Christmas Center Piece

Secret: This was actually our center piece last year. I forgot to blog about it so I just saved it... is that legal? I hope so!



The glass tray and trio cups are from Southern Living at Home (now called Willow House). The darling little Christmas balls are from my vintage collections. These particular minis were added during a solo junking trip on a monumental birthday!



Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE vintage Christmas ornaments? Well, I do!! Love them such that I just can't hardly let them lay at the store...must...take...home!



You might remember that I decorated our Christmas tree last year in vintage, mostly Shiny Brite, ornamentsr. I just loved it! Will I do that this year?? Wait and see! (please)

Thank you for stopping by my blog! I'm so glad you are here!

Thank a Veteran

Not just today, but every day, every single time you feel proud to be an American, every single time you look around and appreciate our great Nation, every time you wake up in Free Country. Thank our God and thank a Veteran of the most powerful military in the entire world.

To our many service men and women and their families:

Thank you, from the Jones Family!

An epic fail followed by success...I think...

It all started two Thursday nights ago while I was lounging on the internet. I was going through some of the Fall Outdoor Spaces Party over at Thrifty Decor Chick. I saw a few things that caught my eye and I ended up spending some time on the Creative Juices for Decor site...

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the pictures of what Selina had done to her brother's kitchen cabinet pulls!! Go ahead, click here and check it out...I'll wait. Told you it was AWESOME!!!!

Wondering why I nearly fell out of my chair?? I have those same pulls, minus the rose. But I have that porcelain part...plus a little sassy brassy but the same pulls!!!!! Here are mine:

I have a bunch of them!! Re-purposing would same me literally, a couple hundred dollars!!

Notice the missing one? Wait for the fail. :)

I left a comment for Selina, the author of Creative Juices for Decor telling her how much I loved her idea to paint the pulls. Her re-do was ahwile ago so I was wondering how the pulls were holding up. She said brother's reports are good for ware. I thought what the heck! We don't like the sassy brassy so if I can paint them, the project will be free, if I ruin them well...they are on the replace list anyway.

I started with priming...Just grabbed the first primer I saw in my stash...happened to be Kilz. Here's where my epic fail came in. The primer went on thick and nasty and clearly was not going to work.
Look: told you it was bad!

Oops. Good thing they were on the replace list but really? I would rather buy cool rugs or some cool fabric for curtains or pillows.

SECOND TRY! (Is that like radio edit? Just kidding)

Jj suggested a different primer...turned out he was correct! First though, I sanded the metal part with 220 grit sandpaper (that's fairly fine) but it too like 60 (really rough) to get the shiny surface off the porcelain. Anyway, I sanded them down really well, and applied 2 coats of Krylon primer for metal.


To paint them, I knew I didn't want them lying on their sides for paint to drip and pool and such. I did a quick scan around the garage and stopped at the trash can. Enter cabinet pull holder:


It actually worked very, very well! I added 2 coats of primer followed by 2 coats of Oil-Rubbed Bronze (pretty sure it was Rustoleum) spray paint. I followed it up with a clear coat made by Rustoleum too.

I let them dry overnight and installed them!


I love the way they look; now we will see how well they wear!

**As this post publishes, it's been one week and all is well.**

***Edited to include that I liked up to Trifty Decor Chick's November Before & After Party, here.***

****And as of 11/7, I think the pulls have been up for about a month. All is well!! I am about halfway through the rest of the billion, just over 30, pulls in my kitchen.

But think of all the money we have saved!!!!!

It's officially a Home

I got a kitchen rug!



(Actually I had it at our old house but it's still what makes a house a Home right?? Candles, curtains and rugs! A handsome man I know and love, proclaimed such years ago!)

This one I got from Pier 1 many, many moons ago. I love it because it looks like the rag rugs that my Aunt Lou (who lived to be 102...say it out loud. :) ) and many others used to make. It feels to me, like someone put their love, in that rug, to me. And I like it. And kitchen sinks are made to have a rug in front right?

Do you have a rug in front of your sink?

Beautiful Eye Candy

A couple of weekends ago, Jj and I traveled back to our old town Columbia, MO. We were delighted to see our friend, Faydre marry her Prince Charming, Mike. Of course, she was a beautiful bride; that's just a given!


What I really wanted to show you is this Church!!!

I told you! AMAZING!!!!!! It's the "downtown" Methodist Church in Columbia, MO. The proper name is The Missouri United Methodist Church.

Congratulations Mike & Faydre. Thank you for including us on your special day!


(They were going so fast, I couldn't even get focused! :) The picture looks like I was still focusing on that AMAZING alter! Oops. )

Love,
Laura

Ornery!!

So I hear lots of giggling coming from our living room and I go to investigate...


I see my Stevie, looking skyward. The giggles are coming from him!!!


And this is why! He had been dusting the mantle and decided it would be fun to throw his rag up into the fan. Well...it was funny!
Of course we turned the fan on to see what would happen. It threw the rag off onto the catwalk for the upstairs hallway! Who knew it would go that far!?!

What's been in your fan lately?

Favorite Things...radio edit

{I just wanted to say 'raido edit'}

But I did forget a part of my kitchen...

See my first favorite post here and the second one here.

...I have two ovens!!!



I used my oven at my old house mostly to store pans and to make cheesy bread. I am actually looking forward to learning how to use my oven well enough that I will need two!

What's your favorite oven recipe? Trust me, I need all the help I can get!!

I do have some wonderful friends, don't I!!

Happy mail!!

Look what I found in my mailbox this past week!!

House warming cards from my sweet friends over at CardMaker Magazine's CardSwap Board.


Made just for us by my friend Golda.


Made just for us by my friend Elaine.


Made just for us by my friend Shawn.


Made just for us by my friend Rhonda.


Made just for us by my good, good friend Lora.


Made just for us by my friend Margaret.

We are so, so blessed! Thank you, all of you!!

More of my Favorite Things

...about our new house. These pictures were also taken on closing day when I was here for cleaning without any real stuff.

If you missed my last post, go here to see my first edition of Favorite Things. (I feel like Oprah except not liberal. :) )


Here's our fireplace, mantle and hearth.

I love that it looks like it was salvaged from an old Church...wait...no, it's just shaped like a Church. I love it! Shaped like or salvaged from, I don't care.
I don't really love that hunter green tile around the fire box. It looks ok in the picture, trust me...it's not ok in person!

Look at this little globe I got at an estate auction for $6 (and a bunch of other junk that I left there).

I know it looks lonely up there but it happened to be in my car and Stevie thought it looked good up there. :)

And look at this pretty, pretty girl!
That's up and to the right of the fireplace. The balcony is off our extra bedroom. I'm sure our {someday} children will try to jump off there so I am going to enjoy the doors until I have to baracade them to keep the little stinks safe!

Here's the view from the balcony.


One last part about the living room. I didn't discover this light until we had lived here for just about a week. I am in love!!
I love that it shines right over the door. I love that it gives us a bit of extra privacy from the front by shining at the door. Moreover, it's my favorite light to leave on when we aren't home...just so sweet to come home to. Well, I guess...I come through the garage but if I did use the front door, I would think it was sweet.


It's hard to take pictures at night, of lights and not be all weird...but I wanted to toss in this last one so you could see the green tiles prevail!!! Ahhhhh!

In do time! I have a couple of projects for this winter but for the most part, we will be doing some major landscaping and Jj has a few places on our wooden siding to fix.

A few of my Favorite Things!

About our new house of course!!

I took these pictures the day we closed while I was here cleaning...so there is basically nothing here except what I brought in my mini-SUV and what my parents brought in the trunk of my Mom's Caddy... Prepare yourself. Just kidding. :)

First off! Check out my kitchen window!

Not really the ugly valance or the outdated back splash... but the window! There is all this space between my sink and the window...stuff, plants, herbs (wait, I'm not much of a cook). You can sort of see through the window that it looks out over our backyard...and I love it!!

Then, I have this cute little nook.

In the foreground, you see the bar/counter in the kitchen. To the right are the french doors that go to my sun porch (more on that another day).

Much better without those dang curtains!

Here's the view of the back of our house through the trees.

I was walking back from Jj's shed for his tractor and decided that I like this view... a lot!!

I'm going to show you some of my favorite things about our upstairs/main level living room next. It is a post ALL to itself!!

I'd love to hear about your favorite place at your home!