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.

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Food Tastes Better With Polish Pottery

You did not think this was our kitchen. did you? Anyway, we sold our big china cabinet and brown round dining set that used to be here, pictures shown down below. I had this dining set sitting on the back porch all messed up from being outside and getting wet so I had to repaint and refinish it and then moved it here for us to use. I will try to sell it also before our final move.

This is the first tablescape I did here since it has been redone.

 John has been a victim of identity theft recently. We tried to file electronically through Turbo Tax last Monday and our returns were rejected because evidently, someone else had filed an income tax using John's SS number fraudulently. IRS said they were already suspicious and that they have sent us a letter (none received yet as of this date) about it but we still had to file lots of paperwork and call so many organizations to get this problem cleared and we had to file our income taxes on paper by mail. After a few days, I thought we deserved something nice for ourselves so I prepared a lobster lunch for 2. I have given all our veggies to a friend because we were supposed to drive to FL last Wed., which obviously is delayed because of this problem, so it was a simple lobster with garlic cheese toast and rice.

 I set the table using Polish Pottery which always make me happy.

 I thought that when it comes to Polish pottery, I already have everything, but to my surprise, I have no butter warmer. Do they even sell one? Anyway, I improvised! I took a small teapot warmer and placed a lidded sugar bowl on it and added calamundin and butter in it to melt. It worked!

 I bought the lobster already cooked and frozen from Walmart and they were really good and quite meaty.

 The chicken napkin ring holders were a gift from a good friend one past Christmas. Thanks, Noems! Love them!

 That wall looks so bare without the wide china cabinet there, so I moved a rolling tea tray there. Still bare but a little better, lol.

 We have been packing stuff in boxes and I pulled this down from above my doll cabinet and it actually looks nice on this table so I will use it for a while.

 Tin pineapple candle holders. I can't remember where I bought them but I love them. I like anything pineapple because it signifies hospitality and I even like to eat the real one.

 The table runner was bought from one of our Caribbean cruises, from Roatan Island.

If you remember, this was how our kitchen used to be. I sold that large cabinet and then sold the table too. I will miss that cabinet very much because it held lots of my china collection, but we have no room for it in our Florida home.

 This set was sold and is gone now too and the mantel is painted a very pale yellowish cream now.

 And this is "NOW"!

 I distressed the set showing both old finishes, brown stain and turquoise paint.

Thanks for your visits! It has been very busy in our household, never a dull moment, that is why I have not been posting on my blog much nor visiting most of you.  I hope I can make up for it after we are settled in Florida. I have been packing my china and other household stuff and trying to sell what I can let go. Again if you want to be added to my "Moving Sale" on Facebook, send me a request at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1386140495020466/1410727209228461/?notif_t=group_comment even if you are just curious as to what I am letting go. To my surprise, almost everything is going so fast.

Thanks to the hostesses!

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FL Guest BR/Office Changes, Granddaughters

 

I just got back from Florida last Saturday. My granddaughter AJ and her classmate are spending the last week of their summer vacation here so I am still busy but enjoying it. We arrived on the same day in 2 different airports from 2 different FL cities.

 

I just want to share some changes that I did in our FL home during my 3 week stay there, particularly the 2nd guest room, which is also the office. I also want to share some photos taken during our reunion there, my mom's 95th birthday celebration.

 

My sister Tessie, wanted to learn how to refinish  and distress a furniture. So we went to Goodwill to see if I could find a headboard that I can use for one of our guest rooms. And luckily, I found one for $9.99.

 Unfortunately, we did not have time to work on it while my sisters were there. There were just too many people and too much activities going on all the time. But I worked on it after everybody was gone.

 

Normally, I don't prime anymore when I use chalk paint but I only had a little sample of it so I primed, to save on chalk paint.

 Then, I applied the chalk paint, stained and waxed it and this is the end result.

 Just to show some details below.

My daughter gave me this frame which I hang on the hallway. It was hanging in her guest bedroom which she converted to a play room for the kids.

 Here is the bed with the newly painted headboard, with my granddaughter Reese posing in front of it. First I placed the white bed cover.

 But I replaced it with what I had originally placed there before. I like this look better and just folded the white quilt on the foot part.

There it is! Hope you like it as I do. This bedroom is really furnished and decorated on a budget. The full size bed is free, given to me by my daughter after she converted her guest room into a play room. The side table was $7.50 from Goodwill and I just painted it. The headboard is $9.99, which I also painted. The desk and chair which you do not see and are across the bed, was left by the previous owner.

 Next, I just want to share a picture of the triplets. For some of you who do not follow me, they are not really triplets but they were born 2 weeks apart from my 2 daughters so I just call them triplets. The 2 on the right are twins.

 I love those onesies! I found them on Zullily.

 Reese was busy eating, they all were!

 Halle is below, one of the twins. It is very hard to confine Rea to take her picture. She is in constant motion, just overactive so I was unable to take a solo pic.

 And here is the baby of the family, baby Myla, the twins' baby sister.

 The parents went on a night shark fishing and asked me to watch all 4. It was a real challenge, lol, but I was in grandmas' heaven.

 We had a week long reunion to celebrate my mom's 95th birthday. All her children (5 of us) and spouses from all over the states, all their children and spouses and all mom's great grandkids (19 total) attended except for one who is serving in the marines.

 

Ma and her 5 kids below. See how happy she was?

 

I did not count but there were more or less 50 of us, some did not make it on the picture. We occupied my house, my daughter's house next door, her neighbor's house on the other side who were in Germany and another house close by that my brother and his family rented. Everybody gathered in our house everyday and just went back to where they were assigned to sleep at night. The house was full of people, the pool was occupied all day long and the kitchen was very, very busy. My daughter Tina, organized some games outside for us to participate in too. We had a blast!

Thanks for stopping by. Thank you so much to the hostesses too. I appreciate you all very much!

 

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