2013 Year In Review

Hello dear friends

The tree is down.  The Christmas decorations are all back up in the attic.  It’s a new year with a fresh page on a brand new calendar.  My calendar has pictures of the grandkids all over it, a gift from my sweet daughter in law, who along with our son and their two boys moved to Hong Kong yesterday!!

Do you write goals for the new year?  At the beginning of each new year I write a few goals in my journal. This morning I looked at my goals for last year.  I didn’t complete one of them!

But that’s not going to stop me from making goals for 2014!

I always choose a word for the year.  This year’s word is GRATITUDE and a by product of that will be JOY.  I have been counting GIFTS for a couple of years along with Ann at Holy Experience and yet I still struggle with being grateful.   So GRATITUDE is my word for 2014 .

Looking back over my blog I was surprised to find that I got quite a few projects done in 2013. So here is my year in review in photos.

                      Removed white paint and refinished dining room table top to original wood.

                                             Made a quilt for our youngest grandchild on his first birthday.

                                       Painted a little thrifted table with Annie Sloan chalk paint.

Used  some old jeans to make a slipcover for this chair and ottoman that my husband likes to sit in.  It is so durable!

Slipcovered the couch in our TV room with 2 thrifted matelasse bedspreads.  Made new cushion covers for the back from fabric I already had.

 Recycled some sweaters into pillow covers.

Tried my hand at sewing hexagons.  The plan was to make a quilt but got impatient so I made a pillow cover instead.  I am working on a second one which is almost done.

Made a new quilt for our bed.  I also sewed 2 other quilt tops that are just waiting for me to quilt them.

 Made slipcovers for our 2 wing chairs, but didn’t like the brown and white fabric when they were all done 

                               Painted the front hall walls white then stenciled the upper section.

            Found this great dresser at Salvation Army and painted it with Annie Sloan Louis Blue chalk paint.

                                      Spray painted our ugly brass and black chandelier with white paint.

                                                             Painted the living room walls white.

Make another set of slipcovers for these chairs using matelasse bedspreads from a garage sale. Total cost $20  Which is a good thing since I wasted money on the brown and white ones.

Last and by far the best project of 2013 was our daughter’s wedding which was in October.

So that’s 2013 year in review.  I didn’t get any of my written down goals completed I did manage to do a few projects around the house.

I am looking forward to 2014 being the best year ever! How about you?

Rhondi xo

Linking up with Common Ground  Be Inspired Party.  Be sure to go and visit!

Where Has The Time Gone?

My goodness, I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted!  It has been a busy summer!  The best thing that happened is that we have a  precious new grandbaby, Sophie Elizabeth, born in July.  We did lots of driving too: trips to Cape Cod  and Texas to spend time with our kids and grandkids.

It has been such a hot summer here, day after day above 90 degrees.  I am so ready to be done with the heat! This morning it was finally a little cooler and I could open the windows for a little while.  What a relief!

Do you remember when I showed you these chairs I got at a yard sale? 

Well I FINALLY finished making the slipcovers!

I need to get a bigger table to go between them. 

Did you notice I put a tray out for tea?  Hope you have time to stay for a visit.  We have so much catching up to do!

Another thing we did this summer is put our house up for sale.   We have decided we'd like to get something smaller with less yard to keep up with .  There's just the two of us and we don't need so much house anymore.  It is a charming home but doesn't have all the granite and upgrades that everyone wants these days, so it may not sell at the price we want. Some of you will notice we painted the dining room yellow.  I miss the red , but thought it was better for resale.  Here is the virtual tour.

If you know anyone in Charlotte who wants to buy a home, let me know. 

Glad to be back!

Rhondi xo

Metamorphosis Monday

Every Monday Susan at Between Naps on a Porch hosts Metamorphosis Monday. Since I just finished a little transformation project I thought I'd join in today!
I bought some padded hangers this morning, 7 of them for $1.50. They were all clean but tired looking, so...

I recovered them. I happened to have some cute black dot fabric and black checked ribbon enough to complete two of them. I think they turned out great!

I have lots more fabric with dots but I'll have to buy some more ribbon before I can do the rest. They are really going to spruce up my closet!
Make sure you visit Susan and see what other metamorphoses are happening today.
Happy Monday!
Rhondi xo

A Blue Metamorphosis Monday

Today I'm joining in with Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps On a Porch and Blue Monday hosted by Sal at Smiling Sally

Our kitchen ceiling and island have just gone through a metamorphosis compliments of our insurance company. They overestimated the cost of deck repairs and so there was money enough left over to do this.

I have had the idea of putting bead board on the ceiling to cover up the ugly crack there. If you click on the picture it will enlarge.

So bead board and strips of wood went up. What a transformation! It gives some some class to our plain 1960s kitchen. The other thing I have wanted to do was use bead board and trim on the island in our kitchen. So plain...
The metamorphosis begins. What a difference. Our plain Jane island now looks classy. The laminate butcher block counter even looks better! Such a huge change for little money, especially if you can do it yourself, or a tree falls down in your backyard. If you don't know what I'm talking about you can read more about it here. If you've read my blog more than a couple of times you know I love blue. My friend came for lunch on Friday and here is how I set the table: blue willow teapot, blue transfer ware cups and saucers. Blue glass and some flowers from the garden ( some of the few that the deer didn't eat)Everything set on a checked cloth with placemats and napkins trimmed with blue and white checks Mondays at my house are always filled with blue things. Actually so are Tuesdays, Wednesdays..well you get the idea.

Make sure you visit Susan to see other metamorphosis posts and Sal to see other blue posts.

Hope your week gets off to a good start. Thanks for stopping by today.
Rhondi xo

The Ugly Duckling Becomes A Swan

In the last post I showed you the bench I got at Goodwill. Here it is now. I'm not sure if this is the final version. My plan was to paint some stripes or something on the legs, but I decided to just leave the legs white for now. The fabric is one of my UFOs. For you non quilters that is an unfinished object. Every quilter has lots of them! It was made with men's shirts that I picked up at Goodwill. I already had all those blocks sewn together with the border of stripes, so I just took it apart and used only what I needed for this project. There is enough left over to make a couple of cushion covers or something. The border just happened to be the exact size for the footstool!

I just happened to have this fringe here too. It came off some old curtains that I got at a thrift shop. This definitely is a thrifted project! Unfortunately I don't have enough trim to go all the way around. The sides you can see in the photo have trim but the ones you can't see don't! So since this has been such a low budget project so far, I am going to keep my eyes open for some trim that is similar and just have 2 different trims on it!

I am very happy with how it turned out.On Friday 2 books that I ordered from Amazon arrived in the mail. I only had a time for a brief glance at them so I have made myself a cup of tea and I am going to put my feet up on my new footstool and get inspired for my next project.

Hope that you are having a restful Sunday. That's what I intend to do.

Rhondi xo