Metamorphosis Monday and a birthday party!

I am joining Metamorphosis Monday this week. This is a weekly event sponsored by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. She also sponsors Tablescape Thursdays!

This week, I am showing you the transformation of my empty apartment into a home. Some of you may remember these photos of my place from February. I finally had the place clean enough to show some pictures of how it looks now.

I'll tell you right off the bat that I am no Susie Homemaker, and my home will never be spotless. I am also a clutter queen and have a lot of stuff. It makes me happy. I have also packed a lot of furniture into a little space, but you know what? It feels comfortable and cozy, and I have had several people comment on how homey it now feels.

So with all its warts and blemishes and coziness, here is my place.

It started with this empty living room.


Now its full of personality. Sorry this pic is so dark. I added pics from several angles.










I hated these blinds, but the landlord wouldn't let me take them down. They are still up there and I close them at night, but during the day, you can see my curtains.




I still hate the wallpaper in my kitchen, but have learned to live with it. You probably won't see my counters this clean again for a while. Here it is empty.


And again with all my things.




My big bedroom empty...


...now filled with a LOT of my things! I love this room.


Here is the boys' room, empty.


And here it is as clean as its going to get. It was no easy task getting two rooms full of stuff into one room, but they succeeded.

The chest of drawers is taped off so it can be painted. It won't always be like that.

They created their own media centeer. Have you ever seen so many wires?



So what to do with the clean house? Have a party!

Jared turned 17 on Friday, the 17th. I bought him a cake at the grocery store.




I put some fun plates out.


And I wrapped up his present. Drove him nuts wondering what was inside.


We invited a few friends.


He has more friends that are girls.


There was some hand holding...


...and time spent with good friends.


I had planned to have his party outside, but the sky looked like this. Not to worry though, these were just teaser clouds. No rain. It was chilly however.


We sang Happy Birthday to the birthday boy. He was a poop and put out his candles before we sang.


He thought the cake was pretty good.


He was eager to open his present.




I got him a case for his laptop. He bought a laptop with his own money since he is a working man now.


Sean decided to entertain the guests by playing this guitar.


This made Nick hide. I thought he looked funny, like the footrest had decapitated him.


The kids all decided to go outside. My nice next door neighbor loaned us their cornhole game.


This lasted only a short time.


The guests just wanted to hang out. Jakey decided to terrorize the bunch, and the tall blond boy just about had his hand bit off.


They are an affectionate bunch with some hugging too.


You could tell they had fun though, and they left with full bellies, as evidenced by the almost empty bowl of taco salad...


...and the half eaten cake.


It was a fun day!

Be sure you don't miss my next posts. My daughter and I went somewhere amazing, and I got some great pics to share! I'm sure you'll want to join us.

Blue Monday, Met Monday/ Painted shelving unit and cookie jars

Seems like Monday just comes around all too soon! At least something good comes out of Monday...we all look forward to Blue Monday and Metamorphosis Monday! Blue Monday is hostessed by Sally at Smiling Sally, and Metamorphosis Monday is the brainchild of Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Please do visit them and get the list of other participants!

For Met Monday, I am sharing this display unit. I didn't even think to take a before picture!Darn it! Anyhow, picture this unpainted, in the raw. I had purchased this at a crafts fair many many years ago. Time had not been good to it. At first, it held video tapes, then when my ex took most of the videos in the divorce, I had teddy bears displayed. At my house on Bonnie Lane, it held junk in the kitchen. I had the best intentions of painting it and displaying my blue spongeware.

Well, after I lost my job and had all kinds of time, I finally got around to painting it! I used Rustoleum's Heirloom White. It took 3-4 coats, and it was not easy to paint because of all the nooks and crannys. I love the finished product though! It now looks like something special.


Two houses ago, I displayed my cookie jars, which all contain BLUE on top of my kitchen cabinets. There was no room above my cabinets on Bonnie Lane as they went to the ceiling. They never got displayed after all, and sat in boxes.

Well now that I have the display unit painted, they are happy to be out and living in my kitchen! The first is a goose jar that I bought at a garage sale. It was pretty cheap, and I just loved it because at the time, I was going to decorate with a goose decor. Never did though.


The blue and pink house was a gift from my ex husband when we began dating. He said that he knew I loved Victorian houses, but since he knew he couldn't get me one right now, this would have to do. It was sweet at the time, but it took me a while later to realize that he was never going to give me the desires of my heart, even those that didn't require money. I still loved the cookie jar though.


He also bought me the Boyd's bear cookie jar when we went to a Cracker Barrel restaurant. I love bears!


The hen cookie jar is by artist Susan Winger, a favorite of mine. I purchased this on sale when I had decided that I was going to decorate the kitchen in a theme of Susan Winget designed accessories. Never did that either, lol.



I don't really remember how I came across this house cookie jar. I don't remember if it was a gift, or if I bought it for myself. I do really like it though.


I also forget how I came across this cute little bear. I think I got it for myself years ago.


I really enjoy having my cookie jars displayed again! I was very happy that they fit so well in my newly painted unit.

Stella should be back in another day or two. I am waiting until my traffic ticket is paid before I can afford to take her on a couple more adventures, then she will go to visit the next home. I'll let you know who that is before I send her on her way, but I guarantee that she is going someplace fun, and there will be a couple little girls who will have the best time with her.

Have a great Monday!

Met Monday/ Goodwill Finds Transformed

Welcome to my first Metamorphosis Monday, sponsored by the talented and lovely Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Met Monday is where you show how you have transformed something or a space or a room.

I have been a busy little bee lately with all this time on my hands. I am finally getting around to craft projects that I have been putting off for months...or years. This first idea was inspired by Sherry at Edie Marie's Attic. She did a project just like this, so I thought that I could do it too!

First of all, I went to Goodwill and snatched up as many of those old cheese boards with domes that I could find. They weren't expensive at all with the cheapest being $1 and the most expensive at $4. I then searched for some interesting bases, anything from a wood candle holder to a wine glass, to a shallow stemmed bowl.

Here they are placed together. I didn't actually glue them together until after they were painted, but I used wood glue on all of these and it held pretty well. I painted three of them Heirloom White from Rustoleum, and one of them a pink shade from Krylon.

How do you like the finished product?

You have probably noticed that one is missing. I'll get to that in a minute.

My next project was to transform an old end table that I have had for almost 20 years. I had bought a bedroom set from a friend, and she had owned the set for a year. I'm not sure why there was just one night stand. Anyhow, it was looking pretty worn out and I was thinking about putting it on Freecycle. This picture is not the night stand itself as I forgot to take a before pic, but it's a matching dresser. It's next on the list for painting.

There was a spot between my chairs though that was just screaming out for an end table. Since I am unemployed, there was no buying something, not even something thrifted. Might as well use what I have! My biggest decision was whether to paint it a creamy white or black.

Since I have some black shelves on the wall behind, I decided to paint it a flat black. I love how it turned out! I painted the handle creamy white, and bought the white knobs at Wally World for $4.50, since the old ones were missing. Hee hee, with the knobs and the handle, it looks like my end table is smiling.

I used a battenburg lace curtain as a table scarf, and topped it with a bowl I own with my green apples. I like apple green and black together.

I had one more thing to add. It wasn't until I first took my cheese boards out of the bag that I realized one of the domes was plastic and a smoky gray color. This wasn't going to work. My new end table was also crying out for something extra too.

After I painted all the cheese boards, I thought of something. I took sticky garage sales tags and stuck them all over, then painted it black. After the paint dried, I pulled off the tags and voila! Polka dots! Here it is on top of my new end table.


I was very happy with the way everything turned out! I swear, I would probably never have thought to do any of this without the inspiration of all my blogging friends. I get so many good ideas from everyone, and it has helped me see things in a new way and look at them as what they could be instead of what they are at the moment.

Happy Met Monday everyone!