Thursday, March 13, 2014

Liebster Award

Pay It Forward

I 've been nominated for the Liebster Award by

Sue of Housekaboodle,
a Treasure Chest of Houses

(Thank you, Sue!) I'd also like to especially thank all of those that support me most; my parents, husband, children, grandparents, my assistant, ... okay, I'm kiddingly taking this too far.

Thanks to Sue , I have been given a Liebster Award. I found her through our Meet The Neighbors Link Party on Friday’s and now I am a follower.

You’ll love to follow Sue who blogs about houses. She has admired many types of homes since childhood. Cozy cottages are at the top of her list; a list that also includes old Bungalows with wide porches. Among many of her posts, she displays the charm of Victorian homes with wrap around porches and gingerbread details.

Sue will give you splendid tours, browsing through numerous home styles, tours of celebrity homes, television and movie houses along with the unusual and extreme. Be sure to stop by and visit her world as she shares these and her stories.

The Liebster Award nominates 11 blogs who have less than 200 Bloglovin readers. I think we can use it here to include not just blogs on Bloglovin though.

The Liebster Award Bloggers answers 11 questions given to them by their nominator. Then we pay it forward and each nominee does a post and nominates 11 bloggers with their own 11 questions.

This is definitely a lot of fun. If I nominated you and you can’t reciprocate or have done this one before, please don’t be concerned. I love to spotlight other bloggers and this is a nice way to show my appreciation.

I was given 11 Liebster Award questions to answer:

1. Coffee or Tea?

Coffee. Dark roast with French Vanilla Creamer.

2. Work at home dress for success in high heels and pearls or sweats?

Jeans and flip flops. Sometimes barefoot.

Selling a house and working out the contract while building a cobblestone patio in the back yard. Don't do as I do, but as I say. Wear protective foot gear while working with patio brick. Pockets filled with drill bits and screws are not safe either.

3. Favorite kitchen gadget and why.

Heavy duty manual can opener from Pampered Chef. It locks in place while cutting and is easy to clean.

4. Favorite kitchen small appliance and why.

My counter-top broiler oven is my favorite. When heating or cooking frozen one dish meals, the microwave is not an option. I prefer to broil or roast. Instead of using the large ovens, I'll use this little guy. Great for fishsticks, mozzie rolls, etc.

Pretty Handy Dandy right there!

5. Do you have a hot area in the house where everything seems to land like mail, lists, pens, hats, purses?

Yes. The dining room table. Everyone just tosses whatever on the hot spot as they get home and then grabs them back the next morning on the way out the door.

6. What is on your honey do list waiting to get done?

That is a mighty long list. Renovating the house and working on projects is a never ending journey. The house: One bedroom, 2 and half baths and laundry are the major renovations right now. Outdoors: a natural splash pond with waterfalls for people, not for fish and frogs like my garden pond. Around the house: furniture makeovers. Garage: revamping the workshop room.

7. Favorite movie/movies of all time?

I'm not much of a movie person these days. There are some I enjoyed: NationalTreasure, Braveheart, Die Hard, and similar.

8. What TV show/shows are on your must-see list?

The weather news. I don't really watch TV anymore. When I did, it was mostly HGTV craft shows in the late 90's. "Design on a Dime" was a favorite. I will sit with my son and watch some his favorites, "The Middle" and "Drake and Josh".

9. If you were given an unlimited amount of money, what big-ticket item would you buy for your home?

I'd replace the roof and re-side the house with all stone. I started the front entrance myself. I'd contract the whole thing out with that offer!

Before. Rotted porch and fence.
Overgrown Rhododendron against house.

After. Poured concrete patio entrance with

matching step. (Plant relocated, saved) A small water

feature added into the patio. Real stone wall. Door replaced.

10. What is your favorite store to shop for decor?

Hobby Lobby!

11. You just won the lotto, congratulations. What kind of house will you go buy and where will it be?

A custom lodge style. It would be located privately on a waterfront. All glass facing the water view.

Next season on the blog I want to do an Academy Award Blogscar Award Ceremony for bloggers with different categories, so stay tuned.

In no particular order, my Nominees for the Liebster Awards goes to…..

1. Home and Lifestyle Design

2. Tips & Treasures

3. Paint Me Pink

4. Fresh Idea Studio

5. {ChicByTab}

6. Our Southern Home

7. buttonsandpaint

8. Nicer Than New

9. Averie Lane

10. Reclaim-ologists & Other Crafty Chicks

11. The Painted Chest

Nominees, here are your 11 pressing questions to answer so we can get to know you better.

1. Coffee or Tea?

2. Favorite piece of furniture in your home and why?

3. Favorite season and why?

4. Favorite kind of kitchen?

5. What is the most treasured item you have and why?

6. What is on your "to do list" waiting to get done?

7. Favorite home style?

8. Who are you the biggest fan of?

9. If you were given the "mad money", what one big-ticket item would you buy for your home?

10. What is your favorite store to shop for decor?

11. If you won the lotto what you do with the winnings?

Nominees: Be sure to tag each of the bloggers you nominate as well as me in your post. Go to each of their blogs and leave a comment that you have nominated them.

I am so excited to see your responses. I may share some of your responses with my readers. This was so much fun to do!

If any of my readers who are not bloggers would like to share any answers, please feel free to chime in on the Comments below. I’d love to hear from you.

Have a great creative day!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

How to make a Tree Trunk Lamp

This is what you call "seeing the forest through the trees". After several trees uprooted from Storm Irene, I recently checked out the damage, well after the ground dried, and decided that we should clean them out and replant. In the meantime I knocked around some ideas as to what to do with the wood. Then I saw lamps among other things in the woods and got started.

This is the "Before" photo. :)

Cut out the desired section with a chain saw to start.

Removed bark with chisels, knives, and anything that worked.

Dug out more bark growth and earth in between the roots.

Now this, took a lot of patience. The bark, of course, was wrapped around each root and to reach them was tedious.

Some were easily taken off...

others needed more coffee and even vintage picks.

Sanding began.

Gave it a pressure washer bath to remove anything else, including the possibility of unwanted insects.

I used several sanding methods; a belt sander on the bottom, orbit sander for flat spots and then on to small Dremel bits for in between.

At 19" high, a long drill was needed to make the wiring feed through the log.

Finally the fun... staining. I used a "Golden Oak" wood stain even though this wood is in the pine family.

One coat of lacquer was enough.

The bottom of the log where the drilled hole is located.

This was a large wooden drawer knob. I painted it and drilled a hole through it to use
as a decorative touch for the top of the trunk.

Ran the lamp rod through the hole.

Then wired up with the light kit.

A tree brought back to life.

Completed with a shade.

A little bit of Mother Nature added to the room.

I transplanted 6 of these trees as seedlings from the very woods where our fallen trees are. I put them in a sunny location on the property 4 years ago. They are ready now to be planted where these fallen trees are. A great spring project.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Welcome to Countdown in Style ~ Week {14}!

You can link your funny stories, best recipes, parenting successes, parenting fails, DIY projects and tips, photo bomb posts and more! PLEASE DO NOT LINKUP OTHER LINKY PARTIES OR GIVEAWAYS AND ONLY ADD UP TO 2 POSTS. We want to learn more about the people we connect with daily through their favorite posts. Then...come back for Feature Fridays! Brittnei and I choose our favorite links from the link up and feature them on our blogs and in the weekly linkup email! *We have the right to remove any links that do not adhere to the rules.