Garage Sale Power Hour

I saw 5:30am this morning... on purpose. I fed Harper, had some coffee, ate some hearty oats, planned my route and I was on my way. I decided to shop mainly in Brentwood today. The first 5 sales I went to were complete duds. Nothing to speak of.... Boo, I was sad. There were 2 that I planned to stop at on the way home, but they didn't open till 8am. I stopped at an unadvertised sale on the way to my last 2, and came across this awesome slip cover for our chair... unopened, in the package for ONE DOLLAR!
I was pretty happy about this find. Next sale, I came across a family with another Nemo fan, so I got Grace some Nemo 'go fish' cards with all the characters on them and a tiny baby nemo for 25 cents. She was thrilled.
Last sale of the day and look what I found: A cute potting table for the girls AND....

THIS!!! The crazy awesome deal of the day! Those of you from the area know what I am talking about when I say that this piece was originally bought at PD's in Franklin. I drool over their stuff every time I go in, but can't afford any of it! This is a HUGE piece, 70 in wide and 5o inches tall. I guess it would have been sold originally for anywhere from $700-$1200. I paid $150 for both this AND the pink potting table! This will be perfect for all my fabric and sewing stuff, which is currently housed in Tupperware containers in the laundry room. SO HAPPY!
Oh, and see the old bird cage on top? Scored that at the goodwill outlet for less than $2~ Cool, huh? I am currently thrilled with myself.

Also, this was a big day for Grace Ann too! I took her to her first garage sale and she got to spend her 'moneys.' (After I got home with the big furniture though...)

We went to 2 church sales. She picked out a 'shaky shaky' bracelet (one with tiny purple bells, 2 barrettes, a toy for Borbin, a toy for Harper and a couple little toys for herself! I was so proud that she bought things for a friend and her sister without being prompted! So sweet! She spent a whole dollar. I think she liked it. I told her that I wanted her to become a garage sale diva like mama. She replied "OOOOO-kay..."

Trash to Treasure

When I saw this summer series, I knew I wanted to post some of the projects I've been working on.

You all know my kick with reinventing things lately. Here are a couple of projects I've finished this week. I don't have tutorials drawn up yet, though I possibly could, but for now I will post the before and after pictures. If anyone is wondering about the nitty gritty, just email me (lovelynestdesigns@comcast.net).

All of the materials used (except the thread, of course) I found at the goodwill outlet, garage sales, or possibly had on hand.

1. The Men's Shirt reinvented
2. Girls shirt reinvented

before: A size xl girls top; a little stretched out at the neck and sleeves

after: sparkly knit skirt!

3. worn ladies knit top

before: ladies knit shirt too short for my torso with some armpit stains (ewww)

after: soft knit dress for Harper

And here are some of my favorite refashions that I have already posted about:

1. Pottery Barn Kids Anywhere Chair

2. 70's sheet and other various and sundry re-do's

Hope yall enjoy these little projects! I've got a particularly hideous blue old-lady shirt that I am going to remake... I am just waiting for the perfect inspiration. It has a very interesting texture to it, and I think there's something fabulous in there just waiting to come out! Here is a preview of the shirt in all it's glory:

4th and 5th festivities

We had a fun 4th this year! Our day started at the Hot Chicken Festival in East Nashville. We met a good friend from college who we hadn't seen in a while, which is always fun. Grace enjoyed the free watermelon and the park, Harper went into a heat coma, and we caught up with some good friends. I did bring my camera, but unfortunately, the battery was dead so I couldn't capture any of the festival.
After naps, we ate out and caught the Franklin fireworks on the way home. Last year Grace was absolutely petrified by the noise of the fireworks, so this year we watched from a mile away, in the car.

Here, she was still a little nervous about the sound, but it wasn't too long before she really enjoyed the 'farkles' (sparkles).
Soon she was so happy! Harper, not so much... but Grace was happy.

Isn't this a sweet picture of Harps? I love the drool drop on her chin, and the look on her face is just so innocent and sweet.
On the 5th of July we had a cookout at the Burton's house. It was pouring rain, and Grace decided that it would be fun to run around and scream like a banshee, so that's what she did!
And then she got so wet that we had to lose the clothes. Overall it was a great weekend.

Harper is half-a-year!

I can't believe it. Harper is half a year old. Where does time go? She is really coming into her own these days. She's started babbling a few consonant sounds... blah, blah, blah, da da da, ma ma ma and ba ba are the few that she says regularly. Grace has a translation for each thing Harper says. Sometimes it leads to a 'fight' between them: For example: "Mom, Harper said that I like pink... but I don't like pink, I like purple" and that conversation continues on and on until Grace is mad and annoyed with Harper. Grace translated this to Chris last night: "Daddy, Harper is saying that she doesn't like you right now and she wants Mommy." It's really amusing, but gets old quick when she won't stop arguing back and forth with herself.

Harps wants desperately to move. She rolls, and has even scooted on her back a couple of times... she's becoming more stable in the sitting position. She still isn't that much a fan of baby food, vegetables, especially. She shudders and gags continuously when a bit is placed on her tongue. I have resorted to burying the veggies under a bite of fruit and she'll usually tolerate it. She can reach for toys, transfers them from hand to hand, puts them in her mouth and works to get a toy that's out of reach.

Here are her stats: 16 pounds (around 50th percentile) 27 inches long (above 75th percentile)

Still a very charming and snugly baby; most of the time she is laid back, easy and in a good mood. I still think Grace is her favorite person (besides me at feeding time) and it's so adorable to see them interact.

Oh, and I am almost certain she will be a 'hand talker.' This is a trait that runs in the family...my grandmother (JoJo) and I both talk with our hands. Funny to notice little things like that.

Here's little Harps in all her glory!

I've got several more cute pictures to post, but they are on mom's camera, so I'll have to do that later! Happy 4th!

Unwanted Items....

I love things that people discard. I've been known to walk around Vanderbilt's campus on move-out weekend just to pick up things that the students have thrown out. One year we found an awesome digital camera, no kidding, on a trash can. It turned out to be one of the best cameras we ever had! It lasted 3 years. I've picked up shelves, chairs, laundry baskets, clothes, you name it, I've probably found it. Chris is mortified by my hankering to take a peek inside a dumpster from time to time. Seriously, you never know what you'll find. Just to clear things up, I've never actually gotten inside a dumpster to fish around, I just look from the outside and grab things that I can reach that are relatively clean. (OK, so I know that some people are still silently cringing inside, thats ok.)


I've been in the sewing mood lately. I've made several skirts for Grace, dresses for both girls, onsies, a dress for myself and other various things. I am just trying to develop my sewing skills, you see, I really don't know much about sewing, I've never taken any classes, but I like to do it. So I am teaching myself. Fabric is so darn expensive these days that I can't justify the cost of just practicing with it. SO this is where the goodwill outlet comes in. ($1.39 per pound at the most!) I've gotten some awesome materials to work with there, and I love the challenge of finding something that may be ugly in it's original form, and creating something else with it.


I've noticed that some people cringe at what I put in my basket. (Well, maybe that was just my mom who shuddered at the 70's bed sheet I picked up.) But if there is one rule of thrifting (and dumpster diving wink, wink!) you can't look at an item for what it currently is...you have to see the potential in it, and what it might possibly become!


Just for giggles, I will post some picture of a few of the things I've made. I especially love the dresses I made out of the shudder-worthy sheet.

both made out of sheet

Skirt made out of old "grandma" shirt

(the white t-shirt was stained, so I covered over the stains with some well placed freezer paper stencils)
my dress made out of discarded fabric (I am learning to use elastic thread and have seen several tutorials online...not so hard!)
bird cage that was previously hideously ugly

Camera strap cover out of broken belt
gross brownish-gold hippie flower, now a pretty pink for one of the girls rooms

Oh Deer...

Oh deer, I realized that I hadn't posted pictures of Grace's finished big girl room and other significant happenings in our lives as of late. First things first, aren't these shirts cute? You can't really read them... but they say "Deer to Daddy's Heart" Perfect for Father's Day...eh? Chris thought it was a little cheesy, but warmed up when he saw these adorable faces staring back at him.
Secondly, doesn't Grace Ann look proud of herself in the picture above? Well, she should be... she POOPED in the potty! Yes, folks, that's right... no pee pee yet, but we've pooped twice in the potty. This picture was taken right before we got in the car to go pick out her first poopy present.... She picked out this big girl dress from her closet, and has on 'farkly' shoes of course....all dolled up for the trip to Target.

And here are the pictures of her big girl room... painted and everything! (probably about 3 months overdue... Oh well) You can't really tell from the pictures, but the walls are a really pale pink-ish beige color. It's from the Ralph Lauren collection, Tea Rose, I think... maybe Gardenia, I can't remember. But it looks pretty good with all that's going on in there.

In the picture above, you can see a snapshot of my mom (Izze) and Ann Burton together. Grace has really been curious about 'daddy's mama' lately and has wanted to know everything about her. She sleeps with this picture in her bed most nights and I can hear her talking to it when she wakes up. So cute. She is trying to think of a name to call Ann... she is still a little confused since she hasn't met her and can't see her in the flesh, but she definitely knows that Ann loved her... today she told me she thinks she'd want to be called "G-G." So we'll see if that sticks.

paralyzed

Have you ever been paralyzed with fear? I mean, really overtaken by it? Yesterday, a few (thousand) times, I felt like I was either drowning or being strangled by fear. My body physically hurt, it was hard for me to breathe. It felt as if every muscle fiber in my body was so tight that I was sure that I was going to pull something simply by blinking an eye. I was trying my best to take my mind off of things, to pray 'continuously' but I couldn't shake it. I drove (through tornado-like winds) to pick up Grace from school. We had to stay a few minutes in their 'safe room' because of the tornado warnings, but by the time we made it home, the sun was peaking though the clouds.

I was trying not to let on that I was about to burst inside with all the anxiety I was feeling. I felt helpless. I took the girls upstairs, put them in my bed, turned on the Elmo Potty Show and just collapsed on the floor. Luckily Elmo is so riveting and our bed is so high that Grace didn't notice. I pulled out the nearest Bible and opened it; 2 Samuel 22 was what it fell upon. I skimmed over it and came across words like: waves of death, consuming fire and cords of the grave, and quickly decided this wasn't the passage I needed to read right now. I grabbed a chunk of pages, flipped them over and found myself at Psalm 18.

Guess what? They are the SAME PASSAGE. I don't know how many chapters are repeated in the Bible (maybe I should look it up) but probably not that many. Obviously God had something for me in these words. Still overcome with fear, and not really wanting to look at the scary words I mentioned above, I read it from start to finish several times.

The first thing that really stood out to me was this verse: (Ps. 18:16 and 2 Sam. 22:18) "He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me."

Duh.... Satan is too strong for me... he is more powerful that I am! He is tormenting me today, playing on one of my greatest fears. Satan was winning, he was strangling me and pressing me in on every side, and I was physically feeling it. I don't realize that the devil is that REAL sometimes. So the first thing I had to understand was that these feelings were NOT from God and were directly from the enemy.

Secondly, David cried out to the LORD. He couldn't save himself. If we could save ourselves from the Devil, what would be the point of God? Why would we need him if we, on our own, were strong enough to deal with Satan's attacks? (Ps. 18:3-6 and 2 Sam. 22:4-7) "I call to the Lord...and I am saved from my enemies." {Here come the scary words:} "The waves of death swirled around me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; for my cry came to his ears."

And God showed up: the next 13 or so verses are filled with heroic imagery. God is moving heaven and hell to come to David's rescue, because he called.

Lastly, God gave David the tools he needed to defeat his enemy. (Ps. 18:37-40 and 2 Sam. 22: 38-41) "I pursued my enemies and crushed them...You armed me with strength for battle...You made my enemies turn their backs in flight..." In David's time, he was fighting actual wars and battles, but if we could see the invisible battles the Devil is waging against us, it probably wouldn't look much different.

I think yesterday, God revealed to me one of my most prominent fears and the fact that Satan knows it too. The fear has crept back in even today, but I have been able to recognize it as attacks from the Devil and have been able to pray against it. I know this fear will not just go away, so one of the reasons I am writing this is because I want to remember. I want to remember how God delivered me, but also how Satan attacked. I often think that these feelings are God 'trying to tell me something' or 'prepare me for what is about to happen...' but I also know that "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." (2 Corinthians 11:14) Satan is clever...he can weasel his way in without us even realizing it. He knows exactly how to play on our weakness, I think I often underestimate what he can do. Thankfully, God is on my side and that means that I will always win...

James 4: 7 "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."