Do We Understand Honor?

Honor  

silver spray-painted pumpkins... their names printed on each pumpkin

I feel we are losing our grip on honor.  It is something that makes my hair stand on end when I see the lack of honor in our society.  Giving honor to someone else seems to be a lost art.

I may not agree with a politician's political position, but I am commanded in scripture to honor the position the person holds.   A community-servant position also requires honor...police, fireman, soldiers...etc. The position is what requires the honor from us citizens, not the person's actions.  God is the one who puts the person into their position and therefore, He knows what He is accomplishing through them.

God commands honor be given to our parents.  He doesn't list the "if they do this and that" then you honor...He requires honor.  His command also comes with a promise.

Clear glass plate transformed...thanks to trade secret from Debbie, the master of tablescape

The granting of honor to others is an essential experience in the believer's life. 
Christians are to bestow honor on those for whom honor is due. The believer is to 
honor God, for He is the sovereign head of the universe and His character is unsurpassed. The believer is to honor those in positions of earthly authority, such as governing authorities (Rom 13:1-7),  masters (1 Tim 6:1), and parents (Exod 20:12). 
As a participant in the church, the believer is also called to honor Jesus Christ, the head of 
the church (John 5:23), fellow believers (Rom 12:10), and widows (1 Tim 5:3). resolved youth article


Recently in a home group, a woman voiced, "I am so tired of everyone blaming their parents for what is wrong in their life!"  I felt her heart and thought of how we are losing this sense of honor.  Even in Christiandom, someone will give their testimony....."I was raised in a Christian home....but!!!!! my parents were too legalistic...etc, etc."  I have to ask you how is that honoring?  Does God receive honor when we trash someone else while pointing to Him?

This past weekend I was given the chance to honor my parents.  Both have moved into their 70's.  My father is almost completely deaf, making it hard for him to enter into social conversations.  As I prepared a birthday luncheon for them, I thought of how I could honor my parents... the honor due to their position as my parents and believers in the Body of Christ.

Silver spray-painted large pumpkin and stenciled-in-bronze, garage-sale table cloth and napkins

I gathered questions from my kids to their grandfather.  I typed these questions on a sheet of paper so he could read and answer.  He was delighted to share stories and talk.  Through some tears he expressed what was important in his life - his wife, his God and his education. This didn't require listening on his part.  My children were learning to extend honor by putting their own agenda aside...their own conversations, their cell phones and their time.

My mother enjoys beautiful things, so a fully-decorated table was in order for her. She sat at the opposite  end of the table from my Dad (listening to him talk, through the most loving and caring eyes) holding a bowl of pictures from years past.  She would randomly pick up a picture and tell the story behind it.  She picked up her family picture...out of the seven in the photograph, only three are still living.  She passed on her stories of losing her Dad at a young age then her two brothers.  She giggled at Dad's comments about meeting her...you watched them both become 16 and 18 again.

Honor was extended.  Their position in our family was placed as priority.  I pray that my children received a much-needed lesson this weekend.  I know I did.  They get to try it out again this next weekend as we visit their other grandmother, age 96, and celebrate their Aunt and Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary.

In order for us to turn the tide of dishonor in this land we have be begin at home.  I have to express honor to those God has placed in positions of honor in my life, no matter their actions.  I hope as I remember this lesson, my own family will be stepping toward giving honor to those it is due.

(I am not saying there shouldn't be "safe" places to share true life experiences.  Hiding abuse to show someone "honor" isn't honor.  Thanks to Vee for pointing out the need for true exposure in order to point someone to complete healing in Christ."

Cultivate - Again

Cultivate - to prepare, to loosen or break up the soil, to foster growth; to promote or improve growth by labor and attention; to develop or improve by education or training; to seek an acquaintance or friendship. To cultivate the arts means to encourage the arts.

Wow! All of that under the word cultivate. This word was used in our pastor's sermon on Sunday morning as he was expanding on I Peter 3:1-7. You probably wouldn't think about the word cultivate when looking at these verses, but it was in reference to what should be done for a wife. He expressed that her gifts should be cultivated.

Somehow, in the rush of trying to survive the struggles my family has been going through, I just stopped growing. Not that I didn't grow in size... I did, and not that I didn't age... I did, but I didn't grow. I started to justify NOT spending time cultivating.

How many times do women set aside their own growth to make sure the family is making it along the journey? Many will say that is why they work in jobs outside the home, so they can continue to grow themselves.  At home, moms will justify their lack of cultivation due to their responsibilities as a mom, while believing this neglect is being spiritual.

My choice has been not to work outside my home, even though that work would have provided financial security and, at times, much-needed adult conversation. We chose for me to stay home, to home-educate and raise six children. In the early days of mothering, I seemed to know the importance of cultivating. This usually meant a trip to the park for the kids to play, while I ate up the contents of a book. Cultivating meant taking walks with one in a stroller and the others on bikes,which gave me added energy AND a trim body. I would also escape to my bedroom during lunch time to steal away and watch a home decorating show... this was before HGTV. Each of these things would re-energize me, cultivate me.

I enjoyed creating and, in my early mothering days, I had a cabinet built for my sewing machine in the same room where the kids could play, while I sewed. I had my own business, where I could remain at home and still create. This allowed me the opportunity of cultivating my love for interior decorating. My business never took away from my mothering of four young children. Yet, it enhanced my mothering skills because I was cultivating myself, while learning to raise my children.

I read books, books, and more books. I seemed to have four or five going at all times that cultivated my mothering, my cooking, my spiritual walk, my home education and my business. I took evening classes on different pursuits, while also attending conferences.

Each mother needs to cultivate the woman God made her to be. A woman has so many facets of her life and each one reveals rays of the beautiful light God intended for her to share.

Somewhere between raising and guiding the first four through teenage-hood, I stopped growing. We moved to a new city, which was good. But when my eldest started high school, the full schedule put a hold on all my cultivating. As any gardener knows, if you don't cultivate the garden, your crop yield will be less and the weeds will invade your plot of land. As I put my tools down in order to maintain our busy schedule and adjust to our ever-decreasing finances, I allowed the weeds to take over the garden.

So, when our pastor talked about a woman needing to cultivate the gifts God had given her and how that was a priority in his stay-at-home wife's life, I had a sinking feeling in my soul. I stated to someone recently that I felt "lost", not knowing what I was supposed to do. Yes, I still have three children at home and two still need me full time. No, I am not re-entering the work force outside of my house, even though I am at the age for an empty nest. What I am going to do is go before the Lord and ask how to pick up my tools. They may not be the same tools He had used to cultivate me before, because this time, I first need to break up the hard ground. I need to know WHAT He wants to cultivate in me, WHICH gifts are still on my shelf that need to be brought down and WHICH gifts He wants to reveal in me now.

It is so easy to have life nail us with curve balls and we let them sideline us. When this happens, we justify setting our gifts down, usually because we feel we need to or just don't have the energy or resources to continue them. As our pastor explained, this puts a new level of importance on a wife being cultivated and that it is just as important for his wife to be cultivated in her gifts as it is for him to pastor his large congregation. These are gifts that God has given to us, to be used for his glory, to reflect Him with the many facets that shine from our lives.

I will pick up my tools once again and look forward to this new season of cultivating the woman God made me to be, while continuing to be a wife and mother. I am believing that while I am digging up hard soil, my family will be enriched by the new crop.

This is a re-post for when I began blogging.  God is still working this truth in my life.  Blogging and re-doing my home is a fruit of the cultivating I have started.  I hope this re-post blesses you.

A Need for a New Topper

There are just times in life when you just need a new topper.  

In the life of a lamp, which brings such wonderful light into any matter,.there still comes a time for change.  

This is a second post in Diamond Designs on a Dime.

My lamps have survived many knocks and bruises.   I mean, try to life in a household with boys...basketballs and baseballs flying.  Even if the residences of the home didn't send the lamp's parts flying at times...well let's say their friends could do some damage.

So with mixed emotions I decided that the memories from all the knocks over the past 16 year showed too much on the shades of our lamps.  I just couldn't part with the bases at this time, having paid toooooooooooooo much for them years ago.  But one too many tumbles had called for attention and updating of my light shiners.

Easy fix.....new lamp shades from Tuesday Morning.

I removed the old shades and traded them out.  I took the finial at the top and painted them back instead of the gold color from past years.

Another new topper was a thrift store find and "dressing it up" for my kitchen.

Now all I need is to paint thrift store $4.00 base to bring in my retro-blue.

Now to add some more spice to the lamp shade.

A new lamp for my kitchen.

Look what some hot glue and pom pom fringe can do to a thrift store find....total cost $10.00.

Had I Been Joseph's Mother

google image

This post is dedicated to Jill @Pathway to Purpose.  Her oldest child has an on going health issue.  She has been strong and expressed her faith at each turn of this journey.  Today I dedicate this poem from Ruth Bell Graham to her and all mothers.  We all go through seasons with our children in which there are  struggles with physical, health or spiritual challenges.  We will also see challenges again with our grand children, since we still live in a fallen world.  Ruth Bell Graham experienced struggles with her own children, as well as, her grandchildren.  She also witnessed God's faithfulness, yet her poems express the heart of a mother crying out to her Lord.

Had I Been Joseph's Mother

Had I been Joseph's mother

I'd have prayed

protection from his brothers.

"God, keep him safe.

He is so young,

so different from, 

the others."

Mercifully,

she never knew

there would be slavery

and prison, too.

Had I been Moses' mother

I'd have wept

to keep my little son:

praying she might forget

the babe drawn from the water

of the Nile.

Had I not kept

him for her

nursing him the while,

was he not mine!

- and she

but Pharaoh's daughter?

Had I been Daniel's mother

I should have pled

"Give victory!

-this Babylonian horde

godless and cruel-

Don't let him be a captive

-better dead,

Almighty Lord!"

Had I been Mary,

Oh, had I been she,

I would have cried

as never mother cried,

"Anything, O God,

Anything....

-but crucified!"

With such prayers importunate

my finite wisdom would assail

Infinite Wisdom.

God, how fortunate

Infinite Wisdom

should prevail.

What is a Floor Cloth?

This is one of four floor cloths I painted for the home school prom.  This year it had been used for four prior proms. 
Don't tell my son I used this picture....he is now 22 and has a serious girlfriend, which isn't the one in this picture. 




My floor cloth from my kitchen brought about some questions....so here it goes.


Sonja has suggested I have a business called Janette's Diamond Designs on a Dime....instead I will name this my                   Diamond Designs on a Dime post One.

1. I painted my first floor cloth back in the early 80's during my country decorating style phase.  It was 2'x3' and went in front of our fireplace.  
2. Floor cloths go back to the Colonial Days and are still sold and designed today...many are works of art...google floor cloth and you will be amazed.....mine have just been useful
3. When the prom needed a floor covering to transform an area into a garden courtyard I began painting 10'x10' pebble-looking floor cloths.  1000's of prom attenders walked across these for years...I didn't seal any of them
4. Another time when we had a home with a very large bathroom with cold ceramic flooring I painted a floor cloth to bring color to the room and cover the cold floor
5. You can lay them on ceramic, no-wake floors...I would not suggest on wood or carpet

How to:

The following is how I have made floor cloths.  You can find  more extensive processes.  I have never needed mine to survive for decades...even though mine never worn out I did finally get tired of them and threw them away.

• Purchase a drop cloth - the quality of drop cloths vary.  I bought cheap ones for the prom...$10.00 a piece...I bought a better quality for my kitchen - Lowe's Blue Hawk, Canvas Drop Cloth
• I washed, dried and ironed my drop cloth before starting the project

• You seal the floor cloth - for the prom I didn't do this step...we were going for fast and cheap...now remember it still lasted for years.  For my kitchen I didn't omit this step.  You seal the whole size of the floor cloth with Gesso.  Start in the middle and work out...the floor cloth will stretch some

• Draw your design on the dried Gesso - you can do complicated or easy

• Paint your design with Acrylic Paint
• I paint the back of my floor cloths with left over paint of any color...this seals the back of the floor cloth...again I didn't do this step for the prom...temporary floor cloth
• Turn over your edges and glue or sew down

• Seal the dried, finished floor cloth with clear Polyurethane - I paint a couple of coats
• You can use different items to keep the floor cloth from slipping on your floor...I have never had any problem with this and haven't added anything on the back of the floor cloth.

That is all, now enjoy your new transformed floor.

I am off to make one for in front of our fire place....may show you soon.

Bible Best Sellers List

Gideon...google image

Benjamin and I have been reading through the Old Testament in his Children's Bible.  We approached the battle stories...which any little boy enjoys. David and Goliath, Joshua, Gideon and  Deborah... all winning victory over their enemies.  After reading through the top Biblical battles, I could see the titles on the Christian Top-Sellers list if these events happened today:

• Walls Will Fall with a Shout - How to Conquer for Your Inheritance, by Joshua
• Fool-Proof Business Associates - How to Pick Those You Want at Your Side, by Gideon
• Women Can Lead The Way - How Women Can Overthrow the Competition - by Deborah and Jael
• Only One Stone, No Need for More - Don't Overload Yourself, Lighten Up - by King David

I am sure you are getting the picture and can creatively add your own.

What struck me while reading with Benjamin was the fact that each battle was won in a different way.  God didn't repeat.  He didn't pass down the conquering handbook of past successes to each new commander.  He usually took the most unlikely person and put them in charge.  He did insane things...how could a shout cause walls to fall, lights in pots cause the defeat of a mighty army or a prophet laying on his side for the sins of a nation?

The Victory was going to be the Lord's Victory and not men's.

How many times have I run to the latest "Best Seller" to find what armor I am to wear.  How am I to enter into the battle of life?  How am I to win the Victory?  to Parent?  to be a Wife?  to be a Christian?  to eat right?  to reach my neighbors for Christ?

What worked for David with one stone wasn't going to work for Gideon or Joshua.  Why do I feel that someone else's victory, which had come only from the Lord... would work for me?  Just because God gave the victory on how to lose weight, how to succeed in marriage, how to have children that never rebel................ (the list goes on and on) for others,  does that mean it is for me?  Other than God's own set of written laws, there are alot of variations He has placed in each of us that requires His own personal plan for our life.  As our pastor said one day, "You know those parenting books were written from someone who it worked for, but they didn't have the same combination of personalities, sins, etc. that your family does... that is why it didn't work for you."

If the Lord wants the Glory to go to only Him......................then isn't it He that gives out the commands and orders to the win the battle He has given me?

This doesn't mean I will never read another book.  It just means I need to make sure WHOSE commands I am following. The disappointment that comes when  "Top-Seller" methods don't work only proves that their method wasn't what the Lord intended to win MY battle....it won the author's battle.

May I give back Saul's armor and be courageous enough to ask, "how do you want me to enter this battle?" "Lord, may the victory be yours and not mine.  May your methods seem foolish to those around me so that no one can doubt it is YOU that has won the battle."

Once a Fashion Statement

Just walk with me through those moments when you realize you really aren't a "young chicken".  You pick up the latest fashion statement, while old memories rewind through your head, you anxiously try it on.  Either you still have it all together and can still pull it off, or you have that "Aqua Velva" moment. If you know what the "Aqua Velva" moment is then you are admitting your age.

So, my vanity was slapped this summer.  My husband wanted to buy me a new fashion accessory.  I was less than excited until I saw it.  Yes, it called to me across the packed aisles of Sam Moon.  I put it on...oh, my... did I feel like........

Yes, from one of my All Time most favorite shows..."Funny Girl".  Can you see her on the boat singing "Don't Rain on My Parade" tossing her head back with her hat? What beautiful hats!   If you
want to watch and sing along.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_g3kkGH8Mo&feature=related

Then I started to laugh internally while strolling toward my newly wanted accessory.  My love affair with 

                                                              

The Hat 

had begun in high school.  

                                        Okay, now this is your warning....all laughing will be heard through your

                                          computer coming across to me.  I have arranged for this to happen.

                                                  Laugh too hard and I will come pull out your old photos, too.

Yes, the Drill Team Hat.  I wore her proudly and strutted with her presence upon my head.  She accompanied me through the years of leading a small group of girls onto and off the field with the direction of my whistle...and yes, I still have the whistle, but didn't get to keep The Hat.

She once again adored my head at my wedding, along with six brides maids also wearing her.

She walked through my early years of motherhood.  I wore many varieties to church... that was back in the days when you dressed up for church, not the flip-flops and jeans of today.  I had a large red, straw-brim hat.  I had a off-white felt hat.  I can see them all.

Now I wouldn't be a Texan if I didn't, at some time, put on a cowboy hat.

Then styles changed and I put away the hats.  I only remember once in the last two decades pulling it out for the last time...a beautiful orchid Easter hat.

Benjamin and I played with hats which were props for the Home School Prom.  Yes, home school students have a prom...the last one I helped to decorate for had over 850 students...I must show those pictures one day.
Isn't Benjamin just a doll here?  I now have a blackmail photo for when he is a teen....here he is, age 3.

 As I bounced youthfully across the room, remembering my love affair with the hat, my vanity was put in check with the tags hanging off my hat.  The long list of all the types of protection it gave you from the sun.

It was now a health issue that caused me to buy this hat....no longer a fashion statement!!

I realized that I am now in the category, not of a fashion statement, but a necessity.  I am also not the age where I can wear a red hat with the Red Hat Club.  I am now stuck in the middle of  Hat - mid-life!

Kitchen Reveal

Okay, okay... I was going to let you think I was Super Designer Woman, who leaps through decorating challenges in one bounce, producing in just days the same results as those on HGTV.   Well, just in case you were thinking all this got done in a matter of days, I will come clean.  The painting was done the weekend my husband went out of town...remember getting rid of my hormonal mood?  The walls were painted during my painting marathon.  The back splash didn't go as easy as I had hoped...so it draggggggggggggggggggged on and on.  The curtains got cut out and then just sat and sat... which is dumb since I used to sew curtains with my eyes closed....it was my business.  Let's just say it has been years and sewing insecurities took over for a month.  Vee kept showing her sewing projects which inspired and convicted me to return to my former sewing days.
(Before pictures of kitchen, click here)

So what got done this week?...finished and installed the curtains, knife block, floor cloth, made wall pictures and arranged accents.  Here she is...................

Back splash... painted solid then stenciled in diamonds and used art tape for the grout lines.  Accent piece - red microwave.

All is temporary and can be painted over if needed when we move.  If it was my own house, it would be real stone...but this gives the look I wanted for pennies.  Sealed with clear matte polyurethane.

In place of a mosaic tile back splash,  I found a temporary fix.  This is a plastic tray I found at Target.  When we move, I can take it down without damage to the wall.  I can also take it off the wall for cleaning.

Walls went from calming green to energizing retro-turquoise blue.  Retro-designed fabric was sewn into kitchenette valances.  They were installed closer to the ceiling to bring your eye up... creating the illusion of higher ceilings.  The hotel vertical blinds were exchanged for 2" faux-wood blinds.

Instead of curtain treatments on the back door, I cut out flowers from the material and starched them to the wall...again temporary.

Floor cloth still needs edges seamed and sealed.  We had some "prayed-for rain", so I didn't get around to sealing it to protect it from wear.

The large space above my cabinets gives me plenty of room to decorate and combine past kitchens with the new kitchens.  Accent pieces from all of my kitchens through the years are finding a new setting place..... Country, Tuscan and now adding new Retro kitchen accents.

More space around the top to add some new items...the hunt makes it fun.

This is the view from the opening to the den. I am standing behind the kitchen sink.

    Here's a Breakdown for those interested:

• 40% off paint from Sherwin Williams
• 30% off curtain material at Hobby Lobby
• Cheap 2" Faux Wood Blinds and Curtain Rods - Walmart
• Drop Cloth - Lowes - finished 8 x 8 check floor cloth
• Blue jar accents - 95% off at TJ Maxx
• Baker's Rack - 50% off at Hobby Lobby
• Tray from Target - stove back splash
• Printed off Retro pictures - put in black frame I already owned

A happy wife who is still adjusting to not owning her own home...but learning to live in a temporary home. 

Price Less
I hope you enjoyed the tour...thanks for the accountability...it really worked.
As for me being a huge sports fan...well I am not, I just watch my children play sports and stay up with  what is happening in sports in order to communicate with my sons.
We also live in a city with four professional teams.
Getting the chance to yell...well, I will take that anytime....when it is to root someone on to score.

Burnt Orange or RED

google imagine...a imagine I saw in real life for 38 years of my life, before moving  north

Okay, what happens when three..."young-at-heart women"...get to challenging each other on whose team is going to win the....Red River Rivalry?  You have alot of FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, my allergy-blurred, mid-life-with-menopausal brain went into full gear.  I took up the challenge.

I am sure you have one of these types of games in your area. Even if you usually don't watch sports, you hear about it.  As I drove through town, the radio announced, "Welcome all of you here for THE GAME.", as if there weren't other games being played. We all knew what "The Game" meant.

All of that is to say....I bleed Burnt Orange.  My Dad and Husband are both University of Texas graduates.  I started going to their games at the impressionable age of 17, followed by attending my freshman year at the University of Texas.

During the final weeks of my pregnancy with my first-born, I loaded my large belly into a car and headed four hours north to watch the UT/OU game.  My soon-to-be son flopped all over my belly during each touchdown of the game....the stadium crowd noise was unbelievable.

Years later, Benjamin(#6) was born within 24 hours of Texas winning the National Championship, under Vince Young...my family had threatened me NOT to go into labor during the game.  I obliged and Benjamin was born while they were all still exhausted (having not slept the night before out of excitement over the Championship)....so I had dead-tired assistants at Ben's home birth.

So, when Lea threw down the gauntlet....well, I just couldn't let it go at that.  I harassed back through our blogs...Sonja and I emailed through the devastating game, while I yelled my heart out.  Three blogging friends who have never met....had fun!

My son did this for me and says this isn't enough punishment....he doesn't have the gift of mercy!!!

Today I post my defeat picture....and yes, I got my mascots straightened out....I mean, what is a Sooner????

So I bow to the winner... OU (don't expect that again) and just to let you know Lea....your time will come!!!  This game was just shameful!!!  

I also brag on the upcoming McCoy and Shipley Dynesty...we will arise again.  UT also has a fight song I can sing (click to understand)

Hook 'em Horns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Below is a picture of where both teams win....the game that matters most.

Here are my past posts telling about the Christian (click for post) young man Colt McCoy (another post)  His younger brother is now playing at UT and wears number #6, which is half his brother's number #12.

I Interrupt the Previous Scheduled Post

 I interrupt the previous scheduled kitchen re-do post to have....  well a table talk!

I love my tables.  I brought them all with me to our new dwelling.  They are just sentimental pieces to me.

This table was bought when we only had five kids without any expectations of more,however,

that is not how the kids saw it.

This table seats eight and we only had seven, so they all said, "well that means one more Wright!"

At this time their ages ranged from 15 to 2.

So when our future daughter-in-law started eating meals with us...well  she completed the 8...we thought.

Benjamin would enter the picture just years later to complete our family of 8, along with our new daughter-in-law (who technically came first), which extended our family to 9.  For years Ben used the high chair.

Now family gatherings are around the large formal dining room table.

There is my story...here is the transformation this table has been through as our family also transitioned through life.

The table began its life with us with its original clear pine table top with white legs.
This worked great for years and then my painting bug hit me.
About 7 to 8 years ago I got out all my paints and attacked that white boring table.

This is when it is expanded to full size.  Remember it has been in use for 8 years.
The more you use it the more it looks authentic.
The layers are red, gold, off-white, stencil and a stain.

The legs have an extra coat of paint...black, because I was experimenting with leaving them black.
I took my electric sander and danced around  the surface, leaving worn marks, after all the coats of paint were applied and completely dry.
The stain went on last to age the look of the paint and bring protection with its polyurethane.

I sanded over the stencil to produce worn-out edges.

Chairs have multi-coats also...see I told you I had the gold before.

There is the tale of my table and I am sticking with it.
Right now I am dreaming about what colors I might add or paint so it enhances my kitchen.
That will be for another post and another day.
See you soon from the finished kitchen.

Upcoming Premier

Last time you will see the eating area this calm!!

Some how my decorating roll petered out, but not my desire to transform our new dwelling  It just had to  step aside while adjusting  to the new school year and all that extra time I thought I had on my hands...well I haven't found it yet.

So I am creating accountability for myself by giving a upcoming premier of my kitchen. This should jump kick my roll again...hopefully, and make sure my kitchen is "some what" finished by this weekend.

 Blogging before pictures will hold my feet to the heat to show the "some what " finished product...or else disappear in procrastination shame. Now the kitchen will not be totally finished by this weekend, because I plan to enjoy slowlyyyyyyyyyyyyyy finding the right accents, but the bones will be in place.  The upper cabinets will be adored with past kitchen accents, keeping memories alive, while along side the old will be new pieces to go with my retro-theme.  The hunt is part of the thrill of creating a room.

Come on in for the before shots... 

Here is that year 2000 green...notice the back splash is the same color as the walls.  Too much green...didn't stage my pictures...sorry!

More green walls....I have got to do something with my pantry door!!!  Knife block will be changing. Small island...but a good place to put something fun.

Inspirations!

Remember I said I was going to be bold in one room!!!  I want cheerful for my kitchen

Another theme piece...will be carrying out this theme in different places in the kitchen.

Now are you starting to guess which way I am going????

The hotel blinds have been removed....again cheap 2" white faux woods in their place...letting the sun in.

I have one  window properly dressed in her kitchen glory.

The rug under my painted table....well a floor cloth will be taking its place..so long jewel tones..  Love those drop cloths.

Stencil and diamonds...will  found themselves at home again in my kitchen.

All on a very minimum budget...another challenge that just makes it all fun.

See you Soon!!!!