Friday, August 31, 2018

A LITTLE UPDATE OF MY HOME IN 2018

Its been soooooooooo long since posting. lol....I thought I would at least update some pictures of my home to start with. I think every room downstairs has been redone since I last posted on this blog. I guess my style is Traditional/Cottage/Farmhouse.... :)
Maybe I'll start blogging again...

My house as of summer 2018... I wanted to try 2 tone and I enjoyed it for the past year but, I now plan to paint the top cabinets the same as the bottom. My kitchen is extremely bright with huge windows so I can definitely do dark. besides these are the only uppers. I'm an open shelf kinda gal.:)

                                                                   
                                                                   MY KITCHEN


https://buildingsandcastlesinthewind.blogspot.com/2018/08/its-been-soooooooooo-long-since-posting.html





The upper cabs are Benjamin Moore's White Dove and the lowers are Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron (My favorite charcoal grey paint color)



http://buildingsandcastlesinthewind.blogspot.com/2018/08/its-been-soooooooooo-long-since-posting.html#more

Touches of red were hard for me because I have a love/hate relationship with Red


https://buildingsandcastlesinthewind.blogspot.com/2018/08/its-been-soooooooooo-long-since-posting.html


Sunday, November 22, 2015

I took a very very long summer break....then my computer crashed. I'm just getting back up online. I will be back! In the mean time....check out my friends new blog.

http://www.celebratingweakness.com/my-advice-to-you-its-okay-to-grieve/

Sunday, May 10, 2015

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL!!!

To all the moms out there ....

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

I have a lovely, strong and dependable mom that I love and miss so much. She lives 700 miles away and I don't get to see her nearly enough. But she taught me strength, determination and not to give up. A mom to count on. I love you mom!
And for the rest of you, I wish wonderful memories, hugs and kisses, fingerprints, laughter and love to you all.
I am a very blessed woman to have children and grandchildren to love and be loved by. Nothing beats family. I got to enjoy almost all of mine today for Mother's Day.
We had a beautiful church service celebrating and honoring motherhood and then lunch out with the family. I heard once....
Start each day with an attitude of gratitude. Whoever said this, must have had family. :)

CELEBRATING IN THE OUTER BANKS


This was our beautiful view from our balcony.
Recently my hubby and I took a mini vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It was a birthday present for me. (Happy Birthday to me!) We live in an oceanfront city about 4 hours away -and yet we had never gotten around to visiting the OBX. Go figure. I also have a few projects I am working on I'll share later. :)
But my goodness, what an awesome weekend we had! We had lots of laughs and a good time with such a beautiful backdrop to explore and enjoy. Having never been before we weren't quite sure where we wanted to stay so I ended up just picking Nags Head out of the blue. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel right on the beach. Our room was on the first floor, with a balcony overlooking the ocean. 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

A CUTE LITTLE WREATH AND POLLEN OVERLOAD

I have been miserable all week with allergies. Did I mention I was miserable? Yes, miserable! I can not breathe through my nose. I mean literally, I can't breathe unless my mouth is open. And I am so tired.....sooooooooooooo tired. And yet when I try to lie down and sleep, not being able to breathe through my nose? Well, sleeping doesn't come easy. Pollen has never bothered me like this before. A little, but not like this. I want to scream!!!
This room is still a work in progress...
So after 2 days of doing nothing but sitting around the house blowing my nose and watching TV, I thought I'd do a little craft. I have wanted a live wreath above my fireplace where I had put the old window I got. I just like live wreaths made of greenery, in the spring and summer. I had this little birds nest wreath laying around the house so I figured I'd use it. I have a much larger one that I plan to use later for the front door. So, I went outside and cut some greenery and played around with it and voila'...5 minutes later, fresh greenery. As long as I spritz it with water every couple of days it should last for quite a while.

What do you think? Cute? yeah, I think so...for free! Any time I can just play around with something I have for free and give it a new life...that makes me smile.





He is Risen! Happy Easter!

We had a lovely warm and beautiful Easter here in southeast North Carolina. :) We had most of the family with us and that always means fun, laughter and chaos. 10 adults and 9 children. Throw in 3 dogs and 2 cats and like I said, chaos. But it's always a good chaos. Lots of food, love and Easter eggs to be hunted.
And Jesus too. He's here every day but remembering him on Sunday in our church service is just a reminder of all he's done for us. All the blessings that He has given us. All those blessings dressed up in pretty little dresses on Sunday. Thank you Lord for all you did on the cross and thank you for all you continue to do in my life. :) 
Hope y'all had a wonderful Easter! From our family to yours!



Wednesday, March 18, 2015

WAINSCOTING BOARD AND BATTEN IN PROGRESS!!!

I love Wainscoting. I think it gives a home such a cozy feeling. It goes with the Farmhouse style, Cottage, and Coastal. Really, just about any depending on the style you choose. It has such a clean crisp look to it. I lean towards Farmhouse/Cottage style in my home so of course I am in love with the look. And I have fallen for the Board and Batten style (second up -Bead board). So I decided to get started on doing it in my family room. I have wanted to for some time. I'll give ya a quick look at the start of it and then tomorrow or Friday when it's all done I'll post an update. Until then, here's a little look at the progress....

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

WHO KNEW? APPARENTLY EVERYONE BUT ME!

I just wanted to do a quick share with y'all about a few things I discovered recently that apparently most others already knew. And one that I've known about for years too that I thought I'd share. So if ya didn't already know about these, here ya go....


Elderberry Syrup. This stuff is amazing! My daughter had the flu last week and someone recommended this to me. I think it was my friend Kelly but if I am mistaken...sorry! She took several teaspoons of it and it helped with the symptoms a lot. She swears she felt like it made a big difference in the severity and length of the flu. You can read more about it here. Its completely natural so you can actually use it quite often I'm told and even give it to little ones. It is expensive though.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

DECORATING PET PEEVES...HERE'S A FEW OF MINE -WHAT ARE YOURS???


This room is perfect! I'm in love with this room and
I wish I could find the source! I want to see more. 
I'm wondering...do you ever walk into someones house and even though it may be beautiful, think of what you might do differently? In your mind, do you think of how you might rearrange it? Think of what you would do different? Paint a lighter shade? Adjust the furniture arrangement? Add this or take this out? Imagine your style instead? Want to straighten a picture? Or is it just me??? Lol…Because yes, I am that person. But don’t worry, I don’t follow through. I don’t say anything nor do I adjust anything. I won't actually move any of  your furniture….I just think about it. 

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP RECIPE ON A RAINY DAY

Today was a damp, drizzling dark and rainy day. It just screamed for something warm for the tummy. So what did I make? Chicken Noodle Soup. Now I'm not the best cook in the world but I have certainly learned over the years how to "throw" things together and come up with something pretty tasty. And that’s pretty much how I cook. I experiment and throw things together and hopefully they work out. Sometimes they don’t, but most times they do. Like this one.
Checking the pantry, I had all the ingredients I needed, so here is the home made Chicken Noodle Soup I made today. And it turned out yummy!! So I thought I'd share the recipe with you...

Sunday, March 1, 2015

ARE YOU READY FOR SPRING AND HERB GARDENS THAT ROCK?

So are you completely and totally over this long cold winter? Coming from someone born and raised in the snow belt of Lake Erie in northeast Ohio I say loudly YES! 
Ok, I guess I’m cheating a just a little...I left that snow tundra almost 8 years ago to move here to southeastern North Carolina. So I am not experiencing it as badly as some, but I am definitely still ready for Spring! So, with spring came thoughts of flowers, greenery and gardens. And that made me think of my herb garden. I love herbs, especially Basil.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

INDUSTRIAL PIPE SHELVING -OH HOW I LOVE YOU!!!

LOVE IT!
Hey there! So what are you doing this weekend? Well, let me tell ya about mine so far, because I really am just so happy with my Saturday project. The hubby and I spent this weekend working on a project I have been obsessed with lately. Obsessed! Industrial pipe shelving! I am just so in love with this. Although I realize I am probably a bit late to the party on this one, none the less I am hooked. I really wanted to be sure about this so I waited and waited…continually searching and looking at every Pinterest post I could find. I didn't want to do this unless I was sure, since it’s pretty damaging to the wall and not something you take down after a month or two. So once I knew I was sure, this weekend was the time....

I had a few things on my mind this week that I didn't want to focus on so I was looking for a project to take my mind off it. And this was it! Have I mentioned I LOVE LOVE LOVE this project? I mean I really think this is probably my most favorite project I have done in a long time. Maybe EVER…haha is that a bit dramatic?  Take a look! 
This project isn't exactly hard, but it is definitely time consuming and certainly needs your patience. (And a willing husband or partner helps).
We bought all our part at Lowes. The shelves were bought from their lumber section. We bought a 2 by 10 by 16 ft. length of wood and had it cut down to five 38 in shelves. The lumber for the shelves was only $14.52. Then we went over to the plumbing section and bought the lengths of black piping we needed, along with the elbows and flanges. We bought ¾ in pipe. That was the costly part. I haven’t added it all up yet but I would guess about $200. But considering for me it added tons of storage, it was well worth it. The piping is cheaper if you buy a 10 ft section and have it cut by them. The board we bought was actually only 9 ft in depth even though it says 10. But actually the 9 ft depth is what I really wanted. I left all the cutting and calculations up to my husband. I just knew I wanted 5 shelves with 1 shelf being 18 inches high and the others 12 inches high.
Believe it or not,
 these were the most pricey parts...the flanges.
About $5.50 a piece and we needed 12.
Once we got it all home I began the tedious part of peeling the pricing off each piece of pipe. Seriously, they put stickers with tape around each 10 inch section of pipe! What a pain.. And the hubby began his tedious job of measuring every thing out, setting up and drilling and measuring. We had a few trial and errors but the whole project (actually building it and installing) took about 3.5 to 4 hours.
Since I am not really good at step by step tutorials I will tell you that I just went on Pinterest and searched “industrial pipe shelves” and found zillions! I didn't really use a particular tutorial myself. I just looked at all of them, found what I wanted and showed my husband. We figured it out as we went. I will say this…put it together first on the floor how you want it and then lift to the wall and drill in place. And use screws with anchors in your drywall because it is heavy. But it is extremely sturdy.

I love the added storage these added and the look too!
I still have to stain the shelves a darker color but I couldn't wait to try them out. I decided to wait till we get a few warmer days in a row to stain them because I really want to do it outside due to the fumes. I’ll just take the stuff off then and do them. I’m also still arranging and re-arranging things on the shelf, but quite frankly, that the fun part! And oh my gosh, these will be so useful as extra pantry! The shelves look great I think but more than just aesthetics they hold a ton. So did I mention how much I love them?! J What do you think? Do you like them?
The shelves before loading. 
The shelves loaded up. :)

Sunday, January 18, 2015

2015 IDEAS AND PROJECTS AND A 2014 LOOK BACK

So here it is half way through the first month of 2015 and I am just now getting around to blogging again. I took some time off at the holidays and I really felt like I was in no big hurry to get back to it. As a matter of fact I am kind of forcing myself to write this because I still don’t feel like it. Lol…I have been feeling so lazy since the first of the year and I am totally unmotivated to get started on any new projects.
Well 2014 came and went and I think I got a lot done around here. Way back in the beginning of the year I updated my living room and then decided it needed tweaking even more and now looks more like this below. Not exactly, but close. You'll notice all the shelves are gone. 
I turned a useless little.junk closet into a useful second pantry. I did a chalkboard project or two. I painted several different rooms, doors, fireplaces and misc.objects. I tried my hand at free hand art work on a bedroom wall and it turned out great.

THE FUN "MENU" CHALKBOARD at THE NATIONS CAFE

A while back, I had an appointment with our Ladies Ministry Leader Lisa at church. Once done with our meeting, I ran into our Outreach Pastor, Michael. This was back around Thanksgiving, just as the holidays were gearing up. He asked me if I was interested in helping him on some different projects/ministries he had in mind. As we talked, he took me to where all the different items would be stored for our new food pantry and clothing project our church is instituting for the needy in Wilmington.
Stored back with other miscellaneous items was a pallet he had come across.
  
Immediately when I saw it, my brain lit up with ideas for how it could be used in our Church Café...