Home Tour

I like sewing a little bit and making neck wraps to help others with their pain but y'all what I really enjoy creating is home decor I like to see what I can come up with on a budget creating out of what I have around the house and paint old things to give them a new look.

Today I really just want to paint. I have a chair I need to paint I have a bunch of wooden crates just sitting in the garage waiting for something to be done with them. It is just too cold though I tried to to paint an expansion to my desk not too long ago when we had some somewhat warm weather but the paint just didn't stick and dry well so I will probably have to repaint it once it warms up. Oh and some black picture frames that need color! hmm well anyways since I can't paint yet today I will share some pictures of some projects done around my home sort of like a little home tour of my home. I will post links for the projects that I have written a post about.

Upon Walking into my front door you will find this Ladder Coat Rack: Ladder Coat Rack



Go on into the living room you will find what truly is a living space it is a fairly large room and every corner has been used to try to make it cute and functional as well as make up for the lack of space in the rest of the house.

When we cleaned out our garage this vintage bike found a new home as decor in the living room and the basket serves as a place to store a couple of blankets.



This frame started out just plain wood colored the inside with the burlap was taped off then spray painted the Letter S fit perfectly inside:


We have a little music fan at our houses so we have the music wall with his instruments. The keyboard was on a stand that came with it the drums just sitting on some crates. With this arrangement though you could see all the wires going everywhere and it is just didn't look great so I came up with this rearranging the creates and putting this board I had across it. The board could be a little longer to but it is what I had to work with for now and it does look better than the unsightly mess it was before.



Behind the couch is a couch table re purposed from an old Ironing board See Post: Ironing board re purpose




I had to find a home for this special bench since the front entry is too small it found it's home by in the living by the back door. My dad made this bench for our front porch in the first house we bought and it has moved with us to each house since. The quilt being used as the padding my grandmother made for me when I was a little girl. The bike pillow was a gift from my husband and the other pillow I made the covers for. The removable washable pillow cover turtorial can be found here: How to make a trow pillow



The corner by the back door is the kid's book/ play corner


And Lastly in the living room is my desk/work area The original desk makeover post can be found here: Desk Makeover





We will move now into the dining room and kitchen

I just love my colorful dinning room In here I have the bike wheel light the colorful table and chairs, and a farmhouse style coffee sign.



The old window meal plan sign. I got this old window from my aunt and with some cleaning up and some spray paint it became the meal plan board:



The kitchen was a big job to update the old cabinets but with paint and new nobs they look much better
Kitchen

Before:



After:



Remember the ladder from the entryway? Well here is the other half of it being used as a picture frame shelf in the hallwall

The ladder shelf



I plan on painting the black frames bright colors. Should I paint the ladder too or leave it natural?

Then we have the kid's art boards they need to be cleaned off it is hard to get rid of all the cute stuff they have made but here is where I display some of it.


And in the master bedroom is the bedside shelves

I did not have a table to put here so using some wood that was from some old shelves left at the house I made these bedside table/shelves. I painted them using the same technique as the desk makeover but I painted the blue base color before applying the vasoline


That is all the projects completed for now other than simply painting some of the walls that were once just white. Hope you enjoyed the little home tour watch for more projects when it is warm enough to paint again.

*** Update 4/23/2019 I found some wood someone was giving away and one was long enough for my piano stand so I have updated it so it has a top that is long enough! The board was just a little too long so I had to have the hubby cut it to the size and I painted it and now am excited to have a top that is actually the right size. Still debating if I should keep the crates natural or paint them bright fun colors what do you think?

Learning Together

I wasn't even sure I was going to go ahead and write this post. Last week I was feeling down and just in a really depressed kinda of mood for no apparent reason. I spent a lot of time on Pinterst just browsing what came up in my page. Some of what came up was somewhat of an encouragement because in reading some of the posts I learned a lot about myself. I said I wasn't sure I was going to write this because now that I am feeling better what I learned just seems more like an excuse. It isn't an excuse though it is who I am and still in a learning process of how to deal with my emotions and learning who I am.

so what came on Pinterest? Well last year my son had a teacher that realized just how smart he was but because of a lack of fine motor development he couldn't always express that and it was frustrating for him and teachers trying to read his work. She made sure he got the help he needs and he is now working with an amazing team of occupational therapists and physical therapists at his school. After observing my son these therapist said he has Sensory Processing Disorder. Some things they said about this made sense to describe many of of our son's behaviors. So I begin researching Sensory Processing Disorder and pinning activities to do with kids to help. In reading some of those posts so many of my own struggles both as a kid and now as an adult began to make since it made me so grateful that my son has the opportunity to work with specialist that can help him. When researching Sensory Processing Disorder a lot autism as well Asperger's information comes up as well and you find just how in depth and different levels of severity these can take on. One thing though is for sure if you have any of these three things you feel and sense everything with such deep feeling that is hard to express it and seems as though it so often comes out just as a scream or tendency withdrawal for lack of words on how to express what is so deeply felt. After researching these I am starting to understand more about my son and myself. I am so grateful for the therapists helping my son but he needs my help too and this has been a struggle as I feel I don't know how to deal with my own emotions how can I teach a seven year old how to deal with his?

I don't know which of these I have but I am certain I have some for form of a Sensory Disorder. Many of my struggles as a kid have become so real again after reading about these Disorders (don't really like to call them that). Autism, Asperger's, and sensory processing disorder were not things we ever heard of as kids. That doesn't mean they weren't around we are more aware of these things now and are able to help kids that have one or all of them. For that I am so grateful so while It is a struggle everyday to sort through my own strong feelings let alone help kids sort out theirs. Together my son that has been diagnosed as well as my other son and I learning how to deal with emotions. Sometimes I fail and they are reminding me that was not appropriate behavior or not nice. Everyday can be struggle when you feel, see, hear, and smell with such severity that it becomes overwhelming but I am glad to have such amazing kids and partner to help with this and learn with me.

Here is a a couple of Pinterest pins that spoke to me:



I don't know that this is necessary just a female thing I don't like to generalize But yes these "coping Mechanisms are exhausting. Pin by http://aspie-os.tumblr.com/post/159409398404



Yes, I was the quite observer trying to figure out how to best "fit in" and go unnoticed always the chameleon. So now looking for who I am. Pin by https://twitter.com/ZebraW2015/status/1020527352697303040

I am lucky to have an amazing spouse and other family to support me on this journey. We are all beautiful and imperfectly perfect. We all having amazing gifts to share. Be You!



This is me no more hiding or "masking" behind the sunglasses

Perfectly Imperfect

The Other day on my run this rock caught my eye



I thought "that rock looks like a heart" and kept going something though made me turn around and pick it up. I looked closer and realized it didn't look as much like a heart as I thought it did at a first glance. Still in that rock I could see the shape of heart and was intrigued so I run with it the rest of the home with my thoughts going to why this rock was intriguing to me. It is not a perfect heart but perfectly imperfect like us. It has some broken pieces that cannot be replaced but now is a part of what it has become and shaped it. It has things added on that look as though they were not there to begin with, maybe a blessing that made it grow or maybe a burden that it carries with it. This beautiful rock was a picture in my mind what the heart of our soul might look like. It would not look like the perfectly formed hearts we try to draw on paper or the perfectly shaped boxes filled with goodies that we can buy this time year but it still would look like a heart it still represents love because love is what our soul is it is what it needs most and what it responds to best if that is what it knows and is fed. So my desire is to just show more kindness and love to all I meet because while I can't always see at first glance what pieces of heart may be broken off or what burdens it might bear but I can see a heart that loves and needs kindness and love and to me that looks perfect.