PAINT AN ACCENT PANEL WALL

First of all, all of the credit for this design goes to Emily at Jones Design Company.  After seeing her "Painted Wallpaper" office over a year ago, I stored the idea away in my brain knowing that I wanted to do the same someday.

I finally found the perfect spot! This is a paneled area over a built in desk in the office that I'm in the process of overhauling.  I painted it dark, the same color as the ceiling, which is "Wrought Iron" by Martha Stewart.  After staring at it for several days, I decided it needed a little something to take it up a notch!

I'm not posting a full tutorial, just showing a few photos of how the wall progressed.

This is the point where I was REALLY wishing I was finished!  Just keep painting, just keep painting...

I used this paint, and I love how it seems to light up and shimmer just a bit.  The color is Pure Gold.  Total cost for this project: less than $1.50-one little bottle is all I had to buy.

I love how the gold accents really play off of my gold drum shade that I made a while back,

and how the panel now ties into the ceiling color.

The office is really coming together, and I only have a few more projects to finish before I'm ready to show you the entire room...mainly cleaning it up!  You wouldn't believe the mess that's cropped out of these photos! :) 

If you'd like to try your own painted wall with this pattern, visit Emily's post here to download the template and read a full tutorial.  Here's her beautiful room finished:

1,000,000,000 gold stars to her for painting an entire ROOM this way.  Just my little 57"x47" space took about 5 hours to complete, so I can't imagine how many hours a room floor to ceiling would take.  Well worth the time and effort, though, don't you agree?

Click here to see the completed room.

Linking up with

The Shabby Nest

Home Stories A to Z 

Savvy Southern Style

It's Overflowing

Uncommon 

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Cottage and Vine
East Coast Creative

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INDIAN TACOS

My mom fixed one of my favorite meals for my birthday party.  Actually, it's just about everyone's favorite.  Emily even requested them on the Fourth of July, but we stuck with good old hamburgers and hot dogs that day.

While on a mission trip in New Mexico years ago, my mom received this recipe from a Creek Indian lady, so she learned from a pro!

Here's the recipe for the Fry Bread:

Indian Taco Fry Bread

4 cups flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder (fresh!)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 Tablespoon shortening-cut in

2 Tablespoons milk

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Add 1 cup warm water (more or less) until dough is soft-not sticky.  Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth.  Try not to add too much flour as that will make the bread tough.  Let dough rest for at least 15 minutes (Mom just turns her bowl upside down and covers the dough with it while it's resting.).

 

While dough is resting, begin heating oil in a large pan.  You could use a dutch oven but we like using a big cast iron skillet.  There needs to be about an inch or a little more of oil in the pan. 

Break off small pieces (maybe the size of a small lemon) and roll out very thin on a lightly floured surface.  The thinner your roll the dough, the lighter it will be and the more it will puff up.  Carefully place rolled piece of dough in the hot oil.  The oil should be hot enough that it immediately and continually bubbles around the bread.

After a few seconds the bread should be browning on the bottom side.  It should also be puffing up with all kinds of air bubbles.  When it is the color you desire, flip it over with tongs and brown the other side.  The longer you cook it, the crispier it will be.  We usually do a mixture of some that are softer and some that are more crispy.

Continue breaking off bits of dough, rolling out, and frying until all of the dough is used.  This really works best if you have a helper...someone to be rolling and someone to be frying/turning the pieces.  Line a baking sheet or pan with paper towels and keep the cooked pieces in a warm oven until all are finished cooking and you are ready to serve.

Top with your favorite taco chili meat and whatever else you desire: cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, olives, salsa, ranch beans, and sour cream.

 

This recipe yields about a dozen pieces of fry bread.  We usually make a recipe and a half,  because you're going to want extra bread so you can dip it in honey for dessert! 

This dish involves a bit of prep work on the front end, but it's nice to have an all-in-one dinner and dessert.

I hope you try it sometime.  You might discover a new favorite...and save yourself a small fortune when the Fair comes to town!

Linking up with
The Shabby Nest

Home Stories A to Z
Mangia Mondays at Shine Your Light 
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IT'S MY PARTY...AND WHAT WAS IN THE BOX

Thank you so much for all of my thoughtful birthday wishes!  Our weekend was busy.  A sweet group of friends took me to breakfast a few days before my birthday, and then on my birthday my hubby -he's the best!- and I enjoyed a long breakfast and a bit of shopping before all of the partying got kicked off.  When the kids came home from school we opened the first round of presents and then headed to my parents' home for a big family shin-dig.  

I know you've been on pins and needles all weekend, so here's my big gift!

 

My sewing machine is ancient.  While a workhorse, it basically just sews straight or zig-zag seams.  I've always thought it would be great to have a machine that would do some fancier stitching and monogramming, although those are usually in the many thousands of dollars range.  Ray shopped around all by himself and found this good, reasonable alternative that should be great for some special projects here and there.  I have a friend with one that is the same brand so I'm looking forward to a few lessons from her so I can use it!  Anyone else have one of these?  Any thoughts or tips?


My dad used his jigsaw to cut out this huge sign.  You can't quite see it but in the corner it says "ish".  Hmmm.  Guess we'll get to use that one for the next 10 years.  Yippee.  :)

 

The table was so fun and full of some of my favorite colors.

My sis-the table designer-photographing her work.  The "runner" is made up of several fingertip towels laid together and the flowers were from Hobby Lobby...good move since she works for them at their Corporate Offices! She stamped the "40" cards from some old letterpress plates that my parents have.  Everything else was from my mom's vast stash of decorative items.  We love to shop her closet when decorating for special events!

 

My mom and sister used old photos scattered on the table and around the room.  See, I've always loved to read! (and those were my favorite "Bambi" sheets.)

 

My family worked together to compile 40 cards of characteristics they see in me (more on that in a future post). 

 

A few of Caleb's cards- "Mom's cool 12 things!  Loving, kind, cute, blogger"

Spelling isn't his strong suit, but this one says "Pictures, Changing, Christian, Susil".  When I was asking him about the "Changing", he said "You know Mom, you're always changing stuff around the house."  :) Just what I thought it meant.  Love that boy!

 

The kids anxiously await their turn on the back yard rope swing-the same one my sisters and I used to swing on.

And, the most popluar entertainment at Bree and Grandad's...sliding down the stairs in a satin pillow case!

Whew!  I survived turning 40.  :-) Thanks for allowing me to share some memories from my special day!  Tomorrow I'll share a recipe for what we had for dinner.  You're going to want it!

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ANTICIPATION

Today is my birthday.  My 40th birthday.  Other than not quite knowing how that happened,  I'm o.k. with it.

This huge box appeared in the living room last night.  It's driving me crazy.  I'm reminded of how my kids surely feel on their birthday when they have to look at their gifts all day and wait until the evening to open them.  I usually have a pretty good idea of what my gift will be, but this time, I'm clueless.  I used to not like surprises so much but as I get older I really do!

We are partying with family and friends this weekend.  I'll keep you posted when I find out what's in the box. :)

Have the happiest of weekends, friends! 

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BLACK INTERIOR DOORS

As promised, here's a look at my freshly painted interior doors. Well over a year ago when toying with the idea of using black, I painted the interior of my front and back doors only, as well as the french doors that lead to the office.  I immediately loved the difference!

I apologize in advance for some shadows and less than great photos.  My hallways have ZERO natural light so they are a real challenge to photograph!  I have so much to learn....and apparently there's a mysterious spot on my lens showing up!

My master bedroom...an open door to my next project!

I don't even mind the brassy knobs so much anymore.  In fact, I kind of like them now with the black doors and am no hurry to switch them out like I was before painting.

As far as procedure goes, I started with Sherwin Williams Solo paint (said to be the same as the "ProClassic" line, they just had to use Solo because the base was so dark) in Tricorn Black Semi-Gloss.  I wanted to try this paint because I've read rave reviews of how well it goes on furniture and leaves a smooth finish.   I ran out of the SW paint and had a gallon of Behr mixed in the same Tricorn black, and I honestly couldn't tell a difference between the quality of the two. 

The white doors were painted with a sprayer when the house was built, so they were super smooth and slick.  I'm not necessarily recommending this, but I did not prime them or prep in any way other than wiping them down good.  Once they cure well I really haven't had trouble with scratching, and if one does show up here and there it's a quick and easy touch-up.  I've found the Behr paint to be nice and durable.

Also, I started with a brush and foam roller, but after 2 doors thought it would be much faster to spray them.  I removed 4 other doors from the hinges and took them outside to use my paint sprayer.  I'm never sure what's faster because it still was quite a process to remove the doors, lug them outside, tape off the hardware, spray them, flip them, and then re-install them.  And, the day I was spraying they decided to trim trees along the power lines outside of our back fence, so as they mulched away I'm pretty sure some of that dusty debris flying through the air stuck to my doors. They look good, but just aren't quite as smooth as the rolled doors.  I'm basically just as happy with the rolled on finish as I am the sprayed finish.  I'm sure I should have sanded between coats or something....but I was too impatient for that! 

For now, I've only done all of the hallway doors.  I may paint some doors inside the bedrooms in the future but haven't decided yet.  I'll probably just stick to rolling those if and when I paint them.

We all love a great before and after shot, so here's a little side by side for you:

Powder  Bath:

Kids' Rooms:

My favorite change is this wall with the laundry room door.  I love how the black door makes my mirror wall look so much more dramatic.

Linking up with:

Uncommon

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FURBALLS, FIRST, & FIVE

Alright, I think I'm back to a regular blogging schedule!  I limped along with the blog through the summer but the kids are back in school, and I have lots to tell you about!  Today is a quick little family round-up of some things we've been up to lately, but I have some fun house things to show you the rest of the week.

We lost our almost 15-year-old cat in February, right when the kids were really starting to enjoy having a pet around.  There has been begging ever since for something new, and dad was always happy to take them to PetSmart to look at the cats for adoption.  Well, they saw these two on one of those trips and couldn't stop talking about them.  They are right at 6 months old, brothers, born and raised this far in the shelter.  No way we could take one and not both of them. 

We went back to see them 2 or 3 times, and after Ray & I had decided we could get them, we told the kids that we could take them home with us.  This is Em's happy dance when hearing the news...

All ready to go in the "Kitty Kab".  Oh my, the squalling that was coming out of those boxes!

Here they are, adjusting to their new home.  They were so used to living in small quarters that it took them several days to branch out into other areas of the house.

"Chief" is on the left and has stripes on his side, and "Scout" is on the right with swirls on his side.

Chief warmed up to us fairly quickly and has got the whole "how to be a family cat" thing down.  Scout is a bit more jumpy for now...except with Em.  He's definitely "her" cat but after almost 2 weeks with us is getting more familiar with everyone.
 

* * * * * * * *

School started last Friday for us.  I CANNOT believe the summer is over!

My 6th grader-first year for Middle School(!)

My 4th grader-adjusting to going to school without her brother being there!

* * * * * * * *

Over the weekend we were invited by one of our friends and church members to tour a local news station where he works.  He's also been Caleb's Sunday School teacher, and this year we're so happy that he has Emily in his class!

Our friend Mr. Mark works for Channel 5 as a camera man, sometimes reporter on location, and all around helpful guy!  It's pretty cool to see his news truck, also.  He's made many modifications to it to house all of the equipment that they need to broadcast remotely.

Emily happened to be wearing a green top that was the same color as the green screen, and we all got a kick out of her "disappearing" on the monitor.

We were there during the airing of the 5:00 news and were able to watch everything in the studio as it was broadcast.  So interesting and enlightening!

The kids with Meterologist Rusty McCrainie in the weather center.  You can't see it in this photo, but they thought it was quite funny that he was wearing tennis shoes with his suit.  Hey, we give these weather guys a workout in Oklahoma!

The weekend anchor Anita Blanton was SO sweet to visit with us and take a photo with the kids.  She did a great job on the broadcast, also!

And, the most anticipated part of the tour for Caleb...seeing Sky5 in person.

Caleb's reaction upon learning that they once found a bullet hole in the tail section of the helicopter...a runaway suspect had shot at them!

Then, we came home and watched the 6:00 news.  So cool to have just been there for all of the "behind the scenes" peeks.

Many thanks to our sweet friend Mr. Mark who led our fantastic tour!

2 gold stars for you if you made it through that round-up of family photos!  Next time I'll show you my doors...they're finally finished!

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