Improving The View

Hey y'all!!  Hope your weekend was grand!!  We had a family work weekend in the yard. It was fabulous!  My back and shoulders are aching today but the weather was glorious, and we got some outside chores done that were overdue.  I also decided to take this opportunity to improve my morning view. 

Each morning I sit at my kitchen table in front of my big picture window and drink my coffee. And, this is what I am greeted with each morning.

Granted it's not all bad.  And the large crop circle to the left is something I have learned to overlook - that's where our ghetto pool goes during the hot summer months.  

But that bare corner back there has been calling to me for a while now.

It's all shade - hence the lack of grass.  So, I decided to embrace it and plant some hostas, bordered by some monkey grass (as my hubby calls it).  

Simple, colorful, low maintenance, comes back year after year (with prayer) - what could be better. So, now I have a new and improved view for my morning coffee.  Ahhh.

I have decided to join The Nester and most likely hundreds of other bloggers in her 31days writing challenge again this year.  I will be working hard the next few days lining things out.  Hope you will join along on the journey!!  If you are new here and want an idea what this is all about - check out my series from last year.

September Happenings

Here we are, almost to the end of September. Where does the time go these days?? Although, I'm actually okay with it because it means I am one month closer to having my boy home for a few days from college.  I'm telling you, having him far away for college has been one of the hardest things I have had to do as a parent so far. But, he is loving it and doing well and that blesses my heart immensely!

September is always  a time for me to regroup from summer.  A time to get the house, and my family back on track and back into a healthy routine.  It's a good time. So, I thought I would share with you a little peak into what's been going on around him with our little family.

If you follow me on instagram you've seen some of these pics.

The temps have dipped down cooling enough here and there and I have happily taken advantage of that by pulling out the boots and sweaters!!

Cooler temps in the evenings also means more walks with my honey - precious quality time.

(I don't know what's with the feet pictures??)

Cooler temps also signals my craving for fall foods and snacks!  Candy corn is #1 in my book. And, a homemade apple pie just can't be beat!

Especially when you use grandma's pie plate ;).

I officially have another teenager in the house! Love him!!  Birthday's call for yummy birthday lunches, complete with old-time vanilla shakes :).

We've been watching this kiddo run cross-country for the first time this year and rockin' it!

Got to see this precious face thanks to the wonderful world of technology.  Things like this do make the distance a tad easier.

I am a perpetual piler.  I admit it.  So, sometimes I have to go through the piles...

Happiest of days was winning this amazing paint sprayer through an instagram contest held by 11 Magnolia Lane and Home Right.  It came in the mail this week and I have a long list of things waiting to be sprayed!!  

With the state of our world these days it seems hard to hold onto the joy.  I read this in my quiet time several days ago and it brought me such comfort.  I pray that we never forget that even though things may be unraveling all around us, God will hold us together if we will only hold onto Him.  

Praying you have a blessed weekend friends!! Thanks for joining me now and again in my frazzled mess of life!!

Fun things coming to the blog in the near future - stay tuned!

Refinished Furniture Take One

Hello there stranger!  Miss me?  Ya well I missed you!!  We have been busy around here with kiddo stuff, and I have been project working in between as much as I can attempting to finish up my long list for the kids rooms.  

In the midst of moving and swapping furniture out to make sure everyone had what they needed/wanted, I was faced with doing some furniture re-finishing.  Normally I would have slapped some paint on it and called it good.  But, of course my little one wanted brown - to go with his nature theme - of course.  I know I could've still slapped some paint on it, but I have an aversion with painting wood brown.  You see, in our first home, the previous owners had so kindly painted ALL the wood in the house chocolate brown....

So, I decided to try my hand at stripping and re-finishing a couple of pieces.  One was a headboard and foot board that we had stored in the attic.  It was my daughter's last and I had painted it to look like this.

Cute, but not really the little guy's style.  So, on the recommendation of many bloggers, I thought I would try this.

It worked very well, and there was no bad odor!! Fabulous!!  Little man even got in on the fun! I call that sweat equity!

Being this was my first time, and I had zero idea what I was doing, I think it turned out pretty well.

I love the rustic, imperfect look that we achieved. (Even if it was accidental.)  

The other piece that I tackled was a piece that I picked up for a steal of $10 at a garage sale.  We knew it was worth more than that when we hoisted it into the back of our truck (it was heavy).  

And of course, in non-blogger style, I took to it with the stripper before I got a before shot. :( But, you can see in these pics a bit of the lovely baby blue color they had painted it.  

This piece was amazing!!  I don't know what kind of wood this is but, it finished beautifully.

Each piece got a coat of stain and a coat of polyurethane.  You can see in the photo below from left to right - before, stain on, stain wiped off.

After finishing the second piece I realized that there were spots on the headboard where we scratched it up when we were scraping the paint off, and there were places where I don't think I got ALL of the original stain and poly off. But, you know what they say about hindsight, and like I said, I like the rustic finish!!

Have you ever re-finished a piece of furniture? Would you do it again?  I would!  It was not near as hard I thought it might be.  Time and patience is all that it needed!!

Linking up with Furniture Feature Friday / Frugal Friday / Fridays Unfolded / Link Party Palooza / That DIY Party / Share Your Creativity / Tutorials & Tips Link Party / Inspire Me Monday / Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop / One Project at a Time / Hit Me With Your Best Shot / Wow Us Wednesday / Work It Wednesday / Create It Thursday / Enchanting Inspiration Link Party