Decorating 101: "LIVING ROOM"

Thursday, March 4, 2010


I know, I know.........I never finished the Home Tour.......I was reminded of this the other day by a friend at lunch.  So hopefully I won't bore you too much today as we step into the Living Room....

You know, when we first moved to the lake house, the one thing we really wanted to change was the fact that it looked more like a City House than a Lake House.  The folks we purchased it from lived here full time (as opposed to most "City-Lakers" who lived at the lake only on weekends), so they had it fixed up to fit their "full time" needs.

The first thing we changed was the fireplace.  As you can see in the picture, it was a plain fireplace that was begging to be stoned (I think I just made a funny there....)  So I hired some rock dudes we had used in Dallas to come stay at the house for a few days, rock the fireplace and do a little fishing on the side.  This was single handedly the best investment we could have made with regards to the Living Room.  It changed the whole tone of the room as you can see.  A very easy and inexpensive makeover that more than paid for itself investment-wise.  We later removed the carpet  and replaced with distressed hardwood flooring throughout.

I tend to error on the side of "too much" stuff and this is so apparent to me when I look at these pictures. I have found that anytime you really want to "see" your room as others might see it, take pictures of it.  You will see it from a completely different set of eyes.  My new set of eyes is saying, "You got too much stuff, Girlfriend!"......

I then wanted to "frame" the windows but not lose any of the lake view, so I located some fabric I liked, hemmed it and attached some clips to the top of the panels.  I wanted something a little more interesting than a rod to hang them from, so I purchased some rustic looking coat hooks from Hobby Lobby (I think I paid about $1.50 each for them), and hooked the clips on them.  A super inexpensive and unique way to frame a window and I love the way it turned out...

I saw in a magazine once where someone had taken pages out of an old hymnal from a church and framed them.  I'm a sucker for all hymns and have been known to cry just hearing them sung at church, so I found an old hymnal (no....I didn't "steal" it from church....shame on you for thinking that!); soaked the pages in coffee; layed them out to dry and then taped them to some cardboard and framed them.  This is one of my favorite framed pictures in the house and was the easiest and cheapest one in the house.  It makes me smile each time I walk past it.

I also enjoy taking pictures of kids, whether its our grandchildren or our friends' kids, using some photoshop techniques, cropping the pictures at odd angles and framing them.  The bottom picture is of our granddaughter Bella.  I wanted to show off her HUGE blue eyes, so I simply cropped most everything out of the picture except her eyes.  I love this picture and anyone can do this on their computer.

So, that's about it.....I've got to go have a garage sale for all that "stuff" I'm going to be minimalizing from the Living Room......

It's Unanimous: Liz Is NO Nurse.........

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Spent the day with my Mom today......as some of you may know, she is living in an Assisted Living Center called Mayberry Gardens.  I love that its called Mayberry....just gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that she may run into Opie or Andy Taylor at any time.  It makes me nervous that she might run into Barney, tho.......

At one point today, I was helping her out of her wheelchair when she got to chuckling........which got me chuckling....and then the aide started chuckling.  At some point during the chuckling, I asked her what we were chuckling about....... She said my helping her out of her wheelchair reminded her of the time several years ago when I was helping our friend Hazel out of her wheelchair and into her nursing home bed.  She then turned to the aide and said, "My Liz is NO nurse, you know".........and then proceeded  to tell me I needed to Blog about this.......soooooooooo, here ya go, Mom.....I'm so proud my Mom knows what a Blog is........

About 12 years ago, I used to have lunch each Friday with a sweet old lady named Hazel Howard from our church who was in a local nursing home.  Now, Hazel and her husband Lee were the teachers of the Primary age class when I was about 7-8 years old and the coolest teachers ever.  They didn't have any kids of their own, so that automatically made them cooler.....but I remember Lee had made this super awesome airplane that flew across the room each time you brought a mission offering.  Hazel was about 4'10", smile permanently attached to her face (again....could it be cause she had no children??  I'm just saying......) and had a nice round belly that kinda made her look pregnant.  Lee had died several years before Hazel entered the nursing home and I know she had to be lonely, but she never showed it.  She had a quick wit about her that always kept you on your toes and her mind was as sharp as a tack.

One day after having a nice nursing home lunch, we did our normal "tour" around the home, visiting with her friends and racing down the hall in her wheelchair and returned back to her room.  She was tired and needing a nap, so she asked me to help her out of her wheelchair and into the bed.  Well folks, like my Mom always says, "I am NO nurse".....and this was WAY WAY WAY out of my comfort zone....I just knew I would drop her, so I begged her to let me get a nurse.  She said, "Nahhh.....we don't need a nurse.....I'll tell you exactly what to do and it'll be easy".  You know that little bug in your head that yells instructions to you like "DON'T TO IT" or "YOU'RE MAKING A MISTAKE" or "YOU'RE NO NURSE.....", well, I was hearing the Bug screaming at me full force.  But Hazel insisted and obviously had more confidence in me than the bug, so I agreed.

I got her out of the wheelchair, turned her around and lay her gently on the bed.  I was so proud that I hadn't dropped her and actually made it from Point A to Point B successfully that I was thinking "Well, HUH, maybe I could be a nurse!"  That was until I noticed her head was in the middle of the bed and her feet were hanging off the end.  She was no where near the top of the bed.   Geezzzzz.....well, my little 4'10" friend looked so ridiculous laying on the bottom half of the bed that she and I both got to laughing so hard we about got the hiccups.  I believe she then said, "Ok Liz, you're NO nurse.....call the aide."

My Hazel lived a few more months before passing away there.  She was loved by so many many people and will always have a piece of my heart.  She is sleeping peacefully now and I will never forget one of the last things she ever said to me.  A couple days before she died, she told me, "They have new nurses here now, Liz....I think they are from Australia......and they are so beautiful and attentive to me."

Funny thing, though; there were no new nurses..........

Sleep tight, dear Hazel.....