Fact or Fiction

Well, this ought to be fun.  Suzanne at Meridian Road passed this fun blog award to me and some other bloggers. As I understand the rules, I have to tell you 5 things about myself that are lies and one true thing. You try to guess which one is true!  I will let you know in a few days which one is true and I'll pass it along to a few other bloggers.

So, to have some real fun with this I will tell you that one of the following tidbits are true but maybe more than one is true or maybe all of them are true...

1. I did some acting when I was younger and had a small role in major film.

2. On this blog, I previously shared that I was adopted.  What I didn't share was that we have an idea of my  birthdate but no one is really sure.  So, I have been able to lie about my age for years.  Most people think I am 5 years younger than we think I really am.

3. While at a plastic surgeon's office, my 20 month old son got on the computer and printed a photo of a patient's "after" look following her chest augmentation.

4. We were at the plastic surgeon's office for a consultation on the nose job I had.

5. As you know, I like cottage and farmhouse styles and have shown you a few rooms downstairs in our house.  I have not shown you the upstairs main room on purpose since it is a complete contradiction. The main room upstairs is very modern.  My husband and my son had complete control in the look of that room.  There's a lot of black, green, glass and modern furniture.  I don't spend much time up there so I don't mind it.

Not our actual room. It's always a mess so I wouldn't dare show it.

6. My family owns a ranch west of Dallas-Ft. Worth.  As a child and young teen, I loved to visit the ranch, ride the horses and play in the barn.  I lived in jeans and my comfy old cowboy boots. We had a few head of cattle but I didn't go near them.  I don't know why but I was always a little scared of the cows.

So, can you guess which one (or more) are true?

Sunroom to Project Room: Mission Accomplished

Finally!  FINALLY! My sunroom is done. For those of you who have been following this saga, I have a great sunroom that had become a storage room while we worked on other rooms in the house. Here's an embarrassing picture of the before:

You can read all about the before here.  The plan was to turn this junk-filled room into a new project room for me.  I wanted a place where I could spread out on a project table or on the floor, have a lots of storage for all of my supplies and tools yet still be a pretty place to sit with friends.  After seeing inspiring pictures of calm rooms with beautiful neutral palettes, I decided that's the direction I wanted to go.  After a few weeks, I changed my mind.  The neutral palette just wasn't me.  So, I started all over.  The room has a neutral backdrop but I added color which is way more me.  So, here is the new project room:

The room has pretty french doors as you enter.  You can see the concrete floors covered with a Pottery Barn rug I got for a steal last year.  You can read more about the floors here.

Some of these pictures may be a little dark because it was difficult to control the light in this bright room. You can see the work table I painted and talked about in any earlier post.  

My cousin had given me the old window that hangs on the wall.  I'm using it as a dry-erase memo board. On the table in the corner is an antique gold scale my father used in his jewelry business.

Here are the old drawers I had in the garage.  I cleaned them up and just put a coat of sealer on them.  I made labels for each drawer which right now are numbered.  After I get them filled and organized, I'll change the numbers to words/labels so I'll know where everything is.  Then, I'm sure some of the drawers will be open quite a bit since I'll be using the stuff in them but that's okay because the drawers are galvanized metal and will look so cool left open.  That's my kind of storage.

Here's a close up of the dry erase memo old window.  

This little old child's rocker sat in my parents' house as far back as I can remember.  I think every kid in our whole extended family has sat in that rocker.

This old cedar closet was from my parents and I think my grandmother before that.  It was  red and had a fake crackle finish.  I painted it with a pale grayish white. I added a an old chippy clip holder to one door and some junk on top.

I still need pillows for the bench next to the cedar closet but some lively quilts and throws add color right now.

Tip: I put petroleum jelly on the hardware of the cedar closet so paint wouldn't stick to it and I wouldn't have to tape it all to protect it.  I'm just lazy that way.  I didn't have to be careful and could paint right over everything.  Once I was done, the paint peeled right off of the hardware.  I actually left bits of paint on them because I liked the way it looked.

There is lots of storage in that cedar closet. I have 3 metal baskets on the top shelf and may add more later.

Here's some of the junk on top of the cedar closet.  There's a child's red rocker,  an old soft drink crate I had hanging in my room as a kid and a metal red arrow I got on clearance from Sundance Catalog.

I picked up this chippy clip at the Red Shed.  It holds my inspiration photo.

I still want lots of pillow for the bench but I can take my time to find just the right ones.  I do like the bench recovered in drop cloth.

I used another soft drink crate (in favorite color RED) to hold craft paints and glue.  That idea is stolen straight from Funky Junk Interiors.

My pal, Jennie, gave me this wooden slotted storage piece.  I can put office supplies, magazines, paper, camera, or just about anything else in those cubbies.  

I love that this thing.  It's just tons of cool storage.  I put my new galvanized tote on top to store spray paints.

I like the old paper labels still stuck on the side. 

This piece is really sturdy too. I could add cushions and it would be extra seating if needed.

Back around next to the entry is the fireplace.  On the wall next to it is a metal baking rack.  It can hold more supplies if needed.

On the mantel, I sat one of my favorite green shelves.  I like the shape, color and the chipped worn finish of this shelf.  In the future I can add decorative elements or perhaps a row of buckets or other containers to hold more supplies.

I just love this shelf.

Above the shelf is my printer's tray that I've had since I was a kid.  You know all those little trinkets and mementos kids bring home that they want to keep?  I kept mine in this printer's tray that hung on my wall in my bedroom.  It was my mom's idea because even way back then, she was a junker with good taste.  Now,  I just need to fill this back up with some cool things.

Did I mention that I love this shelf?

Yep, another shot of that shelf.

Some of you saw the blue and white material I had placed under the glass on the project table.  I replaced that with drop cloth and painted two red stripes on the drop cloth.

There's my awesome stool that I got here from a fellow blogger.

Yes, that drop cloth is a bit wrinkled but 1) they will work themselves out eventually and 2) it will get covered up with photos, notes, etc. that will go under the glass over time.

I added my big 2 ft. tall chippy white "G" I picked up at the local antique mall.  There's also another jeweler's scale on top of the drawer unit.

I'm lovin' this room.

It's so me.

There is still so much more potential in this room.  It has tons of storage and I still need to move in all of my supplies and tools.  I want to add a few pillows and smaller details but overall it's done and I like it.  Since I had almost everything, this room cost very little to do.  I had almost all of the furniture and decor and almost all of the paint and supplies.  So, here's the breakdown:

• one gallon of paint for the table an cedar closet: $25.00
• one piece of glass cut for the table: $30.00
• bar stool with the 3: $30.00
• huge galvanized tool tote: $20.00
• large G: $30.00
• drop cloth for recovering bench/put under glass on table: $10.00 (and there's a lot left)
• new Macbook Pro computer:  priceless

Total costs: $145.00 for the whole room.  That's not bad, huh? This is one of my favorite rooms.

What a fun day!

After reading about "Antique Alley" over at The Virginia House blog, my pal Jennie and I decided to head on over today.  I was looking specifically for a couple of things to finish off my new sunroom/craftroom (yep, I said "finish" as in it will be finished after I find one last item). I was looking specifically for some sort of chair or stool or something to sit on at my new craft table.  The barstools I had were too tall and I really didn't want to cut them down and any spare chairs I had were too short. So, we spent part of day today driving the farm road, stopping at Whipp Farm where there were a lot of vendors and looking at some great things.   Jennie found a huge old Pre-World War 2 globe to add to her collection in her home office.  We ate some great Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and homemade lemonade.  We saw lots of goodies but really couldn't find what I was looking for...until Jennie spotted this!!!!

It's the perfect stool for the room.

It's got my number on it!

How perfect is that?  But wait, there's more!

Guess who I bought it from?

Jillian at The Virginia House.  Yep, she had a great vendor booth.  She was my first fellow blogger to meet in person and we chatted for a few minutes.  She was so nice and pointed out another vendor who had more great stuff.  As we left and I was carrying my new stool back to our car, we passed that other vendor who stopped me by yelling "there goes my stool with the 3 on it!"  She said she was going to back at the end of the day and buy it for herself if it hadn't sold.  It did sell...to me...and now....it's in my sunroom which is now FINISHED!  As they say here in Texas, "Yeehaw!"  (I actually never say that myself but I am glad I found that stool and glad that pain of a room is done)

Oh yeah, I also picked up this cutie at Antique Alley:

It's a huge galvanized tool box/carrier thingy and it's awesome.  It is huge and it was only 20 bucks. It already has a place too in the sunroom and I'll post the finished room tomorrow!

It was great meeting you "Virginia House" and thanks for the tip to Antique Alley.  We'll be back in April.

a "thank you" and a sneak peek

Lori at My Heart With Pleasure Fills recently had a fun little contest on her blog where she had some embedded movie quotes randomly on her blog page.  The first person or two who could locate those quotes and the movies they were from would win.  Well I gave it my best shot and guess what?  I was one of the winners!  My package came in the mail a couple of days ago and wow!  Look what Lori sent:

I was so excited!  I love it all and the red on that plate really caught my eye.  It's my favorite color.

Thanks Lori!!!!!

Sneak Peek: Now that I'm inspired and have finally figured out what I want in the sunroom/project room, it is finally coming together quickly. Here's a glimpse:

No more this...

...because it's turning into this!

These are looking awesome.

There are some pretty touches

and we have lots of added COLOR!  especially RED!

It's almost done! Woo hoo!