One Shot, and an FYI

Guess what Folks! I've joined the world of Facebook. :-) I'm going to keep up with the One Shot, but I think for simplicity I'll put it up there, so if you want to see that, and more daily things I'm up to, friend me (Kyle N Gretchen Phillips) & PM me that you're from the Blog.


Here's a shot for today: Apeture

One Shot: Cover

Artwork provided by Snickerdoodle.

One Shot: Daily Scene

Sugar Muffin is enjoying her piano lessons! I need to make her a sticker practice chart. . .

One Shot: A Treasure

I took a lot of photos this week, and this isn't one of them. I actually took it last summer, but I wanted to post it today because:

 

(A. I did the post processing this week.

(B. This gorgeous girl is my sister.

(C. She just had her birthday.

Happy Birthday Birdie!

Celebrating Love

Last year we started doing a little activity before Valentines Day, and we had so much fun with it, I think it might become a yearly tradition. (These pictures are from last year, thus the trim tape and not-yet-painted walls.)

I wanted to do something to teach the kids about God's definition of love, so I made a poster version of 1 Corinthians 13, and a bunch of hearts. For the month of February, whenever we notice someone else doing something loving (as defined below), we give them a heart to put on our little tree.

The kids LOVE hanging the hearts, so they get quite inspired! It's also a great way to praise them for good things they do, and get's them to acknowledge good in each other. Love can be shown in so many ways that, once you're on the lookout, it's not hard to find something to reward, even for the little ones.

If they start pointing out something good they did (yes, it happens) then I remind them they are supposed to look for something another person has done. But I try to be diligent to watch myself, so I can give out hearts and make sure everyone gets some.

It's a very fun way to celebrate Valentines Day, add some seasonal décor, and encourage lots of love in your home.

One Shot: Angled

One Shot: Natural Light

I came in while Baby was napping and found her little feet crossed . . .

One Shot: Complimentary

A Discovery

In my second year of homeschooling, I've discovered something. I don't blog well during the school year. By the end of my work day (usually 9:00pm), I just don't want to do another thing that feels like work! And that's okay, because I'm not a blogger. Maybe someday I'll be a blogger, but for now, I've got other roles that take first place.


That said, I am hoping to post a little more. I finally got a new, really good camera, and my BFFF (That's best friend from forever, we met when we were six.) introduced me to a fun photo challenge to get me using my camera. So I'm going to try to use the prompts and do a photo a week. If it ends up being something I'm comfortable sharing in public, I'll put it up here.


So here is the one for this week. Can you guess the theme?

 

Yep, self-portrait. That was an easy one! And here's how I did it.

Someday I'll figure out my self timer setting. Or something.

Now in Bloom

Garden zinnias, wild vines, and our own pretty Posy.

I know this isn't my kids blog, but I couldn't share Asher's story and then not put up any pictures of Posy. Besides, with pictures like this, who could resist? I mean, really!

It's been an interesting pregnancy, with an odd mix of emotions: still missing our little boy so much, but so excited about our little girl.

One thing that I didn't expect however was a total absence of fear. Fear an anxiety are such strong temptations for Mommies, and I'm as likely to give in as anyone else. But Kyle and I really haven't had any concerns about Posy, which I know is simply a gift from God! I am thankful.

So now she is here. She's such a good, sweet little baby, so alert and attuned to those around her! We are all smitten, and I am treasuring and enjoying every moment. 

Yes, even the fussy ones.

 P.S. There won't be anything up here on the blog for a couple weeks. After I'm back on my feet, I'm hoping to have some nursery pictures to post!

Dining Room Dresser Wall - it's in!

 

Ta da! The dresser is painted, the plates are up, and I love how it turned out! A quick recap of the how:

I mixed the dresser paint with a bonding agent, since I didn't want the chippy look. My house is old enough that it needs newer looking furnishings to get the old/new balance that I like. The paint went on like a breeze - minimal sanding, no priming, it was great!

 I brought the dresser in as soon as it had "cured" - that alone made the room feel more complete! Then I started playing with my paper templates.

I laid out the plates on the floor and took a picture to check the color balance, and stared at everything for a few days to make sure there was nothing about it that bothered me.

Then it was up with the plates! Again, I went with something balanced but not symmetrical, to keep the feel more relaxed/modern than traditional, even though hanging plates on the wall is a very traditional idea.

 Here's how they interact with my floor cloth and the future curtain fabric.

I was a little bit concerned that everything would look too dinky, since it's such a large wall, but the dresser really anchors everything.

 I'll be excited to get the curtains up, but for now, this really makes the room feel more settled, and less "we just moved in" ish.

And now, since I love a good before and after . . .

Before:

And after:

Summer Cheer

So, I said that one reason I enjoy playing with flowers is because of my Mom. The other is my Husband. After taking the flower arranging class as a teenager, I was fired up and ready to go. There was only one problem. A severe lack of flowers.

We didn't have a whole lot of flowers in the yard, and the ones we did have were not of the pick-and-use variety. I had no idea how to condition them, or even that any conditioning was needed! I wasn't enough of a green thumb to grow what I really needed, so after making a tiny arrangement or two and watching them wilt by evening, I moved on to other things.

Then, a decade or so later, I married a Green-thumb. I didn't realize when we got married the depth of of Kyle's enjoyment of growing things, but it wasn't long after the wedding when he started to bring his produce into the house. And it wasn't just fruits and vegetables!

Every year more and more flowers found their way into the yard. Suddenly, I had material to work with, and a husband who was happy to do the growing for me, and to encourage and admire my handiwork. I had picked up some tips over the years about how to treat different kinds of stems, so I had everything I needed to really enjoy flower arranging as a hobby.

I love to see pretty living things on the table and around the house, and Kyle loves to see me taking an interest in his "playing in the dirt". Together, I think we make some pretty (and tasty) stuff!

Zinnias, Queen Anne's Lace, Lemon Basil, Sedum, Black Eyed Susan, immature Pears and Pretty Weeds.

A Household Equasion

With Baby Girl set to arrive any time now, nesting projects have been in full swing. Most of them have been of the needed-but-mundane variety. (Yes! Another casserole in the freezer! Would you like to see it? No, I thought not.) But a couple of them are of the fun, blog-worthy variety, and this is one of those.

So, what do you get when you add:

1 dresser from my Grandmother filled with fond memories, plus . . .

this paint, plus . . 

this plate collection, on . . .

This wall?

I don't know either. But I'm working on getting all the pieces together, and hopefully it will add up to something fun and cute when I'm done.

Oh, and about that wall. It now looks more like this:

I had the dining room primed all winter, but my kind and wonderful Father painted it for me last time he was down - in ONE DAY. Do you have any idea how many nap times that would have taken me? (Or how many household necessities would have been neglected while I worked on it?) SO wonderful! Up until now it has housed a collection of artwork by the kids and myself, just to keep it from looking so big and bare. We believe it's important to support local artists. ;-)

I have a plan for all that artwork, too. But that will be another project for another time. Right now I'm hoping to get this project done before the little one comes. I'll keep you posted!

From My Mom

I have been having so much fun with flowers this year, and it's all because of two of my favorite people: my Husband and my Mom.

My Mother, among the many wonderful things she did for her children, always encouraged and facilitated the Trying of New Things. If we had an interest, she was ready to help us pursue it. And she loved to introduce us to new experiences!

(Peonies, iris, daisies, forget-me-not, something that looks like lacecap hydrangea, and vine-y weeds, all gathered from the yard while visiting my Mom.)

I don't know if I ever would have thought of flower arranging as something I could do, had my Mom not set up a class for myself and some friends. It was just a one time class when I was about 13, very basic and the flowers were nothing fancy - daisy, carnations, ferns.

 But it was so fun and satisfying, and it moved flower arranging from the mental category of "something florists do" to "something I can do." Isn't it funny, how we categorize things in our minds like that?

Thanks, Mom, for opening up so many possibilities (and for letting me play with your flowers)!

The Kitchen: After-ish

So, we're not quite up to "After" in the kitchen. "After" implies finished, right? But while there are still a fair number of little projects to go, everything is useable, brighter, and far removed from the Very Scary Between! Happy sigh.

You may (or may not) have notice that the cabinet handles changed from oil rubbled bronze to silver. Well, that was the DIY that didn't. Someone on the web mentioned spray painting her hardware, and I decided to give it a try since I wanted silver handles to go with my lighten-and-brighten goals. It doesn't look bad in pictures, thankfully, but in person they look very fake, feel a little funny, and the silver is slowly chipping off. DIY fail. But for $12 it was worth a try. It will do until I get fed up and save up enough to replace them.

On to happier topics. Look at those lights! I LOVE them. They don't take up visual space or endanger our foreheads, and the light goes up, down and all around! It makes such a difference, especially at night.

I also love this curtain fabric! It was the first purchase I made for the house after we closed, because it was just so perfect. (Good thing too, I can't find it anywhere now!)  I like to have a mix of old and new. The rest of the house has history oozing from it's walls and woodwork and will probably get more modern fabrics and furnishings, but the kitchen already feels pretty modern. So I loved the stylized, almost colonial feel of the flower pattern, to bring in some "old".

But I also liked the modern color scheme. It ties in perfectly with the counter top, the teal flowers give me a starting point for the future island color, and it adds a hit of cheery yellow. I made the faux roman shade from the tutorial found here.

Ahh, those walls! So fresh, so smooth, so clean! The textured wallpaper I purchased for them, thinking that would be the only way to cover all the lumpy wallpaper remnants, turned out to be too thin and, ahem, cheap to use. (Hey, at least I didn't loose much moolah on it!) But the ladies who were going to hang it for me encouraged us to go ahead and smooth out the walls with some drywall mud and paint them. Since this was the look I really wanted, I was thrilled when my Hubby made it happen! (The mudding, not the painting. I tackled the paint with help from a wonderful friend.)

In the interests of honesty, I will hereby disclose that flowering greenery is a perfectly normal thing to see in our kitchen. Spotlessly clean and clutter free counters are not.

Projects still to be tackled include:

• putting handles on the drawers
• new silver handles for all the cabinets
• putting up some baseboard
• putting trim on the back of the island to cover the cabinet join
• painting the island
• getting stools for the island

We're getting there, but for now, everything is much brighter, cleaner and Me-er (I know, I know, it's not a word. But it should be.) Most importantly, the kitchen functions beautifully no matter how many cooks and helpers we have at work!

One more set of pictures, just for comparison. The Before:

And the After. 

Well . .  the After-ish. ;-)