Moved to Facebook but I'll try to post here too.

Hi Folks,

I've moved my creations and inspirations to my family Facebook page. It just seems I'm always there and my family loves to see how I change things around (impulsively).

Here is a group of photos from some projects I've done for our little Lake House in Missouri. We love to go there in the summer and visit with the Conway side of the family.

This the is the door of a set of books cases made by my late father-in-law for my husband. The webbing on the doors was in pretty bad shape so I decided it would be one of my makeovers.

After removing the webbing, I made a template from poster board.

Then I glued and stapled the "leather" insert in each door.

This is the almost finished door. I still needed to touch up the wood. 

The doors came out very good and my husband was happy. :)

Here are two pictures I got very cheaply at a little shop.
The one on the right is the before. The left picture is the after". Look what smoking in
your home does to your lovely home decor items.
A little windex made it all better but  what about your lungs!!

This low table was left in the house by the
previous owners and we used it as an
 art table for the girls when they were younger.
 Now it's our coffee table. I've painted it "Breadcrumb"
to brighten the living room.

Here is the little table we've used as an end table.
It was black but now I'm going for "Breadcrumb".

Here they are -- painted and ready for the living room.

A new quilt to cover our "new" previously really ugly couch.

Well, it works sort of...

The couch being tested. 

New woven shades to keep out the afternoon sun.
(from Pier One)

The kitchen table. It's a desk from Walmart and works great
as a prep table. We gather around it all the time. I had
painted the legs and apron black but I'm on a brightening
adventure. It's now a creamy white.

Here is the dining room with the new (old) white table from
our house. We've had it in storage and brought it here this
summmer. I painted the bench and little stool to match it.

Last, but not lease is the new picture wall.
I hung them low for some reason so this summer
I'll go up with new ones.

So that ends my projects from 2011!! Thanks for taking the tour.

Lake House Kitchen Backsplash Project!!

Here is Steve and Lexie sorting out the kitchen the first summer we visited the Lake House. Notice the grey backing board on the backsplash. At the time not even the electric outlets were fastened to the all and had no plug covers. The previous owners had planned to tile this area but didn't get to it. And neither did I that summer or the next...

So, first I took down the boards and decided to paint to match the rest of the room. The backing was plain old paneling so I used some kiltz before trying to cover the wood. It took several coats but it finally came out very nice.

In between coats I touched up the white cabinets.

Then I painted two unfinished pedestals white to match the cabinets and placed one at each end of the upper cabinets for effect.

What a nice vacation kitchen! All ready for next time.

The Lake House Kitchen Floor Re-do!

One of the biggest projects that needed completion at the Lake House was the kitchen. The tile floor grout was chalky and breaking off making a mess everywhere. We had a big rug over it for the past two summers but I decided to tackle the job once and for all. (I hope!) Having never done more than the two table tops of broken tile before I was really worried that I would just make it worse.

The girls and I took two days to get it done. First, began gouging out the loose grout with flat head screwdrivers. Probably not the safest way but it worked for us. Then I vacuumed and began grouting according to the directions on the ready-made grout purchased at Lowe's.

The first side came out good! So we walked carefully walked around the newly grouted tiles and admired our success.
The next day we really worked hard to get all the grout up that was damaged. We had to replace two tiles that came up with the grout chopping, so thankfully, we had extras around. (I used those two damaged tiles for the tabletop project.)

Here I am (with sore knees) adding grout to the last section of tiles. I know I took a photo of the girls working on the grout but it must be on one of the phones and not the camera's so I'll add that later. Anyway, the floor came out so great! I'm really proud of our work. Next, the backsplash!

Continuing the Kitchen Re-Do at the Lake House

First, the desk in the kitchen has now been moved to the "sewing room" for my projects (formerly the girl's room) and the guest room too. So, it was decided to use another really great table for the center island. Then after it's first use, it was apparent that the wood veneer tabletop would never make it long term -- so we came up with the idea to use a few pieces of left over tile! Voila!


I broke up everything into pieces except a short section of white octagons and little red squares that I found in the workroom. Then I used a white tile to highlite around those octagons and squares. The beige tiles are from the floor.

Lexie came up with the "stream of tiles" design and I think it is perfect!

Tiling the top of a great little wooden table to use as a place to serve. New floor and "new" table.