2 Projects Accomplished While Teen Sitting

My daughter Rochelle and family had a scheduled retreat the other week but their teenage daughter AJ, has school which they did not want her to miss. So, they asked if we would stay at their house for the week to keep her company. Of course, we are always willing to take care of grand kids and allow Rochelle and her family enjoy a normal life after Rea has been in and out of hospitals last year.

 

Anyway, I thought it would be a good time to do some projects while I was there. This was AJ's bedroom for almost 4 years now. Cute, but she is older now, wll be 17 in a week, and has lost interest on this cutesy stuff. We decided to redo the walls, for a start.

Another "Before" picture

This is how it looks after we painted the walls a really faint blue color. You will also notice that her twin size bed has been replaced a queen.

Her furniture need to be updated. We searched for used ones that I could refinish but did not find what we wanted. AJ also wants an iron headboard but again, we did not find what she likes and we ran out of time.

I repainted her old dresser, which she plans to give to the twins after we find her a bigger one.

We also searched for a pair of night stands but as you can see, we have not found any yet. I need another month to stay there and help her search but I am already home cause I have things to do at home too. For now, this is how her bedroom looks and she really likes it. The color is very soothing. I will keep searching for furniture for her but this will do until then.

Here was another one of my projects. Sorry but I forgot to take before pictures but I can describe what this area used to look like. It was just a solid wall against the staircase. My son in law, Derek, is really handy. He knew there was space behind the wall so he opened it up during one of Rea's stays in the hospital and created an opening for the girls to go in and created a club house/playroom for our 3 little girls.

 

The inside walls were all painted white and that was how it was when we came.

 

I originally planned to paint clouds and a tree and birds inside the room but I really did not have enough time. The family was scheduled back in 6 days and I already spent 3 of them painting AJ's room, not to mention driving her back and forth to school and doing the normal house chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc, and furniture hunting. It took me a lot of time painting because of the different color splatters that I had to cover. I had to prime the wall twice.

I found a tree wall stick ons with birds and some butterflies and I knew they would work. I think they were perfect and the room turned out really cute.

The "Princess Parking" plaque was already there. I need to move it to the other wall and park one of their ride on toys.

Our 3 toddler granddaughters love playing pretend tea parties so I got them a little tea set, bought a small checkered dishcloth and arranged a picnic tea party by the tree to surprise them. You can see a little bit of the ceiling here where I painted some clouds.

They were so excited when they saw the room as soon as they arrived.

Their smiles were priceless!

How I miss these babies now that I am back home.

Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your visits and comments. I also thank all our diligent hostesses for all their parties.

Beverly's Pink Saturday
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Natasha's Weekly Sundays Down Under
http://www.natashainoz.com/

Susan's Metamorphosis Mondayhttp://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Making Memories Monday
www.threekidsandafish.com

Inspire Me Monday
http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/

Sally's Blue Monday
http://smilingsally.blogspot.com

Show and Share http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

Christine's Table it Monday
http://www.rustic-refined.com/

Cindy's Amaze me Monday
http://www.dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com/

Creative Mondays Blog Hop
www.clairejustineoxox.com

Kathryn's Make it Pretty Monday
http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/

Sandi's Teatime Tues
http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Ruth's Tuesday Cuppa Tea
http://www.antiquesandteacups.info

Martha and Terri's Teacup Tues
http://www.marthasfavorites.com/

Marty's Inspire Me Tuesday
http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Maria Elena's Tuesdays at Our Home
http://mariaelenasdecor.blogspot.com/

Paula's What's It Wed
http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

Show and Share Wednesday Link Party
http://www.mostlyhomemademom.com/

Sarah's Homemaking party
http://www.hopeineveryseason.com/

Before and After Wed Party
http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/

Idea Box Thursday Party
http://milaslittlethings.com

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday
http://www.adelightsomelife.com/

Share Your Cup Thursday
http://jannolson.blogspot.com/

Bernideen's Tea Time
http://blog.bernideens.com/

Share your Style Thursday
http://northernnesting.blogspot.com/

Tablescape Thursday
http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday
http://www.adelightsomelife.com/

Share your Style Thursday
http://northernnesting.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home
The Charm of Home

Lorelai's Home Matters
http://lifewithlorelai.com/

Kate's Flaunt it Friday
http://chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com

Anything Blue Friday
http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday
http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/

 

Playing Artists

I have been working really hard towards the replacement of our floors while working with my daughters through long distance on baby plans, making travel arrangements, working with the gardener one day a week and preparing my booth for the coming holidays. Debjani has been studying hard in school and so we both decided that we need to do something relaxing and fun.

During Balloon Festival last month, we bought an unpainted plaque with a hot air balloon with the intention of painting them. And so Debjani came on her day off from school and this became our project. It was a nice day so we did it on our project table in the garage, with music blasting from the i phone. The top oval one is Debjani's and mine is the rectangular one at the bottom.

While we were painting, I was baking stuffed pork chops with boudin. This was the first time I've ever had this and it was delicious. I bought it already stuffed at the Vidalia Cajun market.

Debjani brought Mississippi Mud cake for our dessert. mmm, it was so good and moist that I ate all of our leftover, too lol

While I was setting the table, I remembered I had bought some plates from Sur la Table sometime last year that are shaped like a painter's palette.

I wanted to add something colorful too so out came the Spode Emma's Garland tea set.

This table was thrown together for less than 10 min. in between painting and cooking, so there is nothing fancy here.

I love the unusually shaped plates that are so perfect for the occasion.

I used an oval seagrass placemats and a sparkly glass green plate chargers.

No salad plates needed cause we only had rice and pork chops. Besides, I did not want to cover these unique plates.

We took a picture of the artist wannabes just before eating, lol.

Thanks a lot for stopping by. Please visit our hostessess too if you can.

I would like to link with the following lovely ladies:

Susan's Met. Monday for the transformation of the balloon plaques at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Sally's Blue Monday at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/
Mellow Yellow Monday at http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/
Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

Lady Katherine's Teatime Tuesday at http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/

Sandi's Teatime Tues at http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/

WandaLee and Pam's Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday at http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/

Trish' Tea Party Tuesday at http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/

Sherry's Open House Party Thursday at http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/
Susan's Tablescape Thurs http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/
Miss Spencer's Teacup Thursday at http://missspensersblog.blogspot.com/

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Sherry's Home Sweet Home Fri at http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Thanks for hosting!

Keep It Simple

Barb of Grits and Glamour is having a Keep it Simple party at http://gritsglamour.blogspot.com/

Since I just created this last week in a few minutes, I thought it would be a good contribution.

I bought this 9 x 9 square canvas, already printed with the smaller colorful squares, for $1/pr. from the other vendor at the store. Yep, 50 cents a piece. I didn't know what to do with them at the time but I knew I would come up with something someday.

And then I remembered that my daughter who is pregnant with twin babies, is decorating the babies' room with an under the water theme and the mural has these colors already, I thought of using them to frame their sono pictures. I embellished them with purple rhinestones and some flowers and framed the pictures with ribbons.

And there they are hanging in the nursery now.






I hope you like my simple project.



Thanks a lot for stopping by and thanks, Barb, for hosting a great meme!

From Blah to Blue!

I bought this table with an attached lamp from a consignment shop in Vicksburg. I wanted to paint it but my husband is always against painting anything stained wood so I brought it to the store as is.

It sat there forever. I just knew it because it was ugly. So, I decided I gave it enough chance and I took it home to be refinished. Here it is now in our garage.

See the pedestal table in the background? It will be my next project after I convince my hubby that it needs to be refinished. We bought it from a junk store for $40 and it is solid heavy wood and in perfect condition.

Ok, done! I used Annie Sloan's chalk paint in Duck Blue so I did not even have to prime it. This is the first time I ever tried that kind of paint and I love it.

I just sanded a few spots to give it a distressed look and then waxed it.

John bought this ugly TV stand for the kids' guest room while I was in Florida. It was gray and ugly and I hated it. As soon as I got a table that I liked better, I brought this in the garage and it stayed there forever until AJ, my granddaughter, was visiting here last month and we were looking for a project to do. I decided to paint this. I gave her a primer and she did most of the painting and then it sat in the garage again.

I finally decided to spray paint it after I was finished repainting the lamp table.

Do you see it in the background on the right? The paint was a little uneven. It's not wood and the spray paint would not adhere evenly but it's ok. It had an appearance of a cloud and I think it's pretty cool. It'll be perfect for a small boy's bedroom. I brought it to my booth to sell also.

I embellished the lamp shade a little, glued some of these feathery stuff.

I brought it to my booth last Saturday. I am curious to see how long it will sit there again.

What do you think?

Linking with Susan for Metamorphosis Monday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

Sally for Blue Monday at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Mary's Masterpieces Monday at http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/

Carrie's Amaze Me Monday at http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/

Many thanks to our gracious hostesses and thanks to you all for visiting!

A Very Simple Refinishing Project

I am linking with Susan for Metamorphosis Monday at
http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

and Kim's Wow Us Wednesdays at http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

I had a very small project which has been sitting in the garage for quite sometime. I finally got the energy to work on it.

I bought this little occasional table from one of the other vendors in the store for $12. The finish was in real bad shape but the table itself is still solid, legs are pretty sturdy and not wobbly.

I took it out on the driveway to start working on it. I sanded it really well and then primed it and let it dry overnight.

Then took a leftover paint that I found in the garage and started painting. I let it dry and sanded again and repainted.

I pretty much followed Kim's way of refinishing but of course, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as hers. I had saved one of her blogs showing how to do it and it worked pretty well. Thanks Kim!

What do you think?

I buffed it with Minwax paste afterwards. It went back to the store to sell in my booth. It's ok if it does not sell because I can use it to display small items that I sell there.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks to Susan and Kim for hosting.