Measuring Up...Sabbath Quotes

Sabbath
In the 19th century, England and France decided to observe the Sabbath only every 21 days in order that they might have time to build up their war-torn countries.  After a trial period, however, a careful check showed that they had accomplished less total work than when they had rested every seventh day as prescribed by the Lord.

The Sabbath to us is also an appropriate opportunity to visit nearby relatives or friends, provided the conduct of such visits is in keeping with the spirit of the day. If we emphasize such visiting the other six days of the week, we can guard against our Sundays being regularly absorbed by that activity.

Orson Scott Card, "Sunday Meetings: A Preparation for Work," Ensign, Jan. 1978:

“It’s possible to be so active in the Church that you forget to be active in the gospel.” But perhaps a better way to think about it is this: The meetings that we attend are for our preparation. Attending meetings should only be a small portion of our Church activity. Meetings are where we learn how to be active.

"Gospel activity is just as much in our homes, among our friends, at work, in the community, among strangers, or alone in prayer, as it is in a meeting!

"The Church provides many opportunities for activity: home teachers and visiting teachers have splendid opportunities to serve others; teachers can uplift, inspire, and renew the faith of their students; quorum leaders can organize their brethren in good works.

"But if we stop there, feeling satisfied that our attendance record means that we are sufficiently active, then in a sense we are like the servant who hid his talent in the earth. The Church provides us with a certain number of opportunities—but we have a responsibility to improve on that, to magnify those opportunities.

"If all our good works are within the walls of the meetinghouse, then are we letting our light shine before men?

"If we, like the Levite and the priest, are so intent on our Church business that we miss opportunities for charity to strangers, are we loving our neighbor as ourselves? “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:2.)

"A paraphrase: And though I attend all my meetings faithfully, and fulfill all my callings, and make a home teaching visit during the first week of the month; and though in all ways I am an active Church member, yet if I do not spend time in love and service for others, then I am not yet a Saint, for I do not yet love the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength; and I do not love my neighbor as myself.

"Let the Sabbath be a day for taking stock. (How active have we been during the week in serving the Lord and his children?)

"Let the Sabbath be a day for attending meetings, sharing with others our spirit, our understanding of how to serve the Lord.

"And then let us use the other six days of each week as Christ did: in bringing joy to everyone we can, “I was an hungred,” said the Lord, “and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: “Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” (Matt. 25:35–36.)

"We are surrounded by those in need, both spiritually and physically. To be active in the Church, we must take the time from our busy schedules to fill those needs. For the gifts we offer to those around us, we also offer to our Savior."

Measuring Up: Integrity Quotes
Measuring Up: Improvement Quotes
Measuring Up: Time and Preparation
Measuring Up: Testimony Quotes
Measuring Up: Service and Empathy Quotes

Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat

Count your night by stars, not blackness, Count your time by good deeds done. ~Ethel C. Smith

This is the last of my Grateful Living Series--are you grateful?  About 20 years ago I read in my women's church manual about enjoying what you have.  An example was given of an older woman who had a very modest apartment without very many material possessions.  But what she had, she took good care of.  Her apartment was kept neat and clean.  There were little touches such as houseplants and photographs and other simple things attractively displayed.  The little apartment was inviting, warm and comfortable to guests.  Being newly married myself, without hardly a stitch of furniture, the lesson really struck home.  I have followed its guidance in every home I've lived in.

vintage pillowcases hide the laundry

It never occurred to me at nineteen that  in my forties I would choose to live in a mobile home!  I totally sympathize with Janet Palmer who said, "Turning forty was the biggest let-down of my life.  I thought I'd be happy and in control by then."  However, I know I wouldn't trade my life with anyone else.  Having an oasis from disappointments or stress or just plain exhaustion has come in the form of my bathroom or as I like to call it, my "Spa Retreat."  I even play soft, soothing music with calming background sounds from nature--just like at a real spa.

My husband replaced the tile and lights, and installed baseboards and the curtain rods, but basically everything else was done by me during a particularly stressful period.  The job was therapeutic. We had just added a third bedroom and large bathroom to our mobile home and I thought we'd never get it done.  Little did my family know that they would no longer be welcome again in the old bathroom--My Bathroom.  You do what you have to to get by sometimes, and having my own bathroom--the only room in the house that no one could mess up was critical to my psyche!

Dealing with the massive mirrors over the tub was the biggest obstacle.  They came with dark curtains, but I saw a picture in a magazine of a softer, brighter window treatment and knew that would be simple and inexpensive and a huge improvement.  I painted the cheap vanity cabinet with the same kind of paint I used on the baseboards and crown molding (cabinet and trim paint).  My husband sanded the knobs to find a really nice "nickel" color underneath the gold so we kept it like that.  The only gold is the bathtub faucet because the one that came factory installed fell apart and this very expensive model was practically given away at the hardware store.  Everything else in the bathroom is nickle, but I've made peace with the gold faucet.

Pegs hold towels, robes...

I tried flat paint on the walls and ended up repainting with gloss.  Satin would probably do just as well, but I was very careful to finish out the mobile home walls so that there were very few flaws to see.  I painted the ceiling with Kilz first and then ceiling paint.  My best advice for renovating a mobile home is to make sure you're fairly comfortable with what you are doing.  Save up for jobs that you don't feel competent, (especially wiring!).  Study before you take on drywall, painting, even hanging anything on the wall.  As the old saying goes--Measure twice, Cut once!

Keep an idea book of what you like for at least a year before you delve into renovating a room.  When you start to see a lot of ideas that go together in your book, you will begin to know better what you want.  Some people are super gifted with this--not me.  I'm talking to the rest of us who don't have a clue!  The main thing is being happy with the results of all your hard work.  My goal was that when I was inside my home, it was a home not a mobile home.  I can look around and there is nothing left of the "factory installed" and my home is warm, comfortable, and inviting (at least to me!).


Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Homemaking: Homebuilders of the World
Grateful Living: Scaling Down to A Mobile Home
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat
Grateful Living: My Collection on Reflections of Home

Measuring Up...Service and Empathy Quotes

Service

Are we not sometimes like Naaman, looking for big or important things to do and bypassing simple things which we could do?  ~Elder Rex D. Pinegar, (Ensign, Nov. 1994, 80)

We don't need a bishop's assignment to be kind.  We don't need to sign up to be thoughtful.  ~Chieko N. Okazaki

Now, do not get me wrong.  I am not here to say that if you pay an honest tithing you will realize your dream of a fine house, a Rolls Royce, and a condominium in Hawaii.  The Lord will open the windows of heaven according to our need, and not according to our greed.  If we are paying tithing to get rich, we are doing it for the wrong reason.  The basic purpose for tithing is to provide the Church with the means needed to carry on His work.  ~President Gordon B. Hinkley, (Ensign, May 1982, 40)


Shame on you if your house is dusted, and a neighbor needs help.

Empathy

If I make errors [in judging people,] I want them to be on the side of mercy.  ~Hugh B. Brown

In my relationships with others who sometimes annoy or offend me, I will abide by the advice of a carpenter friend who says, "it's always wise to measure twice before sawing once."  


If I had known what trouble you were bearing;
What griefs were in the silence of your face;
I would have been more gentle, and more caring,
And tried to give you gladness for a space. ~Mary Carolyn Davies



Measuring Up: Integrity Quotes
Measuring Up: Improvement Quotes
Measuring Up: Time and Preparation
Measuring Up: Testimony Quotes
Measuring Up: Sabbath Quotes

Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls!

This I learned from the shadow of a tree, That to and fro did sway against a wall:  Our shadow selves, our influence, may fall Where ourselves can never be. ~Anna G. Hamilton

Above is how I arranged my collection of cross-stitch samplers.  I got the idea from a past issue of Southern Living Magazine.  A tip I learned from Martha Stewart is to trace the frames onto wrapping paper and cut out.  Using removable tacky putty (whatever it's called), you can try all kinds of arrangements for picture placement.  I actually keep pictures from magazines of picture arrangements that I like in my Idea Book.  It really comes in handy.  Also, Martha taught me to use little Velcro circles to put at each bottom corner of a picture and then press in place to the wall.  Then the picture doesn't move out of place.  Which is great if you live in a mobile home with paper thin walls.  See my post on Picture Groupings.

I wanted to do something my very Southern grandma did in her hall and have my own "hall of fame."  As children, my sister and cousins and I loved to look at old family photos, baby pictures, and pedigree charts that literally lined my grandma's enormous and long hallway.  Somehow, I had to find a way to make my now less wavy hallway wall more interesting to walk through (and wavy wall even less noticeable).  Here's how I got the hall wall's flaws to be less noticeable.

I'm not sure if this is a common occurrence or cheap building gone amuck, but our hall had become a real
sight!  For some reason the outside wall is all wavy.  My husband's standard response is "What do you expect from a mobile home?"  My reply is always, "Remember that wavy wall in our family room in the house we built for $250,000?  Bad construction happens folks!  I am a great lover of old homes that were built to last but no matter how well-built a house is, there is bound to be something that goes terribly wrong.  You can't just blame everything on bad construction and hope your wife backs off!

So we thought about using spackling to even the wall out, but that would really take someone talented with spackle or someone who has a lot of patience--neither of which was us.  We thought about replacing the wall board (it's literally a cardboard substance!) with bead board.  However, my husband had just put baseboards and crown molding up and we didn't want to mess with that.  I thought about painting the wall in vertical stripes as an optical illusion.  But the hall is such a narrow space that I thought stripes might overwhelm it even if I used narrow stripes in soft colors.

Finally, I was in Lowe's and became attracted to the paintable wallpaper products and noticed some that looked like bead board. That's what I decided on.  My husband, younger daughter and son put the wallpaper up.  My husband is a little OCD and soon learned that you didn't have to place the wallpaper to the wall with great force.  My son's method of simply placing the paper to the wall gently actually held the best.  Here again, my husband complained that nothing was straight in the mobile home and therefore it was impossible to place the wallpaper up straight.  I quietly reminded him that we have never lived in any HOUSE where any of the construction seemed straight.  That's where the kids came in.  They actually seemed to have fun with the project and turned my husband's mood around.  Also lots of yummy snacks keep spirits high.  I kept the paint color the same in the hall as throughout the house.  I use flat paint because wavy walls and other unsightly flaws show up less.


Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Homemaking: Homebuilders of the World
Grateful Living: Scaling Down to A Mobile Home
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat
Grateful Living: My Collection on Reflections of Home

Measuring Up...Testimony Quotes

Some people succumb to the taunt [of the crowd] because thy are not converted enough to their own beliefs of right to give them power they need.  ~Caroline Eyring Miner

Rebellious people are those who either have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ or have not understood it.  Receptive people think the gospel is true--but their actions lag behind.  Righteous people know Christ and practice what he preached.  ~Elaine Cannon

Seek for a testimony, as you would...for a diamond concealed.  If someone told you by digging long enough in a certain spot you would find a diamond of unmeasured wealth, do you think you would begrudge time or strength, or means spent to obtain that treasure?  Then I will tell you that if you will dig in the depths of your own hearts you will find, with the aid of the Spirit of the Lord, the pearl of great price, the testimony of the truth of this work.  ~Zina D.H. Young

Often we spend great effort in trying to increase the activity levels in our stakes.  We work diligently to raise the percentages of those attending sacrament meetings.  We labor to get a higher percentage of our young men on missions.  We strive to improve the number of these marrying in the temple.  All of these are commendable efforts and important to the growth of the kingdom.  But when individual members and families immerse themselves in the scriptures regularly and consistently, these other areas of activity will automatically come.  Testimonies will increase.  Commitment will be strengthened.  Families will be fortified.  Personal revelation will flow.  ~President Ezra Taft Benson, (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson,[1988], 44)

Latter-day Saint women must be strong and immovable in their faith.  They can and should excel in living and sharing their testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.  We do this as we:

1. Make and keep covenants with Him.
2. Are worthy and worship in His temples. 
3. Study His doctrine in the scriptures and the words of prophets.
4. Qualify for, recognize, and follow the Holy Ghost.
5. Share and defend His gospel.
6. Participate in sincere personal and family prayer.
7. Have family home evening.
8. Live principles of self-reliance and provident living.

Measuring Up: Integrity Quotes
Measuring Up: Improvement Quotes
Measuring Up: Time and Preparation
Measuring Up: Service and Empathy Quotes
Measuring Up: Sabbath Quotes

Grateful Living: Front Porches

When you live in the country (in a mobile home), you have to give serious consideration to a porch.  In our case, we have a closed-in front porch and a "back deck."  Since the front door is the easiest to enter from our attached carport, we needed some way to take shoes off before entering the house.  This is because there is a lot of dirt in the country.  We have a gravel drive which is very dusty when it hasn't rained in a while.  Our cars need constant spraying down due to the amount of travel they go through, (we're 30 minutes from the nearest Walmart).  Also, front porches are really important in the South for welcoming people.  When you live in a mobile home where you walk through the door and HELLO there's your living room, kitchen, dining room, etc., it's kinda nice to greet people on the porch and chat awhile while the family straightens up.  My goal was to make my front porch so cozy (as well as a way to trap dirt) that we might just visit there instead.  The decor has to be simple but homey so that it doesn't become one more place that requires constant attention.  It has to be okay if there are leaves and grass on the floor.  They are easily swept away and pretty much expected on a porch. I added what I call Parlor Touches like the knick knacks, pillows, houseplants.  A double rocking chair with cushions and corner bench with storage are easy to wipe clean.  The porch ceiling is painted a coastal green and the nooks are filled with little treasures.  (Ceiling painted Valspar Signature Colors - Southern Breeze SR901)

Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Homemaking: Homebuilders of the World
Grateful Living: Scaling Down to A Mobile Home
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat
Grateful Living: My Collection on Reflections of Home

Measuring Up...Time and Preparation

Time

To everything there is a season...Yes, a season to be young and doing the inimitable things of youth and a time to be relishing in the richness and understanding that maturity brings.  But some people's timing is off.  They marry when they're supposed to be having fun and have "fun" when they're supposed to be married...They learn to cook after they're married and study the scriptures when they arrive in the mission field...or learn to behave properly after they've been embarrassed in a social situation...or value gospel principles after they've suffered the pangs of repentance.  Personal timing should be clocked because there is a time to every purpose under the heaven.  ~Elaine Cannon


Material objectives consume too much of our attention.  The struggle for what we need or for more than we need exhausts our time and energy.  We pursue pleasure or entertainment, or become overinvolved in associations or civic matters.  Of course, people need recreation, need to be achieving, need to contribute; but if these come at the cost of friendship with Christ, the price is much too high.

'For my people have committed two evils,' said the Lord to Israel; 'they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.' (Jer. 2:13)

The substitutions we fashion to take the place of God in our lives truly hold no water.  To the measure we thus refuse the 'living water,' we miss the joy we could have.  ~Elder Marion D. Hanks, (Ensign, July 1972, 105). 


These are essential things which must be done before nonessential things.  These are simple, indispensable practices that almost seem mundane.  ...No one can do these things for us--these are personal practices and habits that set us apart as strong and immovable for that which is correct.  ~Julie B. Beck Relief Society general president, ("What Latter-day Saint Women Do Best:  Stand Strong and Immovable," Ensign, 11/07)

Preparation

Some of the brethren...approached [President Wilford Woodruff] and ... inquired of him as to when he felt the end would be--when would be the coming of the Master?  These, I think, are not his exact words, but they convey the spirit of his reported reply:  'I would live as if it were to be tomorrow--but I am still planting cherry trees!'  I think we may well take this as a page for our own book and live as if the end might be tomorrow--and still plant cherry trees!  In worrying about things that are beyond our reach, we should not overlook our opportunities with our own families and friends; in worrying about possible eventualities we should not neglect the things that need to be done here and now, and that are within our reach.  ~Elder Richard L. Evans, (Conference Report, Apr. 1950, 105-6)



Measuring Up: Integrity Quotes
Measuring Up: Improvement Quotes
Measuring Up: Testimony Quotes
Measuring Up: Service and Empathy Quotes
Measuring Up: Sabbath Quotes

Grateful Living: Class Up The M.H. Fireplace

Some women go through life turning on lamps in the evening.  Others are themselves a light. ~Helen Parks

One of the first renovating projects I did (after replacing the carpet!) in our mobile home was to antique the fireplace.  The original was pretty cheap looking wood and cheap looking tile.  My husband replaced the tile with marble leftover from the house we built.  He also painted the fireplace insert with a brown, "hammered-look" spray paint designed for metal that can be exposed to heat (I think Rust-oleum brand).  I replaced the blah handles with adorable twig-shaped ones.  I used the below product that I found at Walmart at the time.  It was very simple.  Because the adjacent wall has my cross-stitch collection displayed on it and there's a TV above the mantle, I chose to decorate the mantle sparsely.  I have my grandma's figurines from her dining room that my sister and I used to play with (and quite possibly broke!).  

I'm pretty siked about another Rust-oleum product on the market that will class up my kitchen cabinets.  I chose a light color for the fireplace to make the tiny living room appear larger.  I would do the same with the kitchen cabinets as well:  http://cabinets.rustoleumtransformations.com/

Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Homemaking: Homebuilders of the World
Grateful Living: Scaling Down to A Mobile Home
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat
Grateful Living: My Collection on Reflections of Home

Measuring Up...Improvement Quotes

Take a hard look at those things which we needlessly, foolishly turn into burdens when they were meant to be blessings.  ~Elaine Cannon

What's the difference between ignorance and arrogance?  I don't know and I don't care.

Those who resist correction, resist perfection. ~President Snow

Too frequently we strive to live as good a life as our peers, when we should be striving to live like the Savior.  (Dr. Jae R. Ballif, physics professor at Brigham Young University)

Elder Marion D. Hanks, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, said of the Apostle Paul:  "The Lord called him to the ministry, not because of what he had done (or hadn't done), but because of what he was going to be able to do."  (Eastern Atlantic States Mission leadership seminar, summer 1968.)

I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away.  If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns.  ~Spencer W. Kimball, (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, [1982], 135).

Elder Harold B. Lee reminded us that a certain amount of spiritual preparation is necessary
before we can receive divine communications.  He said, "The Lord will bring us his blessings to that extent that we have diligence in keeping his commandments.  Each of you, in other words, must stand on your own feet if you will receive the great blessings which the Almighty has in store for you...Stand upon your own feet, so the Lord can speak to you.  In humility be prepared to say with Paul, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me do?'  And with dauntless courage say with the boy Samuel, 'Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.'  Be humble, be prayerful and the Lord will take you by the hand, as it were, and give you answer to your prayers."  ("But Arise and Stand upon Thy Feet"--and I Will Speak with Thee, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year, Provo, 7 Feb. 1956, pp. 7, 11.)

The way of the gospel is a simple way.  Some of the requirements may appear to you as elementary and unnecessary.  Do not spurn them.  Humble yourselves and walk in obedience.  I promise that the results that follow will be marvelous to behold and satisfying to experience.  ~Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, (Ensign, Nov. 1976, 96)

If you want praise more than instruction -- you may get neither.  ~Henry B. Eyring


Measuring Up: Integrity Quotes
Measuring Up: Time and Preparation
Measuring Up: Testimony Quotes
Measuring Up: Service and Empathy Quotes
Measuring Up: Sabbath Quotes

Grateful Living Series: Repurposed Armoire

Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have. ~Kiki Knickerbocker

Living in a mobile home, I had to think about whether I could use another piece of furniture (painted girly pink) that my sister was wanting me to take.  She was about to give it to someone else when I realized that it was just what I needed in my master bath as a linen closet.  I had my husband move the tiny pantry-sized factory-installed cabinet to the kitchen where I could place cans of food in it, and made space for this very pink armoire.

The armoire stayed on the front porch for quite a few days.  Every family member would go out there and sand on it a little.  It wasn't until my eldest daughter spent about three days sanding that I was finally inspired to really go to work.

I pulled off the bottom door that hinged open and painted that space as well.  I found two lined, white baskets at Lowe's that fit perfectly in this opening.  My husband placed two more shelves in the side of the armoire normally used for hanging clothing.  We used regular shelf board from Lowe's.  You iron-on strips to the exposed sides of the shelf to give it a finished look (it's really cool).  We replaced the door handles with something that looked vintage and actually fit the piece better than the original.  I was going for a spa look in my bathroom so white furnishings with the metal door handles added a minimalist, clean feel.


I was inspired by these two pictures from Before and After (ISBN 1574862960).  The first picture convinced me to paint the armoire and the second one showed me what I could do with the empty space once I took off the hinged door on the bottom of the armoire.  I'm only sorry that I didn't take a "before" shot. 

Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Homemaking: Homebuilders of the World
Grateful Living: Scaling Down to A Mobile Home
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat
Grateful Living: My Collection on Reflections of Home

Measuring Up...Integrity Quotes

If we were to be arrested for being Christians, I wonder if there would be enough evidence to convict us?  ~Choose You This Day, N. Elden Tanner

Conversion must mean more than just being a "card carrying" member of the Church with a tithing receipt..."  ~Harold B. Lee, "The Iron Rod," Ensign 6/71


Members of the church need to influence more than we are influenced.  We should work to stem the tide of sin and evil instead of passively being swept along by it.  We each need to solve the problem rather than avoid or ignore it.  ~Elder M. Russell Ballard


An eternal bond doesn't just happen as a result of sealing covenants we make in the temple.  How we conduct ourselves in this life will determine what we will be in all the eternities to come.  To receive the blessings of the sealing that our Heavenly Father has given to us, we have to keep the commandments and conduct ourselves in such a way that our families will want to live with us in the eternities.  ~Elder Robert D. Hales, ("The Eternal Family," Ensign, 11/96)

There's right and there's wrong.  You got to do one or the other.  ~John Wayne

Measuring Up: Improvement Quotes
Measuring Up: Time and Preparation
Measuring Up: Testimony Quotes
Measuring Up: Service and Empathy Quotes
Measuring Up: Sabbath Quotes

Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk

The Spirit of the Hive (Beehive girls' theme):  Have Faith.  Seek Knowledge.  Safeguard Health.  Honor Womanhood.  Understand Beauty.  Value Work.  Love Truth.  Taste the Sweetness of Service.  Feel Joy.

My oldest daughter and I worked on this trunk that my mom had been given by an elderly neighbor who had recently passed away.  It was in pretty bad shape.  I wasn't sure if there was anything that could be done.  But it was built of solid construction and had a lot of character.  Then I saw the trunk pictured below in Flea Market Finds, Before and After, Leisure Arts (ISBN 1574862960).  Since it was a trunk, we decided to go with a travel theme.  As can be seen, the cushion on top of the trunk has gotten a lot of use.  I really like this blog that inspires me to repurpose older furniture:  http://fineandhandy.blogspot.com/.

Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Homemaking: The Homebuilders of the World
Grateful Living: Scaling Down to A Mobile Home
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Armoire
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat
Grateful Living: My Collection of Reflections of Home

Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M.H. Windows

So long as there are homes to which men turn At close of the day:

So long as there are homes where children are, Where women stay--

If love and loyalty and faith be found Across those sills--

A stricken nation can recover from Its gravest ills.
~Grace Noll Crowell

My window sills are the most annoying thing to me about living in a mobile home.  Apparently they put something that looks like storm windows on the INSIDE of the window.  They are so ugly!  They are such an eyesore!  About six years ago, my solution was to sew curtains that would basically hide the window frame.  I put plantation blinds up first.  I needed blinds because mobile homes are not very well insulated and in extremely hot weather, plantation blinds block a lot of heat.  They also hide the top of my ugly storm windows.  The sides are hid by my simple curtains which also double as more sun-blockage (or cold-blockage in the winter).  Here are the instructions for the curtains from Crafting Vintage Style, by Christina Strutt (ISBN 1588162419).

Materials

For the curtain:  panel of fabric measuring the width of the window plus 6 inches by the required length plus 4 inches

For the facing strip:  strip of fabric the width of fabric the width of the window by 3 inches

For the tabs:  strips of fabric measuring 12 x 6 inches

Tape measure

Scissors

Pins

Needle and matching thread

1. Fold over a 1-inch double hem along both sides of the curtain fabric and stitch.  Hem the top and bottom edges in this way.

2. Next, make the tabs.  Fold each strip of fabric in half lengthwise, right sides together, and stitch along the raw long side.  Turn right side out and press, centering the seam on the back.

3. Zigzag-stitch one long edge of the facing strip.  Place the facing strip on top of the curtain right sides together.  Fold each tab in half widthwise with the seam sides together.  Pin one tab flush with the right and left edges.  Pin the rest of the tabs at 6-inch intervals between the curtain and the facing strip, right sides together and edges aligned.

4. Stitch along the top edge of the curtain, catching in both ends of each tab as you go, and along the short ends of the facing strip.  Turn right sides out so that the facing is on the wrong side of the curtain and press.

Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Homemaking: The Homebuilders of the World
Grateful Living: Scaling Down to A Mobile Home:
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Repurposed Armoire
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat
Grateful Living: My Collection of Reflections of Home

Grateful Living: Scaling Down to a Mobile Home

Jacqueline Kennedy once said, "Every thing in the White House must have a reason for being there."  This is even more true for a small house!  Want to know one of my decorating inspirations?  Old episodes of The Rockford Files!  (Gotta love Jim Rockford!)  One thing I noticed about his crummy little mobile home (NOT trailer!) on the beach was that as soon as Rockford went inside and shut the door, the place was quite charming.  For a tough guy, there were a lot of homey (yet masculine) touches.  I thought, "I could do that!  I don't have to stick with this generic factory-built decor."  Decorating a mobile home can be a lot of fun--especially if you have ever had a doll house for your Barbies like I did.  It takes so much less money and time than bigger houses.

When you have limited floor space you have to think small.  Most of my larger furniture has been exchanged (literally I swapped furniture with various people), for smaller pieces.  My furniture has to be practical and comfortable.  Furnishings are kept to a minimum.  I've even decided to swap out a full-sized piano for a keyboard style they use in music schools (update: daughters have prohibited this!).  The big screen T.V. has been exchanged for a flat screen that fits on the wall above the fireplace.  The workout equipment has been swapped for a family gym membership near my son's school that's $55/month.  Father and son go together each morning on their way to work and school and their bathroom at home stays much, much cleaner.  Plus, working out no longer interferes with family time.

I have a comfortable love seat that sits off the ground, which helps to expose more floor area.  Matching the couch color with the wall color so that it's not such a contrast really helps to make the room seem larger.  It's a smaller piece of furniture with narrower arm-rests.  I also have two comfortable dark leather chairs that are really too big and dark for the space and I would like to replace them with light leather recliners that are smaller (I've seen these at Macy's but they are expensive!!!)  I have to keep the furniture against walls in order to have as much floor area exposed so the place stays light and airy and not so crampt and I like to do yoga and Leslie Sansome workouts on the area carpet in the middle of the room.

As I've mentioned, mobile homes look best if the furniture is small-scale and the home and furnishings have small-print textures and patterns in wallpapers, fabrics, tiles, etc.  We used honey-colored wood-look linoleum flooring throughout.  I can't tell you how many times folks thought it was real wood flooring.  We had wood flooring throughout the 2,200 square-foot house we built and then sold, (bathrooms and hall were tile), and I was always so exhausted from having to take care of the floors.

Our walls are the same throughout the mobile home which is good for small homes.  I chose butter cream for the paint color.  Just take a stick of butter to the store and match it to a paint sample and voila!  That's the color of my walls.  They are cheerful, yet warm and comforting.  I've gotten pretty depressed from moving from my house to a mobile home and having to scale down so much -- yet wall color really can help create a peaceful, happy feeling and keep me grounded.  (And listening to Dave Ramsey).  But light, cool colors are generally good for small spaces.

I don't use a lot of tables, coffee tables, etc.  I was given a small and charming matching buffet and china cabinet and I use the buffet in the living room to house the electronic stuff for the t.v. and also extra dishes, etc. that don't fit well in the kitchen/dining area.  The china cabinet is pretty and functional and all of my dishes are housed there.  (See my post about scaling down http://homemakers-journal.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-really-like-this-blog.html)  The only other table in the living room is a side table that has a glass top.  (Not a fan of glass tops, especially around children, but if you have to have tables, glass tops are better for small spaces).

Pages from my Idea Book

I have an Idea Book for Recipes and one for decorating and gardening.  Idea Books are a great way to keep track of what you like so that when you're ready to decorate (inside and out) you can just have at it and know that you'll probably love it.  Time to time, I will weed the Decorating Idea Book of ideas I'm no longer interested in, but I'll usually keep the pics that inspired something I have done.
(Some of the tips are inspired from the following source:  Sep/Oct '96 Country Woman, p. 45)

Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Repurposed Armoire
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat