What's new?

One room down. And a must-see movie.

Wow. I was almost afraid to come back here after seeing other typepad'ers screamin' over some changes. Maybe I'm not seeing them because I have a *pro* account? I dunno. Just glad I don't have to go through a learning curve tonight. One thing I've noticed in other peep's typepad blogs is the 'click to enlarge' photos are no longer limited to 800 pixels wide. I've seen some go really big, and that's cool!

Tonight John and I went to the movie to see Young at Heart. In all my life I don't think I've packed so much emotion into two hours. The entire time we were either laughing or smiling or crying. Go see it quick. There were only three other couples in there besides us. It's one of those that'll be gone in a minute.  I'll go with Melissa and see it again this weekend, and I'll most certainly buy it when it's released. And, I promise here and now; I'll never whine about being *old* again! Age is just a number.

So here's a snapshot of what I've spent the better part of a week working on. Remember a month or so ago when I bought this ol' brown and blah dining set?

Lord knows how long it was going to sit there lookin' just like that...it served it's purpose and I had way bigger things to be thinkin' about. Well, I was sorting through my old wallpaper rolls for some reason I can't even remember right now. I came across the all-time favorite roll that I'd been hoarding all along, and outta nowhere I was hit with divine inspiration!

This is exactly what I saw in my mind. Not always does the end result jibe with the initial vision, but I'm really happy that it worked out this time.

I had to show you the close up of these window coverings.  A few years ago when my dad came up to visit he handed me a hefty bag and said, "These used to hang in your grandmother's house. I thought you could use them." I have to tell you; they truly are one of my MOST cherished posessions. Like, I probably should've left them in the hefty bag because I'd grab them along with the photo albums if there ever were a fire. I mean; even if these were made these days, who could afford them? I had them hanging for a few years, and then down for the past three years. When I recently went looking for them I could not find them anywhere. After a few weeks of trying not to think the worst, I finally found them in a white trash bag out in the garage under a cabinet by the carwashing towels! Thank you God! I'll put the remaining four panels in this front room SOON. Right now, besides the computer, it's filled with yard sale fodder. This Saturday. Definitely this Saturday.

Okay. What were we talking about? Oh yeah. The dining room makeover. Well, I think it was meant to be. After I cut out the fronts and backs of six chairs, and the doors and drawers of the sideboard, I literally had four inches left on the roll. Amazing! Although, looking at the sideboard, I'm afraid it looks a tad too...contrived? I really do need an opinion on that. It'd be no problem to soak it off and paint them. I was crawling around on the floor whenever I had spare time from sleeping and watching grandkids for a week.

Two coats of primer. A coat of white. Crackle. Antique. White again. ALL by hand. Around and around I scooted on a paintcloth.  Look at all those turned legs! Okay. I'm lucky I can still get around on the floor like that, right? No complainin'! OH, and Donna; look how perfect your vintage wallpaper border worked in the room.

I'd seen it listed in her etsy shop, and sure enough; once I trimmed the stripes off the sides it just worked beautifully.

The whole room looks too sterile and fussy to me, but I'm still on a 'lucky to be alive' high from that movie so I'm going to move on tomorrow and reckon the rest will come to me.

Hope this finds you well and happy.

xo, jen

ps: seems MY pics still only open up at 800 wide. Oh well!

Destashing the vintage jewelry

Still forcing myself to organize and destash here. I put lots of vintage jewelry all starting at $2.99 up on ebay today. Yowzers on the computer neck! Must go do stretches now (yeah RIGHT!) ;-)

FINALLY, an Etsy update

Good golly...I fight sitting here at the computer to list things about like a kid with his brussel sprouts! I wish I had a clone...listing stuff on ebay and etsy would be one of her top responsibilities! Here's a little collage (thanks BigHugeLabs!) of what I've put up or am about to put up.

I hope everyone's enjoying their weekend!

A girl and her chocolate

Hello friends! I'm forcing myself to sit here and post because I have a couple of cutie pics I wanted to share. We took our local girls and three grands to brunch at the golf course for Mother's Day. I guess it's never to early to meet the lifetime love of most girls; Chocolate!

Madison turns 6 months old next week, and already she's much more interested in what we're eating than what we have to offer her. So we grabbed a chocolate mousse off the dessert table and oh my my...

Her mother just could NOT seem to scoop it in fast enough! Was so funny...between every bite she'd holler.

Got the attention of the enitre grandma table next to us.

"Really, I don't usually cry this much, but my mother just WON'T feed me fast enough and I realllly like this chocolate stuff!"

Just keep it comin'!

NOOOOO! Not the bottle! Rats. Bein' a kid really sucks sometimes! ;-)

Thanks for the kind comments and emails wondering when I'm gonna be a whirling dervish of creative activity out in the new studio. The thing is; to sit out there and create just for the joy of it would seem akin to playing the fiddle while Rome burns. I let this house go SO LONG without proper attention that I am now working day in and day out, whipping it back into shape one room at a time. I actually see an end in site and it's really exciting! I think for the first time in a long time I'm going to have a home I'm proud to show every room of by the next holiday season. I can't tell you how happy that thought makes me. I did recently have an idea for valances in the studio. I was so anxious to see them made up that I spent a goodly amount of the last four days making them.

Kinda lousy pics taken as the sun was setting but you get the idea.

I tried talking myself out of doing them...you know; putting so much time into something so frivolous, but I argued that they would make me smile every day that I walk in there for many years to come, so I won. ;-)

And on that note, I'm headed back out there to finish the third and final one. 

take care! jen

Caleb up to bat

Hi all- Tried sending a short clip of Caleb at the bat to my dad via email, but even tho it's only 30 seconds it was way too big to mail, so I'll be using youtube to upload the occasional video. I'm one proud grandma when this boy's up to bat! I think the wind chill factor was like 36 degrees out there tonight. Possibly the coldest place on the planet! brrr.