Happy Thanksgiving

 

Have a wonderful holiday counting your blessings.

Jeannine

Christmas Stocking Sale

All stockings can be on sale!  Just enter code

STOCKING11 when you order.

Just go to dazeofgrace.etsy.com

 

 

Merry Christmas to all

Blessings,

Jeannine

Cigar Box Crafting Fun

Last week while the school I am currently teaching at was on Fall Break, I drove to Oregon to visit my sister. My son has been bringing many cigar boxes home from his work for me to use in craft projects.  I took a matching pair of them with me and challenged her to  decorate one and I did the other.  We took time out from going through boxes of old family pictures to do this fun project.

 

The one on the left is the one I did.  I have no reason for the 5 except that it looked fun. Sister used the Stack paper from the Once Upon a Time collection.

 

I lined mine with a grey stretch panne velvet.  Sorry I didn't get a picture of that.  It also has a few dividers made from book binding boards.  My sister has an awesome stash of craft items? The green bead is wired on as a handle.  She had her tiny little battery operated drill and zipped right through the thin wood of the box. So much fun.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings,

Jeannine

Days of Grace

You may wonder to yourself, "Why Daze of Grace?"

 

Well, for one thing "Days of Grace" was already taken on Blogger!

 

 

 

Second reason is because we are living in the Days of Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

This morning our pastor preached from Hebrews, chapter four.  He started with God is Love.

 

And he ended with Genesis 2:3.  He explained how as God created on days one through six, there was evening and the days end.  On the seventh day, He rested.  But the day did not have an evening nor an end.  These are the days of grace.  God has left His day and His grace open for us.

 

Hebrews 4:1 "Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it." God's grace is still open and available-accept it while it's available.  Grace and Mercy are only available as long as we live (physically.)

 

That is why Daze of Grace.  We are living in God's grace and should accept it while we can.

 

Grace and Blessings,

Jeannine

Home Office Make-over

The first weekend in June, while Husband was out of the country on business I decided it was time I would re-do his office.  While we have been working hard together to finish the interior of our house and we have worked to get my sewing/guest room in order, his office became the storage room and catch-all.  The designated office is actually a separate home made building in the back yard.  It is three sheds attached together.

 

 

 

This first picture is of the mess viewed from just inside the door. You can see down the length of the three rooms.

 

 

This is a view near the entrance door.  A through the wall air conditioning unit was removed and siding place over from the outside.

 

A second a/c unit.  Bother were rotting moldy things that we didn't even want to plug in to try out.

In fact this door that you can see in the left hand side of the picture is brand new.  The old one had to be replaced as it had been kicked in at one time, ruining the frame.

 

On a one hundred degree Friday, I hauled all the stuff out and stacked it on my back patio.  that is fourteen boxes of books!

 

Here is the view inside of the middle room after all the stuff had been removed.

I was unable to remove all of the tables and bookcases by myself.

 



 

Here is a magical transformation!  Daughter and her Husband came out on Saturday (105 degrees) and helped me haul all of the bookcases out. And all the desk and table pieces.  we then laid carpet that had been removed from the house.  Son-in-law patched the holes in the drywall and then we put all the bookshelves back in.

 

Close up.  We did not get to paint because of the heat.

 

Here is a view of the entrance section with the patch in the wall.

 

On Sunday (again hot as h***) I emptied each box one at a time and put all the books on the shelves, in alphabetic order.  They were NOT in order before.

 



 

Here is the front section.  Chairs, collectibles on shelves, desk in place.

 



 

The desk. I was exhausted and in tons of back pain after this third day. 

 

 

A week later I hung a curtain across the opening to the third section.  It is still used for storage and is dark.  This is much prettier!

Husband will still be shopping for a modern efficient a/c unit.  Until then I hope this  office will be perfect for him.  He works from home and needed his own space.

 

I could not have done this without my Daughter and Son-in-law.

My Husband was completely surprised!  All he could say was "Wow!"

Thanks for stopping by,

Blessings,

Jeannine

D-Day

Remembering D-Day, June 6, 1944.

 

 

 

Thank you to all who served to protect our freedoms.

 

Blessings,

 

Jeannine

Summer Salt and Pepper

I have been looking for plastic salt and pepper shakers to take outside with my Captain America melamine plates and accessories.  I can't find any anywhere.  So I came up with a second option.  Husband had purchased these pre-filled ones at Target.

I pulled out some scrapbook paper scraps, cut them to size and used my tape runner to glue them on.

 

 

 

I decided to tie the jute around them to make sure the paper stays well stuck down.

 

That's all for now!

Thanks for stopping by,

Blessings, Jeannine

French Doors and Room Makeover Part 1

The first time we looked at this house when house hunting, I hated the darkness of the living room.  It is right in the middle of the house and only had a set of windows facing the street. The back wall had what I described as a "bump" out.  The walls were brown and the carpet brown. Only a little light got in and it always felt like a cave.

In the first picture you can see the bump. It is painted white.  Apparently it was supposed to be a built in entertainment center, created when big screen TV's came into existence. You know, the ones with the 60" screen that took up an entire side of a room. Well, now we have flat screen TV's that are so thin they hang on the wall! I hated the bump and wanted to replace it with French doors.

Here is a view of the bump decorated. We painted out the red color on the soffit which helped to visually raise the height of the ceiling.

Here is a view from what is now the closet showing the depth of the bump. It had a parquet floor added. We investigated and found that the carpet had been laid over hardwood floors. We wanted to expose the floors eventually but in order to have the French doors swing properly over the floor we were going to have to cut out a section of the carpet.

Instead of cutting a section, Husband decided just to remove it from the living room completely.

Here is the bump removed and the carpet ripped up.

Another view of the carpet removal process.  The hardwood floors had been painted with a primer or stain blocker so they are white.

Floor and carpet.

Our contractor had to add two support studs on each side of the door opening.  Apparently there was originally a window in this spot. All the studs supporting the back wall beam had been removed and it was starting to sag slightly. (We think the former do-it-your-selfer owned a screw store as he had put everything together with a large amount of different types and sizes of screws.)

Here you can see the studs on the right and drywall going up on the left. 

Doors in! They had to be specially ordered as every door in the house is about three inches shorter than current standards. We also did not want to get into removing the soffit as they are part of the original structure and we would have had to match molding on the ceiling.

The doors go directly out to a covered patio. The yellow building beyond that is Husband's office building. It also got a new door.

View of the exterior when the doors first went in and the exterior paneling was put up.

Interior with the finish on the drywall that matches the texture of the other end wall and the dining room.  The two long walls of the room are covered with "t-one-11".

Exterior. The 1 x 6 boards had to be put up to cover the seams between the old  and new panels.

The boards were painted in white around the door and yellow across the paneling in order to show a frame around the doors and help the doors look original to the house.

I will post soon about the finished interior.  As with any project one thing leads to another: The carpet is up and the floors will be refinished in late June.  Right now I am working on painting over all the "dog poop brown" color all over the room.

Blessings,

Jeannine

Reupholstered Side Chairs

We recently purchased new furniture for our living room. (I'll show that later) The new stuff is a bonded leather product.  I thought these little side chairs had now become boring.  You can see one blending in to the wall here behind the Christmas tree.

We bought these two side chairs at a garage sale in 2004 for $5 each.  We stripped them down to the bare wood and stained them lightly.  I reupholstered them with a beige fabric with palm trees on it.  It worked at the time.

 

 

I decided to go bold! I painted the wood with bright red satin paint.  It took three coats to cover without streaks.

 

You can  see the palm tree fabric here.  I used the removed pieces for approximate patterns.  It took some effort to match the stripes.

 

 

 

 

I used my electric staple gun to attach the fabric.

 

 

The cord is the same cord from the previous incarnation.  We just carefully removed it and used the glue gun again to attach it.  It is a great trim and hides ALL the staples.

 

Finished! Front and back.

 

 

There is a pair of them.  I am happy with the way they came out. 

 

Blessings, Jeannine