First Blog Award!

I'm back...at least physically. Mentally and physically I'm still numb from a week of camping and directing VBS. It was an awesome week, but I am flat out pooped! I can barely walk a straight line. I said that if anyone asks me to do anything on Monday or Tuesday...the answer will be NO! (lovingly of course ;) Tomorrow I will try to pry myself off this chair and go accomplish something. 

To my great surprise and delight, I no more than got home, and I received my first blogger award! Christin, from Pregnant With Power Tools (don't you just love that name!), awarded me The Versatile Blogger Award. This from a woman who wields power tools while pregnant...now that is versatile! Thanks Christin...you are a sweetheart.

According to the terms of the award, I have to tell you seven random things about myself and pass on the award to seven new blogs I have recently discovered. This may be more than you want to know, but here goes:

• My favorite meal is southern fried chicken and milk gravy with biscuits
• I like all colors of the rainbow, except yellow and orange
• Sometimes I sleep with my arm straight up in the air (I know...really weird!)
• There are 10 years between my brother and myself (I'm the oldest, he's the youngest of 3)...there are 10 years between my oldest and youngest child...of 3 children (not planned, just happened that way)
• My favorite season is summer
• Tea is my favorite beverage
• My family calls me Deborah, most others call me Debbie, my husband calls me Deb...I answer to all three

That was harder than it sounded to come up with.  Now that you know some weird things about me, will you still be my friend? LOL!

As for 7 new blogs that I recently discovered, the hard part will be picking only 7!  I am a new blogger and you should see my blog roll already!  I believe these are supposed to be relatively new blogs so I am passing on the award to these lovely ladies:

• Kenzie at 9 o'clock Dance of Joy.  She comes up with the cutest crafts that cost next to nothing and the girl plans the best parties!
• Jennie at Cinnaberry Suite.  She comes up with the most original ideas that are darling.  
• Kendra at Creative Ambitions.  She can turn trash into true treasure.  What can I say...I just oooh and ahhhh when I visit her site!
• Ann Marie at la maison LaFortune.    She has turned a very plain little house into an adorable cottage.
• Suzanne at Meridian Road.  She "shops" in her old barn, made her own "mercury" glass, and turned her kitchen into the cutest cottage kitchen!  What's not to love?
• Debbie at the Lakehouse.  She has the most peaceful looking cottage on the lake.  It looks like a cozy bed and breakfast.  Debbie lives pretty close, she's sweet and I'd love to go junking with her someday!
• Sandra at Sawdust and Paper Scraps  This woman has only been blogging since February and she already has over 500 followers...enough said.  Don't walk, run over to her blog!

Babies in the Barn

I have nothing pretty to show you today. But I do have something cool that my husband made.  And because I needed a break from getting ready for camp, I slogged through this to get these pictures...

Well actually I skirted around that new pond really wet spot, but my shoes still squished through a very soggy yard. 

Back to Mr. Greenwillow's accomplishment.  We were given a bunch of wood last year by some friends, that has been sitting on slats on the barn floor. Then a couple of weeks ago we bought a boatload of wood from our sister-in-law for $60 for all of it.

Soooo...my husband built this to store it on...

Just look at all those future projects lying there in their infancy.  Babies are so cute...don't ya think?

Oh,,,and on my way out to the barn to take these pictures, I saw this...

(Side note:  It's done nothing but rain for a week...maybe we will have to use that wood to build an ark!)

Can you guess what it's going to be?

An outdoor bowling alley?...no.

A really huge arbor?...noooo.

A new clothes line?...yep!

Ummm...honey?  I know I'm tall, but this is ridiculous!   I really don't want to climb a ladder to hang clothes.  Honey???

Gitter Done Challenge - The Office

Today's the day. The deadline for the Gitter Done Challenge - Volume 1 - over at Funky Junk Interiors.  Donna issued this challenge about a week and a half ago.  As usual, I bit off more than I could chew.  But I had a goal and went for it.  If I'd had no goal...nothing would have gotten done.  So I am pretty pleased with what I accomplished, considering it is the countdown to VBS and I've been juggling all that and a household too.

My original goal was to declutter the upstairs (hall closets, craft area and my bedroom), the office and the basement.  What was I thinking!  What I accomplished was my bedroom and the office.  The other spaces will have to wait until after VBS...like at least a week after, as I plan to crash for the week following!

When you see the before pictures of the office/school/business/some craft/anything room, maybe you will understand...or run screaming from your monitor to call social services on me!  Let's just say, prepare yourself.  And just a disclaimer...most of my house does not look like this...honest.

Ahem...I had a third picture of the desk area.  I have no idea what happened to it...I think it broke my camera.  Anyway, to quote Niecy from Clean House...it was a Hot Mess!

Keep in mind this was just a declutter job.  It is still ugly, but so much more functional.  Pretty will come later. Here it is the after:

No more boxes on the floor!!! Ahhh...the room can breath again.  I could give you a hundred excuses for why/how it got that way...and they would all be legit.  But they would still be excuses.  I just needed to Gitter Done!

I also decluttered my bedroom too, but no pictures for now.  I'll post those after I remodel it and show you the before and after.  You can only take so much ugly at one time.    It was not nearly as messy as this, just needed decluttering and moving some things around.  I posted about that here.

And one more project I did this week. I planted the garden.   It wasn't so much procrastination, but it's been very wet and my husband had to till it...so I waited.  Finally it is in...and it looks like a graveyard right now.

I am linking this up to Donna's Gitter Done Challenge.  Go see what everyone else has been up to.  There's been some major accomplishments this week!

Scrapbook Paper and Old Ruler Art

I'm up to my eyeballs in mucking out the office/school/craft/anything else you want to cram in here??? room. I painted a couple of flower pots I picked up at a garage sale. I got a couple coats of paint on them yesterday, but they need more, and it overcast and very humid today.

I haven't really had time to garage sale the past couple of weeks, but I did swing into one yesterday. I snagged a great cabinet for my future craft room, but didn't have a way to get it home. The lady is the mother-in-law of a friend, so she is holding it for me until we can get back with the trailer. Soooo...I don't have any pictures yet...oh, but wait! I did pick up these two pitchers. I heart the blue polka dotted one. It still has the Hallmark price tag on the bottom of $24.95. Cost me $3.00...in perfect condition. I just popped my 'almost done' roses from my birthday, along with a few fresh peonies in the pitcher for this shot.  The arrangement leaves a little to be desired, but I love them anyway.

What I really wanted to show you was a project my daughter did some time ago.  When my father-in-law passed away a couple of years ago, my mother-in-law started giving some of his things to her kids.  She was just going to throw away this old, broken, folding ruler, but Mr. Greenwillow brought it home.  So glad he did.  This is what Jamie did with it.  I thought it was adorable...and I thought you might think so too.

She used photo corners, adhered to the back of the ruler, so that she could change out the scrapbook paper whenever she wanted.  She says it doesn't stay in very well, but maybe they just need to be adjusted.  You could also glue or use photo tape on it.

Time to put my nose back on that old grindstone.  Later gater.

I linked this project to these parties.  Be sure to check them out for tons of great ideas!

DebbieDoos Garage Salen Party

My Romantic Home Show and Tell

Just Sick and Yet Thankful Too

This is what we saw as we drove up the driveway after a trip to town tonight.

I was just sick.  This was my absolute favorite tree on our whole 32 acres.  It was such a beautifully shaped round tree.  We think it was a Box Elder.  I used to sit under it on hot days with a cold drink, just enjoying it's shade.  I took pictures of our kids under it.  The kids climbed it and we had swings hanging from it. 

Tonight I am sad.  But I am also thankful.  Less than 2 weeks ago we had Tyler's youth group here from the church.   They sat under this tree and talked and laughed.  They swung from the swings.  I thank God the limb did not fall on them.

$60 CSN Giveaway!

It is a dreary, rainy morning here in Northern Michigan. My body is screaming at me for overdoing it in the garden yesterday...but I had to beat the rain, you know! So I'm moving slow, savoring a cup of tea, and cruising blogland.

I really do need to get off my duff and get moving...work those muscle kinks out. But before I do, I thought I'd tell you about a pretty great give-away over at Savvy Southern Style.  Kim is giving away a $60 gift certificate to CSN.  Hummm...$60 to spend on whatever my heart desires...wouldn't that be fun!  I would love me some rugs for my back entry.  Head on over to enter for your chance to win!

Bedroom Dreaming

Today was another busy day. I ran kids back and forth to work (4 trips)...again! I planted the vegetable garden (our garden is pretty big...about 30' x 80'), and I worked on The Beast once more.  I'm on my third brand of stripper.  This time I'm using Citristrip.  I think one more coat on a few spots should do it.  You cannot believe how stubborn the paint on this thing is!  Never, never, never buy a piece of furniture with 3 or 4 coats of paint on it to strip off.  It may be the death of me yet!

Now that my bedroom is all decluttered and clean, I am bedroom dreaming...umm dreaming about how to fix it up that is.  I have lots of ideas dancing around in my head.  I'd love floors like these at Frugal Farmhouse Design.

We have very low knee walls (under the eave walls) on both sides of the upstairs level.  So our closets in our room had to be built into this knee wall.  There are closets in the hallway opposite our bedroom too.  Because they are extra short, we have not figured out how to put doors on them yet.  That is, until I saw this at Funky Junk Interiors, and an idea began to form.

I also have the problem that I can't use a headboard, because the only place we can put the bed is under that same knee wall, between the closets, and there is just no room.  I thought perhaps a canopy constructed something like this, at Off the Wall, only maybe with side panels pulled back.

I have a maple night stand and dresser that I want to paint white and distress.  I also have my Grandpa's old Chiffarobe (kind of like an armoire) that I want to repaint, but I can't decide on a color yet.  I do like this soft robins egg blue like this sweet little dresser at Aja lee's Sweet Life.

Or maybe a soft, distressed sage green like this cute dresser at Junkrestore.

Alas, my bedroom will have to wait.  I've been promising my youngest son, Jared, that I would redo his room for over a year.  It really does need it...bad.  You'll have to wait and see.  As soon as VBS is over, and "The Beast" is finished...it's on to the man child's room.  And other than colors, I don't have a clue what I'm going to do...guess I need to do some more dreamin'.

Coming Up For Air

It's only been 4 days since I last posted, but it feels like a week. I have not done anything creative in that time. It's been all work and no play...ummm, except for playing in blogland, reading everyone else's blogs!

I took up the challenge to declutter my home and I've made a dent. My bedroom has been the main focus. Of course I couldn't just go through, pull the clutter, and move on. I tore my closet apart, pulled everything out, vacuumed and moved things around. Then I completely flip flopped dressers with my husband, because his was bigger and I have more junk clothes.

I also cleaned the house in preparation for a nice dinner for my parents to meet my son's girlfriend. Oh...and I potted up a flat and a half of flowers for the decks.













Today was my birthday. Mr. Greenwillow and my daughter, Jamie, made me lunch and fixed a cake. It was a nice quiet day. I didn't have to run anyone anywhere today, as both my teens had the day off. I putzed around, did some laundry, worked in the flower beds a little, watched some HGTV, worked a little bit on decluttering in the office, and watched a Harry Potter movie with my youngest son, Jared.

Mr. Greenwillow is on afternoons so he won't get home until very late. The kids are all in bed and I have a few quiet moments before I too go to bed, so I thought I would come up for air just to let you know I'm still here.

I have so many plans for every room in this house. When I took up The Challenge, presented by Donna at Funky Junk Interiors, I decided that the place to begin this whole house transformation was to purge all of the clutter and stuff that was choking the life out of the house and out of me!

Already I'm feeling the breathing room in my bedroom. I just went up there to enjoy it a couple of times today. I got a little start on the office area today, but mainly took the day off to rest and relax. Tomorrow I will dive in.

For the next little while I won't have much to post. I'll be busy with the challenge as well as finalizing all the loose ends for our church camp VBS...I'm the director. So it's going to be very busy around here. I will be cruising blogland as often as possible. A girls gotta take a break now and then you know! But as soon as VBS is done, the big projects begin!

This gal is heading to dreamland. Good Night John Boy.

Vintage Looking Clock

This is the little project I said I would post. I picked this vintage looking clock up at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. This baby is heavy! I think it is solid brass. I tried scraping the bottom of it, then tried a magnet and it didn't stick. Shhhh! Don't tell my husband...he might sneak it for the scrap metal pile!

I love that it is a wind-up clock that has an alarm. I'm going to try it for my side of the bed. We'll see if I can remember to wind it up each day.

This was a pretty straightforward project. I first taped off the back and face of the clock

Then I sprayed it with 2 coats of white primer, followed by several light coats of heirloom white.

Finally I glazed it with a little burnt umber acrylic paint mixed with some water, then wiped that off with paper towels.

I can't decide if I like it better glazed or unglazed.  I think it will depend on how it looks on what I'm going to use as a nightstand.

Now if you'll excuse me,  I have to get back to decluttering...after I eat supper...and maybe after a nap.

I am linked to these parties...go check them out: