Our Useful Porch: Living Room/School Room

I finally got the school room rearranged and organized for the start of the school year a couple weeks back and am making time to share them today.

For some reason, there is something about having a "new" room to go to that makes the first day of home-schooling seem more like a new place to be.

The new set-up gives useful separate areas for the different needs this porch room fills.

We moved the table up against the wall in front of the bright windows.

I love the long table: it offers a lot of elbow room.

The bottom was an outdoor table that the glass broke out of

and we found the wooden top to replace it on Craig's List.

On one end of the table I put needed supplies in separate containers...

and am hoping they will stay separated long enough to make the effort worth it.

 It seems I/we can keep things more organized when we have enough containers and storage spaces.

I especially like baskets because not only do they look quaint,

the handles make them easier for kids to carry.

A big basket of markers on the floor seems harder to lose than a generalized plastic box

(or maybe it just stands out to these eyes that seem to miss things that appear too ordinary...

"Scream at me, markers, where are you?")

 I have read over and over that if the artist in me ever wants to get much of my own projects accomplished, I need to set up a distinct place that is mine

and a distinct time to work there.

 At least with my easel and desk set up here, I can view the television to catch an evening movie while I work, or get a few strokes in at the easel while seat work is going on.

I like to repeat using some colors/boxes for storage.  Somehow, this makes me "feel" more organized;

but then allowing for some different basket containers makes it seem more inviting.

I also have found it helpful to keep a different child's books on different shelves.

My 5 year old's school books are on the second shelf,

my 7 year-old's school books are on the bottom shelf.

My supplies are on the very top and the first shelf holds some school games.

 I also think it's fun to employ old pieces of furniture to hold things.

 

The top part of this piece came out of our barn.

The bottom is a dresser that was missing the two large lower drawers.

Painting them the same color helped bring them together.

The large crate beside it holds my oldest daughter's school books.

 The top part holds my things: some of my favorite tea cups as well as sewing supplies and some ink supplies for artwork.

 The bottom behind the curtain holds some of my teacher books and art pads;

a fabric box full of extra reading to go with our year of schooling: 

one for my son and the other for my daughter.

 There are also my special art markers in a basket and a box tin full of CD's underneath the cupboard.

A smaller bookshelf hidden partially under my sewing machine cupboard has art supplies for the kids to use.

Isn't it a necessity to keep a good amount of green plants around to make it seem like the outdoors isn't too far away?
(Or to put it simply: I love plants!)

The other side of the room is set up for relaxing to read books, or watch a movie in the evening,

or, occasionally, to watch something educational.

I worried the fuzzy wool off-white rug would be hard to keep in this room,

but I took a risk and got it,
hoping it would make this part of the room feel more welcoming.

I am glad a fellow blogger gave the advice that stretching to take a small risk like this doesn't need to be such a scary thing to do; so I took a small bit of my kitchen money I had set aside
(and that was not going to happen this year),
and I bought a few rugs during a good sale at USA Rugs,
weighing in that the immediate warmth they would give to our home was worth the extra wait toward the kitchen.
  I have been so happy with the results).

My son's bearded dragon on the other side of the room enjoys having the constant flow of traffic throughout this room, I'm sure.

Now we can hit the books...

and paintbrushes!

Thanks for stopping in for our tour.

Sharing at:
ABowlfulloflemons.net 
Wearethatfamily.com 

Art Lesson: Watercolor Painted Vintage Wall Art

I was feeling the need to make my mantel sing of spring,

so I dug up these old wooden oval pieces I had once painted on and decided I did not like.

I decided to paint the edging of these ovals in black.

I found some vintage images on the Graphics Fairy of birds and printed them up in the center of each page by pasting them into Word and situating them to the size and place that I wanted them.

 (We've had a visiting blue jay to our yard in the last 2 weeks who is as blue of a blue jay I have ever seen).

I wanted to add a bit of color, so I splashed water all over the page with a paint brush

and then added some blue

and then some touches of red.

 Once that had settled into the paper a little bit,

I began painting the bird with a darker and less watered down blue.

 I filled in the leaves, branch, and flowers as well.

 Once the jay was done, I followed the same process for the Robin picture.

It is always a nice break to just paint an image that is already all drawn up for you.

Who doesn't love a bit of coloring-book style painting?

 I let these dry thoroughly and then cut them to fit into the oval shapes

(I did this by tracing the full oval shape onto the page and then cutting it down evenly on all sides until it fit, but a piece of tracing paper would also work to be more precise.

Laying it into the frame and running a pencil around the inside edge carefully should work).

Once I had them cut, I spread glue all over the backs of the images and then pasted them into the ovals, using paint containers to hold the image down on all the edges.

 Wanting a more vintage look, I heated some water and, using a damp teabag,

dabbed the warmed tea bag all over the image until it was stained as I wanted.

(This could also be done before gluing the image into the frame).

 The teabag was so used up, it cracked at bit and shed some bits of tea onto the images,

but I left them there to dry to add more character.

Once dried, I painted two coats of Mod Podge, allowing the first coat to dry completely before applying the second coat.

I then applied a squeeze of Martha Stewarts all purpose gloss paint from the bottle it comes in around the edges to make them look sealed in to the frame.  I used a paint brush to carefully brush it in and a few damp q-tips to clean up any smears.

Here they are all finished.  Can you see the difference with the Mod Podge?

The shine makes them look more like framed pictures.

I then put some frame wall hangers on the backs of the bird art

and hung them over the mantel in the living rooom

They added a touch of quaint, older looking decor to the wall with no expense at all:

I just recycled and used the supplies that I had...

aren't those the best kinds of projects?

Have you added any spring to your home this season?

I am still working on the bee picture.

It is coming along pretty well, but I am trying to wait until it is all finished before I share the processes I tried with it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing at:
Homestoriesatoz.com
Savvysouthernstyle.net
notjustahousewife.net
Wearethatfamily.com
Wise-woman-linkup

When Colored Paint Helps Hide the Damage.

Hello!

  Sometimes I find it difficult to know whether to paint a piece of furniture or leave it as wood.  I love a mixture of the two around the house.  Take for example, this round table that my mother gave me.  I treasure this table and the beautiful carving all around the edges of the table top.

I needed to do something with it because the top was badly scratched and had bubbled and peeled varnish which made me feel like it looked messy all of the time.  I hid it with doilies for a long while but finally decided that I either needed to paint it or strip it.

Because of the detail of the carved wood and the fact that my life is filled with kids and so many other projects right now, I decided to give in and just paint it.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk paint which is a favorite of mine because it eliminates the need to sand or prime furniture.  I gave it a fun two-toned look:

white for most of it and then Florence blue on the top.  (I will admit that although part of the reason I painted it a different color on top was for fun, but also because the white made it look too obviously marred to me: the color seemed to hide the seriously marred top a little better.)

(I painted the frame with some Annie Sloane paint a previous day, but am not sure the color.

Annie Sloan paint seems to be useful on just about anything).

Of course, I love bold colors in my living room anyhow, so that was obviously a good part of the decision as well.

I sanded the whole thing after the paint dried to make it look distressed,

and then rubbed some Fiddes and Sons Rugger Brown and clear wax on it.

 

Painting it made me feel better about it's rough look and added color.

Of course, it is always whatever makes your house feel like your own home that works for each of us.

For me all too often, I have to admit, I opt for the easier route of paint.

 

Well, it is snowing here again...

I do hope spring comes soon as I am ready to head into the flower gardens.

We found a great couch for the basement this weekend off of Craig's List and it will be fun to show you that room all finished soon.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing at:

Bystephanielynn.com

Betweennapsontheporch.net
Theprairiehomestead.com
Missmustardseed.com

Christmas Home Tour: Home-made Christmas

Hello!

It is the time of year that many bloggers are sharing home-tours of their festive houses for Christmas,

so I thought I would join in.

Welcome to our home.

To say that I love our 1850 stone farm house is to say that I actually never dreamed I would live in something like it.  The story of how we came to own it is a host of answered prayers.
I need to write it down sometime, especially for the kids.

Of course, having all these animals wandering about is just icing on the cake:
such sweet feathered friends

(well, maybe not so much in the summer when they scratch the mulch from my flower beds).

 The quaintness and quirks of old houses seem to go hand-in-hand.

The thick outside walls and the fireplaces (which were built inside the home to help make the house warmer) uses up more inside space, making this living room smaller.

Of course, this also makes those wonderful deep window sills.

 This room has become a variety of things:
living room, wall cupboard full of school/art supplies,
music room,
and there is a little table on the other side of the piano for my daughter to do her schoolwork.






Isn't it funny that when young, we have ideas of how we will do things.

I remember thinking that someday I would have beautiful store-bought Christmas decorations,
leaving behind the colorful home-made creations we'd made to cover our tree as kids.


Then I grew up and found that I prefer the home-made ornaments over those that are either too fancy or too plastic.

This year, my 11 year old daughter helped me make the snowflake garland out of heavy paper, glue, and glitter: we'll wrap them carefully when Christmas passes and see if they can be used again in coming years.

The red horse bookends were picked up at a charity store: their gold color had chipped paint,
exposing the plaster they are made of.

(I mixed up some red paint with plaster-of-Paris to cover the slight gauges and painted them a cheerful red.)

  For the Christmas season, they put on some old greenery I had from a broken candle garland.

I painted the slate for the craft sale this year and hung it here when it didn't sell.
It is painted from an old image I found in one of my vintage books.

(I will post the image in a few days for others to use: it is too pretty not to share).

The white trees on the mantel are made of cereal boxes.

 

They were cut and pasted, painted with several coats of a thick mixture of white paint and plaster-of-Paris,

allowed dry for about a week, and then painted with glue and doused with glitter.

They were last year's craft.

The green pine trees in the old silver sugar and creamer are artificial moss covered cardboard cones.

I didn't want to part with the sugar and creamer, so they were salvaged for these trees.

The grapevine star was decorated with a rusty canning jar lid,

rimmed with red paint.

The stars are made from toilet paper roll cardboard.

I sliced them, painted them red, crinkled them into star shapes,

painted glue on them, and then covered them with clear glitter.

(I hope to post how to fold these star shapes easily in the coming days.)

We got our tree from my sister who planted about 100 of them a few years back.

I left it unpruned, opting for the natural, wild look

(If I admit that it just slipped my mind until I saw these pictures,

does that count as wanting the natural look?)

The kids helped me decorate the tree with our 'colorful' variety of ornaments.

There is an assortment of canning jar lid ornaments.

Because we can so much of our food, it is hard to just throw away all those little discs when I pop them off the jars.  Some of them usually end up getting made into something.

(I hope to share a post in the coming days of my canning jar lid ornaments...

for any of you out there who are as much of a pack-rat.

I am sure many of the same ideas could be used for regular jar lids).

(The striped table in the center of the room was one I found for free by the side of the road and painted up.  The rocking chair was my husband's grandfather's chair.)

The snowman painted cupboard door was another craft sale unsold item that my daughter claimed.

It sits on the window by her school table.

The old frontier house was created by my husband's grandfather.

These silver trees are made from something recycled.  Can you guess?

 I have a visual step by step I hope to post sometime soon for these as well. 

The snowman was made from a styrofoam ball covered with newspaper papier mache'

and then painted.

These music-box carolers are in the window near my daughter's school area.

I got them somewhere and the head was broken off of the child.

I crafted a new head as well as the baby in the mother's arm from some clay a few years back

so that they would better fit our family size.

 They were a gift to my daughter who likes musical decorations.

(Don't look too closely: it was my first attempt at crafting with that clay and it is a bit rough.  She liked it, so we keep it).

 This little dresser was one a friend gave to me to refinish.

The sled is from a yardsale and I filled it with some greenery.
The older lady I bought it from said her son had made it for her.
I love that it was home-made.

Let's go in the room that gets the most use.

In our kitchen, I used real evergreens pieces.
It's funny because the lady who used to own our farm just sent a Christmas card today.
She mentioned that they used to cut a tree from the farm every year for their Christmas tree,
but that they were probably too big now to use for that.

Yes, they are about 20 feet tall now,
but I trim some of the branches for use in here, so they still make it inside to spread their cheer.

By the time Christmas gets here,
they may need to be replaced or their cheer may be shedding needles,
but I have found it is just as easy to clean up the mess and throw it outside
than to store it all in the attic.

I have to admit also that I am usually so busy trying to get things done for Christmas,

I don't dust all these high places before I put up the boughs.

It will get done after Christmas because the dried boughs will make it happen.

The kitchen windows are so sunny in this house.

I love the kitchen.

I sewed the curtains from an old torn table cloth that was my grandmother's.

Isn't the color of old cobalt blue pottery stunning?

 I made the trees by the blue pitcher below as well.

Perhaps I will get that tutorial on here before this season is passed.

The red cereal cupboard is topped with old pieces from several relatives.

I change the plant piece in the old bottle

as well as the picture in the glass canning jar lid depending on the season.

I found this sweet candy cane image from the Graphics fairy,

printed it on tan paper, cut it into the circle shape,
and then crinkled and finished it by tea-staining it.

The top part of this cupboard was one my aunt found

 and gave me.  My husband found recycled cupboard doors that fit and attached them for me,

and then I painted it.

The bottom half was purchased at a yard sale.

(The top surface was badly chipped veneer,
so we pulled it up

and I painted a slate look on it with some slight images of birds and vines.)

Off of the other side of the kitchen is the office.

Two of the pictures on the wall are silhouettes of our children painted on the glass of old frames purchased at a yard sale.

I put just a few things in the bathroom to make it festive:
a gift from my father.






The house was a gift from my daughter when she was nine.
Her hard earned dollars were used to buy it,
and I think it is sweet next to a vintage tree.


(The dragon verse on the chalkboard hopefully will be changed before Christmas.
It was put on there for my son...one of his favorite subjects right now.
I hear him reading it every time he goes in there, so I hate to change it yet.)




The window in the office looks back on what used to be the back porch,
but it is now enclosed and our real "living" room.

(This small white tree was rescued from the charity store and put into a pot with some plaster-of-Paris to give it a new base.
I consider it my tree: I decorate it with some simple ornaments we made that have more of a the vintage look that I like.)

The back porch is big and sunny;
 It is my favorite room.

This table is where I teach school
and is most often graced with books and crafts.

We do clear it off and have holiday meals out here;
the table gets turned long-ways to fit more people.

 

The view is so peaceful.
 




I remember everyday for a month or more coming out here when we first moved in and pinching myself to see if it was real.





I don't decorate much out here except this corner
and the table when it is set for Christmas dinner.

My sewing machine sits in front if this window looking into the office.


I wanted snowflakes to hang here.
The plastic snowflakes looked too...
well, plastic,
so I made these from the cardboard in paper towel rolls.
I sliced and then curled them like quilling;
glued and painted;
then painted glue and dipped them in clear glitter.







Thank you for stopping by.

This was a long post:
I'm hoping it showed that even the simplest things can be turned into cozy creations for the home,
or at least personalized decorations...

all to suit your own style.

I love the things we have made and the home God has allowed us to live in.
The challenge of using little to create it has been rewarding...
and fun.

If you don't come by again,
I hope you have a joyous, Merry Christmas!





Sharing this tour at these blog parties:
Jenniferrizzo.com: Show-us-your-holiday-home-linky-party
Thehappyhousie.com
Abowlfulloflemons.net
Thenester.com: Welcome-to-the-2013-christmas-tour-of-homes
Thegraphicsfairy.com
Wearethatfamily.com
Betweennapsontheporch.net
Theprairiehomestead.com
Savvysouthernstyle.net
Homestoriesatoz.com
Nominimalisthere.blogspot.com
Missmustardseed.com
kellyskornerblog
Craftberrybush.com
Bystephanielynn.com
DIYshowoff.com
(http://wp.me/p3Su5W-3dv)