An Afternoon Redo and a Thrifted Treasure

Summertime always brings a bunch of weeks single -Momming- it because of being married to a youth pastor:) It brings trips for both the Jr High Ministry and the Sr High ministry. I have to say though, this has been the most mild summer for trips. Early on in our ministry life, I really struggled with all the time Matt was away, and my heart certainly took some time to soften to it and not be frustrated by the responsibilies of his job. It was also due to being a new mom and not being quite confident in my "new position" as well. I was a pretty weepy mama a lot of the time when he was gone, but the Lord has helped to bring a peace, a strength, and actually a joy or anticipation to these times 12 years later! Not a joy that Matt is gone:)-I still deeply miss my husband when he is away ,and, there is nothing that can replace him being home at the end of the day, but I have come to appreciate elements of the solitude when he is not home, that help to get through those times. The kids an I lay pretty low when he is gone, although as they are getting older, there are still things on the schedule for the older kids, it is a bit different from having all babes that need no outside activity nessasarily to nuture their own growth during these weeks. But when dad is gone for awhile, I usually take the time to dig into some projects that cannot be done during a regular week with deadlines and the precious time OF Matt being home, that I do not want to sacrifice. It is a great time to pull things out that will not need to be put away until they are done.

So this week, I had one BIG surprise project for my husband that I still cannot reveal because the little stinker may be reading my blog and facebook while he is away but I will share that on Saturday when he gets home!! But I do have a project I can share. I was able to work on and finish this afternoon while the kids swam in the pool(or lake more accurately-the summer has been so wet that our pool looks more like a mudhole than a pool-no matter how hard I work to keep it clean). I have talked about the small space issues in our house before. I am learning to appreciate the challenges it brings in function and decorating-darn-I am just going to have to be creative! One of the best solutions for us has been to "hutch" many many of our dressers, adding space for organization and decoration where we may have not been able to do so before. Well -I have had one dresser in our kitchen that sits by the back door in a small nook. It is a very narrow dresser though so it has taken me years to find a hutch that fit it. But finally, a few weeks ago, I did!!! And again-it was a thrifted treasure with a fabulous price tag!! $5.00! So here is the before and after-I am very happy!

I will really enjoy having my cookbooks out and accessible as well as some of my favorite blue dishes. I just love how it fit so snug in the little nook that otherwise would be useless!

Rehab of the Week...Sassy Storage for Small Spaces

This is the first post of the "Rehab of the Week." I am hoping it will be a fun way to share ideas with other creatives that love making something old, new again. Maybe it will spark an idea, solve a problem, encourage a new project, or introduce a new craft.


This is this weeks new project in desperate need of some rehab! We have had this old suitcase forever. It has been our reliable storage for those fun legos! But with 11 years of legos collecting in this house, we needed to graduate the legos to a larger container. As you can see, the kids spent plenty of time letting loose their imagination on the suitcase itself-to my joy and ache! Matt says "What do you expect?" "Look at the Mom they have". But since I now have the suitcase back in my posession, I went pretty again with the spray paint!

If you are in a small space, this is a fantastic way to keep down the clutter but has the lovely mess easily accessible when you need it! For us, this is wonderful. I keep my main sewing machine upstairs in our livingroom on the diningroom table. And of course there are always unfinished projects sitting at the machine for me. With five kiddos, it is unlikely to ever sew a project straight through from start to finish, so it is not likely that I will ever put everything away, since most of my sewing is done 5 minutes here, five minutes there. But, let's face it, no one really appreciates all of my projects left all over the livingroom! So this suitcase is my new storage for ongoing projects. It is so very easy to take along with you wherever you need to work as well! And with me it is probably more likely that I have sewing in my suitcases when I go away, than clothes!