Day Dreaming 2/1/2012

I would like to celebrate this post because it's #1,100 post. I am nothing if not tenacious.
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I absolutely do have these little hanging paper globes and pompoms around my house. Some are in my bedroom. One is in the family room and several are in my office and craft room. They are paper. They are cheap. They add pizzazz to any room. They are cute. I like them immensely. You could do this over a tub or even a toilet. Yes, I said toilet! I have decals on my toilets' tanks.

My bedroom is dark and it's very difficult to get a good photo unless it's early in the morning when the eastern sun shines in, but this is a white pompom in there...

and this is the little birdcage I made and attached to the end of it.

I put a pink one in my office. It is behind me when I'm sitting at this desk. I added curling ribbon. It's a very feminine room.

This is a white pompom with another birdcage attached to it. It's in our family room corner.

Another photo of the family room corner with just the pompom showing.

Snooooore.....day dreamin'.........

I've done this in some of my rooms a few years ago. Just paint some cheap picture frames and stack them against a wall.

This is an emergency kit for lovers of pink. Break it out and just stare at it until the blues go away.

I have some shutters like these. I painted them white and added roses decals.

They are in my home office on the wall behind me.

Intoxicating comes to mind when I view this little scene.

If only........

Sighing...

I have 2 old drawers smaller than this that hold papers and such. I think I'll hang them on the wall and use them to hold things in the bathroom.

Okay, go. I mean GO and make something special of this day for yourself and if it includes someone else, so much the better. A phone call from my dear friend lifts me up like nothing else can. Do it! Take someone's breath away today. :-) And then...have a cupcake. ;-)
~*~

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Tuesday's Customer Inspiration - Jennifer's sunny chairs!

Jennifer grew up with a mom who is incredibly talented around design and re-purposing pieces with "good bones" and obviously - based on the following photos - has developed that muscle herself.  Here's Jennifer's email:

Hi Susan,  My mom, Amy, helps out at Jubilee occasionally (and alerts me of any great deals she sees when helping out/shopping...not sure what she does more of!).  Anyway, she bought a table/chairs set and she only needed the table...so I lucked out and scored the chairs!  Yay!  So I thought I'd send you some before and after pics. 

They were a little beat up and the fabric was definitely not for me, but I loved the sleek style and thought the unique "squiggle" backs and medallions gave them such personality.  I had originally planned to lightly sand and stain these, but they had some kind of super gloss finish to them and rather than spend hours sanding I opted to paint.

I used a mustard yellow paint (to coordinate with some artwork and other accents in the adjacent living room) and several coats and a topcoat later...here they are.  I added some new foam for padding and picked out a neutral (but interesting) fabric for the seats.  I'm loving my happy "new" dining room chairs.


Sincerely,
Jennifer
P.S. I also bought a children's table/chairs set for my kids and I plan to use the leftover yellow paint on those chairs.  My husband is a little concerned I'm going to paint all the wood furniture in the house...haha, I just might!

Wouldn't it be fun to gather around that great looking table in that sunny spot on those amazing chairs?!  I absolutely love what Jennifer did!

A big THANK YOU to Jennifer!

Have you purchased something from Jubilee Furniture that you've transformed - as Jennifer did - and you'd be willing to take some photos and email me at sgalbraith@outreachcommin.org with the thought of inspiring others to see used furniture in a new way?  Or, have you purchased something from Jubilee Furniture and done nothing but dusted it off and gave it a new home in your house and you'd be willing to take some photos and email me at sgalbraith@outreachcommin.org with the thought of inspiring others to see used furniture in a new way?  If so - that's great!  Whatchawaitingfor?

Enjoy this good day, dear reader!

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Day Dreaming 1/30/2012

Good morning.

Let's dream some more...and maybe face some realities. Oh pleeeease, tell me it ain't so! Yesssss.....read on.

I love blogging as I've said many times. I also like reading other blogger's posts. But I have to comment on a couple of things.

I try my best to keep my sidebar to a minimum but to have nothing on there would be boring. (Actually, I've gone through my sidebar and eliminated several things in the past few days to keep it even more simple. I think most people don't even read sidebars. How sad. I'm very picky about what I put on there. Try reading my sidebar once in a while. I change it infrequently but if you've been a follower and are perceptive, you would know I do change it a bit. I admit to being a bit OCD and being distracted by so much "fluff" on the sides that I can barely read some posts. But when it's a three column blog and blinkies, music, advertisements and other stuff are so distracting, I'm keeping my blog surfing to a minimum. I do not mean to offend anyone. Please, think about your blog and what it might look like to other people. I doubt I reach very many of you but I mean to reach as many as I can. That does not mean I'll not read blogs that have that but it does mean I'm going to have to love that blog.

There are times on this blog I have much to say and times I don't. I love seeing pictures on blogs. In my opinion, it would be a very dry, boring blog post if there were no pictures. I've surfed the internet and uploaded over 700 photos to share with you—photos you may have seen and some you've definitely not seen. While I personally would find it boring to just look at photos or just read a post, some of you may not. I like both. I'm going to try and be better at posting because, well, simply put, I love blogging. So I'll be sharing many photos with you and also writing some comments to keep it not so boring. (Let's face it, I've shown you just about everything in this house including the toilets. There isn't much you haven't seen except maybe hubby's shelves in the garage with the motor oil on it. But that may be coming so don't discount it.) But I have no intention of not showing you more photos of my house. When I do I'll make sure you know it's my house and not take credit for the other photos. I simply do not want to bore you. Yes, I leave random thoughts sometimes. I doubt I'm too boring though. So to sum it up—there will be a lot of photos.

My purpose is to bring visual pleasure to your life through pictures and a few comments. While we live in reality, we can also dream a bit during the day. While I love the title Day Dreaming, I doubt I'll keep it and just put a different date on it. But I'll always put Day Dreaming as a label so others can find it if they want to day dream. So my blog will keep to my original concept, just adding a bit more fun to it. Life is always about change, isn't it?
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Pedaling a pink bicycle with a basketful of tulips may seem like a wonderful thing to do but how many times do we actually see someone riding a bike carrying flowers. My guess is not many times if any, but it happens frequently in European countries. For all that, I'd still rather live exactly where I am at the moment: a medium size town in Idaho.

Breads are my downfall. Oh, I don't eat regular sandwich type breads much at all, but french bread? Ooolala. I have no control over it. Just put some butter on it and I'm happy. My second favorite bread is a croissant. With my wonderful chicken salad on it. As a matter of fact, let me share my recipe with you here.

Cook some chicken breasts in the oven with Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper until they are golden. Take them out and cool them and then with a chef's knife chop them up into small bites.
Add celery, maybe one stalk ( I rarely measure most things, just go by the seat of my pants.)
Add chopped finely pecans. Yes, PECANS! They are a "sweet" nut and make a big difference in my opinion.
Then add mayonnaise.
Then add a bit of sour cream.

That's it, very easy. When I make this for friends they just love it and rave about it. Also, I love putting a bit of cream cheese on the bread/croissant with it. It tastes like heaven should taste if heaven were a sandwich. I think you'll like it. Roasting the chicken makes a big difference from boiling chicken. Yuk, who in the world would want to boil a chicken with that horrible smell? I've never, ever in my life boiled a chicken, just roasted them.

I love stemware also. Whenever we can, we use our crystal. It makes even hamburger gravy seem elegant. : -) And strawberries are a staple in my refrigerator. I don't care what they cost but usually they're not expensive at all.

I think this bright magenta pink pillow just screams elegance in this room. Try something shocking like this and see how it makes you feel.

I truly love white curtains. I think they are elegant—lace, twill—doesn't matter, love any white curtains. I have a set I made but I needed a bit more color in the living room so I switched them out for some pink ones I made. I like changing things once in a while to get a different look or feel. It just makes me feel good to do this sometimes.

This is a photo of my living room before I put in the pink striped curtains. I change them often.

Now, look. Who in the world would have thought in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or even 80s that this old beaten up, worn farm table would be costlier and more desired than an elegant polished table from Thomasville or Ethan Allen? My home is anything but elegant, but I wanted a fancy chandelier and I got it. Yes, hubs grumbled about it looking out of place and then grumbled about hanging it. But you know what? After it was hung, he actually said it looked beautiful. We have no formal dining room—no need for it for just the two of us— just an area off the kitchen, but I wanted it to feel elegant to me.

This is the chandelier in my home.

I wrapped yards and yards of pink tulle around it, securing it with pink organza ribbon and then just stuck little paper roses in the tulle.

I think this is an elegant purse. No, I didn't make it but I do make those kinds of roses for my jackets to jazz them up when wearing them to church. But I also LOVE making those roses. Just relaxing to me to make something beautiful.

Absolutely nothing costly here, but it still has quite an elegant, feel good look to it. And if you're new to my blog, you'll soon learn I do a lot of eye candy.

If you were lucky to find such a piece of gorgeous grill work cheaply, you would indeed be blessed. I just quite simply love the look of this vignette.

Shabby, yet elegant. Surely, you can peruse your neighborhood and find someone throwing away an old door. It may not be this exact kind but consider the possibilities of any door.

Slipcovered ottoman and chair mixed with 2 elegant chairs. Consider your possibilities!

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Also, I would like to point out that on my sidebar, just below Miss Caroline as she comes first, is a blogging tip on an alternative to Blogger Followers. It refers to a post I did a few weeks ago. It's what I use so my sidebar doesn't go off into infinity. You can use Google Reader instead; I do and I love it much more than the Blogger Follower. Just because you don't see me on your Followers list does not mean I don't follow you; I just do it this way instead. Just click on the tulip logo and it will take you directly there. You might want to tell your friends about this also.
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That's all for today. However, be forewarned—there will be lots of beautiful and dreamy places, vignettes, homes, yards, flowers and just scenes to make you daydream. While I don't want to live a lifestyle any different than I am at this very moment, I do love to daydream.

Also, I encourage you to go and lift someone higher than they thought possible, even if it's yourself.
~*~

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Day Dreaming 1/28/2012

I sit here a little part of each day helping people with their genealogical pursuits and directing them to those who can help them find answers. While it isn't very exciting work, I still love doing it. Turning the hearts of the children to their fathers is a work needing to be done. Yesterday I had 68 calls so it kept me quite busy, but I am a woman who can multi-task. (Snicker and snort! It got a tad crazy for a while there but I persevered.)

I read a few blogs and one that caught my eye was Claudias on trying to be frugal in an economy that is trashed at the moment. She is a sweet woman whose blog is delightful to read. But the post I was reading specifically struck me as she is doing all the right things. I am also doing what I can in today's economy but there is something else that needs to be addressed. That is a "change of mind/attitude."

I, like so many of you, have dreams of gorgeous homes, gardens, clothing, but that isn't my reality. I have very much come to grips with never having the gorgeous homes seen in articles. However, that does not prevent me from having a lovely, small, neat, decorated home to satisfy me until the end of my days. I truly don't lust after the vain and sparkly things of the world. (Okay, maybe just a mite.) But I'm truly happy with what I do have. Most of all, I'm happy for a man who has loved me for over 50 years and sticks with me through the thick and thin of life. That is the greatest treasure I can think of.

So, let's dream a little and look at some photos I've seen on the internet. These might just inspire you to do one tiny little thing to make your home more beautiful in a frugal way. Oh, and there will definitely be more photos as I had to create a new album in Photobucket just to hold all the photos. So far over 400 with many more to come. I'll try to comment on each one to try and generate your mind to be creative. If there's one thing I'm good at in life, it is inspiring people to their greatness. ;-) So come along and daydream your way into a beautiful life.

Mismatched chairs. You don't have to have all chairs matching. Look how creative this homeowner was. And did you notice the chandelier? Cute!

A great view can accomplish much towards what you don't have to put on walls—pictures.

Cheap garage sale or thrift store finds can go a long way with a bunch of flowers toward adding ambiance to your home.

Now, if I could only get Love Bunny to go for this kind of camping I'd love it: Throw down a foam mattress and near to a toilet that I wouldn't need a flashlight to find!

This could be any home if it wasn't for the high ceilings. The furniture is slipcovered and quite lovely, but this can be done with very little money, just without the expanse of windows. Also, your utility bills would be lower I'm sure.

Instant and inexpensive ambiance: flowers, ribbons, one smashing pillow and pitchers!

Isn't this photo fetching?

Right after I help a church member pack up to move her belongings I'm coming home and going to make one of these for every doorknob in my house. I've done these before but given most of them away. But it adds so much ambiance to have these little pockets hanging around, don't you think?

Okay, I'm off to pack. There will be more of these photos...lots more! Now, go and help someone else to dream and be more than they thought they could be.
~*~

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Restoring hope. Providing opportunities.

What a difference a week makes!  Last Friday after I left for the store and before my husband returned home in the evening – a water line to our refrigerator – which had been incorrectly installed through our attic and had frozen – unfroze and burst bringing down both our kitchen ceiling and our family room ceiling and soaking the wood floors in the kitchen and the carpeting in the family room (which had been replaced about a year ago due to another water related incident).

My normally optimistic outlook first kicked into high gear (This won’t lick us!  What’s a little water damage in the big scheme of things!) but then deserted me last night and I found myself feeling incredibly sad and hopeless.

Thankfully, my husband was feeling hopeful enough for both of us but it really hit home how important hope is and how it impacts…everything! 

Which is why I love working for Outreach Community Ministries.  Outreach has this beautiful tag line – restoring hope and providing opportunities (to those most in need in DuPage County, Illinois).

You’ve heard this many times – but it’s worth repeating – the proceeds of everything we sell at Jubilee Furniture are helping to support the amazing work of restoring hope to men, women, children and families who are feeling hopeless, through the programs and services offered by Outreach.  By shopping at Jubilee Furniture you are helping others.  Simple concept.  Life-changing results (to read some of the stories of those impacted by Outreach’s work visit our sister site – Hearts of Grace).

So, you ready to shop?  Good!  Here are some of the things you’ll find in our 30,000 square feet of warehouse today (Friday) from 1 to 8 and tomorrow (Saturday) from 9 to 4!

gorgeous Empire style antique chest and highboy – had been in donor’s family for over 100 years – some minor veneer damage on both pieces – highboy also has a mirror but there’s some missing hardware (which we hope to replace).  We’re selling each piece for $395

Klaussner sofa w/chaise – chaise can be flipped to other side of sofa OR replaced with a spare seat cushion and you don’t use the chaise part at all – all this versatility for only $145

lovely wingback chair priced $75; matching love seat for $65 (love seat seat cushions are worn and there’s some spot cleaning that needs to be done on love seat – thus the lower price)

oval coffee table for $50; matching oval end table for $40

this fabulous retro sofa is tied with the antique highboy and chest as my favorite piece this week – great low lines, actually very comfortable, amazing button back, tufted style, excellent condition (second photo is trying to show you one small rip on arm) priced $195

this sofa is covered in a lovely muted color fabric – appears to be reupholstered by a novice – looks okay but when you sit on it you sink pretty far down and I’m thinking either I need to lose a ton of weight or there might be some structural issues – so priced only $30

Lazboy leather/pleather (some parts are real leather some parts aren’t) sofa – both ends recline – some wear but not bad – priced $95

the guys made several trips back to the Hampton Inn in Carol Stream which is under-going a complete remodel and donating their old furniture to Jubilee!  We have more of the green upholstered chairs – priced $30 each – and matching ottomans (not sure why the ottoman in my photo looks like a different color from the chair – it’s not) priced $15 each.  Further down you’ll see several photos of more of the dining room style chairs we picked up in early December which sold out very quickly

Bauhaus sofa priced $85; matching over-sized chair for $50

sofa with two ends that recline – needs a thorough cleaning – priced $25

as promised  - here are photos of the Hampton Inn chairs – chairs with arms are selling for $25 each and the arm-less chairs are $20 each – fabric is green.  In the last photo the chairs are gathered around an oval table with three leaves and table pads (pads are a bit larger than table – but workable) priced $65

did you ever in your wildest dreams think you could purchase a leather sofa for $3?  Structurally great – needs to be completely reupholstered – if you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at reupholstering but were afraid – this sofa is for you – minimal cash out-lay (actually now that I think about it I think we have a couple of other sofas that are structurally sound but need to be reupholstered and have incredibly low price tags on them)

photo does not accurately capture this gorgeous square glass coffee table – it’s beautiful and I normally don’t like this style – priced $135

sweet striped side chair priced $55

Smithe Craft sofa – need some general cleaning – priced $65

wing back chair – I noted some pet hair on it and overall it’s worn – priced $20

great retro pleather chair priced $35

I’m still struggling with the massive repairs it will take to put our house back together (order is very important to me) – but I’m thankful for insurance, sunshiny days, fulfilling work, an upbeat, caring husband and the knowledge I’ll connect with fabulous customers later today!

Maybe you, dear reader?  That would be super nice!  I’m suddenly feeling much more hopeful.

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