Category Archives: Decor

Entryway Re-do!

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We found a cute little China shelf on KSL classifieds and bought it to make a hanging place for coats, etc. in the entryway. We removed a few shelves and added hooks. It turned out pretty cute and I used the top two shelves to decorate for each season.

After 5 years or so, I was ready for a change and we needed more hooks and places to hang the coats and purses when family visits. So my sweety and I made a plan.

You can’t tell in this picture, but there are two cupboards in the bottom of this bench. The one on the right was for Tayzie to stay in while we were gone. Just so you know there was a wire door inside the wood door, so Tayzie was not closed in the wood cupboard without air and a way to see out. She loved it. The other one was just storage. So because we were still using the bench part we just took the top off and sent it to thrift store.

So here is the bench part without the top. We planned to paint it all the same color at the end.

My Darlin added a bench to either side of the cupboard, headboard, and a shelf.

Here’s another angle. We’re going to have lot’s of places to hang things!

And here it the finished project! It is perfect! We love it and it last for years and years. I love that me and my Darlin can do so many projects around the house ourselves. I’m super excited to see how well it works when the family comes for dinner!

Gallery Wall!

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I put my cute Darlin to work the other day helping me put together this

wonderful gallery wall! 

I’ve wanted to do this for a while. I love the things we hung on the wall. Most of them belonged to or represent someone, or something that is important in my life.

The octagon shaped framed flower picture, on the top left hung in my parents room in the home I grew up in. My mom said it was her mom’s first. It is unique, and reminded me of my mama and daddy, and now my grandma.

The cute little shelf, is one of three like it that I have. They were my grandpa’s. It used to be  inside the old trolly cars that ran in Salt Lake City many, many years ago. They hung inside the Trolly above the seats upside down from how I have the shelf hung, which would give it a lip or edge to keep the things placed on them from falling off as the trolly traveled around town. I love that it was my grandpa’s, and the story of where it came from.

The clock is newish, but time and how we spend it, is important and it’s my love language. The family plaque is a reminder of what’s most important. The heart represents the incredible love I have for my life, and family. The key is the key to my heart, and represents the priesthood authority that my husband holds, and the authority that seals us together as a family forever. The S is the first letter of our last name, and also stands for, safety, sacred, serene, share, simplify, spiritual, steadfast, strength, strong, sublime, success, and sweet.

A copy of “The Living Christ” and “The Family-A Proclamation to the World” are important and inspirational documents that represent what we believe, and was written by the leaders of our church. A copy of the Bible and The Book of Mormon are laying on the cute little trolly shelf. They are both very important books to our family.  

My darlin and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple which is pictured on the little plaque on the shelf. It was given to us by our son, Riley and his wife, Janet.

And last of all is the sign that says: Happiness is a choice. No matter what is going on in my life, I can choose to be happy.

It’s a good reminder!

And let’s not forget the important picture in the middle. This is our most recent family picture.  Taken in our yard, with my Darlin and I, and some of our grandkids sitting on the bench. The bench that was made out of our old bed frame. Oh, how I love these people!

What a blessing to go through life with them!

I love sitting in the family room and looking at this wall. It is perfect to me!

Busyness Pt-2: Planning a Wedding!

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Planning a wedding is so much fun!

It can be very stressful if you try to do too much and not let other people help. It is something little girls think about a million times while they are growing up. It is an event that moms look forward to sharing with their daughters from the time they are born. We build it up and have so many expectations about how it is going to be. It can be very beautiful and very reasonably done. It’s best to be realistic though, and know that things don’t always go perfect and that’s ok.

With that I will say I am very frugal. I have taught my children to be careful with their money, and I know they will be careful with their parents money, too.

I will never spend an insane amount of money on an event that will last a day.

The most important part of the wedding day is the Wedding, the actual vows. Making promises and professing your love to all, especially God. When you look into your sweetheart’s eyes and your know you want to be with them forever. That is the most important part of the day. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to have that.

Within a day or so of the announcement of the upcoming wedding, I usually find a book that I can use for the planning. The book I used for Emily and Anthony’s wedding was just an address book that I knew I would never use for it’s intended purpose. I separate it into sections.

I find it is easier for me to simplify the categories. Most of the planning can fit into one of the following categories:

1-Important-Things in this section are, you guessed it, important. *Research of and final choice for the wedding venue. *The address and phone # of the county you will be married in, with the information about when to purchase the wedding license. *Contact information about the officiator at the wedding.

2-Budget-Of course it’s very important to have a budget. You can spend a lot of money on a wedding, enough to save a small country. Or you can be very careful with most of the wedding and spend a little more on special things. Pick the part of the wedding or things at the wedding that matter the most to you. It could be the location, the dress, or something like the flowers. We bought Emily’s dress at a vintage clothing store and I made modifications to it to make it what she wanted. We used canning jars that were decorated for the centerpieces. They are very popular and cheap or free.

3-Guests-Start listing and gathering all the addresses of those who will be invited to the wedding, the wedding luncheon, and the reception. The same people may be invited to all of the events, but maybe not. I usually invite family and close friends to the wedding, and the luncheon. Then I invite more casual friends, neighbors, co-workers, and acquaintances to the reception.

4-Reception-I put everything about the reception in this category. Location: All of the possibilities for the location, their phone numbers, prices and details about what they offer. I went on google and checked addresses to see if the address for the wedding and the address for the reception are close enough to make it convenient for those attending. You need to know that we are LDS, and our daughter got married in the LDS Temple. They don’t hold receptions there, so the reception location was different. Decorations: Table decorations, back drop where the bride and groom will stand to greet guests, sign in table, pictures and decor placed here and there to add to the total feel of the reception, ceiling decorations (we used paper lanterns), etc. Food: What will be served, what type of food and how you will serve it. How you will present it? Will you have servers, or helpers to clear the tables. Some weddings serve a full meal. We didn’t do that, we served refreshments. More about the reception in a future blog post.

5-Misc-The wedding luncheon (or brunch or whatever you decide) can go in this category. I put information about the colors for the wedding. Swatches of the fabric we used, etc.

Another helpful part of the planning is to get a Pinterest account. It is a fantastic resource for planning fun “do it yourself” decorations. You can purchase a couple of magazines, to look through for ideas. A Google search of this place or that place, or different types of decorations, etc.

These are some things that have helped me. I planned two weddings last year. One was our son, and the second was our daughter. Both weddings turned out great and they were both different. It was very fun, and stressful, but I loved doing all of this for my kids and their sweet spouses.

-Just an FYI, I planned Emily’s wedding in 3 months. It can be done! I promise!

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Busyness, Etc.

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EmAndAnthWedding (1)

Where do I start? 

I have been a slacker…..Only in my blogging!

Life is so wonderful, and hard, and awesome! Our family had a wonderful blessing on Saturday, January 30, 2016. Our daughter Emily, my Bonus Baby was married for time and all eternity to her sweetheart in the Jordan River Temple.

It was wonderful!

It was a blizzard.

It’s was very overwhelming and fun!

I have had my two son’s get married, but this is my first wedding for a daughter. Let me just say there is a big difference in what you do to get ready for a son to marry, as opposed to what you do to get ready for a daughter to marry. I have been sewing, and hot glueing and organizing for weeks and weeks for this blessed event.

It all turned out great!

Now that we have had our day with Em, I’ll share some of our preparations with you.

I have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t in preparing. I’ll share some of the things I’ve learned. I will share pictures and fun ideas.

Watch for my next post!

St. Lucia Teal!

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I have had a red front door for many years.

I have loved it! It was time for a change.

This is a picture of our old red front door.

Sorry, I couldn’t find a better one. I’m sure you get the idea.

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I found this color called St. Lucia Teal. It had to happen.

Isn’t it beautiful!?! I love it!

I think the front of the house will look awesome when we get our flowers planted.

I will be thinking thoughts of my little missionary serving in St. Lucia every time I see St. Lucia Teal!!!

God Bless America!!!

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I love this country of America so much!

I have a tradition each Memorial Day of putting up all of my Americana decorations, then I leave them up until Labor Day.

I want to remember and celebrate all of the summer holiday’s with decorations that mean a lot to me. So here you go! I just took them down and decorated for Fall, which is also a favorite time for me.

Actually, now that I think about it I love all the season’s!!!
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The lovely cross stitch in the middle on the top shelf I got at the thrift store for $1.00. Can you believe it? I love it!!DSC05652 DSC05654

I’ve always loved quilts, and I always will!

Whether they’re in style or not. Maybe I love them so much because of my pioneer ancestry. I have only made a few quilts in my life, but I own many.

They are beautiful!!DSC05656Another fun thing I like to do around Independence Day is to watch movies that have kind of an “America” theme. I like to watch all of the “National Treasure” movies, our friends have a clean cut copy of “The Patriot”. I think next summer we’ll watch “Lincoln”. It helps me to appreciate what we have as citizen’s of this great country. So many through the years and centuries have sacrificed so much so that we can have what we have. I wish more citizen’s thought about and truly appreciated what this beautiful land offers us.

I want to leave it as wonderful as it is for us to my children and their children. I will do what I can to help that happen. I will vote, I will obey the laws of the land, I will stand up for what I believe even if others disagree with me.

God Bless America, Land That I Love!!!

The Monstrosity!

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In the movie “Two Weeks Notice,” Lucy’s mom is complaining about the new “high rise monstrosity” that is going to be built near their home. She says it will, “Block out the sun.” I love that movie!

Recently when I was in the market for a larger hutch for my kitchen, I found one on the internet. I watched for many days to see if the price would come down. I was a little concerned about the size, because the measurements were bigger than others I had seen. I called and asked the person selling it if he was sure about the measurements. He said they measured it twice. I kept going back and forth in my mind. Should I do it? The deal was sealed when he came down $25 more on the price. I knew I wanted to paint it, so I knew there would be more money spent on it after I got it. I told my darlin, “Let’s do this!”

As we got it his truck I said, “Are you sure we don’t need a trailer?” He was confident we could fit it in the back of his truck, (keep in mind the truck has a shell). We arrived at the location where it was,

stepped into the garage where it was being stored, and the first words out of our mouths were,

“Wow, it really is kinda big.”

I still wanted it though. “It has so much character,” I said. We started to load it. Oops, too tall. Oops, too wide. Finally we were able to make it fit by unhooking the shell, shoving the hutch in and then rigging the shell so it wouldn’t come off while we drove home. We drove around 50 miles one way to pick it up.

We made it home, brought it into the kitchen, and just stood there, looking. “It is huge!” I said. “It’s a monstrosity.” my darlin said. “Do you think it will block out the sun?” I said. Remember, “Two Weeks Notice”? We laughed and decided to move it back out while we decide what to do with it. Should we resale it? Give it away? Use it in the garage for tool storage? Cry?

I called my friend Sydney, who is a home decorator extraordinair, to come see it. The boys hauled it back in, put it in place, and Sydney said, “I think it will work. It is a little big for the spot, but part of it is you’re not used to it.” I totally trust Sydney.

I made a goal date for having it painted. I knew that my sweetheart would be helping me, actually doing most of the work, and we got started.

 

You can see here how big it is!

And here is the finished product!!

I love it!

I am so glad to have it. It has so much storage.

So now, it is lovingly referred to as, “The Monstrosity.” 

I paid $175 for it, and $50 for paint.

Family History Friday: Collectables #7 Navajo Treasures!

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This is a rug my darlin bought in Arizona when he was a missionary there. It hangs in our bedroom. Along with these beautiful Wedding Baskets. We have kind of an eclectic decor in our room, Navajo treasures, a quilt on the bed, grandma’s hopechest, etc. But I love it! I am surrounded in my room with things that are precious to me.

The Navajo’s have a tradition with their rugs. They purposely put a mistake or flaw in each of the rugs. They say it is because only God is perfect, and if they make a perfect rug, they will offend God. I have personally used that same reasoning when I make stuff. 😉

The Wedding Baskets are given to the the couple to hang in their home. The opening points downward on purpose, it is to let the evil spirits out of their home. I think it’s a great tradition. I haven’t felt any evil spirits in our home.

The main thing to me is that my sweetie brought them home from his mission and he loves the Navajo people. They are beautiful and remind me of wonderful stories and traditions. All people have stories and traditions. I love hearing them all.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Thanksgiving table ready to go! So excited for everyone to arrive. 
My darling shelf! One of my favorite things.I love decorating!We didn’t have room for a “Gratitude Tree” so we just had a Gratitude branch. We wrote on each leaf something we are thankful for and hung it on the branch. It has been a wonderful reminder of all the things we are thankful for.

I am so thankful for Thanksgiving! I am grateful for so much. Heavenly Father, Jesus, family, gospel, friends, home, food, clothes, cars, indoor plumbing, cell phones, email, mail, my sweetheart, grandbaby, time to relax, all of you, etc.

Thank you Father for all blessings given.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Love, Joy