Wordsmithing & NOT Dingthrifting

We love words in this home! There are words painted on our dinning room table, our bedroom wall, other furniture...I told Suzanna and a car full of seminary girls on the way to school that finding a spouse who loves to read like I do was on my LIST, and how thankful I am that Brother Landbeck is a reader.

One of the sweetest things he does is bring me library books that he knows I will love. And lets me read them first (his steampunk version of Mistborn novels was a fun read)! John just checked out a 1007 page Brandon Sanderson book for me and got it for himself on cd for his commute. It is like a book-date! We can talk about it as we go.

I also love thrift store shopping. It is relaxing, satisfying. I spent from 9 am- 11:30 walking leisurely up and down the aisles of my favorite thrift store earlier this week, looking at everything, finding some great treasures. I make up my own rules, about how much I am willing to spend that trip, and I am ruthless about editing my cart, even after filling it up, putting things back if they aren't 50% off sale or meet more than one necessary criteria. It is hard to explain my process, but a morning of thrifting helps me see my priorities more clearly, identify what is important to me, what I can live without, what I need, even what I need to throw away in my life (and donate to the same thrift store). Thrifting is therapuetic.

So I was delighted to learn the word for this day.

I am subscribed to wordsmith. It comes as an email. Today's word:

spendthrift PRONUNCIATION: (SPEND-thrift)

MEANING: noun: A person who spends money wastefully. adjective: Wasteful with money.

ETYMOLOGY: A spendthrift is, literally, one who spends his wealth, from Middle English thrift (prosperity), from Old Norse thrifast (to thrive), from thrifa (to grasp). Earliest documented use: 1601.

NOTES: Spendthrift is the longest word whose phonetic and normal spellings are the same. Two colorful synonyms of this word are dingthrift and scattergood.

One Thing Leads to Another-Tracking Influences

I finished up this nightstand (for the client with Not-Rapunzel's pink castle room/Tulum, Mexico home) to match a sibling's bedding...paisley, medallion flowers.

Combo of paint, scrapbook paper, ModPodge, lots of polyacrylic, and some shiny crystal drawer pulls later it earned it's $45.00 make-over.
That was last week's project.
I will travel to paint, and the distance required a hotel room or...?  Client was a friend of another trusted client, and after talking to her on the phone, decided to guest in her home while I painted two rooms for her:

1.  Dinning Room/Entry

Looking towards the left to the stairs,

To the right and straight ahead towards the great room/kitchen

And out the front windows.  You can see my blue chalk lines generously helped by a hoola hoop.

Because I needed BIG CIRCLES!

To the left, completed, looking towards the stairs.

Sideboard buffet will go on this wall.

Ahh, the shine of still wet polyacrylic sealer!  Client could not WAIT to put her new green curtains up!  You can see a peek of the strong, beautiful turquoise on the entry wall:

Making your own medallions?  Think back to your geometry lessons, bisecting circles...Circles within circles and pointed petals=two arcs.  Blue chalk showed up nicely.   Love my sidewalk chalk (the big, thick ones made for little friend fingers!)  Love my hoola-hoop tool--I bought a FLAT edged one that snugs against the wall, not the old rounded edge ones.
2.  Master Bedroom Ocean Retreat

See my art blog for more photos.

Three hour drive one way and three days of painting standing up 7 am-7 pm and I am having a day in bed reading to recover.  Couldn't do this every day, or every week, but it was fun while it lasted.  Flurry of decorating, mural-making, back to mom-me-ing.  And I think I owe a mini-quilt to a Wild Threads member?  Ooops.  That deadline is tonight?!  I am living my blog title.

Working Thoughts

Painted crib railing by 3 older siblings of Sam. Black marker words by me. Ikea Christmas heart decorations with family history names markered on.
We survived the first week of no school. Suzu had young women's camp, Max was gone at Maryland State Boychoir camp, so I only had two of my children home.

Add two cousins. And a younger sibling of a young woman who's mom was at camp. And a neighbor across the alley who likes to come play. And Hazel and little brother on Tuesday, and baby Tommy with teeth (!) on Friday...How did my mom ever survive 9 children?

Geri nursed her baby and listened to lunch one day, complimenting how organized it all sounded. HA! It is hard not to laugh and make fun of myself. It didn't feel organized! Crazy chaos! With joyful, good moments. And I knew it wasn't permanent, only a short-time of caring for this household of super young children.

I really do like playing with babies, and toddlers, and with all my teenagers gone, some of the stress was missing...

Quote from Church today: "Looking at the big picture relieves stress" (from Elder Neil Anderson to his daughter in our stake to her high council husband to our stake president councillor who spoke briefly in our meeting today).

The big picture is forever families. Children grow up and have their own children. I look forward to grand parenthood, when my children will raise their own children. I am glad to help other young mothers ease their demanding burden--that will disappear so quickly for them, too. Others helped me when I needed childcare support. I graduated from BYU because of babysitting help my mom gave us (Emma and Stewart did go to lots of classes with us, too). We traded nights with other couples so we could still afford a date without paying a babysitter.

With my busy week I couldn't go clean John's grandma's condo during the day--had to sneak over there at night. Didn't make it to my finance 6 hour a week job. Didn't do any painting. I am thankful again and again for John's full-time super job and the extra things he is still doing to support our family. It makes it easier to relax and do some nurturing!

I can concentrate on being a mom. Being available. Being here in our home. Feeding. Playing. Organizing (grand attempts at turning sewing studio back into guest room for college daughter home in 12 days!). Refereeing. Teaching Sam how to put on band aids for younger children. Insisting on manners. Encouraging reading. Correcting false doctrines. Gently reminding. Serving as mercy and law-maker. Channeling entertainment and organizing work parties (have you ever had a Sock Party? Match the many homeless socks!).

We Match Again

Suzu with French Honor Society friends after induction ceremony... ....and us, a couple photo from that night.Remember these entertainment doors I finally finished? French-looking in style.
Here is the final piece. Everything black, except the TV, the table, and the photo frames, I painted this week. Ralph Lauren "Ebony" is a nice, dark, perfect black paint.

Upstairs, same client's home, is the argyle diamonds I help paint many years ago! Perfect princess palace room!

Changes Around Here

We've been thinking about Stewart all week, waiting for his mission call. I thought yesterday how things have changed around here since he left home for school...With only 4 children at home, we can eat dinner "together" if John & I sit in the kitchen at the island, and the children line up down the breakfast bar. It is a little tall, better for standing at and eating--or I need taller stools?
Max made peppermint fake-oreos-from-Aldi's truffles, on his own, because it was Thursday=dessert day (we've limited it to Sunday's and Thursdays, trying to be healthier as a family and so Sam didn't ask for ice cream every night).

The reason we couldn't eat at the dinning table: almost done, trying to make these entertainment center doors match. French-inspired design from Hooker Furniture for a client. I hope to finish these up today!

Painted House No. Pew

Passing Things Sideways-Lovebags

I was looking for a picture of a pillow, and found some picture treasures, things I did before I was blogging. This is a headboard I made for a teenager's room, using an old door, trim, and white on white wallpaper. One of the pro-bono projects, before my financial advisor helped me gain the confidence to charge for the decorating work I do for others...

Which is still a tender point. I have felt complete freedom to arrange/decorate as I please. Red RED tomato red bedroom walls...loved this room of ours for 7 years! I feel that the years of freedom to practice decorating in our home has been a great way to learn. And then friends/acquaintances have started to ask me for help...


I paint. I paint everything. The joke is, "if it holds still, I will paint it!"

I am thankful for lovebags and furniture passed sideways. For example: the crib that I couldn't pass along....

I had gotten rid of ALL my baby paraphernalia after Suzanna's birth--I was so sick with Crohn's Disease, and didn't think we were going to have any more children. Pregnant with baby #5 who was going to have to sleep in a laundry basket (not the antique bassinet inherited from my dad-they all sleep in that at birth, but it doesn't last long with my long-legged babies!)

A friend from Church gave us their old crib before Sam was born. The older four children helped me paint it with crazy colors to welcome their new brother. You can see one of the end pieces behind the bench, on the right of the glass doors.
I have hung the rails together as an art piece.
Today one of the rails holds family history hearts. It is no longer a crib with all the parts, or maybe it could be reconstructed to give away or future grandma service (when our children come home with their children to visit, no announcement).

Sideways Lovebag requirements:
1. someone gives you something with no expectation for re numeration and they are decluttering and serving you.
2. the gift isn't their livelihood, what they do professionally, in which case when you ask them for help and they give it you should ASK and offer to pay them for materials/service, or the artist/decorator should have the confidence to bill them accordingly.
3. if it is family or a good GOOD friend, it is different. There is an understanding of reciprocity, sustaining one another, serving because you love them.

I can tell I am talking about more than one thing, and I still need to forgive and let go of some resentment for work done for free...art work, not babysitting.

We've been talking about Zion in daily seminary--one heart, one mind, and no poor among them.

We aren't near to that. The inequality, and the combination of lazy/won't work verses sick/can't work and the worker bees/service-oriented and the worker bees/take advantage-of-other's-service is complicated.

I am not saying this well.

So I should stop and embrace the stupor of tongue/typing fingers. EDIT

I Discoverd a Cool New Blog

Why do men fear painted wood?
Her before and after pictures teach the lesson better than anything else I've read. And notice how beautiful all the after pictures are! Yes! Time to paint tomorrow!

Bag-Son of Our Hearts

I didn't see the final product--but this is how Max went to school yesterday and came home still wearing this for "Wacky Wednesday."

My "Wacky Wednesday" was 1/2 off of As-Is stuff at IKEA, a fun stop on the way back from Baltimore. I paid $4 for a huge piece of leather to recover dinning room chairs.

My interview? I was older and had less piercings and tats than all the other applicants. Group interviewing was a new concept for me, too. We were asked about our retail experience (John said I should have emphasized my 20+ years of experience on the other side, buying!) and what we would do to prevent shop-lifting. I came home with an online test to take, and then got a call back for a 2nd interview for Friday. We shall see.


This is our going down-the-stairs hallway. Painted crib side bars (the older kids helped me paint it for baby Sam and when all the babies out-grew it I couldn't quite throw it away, so it became wall art). Hearts from IKEA, a couple of Christmases ago, used as tree ornaments. I used permanent marker and wrote our family history names, couples on front and their family name and kids on back. Wishing I had photos for all of them.

Steadfast & Immovable (nice way to say stubborn?)

We've been talking about strengths vs. weaknesses, the things that first attracted us to each other as a couple. I painted this last Thursday, thinking of our children and my hopes for them. It has taken on new meaning these last 6 days.


Mormon uses this word over and over to describe my hero-prophets. Good word. Good goal. Other options I considered for the top of this forgotten piece of furniture: Undaunted, immovable, upright, incorruptible, loyal, strong...


This was a road-side find, complete hutch (we have since put the top shelves out on our curb and it was promptly adopted!), very dark black stain, ugly hardware which was easily replaced by the brushed nickel finish. I have painted many layers of color on this, at least one for every year I have owned it--currently turquoise with white wash over, dark teal top with Benjamin Moore Glitter top-coat. Black & white check shelf liner inside...Pillow fabric by IKEA. Thrift store couch. Great Grandma Billie Persian rug...