This Little Light of Mine!

This little light of mine -

                        I'm gonna let it shine -

                                                 This little light of mine -

                                                                              I'm gonna let it shine,

                                                                                                    let it shine,  let it shine,  let it shine!

I was lying in bed a few nights ago, trying to fall asleep, mind racing, and then had an idea!   An idea of what to do about the ceiling light fixture in our living room that I really didn't like.    It was your typical builder grade brass fixture that I painted black to try to make it work, but it just wasn't working for me.  I really didn't want to spend the money to replace it though.  So, I was going to live with it painted black for a while.

But then I had this idea - what would it look like to replace the glass fixture with a lamp shade.  And, I had the perfect lamp shade in mind - a Pottery Barn linen lamp shade that I have had for at least two years.  It was a bargain at the Pottery Barn Outlet at $14.99 and I picked it up thinking I would use it in my son's room, but it didn't work out.  He's not really into the Pottery Barn look!

I jumped out of bed, got the lamp shade, grabbed a stool, and held it up to the fixture.  Yes, it should work!  The trim on the lampshade was originally red and I ripped that off and replaced it with black.   The next day, hubby took the old fixture down and removed the glass lantern part,  leaving the center rod with two candle lights.   Once it was down, he assessed everything and we just needed two couplings at the top to make it work.  After a quick trip to the hardware store, he was able to put the light back up with the shade attached.   

I'm happy to say that I now like the ceiling fixture and it was a quick and cheap update!   I love it when that happens!

Have a Blessed Sunday,

Matthew 5:14-16   ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵ nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

This post is linked to:

DIY Project Parade at DIY Showoff
Newbie Party at Debbiedoo's
Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Cowgirl Up at Cedar Hill Ranch

Count Your Blessings Pillow

It was a beautiful crisp early fall day today!  I love this time of year - not too hot and not too cold - Just Right!  

I have to admit that I didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked today.  We had the cable guy here for quite a while installing a second modem.  Yes, a second modem.  You see, my family of 5 technologically savvy, high speed internet consumers has successfully exceeded the bandwidth limits set by our service provider.  They were actually going to cancel the internet service!  Well, didn't that create quite a commotion here last evening when we opened the letter!  

Dad came to the rescue and called the internet provider and found that we did have the option of adding a second modem and that would give us more bandwidth, thus saving our internet service.   Okay, this is ridiculous!  But, the older boys are coughing up the extra every month, so the disaster has been averted!  How would they survive without Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, Xbox, Facebook  .   .   .  

I did manage to accomplish one thing - I put the finishing touches on a new pillow cover for my Etsy shop and thought I would share it with you.  This pillow cover will fit a 12" x 22" pillow form.  I love the vintage style fabric with the black stripes at the top and bottom.  It's the perfect frame for the script. 

Hopefully I will be more productive tomorrow!  Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Upholstery Tack Monogram Pumpkin

The past few days I've been busy doing touch up painting and making new drapes for the living room.  Hopefully, tomorrow won't be so dreary and I can get some good pictures of the progress I've made.   Today I'm going to share a really easy pumpkin project.

I picked up this white pumpkin at the farmer's market and some decorative upholstery tacks at WalMart.  I used a pencil to freehand the letter "C" on the pumpkin.  You could also use a word processing program to create your letter with any font, print it out, and use it as a template on your pumpkin.  Then, just push the tacks into the pumpkin following the lines from your template or pencil line.  

You could get really creative and do something like this

or this

Or just keep it simple with a monogram!

I'm linking up to these fabulous parties - 

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
Fabulously Creative Friday Linky Party at Jennifer Rizzo

Blessings,

A Sunday Baptism

Today was a beautiful September day ~ and a special day.  Today our church had an old- fashioned outdoor baptism, in a pond, shaded by trees, with friends and family gathered to share the moment.  

What made it extra special, was that our son, Seth, was baptized.   There were six teenage boys baptized today, my son's friends from youth group.  Because my husband is the youth leader at our church, he was asked by our pastor to participate in this baptism and actually got to baptize the teens.  So, Seth was baptized by his dad!

There was an adorable lab pup there that ran to the water's edge as each boy was dunked!  I think the dog thought they were in trouble!  It was just so sweet.  Unfortunately, I only managed to capture the dog's backside!!!

Here's Seth with two of his close friends, who were also baptized today! 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!   I'll be back tomorrow to share more of my living room!

Blessings,

Twine Pumpkins

Today I stopped by one of my favorite shops and while there saw a crate full of jute twine.   I thought, wow, wouldn't these make cute little pumpkins!  

I came home with six rolls of twine knowing that for now, I could make cute little pumpkins with them and I'll eventually use the twine for wrapping packages and other projects.  I pruned some branches from my crabapple tree (which I'm sure my neighbor appreciates since they were hanging over into her yard!) and cut a piece of branch for the pumpkin stems.  

In other news, I was super busy today working on some new fall items for my Etsy  shop.  I'm hoping to get everything finished up so I can share them here tomorrow!  

Blessings,



Sharing today's post at:

Vintage Inspiration at Common Ground
Friday's Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Inspiration Friday At the Picket Fence
Potpourri Friday at 2805
Newbie with a Twist Party at Debbiedoo's
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Goodbye Yellow!

This last week I jumped all in - I decided to totally change up my living room!  I mean just about everything in the room is getting a makeover!  As of right now, everything is a total mess!   The first thing to make a drastic change were the walls.  The walls went from Valspar Victorian Straw to Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter.  Talk about going from warm to cool!

Actually, I'm still not so sure about the Revere Pewter.  I do love the color, but it reads more gray with the light in my room than I was hoping for.  It is one of those "greige" colors and on the paint chip definitely had a more taupe tone to it.  I'm going to give it some time and finish up with the other projects and see how it looks then.   It's just such a drastic change to go from yellow walls to light gray walls.  And, yes, those brass doorknobs and hinges are also on their way out!

The other thing I decided to do, spur of the moment, was to rip the carpet off the stairs that lead from the living room to the upstairs.  I had seen so many bloggers go through the step by step of this process and decided it was worth the hard work to give the stairs a facelift too!  This is where we are right now.  The carpet is gone, staples and tack strips removed, paint on stair treads removed with Citrastrip, stairs sanded .   .   .  entire house covered with a film of dust!  We still need to fill a few nail holes with wood putty and sand some more,  caulk the seams, stain the treads, poly the treads,  and then finally,  paint the risers and other trim white.  I also painted the staircase banister black (it had been a wood finish, but didn't fit the total look I'm going for.

I have a lot of projects to share in the transformation of this room!  I can't wait to get the mess cleaned up and have things fresh and pretty!   Please let me know what you think of the paint color!

Garden Fresh Salsa

There is nothing like fresh salsa!  I haven't canned my own for a few years, but the last time I made this recipe, it was sooo good.  I'm trying to plan ahead this year for Christmas and a fresh jar of salsa in a basket with some tortilla chips, a bunch of  fresh evergreens, and maybe a homemade ornament will be a nice gift for neighbors, teachers, or coworkers.   My friend, Cindy, came over to lend a hand and she also let me borrow her canner.  She even brought me a little canning gift - my own gripper/lifter thing (not sure of the real name) for lifting the hot cans from  the water after  processing!   

Here's the recipe.  

Garden Salsa

14 cups chopped tomatoes

3 cups chopped onion

1/2 cup finely chopped jalapeno peppers with seeds

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup tomato sauce

2/3 cup white vinegar

4 tbs salt

4 tsp chili powder

4 tsp garlic powder

3/4 tsp ground cumin

6 tsp Clear Jel

Chop the veggies and add the tomato sauce and white vinegar.  Combine the dry ingredients and add, mixing thoroughly.  Fill pint size canning jars to approximately 1/2 inch from the top.  Add the lids and place in the canner.  Fill with water to just cover the tops of the jars.  Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 12 minutes.  Remove the jars from the canner and set aside.  As the jars cool, the lids will make a popping sound as they seal and will indent slightly.  After the jars are cool, lightly press the middle of each lid.  If it indents and pops back up, then it did not seal properly.  I made three batches of salsa and only one of my jars didn't seal.  If a jar doesn't seal, you should refrigerate it and use it first.  One recipe makes  7 - 8 pint jars of salsa.

A few tips:

Please, please wear rubber gloves when chopping the hot peppers.  If you don't, you will be sorry.  Your hands will be on fire for days!

The preparation definitely goes much quicker with a second person to help with the chopping.   Thanks, Cindy!

The Clear Jel is not the same as Sure Jel.  It can be found in the bulk foods section of the grocery store.  Mine came in clear bags.

Blessings,




Sharing today's post at:

Debbiedoo's