Arizona

I'm writing this from Arizona. Yes I'm at Michelle's house and while the cat's away, the mice will play. The cat(Blaine) has been deployed and the mice(the rest of us) are playing and eating whatever we want.

Horses, horses, horses!

Now that the snow has melted the horses are out and looking for some grass to eat. One of the best things about where we live is the horse "farm" behind our house. (They breed and raise horses.) I looked out our back door the other morning and this is what I saw. Pretty cool, huh? I love horses and wish my back wasn't bad, because I'd love to go ride these guys. But sometimes I can get them to come and eat a carrot or apple out of my hand. Ah, paradise. I really do like horsie slobber. Go figure.

My Hobbies

I know that the cardinal rule of decorating is to make your color scheme such that it will flow from room to room. So, these two rooms which are on my second floor, break that rule to bits. But, I didn't care about rules when I did these. I just wanted to have a change. I love the aqua walls of my office. When I go in there I feel at once soothed and regenerated. It is bright and cheerful, but also relaxing. I chose a beach theme, which to me is the most relaxing place on earth. You can't see it very well, but there are sea shells and ocean pictures. I got the little rack in the corner at an antique store. I was so jazzed when I found it because it was exactly what I had been looking for.

This little guest room gave me an opportunity to get out all of my pink and girly yayas. I was also able to use some of my pink stuff that I had saved from our last house. I thought that I was sick of these colors when we moved, but I missed them afterall. I decorated this room very cheaply. The headboards on the beds are miss-matched ones that I bought at yard sales for $15 and $20 dollars. I painted them white and they almost look like a set. The green metal hangings over the beds were white and I painted them green to match the bedding which I bought at Kohl's. The antique dresser was already white. I got it here in Utah at an antique store for about $150. Pretty cheap for an antique. You can't see it in this photo but there are cat pictures. I found the chenille pillows at an antique store on Cape Cod. I couldn't believe how perfect they were. They are made out of an old bedspread.

My hobbies

I love a very casual look. Slipcovered furniture is my new favorite. What could be better than washable furniture? I'll never have to worry about a grandchild spilling on the sofa. I had all of the family room furniture made with slip covers and it's great. The "coffee table" just an old chest that looks like it's seen better days. I, however, find it charming and additional scratches will never show, there are already so many. When I brought this home, Ken thought that I was completely out of my mind. Why would I buy such a thing, he asked. I ignored him and sat back to admire my newest find.

Another "find"was this magazine rack that I found at Deseret Industries (the local thrift store). It was like $5 and with a bit of yellow paint it became a treasure.

Okay, so the entertainment center isn't an antique or particularly cheap, but it's cute, don't you think? The quilt and pillow on the blue denim chair are treasured gifts from my friend Jan. Cubby likes them, too.

You probably can't really see it in this pciture but the wall behind the cabinet is painted red. Va va va voom!

Well, I forgot to mention that the kitchen chairs are circa 1956. My parents bought those chairs when I was 6 and we moved into our first house in Burbank. I've been sitting on them for 52 years. When Ken and I got married my parents handed them down to us. Well, about 10 years ago I stripped them ( they had 40 years of Pledge on them) and painted them off white. They still look good and have never had to be glued or repaired in any way. This is a great testimonial for buying quality furniture. It doesn't hurt that they are classic windsor chairs. I couldn't love them more.

My hobbies

Okay, next is the kitchen. Are you bored yet? Too bad, this is all I've got. When we were building our house the one thing I had to have above all else, was white kitchen cabinets. I've been clipping magazine pictures for over 35 years and the one constant thing I've been drawn to was white kitchen cabinets. They are universal in time...they never go out of style. They are clean and bright. Every time I walk into my kitchen I have to smile because it is just so happy and cheerful. The yellow paint on the walls just draws the white cupboards out and scream spring.

Once again I have used cheap plates from TJMaxx and yard sales. The little strawberry jar was a wedding gift in 1969 and I still think it's cute. The blue cupboard is my surprize for kitchen. Before I painted this cabinet blue, there was only red and yellow in my kitchen and family room. One day I just decided that were needed a touch of clue. The addition of the blue made me integrate the blue china plates to pull it all together. The blue cabinet used to be a very light wood which looked good in my Abluquerque decor. Here it just sat there and looked dull. See why I love paint?

My hobbies

The next room that I will feature is the master bedroom. The one thing that I did spend a bit of money on was the Laura Ashley spread, pillow shams and dust ruffle. When I found this set I knew that it would be the defining item for our bedrrom, so I went ahead and spent the money for it. Sometimes you have to spend a little bit of money to get the perfect fabric for the look you want. The lamps were cheap and the night stands are the same ones we bought in 1970 for our original bedroom. I just painted them white to go with the new decor. The four pictures on the wall over the bed are wedding pictures of us that I had copied in black and white (to achieve a more chic look than color photos) and I framed them in $5 frames from Walmart that I painted black with craft paint.
One day when I was in TJMaxx (one of my favorite stores) I found a small curtain in the same fabric as my bedroom stuff for super cheap. I brought it home and made it over into a faux balloon shade. One of my favorite things is paint. When we painted the walls green, the room just popped!! I love it. Paint can be a lot of boom for your buck. And Blaine, it doesn't look like Christmas, despite the color scheme.

I make all of my own flower arrangements and that saves, but even doing that, flowers are amazingly expensive. Fortunately, I don't like a whole lot of them.

This little shelf and mirror were also very inexpensive. One of my obsessions has been plates, and these were purchased at TJMaxx.

My hobbies

I've noticed that many people put their hobbies on their blogs. Believe it or not, I do have interests other than my grandkids. I thought that I'd start out by sharing with you my greatest passion (other than church and family). If you haven't been around me much you would be the only one who doesn't know how much I love to decorate my home. Every time I move to a new home I get all excited to try a new look. Our home in Lindon looks very different than our home in Albuquerque. The one thing that I enjoy most, is decorating on a shoestring. I can't stand to just go into a furniture store and buy stuff. I'd much rather collect things here and there that I love. Usually I can find something that I find charming at a deep discount, or at a garage sale, or at a thrift store. I have been very lucky to have inherited some pretty cool things, too, which helps.
The first room I have pictured is our dining room. I bought the table at a consignment store when we lived in Albuquerque. It has beautiful lines, and even though it is probably over 50 years old it is in good condition. I didn't have to do anything to it. The chairs I also got in ABQ at the same consignment store. They were cream color and had needlpoint covers on the chairs. I used them just the way they were in ABQ, but I painted them white and recovered them in the fabric that I made the drapes out of. (The needlepoint covers are still under there if I ever decide to use them again. They are beautiful and hand done.) Speaking of the drapes, found the fabric at a discount, and painted cheap wooden poles for the top. The dining room light fixture was super cheap but it was bright turquoise. I painted it with metal-look paint. I am lucky enough to have access to my dad's oil paintings. I found this one of red hollyhocks and put it into an older frame which I painted white.


The three little prints on the wall are just cheap little prints and I found some unpainted frames which I painted a soft green, white and black. The mirror is also cheap and I painted it white.
I love this little black table. In fact, I think it is my most favorite piece of furniture in my house. I alos got it at a consignment store, for a song. It needed no work at all. It was perfect just as it was, and has only a few very charming scratches on it. The best piece of furniture in the room is the armoire which belonged to my great Aunt Edie. It was a mess and my dad helped me to refinish it. Ken put shelves inside and I covered the whole inside with padding and fabric. It now house my china and silver.
Well, that is all I have time for now. I will show you more of our home next time.

I have no cute photos of babies today, but I thought that I'd better mention that I got my new church calling. In fact, Ken got a new calling along with me. He'd been released from the High Council and we were both enjoying a pretty stress-free month. As it turns out, our stress-free time will continue because we are now going to be team-teaching the marriage and family relations class in Sunday School. How cool is that? We may not know it all when it comes to this subject, but I think it will fun for us to be able to do this together. Anybody jealous?

We celebrated Grant's 27th birthday on March 1

It is hard to believe that he is that old, but I guess time flies, as they say, so we must have been having lots of fun. As usual, we invited the Malone/Furr gang and all of their kids, plus Kristin's sister, Becky and her three kids. We had a houseful. The kids started throwing the wrapping paper in the air, and they ended up having the most fun of the evening. Grant ordered Paella for his dinner party and a giant black forrest cake. My poor diet!