Thrive Thursdays

Noni at The Brick Street Bungalow is hosting Mission: Thrive Thursdays on the last Thursday of the month throughout 2010.

She states:

" I've been thinking about the subjects of surviving, striving and thriving. I'm a big believer in thriving. I do believe life throws us some curves...some bumps in the road...some roadblocks...and sometimes, even a few dead ends. We may have to work to keep putting one foot in front of the other while we survive these times.

Sooner or later, we get our feet back under ourselves...then, it becomes a choice..to continue to just get by...to survive. Or, to choose to thrive. When we choose to thrive it requires striving sometimes...Striving to make changes, do the deeds, dig deeper, move ahead.

Whatever the effort involved in the striving...it's always worth it when we are finally thriving...So the question is:

What would it take in your life for you to thrive?"

That is what we will discover and search for through out 2010.

I told her,

" I want to make my life mean more. Not just the big picture but I want to see the worth in the small things. I want to do more things with my family-not planned big events but just "live" with my family. Enjoy the moments. I want to breathe them in so as not to let all the good stuff slip away. Basically to quote Tim McGraw- I want to live like there is no tomorrow- EVERYDAY. "

I have set my 2010 goals or resolutions:

1. I am not going to try to lose half my body weight I am just going to try to be healthy.

2. I am not going to get upset when the house is a mess if it means I am spending quality time with my kids.

3. I am not going to try to cook good meals every day of the week so I can spend fun times with the family.

4. I am not going to try to have a garden worthy of a magazine but rather one that brings me joy, happiness and some weeds.

5. I am not going to try to do too many things but rather enjoy the things I do now.

With all that being said I will set goals for January to make these attainable.

To be healthy:

1. I will walk at least 3 times a week.

2. I will eat better and drink more water.

Spending time with family:

3. I will start a family night of no TV with a fun dinner and board games.

4. I will read to my two younger kids 1/2 hour each evening.

Enjoying what I do now:

5. I will dedicate 2 hours in the morning to crafting 3 times a week.

That is it for January- will you join us in striving to THRIVE?

Swap gifts I made

Well I did a swap of homemade items over at Craftaholics Anonymous in December. Since it is well past Christmas I figure I can show you all what I made.

First I made a nice little snowy tassel.

"let it snow"

Then I made a wonderful burlap stocking. I had tons of fun with this and plan on making some for us next year. I put muslin as the cuff and then put a nice burlap flower with buttons on it and edged it with some fancy trim.
And lastly I made a burlap JINGLE BELLS garland. I tied little rusty bells on the tips.

I will probably make more of these for next year also.It was great fun making the items but to be honest it was the first swap I have participated in that I heard absolutely nothing from the swap person. I hope she liked it.

Now off to clean up the rest of the Christmas decor then I will be cleaning the house and the craft studio. I noticed I went over my 100th post over the holidays so I need to come up with a giveaway for the new upcoming year..hmmm what to do?

My Christmas gifts

Well I got some awesome gifts from loved ones and wanted to share them with you.

My favorite gift - and I know you should not have a favorite but being a mom anything with my kids on it makes me smile and cry all at the same time - so this is my fave.

My sister- the artist- made me a canvas of my kids. It is about 2 feet by 4 feet tall. She painted the background and then put images of the kids all over it. She did older photos and newer photos and I can tell you it made me cry. I started crying again when I took a photo of it to post on here. The photo's do not do it justice as my camera is not the greatest.

Here is a close up. Look at those cutie patooties.
Look at the loves of my life. Nothing better for a mom than to have all the memories of her kids around her. Wow this is making me cry right now. I am such a sucker for my kids.

Next my hubby and wonderful kids got me this camera. Now I need to learn to use it so there shouldn't be any reason pictures in 2010 should look crappy. And if they do it is all user error not equipment error. Such pressure I am putting on myself. My mom got the Canon Rebel and fortunately my very talented photography sister-in-law is visiting next week from England. Mom and I have already booked tutorial lessons. Thanks in advance Megan.

And some may think getting pots and pans is weird. But after our lovely kitchen remodel my "have had them since marriage over 19 years ago" revere pans have seen better days. So, I wanted some nice new shiny stainless pans and my mom got me a few to build upon. Notice the difference?

Did you get fun and useful items?

Happy New Year

New Years Eve.

It has become a day that I do not look forward to. I actually go to bed around 10 pm because I have been thinking that it is a depressing night. It just shows me all the things that I have not accomplished that I wanted to or shows me that my life pretty much didn't amount to much that year. It made me sad.

This past year was a difficult or rather eye-opening year for me.

I lost people who I thought were friends because they no longer needed to use us or we didn't have anything they wanted any more. My neighborhood has become all drama based on lies that these users have spread and it is not fun to do things.

But I have also gained alot. I have made many new friends here on the blog and on the cottages and bungalow forum. Friends that only want to be my friend - no ulterior motives behind it.

I have a best friend in Texas that is my sole lifeline at times and keeps me sane and happy although from afar. She travels to visit me twice a year and it keeps my happiness level high. I have a family that loves me no matter what crazy or strange thing I am doing. I have kids that bring happiness and joy into my life everyday by all means imaginable. I have a husband who does so much for others that it sometimes infringes on our time but I am proud that he does that. I have a sister who shares my love for crafts and is such an inspiration to me. I have a mom who loves my kids almost as much as I do and wants to be with them as much as possible.

I have so much and I am determined to start looking for just the positive from now on. Letting the negative just slide by as it only gets importance if I give it that time.

Every year I make huge New Years resolutions of big grandiose plans and then become upset that they never come to see the light of day. Well this year I am doing things different. I want to start LIVING and ENJOYING life. I want to THRIVE.

And I am going to start by making resolutions that actually mean something to me.

My 2010 resolutions are:

1. I am not going to try to lose half my body weight I am just going to try to be healthy.

2. I am not going to get upset if the house is a mess if it means I am spending quality time with my kids.

3. I am not going to try to cook good meals every day of the week so I can spend fun times with the family.

4. I am not going to try to have a garden worthy of a magazine but rather one that brings me joy, happiness and some weeds.

5. I am not going to try to do too many things but rather enjoy the things I do now.

I figure I can accomplish my "not" list.

How about y'all?

What do you plan to do this New Year?

Techie help needed here- Help..

UPDATE: I figured out that it does update if you follow it now. So, it will show up as the old name unless you go back and readd it to your blog roll. Whew I am slowly getting this stuff. Hard to catch up to all these kids in the techie field.

Okay I tried. I really did. I change the name from before to Tattered and timeless everywhere I saw that I could change it. But it still shows on blog rolls as the old name. Even if I try to follow someone it still shows as the old - tammy of yarborough house.

Is there a way to change the name of the blog as people see it without starting a new blog? Just wondering. I am so at a loss with this stuff....

Confusion here

It's not you it is me. Funny sounds like an opening line of someone getting dumped doesn't it?

Well it is me- seriously. My blog is called : for the love of older homes and the journey they entail.

Well that sounded good when I started but the journey this old home is taking is rarely shown in this blog- why because it is work and I want this blog to be a place I go to for fun..so thus a name change is trying to happen. I am trying things out but not sure what will fly..

I love fabric, peeling painted furniture, old abandoned items that no one wants (which is why my business is called The Orphan Chair), tattered items, torn items, vintage, shabby - but still current for my home. You get the picture? So, any ideas blog friends...

Off to rest- today was busy with the after Christmas sales and then the kids in tow- looked at every toy there was at Target- who would have thought spending a kids $25 gift money would take so long?

Any thoughts? Anyone?

Merry Christmas

Here's to a safe and wonderful holiday for all.

White Wednesday

It's another White Wednesday at Faded Charm.

Join us all in seeing beautiful white objects.

Here are my two new white figurines. I love that they are all white and are little girls.

Hope to put them in a cloche for next year.

I am really into the all white glittered houses. I have these that are already done but have since purchased some more that are paper mache to make all white and glittery before next year. And here is our house all lit up at night with white lights. It will lead Santa to our house.
So, as we wait for Santa enjoy all the other participants of White Wednesday.

So, as we wait with all our porch lights on for Santa to arrive I would love to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year.

We'll be back to posting and blogging after Christmas.

enjoy,

What have we been up to?

We've been surrounded with all of this:

and this:
Ahh baking cookies for neighbors- that's good times.

Furniture Projects recap for 2009

Miss Mustard Seed is hosting her weekly Furniture Feature Friday.

I finally embraced a dream I have had for many years this year. 2009 was finally my year that I could venture into refinishing furniture to sell. My oldest left for college and my youngest was in 5 day a week pre-k so I was ready time wise.

I did my first show in October- and well LOVED it. This is my booth full of furniture that I redid. I hated to sell some of it but hey my house is only so big.

I really fell in love with this robin's egg blue this summer and this was my fave piece to paint. It was brown but the blue paint covered it just enough to let the brown peek out. This piece did not sell and I was a bit upset but these things work out for a reason I figure. It now resides in my studio and holds all my fabric..so good for me.
This was my all time fave of the show and secretly I hoped it would not sell. It was stained a walnut color when I got it but I just whipped out my fave blue and it was LOVE. It now resides in my oldest sons/ guest room.

Sidenote: The chair beside it - well I painted it white and recovered the seat in chenille - but my sister painted the awesome birds nest..she is the real talent of this team.
This pathetic chair had so many layers of paint on it..I sanded and sanded but it just would not let me win. So, I figured it only cost me $1 so what could I do? Hmm decoupage it. And I did with dictionary pages and then stenciled the word SEAT on the seat. It was the first piece to sell. We set it back and I had 11 other people ask me if they could buy it..guess I'll do more for spring.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Another chair- before:

after:

A footstool before: (well actually after a primer coat oops)

And after: It sold right after the SEAT chair.

This chair my son calls the KING chair..before:

The King after:

That's all the projects from 2009. Now stop the rain and bring on 2010 so I can get at it again.

I won a giveaway..

I won a giveaway !!!

I never win anything. I always baked tons of cakes for school carnivals but never took home one cake. But I won a blog giveaway and it is cool.

Take a look at my bag- it is large and I can't wait to use if for tons of things.

It definitely will go to the beach and do you know it coordinates with my laptop bag to the tee. I will be styling whenever I eventually get to go somewhere.

Thanks to Christy at

White Wednesday

Today is White Wednesday over at Faded Charm.

This is my white snow princess. The most adorable princess in white I know.

Here she is again - all aglow with the all white tree.

And here she is with her big brother. What a hug he gave that pretty, dressed in white princess after her pre-k Christmas program.
I love you both very much. Thanks for always making me smile.

December Doors of Welcome

Today is December's Doors of Welcome at Some Days are Diamonds.

Welcome to our house. Yes it is night time but I figured I'd show you how pretty it is. It usually has icicle lights up but hubby is gone to Afghanistan and he is the only one crazy enough to climb up and hang them. Still pretty though.

Welcome to our house- head on through the gate.
Careful going up the stairs - as they get slippery when wet and it has been raining non-stop for days here - arrrghhhh.
Here is my fave thing to decorate - my old wagon. It gets pretty for every season we have.

Here is the tree that is right near the front door. All decked out for the holidays.

Here is the shelf on the other side of the door. Love to put items on those shelves.

Another porch lovely.

One of many grapevine trees. They stay up year round - just don some red berries at Christmas time.

We're getting closer to the front door- see the birdhouse- even they are decked out for the season.

Here is the view of the front door..get closer it is okay.

Well you are here- Merry Christmas from the Heberts. We wish you and yours a happy, safe and joyous holiday season.