Blogging, Encouragement, Joy

The Liebster Award

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A happy surprise came to me last week via Sarah at Church Street Designs.  The Liebster Award!! 


I was instantly excited because seriously, who doesn’t like awards?!?  I have seen this floating around the blog world just a little, but didn’t know much about it. Through doing a little searching I discovered that it is an award given by bloggers to bloggers to encourage one another, and to help us all get to know new people. Usually shared among new bloggers.  This made me even more excited, because who doesn’t like to give and receive encouragement, and who doesn’t like to get to know new people – one of my favorite things about blogging!!  

So, thank you Sarah!!  Part of the fun of accepting the award and passing it on are these questions.  The person nominating you creates 11 questions, and you do the same for those that you nominate.  Just another fun way to get to know one another.  

1. What is your favorite thing to blog about?
Whatever the Lord might bring to my heart to share 🙂 – everyday is different!
2. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
Spain with my hubby
3. What is your favorite season, why?
I really like fall and spring, mostly because I don’t like it to be really hot and I don’t like it to be really cold
4. What blog inspired you to blog, or inspires you now as a blogger?
Thrifty Decor Chick was one of the first blogs I ever followed, and my real life friend Dimples and Tangles inspired me as well
5. The Beach or the Mountains?
Beach!!  No question 🙂
6. If all jobs paid the same, which job would you choose to do?
Being a mom is the best job there is!!
7. What is your favorite type of food?
Any kind that I don’t have to cook
8. What is one of your pet peeves?
People who don’t follow rules
9. Are you more of an early bird or night owl?
night owl – but I get cranky if I don’t get enough sleep
10. What are the two most important things to you?
My Lord Jesus and my family
11.  What is something you have never done, but would like to try?
Fly a plane.

I am now happy to pass on this award by nominating these five fun blogs.

A couple of these are real life friends, a couple I have been following for a short time, and one is a brand new find!  Please stop on over and check them out, and please feel free to follow along if you like what you see!!

And here are the rules for accepting the Liebster Award, for all the fabulous blogs I’ve chosen…
1} Write a blog post like this sharing the good news with everyone and link back to the person who nominated you.
2} In that post answer the questions given to you by your nominator.
3} Pick at least 5 bloggers, each with under 200 subscribers, to be nominated for the award.
4} Come up with at least 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
5} Go their blogs and notify them of their nomination.
Here are my questions for my nominees:

1.  Why did you start blogging?
2.  What blogger inspires you most?
3.  What would you consider your biggest life achievement to date?
4.  What’s your favorite color?
5.  Fall or Spring?
6.  Beach or mountains?
7.  If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
8.  Introvert or Extrovert?
9.  What is your favorite memory?
10.  What is your biggest pet peeve?

Blessings to you all and thanks again for the encouragement from Sarah!!  Please pass on the love by checking out some of these blogs, and maybe even follow along ;).  
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Budget, Crafting, Fall, Painting

Going Gold

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I have been a silver lovin’ girl for as long as I can remember.  But, I have been seeing all these gold accents floating around the blog world and I decided to give it a go on something small.  Since we are still mucking through our no spend September, I went to the garage to see what I could find.  I didn’t think I had any gold spray paint (plenty of silver), and I didn’t.  But I did find this.  

Leftover from a project my hubby did.  I found a couple of victims for my paint.

A set of pine cones, and a couple of dollar tree pumpkin/gourds that were a painting fail from last year.  

I used a brush to paint the pumpkin and gourd.

*side tip* If you want to keep a paintbrush fresh during a project – put it in a plastic bag between coats.  It will stay wet and not get sticky or goopy. *


And then I sat looking at the pine cones – trying to cover the pine cone completely in and out of all those little pokey things with a brush.  Hmmm.  I fished out a clothespin and attached it the top of the pine cones and preceded to DIP the pine cone in the can of paint. Brilliant!!  

(I used a piece of waxed paper for a drying surface.)  I was able to do that with both of the smaller ones, but unfortunately the bigger one didn’t fit in the can, so I had to paint that one.  Isn’t that big one a giant?!?  I’m not even sure where I found that but I love it!!

When I first painted them they had a brownish, tarnished look to them, but as they began to dry they took on a shinier look, and then they toned back down a bit when they were completely dry. 

Here they are finished!!


Here are the pine cones in their position for the fall (and a sneak peek of my mantel).  


So, I didn’t dive head first into the gold wave, I just put my toe in.  But I really like the richness it adds, so who knows what will be my next victim!!

Blessings to you!!




*I have to say I don’t have a super duper fancy camera and I am trying hard to learn how to make what I see come across on the screen, but sometimes when I look at the screen, it’s not quite right. #stillnotaphotopro I hope you are able to get the idea and are inspired still by what you see.*

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Budget, Decorating, Encouragement, Faith, Frazzled, Jesus, Joy, Painting, Renovating

White Washed Brick {and a battle}

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Something about me saying I was going to try to not spend extra money in the month of September must have made the devil mad, cuz he has been throwing all kinds of stuff my way. Ha!  My friend shared this scripture on instagram this morning and yes, this and so many other truths are what I have been leaning on through this mess.  

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.  Psalm 62:1-2


You may have seen this picture from last week.

When my washer drain backed up all over the floor, and in the kitchen sink.  Well…
The very. next. day. my dryer stopped heating…
 
At this point I was over it.  Not panicked in the least – me and my Lord don’t crumble that easily, but I needed something to distract my attention from the piles of laundry.  So, I dove into a project that has been swimming around in my head for a while.
 

I have never been a fan of painted brick.  I don’t know why, it’s just not my thing. With that said, I do not like the color of the brick on our house.  It has that same orange glow that everything in the house has.  It’s fine outside – I mean I can live with it, we painted the trim in such a way that it seems to tone it down.  But, inside – ick.  I knew I would never paint it, but then over the past year I have seen several white-washed looks floating around.  I was intrigued.  I liked that, depending on how much paint you used, you could still see the brick look.  So, in light of my current circumstances, I decided why not – what else could go wrong- right (never say that by the way ;)).  

I went to the garage and found some leftover white paint I had (the same paint I used in my laundry room), a container, a brush, and a rag.  I decided to try a really small amount of paint at first, knowing I could always make it darker, but never lighter.  So I used a ratio of 1 part paint to 3 parts water.  Not enough paint. So I ended up with a 50/50 ratio, and that got me the look that I was after.  I have seen white washes that are really close to just painting, but I really just wanted a cloudy top coat to tone down the color of the brick.  Here are some pictures to see how it went.  

living room fireplace
 
Here’s a before just so you know what we were starting with – orange brick.
white wash
Nope that’s not milk 😉
white washing tools
The tools – a cheap brush, and an old clean rag.  I did dust off the brick before I started, and brushed out the corners, but nothing else needed to prepare the surface.
white washing brick
Just brush the watered down paint on, let it soak in for a little bit (maybe a minute or two), and then wipe it down removing the excess paint.  The longer you let it sit, the more will soak in and the harder you wipe, the more paint you will remove.
white washed brick before and after
Just know – it’s a messy project!!
white washed brick before and after

Here’s a side-by-side before and after.  Just a subtle change, but really exactly what I wanted.  No more orange glow and it seems to make the corner feel a little big bigger.  

white washed brick fireplace surround
I’m really happy with the end product.  The hardest thing about this process was not letting my perfectionist self try to over work it.  Reminding myself frequently that the beauty of it lies in the imperfections.  🙂
Good news!!  As I was writing this post, my handy hubby finished fixing my dryer!!  Now, I have to face the mountain of laundry awaiting me – can’t hide my head in the sand forever…or can I?  🙂
 
Blessings to you and yours!!

Curious to see how this room looks now? Check out this post

painted brick fireplace surround

and this post!

 DIY floating mantel
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Faith, Family, Insta-Friday

Insta-Friday {Sept 13th}

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This week has seemed long and wearing to me.  Maybe it’s because last week was short.  I don’t know.  Anywho, sharing me week in my insta-pics

My girlie was invited to be a part of her friends quinceanera celebration.  Isn’t she pretty :)?

My big boy attended a baseball showcase camp at my Alma-Mater OSU.  Stillwater is such a lovely place.

We have been draining the pool all week, and today we started taking it down.  It is quite a process, but I am happy to take it down and have the yard for the kids to use the other 9 months out of the year.

I pulled my sewing machine out of my closet to work on a couple of spruces around the house.

When I was pulling fabric from my stash for a project I discovered this.  I am a starter of projects, not always a finisher.  The bloggy world inspires me and motivates me to finish things, and it is a GOOD thing!

This happened.  Water backing up everywhere.  Which meant I couldn’t do laundry, or run the dishwasher.  UGH!!  After about 3 hours of plunging, snaking, and liquid plumbering, the clog was gone and no more back-ups.  Thankful for a hubby who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty – saves us a lot of money.

This kid made us immensely proud this week.  He is a National Merit Semi-Finalist!!  He has been blessed by God with incredible smarts, a thirst for knowledge, and an amazing ability to return said knowledge.  God has big plans for him and we are enjoying watching them unfold.

I have to say I’m kinda glad it’s Friday.  🙂
Follow along on instagram @denisegwood

Hope your week was blessed!!  Thanks for stopping by friends 🙂

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Budget, Crafting, De-cluttering, Organizing

Corner Cubby {more organization}

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As I was waiting for the paint to dry on my back door yesterday, I happened to catch a glimpse of my little shelf in the corner.

Corner shelf unorganized


This shelf is wonderful.  It fits perfectly in the space without being in the way, and it holds lots of things that we might need in the back yard that I don’t want to store outside (since we have no roof or cover over our patio). It gets much more use over the summer as it holds a lot of pool stuff and some outdoor play items. When tidied up it looks like this.

Corner shelf filled with things for the backyard


The bottom bucket holds various back yard sports items.  We have a lot more, but these are the basics they use a lot.  The second bucket holds doggie things.  Pool towels on the shelf, and the basket above holds smaller pool equipment, my garden gloves, a pair of my sunglasses (I got tired of using my regular pair for outside, because I would always forget to put them back in my purse), and of course sunscreen and bug spray. You can see the dog food canister next to it and the smaller paw print item above – more on that in a sec.

But, since the pool is coming down as we speak (kind of – a slow process), I decided to go ahead and rearrange the items until next summer when the pool goes back up.  *A side note on the pool.  We have one of those blue metal frame pools.  It might look very redneck in our backyard, but it provides wonderful entertainment on those unbearably hot Oklahoma days, and when the summer is over, I love that I can take it down and use the whole yard for the other 9 months of the year. *

So, now the shelf looks like this.

Corner shelf storage for backyard supplies


All contents are the same (aside from the pool equipment in the small basket which will be stored away), just rearranged.  

As I was sorting through the things in the buckets, I decided on a different solution for the doggie treats – instead of in the box, buried in the dog stuff bucket.  I had some of my trusty plastic containers from walmart left over from the garage organization project, so I grabbed one.

dog treat storage

I printed out a paw print from my computer just like I did for the food canister only smaller.  (pardon the pink look of the printout, I need printer ink)  

paw print template


Traced it on the back of a piece of my chalkboard vinyl. (no I don’t plan on writing on it with chalk, but it was the color I wanted and it was in my closet – free {no spend month :)})  

paw print traced on vinyl


Then, I cut it out and stuck in on.  

dog treat canister


Easy peasy and oh so cute!!  Happy organizing and crafting!!

Pulled this out of the closet today to add some personal touches to some store bought items – with fabric I found in my stash of course ;).

sewing machine
Will be sharing the finished products with you soon!!


Blessings to you friends and thanks for stopping by!!


 

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