Decisions: Arranging Pictures on the Wall...

Decisions.

I am not good at them.

For example:

when faced with getting new base cupboards for our kitchen,

I had to choose drawer pulls.

What an overwhelming selection of drawer pulls there are!

How do people decide?

How do indecisive people like myself decide?

So I printed up all my favorites,

cut them out...

and narrowed it down to two that I liked best.

I took a look at the price difference,

and when I found that the darker ones were not only on sale,

but a sale on top of that one,

I made my decision and saved about $40.

 

$40 here,

$40 there...

it adds up.

It took some time and ink to print/cut out the paper "pulls"

but I think it was worth it to help a visually-needy person like me decide.

On to my recent dilemma:

My living room is almost complete with it's renovation.

(A recent yard sale find was the oriental rug.
It looks like it wasn't even used.
Yay for yard sales!!)

I am very happy with the way the whole living room has come together.

But there is one wall.

I had used it for a school wall,

but we never seemed to stay in this room to do school,

so I painted the top half a lighter shade of the same green on the living room wall

by just adding some white to it.

I looked for too long through blogs and magazines for ideas for this wall.

There are "farming" scenes and elements all around the living room,

so I thought this might be a good wall to hang our aerial view photos of

our farm

and

the farmette where we lived the first five years of our marriage.

I purchased two small Currier and Ives farm scenes at a discount at an antique store

because the frames were damaged.

I just repainted them (and their mats red),

as well as all of the other frames so that they would look like a more cohesive grouping.

I also had the farm scene that I painted that would be nice in this grouping.

I saw these plastic flowers for $.50 at a yard sale.

They were pink and blue and yellow,

but I turned them all into red.

 The plaque was also a yard sale find repainted.

My predicament was:

how to place all these things on the wall.

I read about cutting paper to replicate picture sizes/shapes and hanging them on the wall

to try arranging.

But I decided to just lay them out right on the floor in front of the wall instead:

 I finally decided on this arrangement:

 I have to say,

it is nice to have pictures on the wall again

instead of maps and children's school work.

Now I have a busy refrigerator.

I feel like,...

...well,

 like I like being in my living room.

It's a nice feeling.

Linking up to:

Kellyskornerblog.com

Funkyjunkinteriors.net
Missmustardseed.com
Betweennapsontheporch.net 

Homesteadrevival.blogspot.com

Screamin'.

I'm working on painting my living room today.

The color is LOUD.

I look at it and instantly think,

"Screamin' Green."

 I even added some white to it to paint the walls

because it was blinding me untamed.

Maybe it's the weather:

65 degrees on January 7th.

The kids are outside running around

with no jackets on.

 

The sunshine is screamin'.

It must be affecting my mood.

I had to wear the ring my daughter got me for Christmas

to finish out my look today.

 Tell me that beauty isn't screamin'.

Looks like somebody wants to come in and get some attention.

 Yikes.

That window is screamin,' 

"WASH ME!!!"

Don't look at it anymore, 

please.

I'll wash it right away.

Yikes it's bad.

I have to stop looking at it.

 Is it too early for Valentine's Day decorations?

(Okay, I need to admit that

I'm in love with the chicken my husband got me for Christmas.)

I got these bulbs on sale after Christmas.

I thought they didn't look like Christmas.

They're screamin' "Valentine's Day!!!"

It's really quiet in the house when the kids are outside.

Greenbeans and Crown Molding

When it is hot like this,

 steamy,

 humid,

 almost-unable-to-breathe hot,

I know it is that time of year again.

Green beans.

Do you like them?

Do you like them in a box?

Do you like them with a fox?

I think they are okay:

not my favorite;

take 'em or leave 'em.

But not to my Farmer.

He and our three children could live on green beans.

There is usually scrambling over the last helping of green beans.

So when I married my Farmer,

I soon realized that July's hottest days

would be marked by picking

and canning green beans.

I can't say I have always had the happiest attitude
when picking them.

I've had 13 seasons of bean beetles
 
 and their eggs,..
 

and larvae,..

to squash
 
in order to maintain the plants for a longer harvest.


 It's the season of scurrying along a dirt path on a garden mat,

a knee high view of the world around me,
 

spiders racing across my bare feet,

grasshoppers bouncing off my head,

praying mantis bobbing in irritation at my interference

in the search of their next meal.

"A house divided cannot stand,"

Abraham Lincoln so wisely said.

And like it or not,

I'm living in a house where

there

MUST

be green beans.

My husband has a favorite saying when it comes to household fix-ups.

"I'm not a carpenter.

I can't do that."

I ignore this remark.

Everything I've given my "non-carpenter" to do,

he does an amazing job:

like the framing he did all around the porch windows.

(HURRAY for the finally finished painted floor!)

I've tried to run his saws

and hammers

and swung at my fair share of nails.

But I TRULY am not a carpenter.

My carpentry usually gets flung out the basement door

with words of frustrating:

"I can't do this!"

after several failed attempts

and decades of lost minutes.

I don't try anymore.

A few weeks ago,

I measured some places around the house that needed molding

and went out and bought it.

I showed my "non-carpenter" when he got home

what my plans were for him

and got irate rejection of the idea.

But the molding was purchased,

my dreams were in his hand,

and the next Saturday,

the saw was buzzing,

and my molding was attached and beautiful.

He helped my plain, newly painted cupboards go from this:

to this:



Our house is not divided on issues of carpentry and green beans.

I understand this is very likely a broad use of the Bible verse,

"And if a house be divided against itself,
that house cannot stand."
Mark 3:25

but the general idea is there.

 Marriage consists of a man and a woman

two extraordinarily different thinking people,

trying to walk in unison on a path through life.

In marriage there is a lot of sacrificing,

a lot of giving up what one wants to do with "my" time

to meet the other person's needs.

Learning to love something that the other loves

is a choice sometimes:

it's friendship.

Smooches and sweetness are grand,

the rose petals on the road of life;

but in the long haul,

friendship is the soft-soled sneakers

that make that road walkable.

We all have them in marriage:

the greenbeans and carpentry we can do for the other.

It's not always fun,
 

but it's worth it.

Linking up to:

 Between Naps on the Porch: Met Monday



Homestead Revival: Barn Hop


Kellys Korner Blog: Share A Piece of Marriage Advice

and to the fabulous

Kitchen Update...continues

 Welcome to my kitchen...

a work in progress.

 We finally got the cabinets in

and my husband finished putting the pulls on last night.

I am HAPPY !

To truly understand how much I'm loving my new counter top,

 

 this is what the old one looked like,

no matter how much I scrubbed and bleached it.

 The cupboards were pressed board,

and were shedding their crumbling ingredients

all over everything inside of them.

 So my Farmer had these made for me

for my Christmas present.

 I struggled with which color to paint them...

 and actually used both.

I succumbed to my love of green,

but then mixed some of the blue with it for a lightly brushed top coat.

I then waxed them with Fiddes and Sons clear and rugger brown wax.

 

 This countertop went through much abuse from me

(you can see that <HERE>)

to get it to look like this:

I'm still in the process of painting all the walls and trim in the kitchen

(walls white; 

trim some green and some white).

 I painted the top cabinets with Annie Sloan's Old White

and a wash of Paris Gray,
(So nice to paint the doors without taking them down!)

Speaking of Annie Sloan's chalk paint,

these two metal buckets are painted in Provence.

I put a plastic bag in each and filled them with potting soil

and put real boxwood cuttings in them.

(My aunt has rooted some this way for me before.)

I love this corner shelf.

 It's fun to change the look up for the seasons...

and fresh flowers are a favorite decoration in any room!

(I adore these "Purple Rooster" Monarda flowers that are new to my flower garden

-also known as Bee Balm-.

They make the word 'pretty' seem too small.)

We have added trim to cover up the screws that the previous ownersused to hang the bead board;...

and this island is finally painted green like the base cabinets;
I supposed I need to take some new pictures.

 I was hoping to make a curtain for the door out of this vintage piece
as well, so...

until next time...

I better get busy,

and

thank you for stopping in!




  

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