Showing posts with label Home Decor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Decor. Show all posts

Covid Test Negative, Slow Boat from China and goodbye CHICKEN

 


Covid Test: Negative


This morning I made the husband get a covid test -  He's been coughing and sneezing and has a runny nose. I hate to be selfish - but I wasn't concerned about him - it seems like just a cold. I was more concerned about my surgery being canceled. I guess people still get colds...anyway, the VA just called and he's negative! 

Rain 


It is a 53-degree day and it's been drizzling rain all day. You can't imagine how excited I am about this kind of weather. Already my backyard hill is looking greener. 

Stockpiling and Christmas 


Yesterday I reorganized my pantry and I have been stockpiling some food in my craft room. I had to organize that as well. I ordered my first Christmas gift - It will be small this year. Honestly, nobody NEEDS anything. We're blessed and so I don't feel compelled to get stressed out about finding the perfect gift. We're all alive and healthy this year. That's the perfect gift we have for each other. 



Slow boat from China

I did do a dumb thing - I guess it was Sept - I ordered 2 new lamps for my living room. They were on sale.  I ordered these new lamps off the internet. They had them at Home Depot but they were $30 more so I went with another company. 

Ordered them - paid for them. After a while I realized they should be here - so I went and checked, and they are literally traveling from a slow boat from China. NO communication. I'll probably get them - EVENTUALLY but it will be a couple of months I bet. That's when I know I am not the sharpest crayon in the box anymore - I used to be careful of this and this time, it never occurred to me. Duh!



Bye Bye Chicken


Cooked the chicken in the crockpot all day yesterday - It smelled all right but my son, Foodie who is a dietitian told me with chicken sometimes the taste isn't affected. He urged me to throw the chicken out - so we did. All of it. $30 worth of chicken which makes me sick. When in doubt, throw it out. I know that! I say that all the time but it was $30!!! and I was thinking about the money wasted more than anything. Thank God for a good son who reminded me of what I have always said. 




As the paint dries...

I'm wondering when was it, that I knew I liked a certain type of home decor? 

I believe looking back through my baby pictures is when I started loving that Retro look or as I refer to it, "The I LOVE LUCY" type of kitchen. 

Who wouldn't want a kitchen like this? Notice the mirror over the sink...


See how I am loving this kitchen. 

When I was older I was allowed to pick the colors and carpet for my bedroom. Pink walls, red carpet and I had one wall of pink and red roses. My furniture was painted white. I had a chenille bedspread that I loved.

In fact, I still have it - it packed away with all the other material I have, just waiting for their next life.



Just starting to phase out the white - I put wood contact paper on my furniture

I wanted to paint my furniture black and paste Jimi Hendrix posters all over my walls. Instead, of black, I covered my furniture with contact paper. My dad would not allow me to put posters on the wallpaper. 

When I was a newlywed, we rented a 4 plex-in trendy Burlingame Ca. on the El Camino. I fell in love with this apartment. It had a front courtyard you entered with a little gate and a small porch and the kitchen was what I always wanted. 

I had an I LOVE LUCY type of kitchen.

 A Wedgewood stove and painted white cabinets - 

an old retro-refrigerator, the kind that if you broke off the handle, you could not open it up. (That actually happened) 

and a beautiful picture window, looking out to the courtyard, framed in white Priscilla curtains! I'll have to dig through photographs to find a picture of that kitchen. I loved it.

To be continued...


WANTED: A Mom-Cave-Office-Space






I long for my own space - office space. Right now I have a full house and a husband who works a 3rd shift (graveyard shift) 
and who sleeps a good deal of the day. 

I have no place to call my own. My guest room is occupied. My old office is occupied and doggone it, even my motor-home, to the side of our house, is occupied.
 I only have the kitchen dining area and living room. It works if no one is home or in their own space. But when it's their "weekends" I have no place to create. 

Yesterday I just about lost my mind. I had no time to myself. 

So I am dreaming and scheming to come up with my own mom-cave.  



prefab-garden-shed

  Via BusyBoo

Located in Rolling Green, California, this 8ft. x 14ft. Palmerston style is a lovely prefab garden shed with cedar shingles capped by an elegant cupola. Estimated at $8,613.




.
prefab-shed

 Via BusyBoo

 Located in Seattle, Washington, this 6ft. x 8ft. Palmerston style is a beautiful prefab garden shed with Canexel siding, standard windows and doors, flower boxes, and shutters. Estimated at $3,480


For more ideas at Busyboo



What is YOUR home decor?



1970's Bedroom


  2013 - the Five home decor categories. 


  • Glitz and Glam
  • American Traditions
  • Parisian Chic
  • Country Cottage
  • Soho Loft





Hollywood Regency = Glitz and Glam

Think classic Hollywood in the '30s.  When the likes of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard,  Rudolf Valentino, and Bette Davis, were glamorous and most definitely glitzy.  I'm thinking EXPENSIVE, after all, those movie stars were filthy rich and didn't have a problem spending their money on lavish homes,  cars, and furs.


That "LOOK"  is making a comeback now - Not my style -  but I love old Hollywood and enjoy seeing others who appreciate that style. 

Fringe is back, lavish crystal chandeliers, lacquered furniture, credenzas, showy fabrics, fur, chaise lounges, and lots of light. 

 It doesn't have to be expensive if you are like me, and on a budget - since many pieces of furniture can be found in thrift stores and garage sales.  Sand it, and spray with black lacquer spray paint.  After that, look for the supporting cast - in distinctive pieces that have that glitz to complete your look.  Lamps, and side tables, bold colors, and accessories that have that jazz. 










Back to the cheap

To survive whatever lies ahead, I like to try and be prepared. So in some ways, I do like the newness of a New Year. I like to re-dedicate myself to frugality. Especially after the holidays. We may keep a simple Christmas at our house, but there are always extra expenses (Property tax) and non-paid time off in December that have us behind as we start the January of a new year. Time for beans!!!

In the mix of everything, since I love home decorating and can't afford to just go out and spend what I want freely, I have to find ways to redecorate my home using the creativity that leans toward the cheap! With the downswing of the economy and real estate prices down, we can no longer afford to update our kitchen the way I had wanted. So I am going with a "funky country California" look in my kitchen. Paint is always an affordable way to change the look of things. This year we will be painting the kitchen and dining area (actually the whole inside of the house) So I am excited about this change and challenge.

I purchased with my bonus money from my nanny job, a butcher block kitchen cart from IKEA for $59.00. I stained it and placed it in the middle of my kitchen, making it a "one-butt" kitchen, as my sons complain. I like it. It looks like a bed and breakfast kitchen we once stayed at.  It also hides my ugly old white stove. I have some ideas for my kitchen that will spruce it up in a cheap and creative way.



the kitchen at bed and breakfast 





Comfy Home














That has always been my focus. Not a fancy home - just homey. I don't know why I am this way. 

Mom loved having a nice home, new furniture, etc. 

My sister also has an upscale home with newer furniture than mine. 

I could have had all of that - I just like "other people's old stuff" and I like the challenge of making it work. And I have, and I still do. I haven't had a new sofa since 1979. That sofa has been long gone and since I have had hand-me-downs. I have a thing for chairs - and tables and lamps. I just love shopping garage sales and thrift stores for new stuff.

It really is the challenge I think - and the fact that I don't want that "cookie-cutter" look everyone else has in their homes. My style is funky, eclectic, and comfortable.

What is your style?