Operation: Curb Appeal

Hey y'all, welcome back and thanks so much for dropping in. I mean you could have brought cookies with you but whatevs. You want some iced tea??? Anyway, I was full of sass and ideas this spring. Poor Husband Darling ust shakes his head and cowers in a corner, I mean writes the checks(figuratively of course because who uses checks anymore???!!)...cha-ching!! I had to work on him a little but I finally convinced him we needed a new bright front door color!  This is our before. I have loved the red door for the last 7 years since I painted it that color from the ugly faded out blue it was when we bought our little nest. But it needed a fresh coat of paint and I was ready for something new!

 We also had to do a bunch of boring maintenance-y kinds of stuff on our little house. The shutters need paint, the trees need limbed up and trimmed and dead bushes from the harsh winter need replaced etc.... Also we wanted to upgrade some of the flower beds to better, low maintenance bushes and shrubs instead of needy perennials that constantly spread and need split. So to digging we got!!!! Pulling out lillies and iris and replacing them with spirea and hydrangea. Workhorses of the foundation planting! They bloom all summer for very little effort. Gotta love that!
If y'all are on Pinterest you know that curb appeal ideas are present there by the gazillions!!!! I have a gardening and curb appeal board that has so many ideas I can never do all of them, if I owned 10 houses I still couldn't do all of them, lol! Check out my Pinterest board here   https://www.pinterest.com/mamabto3/gardening-and-curb-appeal/

As anyone with flower beds knows there is always weeding to do. My kids LOVE weeding <sarcasm>
I painted the garage door and fascia boards and all the trim I could reach from my 6 foot ladder cause that is as high as this little girl goes. I am terrified of heights,lol. But as long as that took it was merely a drop in the bucket of the time spent weeding so in self defense we mulched nice and deep!! I did something new I haven't done before too. I caulked the outside of our front windows. I noticed the drywall in the windowsill in the living room was a little mushy and damp after rain recently so hopefully fresh caulking fixes that. I did silicone the inside also.

Pictures, pictures, pictures!! of all my hard work and planning

 Seriously!!!!! Isn't that yellow addictive???? I am obsessed with it! And did you see the insane cuteness I added??? (thank you ETSY!)

 I mean really?? Are you not in love with that???

 I loved the yellow so much I had to change out some accessories to emphasize it so it all came together as one cohesive vision.

I will show you some more sides of the yard soon!!!

But I love the way it is coming together, especially with the flowers  all blooming!

Speaking of which, my hydrangea is looking so fabulous this year!!!

Mama, I'm Bored!

Bwahahaha, this one is a little bit evil and a little bit awesome. It is not exactly an original idea but hey I actually did it and put it on my kitchen counter so yay me!!! Every now and then my kids get whiny and these 3 words exit their needy little mouths. Last year I had on the chalk board a task for each of the letters of BORED but this year I have taken it a step farther.

This pickle jar I saved and painted the top of, is full of slips of paper with a variety of tasks, activities and suggestions if any of my boys dare to utter those words. They will be reaching in and picking out ONE slip of paper and NO TAKE BACKS!!!!! Cause I am mean and that is how I roll. It is everything from go clean a toilet to bake cookies for a neighbor or go to the park, watch a movie and pop popcorn or vacuum a room or even the dreaded pick up dogpoop!!! (that is where the evil comes in)
None of my kids have been so brave as to whine yet but it surely will happen eventually!! And I will get to say, "go pick your poison from the jar!!" then cackle in an evil witchy fashion and ride my broom around the roof in circles....or whatever.

Summertime! And The Planning Is Easy!

Hello my beautiful friends,
I hope you are having a wonderful summer so far. Here at the little house on Clover Ridge we are just getting things kicked off. The littles had day camp all last week so we are just hitting our groove this week. I spent some time getting our organizational plans in place. You may remember some of our plans from last year. You can see that post here http://houseoncloverridge.blogspot.com/2014/08/summertime-avoiding-chaos-chores-and.html
But this years plans look like this:

This is our summer chore list. Each of the 3 kids and I have a section. We split the big jobs up between up. Thank God for bigger kids!!! Especially the kitchen chores. Each day one of us cooks, one puts dishes away, one puts food away and is a kitchen helper and one washes dishes. It works great to split it up so no one person has to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I cook more then anyone else but I only wash dishes one ay a week. We split bathrooms up too. One does all the sinks, one does all the toile-y bowls and another does the tub and tile in one bath and I do the shower and tub in the master and the floors in all of the bathrooms. This is a slightly altered system so I will let you know how it goes.

One of the kids had this idea last year. It worked great and we are doing it again. It is a simplified summertime menu plan. The meals are quick and easy and it helps with cost and time so we can spend more time having fun!

I don't know about your house but here it can be Chaos Central. Things get crazy and there are more freak out and melt downs when there is no structure in times like summer when there is less "have-to's" and scheduled everyday activities. So years ago we started doing a daily schedule when everyone is going to be at home and it really helps! This is our schedule and we are not drill seargent crazy about it but it does help to have a plan of some kind and it helps keep the kids from playing video games all damn day!!!!

You might have noticed that exercise is on the daily chore schedule. It was last year too. While it doesn't actually happen as often as I would like it does help encourage them to move it, move it! I found this online and printed it off for the youngest as an encouragement for him. I have found any time we can cross off the days on a task it happens more! I am also compiling a list of simple easy exercises that don't require a large time commitment or a lot of equipment and maybe some that are multi-participant to encourage the boys to do them. And we are going to try and put together an obstacle course in the backyard to have some fun with too!

 

 

I am still working on our display for our bucket list so that will be coming soon!!  Here's to a simple, relaxing, organized summer with the kids!!!

Pickling, And Not In Mason Jars!

Good Morning y'all,

I have been keeping the ball rolling and knocking out project after project here in our house! I am busier then a beaver after a flash flood! My kids and poor Husband Darlin keep rolling their eyes in their heads every time I walk thru carrying a big bucket of supplies or a big ole blue tarp somewhere. But at least they aren't groaning about me making them do yard work! I will share some of those projects later! I might even try a video tour of the yard! If I can figure out the tech side of it!But now that school is out I have my tech savvy teens to help!




So the back story for this project is 
I have a formica topped C.1974 dining room set with 3 leaves, 6 chairs and a buffet that I restained Minwax Bombay Mahogany in 2009. It is a great well made set and it has served us well thru our kids messiest years. It has held finger painting sessions, crafts, Thanksgiving dinners, birthday cakes, and countless dinner conversations and family meetings. I have a deep emotional attachment to this table for that reason. But aesthetically formica in my formal dining room was well..... I was over it. Husband Darling would tell you it is all Pinterest's fault.

just a few of the moments that have increased my attachment to this table

right after we moved into our first home

birthdays!

But as you can see it really just didn't fit our style anymore.

this is a pic from this years St. Patty's Day post that I never got around to writing, sigh

 As I often do when I want to change something up, I shopped my house first. Starting in the basement and working my way up. I found an old table I trash picked years ago. We used it in the school room when we homeschooled, it became a sewing and craft table in the basement and then a computer lab station so all the kids could be on their computers at the same time for homework or play. Then it became where I laid out decorations for seasonal changes, oh it was once a shelf for storage of camping gear. Well anyway, it has been thru a lot. But it was ugly which is why it has never been a dining table. Pine and covered in what must be like 30 coats of poly until it practically glowed yellow. But solid and handmade, obviously with care. So I decided it needed a new lease on life. A resurrection. Either that or a trip to Goodwill but how could I donate something that still had function for my family???

solid, handmade but ohhhh that yellow pine. It needed a facelift

 

 I know y'all have been on pinterest or HGTV and seen all the fuss about chalk paint. I first saw it in use last fall at the Country Living Fair. I knew I wanted to get around to trying it but hadn't had the chance yet. This cried out for that!

3 coats white chalk paint

a couple hours of sanding off the gazillion layers of poly and one coat thinned chalk paint rubbed on

2 more coats of pickling, or thinned paint, rubbed on and then rubbed back off. 

 Don't be jealous of that gorgeous blue tarp. It is protecting my beloved cow rug.But hey, that table looks a hell of a lot different, starting to look pretty darn good!

now to make these chairs work with it a little better. I will share the finished product soon!!!

Who Is Going To Pick Up Dog Poo?

Well,
once again my ginormous children have bravely survived another school year and we are trying to figure out how to run the household with everyone home. Over the years I have found that having clearly posted organization is the key to survival when it is one against three. So as I have the last three years I asked the children which chores they would volunteer to do and if given the choice to avoid one chore what chore would that be. And they managed to surprise me with their constant willingness to help, well at least in theory of helping. Actual day to day doing...well that might just be a different story. But I love that they each were willing to take on new tasks, upgrade to a harder chore, lessen the load for me by doing more for themselves and for the family as a whole. They do make me so proud to be their Mama!!

though how we went from this

to this so fast.........baffles me.

So I am making the new summer chore lists and once I have it done I will post a pic of it but until then they will just be upstairs arguing over who will have to clean up the dog poo in the back yard.

Table: To Trash Or Not To Trash

Hello my friends and my Mama, (well at least I hope my Mama reads my blog, lol)

I wanted to share one of the things I have been keeping busy with, with all of you. I found this cool app on my fancy phone called Offer Up and it is kind of like Craig's List but I like the format better. I found this table and chairs and I loved the chairs instantaneously! The price for the table and chairs was less then 1 chair costs new and they were in good condition. Well, the chairs that is. The table had seen better days. But I felt like it was worth it even if I threw the table away and kept the chairs so I convinced Husband Darling it was a great idea and we headed off in the Super Baby Bus (my minivan) to pick it up.

  As you can see it was not exactly an impressive table at this point. And it has brown glass panels for those holes. hmmmmmmmmmm a bit dated??? But  4 leather chairs all in good condition! I didn't love the orangy-ness of the legs=fixable. Didn't love how brown on brown all of this set is=fixable.

  So I took myself down to the Walmart and picked up 2 jars of chalk paint and a jar of furniture wax. I had been wanting to try it since seeing it at the Country Living Fair last fall. Then I started thinking. I walked around the main floor of our little house on the ridge and began concocting a plan.

 I had a round table in the breakfast room and needed something narrower for better foot traffic flow. I had been looking for something since I redid the kitchen and put the island in. But it seemed like opportunity and budget never lined up. Meaning when I came across a good deal I had no cash and had to pass. But now this table had fallen into my hot little hands.

I started my transformations on the wood table I purchased. I gave it three coats of grey chalk paint. Then a coat of clear wax but I wasn't quite happy with it so I tinted the wax with a little acrylic paint and went over it again until I had the feeling I wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still just wasn't sure about it. But after living with it a couple days I really like the size and shape of the table and the color and glass panels really lighten up the space, reflecting light and making everything feel bright.

You might remember these are the chairs that came with the table......I had other plans for them for now!!

And here it is! Now all of us can sit for informal meals in here! I am looking for a wooden bench to go on the left instead of two of my old tables dining room chairs. And I keep debating whether these 4 chairs should be black or white or grey and if I should recover them. Or if it isn't worth it and I should just keep looking for more chairs. hmmmmm decisions, decisions!!

So that is my, maybe we will throw it in the trash table recycle! What do you think?? I still think clear glass panels would be a big improvement but haven't gotten out to price them yet. If I change it I will update the post :)
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Have a great day!

Everyone Loves Ikea!

Hello,
 I haven't posted in a little bit, things here on the Ridge have been very busy.

 Spring has sprung and with it comes projects galore and about a gazillion hours of yard work!! But I am taking a quick break from staining the deck, which I will share with you later to tell you about my recent find at Ikea! I love a bargain, y'all know that. But even I was surprised at the deal I got out of their Bargain section. I love that section. As my son says, I should just shop their first instead of the showroom because I could spend all my money in there!! But this time I was so lucky. They have these beautiful curtains in the catalog. Heavy weight drapes. A beautiful color and the quality is great. But they were a little out of the budget since my other drapes are only a couple years old. But oh, as I stood in the linens department, I wanted them.  I touched the package, hesitating, knowing it was a budget buster, weighing the consequences. But sadly I had to walk away.

 Later in the day, because Ikea is an all day adventure, we stopped in the bargain section before checking out. And low and behold I spotted the fabric. I thought to myself, "Self, maybe it's a damaged panel and I could salvage some for throw pillows" as I beat a quick path to the bin.  I pulled the panel out and it was perfect and marked down to 25% of it's original cost!!!!!! But what to my wondering eyes would appear but a second panel at the bottom of the bin! A pair, I tried not to get excited because surely this one was unusable. I pulled it out slowly, preparing myself for the disappointment but as I shook it out to check I spotted nothing. No stain, no tear, nothing. Perfect. A pair!!! So happy with myself and my grand find was I that I nearly missed the velvety pillow covers in the bin too. I could not be so lucky! I scored 4, yes 4 of those too!!!!!! sigh, what a good day.
Here is a picture of my beauties when I got them home and hung them up.

Love!!

A close up of the pattern

I love them, the room feels so light and airy with the light colors, perfect for spring and summer!!
  I will share what I did with those pillow covers a little later.
Back to staining the deck for me, I hope it is beautiful where you are today!