Georgia On My Mind

I had a great week in Georgia. After I arrived, Jana and I had dinner with Don & Sally (delicious, as usual) and even were able to spend an afternoon with the Parkers down in Peachtree City. It was so good to see everyone--it's hard being so far away!

With an impending move for Jana and Rob, our focus for the week was getting their house ready to sell. Fortunately, they have a very nice house and they've taken good care of it so there wasn't that much to do. We began by going room to room and evaluating what might be needed to entice a potential buyer. Then, our "staging" began. There was fabric involved . . . and spray paint . . . and more than one trip to thrift shops and craft stores. With a shortage of lamps in their house, we picked up a few brass ones that we were able to transform with a coat of spray paint. While looking for a barrel shade, we found just what we were looking for----but it was attached to a large, rather tacky ceramic lamp. Since they wouldn't sell Jana the shade alone, we decided to make best of the situation and bought the whole thing. A coat of spray paint later and she had a really nice looking lamp for her bedside table! (wish we had a "before" picture, but just take my word for it---it was not pretty)

From Mommy's Treasures

We did lots of little projects around the house. Here are just a couple.
BEFORE: Jana bought a pair of these lovely pillows at another thrift store.

AFTER: Never fear, we transformed them into these, for a much better price than we could purchase pillow forms for at the fabric store.

In addition to staging the inside of the house, one morning I worked out in the backyard while Jana tutored. Their home had very nice landscaping when they bought it,

so I just cleaned up the area, pulling up blackberry bushes and planting a few new plants in open spaces on the hill. The weather was so nice that morning, and I got slightly distracted by all the birds singing and and other interesting things,

but after a few hours, things were looking pretty nice.

The last transformation took place in the entryway. Their front door opens into the dining room, but there is a long wall that has been relatively unadorned. A while back, Rob rescued an industrial piece from the trash at his plant and it has been serving as a bench on that wall. It's kind of a cool piece, but needed a bit of sprucing up.

From Mommy's Treasures

Not knowing if they will have space for it after they move, we didn't want a high-dollar makeover. We found some great fabric on the sale shelves at Joann's and picked up some foam at Hobby Lobby using a coupon, then set to work.