Year in Review

I've been doing some blog hopping this evening

and have LOVED seeing all the projects that people in blogland

have finished this year.

It has inspired me.

I have decided that I want to 

do a project a month next year.  This will be a great motivator 

for me to actually finish the projects that I start.

(No comments from the peanut gallery my sweet family, please)

I have several unfinished projects at the current moment and

I will be finishing those up

and posting about them soon. 

If any of you would like some inspiration you can go

check out these fabulously creative women at their blogs:

http://houseofsmiths.blogspot.com/

http://impatientlyprayingforpatience.blogspot.com/

http://theinspiredroom.net/

http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/

http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/

The link below The Lettered Cottage shows some of her favorite room redo's

 from other bloggers and lets you add a link if you have something

that you have redone and would like to share it

http://theletteredcottage.net/

Happy Blog Hopping and Happy New Years too!

Decorations are up!

We are a little slow this year.  We like to have the tree up

Thanksgiving weekend, but it seems that 

two of our family Christmas parties

always fall on that weekend now, so

it makes for a hectic weekend and the tree thing just 

doesn't happen.  I guess we will have to 

start decorating the weekend before 

Thanksgiving.

Is that too early?

Anywho, I am going to  post 

some pictures soon.

Okay, so I have looong weeks

The word of the week?  It should be something fun, or at least interesting.  O.k. maybe just a word... Any word... how about...

los anuncios

that seems appropriate for the season

~after all aren't we bombarded with

adds this time of year~

so...

what does it mean

advertisements

Happy Shopping Everyone!

watch those adds and

get the best price you can

Word of the Week

Hola!

My sweet bear is learning Spanish this year.  One of the great benefits of
OHSU
is that I can participate in his lessons.
I have never taken Spanish before and I am loving learning all about it.

I thought that you would like to share in my learning, so I am going to have a "word of the week."  

This weeks word is going to be...

wait for it...

la cocina 
 (for those language impaired like me who need a little extra help

my version of how to pronounce this is la co-seen-a)

what does it mean...

The Kitchen

I thought that with all the time that we spend in the kitchen this time of year, that it would be
a great place to start.

HELP!

I know that it has been forever since my last post (I was going to be so good this time around) but I have a design dilemma.  We have lived here for 16 years and we have never done any decorating in our bedroom.  I finally convinced HH that it was time and he gave me the green light.  Last month over conference weekend was supposed to be the big work weekend, but..... it never got off the ground because I can't decide what to do!!!  That's where you all come in.  Help me!  I just can't seem to make up my mind about anything.  I thought a board and batten on the walls. I was also thinking a soft robin's egg blue  paint with a chocolate brown or maybe a grey-blue.  Tell me what you have done.  What's your favorite bedroom design?  Any suggestions would be so appreciated.

                   Source:

http://www.newenglandclassic.com/style.ca.html 

 

 I am not sure of the source for this picture I think that it came from

Rate my Space on HGTV. 

My Family is Awesome!

Months and Months ago I was shopping with DD2 and found this wonderful tree.  

I LOVED it! 

Of course is was totally out of the budget.

  I figured that I would just have to come up with a way to craft one that was similar.

Fast forward to now.  

My cute DD2 rallied the troops and they all pitched in and bought it for me for my birthday! 

Is this tree awesome or what! 

I can hardly wait to get our pictures in it.

Linking up to

Remember This?

Remember this?

Well, I finally got around to taking a picture of the finished project!

You can read the original post here 

http://happytobe-the6ofus.blogspot.com/search/label/Crafting%20gone%20wrong

I had decided that my paper choice competed to much with my wallpaper so I needed something different.

After much searching and brainstorming which is not that easy for me, brainstorming, that is I remembered that I had left over wallpaper.  So I decided to use that.  Anywho, I was much happier with these results.

For one, my "J" is facing the right direction and two it coordinates with my room much better.

Here are the after pictures:

and a close up of the 6

I've included a close up of the wallpapers so that you can see the detail more

 This is on the "J"

and this is on the 6 sorry it's blurry
It's the smaller print on the bottom

Now to figure out were to put it.

When I started the project I was going to put it on the fireplace mantel.  But it took me forever to finish and in the meantime my wonderful children and HH got me this fabulous tree for my birthday.
Check it out here:
http://happytobe-the6ofus.blogspot.com/search/label/My%20Family%20Tree%20*

 So of course it gets center stage. 

I just have to figure some other place out for the "J"

I'm Linking to:

My Eternal Cabinet Makeover

This cabinet is taking soooo long to redo.  I have learned some lessons as I've worked on it, though.

1.  Be more careful when thrifting.  Buy all wood furniture and not veneers.

2. Admit that I have lousy eye site and can't tell if I've painted an even coat of paint.

3.  It will cost more than I think it will.

4.  As a beginner, I should pick easier projects to start with!

Over all, even though it has taken longer, cost more, and been full of mistakes, it does feel good to work on a project and get messy with paint.  

Hopefully it will be done SOON. So that I can start a new project clean up the mess in my dinning room.

I'm almost done

I have been working on a cabinet DIY project for a while.
  I must say that it is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.
I am pretty pleased with how it is turning out.
I think that it will really improve the space that I am putting it in.
I will have pictures and all soon.

Perfect

“When life inspires our home, our home will inspire our life.”
Melissa Michaels

 I found this quote over at 

http://theinspiredroom.net/authentic-living/

isn't it perfect?  I absolutely love it. 

She is also having an awesome give away pop over to enter, you'll be sorry if you miss it!

http://theinspiredroom.net/

6 Ways to Like Your Home - Make that 7

As I was blog surfing constantly today, I came upon this blog site.

  http://oursuburbancottage.blogspot.com/2009/10/6-easy-ways-to-like-your-home-more.html

It was very refreshing I thought.   Don't you just sometimes feel the pressure to make, buy, steal search for great home idea's to make your home a lovely, should I say "Paradise".  I know I do.  Especially this time of year.  So when I found this post I took a deep breath and thought what easy ideas they were and probably would make a big difference in how you felt about your house.  Anywho, to read the entire post click on the link above.  But here are the 6 7 ideas.

1.  Clean Something
2.  Fix One Thing
3.  Make Your House Smell Good
4.  Shake It Up By Shopping The House
5.  Find Something To Paint
6.  Do Something Out Of The Ordinary


I'm going to add one my own

7. Open Up All The Blinds
Nothing makes me feel cheerier (that's a word, right?) than the sun shinning in. With the air conditioner on full blast of course.  Love the sun, not the heat.

How did this happen?!

So I saved this link in my inspiration file a while ago and I thought that it would be a perfect summer project.  I can do this indoors avoiding the hot outdoors enjoying the air conditioning.  I loved the look of this the minute I saw it.  You can see Amy's idea here at The Idea Room.

http://theidearoom.blogspot.com/2009/05/decorative-initials.html

So I shopped around for the biggest J that I could find (Joann Crafts) and spent a week or two searching for the perfect paper.  I loved Amy's and wanted something equally awesome.  Finally I had all that I needed. 

I got up early on a Saturday morning and painted my paper mache letter black with some acrylic paint.  

Then I spent hours painstakingly matching up the pattern on the paper...

and mod podgeing it on......

I had to wait several hours for it to dry....

and when I went to put the final coat of mod Podge on, I noticed something was not quite right....

REALLY!!!  

Could I be that dense?

 

Maybe no one would notice.... Yeah, right!!

It only took HH about two seconds.  I left it propped up on the fireplace and when he sat down at the table to eat some lunch, he calls to me and says,  "Honey, could you come here for a second?"  I knew from the tone in his voice...  you know the, "I don't want to hurt her feelings, but she really messed up this craft" tone.

I came in and said "Are you going to tell me that I just spent hours on my J and that I did it BACKWARDS!"

He replies, "Well, just so you know."

Thanks for watching out for me snookems.

Where's the silver lining in this?  Well after several days of leaving it propped up on the fireplace, I decided that I didn't like that "perfect" paper that I spent a week looking for.  Don't get me wrong, I do love the paper, just not for this....

What do you think?  Any idea's.

I am open for any suggestions, other than putting the paper on the right side this time.  I couldn't possibly get it wrong twice in a row.  Could I?

Scout Camp

So my HH (Handsome Hubby) and Bear (kiddo #4) have left for scout camp, they will be gone all week.  This makes for a very quiet house.  Since (kiddo #2) and (kiddo#3) work all day.  My hopes are to do a lot of crafting and DIY's while they are gone.  So far..... just a lot of blog surfing.  That's important too! Right?!  I am going to have to get busy, however, or I will just be mad at myself for not getting what I wanted done.

Bear finished his eagle project right before he left, so I worked on pictures

and  getting them ordered so that I can get his application turned in.

He is trying so hard to have it all done by his 14th birthday.  Which is in 6 days!!!  Oh, my babies are all growing up.  It will be so peaceful lonely around here when they are all grown.

Anywho, I am off to accomplish some crafts, wish me luck!

Follow my blog!!! It makes me happy.

I would love to have y'all follow me on my blog and leave me some comments. 

I also would love to follow your blogs. 

Set me up with a link and lets have some fun!

Flowers

I am so NOT a gardener, having said that, I totally get the spring/summer itch to plant pretty flowers and bushes.  Last year HH and I decided to buy a couple of perennials each year and hopefully make the whole planting thing easier.  This year we added 2 lilac bushes, (this is our 4th attempt at lilac bushes since we've been married, I grew up loving them, but I think they secretly hate me!)  1 Day Lily, and 2 other plants that I can't remember the names of, but I will figure it out and post them pronto!  Anywho, I wish that I had taken pictures of the yard earlier in the summer cuz the Iris's were so pretty this spring and the flower bed was also much prettier a couple of weeks ago, but here is a picture anyway.

The lawn obviously needs a little attention.

Click to enlarge picture

The poor little Snow Ball bush we planted last year got "mowed" over by the kids right

after we planted it.  But it looks like it is starting to grow this year from the root.  Cross your fingers!

We totally put bricks around it to protect it from the yard "help".

Here is the Kitchen all shrink wrapped.  JK  It kind of looks like it is though.  HH (Handsome Hubby) trying to keep as much dust contained to the Kitchen as possible.  We are ready to start refinishing the floor. And by we I mean Him!

There is the HH in action.  This may look like an easy task but it took way longer than we thought it would.  HH ended up having to go back to work (he was attempting this on his vacation week)  so once he was back to work, progress was sloooow.  It actually took about 4 weeks to get the kitchen all put back together but it was so worth the wait.

Taa Daa here it is finished.  We still have to remove the painters tape and move the appliances back in, but IT"S done.  I think he did an awesome job, Don't you?  He is way to critical of his work but I think it's fabulous. 

Well that's one project done.  On to the next.  Don't tell HH, we're gonna have to ease into it.  Shhhhh!

Happy 4th Everyone

Hope you are all having a fantastic 4th!  This evening my family and I took a walk around the neighborhood, just as everyone was out lighting their fireworks.  DD #2 said, "This is the way to do it, we see all the pretty fireworks and they spend all the money!"  Lol, I thought that was so funny.  Who says kids don't know how to be thrifty.  I only walked a mile with them, they went on to do 2 more.  (I hate my bad feet)  I keep thinking that if I just keep walking my feet will get better somehow.  But it's hard to walk when they hurt.  It's kind of the chicken and the egg thing.  Oh well.  I'm getting ready to post some pictures of some of the projects we're up to here at the Johnson Home, so come back and check it out.  Go ahead and be a "Follower" too!  It will be a fun journey.

The Climb

How beautiful is this song! I'm just sayin'.

I'm Baaaaack!

I have been working to update my blog and make it ....?   To make it what?  I totally don't know.  Something that inspires me, I guess, so I will actually post things.  And maybe, just maybe it will inspire someone else as well. 

  It is still very much a work in progress. Honestly though, I can get obsessed with the whole process and never actually blog a thing. Therefore, I am making myself blog something, so that the first blog is on it's way. I am still learning all the how to's of the blog world so feel free to give advice on any particulars. So there it is, I've started. Now to figure out how to post some pictures of what  
The Johnson House is up too.