Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Weekend!  

Thanks to all who have served and especially the ones who gave all!  I honor you. 

I honor my husband for 20 years service in the Air Force!  

You are a true patriot!  

Thank You!

                     1977!                                                                                                                              

Jacob, my 17 year old, was playing in the Sugar Bowl...A perfect photo to display in my button bouquet!

Enjoy the rest of your Memorial Weekend!

Don't forget one more day to join my Prior Lives Party!

Lezlee

It's a "Wrap Station" !!!

       

          This is a portable wrapping station.

  I'm joining Thrifty Thursday.

My daughter saw a similar idea in Better Homes and Gardens and thought it would be a great gift idea for her husband's employees. Luckily a good friend owns the local D.Q. and ordered us some drink take out boxes. Jodi ordered the wine boxes on line.  

Here's all you need: 

Wine box, take out drink box, rolls of wrapping paper, tape, labels, bows, ribbon snow stamp, hole punch, paper hole protectors, you could use rivets, but these were easier and more economical. Really whatever and however you want to decorate or put in it would work. Jodi matched all the ribbons, wrapping and bows, really well.  She added a tag that said, 

"Thanks for wrapping up a great year!"

Jodi got the idea a couple of years ago, so fortunately was able to buy wrapping supplies on clearance. She had fun and I think the employees appreciated the time and thought that went into the gifts! She made around 20, if I remember correctly. Since the over all theme of my blog is using things differently than they were used in their Prior Life, I thought y'all would enjoy this! I am joining the party at 

Junkle' Bells

Go on over and it will inspire you not to procrastinate about Christmas projects that you have in mind! 

May the Christmas Spirit be with you all year!

Lezlee

                                                                  another great party!

Dresses for Haiti

This spring I blogged about my thoughtful daughter, organizing a dress sewing day for the girls of Haiti, but I never got back to you about  how wonderful it went... She was able to send around 70 dresses out and is now  working on a diaper making day, and maybe shorts for the boys! Jodi has all the links on her blog if you are interested in helping Haiti someway.  Here's some photos of the day...What a blessing!


                                                                                                                              

Aubrey was very good while we worked, she read a book!



Don't forget there is still time
to join my Prior Lives Party !
      Go check it out!


Lezlee

Prior Lives Party 3

Yes, it's time for another Prior Lives Party!!!!...

I would LOVE to have you join! Post something that once had a Prior home or life, but now you use it in a different way, or just some old cool something that has a story to tell of a Prior life! I love hearing and seeing what you bring to the party and since my party is so new and intimate everyone can easily hop around and visit with each other.  Prior Lives Party only happens once a month, therefore I will leave it open for two weeks, hopefully everyone will have time to join...

Here's what I've got for you...

So, this is just a plastic straw holder picked up at the end of the season for 50 cents.  It was a bright picnic blue, which was pretty, but I wanted it to hold pencils in our "Americana" class room, so I painted it....Oddly, as much as we do it, we tend to forget how greatly paint transforms a piece! I'm thinking, sure, these are great for straws, but also: bath accessories, snacks, and any type of organizer, such as store display, crafts, buttons, office, Christmas baubles, child's room (Since they are plastic). They could even look high end if painted black with a number or monogram stenciled or rubbed on them. Really just endless possibilities! It works great in the classroom, as the pencils are in plain sight, right where the kids can see them! (or so you'd think, of course, if you know anything about Jr. Highers, some still ask us EVERY day, "Where are the pencils?!" lol)

And here's another... My plant stand, now a towel holder...

And in the winter it holds this sweet little Lasko oscillating heater, purchased from Wal-Mart. ...And the towels are still fine in the planter. Check out my last post to hear all the stories. Nearly my entire master bath has stories of prior lives to tell.   

Prior Lives Party

is open

from the 16th until the end of each month

So, add your link to the page you'd like to share, then link back here. Let's get this party started!

The Bathroom Trio-Tour, Master Bath

We have Three bathrooms in our home.  All of which had to be gutted, knocked down, or built from scratch. The first I will show you is the Master Bath; it is in the knocked down category.  Formerly a boarded in front porch, turned into a closet and bathroom and for the longest time the only bathroom for all seven, yes, seven of us!  We knocked the front porch renovation down, rebuilding a master bathroom with a hugely fantastic closet, well, maybe it isn't grand by some standards, but I live in a house with virtually no closets soo..., and a separate closet for the guest room...

This shelf is built from an old door. 

LOVE how Joshua miters the corners!

The thermometer is from the Eubank Funeral Home which is still in business, though it has been many years since our phone numbers were written as TU 7.  The Eubank family is where the bank part of Mabank is derived.  The old Avon bottle was my mother-in-laws and the coral came from Okinawa, the coral island, where we were stationed two separate times, for a total of seven years.  Japan is also where I bought the Johnson's Baby Powder; I love the artistic Japanese writing.    

                                               

I don't have a  cut flower budget around my place, occasionally buy supermarket flowers, so I really enjoy and try to take advantage of the luscious wildflowers here in Texas!

More shells from Okinawa and a tiny lighthouse my youngest picked up for me at First Monday, years ago. 

 

 The window casing used for the curtains were the original ones on the outside of our house...We had to put all new windows in, saving the seven windows original trim work.  My husband does most of the building, but Joshua gets to do the fun stuff. He finished these with hooks and trim if they needed it, and gave each of my husband's 5 siblings one. They use theirs for a wall hanger, but I loved mine for the window trim...since this is a new add on, it doesn't have the trim work as found in the original house, so I tried to think of easy, unique ways to add in the character.

The floral prints came from Goodwill. Notice the latch for the screen still attached to the trim. I made a Texas Flag from one of the old screens.

Love the handle on the old medicine cabinet...
                                                  It came with the house...     

 

This vintage telephone nook's PRIOR residence was the  farmhouse where I grew up. My husband salvaged it, as a surprise, before the old place was torn down; He also saved some doors.  I made the button bouquet and put it in a Nu Grape bottle... The Q-tip holder is a faceted snuff glass placed in a 10 cent garage sale stand. 

 We had a dresser we were thinking of using for the vanity, but in the end this one from Lowe's was quicker and cheaper. The mirror is recessed in the wall to conceal the medicine cabinet. and I use an old planter for the towels and extra TP.

The fixtures are rubbed bronze. Most are from Lowe's, but I bought the towel bar set at Wal-Mart. 

I love this tiny fan and it works wonderfully.!

The shower is very large. It has a rain shower head, a hand held, plus a body jet. Our ceilings are nine foot tall, so I can't even touch this shower head. My husband trimmed it out...while I was the helper. Our kids painted most of it, but I think I painted the trim. We've painted so much I can't keep track. My husband's nephew did the tile work. Any of you that have done some of this remodeling recognizes the process...

Remember, if you are still with me from way in the beginning of this post, I said this used to be the front porch...Well, it had two awesome front doors on the porch, leading to two different rooms. When we made part of the remodel a closet for the guest room, the gorgeous door was hidden inside, so Joshua took off all the trim and put it on  as my new closet door, inside my master bath... and we salvaged an old french door, from a house being torn down here in town... The blank space trimmed out a transom, which is still in the guest room, so I had this blank space... I had thought about writing the words for closet in lots of languages, a huge clock, or some metal work, but when I went shopping at the Red Shed Antiques, I spotted this spray of flowers and thought it would fit perfectly and I think it did?!  It would work well in many places, if I decide to execute one of the other ideas. 

Thanks Red Shed Girls!

Now, for the unfinished, uglies... We weren't sure if we would keep this door for the bathroom, because it is half glass, besides we hated to hide it away in a non public part of the house... so we haven't done a thing to it; I'm thinking we will keep it here. I like it and it matches everything else so well... We also need to do the crown molding...

This door will need a little more than soap! 

Well, now you've seen one bathroom...Two more to go!

See ya' 
Lezlee