The Dedicated House Feature

Good morning friends.  

It is another lovely day here in the PNW. The whole crazy mix of sun and showers we've been having is making my garden so happy. The longer days and warmer temps are making me happy.   

This is the most wonderful time of the year!

I'm excited to share with you that our little guest cottage is being featured today by Kathryn over at The Dedicated House.  Her entire post is dedicated to this "labor of love" of ours, as her Before and After Wednesday feature.  

Even if you've seen our guest cottage before, I'd love for you to head over and pay a visit to Kathryn.  She is a beautiful and talented person with a great blog and an interesting story. I'm a big fan!!!  You'll want to take some time to explore once you get there so grab cup of coffee or tea to take along with you.  

    

Sending a little Spring joy your way . . . 

catch it before it passes you by!  

Blessings,

 

Goodwill Wall Planters

 I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

   One of the Mother's Day traditions when my girls were still at home was for them to head out to the nursery with my dear hubby to buy flats and flats of summer annuals for my garden.
  It was always such a treat!

This post contains a few Mother's day flowers and another lucky Goodwill find, along with a few personal reflections at the very end.

 These metal planters were a two for one deal, marked half off on the day I came across them.  I wasn't sure exactly what I would do with them but I knew I couldn't pass them up!

A little time spent over at The Graphics Fairy gave me the inspiration needed to transform them into something special.  The first one is decoupaged with some fancy script and an adorable page out of a rare Victorian children's reader.
 I added a few colored birds, lace across the top and a mixed fabric rosette (instructions for making rosettes can be found right HERE). The hanger is simply a torn strip of drop cloth fabric.

 The second planter is also decoupaged with pages of script, topped with the title page of a rare book entitled The Poetry of Flowers (also from The Graphics Fairy). To this urn of beautiful cascading flowers I've added a couple of buzzing bees, more lace across the top and another rosette of mixed fabrics.

Oh the wonders of ModPodge!  
Have you done any projects with it lately? 
I have a wee bit of an obsession with it myself as it turns so many of my Goodwill finds into great items to add to my French Flea Market repertoire!

Now for a few personal reflections, a little overflow from my heart.  Last night I said to Mr. OTN, with no small amount of wonder, that I am living my dream right now and I didn't even know what that dream was!  
Though I don't have my two girls close to home on this Mother's Day, I am so proud of these beautiful young women who are each, in their two opposite corners of the country, impacting the lives of those around them by being the kind, generous, caring people that they are. My family makes my heart full!

As we come upon another Freedom Session graduation (May 19th) and look forward to hearing our hard working Participants share amazing testimonies of lives transformed, I feel so blessed that Mr. OTN and I get to be a part of this awesome ministry, as Directors in our local church.  This also, makes my heart full.

Then there is this other part of my life (creating and blogging) which is secondary to family and ministry but is also a dream come true. I feel so fortunate to have the freedom to work at something I enjoy and I'm very excited about being given the opportunity to participate in my first ever French Flea Market in September.


 I am loving this season of life so much and I need to remind myself not to take it for granted.
So TODAY, I will embrace this moment in time and thoroughly enjoy the process of making OldThingsNew!
 

       Blessings, 

I've been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

 UnderTheTableAndDreaming, TheDIYShowoff, TheTablescaper, IHeartNapTime, My1929Charmer, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, NavyWifePetersUSSCrafty, SuburbsMama

Monday:

 IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor,  ModVintageLife, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, TheGraphicsFairy, TheDedicatedHouse, UncommonDesigns, WestFurnitureRevival, BoogieboardCottage, DIYHomeSweetHome, HuckleberryLove, RainOnATinRoof, AlderberryHill, TwelveOEight

Tuesday:

HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, Elizabeth&Co, MyUncommonSliceOfSuburbia, CoastalCharm, CozyLittleHouse, PJHDesigns, NaptimeCreations, CedarHillRanch,  BloomingHomestead, FlusterBuster, KatheWithAnE, NotJustAHousewife,
VMG206
HickoryTrail 

Wednesday:

SavvySouthernStyle, The36thAvenue, SouthernLovely, VintageOnADime, IvyAndElephants,  DIYByDesign, DesignedDecor, ViewFromRiverMountain, TheStyleSisters, AdornedFromAbove, SewCraftyAngel, Timewashed, SomedayCrafts, GreenWillowPond 

Thursday:

NoMinimalistHere, ImpartingGrace, DesignedDecor, TheVintageFarmhouse, TheSabbyCreekCottage, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson, BeyondThePicketFence, StoneGable, AllThingsWithPurpose, MyRepurposedLife, FromMyFrontPorchToYours, ADelightsomeLife 

Friday:

MyRomanticHome, FrenchCountryCottage, TatertotsAndJello, MissMustardSeed, ThriftyHandmadeDays, CraftJunkieToo, CommonGround, TheShabbyNest, LizMarie, Redoux, JenniferRizzo, TheCharmOfHome, RootedInThyme, 504Main

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, ClassyClutter, SixSistersStuff, It'sOverflowing, BeDifferentActNormal, TooMuchTimeOnMyHands,
OneSharendipityPlace



Hand Painted Wallpaper

We have been having the most wonderful weather this past couple of weeks and it has me wondering if this is a trick or if this might be the beginning of an early summer.  One never knows in the Pacific N.W. but I'd be happy to leave the drizzle behind for a few months!

Today I'm sharing my latest completed project: Painted Wallpaper

The main floor of my home is open concept but laid out a little oddly with jogs in the walls.  I guess this was done to define the different areas of the room.  I think it is annoying when trying to place furniture!  Anyway, the area I painted is a little sitting area that sits directly behind the kitchen island. To the left of this the wall jogs and becomes the living room. To the right the wall jogs into the dining room.  When we moved into our house the walls were white and, since I wanted to warm things up to offset the many cloudy days we have here, I painted the walls with Valspar's Weathered Sandstone. When we recently redid the kitchen (future post) I painted the kitchen and dining room in Valspar's Field of Pines.  This color is not one I would've ended up with if one of my friends hadn't asked me why I didn't choose a color for my walls that I also like to wear.  So I gave it a try and I absolutely love it!

The only thing that kept nagging at me, with it being so open, was the abrupt change of color from one room to another.  I kept thinking about what I could do to make it feel right until one day, when I was watching The Nate Berkus Show, someone asked Nate about transitioning colors from room to room. His answer was to paint stripes in the two colors to tie the areas together.  When I thought about this a bit more I remembered a painted wallpaper tutorial that I saw at Jones Design Company and decided that it would be perfect with my style. 
So here is my sitting area before:

And this is my sitting area after!  Awhile back I did a blog post about garden houses. This wall treatment makes me think of lattice work . . . which reminds of a garden room . . . which makes me feel happy.  My mother's antique chairs provide a perfect place to chat over a cup of tea!

I've also been talking about adding crown molding to our main living area for a long time and Mr. OTN surprised me by saying,"Let's do it!"  This was something we decided to have help with since it was in our real house (not the guest cottage) and more important to have done really well!  To save on cost I painted it,

our great friend Rob cut and installed it (anyone need a good Contractor?),

and Mr. OTN helped a little by holding up some wood for a picture!

That was really all he HAD to do as he scored major points with me by giving up one of the projects he has been wanting to do for something that I wanted!

So back to my painted wallpaper: I printed off the Jones Design Company template and transferred it onto cardboard. Then I traced the pattern onto the wall in pencil using a level to keep things from going wonky! The template can be downloaded HERE.

 Since I wanted my pattern to be centered in the corner of the two walls, I made an extra template and cut it in half.

I also cut a template to go across the top of the walls.

I didn't do a perfect tracing job but I kept a soft eraser on hand for removing smudges and any big errors!  The imperfections are hardly noticeable at all once you apply the paint.

See what I mean? Looks pretty good doesn't it? I used a 1/4" paintbrush and painted on the inside of all the lines that I drew.  I found that I needed to clean the paintbrush often so it didn't build up paint and make my line too wide.

To get the double line look I traced the template, then moved it down and about 1/2" away from the first traced outline, and traced it again. Jones Design Company has excellent and very detailed instructions on how to do this HERE.

Since I finished my walls I've had several people point out to me that they match my candles. The candles came first!  It is a pretty popular print right now.

It also matches the pattern in my living room rug.  This is the same rug that my parents had in the house I grew up in.  I guess it has been a popular pattern for ages!

It is pretty hard to see with the window glare (does anyone know how to fix that in photos?) but I also painted the inside of the window jams the blue green color to tie things together and frame the view of the lake.

The picture below shows where the two wall colors come together.

 I'm happy with the transition of colors and I'm really happy with the beautiful crown molding. Thank you Mr. OTN.  
We also had our doors wrapped and wider baseboard molding installed so I still have the painting of doors and windowsills ahead of me.

If you are considering a wall treatment, this application is a lot less expensive than wallpaper and it is a lot of fun to be able to say that it is hand painted!  It was very time consuming but I think it was worth it.

 What do you think? 
Have you ever used a template to paint walls or furniture? I've used stencils before but they tended to bleed through. Hand painting with a template makes a really nice sharp line.
 The picture below is looking directly out from my kitchen.

 So now that I've made my little sitting area into a mini "garden room" I had to invite a couple of my special friends over for a spot of tea :)

 Isn't this tea set beautiful?  Sigh . . .It doesn't belong to me.
A bone china teapot is definitely on my thrift store radar though!

 And here are my two beautiful friends being good sports while I take pictures for this post! 

Yesterday began with a little marine air fog but turned into a beautiful sunny day as we shared some tea, got a little crafty, went out for lunch, a little shopping, shared a few tears (that is what good friends do) and a lot of laughter!

   Blessings,

I've been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

 UnderTheTableAndDreaming, TheDIYShowoff, TheTablescaper, IHeartNapTime, My1929Charmer, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, NavyWifePetersUSSCrafty, SuburbsMama

Monday:

 IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor,  ModVintageLife, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, TheGraphicsFairy, TheDedicatedHouse, UncommonDesigns, WestFurnitureRevival, BoogieboardCottage, DIYHomeSweetHome, HuckleberryLove, RainOnATinRoof, AlderberryHill, TwelveOEight,
CarrieThisHome

Tuesday:

HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, Elizabeth&Co, MyUncommonSliceOfSuburbia, CoastalCharm, CozyLittleHouse, PJHDesigns, NaptimeCreations, CedarHillRanch,  BloomingHomestead, FlusterBuster, KatheWithAnE, NotJustAHousewife,
VMG206
Hickory Trail 

Wednesday:

SavvySouthernStyle, The36thAvenue, SouthernLovely, VintageOnADime, IvyAndElephants,  DIYByDesign, DesignedDecor, ViewFromRiverMountain, TheStyleSisters, AdornedFromAbove, SewCraftyAngel, Timewashed, SomedayCrafts, GreenWillowPond 

Thursday:

NoMinimalistHere, ImpartingGrace, DesignedDecor, TheVintageFarmhouse, TheSabbyCreekCottage, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson, BeyondThePicketFence, StoneGable, AllThingsWithPurpose, MyRepurposedLife, FromMyFrontPorchToYours, ADelightsomeLife 

Friday:

MyRomanticHome, FrenchCountryCottage, TatertotsAndJello, MissMustardSeed, ThriftyHandmadeDays, CraftJunkieToo, CommonGround, TheShabbyNest, LizMarie, Redoux, JenniferRizzo, TheCharmOfHome, RootedInThyme, 504Main

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, ClassyClutter, SixSistersStuff, It'sOverflowing, BeDifferentActNormal, TooMuchTimeOnMyHands



National Day of Prayer

This is my beautiful home city:  Olympia, Washington.

 Yesterday was The National Day of Prayer when people of prayer from diverse backgrounds and many different denominations came together to pray. 

We gathered together in Olympia's beautiful Capitol Rotunda.

 The calling together of the assembly began with the Sounding of the Shofar by John MacDonald of Congregation Lion of Judah.

The program included the presenting of the colors by the Marine Color Guard (4th Landing Support Battalion, Joint Base Lewis-McChord), followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. 

There was a moving recitation of "I am the Nation" (an adaptation of the original work by Otto Whittaker, 1955) by 4th and 5th graders from Cornerstone Christian School, 

and an Interdenominational Choral group who sang so beautifully

 "God of Our Fathers"

Local leaders led us in prayer for our public servants, the church, our government, families and marriage, the military, law enforcement and firefighters, our youth and our schools.

Pastor Fawn Cobler, Church of Living Water

 Pastor Jon Cobler, Church of Living Water










 


  


CH Cpt. John McDougall, Battalion Chjaplain, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment

  

Former Secretary of State, Ralph Munro

John Geis, Director of Government Relations, Family Policy Institute of Washington

  
   
Lt. Steve Bradley, Olympia Fire Department

Pastor Shane Rogers, Church of Living Water









 
  

Pastor John Hubbard, Executive Director, Light of the World Prayer Center, Bellingham, WA

Dr. Terry Ketchum, Principal, Northwest Christian High School

I'm so sorry I missed getting a picture of the lovely Violinist, Elizabeth Shoemaker from Northwest Christian High School, who played "The Lord's Prayer". Her back was to me from my perch in the upper rotunda the entire time :( 

The most rousing speaker and leader in prayer (in my personal opinion) was my very own Pastor Peter! His great love for our nation and it's people was felt by all as he stirred up the desire within us to continue to believe in and pray for our nation.

Pastor Peter Degon, Faith Assembly of Lacey

 

Diana Wakefield, Coordinator of the Thurston County NDP Task Force, is the force behind this event.  Her love for our great nation is what gives her the desire and strength to pull this together year after year. 

Thank you Diana!

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" Psalm 33:12

It was a beautiful day, in so many ways.

God BLESS America!!!