A couple redos!

Today I wanted to do some things for me. Its been March break from school here and since both my son and husband are home its kind of been all about them this week. I took today off from work and decided to do a couple of redos! The first one is very special to me. Debbie( my sis) over at Goat Creek Bakery made this for me probably around the time I married Dave. Its hard to tell in the pic but it has a blue background and the frame is just plain. It hangs above my fireplace mantle. Well I no longer have anything blue and decided to make the background just black and to paint the frame. I painted it black with antique white over that and then sanded it and added an antiquing gel(we cant get briwax here). I love the way it turned out and the pics dont do it justice at all but it is back in its home all redone just for me!! Now if I could just convince Dave to let me paint the wood behind it and get rid of the ugly lights!!

Th second redo today was a mirror I decided to change ...again! Its been about 3 different colors now and originally was white with flowers on it! I almost forgot to take a before pic so as you can see I had started to paint it black already....

It was yellow and had been done to match my bathroom in my other house. We have been here three years now and it has just sat since it didnt match anything. I decided it should be black too. So I painted it and sanded it and again added the antiquing gel. I love how it turned out and it will find a place in my bathroom again as soon as the walls are painted.Just a couple small projects for the day but very rewarding for me. Its not often I take time out for myself. Im a busy working,hockey,basketball mom and wife. My life revolves around my two men these days with not much time left for me. Since Dave lost his job over a year ago and went back to school I have had to pick up the financial slack so to speak. Some days it isnt easy and I am tired and frustrated and even angry that I have to do everything that is on my plate. The weight on my shoulders is heavy and I hope to see the light of day soon. All in all...taking just a few hours today to do those little things for myself made me feel a little less stressed. Tomorrow it is off on a road trip for hockey. The last one of the year...I love to watch Aidan play...but Im sure glad when the season ends! Hope you all had a great day and are looking forward to the weekend. Im off to read some posts!

Happy St Patricks Day!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful *green* day! I am actually starting to see a little green now that some of the snow has melted. I have a few crocus peeking thru the ground and I cant wait to get rid of the rest of the cold and get out in my gardens! I dont have much to share today just wanted to wish everyone a great day and Show you a pic of my Star! Any suggestions on what I can add to this wall to make it not so plain??? The star is made of old ceiling tin and I love it. If I could find the tin I would make more to sell but its not cheap if you can find the real thing!
Have a great day everyone! May the Luck of the Irish be with you!

What do I do???

Well today has been an interesting day to say the least. I got my office cleaned out and made some progress around the house. This afternoon my mother-in-law called me. A little background.... she lived with us until about 2 years ago when she moved to a seniors apartment complex. It has been so peaceful and stress free since she left since she didnt exactly like me. She made me always feel inadequate and sometimes a stranger in my own home. It was like walking on eggshells everyday. Well...she wants to come back.... ARRRGHHH!!! She asked me to talk to my husband about it(her son) but realistically whats the sense??? How can I in all good conscience tell her no? She is his mother!She is 80 years old...nosey,manipulative and a chronic complainer. Nothing we will do will be right by her but she says she is lonely and thinks she shouldnt be on her own. What am I going to do??? I may have a big Old 5 bedroom house...but Im still not sure its big enough for both of us! HELP!!

Putting the man to work!

Well Dave is off school this week on a break...or so he thinks! He just doesnt realise I am making him work for me this week. When we bought our old house there had been water damage before the roof was redone. You can see it here under the ceiling fan. It was worse than this but this pic was after we tore down the old tiles.

Last fall we repaired the upstairs hall ceiling....actually we just took it down and put up new sheetrock and filled the cracks,etc. Well that is as far as he got.

I have had the paint for it for 6 months now! So this is what he will be completing this week. I am so excited to get this done as I will then be able to stain the floors up there as well. We have them sanded and ready....just wanted to complete the painting first. We also bought paint for the walls so I am hoping it is a productive week!! I will hopefully get to finish the other light I have to paint as well if the weather is good enough to get outside to spray it. Have a great weekend everyone!

My lighting project!

I finally got the project completed I mentioned about a week ago! I never did find the blog again where the lady had redone a light but here is my re-do!! I started with this ugly brass chandelier. I have alot of black wrought Iron accents thru my house and wanted to make the light fixture match and also look more primitive.

I got a can of flat black paint and sprayed it 4 times in total to get the coverage. I removed the glass shades and around the bases of the lights I added coffee stained cheese cloth that I also rolled in cinnamon when it was still wet. It looks light in the pictures but actually isnt when you see it. In the blog I had read they had primmed up the bases by dipping them in wax and grubbying them. My bases were short and not the covers so they couldnt be removed to do that. I improvised and I like the outcome! So what do you think of my new diningroom light?

My Husbands head got in the last one. Hi Dave!It doesnt show well with the light turned on in a pic but that is my completed light! And here is project number two......
This one had the glass panels all the way around but Dave had it taken a part before I got a picture. So this is what I am painting black and these have the covers I can remove and grubby! Thanks for reading!

Roosters,roosters everywhere!!

Since I called my blog *Where the Rooster Crows* I thought I would share with you some of my favorite roosters. As you can see none of them really crow but I have them all over the place! This is hard to see but my curtain toppers have stitched roosters on them. Thats my diningroom.

Also in my diningroom is this nice guy! I love him...he was a gift from my mom because of course we were out somewhere and I said gee I like that rooster!I guess most all of these are in my diningroom And as you can see I like the dark red/burgundy colors. I need to work on this corner....very plain. Any suggestions?This is a plate rack my friend Jenn bought me. It of course has rooster plates! I do change them at times but I always go back to the roosters!Last is this guy hanging on the wall. Speaking of the walls Id like to change the top color. The bottom used to be blue and I changed it to the dark red. I kind of feel there is too much contrast with the off white on top and would like it maybe something a little darker. What do you think?I have many more roosters but I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you. Now you know why the rooster crows at my house! Have a great evening everyone!

Holli

Tea dying project complete!

Well I actually managed to complete my tea dying project. Although not a difficult thing to do it was time consuming as I was tea dying pillows with the stuffing in them. I am pleased with the result but I think the next time I would just spray them. It took FOREVER for them to dry. This is what they looked like before...white eyelet throw pillows.

And this is after I tea dyed them!I prefer the after much better! They are actually a little darker than they look in the pic. I have a matching comforter that I am going to do...when the weather is warmer and I can take it outside and spray it.

I wanted to show you all a pic of my house taken in 1905. The people we bought it from left us a copy of this newspaper photo. As you can see it had beautiful trees around it(most were lost in a hurricane)and a front porch! We love the look of the front porch and it will definately be a future project to add it back on. I cant imagine why anyone would tear it off! You can see a pic of the house as it stands now in my first post. Thanks for reading!

Holli