Vintage Inspired Wedding...

Sneak Peek

xoxoxox

*True Loves Kiss*

Congratulations to my beautiful daughter Janelle & her fiance, Justin!

Now you know what I've been doing since June...

 Preparing for a FALL  outdoor wedding

in gorgeous Pennsylvania, 

under the changing leaves and surrounded by family & friends.

  * These are the moments to cherish *

Fresh Vintage Lovely

Hi long lost friends!

I found my way back.

I took the long, scenic route.

The really, really long way.

Don't worry, I packed a lunch

and clean underwear.

You know, just in case I got into an 

accident...

or had one, I suppose.

My mom taught me well.

Along the way, I planted some flowers and pulled weeds.

Had lunch with friends, and dinner out

with my husband.

I snuck home now and then, just long

enough to paint our corner cabinets...

from THIS

to THIS:

They went from Kaka brown to creamy white on the outside

 and a lovely blue inside.

My Grandma's dishes really stand out now.

It's much fresher, I like fresh.

I made a few stops at Lowes, too.

We bought bags and bags of bark to beautify the flower beds in the front.

 We also bought the wood to

make the shutters for the front of the house.

It was under $100 to get the wood and semi solid stain.

Who knew?  We should have done it a long time ago!

We are hanging them this weekend. woo hoo.

It's good to be back.

I have been working on some small projects too..

like making custom vintage inspired bridal garters & bouquets, 

among other things.

I create the flowers and incorporate other vintage flair.

All thoughtfully and lovingly hand made to last!

Here is one I made this week for my friends niece.

Her colors included Coral. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoox

Jodi

Hot Enchilada Baby!...Another Birthday Story

It was a hot & sunny August day and we were celebrating Jeff's 25th birthday by

going to a Mariners Game in Seattle.  I hadn't felt very good the previous few weeks. One quick trip to the bathroom confirmed what I had suspected.  Happy Birthday Jeff!  We are expecting another baby!  A Spring baby, what could be sweeter?

At the time I JUST started a job as a church secretary.  It was perfect because our other baby, Jarrod, attended the daycare there. I loved watching him through the office glass as he joined his class marching in a single line to the lunch room.  Like little geese following their mama, the two year olds would waddle by. There were two other women I worked with that found out they were expecting at the same time. Ironically, our babies were all born within days of each other.

At about 22 weeks along I found out I had gestational diabetes, and was put on a special diet.  We did not know if we would be having a boy or girl, but we knew the name would begin with a letter "J".  Now on a healthy new eating plan, my blood sugar was under control and I actually lost a few pounds (don't worry, I'd gained 30 by 22 weeks!)  My stomach expanded as my extremities shrank. I felt amazing and looked pretty darn good for a pregnant lady.

By April, Spring was emerging from our first long, dark winter in Washington. The church I worked for surprised me and the other expecting mothers with a group baby shower. Not knowing what we were having, we received a lot of green and yellow outfits.  The anticipation was building.  

We had moved into our first home just a month before finding out we were pregnant.  It was a little 960 sf bungalow.  We moved Jarrod to a big boy bed and filled the crib with baby stuff.  The bassinet was in our room...we were ready!

April 14th was a beautiful day. I woke up full of energy and decided to rearrange my bedroom. That should have been my first clue.  As I lifted the desk I felt a surge of pain that radiated from my back to my abdomen. It wasn't enough to foil my plan for the room. A while later it became clear to me that something was going on.  I used the restroom, and without getting graphic, nature had made it clear that the time was close.  I decided to make dinner.  I threw together some hot enchilada's, and I mean HOT. Then I took a little nap while Jarrod took his.

I must have slept well, because when I woke up I was having strong contractions...consistently. No need to become concerned, Jeff would be home from work in an hour and besides, I was in labor FOREVER with my first baby.  By the time Jeff's carpool dropped him off I was on the floor with my face in the couch cushions. "Hurry up and eat!  It's time!"  He devoured a plateful of those enchiladas and we took Jarrod to our friends.  

The contractions came hard and fast. My back never hurt so bad. When we arrived they told us to walk around the parking lot to speed things up. With each contraction my legs went limp. We only made it around the hospital once before getting admitted.  At that time the Navy Hospital didn't administer epidurals.  I received a shot of Stadol and was told I was experiencing "back" labor.  About that time, the HOT enchiladas decided to make an appearance in the most unpleasant way...in Jeff.  He kept blaming it on me, and I was too out of it to care.  

Midnight came quickly. April 15th. This baby had decided it was NOT going to be born on any other day but it's DUE DATE.  Only 5 hours of labor and it was time to push. A beautiful, strong cry. It's a Girl!!! We were soooo excited. We got our girl. Due to the gestational diabetes, the placenta had broken apart during delivery. As dad followed our beautiful daughter, Janelle to be weighed, I underwent a D&C. I think I kicked the doctor but I KNOW I said "Hey, what are you doing? Trying to put her back!?" Ouch.

When Jeff and I would talk about future children, I always said I hoped for a girl with fair skin and dark hair. This 8lb 15oz baby girl had a full head of dark brown hair just like her daddy. I couldn't wait to put some bow headbands on her precious head. At just over a week old we noticed that every time we lifted her arms to change her clothes she would scream.  At her check up the doctor discovered that she had broken her collarbone during delivery because she came out face UP. I remember feeling so sad for her. So little and a broken bone already. My goodness, she was eager to see the world!

On this date, exactly 20 years ago, God gave us a daughter with the strong will and strength to do amazing things in her life.  As I reflect on the past 20 years I can see how much her personality as a toddler carried through into adulthood.

She crawled at 5 months old, walked at 7 months old, and she was crawling out of her crib by 10 months old. When she was 11 months old I "lost" her.  I found her outside, barefoot and in her diaper, climbing up the ladder to the slide on our new swing set.

When her little brother was born 2 years later we moved into base housing.  One afternoon the 5 year old girl next door was teasing Jarrod.  Janelle, not about to let anyone be mean to her brother, marched over to her and pushed the little girl down a hill. And to make sure the point was taken, she put her hands on her hips and yelled "Don't pick on my Brother!" About the same time, when she was 2 1/2 years old, dad tucked her into bed one night, only to see her 30 minutes later hand in hand with a stranger walking down the street towards our house. She was determined to get some candy.  She snuck out the back door, walked in the dark about a block through the neighbors yards, crossed a busy 2 lane street, went through a parking lot and into the mini-mart.  She proceeded to take candy to the register, when the cashier asked her where her mommy and daddy were, she said at home.  A man in line said that  he thought he knew where she lived and the cashier let him take her! I think of that now and I cringe.  Gods hand was certainly on her then, and it is still today. Thankfully, she is no longer pushing girls down hills!

 Her laughter is contagious and her heart is full.  Watching her grow into the beautiful (inside and out) young woman she is today has been one of the greatest joys in my life. Janelle, your daddy and I are so incredibly proud of you. We love you very much! This song has a special meaning, and so I will close with this video.

Happy Birthday Janelle!

xoxoxo

Girls weekend!

Last year about this time

my friend Shannon and I went to 

visit her mom's new house

in Wenatchee, WA.

We are headed there AGAIN, and this time we

are bringing our other bestie, Sheila.

Sheila and her husband sell amazing stuff...Shabby Stuff...

on Camano Island.

It should be a really good time.

Never a dull moment.

But...you know what they we say...

what happens in Wenatchee...stays in Wenatchee...

Last year, the new house was a blank slate.

I can't wait to see what she has done with the place.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend too!

xoxox

Jodi

PS...Today my husband was all dressed up in his super *HOT* (sexy!)

dress uniform (as in the Officer & Gentlemen kind of hubba hubba) to go

to a "function".

When he arrived it turned out that HE was the one scheduled to

speak to a large group of local high school students.

It's a good thing he is a natural speaker.  His own story is 

a great message about joining the Navy as a Seaman (very bottom),

 working hard, and

pushing yourself up the ladder.

I am so proud of him!

If that was me...I would have needed a paper sack to breath in...

*just sayin'*

Hmmm, There is just somethin' about a man in uniform...

yah, my mind is still there.

The Pillow

In one of my earliest childhood memories I am lying upon my mothers lap, nestled against her, with my favorite blanket draped over me.  I remember the fresh scent of her lotioned skin, the muffled voices of my parents having a leisurely conversation, and the lull of the car motor as I drifted off to sleep.  Perhaps we were on a Sunday drive, or moving to another town, as we did both quite often over the years. But at that moment I felt safe and at home.

My pillow and blanket have been a source of comfort and peace my entire life.  I love taking a nap.  I never fought my parents when it was time to rest or go to bed. I decorated my bed with all of my babies and often stacked books around the perimeter, as if to remind myself that my bed was my personal sanctuary.  A place to day dream and sing and of course, sleep.

My dad was in the Air Force. We moved often as a child. Our belongings would get packed up in boxes and sent ahead to our new base. My pillow and my blanket stayed with me.  I knew its scent and texture, and it comforted me during the unknown.  On one such trip when I was about 3 years old, I remember staring out the back window of our car clutching my beloved pillow.  The foam inside was broken down into tiny pieces. My mom had lovingly recovered it at least once in a soft flannel.  As our car was traveling down the highway, I decided to hold my pillow outside the window.  The wind caught the pillow and it flew out of my hands into the traffic behind us.  I watched out the back window in horror as MY pillow lay in the road. I cried out for my dad to stop the car, but it was too late.  I sobbed and sobbed until we stopped at a store to buy a new pillow. It just wasn't the same.

Over time that "new" pillow took on the same scent as my first, and I became fondly attached to it.  It too, broke down into tiny foam bits inside a recovered pillow casing.

The blanket lost its hold on me, but my pillow was my main squeeze.  It traveled with me across the United States a few times, through childhood and my teen years.  When children would make fun of me in elementary school, or a boy didn't notice me in junior high, and later when my parents divorced, my pillow was there to cry on. 

Later, when I moved away from home, got married and was about to deliver our first son, I had my pillow with me.  When my husband left on deployment, I'd put his last worn t-shirt on the pillow and sleep with it until his cologne wore off.  Over time, with the addition of two more children, the pillow became insignificant in the shuffle of life.  Eventually, after being the target of sick children and puppy dogs, it made its way to the trash can.  I didn't need to find solace in that pillow any longer. The hugs of my children and husband were my comfort and joy.

Now in my 40's, and almost an empty nest,  I love to snuggle into my bed at night next to my husband.  As I close my eyes and drift into a lull of sweet peace, I hear him breathing next to me.  I'm often overcome with the same warm fuzzy feeling that I remember while being held in my mothers arms all those years ago.  This is home.

xoxox

Jodi

Flippin' Awesome!

The other day I received the new Restoration Hardware book catalog.  Holy macaroni, I felt sorry for the mailman who had to carry it!  I live in a neighborhood where the mailman still walks house to house and delivers right to my door.  I love it.  I cant imagine what a hard job that must be. It's great exercise...I mean, you never see a fat mailman. They walk, walk, walk all day ... everyday. I'm tired just thinking about it, then add that massive catalog to the bag...I wonder if any of my neighbors had one delivered the same day. He might have had like 4 in his sack! Whew.

Ok, bringing it back, focus...  As I was saying, I got the magazine and while browsing through it for ideas, I noticed that the rooms I was drawn to had neutral rugs. Sisal or cotton or wool. But all in solid neutral.

We bought the living room rug about 4 years ago from Overstock.com. It's a wool rug, and wasn't cheapy, but wasn't expensive either.  I've been real happy with the purchases made from them. Including 4 mattresses. Yes, Four. We have a lot of beds. And shipping is only $2.95 on EVERYTHING!

Here is the rug in my living room. Please forgive the tired sofa, it gets a lot of love:)

Its a beautiful rug, but has more gold than I would like these days. 

Its a perfect rug for the winter. It's warm colors hide dirt really well. I thought about switching it with the sisal/cotton rug from my room. It has soft green cotton woven in with the sisal (also bought on overstock!)  Then, today as I was vacuuming,  the corner of the rug flipped up...and I got inspired!  I grabbed that corner, pulled her back farther and said "Heelllllo beautiful!".

See that texture!  And amazingly there are no stains on the entire thing. There is a little

hole...from when I staple gunned the rug to the floor...but I hid it under the couch along with the manufacture tag.  It took some blood, sweat, and tears to flip that sucker!  In the process, I unearthed another animals worth of hair from under the couch. It's a good idea to flip your rug, just to clean under your sofa.  The neutral color is a breath of fresh air. Hopefully it will stay clean. My husband may think I've lost my marbles, but that's nothing new.  I had him at the drawer hanging on the wall in 1988. It made a great shelf, what can I say.  You can pull the girl from the thrift store, but you cant get the thrift from the girl!

So, what do you think? 

The dark green walls seem to suck all the light out of the room. It was a gorgeous sunny day and much brighter than it appears. We plan to paint the living room a lighter color this Summer. My Pintrest board is full of lighter inspiration.  Don't you love discovering new creative blogs while searching Pintrest. A nice bonus!

Once I saw the change from the rug,  I became excited about bringing Spring inside.  Spring is just now showing its face in our corner of the world. And I love it. I opened the doors and let the sunshine in.  I tinkered around outside today, too, soaking up the rays.  My neighbor has several Camillia bushes, and they have been blooming in succession.  They are so beautiful. I have been cutting flowers (they hang over the fence) twice a week for a month now. 

When I emptied out my antique booth last month I kept several old wood doors to use around here.  My favorite is this one.

I brought it into the living room and set it against the wall by the piano. I don't know if I will keep it there, but its fun for now.  I'm making a folding screen out of the other doors to use on the back patio. I can't wait to show you when it's finished.

Well, tomorrow I am going to the Apple store to get my laptop fixed. YAY !! Hopefully it's a simple fix.  Have a happy SPRING weekend everyone.

xoxoxo

Jodi

Rotten Apple.... Kitchen Before/Afters!!!!!

Hello Bloggy friends, 

or if you are here with me in the Northwest I should say

 SOGGY friends!

So sorry I have been absent for a LONG time!

My Apple (Mac) is being ROTTEN.

There is a short in the screen and so it only opens about 8 inches

before the screen turns black.

So, imagine typing with the laptop on its back (fold) and

resting the keyboard part on your stomach

trying to type straight down ....

and peeking under the top to see what you are actually typing.

I just have to say...its not working well.

Why not just go have it fixed?

Since the kitchen re-do my husband has put us on a 

strict budget....booooo the b word.

But its all for good.

I mean, I have fun money, but I'd rather buy flowers for the yard

or a pretty spring outfit,

ya know what Im sayin girls?

So...in the meantime, I will curl into a pretzel as I write.

Just bare (or is it bear, cuz Im not naked!) with me!

Oh..PINTREST!

I know Im a little late on this boat, but better late than drowning.

I loooooove it.

Will love it even more when I can really SEE the pictures

(see note above...)

I've started a page, I tried to name it fresh vintage home,

but I believe its under my name Jodi Green.

Feel free to follow if you would like,

and at some point I will figure out how to do a pin button on here....

some day....

Now, the kitchen.

These are photo's that my mother in law took a few weeks ago while here. 

Her camera is much better than mine, so I am stealing borrowing

her photo's so you all can REALLY see the difference!

Jeff and I did it all ourselves except for hiring

a plumber to move the sink, and electricians to fix

the crazy wiring, and a handyman to take down the wall

adding a support beam. 

The rest was ALL us.

Anything that is not perfect we call character.

And we will just leave it at that.

ok? K.

Because I love it so much!

Before we moved in:

New sink now here, and wall above is gone

Looking from stove towards the Laundry Room

Note the "hole" under the microwave and doorway to the right that went to the Master & Bathroom

The wall to the left is the wall we partially removed. We kept both china cabinets intact.

Laundry Room when moved in.

Progress.....We changed some little stuff

and lived with it for a year like this...

I painted the walls a khaki color, painted over the dark grey colored trim, made the alcove into a chalkboard, and covered the hole with a fabric skirt.

The fan was so close to the stove it had melted in spots...yikes.

 The lighting was awful at night, the flooring made us dizzy, and it was so closed off from the rest of the living spaces. The new cabinetry we purchased from Craigslist was custom made for a different kitchen, so we used blue tape on the counters to mark the segments of cabinets.  We had to cut apart one cabinet and also get creative to fill the gaps.

 More piles in the laundry room.  The mess was because we had started to empty out
the armoire and cabinets below.  We had used the large Armoire for small appliances, and the small table for folding laundry.  Jeff had built small shelving for the cans.

Then, with much anticipation, we started to tear things up!

We removed all the stuff from the Laundry room.

As we started to remove the soffit we found a web of wiring that needed to

be professionally redone.

We had to pile kitchen stuff all over the house. This is the corner where we eventually closed off the doorway.

There were so many paint colors and types of wall surfaces. Some cement board,
some drywall, some plaster.

We framed in the doorway between the kitchen and Master bedroom & Bathroom.

It made the hallway darker, but we love the way it makes the area feel like

a master suite!

 The day the wall came down we did a happy dance!  The difference was amazing!

This is from the dining room side looking in. We still needed to change the lighting, flooring, moldings around the windows and opening, counters, etc.

Working on the finishing details....

We bought legs at Lowes, painted them to match, 

and inserted them into the cabinet on each side.

 It worked perfectly.

We installed the laminate tiles with real grouting.  They look real, and are much warmer on our feet.  The cabinets were 30" cabinets, so we had to raise them and install a tall
base board under them.

 Jeff built the moulding for the windows and I primed them before installing them.

 This is one of the butcher block counter tops from Ikea. Its the 1 1/2" Oak.
We had to cut it to fit around the farm sink. After trying to use the router,
Jeff found a chisel and hammer to be the most effective.
We used the sealer recommended at Ikea, but I would like to stain it darker
and put a heavy finish on it.

This is the new counter in the laundry room. We installed the uppers, and

then I refinished a huge dresser & distressed it. Then Jeff added the legs

and countertop.  We also added subway tile, but its not installed yet in this photo.

The breadbox is a gift from my son. He made it for me:)

 We re-hung the antique cabinet in the Laundry room above the washer & dryer.
Jeffs grandpa made it for his mom when she was a little girl. She
kept her doll collection in it.  I loooooove it!

Jeff installing the subway tile in the kitchen.

This is NOW....

 We used a leftover upper cabinet to fill in the hole under the microwave. It holds all my cookbooks and baking dishes as well as baking ingredients. The white wood wainscotting is actually a neighbors pine flooring they were tossing. We primed and painted it to add character. You cant even tell there was a door next to the microwave!

 Looking from the kitchen to the dining room.

 Ok, so I wish the red towel wasnt on the stove here...but thats real life. ha ha.

 Kitchen to laundry room

I'm such a happy girl!
Thank you for stopping by
xoxoxo