle it all and put it back. Things got added over time. It is a fantastic time capsule, a collage of lives and wishes and dreams. When she showed it to me I couldn't wait to start my own jar. Goodbye junk drawer, oh, no waste bin, you'll have no more of my goodies. To the wish jar. I have plans for this stuff. There is a grandchild many, many years down the road that will someday dump out my jar and wonder at it's treasures and ask about its contents. This is a story in the making.