New Year In Blue

Every year after the holidays, I am excited to put the Christmas away and to create something new for the new year. This year I am in a British mood as I have been reading British editions of Country Home, Country Homes & Interiors, and English Home magazines. I was inspired by a photo in one of these magazines, where a hutch was filled with French linens, white dishes and some touches of silver. So pretty!

Fall In Blue

For Fall, I brough out my earthy toned things. Some of my Brown Wear, My mother-in-law's Brown Betty teapot, and some of my fall dishes etc... I was really pleased with this look, as I wasn't too sure what this color scheme would look like against this bright blue. It actually made them pop, which I love.

Completed

Well, this is it! I am very happy with the way it turned out. I am especially loving how pretty things look inside of it. I change it seasonally, and everything I have put in it looks wonderful :)
For this spring and summer look, I filled it with some of my green and pink depression glass. I added a few other things for color. I found the green glass knobs at Anthropology.

I know this picture is sideways... but, I'm just learning!

Anyway, this picture in one of my magazines became my inspiration for wanting a distressed blue piece. I loved the handles on this dresser so much, but have not found any this pretty yet. I will keep my eye out though. You never know when you might find what you are looking for. :)

First, I made the decision to paint the cabinet blue. I had some sample paint colors that a friend had given to me, so I tried this first, just to see if I liked the idea. This color was pretty, and reminded me of a robin's egg, but in the end I felt it was too light, and kept looking.

Cabinet Redo

This is our diningroom before we painted it yellow. I chose this picture though because it is the only "before" picture I could find of the cabinet in the corner. This piece has a fun history because it was the first thing Jeff and I bought on credit when we were young in our marriage. (in order to establish credit) . It has a matching table and chairs as well, but when we moved, they found a home at our son's house. Anyway, I wasn't loving this two-toned look anymore, but I didn't want to get rid of it either. So, I started thinking about painting it.

It took a little longer than it should have to get this project done... putting the new switchplates on was a breeze, but several of our on/off switches were actually a dark old brown color... so, I got out my tiny paintbrush and painted them :) I used the satin white paint we had used for our trim, which dried quickly and had the perfect shine needed to make it look like white plastic. I think Jeff might be happy tonight when he sees my work. He thought he was going to have to buy all new electrical boxes for these! So fun.

Our little house has these old brass switchplates everywhere. They aren't real ugly, but kind of dated and they show up a lot against our new paint colors. We went to the hardware store to look for new ones and actually liked the plain white ones best. This was cool, because they were one of the least expensive. :)

Yes, I DID use Martha's Rain Water again! We really love this color and I didn't want to introduce another color into the mix. I am planning a photo wall near the top and think the photos in black frames will look great against this color. We also have all the hardware for a carpet runner, which I will add as soon as we have the extra money. I think I'll go for a sea grass or another natural fiber. We'll see...

This is the stairwell leading to our upstairs. I liked that the stairs were their original stained wood and that the handrail was in such great shape. But, I wanted to paint the walls to highlight the wood trim and to brighten up the space.

As you can see, I am still using the yellow drapes for fall and winter seasons. I made the pillow covers to bring in a bit more red for the holidays. I found this fabric when Jeff and I spent our anniversary in Victoria British Columbia.

This is one end of the living room before we painted. This would have been Christmas last year (our first Christmas in Seattle) I had hung some drapes from IKEA just to bring in some color. I can't believe you can buy drapes like these for $14.00 a window. These were a real life saver for those first 6 months or so while I looked for paint colors. Although we have downsized quite a bit, most of our furniture fits nicely in this house. We are especially happy with our "larger" livingroom, as compared to the small livingrooms found in most older homes here.

I chose Martha Stewart's Rain Water for the entry. We really love this color. This photo makes it look a little lighter then it actually is, but it is very fresh and pretty. I have never painted anything blue before, so this was my first "brave" move. The walls in the living and dining room are Glidden's Corn Silk. It took many test colors to find this yellow. The thing I like about it is that it changes with the weather outside. It keeps things feeling bright and sunny, but it is also a "warm" yellow that feels calm and cozy on a rainy day. All the trim throughout the house will be done in Martha's Tailor's Chalk.

New House Love

I have to start somewhere, so I thought I would show some before and after pictures of what we have done so far. This is our front door/entry in it's original color. Not a bad color, but very dirty in real life and not very cheery for the rainy dark weather we get here. we are thrilled with the original lighting left in this home. The sconce on the left and the fixture peeking out above the door are two of nine :)

Hello From Seattle

Where to begin? The story is a long one and I can't do it justice here, but I do want to say that God is in it all, and He continues to amaze us each day as life unfolds before us.We praise His Holy name, because without Him, we are nothing.
Three weeks ago now, we pulled away from our Clovis house with our awesome friends, Rich Kowamoto and Yvonne Downs to make our way to our new home in Seattle Washington.
God has seen fit to give Jeff a job here with the Seattle's Untion Gospel Mission. We will be working with the homeless and addicted people in this city and we are thrilled!
I wish I could tell you all the things God did, to bring this about, but you'll have to come visit to hear the whole story :]
Anyway, our drive was perfect. We had a blast together and arrived to find our realtor with keys in hand to our new home.
We live in the community of West Seattle and are just a few blocks from the Sound.
To say it's beautiful here is an understatement.
Below are pictures of our home as we found it. A 1935 house, it is in great shape, but the walls were very dirty and everything was dusty!
Yvonne and I spent one whole day scrubbing the little kitchen from top to bottom for example.
I am having great fun setting up house. I'll keep you posted on things as they
progress.

God's Leading

Where do I begin? I have not blogged in quit awhile. I should be telling you all about my missions trip to South Africa (and I will some day), but for now, I guess I'll talk about what happened in my life the day I got home...
I guess I'll just spit it out. My husband lost his job.
I don't think I should go into all the details of why, instead I'll just tell you that this change has brought sadness and many sweet moments as well.
We have worked and lived at Hume Lake for 29 years now (minus the 3 that were spent at Bible college). Hume is our home. It's where we have lived, gone to church, loved our Hume family and served our Lord, so it seems so wierd that we no longer live there.
We have no doubt that this is all God's perfect plan for us and for Hume, but it's still hard to say goodbye to all that has been so familiar to us.
I think I will miss the people the most. My sweet friends and the darling kids at preschool, where I got to help each week this past year.
I'll miss my house and all the fun our family had there.( holidays, parties, dance parties, hours of visiting over coffee, snuggles with our babies, long serious talks, tears, laughter...)
I'll miss the view from my kitchen window
I'll miss the school room and all the hours we spent there
I'll miss my red door
I'll miss my bathtub
I'll miss sitting on the front porch in summer
I'll miss walking the lake
I'll miss the fresh air
I'll miss the view at the lake
I'll miss knowing that people are coming to Christ and that we are playing a small part in that
I'll miss busy summers and quiet falls
Enough of that...
I have been so blessed by the peace that God has given me. Honestly, it's been amazing and surprising. I know my heart is broken in several places, but for the most part, I have felt ok.
I am so thankful for the prayers of friends and family. I know this is why I am doing so well. I am especially thankful for our kids and their kind and gentle care of us during this time. I know they are very sad themselves, and yet they have been encouraging and helpful and have had such good attitudes. (Thanks Guys)
As of today, we are living in Clovis, with our son Nole and his family. Jeff is job hunting and I'm taking each day as it comes.
I'll close for now, but will continue as I can. I know this isn't written well, but if I don't just ramble, I'll never do this.
One last thing. God loves us, He's closer than ever and we will be ok.

Blossoms in the snow...

It's snowing really hard outside, as I type. The tree branches are bending low with the weight of so much snow. It's a beautiful winter wonderland where I live. We won't be seeing signs of spring for quite awhile here...
So, you can imagine my glee to find two delicate, white jasmine flowers blooming inside my home!
Jeff bought this jasmine for me to set next to the front door last summer. When the weather became cold and I put away all my potted plants, the jasmine was still so pretty, I brought it inside.
I kept moving it around (mostly because it's big, and it was in the way), until it landed next to our sliding glass doors that face the back of the house. The sun comes through these windows every day and the jasmine seemed happy there.
Well, just recently, long, fresh limbs began to grow and vine around the older branches, fresh baby leaves began to unfirl, and wonder of wonders, two little blossoms opened their faces to the sun.
If you get close enough, you can even smell their sweet fragrance.
Spring may be far off here at Hume Lake, but my jasmine doesn't seem to care.
Hopefully, it will take residence near the front door again and bless us with more of it's sweet flowers. Until then, I'm content with these two.

Valentines Day with my Guy

My husband and I had the BEST Valentine's Day weekend ever! No, we didn't go away to the coast, or stay in a beautiful Inn somewhere. We just had a blast at home. Now, we do live in a beautiful place, but that wasn't what made it so special. Honestly, it was the fact that we just love being together.
We have been married now for 27 years and our love and passion for eachother is amazing! I feel so blessed.
Jeff gave me a darling basket filled with bath stuff, candles, chocolates, chick flicks, home magazines etc... He also brought home all kinds of fun picnic type foods and we had a picnic in front of the fireplace. We talked about all our Valentine's Day memories from our lives and remembered a similar picnic we had in England one time together.
Our son, Edward wasn't home for most of the day on Valentine's Day, so we got a sneak peek at what the "empty nest" will be like :)
I love my husband more than anyone else on this earth. He is God's richest blessing in my life.

A Fresh Look