n

My Summer Home Tour!

by Lisa on June 5, 2013

Welcome to my home!  A special hello to y’all visiting from Marianne at Songbird!

STOH-button
I am so, so, so glad you stopped by for my tour da casa.  Life here in the Texas Hill Country is sweet and simple.  Nothing fancy, but we love every bit of it!

Right inside the front door is the living room. 

We built this room ourselves on a wing and a prayer since we had no idea what we were doing.  Even though the room is small, I worked and worked until I found an arrangement that would give all 11 of us a place to sit comfortably.

I used to wish for an entryway, but then I decided that the porch could be my entryway.  Making the most of what I have is my favorite pastime. Below you can see a chair I painted and recovered, a clock I made from an abandoned bird cage stand and some lockers I painted to use for the kids’ school books.

All of our furniture is from flea markets and hand-me-downs.  I take what I find and remake it into what fits our home.  I’ll paint anything….like our piano!

Many of the small details in my home are from my etsy shop, Shop 24.

Just through the living room is the dining room/school room.

The black table is for eating and the white table is where we homeschool with the added benefit of having plenty of extra table space when we have guests for dinner…which is pretty often.

The long buffet behind the black table serves two purposes.  The kids can use it as a desk during the day and we can serve food from it at mealtime.  I try to get as many uses out of one thing as I can.

My big chalkboard wall is constantly changing.  I can draw anything on it depending on what mood I’m in….and I can be moody.  So it changes often.

Even though we don’t do sports (you wouldn’t want to see me do sports, I run like a chicken) I used a sports theme for the summer.  It makes us want to get outside and play!

The other side of the room is the school space.

I use the giant white board for school and to write a new Bible verse every day that we try to memorize.  I also sometimes write lists or chores on the board.  You can read more about how I keep my homeschool area organized!

Around the corner from the school area is our little study room.

I enclosed part of the porch to create this teeny room.  But don’t measure its usefulness by its size….we couldn’t do without it!  The kids can go in there to read or work on their computer or do some quiet school work.  They can close the door and concentrate.  Perfect!

And the letters on the wall are not supposed to be a word.  I’m just slowly gathering all of the kids’ first initials as I see them at flea markets.  It takes time to find nine vintage letters.

On the other side of the dining room is our kitchen.  We built the kitchen all by ourselves on a shoestring budget.  Two ranges, two microwaves, two fridges….it’s perfect for a large family!

In the picture below you can see my kids’ lunch area, my stained glass that came from an old church and my beige chalkboard wall (next to the electric range) where we keep a running grocery list.  Gotta stay organized!

If you go out the kitchen door you step onto a deck that leads to our pool.

It’s a simple, above ground pool.  My son and I built the deck and we built our own outdoor furniture so I can sit right there and work on the blog while the kids swim.

I love sitting out there.  What we lack in expensive luxury, we make up for in peace and tranquility.

Before we go back inside let’s walk around to the front of the house where we have an outdoor eating area, the “Pavilion.”  I found the old sign at a church bazaar and hung it there and the name stuck.  I put the eating area in the front because that’s where the evening shade is, and I am a shade kind of girl.  We eat out there as much as possible.

We had our 25th anniversary party out there a couple of years ago and it was a beautiful evening!

The rest of the house is bedrooms and bathrooms.  With 9 kids in a small house I have to get creative about bedroom spaces.  My 19 year old daughter sleeps in an enclosed porch area.  We made it to also serve as a guest room.

This girl is a bit of a minimalist.  All she wants is a cozy place to sit and some beach things around her and she’s happy.

Two of my boys share a little western themed room complete with horse in the barn that I painted myself. 

And two of my teen girls live in a finished out attic.

Even though they can only stand up in the middle, they are so happy to have their own space that they don’t care one bit.  And every single thing in this room was free except the wood we bought to build the shelves.  We found the headboards in someone’s trash and just painted them!

Below the girls’ attic bedroom is the master bedroom.  It’s my oasis on a hard day of homeschooling, laundry and painting furniture (which I am usually doing all at the same time).

I do most of my work in this room.  I sit in my recliner and work online after all of the kids are in bed.

My bathroom is another place I like to hide occasionally.

For some reason the kids don’t think to look for me there, so when I need a few minutes to myself I sneak in the bathroom with a book and a Diet Dr Pepper.

That’s it for my summer home tour.  It’s been great having you visit and I hope you’ll come back again soon!

Be sure to check out the other amazing home tours!  Next is Angie at The Country Chic Cottage for another look at a house in the country!

DAY 1 (June 3rd)

2 – The Nester @ Nesting Place
3 – Mandi @ Vintage Revivals
5 – Ashley @ The Handmade Home
6 – Kristin @ The Hunted Interior

- – - – -

DAY 2 (June 4th)

1 – Beckie @ Infarrantly Creative
3 – Chris @ Just a Girl
4 – Brooke @ All Things Thrifty
5 – Karen @ The Graphics Fairy
6 – Emily @ Decor Chick
7 – Roeshel @ DIY Show Off

- – - – -

DAY 3 (June 5th)

1 – Melissa @ The Inspired Room
2 – Wendy @ The Shabby Nest
3 – Donna @ Funky Junk Interior
4 – Marianne @ Songbird
7 – Brittany@ PrettyHandyGirl

- – - – -

DAY 4 (June 6th)

1- Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality
2- Traci @ Beneath My Heart
3-Stacy @ Not Just a Housewife
4-Jen @ Jennifer Rizzo
5-Lindsay @ Makely Home
6-Sandra @ Sawdust Girl

DAY 5 (June 7th) – Link Party at The Shabby Creek Cottage

And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook!

Living Room Color Reveal!

by Lisa on March 28, 2013

We’ve been sprucing up the place for the past couple of weeks.  Painting, dusting and furniture rearranging has everything feeling spiffy.

There’s nothing new but it still feels fresh.  I like that we did it with just a few cans of paint and a little bit of wood.  It took me a few tries, but I found a gray that I really, really like.  It’s Silver Song from Benjamin Moore.  What I love is it’s not blue or orange, but just gray.  I think the combination of gray walls and white trim is so elegant and lovely.  Not to mention clean walls….nothing says elegance like a lack of scratch marks and crayon rubbings.

Here’s what you see walking in the front door….welcome to our home.

The furniture used to create more of a long rectangle.  I thought a square would feel more open, so after we painted I only moved the bigger pieces back in and played with the arrangement.  This is much roomier!

I also like the TV tucked behind the rock wall.  It can be seen from every seat, but it’s not the centerpiece of the room.

If you look up you can see the rail we painted with a soft, blue-green.  Up there is the new “Lego room”.

I’m crazy about this little footstool I made last year with an old metal crate.

I left the hand-painted Bible verse on the wall behind the white couch, but I decided to add planks around it to add a detail that would give the room character.  They’re just 1x4s we nailed to the wall.  You can see it here in the corner.

Of course, my beautiful piano is still there.  I just moved it to the other side of the room.

Also, I raised the curtains from the top of the window to the ceiling.  It made a huge difference and I wonder why I didn’t do it a long time ago.

I know, the wall color looks like the same color it was before.  But it’s not.  It was green, but it was always hard to photograph.  So you’ll just have to believe me.

Next week I’ll show you the new and improved dining room.

Thanks for stopping by!

Follow me on Facebook to keep up with what’s happening at our house!

Linking to: Imparting Grace, Tater Tots and Jello, Transformation Thursday

My Book Bunting

by Lisa on January 17, 2012

While the bunting craze has been all over blogland, it hasn’t hit me as something I was interested in trying.  It’s cute and cheerful, but I’m not really into cute and I would never be described as cheerful.  I think of it the same way I think of those bootie shoes that are so hot.  They look really cute on other people, but definitely not me.

But the theme this week on  One Month To Win It is “Bunting & Banners.”  As a judge I have to come up with a sample project, which was hard since it seems like it’s all been done before.  But then a bolt of lightening or something must have struck me because I got an idea and I LOVE it.  Love with a capitol L-O-V-E.

That empty frame over my couch (you know, the one I change all of the time and it drives my family crazy) was ready for a new filler, so I made a bunting with old books.  Then I thought it would be perfect for ♥ Valentine’s Day ♥ and I added some love words.

So sweet, so loving, so easy and completely FREE!

I drilled holes in the corners of the books with my drill.  It took like, 10 seconds.

Then I used baling wire from our hay bales to string the books together and to hold them open.  And of course, my beloved Cricut cut the letters.

I asked all of the children if any of them knew what “je t’aime” means.  No one knew.  Who teaches these kids anyway?

Oh well, now I have some bunting.  But you still won’t catch me dead in those bootie shoes.

One change at a time is all I can handle.

Linking to:
shabby creek cottage

 

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special
 

 

Pin It

How I Painted a Scripture on My Wall

by Lisa on September 23, 2011

OK y’all, despite the fact that I am terrible at writing tutorials, I am going to try to write one for you.  But if, when you finish reading this, you still have no idea how to paint words on your wall, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I first have to say that I did, in fact, use a stencil.  I originally was going to use my own handwriting since it’s not too terrible, but I taped a piece of wrapping paper (backwards) to the wall and tried it.  Bad.  Bad idea.  Thank God for His wisdom in giving people the idea for stencils because my wall would look like a giant mess if I used my own handwriting.  Not to mention that I am terrible at getting things straight.  I am great at looking at other people’s things and straightening them, but my own….not so much.

I used a level to get the painter’s tape straight.  Because I am a tightwad, I used the same two strips of painter’s tape all the way down.  I just kept moving them each time I would finish the line above.

I just eyeballed the stencil letters.  They aren’t perfectly spaced.  But I didn’t want perfect….I wanted a handpainted look.

If you notice, I have something in my mouth in every picture.  I used two brushes and held one in my mouth while I used the other one.  It’s a talent I developed from my natural love of eating.

This is what the letters looked like after I stenciled them (ignore the top line and look at the bottom three lines of words).

Then I went in with a small, thin line brush and connected the letters and closed up the open spots in each letter.  I also gave the ends of the words a little flourish.

That brush work made all of the difference!

For the big letters inside of the frame, I used my true love Cricut to make stencils with card stock.  Since they would only be used once, the card stock held up just fine.

Then I rubbed in a little bit of brown paint on each letter to give them some age and character.  I only did this inside the frame, I wanted a softer look on the rest of the wall.

It was a really easy project.  Just a bit time consuming.

And there you have it.  For those of you that have told me you want to try it….I hope you will.  It was one of those mindless projects that was easy to do even with the kids coming in and out and playing and talking to me.  I had them taking turns reading the verse to me, two words at a time so I didn’t have to get up and down.  While they read we’d talk about the verse and what it means.

I used a stencil by Plaid that I got at the craft store and those little jars of stencil paste.  I liked the paste so much better than using paint because it didn’t bleed under the stencil and it dried very slowly so I could wipe off the places I messed up (or would have if, of course, I ever messed up anything).  Also, if you really do decide to try this, I  suggest staggering the beginnings of the lines on the left.  They will naturally stagger on the right, depending on where each word ends, so if you stagger them on the left also it will keep you from having to do very complicated mathematical equations.

Happy painting!

I’d be blessed if you’d follow me on Facebook!

A New Summer Theme on a Shoestring

by Lisa on May 27, 2011

I am so excited to show my my new el-cheapo summer decorations.

For the past few years I used shells and did a beach thing, but I was tired of it.  So I did what I usually do, I obsessed over it for a while then I got an idea and obsessed even more.

I decided to use a sports theme for my summer decor.  I know, I know.  We’re not exactly sports people.  We don’t run, we don’t own skateboards, we don’t even toss balls around in the yard.  But this is not your typical sports theme, no autographed jerseys framed on the walls.  It’s vintage, or at least old and otherwise useless.

I rummaged for weeks in every thrift store within 100 miles and hunted and dug for just the right things.  I was looking for items that would bring an energy to the rooms but cost next to nothing.  Summer, outdoor fun was the message.  Once I found what I wanted,  I took it all out in the backyard and spray painted it with various shades of white.

Of course I changed out what was in the frame over the green couch, like I do every season.  I used a piece of beadboard that was left from our front porch redo a few years back and painted it with some leftover paint from my bathroom.  By drilling a few holes I was able to wire the rackets to the board.

On the coffee table I painted a wire basket that a friend gave me.  It was bright yellow, but with a bit of spray paint, it was perfect to hold my freshly painted golf balls, baseballs and badminton birdies.

Yep, that’s a bowling ball on the shelf below the glass.  I painted it white and wrapped twine around it.

One of my favorite things is the oval frame I found at the flea market and painted white.  It holds a fun picture of my three little boys being silly.  What says summer fun more than playing outside?  You can’t tell from my bad photography, but this frame is large, it’s a 16″ x 20″.  It’s hanging over the other couch in the room.

And now you can see what I did with all of the old trophies I found…..I took them all apart and re-assembled them.  Then I did my thing with spray paint and voila!  They are all white and summery.

On my piano I used my true love, the Cricut, to cut out a bicycle for the platter.  Love it!

Doesn’t it make you want to stop everything and go ride a bike?

Another trophy….

I used a loving cup to hold a little plant.

Now we’re ready for the summer.  The living room has a renewed energy and it’s bright and cheery.

I’ve got a lot more to show you in the dining room/school room.  But I don’t want to overwhelm you.  You might get confused and think I actually move around and do physical activity and I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.  I’m a slug at heart.

 

To see more, check out the summer 2012 edition of Splendidly Homemade!

I’m linking to these great parties:

Funky Junk's Sat Nite Special

UndertheTableandDreaming

The Girl Creative


Transformation Thursday

A Little Knick Knack

Somewhat Simple

Framing Spring

by Lisa on February 26, 2011

I spent today doing one of my favorite things.  No, not eating Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups until I made myself sick, although that is high on my list.  I worked on the living room.  I cleaned, I decorated, I re-hung pictures.  I even washed the couch cushions although that was no fun at all.  And by the way, the kids are no longer allowed to eat in the living room.

It was time to freshen up the frame over my green couch.  Last summer I had clocks in it.

In the fall I changed it to silhouettes, thanks to my friend Kellie.

And now I’ve changed it again for the spring.

We cut a piece of luann to fit the frame then covered it in batting and white burlap.  Then we used, you guessed it, my true love, the Cricut to cut out flowers.

I stapled the center of the flowers with my Fascinater, one of the holdovers from my old scrapbook days.   Patience helped me brown the edges with a stamp pad.

I stapled the flowers onto the board with a staple gun and then we curled up the edges a little.

It’s so calm and relaxing…like a spa retreat without the massage or the mud bath.

Two little butterflies drift by….ahhh…..

I am still not sure if I want to keep the burlap ribbon over the frame.  I like the way the color brings out the butterflies, but it’s a little too cutsie.  What do you think?

I still want to recover that green couch.  Someday, when our no-spending pledge is over I’m doin’ it!  But now that the cushions have been washed and ironed, it’s easier to wait.  I’d rather not go into how disgusting it was because that would distract from this relaxing flower-frame post.

The good news is that the frame project was completely free…yippee!  Tomorrow I’ll show you what I did with the pots my friend gave me for my birthday.  You will LOVE it.

Linking to Centsational Girl

 

I Finally Finished My Chairs

by Lisa on November 5, 2010

I finally finished my living room chairs.

I told you about the super-cute fabric.  My plan was to finish them right away, but life interrupted.

Then one day I had a burst of creativity and no place to vent it….so I finished the chairs.

I got these chairs at Target a couple of years ago.  This is what they looked like before-before:

Over the summer I painted them and added a skirt:

But I didn’t really like them.  They needed something else.  After much Pooh-like thinking and messing around, this is how they look now:

What do you think?  Better?  Worse?  Who cares about my chairs?  What’s my problem and why do I keep changing everything?  What?

I think they look more sophisticated.  I guess buying your fabric at a whoop-de-do furniture store instead of Walmart has its benefits.

I can’t figure out why the couch looks so GREEN in these pictures.  It just isn’t this green in person.

Maybe I should recover it.  Maybe I should…..

Oh dear, I keep getting carried away.

(but I do think the couch would look better in off-white, don’t you?)

Funky Junk Interiors

Photobucket

The Girl Creative Party Blog

Hello, My Name is Lisa and I am a Furniture Moveaholic

by Lisa on October 10, 2010

Please don’t get sick of me.  I know I am weird about changing the furniture, but I have to ask your opinions.

Remember before?

I really, really thought the living room was getting too heavily frilly and fussy.  I am not sure how it happened since that look is really not my style.  So I decided to swap the couches.  The green one was on the other side of the room so I moved it under the silhouettes (or I should say, I had my minions do it).

Plus I am almost finished with recovering the wicker chairs.  I didn’t have enough fabric to cover the large pillows I am adding to the back.  But the cushions and skirts are done and it looks much better.

Here, maybe a look from the other side of the room will help.

For a room full of hand-me-down furniture, flea market finds and IKEA fodder….I think it’s looking OK.

So, what do you think?  Keep the couches this way or put them back?

I think you all just need to come over and help me.

When can you be here?  I’ll make brownies.

Free Silhouette Fun!

by Lisa on October 9, 2010

I really wanted something fresh over my couch.  So I tried to think of something fun, yet free.  A winning combination.

When I was little we had silhouettes of my brother, sister and I hanging in the kitchen.  I always thought they were so neat….our profiles frozen in time.  Very vintage.  But then, at my age, anything from my childhood is vintage.

I am not tech savvy enough to figure out all of the silhouette tutorials online.  So I went the old fashioned way.  I snapped and printed profile pictures of each kid.  Then, using painter’s tape, I layered the picture over black paper and cut.  It only took me about 15 minutes.  Then, to keep the project at a zero budget, I tore out book pages for mounting and glued some twine around them.  I hung them with little clips and the finishing touch….vinyl numbers with my true love, my Cricut.

It is so hard to get a good picture of this little room.  I am standing on the front porch to get these.  Seriously small.

The wall inside of the frame is painted white.  But it’s just an empty frame.  The numbers and silhouettes are hanging right on the wall.

I framed the girls in ovals and the boys in rectangles.  See?  Everything is a school project.  Shapes, sorting, numbers.  “Hey kids….how may rectangles can you find in the living room?  How many ovals?  How old do you have to be in order to be thought of as vintage?”

What is so amazing to all of us, is how easy it is to tell who is who.  I am shocked.  See if you can tell…..

It’s like a little contest, with no prize. 

Hint: the numbers next to the pictures correspond to their rank in the family

You can make some silhouettes too!  Make it a homeschool project.  See who can cut out Mommy’s silhouette and make her look the skinniest.

I’m linking to these fantastic blogs:

Under the Table and Dreaming

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Making the World Cuter,

The Girl Creative,

Thrifty Decor Chick,

It’s So Very Cheri

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Frugal Family,

Today’s Creative Blog,

New Nostalgia,

A Silly Little Sparrow

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blue Cricket Design,

The Trendy Treehouse,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhat Simple,

House of Hepworths,

Beyond the Picket Fence,

The Shabby Chic Cottage,

Life as Lori,

Tidy Mom

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chick on a Shoestring,

Remodelaholic,

Fingerprints on the Fridge,

The Shabby Nest,

The Inspired Room,

A Few of My Favorite Things,

My Romantic Home

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Funky Junk Interiors,

Tatertots and Jello,

Be Different…Act Normal,

Perfectly Imperfect

Me & My House

by Lisa on September 9, 2010

There’s a super hip, funky, interesting furniture store that I love to go visit called Me & My House.  I go there for inspiration.  They have their finger on the pulse of the shabby chic…uh….heart?  What would have a pulse?  Is that right?  It doesn’t seem right.

Anyway, they are groovy.  We’ll just stick with groovy.

So every few months I go in there to get inspired.  I always see something new and exciting and out of my price range.  They also sell fabric.  OK, now you’re talking my budget.  I can buy the fabric and do the sewing myself.  I’m a clever girl.  Sometimes.  OK, twice.

So I go in there expecting to come away with a spark of vision and I leave with the knowledge, deep in my soul, that I have no ability to be cool, hip, funky or even groovy.  It just isn’t in me.  They are dressed all Anthropologie and I am dressed all Macy’s clearance.

I wish I could pull it off.  The whole, messy but cool at the same time.  But when I do it I just get messy….sans cool.  Shabby with no chic.

The sales ladies are so nice and despite my unhipness they treat me like I’m someone interesting.

Remember the too-cute-for-my-taste wicker chairs in the living room?  Well I’ve finally had it.  So I marched into Me & My House and asked the adorable, so-happy-and-creative salesgirl to look at the pictures on my blog and help me figure out what to do with these chairs.  This is the first time blogging has actually come in handy.

She was sweet and tolerant of my weirdness and she was a great help.  I love getting someone else’s perspective on my problems.  Especially when that someone has their finger on pulses and other important bodily actions.

She suggested that I go with black.  Recover the cushions and redo the skirts in a more masculine fabric.  She even dared to say that I should use just one fabric and keep it simple.  I began to wonder what she thought of the blog picture of my living room.  Was it too girly?  Have I added too many fabrics?  Did it cause her to question how I even managed to wander into their fabulous store in the first place?

But I trust her pulse-o-meter so I bought a few yards of fabric that was just a teensy bit more expensive than I would normally spend.  Considering I usually get my fabric at Walmart, that’s not really a good way to measure.  Plus I do believe that a good fabric makes all the difference.  If you have a piece of junk from the flea market and you put a good fabric on it that you bought at a funky, groovy, furniture store….you have a winner.

James is going to help my dad for a few days, so I think I’ll take that time to sew the cushions.  I can crank them out.  At least I have that going for me.  If I can’t be cool at least I can be fast.  Wait, that doesn’t sound right.

Oh well, I’m glad for what I do have….three yards of fabulous fabric, a quiet night to sew and my self esteem still pretty much intact.

← Previous Entries