It's been wild...

For the first time since I went to work at the Stampede, I took some time off during the winter break. It has been a wild ride. I have completely revamped the craft room with the Steampunk decor. I have recovered the couches and redecorated the living room in a new color scheme. I have switched the bedding in the bedroom and "shopped" my storage boxes for different decor. I even moved the wine rack and blue Pyrex into the dining room, freeing up some room in the kitchen. It has been crazy but fun. 

Between all that, I have managed to bake...

Watch some of my favorite movies...

Visited an animal shelter to take a kitten into the cat room and love on it (therapy for me and the kitty)...

Keep the grandkids for the weekend and go to the movies...

Try different foods and (yuck) tea...

Went to my grandson Colby's ball games and to the champion ship game where they took 1st in season and 2nd in the tournaments.

 Put furniture together all by myself...a FIRST!

 

Kept track of my blood pressure, which I might add, is really good for 63 years old. I don't have problems and not on meds, just trying to do some destressing techniques to keep it this way.

Did some crafting and enjoying my new steampunk room.

Went to the work end of year party and also went out many times with various friends to visit, go out to eat and take in a movie or even shopping.

Decorated for every holiday.

Even realized I LOVE to paint. This was a pale gray. Change it to gunmetal color.

I shopped, attended church, lead childrens church every Sunday but one this year. Read 14 books so far this year. All of them at least 300 pages. It has been an amazing year. That brings us up to date through Thursday. I will post again on Monday to do a weekend wrap up before I have to go back to work next week. It has been one heck of a wild ride.

Favorite Bible Verses

A couple of weeks ago I posted on Facebook asking "What is your favorite bible verse?" Here are the responses I received. If you posted one and I missed, I apologize. 

Esther 4:14

Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Isaiah 41:10

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Isaiah 53:5

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

James 1:19

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:17

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Joshua 1:9

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Matthew 11:28

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 5:14

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Philippians 4:11

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want…..

Psalm 48:1

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

Psalm 91:11

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Psalms 46:10

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Romans 15:1

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

It's getting there...

My spare room is undergoing a major change. I stripped the whole room of furniture except for one small chest and only had a couple of things on the wall. So it was like starting with a blank canvas. 

Since I am doing a Steam Punk theme with maybe a few unique antiques in it, the first thing I did was hang the new clock over the black chest. The lighting is horrible here. Check out my knight on the chest. It is copper/bronze colored and is actually a candle. I just fell in love with it. I will showcase the little chest later. It is one of my works in progress in the next stage. Changing out the knobs. 

Remember the box that was a pale sky blue with seashell pattern. The finished redo of that is done and on my table. It hold spare pens and glue sticks.

Here is the new futon. I got the middle of the line mattress so the Grands can sleep in comfort. It makes a full size bed. I am so proud of myself because I put it all together by myself. And trust me there was a lot of nuts and bolts and pieces to it. I could not be happier. I also found some sheer curtains that have a pale blue and brown pattern which you can't tell in this picture.

This is my new desk. I am so in love with it. Perfect for what I was needing. The color is called concrete. My son-in-law volunteered to put it together for me. After the futon almost killing me, I let him.

Now go back in time several years when I had this white resin table in my old sewing room. I love the size of the table but have ALWAYS hated the white on it. I'm not talented or patient enough to do anything to it. So I have lived with it in my craft room and not liked it since I had it.

Flash back to the present...My sweet friend Aaron is very talented at stuff like refinishing and creating neat stuff. So I took it to house, said help me and left it there. He painted it black first, then covered it with a type of copper flexed paint. He even did the legs underneath.

I fell in love with the finished product. 

This is the same friend who surprised me so much that I was speechless at Christmas. He made me this Steam Punk lamp. I am so in love with it that you just can't imagine. I didn't even know he remembered me saying I was going to steam punk the room. 

That's it for the furniture in there. I am 100% so satisfied with all of it. I have been collecting little baskets (check out the table above) and shelves for the room. I found this one for $3.00 at the local thrift store. I decided to glue some gears and hang some keys on it since that is the overall theme on a lot of steam punk stuff.  It holds my some of my paints that I use the most.

I have a bulletin board on the wall that I want to paint and fix up some. The only other thing on the wall right now is this sign. My word of the year two years ago was DREAM and last year it was DARE. My good friend Jonnie wrote and designed me this picture/poem about DARE. So I didn't want to take it down. Instead I glued a few little steam punk type things in the corners. 

That's it for now. The actual room is like I want it. However, the walls are still bare except for the three things I mentioned. So there is that one last stage to finish. I will keep you posted on any updates. But I am so happy with it now that I actually spend more time in that room than I do my living room. I even watch TV on my tablet instead of going in the living room. 

And next.....

Well now that Valentine's Day is over, it is time to take that down and put out something for Saint Patrick's Day. I've got to get my box out but I had just got this little sign so I was able to do this display today. It's a start.

Sunday Songs

Craft time....

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Appointments, meetings, church, family, friends, shopping, cleaning, organizing, etc. I took the winter layoff to relax and I really am not sure how I will find time to fit my job back into my busy schedule. But I did a couple of craft things. I had some pink and red fabric. Ignore the tart dish. That was going to become a pin cushion but realized I need to buy some fiber fill. But I did gather the other stuff for a reason.

I love Wonder Under and use it a lot for applique. Sometimes I stitch around it but this time it was just a quick project.  

I made the one on the left last year so I hung the new one beside it on the stove handle. Of course today, all my V-Day decor is coming down so I am a little late in posting this.

Remember a few weeks back I had been gathering some Steampunk stuff for my new room and I said this was the beginnings of a craft project. 

Well, I have this little box that I just didn't use much. It was more a beach theme with the star fish on the sides. So I took the gray paint and painted it all gray. Then I took the different colors and some cut up pieces of sponge and sponge painted the whole box.

I glued on my various Steampunk decor including my favorite piece....the tree of life made with gears. And here is the end result. I even put a little handle on it to open it with. I could not be happier.

With all my moving furniture out to other parts of the house, selling off a couple of small pieces I had no use for and taking down all the beach decor, I was left with an almost blank room. 

Everything was ready for my new furniture and new decor. 

Stay tuned Monday, you will see the updated room with what I have accomplished so far. I do need to find more wall decor, but it is coming together nicely. On another note, I am here to tell you that I have been watching my diet to try to drink more water, eat less salt and less greasy foods. I have no health issues and no blood pressure problems but it does spike once in awhile. I read up on ways to keep that from happening and one thing other than diet is to listen to "good mood" music. So I have a tons of playlists that I put on my blue tooth speaker and crank up the volume and it plays all day while I'm home and even when I am in my car. As a result, here I am 63 years old and check out what my blood pressure has been averaging everyday for the last 6 weeks. Sometime a few points more some times lower but this is about the average. And a good heart rate to go along with it. 

There is something to say about staying happy to keep healthy. So go out and find some joy and have a happy day.