Grateful Living: Reflections on HOME

This is my post to share a touching story and lovely quotes about the most important place in a person's life--their home...

Best Snowflakes on the Block
It is Christmastime on our street. The homes are decorated with tinsel and many-colored lights. Some windows frame beautifully decorated trees, and well-shaped wreaths hang on the doors. At one home, however, a little confusion of homemade snowflakes congregates in the picture window. They are hung in childhood fashion (not in the adult perfection of other windows nearby) and whisper a special secret about the occupants of that home.

I want to share a secret with you. The secret is that children are more important than picture windows; that fingerprints and boot-drips and carpet stains aren't nearly as important as a child's self-esteem. Those little white snowflakes tell me something more. They tell me that smashed bouquets of dandelions adorn that kitchen table in the springtime and are loved as if they were the most beautiful of imported orchids. They tell me that a pet potato bug in a box can live there unmolested, that helping with a bug collection is just as important as doing the wash, that viewing the first violets of spring with a child's hand in yours is better than a shiny floor, that listening to a child's fears is more important than television, that children's art is more beautiful than the greatest of the old masters.
Oh, they do tell a special story, those snowflakes.
(Sherlene Parker, Ensign Dec. 1976)

A small house well-filled is better than an empty palace. ~Thomas Haliburton

Houses that express comfort and well-being can go a long way toward making us feel at home in the world. ~JoAnn Barwick

Everything in the White House must have a reason for being there.  ~Jacqueline Kennedy

Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free...Amish song

'Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
~Pa, Little House in the Big Woods

God bless this house And all that's in it

A garden of flowers Some books for the hours

Sweet dreams Good Health

and Love, glorious love. ~unknown

“...I remember thinking how often we look, but never see...we listen, but never hear...we exist, but never feel. We take our relationships for granted. A house is only a place. It has no life of its own. It needs human voices, activity and laughter to come alive.” 
― Erma Bombeck, A Marriage Made in Heaven: Or Too Tired for an Affair

Big Fish Book Review

Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love getting books sometimes that you end up reading in one sitting. It can be so satisfying to read a book from beginning to end and get the whole sense of it at once. I decided to read Big Fish after watching the movie recently. Because I'm not a fan of Tim Burton (sorry!), I never bothered with the movie. Then someone brought it home and I've watched it like five times since! I love that movie!

Big Fish the Book

Big Fish the Movie

For one thing it was filmed in my home town, Montgomery, Alabama. My daughter attended college at the campus where they filmed (not Auburn!) which is also in Montgomery. The book and movie is about facing our own mortality. The fictional son records his father's "fish tales" and interspersed throughout the book are the final moments of a son with his amazing but definitely flawed father. By the end of the book, the son seems to come to terms with his dad.

"I looked at this old man, my old man with his old white feet in this clear-running stream, these moments among the very last in his life, and I thought of him suddenly, and simply, as a boy, a child, a youth, with his whole life ahead of him, much as mine was ahead of me. I'd never done that before. And these images--the now and then of my father--converged, and at that moment he turned into a weird creature, wild, concurrently young and old, dying and newborn.

"My father became a myth."


What do you think?  Is this Tim Burton's Best Movie or do you prefer another, and if so, why?

A Time to Die

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

This topic may sound morbid but I really became interested after my beloved grandma passed away at age 93.  Grandma was ready to die.  She mentioned it many times.  She had a large family and was always there for her children and grandchildren.  Though of modest means, Grandma was rich with unconditional love and caring.  My children, her great-grandchildren, also loved her deeply.  But Grandma was one of the last survivors of her people and her generation.  It can be lonely to be the last.

After Grandma fell the first time, she was never the "same" grandma.  I think we all knew it would be the beginning of the end.  She insisted that she live in her home--in case anyone needed a place to stay, and she cooked and cleaned, entertained, attended church, continued to travel to relatives homes and live as normally as possible.  However a couple of years before she died, she had an episode like a mild stroke that seemed to change her personality.  Whenever I was around her she was very much the same and recognized me, but I knew that some of her behaviors were not right.

Grandma talked to me about her loved ones now gone, and how she was the last of her very large family.  Even some of her twelve children had died and a few of the grandchildren.  It seemed like life had become more of a struggle than she could bear.  This was sad for me because I couldn't imagine a time without Grandma.  Even now as I write this, I want to reach out and hug her small, bent and fraile figure once more.

I knew that it was Grandma's time to die and I wish I could have done more to help her through it.  I was sad for my aunts and uncles who seemed to not deal well with her slow demise.  They almost seemed to resent Grandma for leaving them--I think we all depended on her more than we knew.

However, I think I can accept the death of an elderly loved one more than the death of someone in the prime of life.  That's what I fear the most.  What I learned from this experience is to get my affairs in order in a clear and concise manner.  I need to let my loved ones know what I want so that they can help me die with dignity and peace whenever that time comes.  I recommend reading  It's OK to Die, by Monica and Kris Murphy for anyone who needs help preparing for the eventuality of death.

Homemaker's Quotes

To my child:
You are the trip I did not take; 

You are the pearls I did not buy;

You are the blue Italian lake;

You are my piece of foreign sky.

~Anne Campbell

One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is to have a happy childhood.  ~Agatha Christie

It's better to build children than repair grownups.  ~Unknown

The best thing to spend on a child is time. ~Unknown

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.  ~Unknown

Never chasten beyond the balm you have within you to bind up.  ~Brigham Young

The best way to make children good is to make them  happy. ~Oscar Wilde

The next time the children started quarreling, I fought back an urge to get angry and started singing, “Jesus said love everyone; treat them kindly too.  When your heart is filled with love, others will love you.”  Both children stopped quarreling and looked up in happy surprise.  Mother was singing!  ~Margery D. Small

[Parenthood] is a learn-on-the-job situation.  It's not for the faint-of-heart. ~Kathleen "Casey" Null

Don't think of the gray in your hair.  Think of the fun you had putting it there.  ~Anna Greenwood

Friends are important, but when you have a child you should turn into a parent.  ~Elaine Cannon

In 1939, President Joseph F. Smith taught:  "There should [not] be any of us so unwisely indulgent, so thoughtless and shallow in our affection for our children that we dare not check them in a wayward course, in wrong-doing and in their foolish love for the things of the world more than for the things of righteousness, for fear of offending them."

Beginnings

Yes, my fretting, frowning child, 

I could cross the room to you more easily.

But I've already learned to walk, 

So I make you come to me.

Let go now--There! You see?

Oh, remember this simple lesson, child,

And when in later years you cry out

With tight fists and tears--

"Oh, help me, God--please."--

Just listen and you'll hear a silent voice:

"I would, child, I would.

But it's you, not I, who needs to try Godhood."

~Carol Lynn Pearson

To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling.  The righteous woman's strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times. ~Spencer W. Kimball (1895-1985), Prophet

"A virtuous woman" (Proverbs 31:10):

Verse    Quality

11          Can be trusted

13          Works willingly

20          Is compassionate

25          Is strong and honorable

26          Speaks with wisdom and kindness

28          Is a dedicated wife and mother

30          Obeys the Lord

...and for always letting me lick the spoon.

This card was the best present I could get on my 43 birthday from the child, (Elise--shown above), who always loves to help in the kitchen.

There is nothing wrong with the world that a sensible woman could not settle in an afternoon. ~Jean Giraudoux

Joyful Quotes

The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.  ~Eudora Welty

Happiness comes from noticing and enjoying the little things in life.  I've counted at least 1,000 things to be happy about.  ~Barbara Ann Kipfer

Though Christ was called a "man of sorrows," that description refers to His bearing of our sorrows.  It does not describe His day-to-day bearing.  ~Neal A. Maxwell (1926-2004) Even as I Am (1982), 103

Because our choices have so much to do with our happiness, the phrase "men are, that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25) could be considered an expectation.  Why would the Lord expect us to be happy?  Because He has borne our sorrow that we might have joy, and He blesses us when we are obedient.  The Savior atoned for our sins that we might be happy.  (Lynn G. Robbins, "True Beauty," New Era, Nov. 2008, 30-33)

The Christian Sunday should be a festival, gathering up all the life of the week and offering it to God in worship and then spending the day in a way which most truly promotes joy and  happiness and refreshment for oneself and for other people.  ~Olive Wyon

Our Father in Heaven expects all of His children to choose the right, which is the only way to lasting happiness and inner beauty.  We read in For the Strength of Youth that "wrong choices delay your progression and lead to heartache and misery.  Right choices lead to happiness and eternal life."  (Hugh W. Pinnock, "Beginning Again," Ensign, May 1982, 12)

I would like to have you smile because after all we must keep a sense of humor whatever comes.  I think of all the people in the world we should be the happiest.  We have the greatest and most joyous message in the world.  I think when we get on the other side, someone will meet us with a smile (unless we go to the wrong place and then someone will grin), so let us be happy.  But let our happiness be genuine--let it come from within.  ~Hugh B. Brown, (The Abundant Life [1965], 83)

We are surrounded by people who "have it all" and yet have nothing--no joy.  And there are just as many who have nothing, yet live in joy.  ~Laurel Bailey

One should not seek happiness, but rather happy people.  ~Coco Chanel

The hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me.  The touch of some hands is an impertinence.  I have met people so empty of joy that when I clasped their frosty fingertips, it seemed as if I were shaking hands with a northeast storm.  Others there are whose hands have sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart.  ~Helen Keller

When you walk into a room, you either add to the room or take away from the room. ~unknown

Unhappiness is bad for the health.  ~Anna Greenwood

Happiness and peace are found when we are in harmony with ourselves, with God, and with our fellowmen.  ~Barbara W. Winder

The greatest determiner of human happiness is whether or not we have someone to love and confide in.  ~Dr. Joyce Brothers

To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with. ~Mark Twain

Many people think happiness is attained through self-gratification.  But it is really only gained by fidelity to a worthy cause.  ~Helen Keller

President Brigham Young said, "There is not a man or woman on this earth, whose peace is made with God, and who are associated with holy beings, and seeking after holy principles, but their countenances are lit up with a lamp of divine cheerfulness." (Quoted in "The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength")

If you want to be happy ... BE.  ~Leo Tolstoy

Oh, stop whining!  ~Paula Witteman

~President Gordon B. Hinkley

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tweaking the Ideal

My Grandma was a great example of a working homemaker.  No birthdays were forgotten.  Active at church.  No meals left unprepared.  Visitors were always welcome at a moments notice.  Her home was always clean and her garden full of tomatoes.  And she retired from working for the state as a secretary!  Sickening!  Though Grandma might have preferred to stay home (maybe?), she always put family first.


Barbara B. Smith, past general Relief Society president, explained that if need forces the providing role upon a mother, it is critical that she be able to work as few hours as possible to leave time for homemaking and the nurturing of her children.  “The counsel to all members to acquire training and knowledge as a hedge against a time of need is one of our best ‘storage’ concepts.”  (Barbara B. Smith, “Makers of Homes,” Ensign, Mar. 1979, 24)

Here's A List of More Homemaking Posts:
My Glamorous New Career
What do Homemakers Really Do?
Builders of Homes
The Resurgence of Homemaking in the Church