Mid-Century Mess to Marvelous

Once the decision was made that Lottie and Molly would become a reality, the panic set in about what I would put in to sell.  Holy cow I had nothing more than an idea! The timing of the decision and the need to find goodies could not have come at a worse time.

We were preparing for BDJ to home come for a visit, a vacation, the start of my new job and Mini beginning her senior year of high school.  When would I find the time to find anything to even makeover?  It seemed that every weekend was either maxed out with activity, we were not home or it was pouring rain.

When I did manage to make it out to some yard sales I tended to panic buy.  Believe me there is a learning curve to this buying and selling business.   I was so desperate to build a stockpile and tend to be frugal (or as Lottie would say, CHEAP) that I was always seeming to bring home the dregs of yard sales.

Sometimes this was a good plan...others not so much.  The first day out stockpiling I spent with Wonder Hubby and we found some real jewels.  So many in fact, we filled the 4runner and had to go home and unload before we were a mile from home!  The second run of the day wasn't yielding quite the quality of things the first run did. 

Lottie had already been to this particular sale and reported there was nothing there.  Wonder Hubby spent a whole five minutes there before he declared it desolate.  I, on the other hand was determined to find something.  Tucked into the back corner of a carport was this beauty.

 

Ain't she purdy? The mix of dark wood and hunter green messily painted drawer fronts was just stunning!  Oh yeah she was a natural beauty and so together....not.   One leg fell off while I was looking her over and once I negotiated her down to $12.00 Wonder Hubby drug her out and proceeded to rip my shorts with one of her legs.  I should have known at this point she was going to be a difficult lady.

Once home I took off her legs and cleaned her up.  Since she was mid-century sleek I knew I didn't want to go the traditional chalk paint and distress route.  Her top had lived a rough life so going with a glossy finish wasn't a good idea.  Truly I was thinking she was a bad panic buy and I should just send her on her way.

The Nana and Mini took a look at her and decided she would look great if painted something really hip.  Since they tend to be way more modern and fashionable than I, they chose her color, deep purple.  Yes, you read that correctly, deep purple.

I decided I didn't have much money in her and The Nana said she would buy her if she didn't sell so I decided to give purple a shot.  I knew I wanted to do some stencil work on her drawers as well and thought that might break up the sea of purple.

Remember when I said I should have know she would be difficult?  Well, I had no idea just how difficult.  I do a lot of painting, small decorative pieces, furniture and murals all freehand but stenciling has never been not forte.  Freehand painting lets you hide your mistakes easily since the design is all you.....no sticking to patterns and rules.  I hate rules in painting!

Once the stencil design had been decided and the multiple coat of purple had been applied it was declared stencil time.  Have I mentioned that I really don't do math?  Well, I don't and as far as I am concerned any measuring less than a 1/4 inch is math so getting the stencil centered top to bottom and side to side was a tricky proposition.  Naturally this stencil wasn't large enough to cover the whole drawer front area and required a separate corner stencil....you know just to test your patience and stencil skills.

First go round I enlisted Wonder Hubby but he really lacked interest in this and suggested I eyeball it.  Really?  I have never hung anything straight so why this seemed like a good idea to him is beyond me.  Next up...Mini. Mini is a math whiz so I figured she would knock this out in minutes.....ummm math whiz does not = stencil placement pro.  Finally The Nana tried a few methods.  One of which ended up too far to one end...oops!

 

 In the end......I ended up taping off a "frame" to stencil within.  One drawer down...two to go.

 It worked well enough to get this Purple Time Eater done!   Although I ended up having to re stencil twice since I taped the first go round and the stencil was so thin I had creeping paint.  After a good dose of spray adhesive I managed to get the whole thing done.  I am such a perfectionist I ended up touching up nearly every line on the thing by hand but in the end (after days and days) she turned out to be a real beauty. 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!  I am joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Met Mondays...visit me there!

 

 

And.....We're Off - The Adventures of Lottie & Molly

This question is.....Are we off our rockers or off and running in our antiquing and junking adventure?  The answer is both!

 

Lottie and Molly officially opened on September 1.  Lottie and I both have been fortunate and actually sold some things before we were even officially opened.  It is such a charge when someone falls in love with a piece that you have bonded with! lol 

 

Our initial fears were of not finding enough stuff to fill the place up.  3 weeks later....we have more than we can fit in.   Junk Buddy aka Lottie is considering expanding the booth to accommodate her windfall of free furniture she recently found out about.  If only I had the excess stock issue....I am struggling to keep projects coming.

 

Lottie tells me daily I need to quit this whole job thing because it is screwing up our junking life.  The truth is, IT REALLY IS, but I like the job too so I think I will just keep trying to strike a balance.  I think it will be a bit easier when I don't have yard work.  I always want to be in the yard when I can be.....so when the weather gets colder I won't have that temptation.

 

Here are a few pictures of where I space is and some of the pieces we have in stock currently.

 

Since neither of us has ever had an antique booth before it is all trial and error on arranging and pricing.  It is fun and frustrating at the same time!  My biggest problem seems to be wanting to keep the projects I really love.....and since I only buy and makeover things I love this could become a big problem fast.   I will be sharing some of the projects I have been working on for the booth soon.  Thanks for stopping in.

Changes are in the Air....and I like Them!

Everyone that knows me knows I am not a fan of cool weather, and I loathe cold weather.  I am a hot weather kind of gal.  I like to work in the yard and come in worn out and drenched, I will sit on my deck, porch or the beach at 110 degrees (okay so I go in more if it is that hot but you get the idea!).  I can always cool down but I NEVER SEEM to get warm.  Given all that, I am generally quite grumpy about fall. Fall to me was always an ending...an ending that signaled nothing but bleak skies and cold.

Over the last few years I have gotten better about Fall by ignoring it.   I have expanded my collection of fall décor and extended gardening until almost Thanksgiving.  This year is different though.  The weather here this Spring and Summer was downright weird.  It was cool way longer than normal.  So spring and summer gardening was running late.   I was nearly a month behind on planting my annuals and tomatoes and that never happens.  I generally have to drag every towel, sheet and newspaper I can find to the yard to stave off frost since I have planted way too early.  Not this year.

Once it did get warm enough to plant, the rains came and came and came.  In fact I think it literally rained all but 4 or 5 days in the whole month of July!  Thankfully there was an upside.  A normal mid July walk in the yard would be accompanied by the sound of crunching grass.  This year with all the rain our yard is just now beginning to crunch and water bill stayed low because I hardly ever watered.  The downside to too much water and not enough heat - a sluggish growing season. 

 

For the first time ever my inpatients didn't grow to knee high, my tomatoes never grew to any size and suffered rot from the excess water.  Weeds however, thrived! 

So as we roll into fall this year.....here is the big shocker..... I am actually enjoying it!   My plate is full already between work and my antique booth so I am (dare I say it?) almost giddy that the growing season won't last until Thanksgiving for the bulk of my plants.  This weekend the inpatients, vinca and callibrochoa are all going bye bye.  I will leave the sweet potato vine, other greenery and the mums to carry us till the holiday season. 

 

Hopefully having all the annuals out of the way early will allow me to clean up the beds early.  Even though there will be tons of leaves to clean up, not having to work around still blooming plants will make it much easier.

Yes, I am embracing seeing the fall décor, nippy evenings and the beautiful crystal blue skies that September and October bring. 

 

This photo from last fall reminds me there is true beauty in fall.

 

 

 My list of yummy fall goodies to bake and cook is quite lengthy already and I REALLY MUST get started on my Christmas shopping.

 

I am also looking forward to a couple of days in Gatlinburg in October....with pretty scenery like this.

 

 

 

So this weekend when I am not working on furniture for the booth, I will relax and piddle in the yard, watch a lot of football and fill the house with the smells of fall. 

 

Thanks for stopping by I hope you all are enjoying this beginning of fall in your little corner of the world.

 

Summer of Change

So proud of myself for actually making an effort to blog!  As much as I love blogging and spending hours piddling on blogs researching great blogs the winds of change have blown us about as if we lived on the plains.

I had hoped this summer would be relaxed and filled with lots of family time....what was I thinking?  We did enjoy a wonderful vacation as a family but the rest of the summer has been a total mish mash of little family moments.

Wonder Hubby's schedule changed. It usually happens twice a year but this year we will enjoy it three times! Yay :(  We haven't fully adjusted to the new schedule and are looking at another change in less than a month.  It always turns everything upside down for a bit. 

Mini started a new job which means she has been working like crazy.  She has what she calls the "best job in the world", working at a drive in that first opened in the 1950's.  She has become quite the milkshake mixologist!  It is awesome to have kids that LOVE to work but it was yet another change to adjust to.  BDJ snapped these pictures of her while he was home.

My summer started out with lots of yard work and a good bit of junking with my junk buddy Tammy.  I have been struggling with needing something more to do since we are only a year away from Mini heading off to college, so yard work has been filling a good bit of my time until I found just the right job or other adventure.  Since this is the Summer of Change I should have expected this to change as well.

Late in June, Junk Buddy and I completed some amazing bedside tables for her master bedroom.  We had such a good time and the results were sooooo pretty we decided we were ready for prime time and should open a booth and sell some of our creations.  Yea...we were high on A SINGLE successful makeover and not really thinking!

 

How fun will that be?  We found some booth space in an adorable antique mall, plunked down our deposit and then realized we needed some stuff!  No problem with yard sales abounding we should be able to fill it up in no time.  Grrrrrr...maybe not so fast.

I am sure you have heard the old adage "feast or famine."  Well as far as feeling fulfilled with a job or project I have definitely been in famine so the prospect of working with Junk Buddy on our own little piece of junk heaven was exciting.  Of course this too would be a change....a good one! 

Don't forget there is another part to that adage....feast!  So after a long famine here the feast began.  Only 3 days after deciding to open a booth I received a text from my former boss at the travel agency offering me a job!

 At first I was unsure if I should take the job but knowing I needed to be a busy bee when our nest becomes empty next fall I couldn't pass it up.    I work part time and since the boss is a good friend, we negotiated the hours and I am home by the time Mini is (that is on the rare occasion she gets home right after school)! I love the work.....I mean what's not to love about helping people take their dream vacation?

Now my problem issue is too much to do in too little time.  Right after making our decision to open our booth BDJ came home for a visit and vacation, the rains began, limiting yard sales, I started my job, Junk Buddy has been vacationing and school started back.  Finally last week Junk Buddy and I had a day to get together and plan a bit.  Both of us are going to be running in circles like lunatics busy, busy, busy trying to complete enough projects to launch this new baby. 

After weeks of tossing ideas back and forth we finally decided to name our booth....drum roll here.......Lottie & Molly.  The name is special to us because Lottie is Junk Buddy's Grandmother's name and my Great Grandfather's nickname for my Great Grandmother (who is by the way Mini's namesake) and embraces the vintage feel we wanted.  Here are a few photo's of our soon to be home.

Sometimes change is a good thing but I caution you to be careful what you pray for...you just might get more change than you bargained for!  I will be posting pics of our new booth and some of my projects soonish, thanks for stopping by.

(Full Disclosure......this post has been sitting 3 1/2 weeks....I gotta do better!)

Guest Post - Words of Hope

I am so behind on posting and that includes sharing Mini's latest columns.  I think I am currently 2 or 3 behind...and I feel horrible.  She pours so much into these columns with the hope that they reach people and change hearts and I am such a slacker and haven't done what I could by posting.  I am a bad Mama right now :(

 

Hopefully I will be caught up on these within a couple of weeks. Below is one of Hope's most recent articles.

 

 

                Do you ever just pray and pray about something and ask for God’s guidance, but you feel like you never receive it? I think that this is probably something that happens frequently in the average Christian’s life. In most (not necessarily all) cases, the root of the problem can be traced back to the lack of growth within you.

          When you first become a believer or undergo this revival in your spiritual life, you are SO passionate and ready to receive whatever God gives you. You pour your time into the word and prayer and whatever could satisfy this hunger inside of you to become as close to God as you possibly can. But then what happens? Life happens. Everyone is stretching you into a different direction and demanding your time and your mind and your energy and you just become exhausted and preoccupied. Your prayers become shorter with less emotion, your bible reading turns into skimming or you just stop reading altogether. And slowly but surely, you lose that passion you had. I don’t know about you, but when I reach this point, God seems to get pretty quiet. Why is that?

          Let’s take a look into an Old Testament book that I am reading for the very first time: Ezekiel. When this book starts out, God is MAD at Israel. He has given them years and years and years of signs and warnings to turn from their idols, but they refuse. Their hearts are far from God. So God tells Ezekiel that he is to go to Israel and tell them all about what is going to happen to them. In Ezekiel 2, God hands Ezekiel a scroll filled with “words of lament and mourning and woe” that he is to deliver to the people. But God starts to tell him some pretty strange stuff.

Ezekiel 3:1-3 “And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.”  So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.”

          That’s a pretty strange request if you ask me. History shows that these scrolls were normally made out of insanely thick paper or even hard leather. Just imagine digesting an entire scroll made out of leather… God was definitely trying to get some underlying point across. Maybe not just to Ezekiel (I’ll probably be able to answer that when I actually finish the book), but maybe a lesson in itself. If you notice, Ezekiel didn’t say something along the lines of “it was really bitter and hard to swallow, but I do as God commands and it was worth it”. No, he says that it tasted sweet. It was delightful and it filled his stomach to the point of no more hunger. I believe that God is telling us that we must absolutely consume his word in order to grow.

          If you look in other parts of this book, God is constantly telling Ezekiel to stand up and basically prepare to be used. A device called repetition is used here, and for any other English geeks like me, you know that if something is being repeated, it is of major importance. As used here, the underlying message is that in order for God to use you or guide you or even seriously dwell in your heart, you MUST eat the word of God.

          So the moral of the story is this: If you want a constant revival, something that you will never ever lose, start consuming the word of God. Get all that you can get, read all that you can read. Take notes, do bible studies. Be in the word every single day. It may be tough at first (like leather) to take that time out of every day to read, but I can promise you that it will be sweet as honey. God’s word will fill you up and you will experience that revival we all love every single day. God bless.

         

  

Back to School Breakdown?

Wow....hard to believe it is that time again but Mini started back to school August 1st.  We are on year round school which has the advantage of multiple breaks but the disadvantage of bringing summer to a screeching halt August 1st.  Below are pictures taken her first day of school back in 2001.

 

 

This year going back to school brought some very unique challenges for Wonder Hubby and I (starting with the fact that to us she still looks like the pictures above).  Sometimes we experience the same thing Steve Martin did in the scene from Father of the Bride when his daughter announced she is getting married and he sees a seven year old! 

Mini started her senior year in high school.  I know it is cliche' but where did the time go?  Her past 11 years of school have flown!  I feel like we learned how quickly time goes by with BDJ and were really soaking in every minute with Mini but it still wasn't enough.

On Sunday before school started the family and Mini's boyfriend got together and surprised her with a "Good Luck Senior Year" party.  She was surprised for sure. She expressed how much she appreciated the party and the unwavering support she has from her family.

Completely confused as to why all the cars are in the drive.



Thankfully it was a pleasant surprise!

 Below are pictures of Mini's last first day of school. Someone appropriately pointed out she is still rocking the capris, sandels and backpack!

I am not sure whether the breakdown I have had about her going back to school has to do with her growing up, my hormones, facing an empty nest or fighting the feeling that this is the end.  I have really been up and down since school started back. 

I am trying to keep in mind that my feelings toward graduating high school and heading off to college may be skewed due to BDJ.  He graduated college and moved across the country only days later.  It shouldn't be forever but right now the two years he has been gone feel like forever.  So, I am transferring a unjustified fear that senior year is just step one in being far, far away to Mini and I know it isn't fair so I am working hard to tamp that feeling down.

The year has gone well for Mini so far she is so, so busy.  She is trying to balance being President of the student body, and clubs with honors classes, church activities and her job while being inundated with college options and the dizzying process of scholarships.


Time feels like it has kicked into warp speed.  I think I have had a total of 3 hours with her in a week!  Bless her heart she is so aware of this and makes a huge effort to make time for us.  We are so very, very blessed with such a sweet, beautiful and successful daughter but there are times when you wish for a underachiever!

An underachiever might not finish high school and would live with you forever!  Okay maybe they would finish high school but not attend college far away.  Maybe they would stick close to home, get married and have babies quickly therefore giving us new grandbabies to distract us from our empty nest.    I'm joking people.  As completely unabashedly selfish appealing as that all sounds at times, I want to help my children take advantage of the opportunities they are presented and spend their lives doing the things they love. Which means, like it or not, not just letting them go but helping them to fly. 

I wish I had understood this more when BDJ first left for college (first kid = guinea pig) but with time comes wisdom.  Not that I am not hanging onto Mini with both hands! lol 

So once again....taking deep breaths and accepting change.