This and that and so much more...

hello.

Sorry for the extended absence.  It's been crazy around here.  Travis started turnaround schedule, and having a resident vampire among us has been an adjustment to say the least.  75 nights straight of working sounds daunting, and in reality it is, but we are adjusting.  I am cooking a lot so that he has hot homecooked meals to take each night, and the kids are adjusting to moving quietly through the house during the day.  We spend a lot of time reading, studying and quietly talking.  It's actually kind of nice in an Anne Frank kind of way.

Doctor appointments are the bulk of my week- they are ruling out any heart issues, and now the focus is on my lungs.  That makes sense to me since I grew up with a dad who smoked, and am an asthmatic who has taken more than her fair share of Albuterol.  I have scar tissue on my lungs and there may be something else going on.  We shall see.

I've been tweaking the house a bit, moving things around, editing down more, and rethinking rooms- especially Sara's.  It is not quite as functional as I'd like it to be, and there are some things that need to be cleared out still.  I'm going to work on that this weekend.

Still waiting on the bedskirt and sham...

Homeschooling is chugging along- I love our structured classes through CLA, but also our more relaxed style of learning at home.  Hunter is a changed kid because of it.  I know in my heart that we saved him when we pulled him out of public school.

Voluntarily reading Animal Farm on a Sunday morning...

Impromptu math lesson before dad leaves for work...

One of the joys of older homes is older plumbing.  We had already had issues with the French drain that runs to the storm sewer, and last week we had a MAJOR block under the house back up into the house.  Yeah, good times are had by all when sewer water starts pouring up through the toilet and into your home and over your newly installed hardwood floors.  (Notice please that ALL bad things happen at night while your husband is on shift...)

He griped, but I know that secretly he was having fun.  Boys and mud...

Anne has started her cosmetology program and is as happy as a clam at high tide.  This is her niche, her passion- her THING...

Up do entered into a contest with signature eye liner, nose ring and blue lips...

Could not be more proud of this girl...

Travis managed to squeeze in a few small projects before his crazy schedule kicked in.  Hunter's room needed shelves, and I wanted something with a bit of an industrial feel.  Plumbing bits and old weathered/stained wood did the trick...

Next up was the little coat closet next to the kitchen.  This is Texas, most of us don't even own a coat, so this closet was fitted out with shelves so that I could store the small appliances and cookbooks...

We also managed to get our flag hung.  This flag belonged to my Grandpa Myers and it is very special to me...

The kid's bathroom roman shades finally came in.  They have a top down/bottom up feature that is perfect for a room that needs light, but requires privacy...

JCP Roman shades...

This tv console was found on Etsy from aTICOfurniture and we love the piece.  It is just the right mix of industrial with the warmth of stained wood.

Lea, from Elegant Remodeling and Design, was the lovely lady who helped us tweak the design and order our kitchen cabinets.  She did such a fantastic job of listening to my vision and adding her know how so that we didn't end up with a kitchen that didn't have a trash bin pullout!   Last week she showed up to photograph our kitchen and brought me this lovely vintage lunch pail...

Perfect as our new/old breadbox!

I lived without a rug in the living room for about a week.  I just couldn't do it.  It needed something to anchor the room, and that coffee table clanks LOUDLY when anyone hits it.  Table needed a muffler...

So enter the Dash & Albert rug Tattersol in black.  I am loving the lodgy feel of this room and the pattern is one of my all time favourites...

I always design around my dogs...

Well, that's about it for me.  I am teaching today- so I am off to enlighten and engage young learners.  Follow me on Instagram if you want to keep up with my day to day doings.  Finding the time to sit down and blog is becoming a bit more difficult.

Love, kisses, and paw prints...

Before and during: The Living Room...

Before...

During...

Ever changing corner...

I have posted at least a dozen times about this little corner of our living room.  No matter what I do to it I am not happy with it.  You know that "it just doesn't feel right" thing?  Yeah, that.

So here it is as of two days ago.  This may be the longest it's stayed this way...

And right across from that little corner... these vintage house trim pieces I picked up at Round Top...

Don't get too attached...

Sofa RX...

I love our sofas....sort of.  It's actually a bit of a love/hate relationship we've had over the past two years.  When I found our sofas they were in a consignment shop, very well made, and sported lovely slipcovers.

See?  Pretty enough....but the ugly truth lurking underneath those slipcovers was floppy cushion disease.  Don't get me wrong, they are very high quality and I'm sure the sofa creators meant well when they filled those cushions with down, but the moment you sat in them they collapsed like a flan in a cupboard.

I couldn't imagine brining up the subject of new sofas to my husband, but every time we sat down to watch television we were all racing to get to his leather recliner.  Many times I would opt to sit on the cart/coffee table instead of the soggy sofa cushions.  It wasn't just the sinking, it also gave you the distinct feeling you were sliding off the sofa.

Then one day I got the bright idea to take those cushions off and haul them down to my favourite upholsterer.  He told me not to worry, he could save the cushions and keep our bums firmly planted on them ;)

With some foam filling and whatever medicine he injected- we came home to sit on these...

 I now have a love/love relationship with our sofas.

My treasure...

I *heart* resale shops.  I am amazed sometimes, well lots of times, at what other see as 'old' or 'worn' and just get rid of.

You know what they say though, "One man's trash...."

So check out the trash treasure I found yesterday!

A rug...

Actually it is three rugs pieced together.  As I was inspecting the back for stains and sniffing it out (literally) I stumbled across the price tag still attached to one of the rugs.  It was Anthropologie and priced at $280 per rug.

Which means I got THREE rugs at $280 for only $80!  I happy danced all over this heavy rug once I dragged it in the door.  Soft, perfect condition, clean & a deal.

Yep.  That is why I shop resale.


PS- I had this fabric sitting in my closet since Christmas.  It was given to me by a friend who told me to make something with it....she got the whole bolt of fabric at Goodwill for around $25 dollars!  I made drapes earlier today....

New living room cabinet....

We replaced our old display/china cabinet for a cabinet with a bit more room and more our style.
This is the old cabinet:

Here is the new one:

It had me at the hardware...

I found this piece at ABC Home in New York.  The delivery drivers were very nice and super careful handling the piece and not scratching my wood floors.

The main challenge with this piece has been styling it.  Because of its size I cannot use anything small- the things in this cabinet have to be a bit larger to be seen.  My dad has tons of old books and I am thinking about asking him if I could "borrow" some just to see how they would look in this cabinet.

Thanks for stopping by!