Thursday, June 16, 2011

Let me Share

As I’ve said before reading blogs have replaced my wasting time on playing Farmville on Facebook. Some Blogs are actually down right inspiring and are full of fun ideas and helpful tips.  I have a couple I want to share with you.

The first one is from The Inspired Room by Melissa and today she shared a home tour featured by House of Turquoise . The house is truly awesome. It’s light and airy and you can just feel the ocean/lake breeze. Whoa! Wait a minute, this lovely house is in Utah you say? Totally took me by surprise. If you get a chance go check it out. It’s very eye catching and relaxing. I especially liked the turquoise chandelier and door of the house. There is turquoise all over the house with just a pop of red in places. I keep going back to look at the tour just to see what else I might have missed the first time like the floors. Some unique designs.  I want to live in that house or at least visit.
It may not be my style but it doesn’t mean I can’t admire. Who knows I might decide to change things up and not just be a cowgirl at heart. David is 100% Texan so it might be a little harder for him but for now we’ll be a little bit Texas and little bit country.

In my upstairs tour you saw that mix of Texas and Country but then there was my poor daughter’s room from the past. She’ll be getting an updated look in the next couple of months more to her liking and age. I’m trying to finish picking up my sewing room in between the craziness and the longer summer hours at work and take photos of the downstairs to post but between the damaged ankle and the chaos of some things happening in our household I just haven’t been able to get far along. Maybe this weekend. But soon I’ll finish my home tour for what it is and I’ll be able to hopefully by my next post share news about the craziness and stress that has gone on around here.

Now for a blog lesson I found while reading Sweet Nothings and saw the button about backing up your blog. I never knew we could do this but it’s something that would have come in handy back in May when the Blogger had a glitch in their maintenance and lost some of our most blog posts.

I'd DIE if I LOST my BLOG ...Wouldn't you?



Oh and something else I just learned how to do. I learned how to type and highlight a word and link it. I was so excited. Yeah I know small things make me happy. So like where the blog above called Sweet Nothings is highlighted, well if you click on it, it will take you to that blog. Too cool, right? I always wondered how that worked so thanks to my talented friend from Texas Tales . This girl has talent and is so creative. If you’re looking for a recipe you ought to check out her blog. She’s always cooking up something, decorating her new home and she’s a freelance writer too. What’s that saying “She cook up the bacon and bring it home too” And don’t let me forget she creates turquoise jewelry that she sells on her Esty account called Texas Take.  Here's an example of her work.Coral and silver necklace with turquoise pendant
Coral and silver necklace with turquoise pendant



All this talent and so young. Talent seems to run in her family trust me. I love this family and keeping up with all their projects. I want at least 1/10th of their talent.

Now we'll see I really learned how to link when I post this. Maybe you can teach and Old Dog new tricks.



So until my next blog…….~ Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters. ~  Harry Callahan

.•*´¨ ) ¸.•*¨) -:¦:-
(¸.•´(¸ ;.•
Carla.  

 

 

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Upstairs House Tour

Okay I've had a couple of requests to post pictures of my house now that most updates are done. The last time some folks were here my walls looked like a clown threw upon them. You know how you can go to the paint store and buy those small cans of paint so you can test  patches on the walls to decide the right color. Well we tried many colors. I had swishes of paint on every wall starting at the base of the stairs on up and on all the walls upstairs. We ended up having a party during this time. Oops. The night of the party I was apologizing to one of our guests about the state of my walls but one guest told me not to worry it looked very artsy. Oh yeah I'm sure. It looked more like a 3 year got hold a paint brush. I think she was just being nice because the party was for her son and daughter-in-law but I appreciated her kindness. Then again she's just a really nice person. Now you ask why would we have a party when we were in the middle of rennovation. Well we had these dear friends who got a chance to go to Scotland for a work exchange program for a year and we couldn't just let them leave without a proper send off, could we? When we offered to have the Send off party for them the painters said give us a weeks notice when you're ready and we'll be there.
Uh huh yeah right.
We called 2 weeks prior but like all good plans there was a snag and the painters came the Monday after the party. Go Figure.
So here we go............................. 
Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms, a full bath and a so called gameroom at least that's what they listed on the house flyer when we bought it. To me it's just an oversize hall with benefits. Not big enough for a couch or pool table but works wonderful as a sewing/craft room. Every bedroom has a true walk in closet. Very unusual for secondary bedrooms.

Here's bedroom 3 prior to renovations. 
1995 TV Room & Craft Area

1995 TV Room & Craft Area



 We sit it up as a TV room for Pam and her friends. Also used the drafting table as craft table. Can you say bland and boring? It changed briefly one more time before final change below.

Now here it is today. There's color. Of course quilts and a little bit of a country look took over this room as time has progressed. This room has held as many as 15-20 girls sleeping and being girls. I kinda miss all those days. Finally decided on some artwork. My dress form holds teddy bears, boa's and at it's base a basket of solid fat quaters. 

The cabinet with the lamp on it was David's grandmother's peddle sewing machine. It still works too. I think this room is complete and I'm happy with the way it has turned out.






 
Here's bedroom 2 prior to renovations. This is Pam's room that is in bad need of a re-do. I hate to say it's looked like this since she was 10 or 11 with the exception of a couple different comforters for a change.

 The trundle bed went away and the desk is now in my sewing room and has been stained and the hutch has been modified. Pam wants her desk back now. Too bad. The desk is too big for her room with a full bed in there.

Not much change today other than furniture really so I told her we would work on her room this summer to bring it up to date and more to her taste and age. It's not like she's been home much in the last 6 years with college and now nursing school.  She needs bigger a bookcase and one that is finished. At one time all her furniture worked together but now it's a mis-match of various pieces but she's making due until she can buy herself a complete matching set.

She still has art signs from high school.

               She's so over this 1995 motif. The room is ready to grow up like she has.




And here's bedroom 1 prior to renovations. This was the guest room then it was
Nanny's room while she lived with us. Laura Ashley duvet cover was a garage sale find. The head board was my parents and is over 50 years. I was in to dancing and loved art with dancers at the time. Didn't really go in this room did it?




The guest room after remodel. Can you guess the style? Yee Haw Cowboys and Cowgirls, Welcome to Texas!
The TV was added recently when Pam brought herself a flat screen TV for up at school. Doesn't really fit the decor but I guess I'll let my guest watch TV.
I've hung our old hats up and my mom provided me with a lasso to hang with the hats.

I had bought red bandana fabric for the dust ruffle and had plenty left over to make the valance and to  use when I made my Texas Flag bench cover.

I added some denim fabric and concho nail's with some leather for more of that Texas look. Or least that's how I think of Texas.
I put my old boots in the corner. I should have taken a better picture of the quilt rack under the window because it has a big ole star on the end of it. Yep more quilts partner. David figures the whole upstairs would be covered with quilts if he'd let me.                                                                                                  The little bench at the foot of the bed used to have wool patchwork squares and I decided it needed a Texas Flag theme. Didn't turn out too bad.  I guilted it by echoing the star sorta of. I did the best I could.
Even the bed frame has stars on the head and foot board. The bed frame was a Craigs List find. Love this bed frame. When David saw it he knew I'd want it for guest room with the Texas theme.

I trimmed the blue pillow cases with the red bandana fabric to complete the look.  I'm still in need of some artwork on the walls but I'm working on it.  David found the boot lamp for me at Home Depot.  

 I didn't get a picture of the bathroom when we first looked at the house but the walllpaper looked like old newspaper and it had swag lights. Can you say ugly and dated? Yuk. 
Righ after we looked at the house the owners changed the wall paper to big  flowers that Pam said she'd live with until we could change it up.                                                                                      The owners may have changed the wallpaper but left the swag light fixtures.










Put on your sun glasses for the remodeled version. Well maybe not quite that bad. Here's what the shower area looks like now. I have one idea for art and Pam has another so we've never put much up. I found fabric that tied the colors together and made a simple valance. . Pam picked out the colors when she was like 11 and they're bright.  We're thinking we might tone the paint down and paint some other colors but we haven't decided yet. Working on it though.








The dressing area is all yellow. New lights and mirrors and blue crystal drawer knobs look much nicer.

Well that's the upstairs except the sewing area. I'll post it at a later date. I need to take pictures plus maybe tidy things up a bit. ;o)  
Upstairs renovations are done except for Pam's room and maybe adding some little things like art and decor stuff and then maybe not.
I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Until next time.•*¨`*•. .•*¨`*•. .•*¨`*•. .•*¨`*•. Be HappyCarla✿  
……………… .... •.¸.•´…………............…