Browsing Tag

decorating

The fun is decorating! More pics of our home

I’m still loving our new rental home. I’m slowly buying things to decorate it and wanted to share the pics with you.

This is the first time in 20 years of marriage that I’ve been able to buy furniture in my own modern taste, other than a daybed I bought the 2nd year of our marriage!

Below is the cute modern dinette set for our dining room.

We aren’t eating in there yet, because I want to first buy an area rug to go underneath it.

Our daughter Heather bought this same dinette at Nebraska Furniture Mart and I loved it, and decided to buy one for us, too.

Dining room dinette

Right now we’re still eating at the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Kitchen breakfast bar

I love the red contrast of this Italian art picture against the cheery yellow painted kitchen walls.

Red Italian art picture in kitchen

The unique soapstone sculpture souvenir of a man and a woman as “one” that Ray bought me on one of his missions trips to Haiti goes perfectly with our kitchen countertops, beside our coffee bean grinder.

Green, soapstone Haiti sculpture in kitchen

I shopped at several stores to find Italian art and wine pictures for the dining room. Kohl’s had these 4 pretty ones on sale. I plan to buy one more to hang in the middle of the pictures:

Italian pics for dining room

I hung 2 wine pics like this one from Kohl’s on the opposite wall:

Wine pic for dining room

One of the main reasons I wanted this house was the unique, Spanish archways and a little arch in the dining room. I found a beautiful, round, red votive candle holder and white votive for the cute little shelf:

Red glass votive holder and candle

I have claimed our front entry room as my room. 🙂 I wanted a black fabric loveseat and a red chair, but NFM didn’t have any, so instead I bought a chocolate-brown (looks black) loveseat on sale and a red chair marked 50% off online.

The loveseat is soft and comfortable – a place where I relax, text friends, check email and Facebook on my Iphone, pray, and take naps.

Red chair and loveseat

I found the beautiful picture of the man and the woman kissing in the rain at Kirkland’s in Lee’s Summit, MO, a treasure chest of pictures.

It reminds me of the time Ray and I kissed in the rain in Italy when we went on the honeymoon trip that we’d never had, for our 10th wedding anniversary – very romantic!

I love the stark red and black contrast in the pic, especially her red raincoat and the red umbrella.

Pic of man and woman kissing in the rain

I found this cute black pillow of a lighted city and bridge at night at Walmart for the black (chocolate brown technically) loveseat:

Black pillow with lighted bridge and city

And this cute, red-orange, ruffled pillow at Walmart, too, to go with the red chair and the red in the rain picture:

Red-orange ruffled pillow

For a decoration by the loveseat, I found this tall, red vase at Walmart. Kirkland’s had these beautiful red and white flowers.

Red vase with flowers

I love this expression on this black-framed pic for the front entry room: “Live well. Laugh often. Love much.”

“Live well. Laugh often. Love much.” pic in front entry room

I found this cute girly-girl pic for the front entry room at Westward Flowers Shop in Butler. It says “Enjoy the little things.” Amen!

“Enjoy the little things” pic in front entry room

I also found this pic at Westward’s of a bird flying free out of a cage. It says “Free to be.” LOVE IT! Are you free through Christ?

“Free to be” bird pic

It took several weeks to go through the plastic tubs of letters, papers, and photos in my office. My office is now organized.

When we moved here, Ray got his desk back and it is downstairs in the “man cave” (which we aren’t through with yet creating into a man cave).

For now, my “desk” temporarily is a black card table and chair. Use what you have at hand and make it work! I will get a new desk eventually.

I’m very excited about this office because it’s my own space that nobody else uses!

I no longer have to worry about my family noisily scrounging around in the kitchen cabinets or fridge for food in the background while I’m doing a webinar, or needing to do something on the main computer while I’m blogging, writing a speaking presentation, or doing other work.

The room also has 3 windows so there’s lots of light in the room.

My new office

Of course, I had to decorate it with Hello, Kitty decorations – a cute, ceramic piggy bank and Hello, Kitty stationery box set.

Hello, Kitty decorations

I bought 2 new, inexpensive, black bookshelves for my favorite books, one with these decorations:

A ceramic blue and yellow star with the inscription, “Wish upon a star”;
A paperweight with the letter “B” for “Beth,” that our daughter Heather gave me as a special gift;
A Curious George stuffed animal that was a precious present from Florence Littaeur, when I attended Upper Class professional speaking training (she said always learn, always be a Curious George);
A Hello, Kitty photo holder that has pics of my 3 long-distance, best friends – Rochelle Valasek, Kimberly Ehlers, and Kimberly Weber.

Bookshelf with decorations

Your business needs to include your core values, and one of my most important values is love for my family. I decorated the wall in back of me with family pics:

Family pics

I have one “Heather” wall – pics of our daughter Heather when she was little, growing up, graduating from homeschool, and on her YWAM missions trip to South America.

Heather wall

The other wall is decorated as a “Leah wall” – pics of our daughter Leah when she was younger.

The wall includes a sample of her computer graphic art, one of my fave (a young girl looking out a window at night at the moon and a shooting star, with a flower on the windowsill).

Leah wall

On the wall to my left, I have a pic of God the Potter and the Clay (a beautiful, Asian woman being the pottery that is being shaped by God’s loving hands). Next to it is a small painting of the ocean and the beach, which Leah did for me (I love the ocean!).

The Potter and the Clay pic and Leah’s ocean pic

Ray bought me this cute pic because of my love for chocolate:

Chocolate pic

To the left of my desk on the wall, I hung this aqua-blue pic that I found at Kohl’s, which has the inscription: “Be bold enough to use your voice, brave enough to listen to your heart, and strong enough to live the life you’ve always imagined.” Are you doing that? 🙂

Life you’ve always imagined pic

We have 2 full bathrooms and 1 half bathroom. I use the half bath to put on my face in the morning. Of course, I decorated this in Hello, Kitty decos, too. 🙂

Hello, Kitty br

This Hello, Kitty deco makes me think of all my wonderful friends who God has blessed me with.

You know who you are and I love you so much!

Hello, Kitty friends deco

Soon I’d like to buy an area rug for the dining room and a couple of pretty pics for Ray’s and my bedroom and Leah’s bedroom. But it’s all coming together, slowly but surely.

Ray is enjoying his work bench downstairs in the unfinished half of the basement, where he’s been setting up his tools. Tools are to men what shoes are to women.

He’s been working on cleaning rust off of old guns. He also shines his boots here and does other work.

Ray’s work bench with tools

Just as I claimed the front entry room, Ray has claimed this area of the house in the basement for himself.

Here he has:

his science fiction and medical books;
his boots; Ray was born and raised in south Louisiana and Texas and no respectable Texan would be without his boots;
his black Texan hat;
street art pictures from his (5) Haiti missions trips;
his grandfather’s old radio that he listens to country music on while he’s working;
his childhood marbles;
a few swords;
his Spyderco knife that I bought for his birthday last year;
a few telephone pole glass insulators;
miscellaneous other objects he treasures.

Ray’s work room

He has a 4-drawer box filled to the brim with nuts, bolts, and other mysterious things that only God and men know what it’s for, as well as a toolbox with tools, which are men’s toys.

Ray has always worked in emergency fields, with over 25 years of experience and high adrenaline coursing through his veins: Marines corpsman, Navy combat medic, paramedic, policeman, police chief, fireman, firechief, SWAT team.

As a result, he has a collection of uniforms and equipment. He used this bookshelf in the basement work room to put this equipment on:

Shelf with work equipment

Ray’s “collections” of other things over the course of 20 years of marriage are the topic of many heated discussions (i.e., world war) between us. He is a hoarder (although not to the extreme of those on the t.v. show). This is something I’ve tried to change about him for 20 years, to no avail.

Once Ruth Graham was asked if she ever thought about divorcing her husband, world famous evangelist Billy Graham. ” ‘No, I’ve never thought of divorce in all these 35 years of marriage,’ she said, ‘but I did think of murder a few times.” I understand the temptation!

Here’s just one small example of Ray’s papers stuffed in a bag. He has boxes and boxes of stuff in our two-garage and an entire shed full of stuff that he rented, because he refuses to part with it in this lifetime.

Ray’s papers

He doesn’t throw anything away and I give away or throw away many things (or shred it) after not using it for awhile. Purging sets you free!

In fact, research shows that clutter causes you major stress, which can lead to serious health issues.

But he is happy that he has a work bench and a space where he can put his stuff.

He also has the recreation room downstairs in the finished part of the basement for his “man cave” – his desk and laptop, a bookshelf with his books and movies, and the walls to hang his many certificates and training certifications.

You can see part of a blow gun hanging up on the wall to the top right of the pic, I think a gift from a friend. I’m not sure where Ray might “need” this.

Ray’s man cave

He is glad to have his own big desk back and to have a place for his certificates, swords, and other favorite things for his desk:

Ray’s desk and certificates

I even found a picture for him that says “Man Cave.”

Man cave picture

So there you have it. A tour of the rest of our house. It’s been fun shopping for bargains for the decorations and furniture.

I love it here!

What do you think?

Where is your favorite place to shop for furniture, pictures, and home items?

Please leave your comments below.

July 20, 2013 by Beth Jones

Blog, Business, Ebooks, Faith, prayer, Writing

Do you have writer’s block or writer’s avoidance behavior?

Woman in office

Today I finished organizing my new office. Leah helped me to assemble my second black bookshelf, and now all my books are put away. The closet in here is organized:

My notebooks, filled with notes from business training the last several years, are in plastic tubs;
My journals are in another plastic tub;
Important papers are filed in a small file box;
My books to sell at my next live event (July 11 @ 11 a.m. Central, details coming soon!) are boxed up, ready to go;
Tax returns and this year’s bank statements are together and are in storage boxes on the shelf;
Office supplies are organized and in a storage box.

The new office is now clean, neat, and completely organized. I’ve been unpacking and organizing our new house for a couple of weeks, taking off time from my business to get this done. It feels so good!

And as I finally sat down today at my desk to write, I realized now I have writer’s block! Or maybe it’s writer’s avoidance behavior.

Kathy Steffen writes about this in her post. Just click here.

I think my precious friend Rochelle, a.k.a. “Shelley” is doing this, too. For the last several weeks, she’s been “working on getting her office ready.”

Getting it ready has included shopping for a desk, a reading chair, a big screen t.v. (huh? Why does she need a t.v. in there if she’s working?), a cool futon…I think she may be just avoiding writing! 🙂

This is common among writers. They clean, organize, decorate, do anything to avoid writing – the very thing they love.

Why do they avoid it if they love it, though?

A lot of it is just plain fear. Fear of rejection from publishers (or fear of silence from your blog readers with NO comments!).

Fear it will be ridiculous, silly, or worse of all, BORING.

Fear that your writing isn’t good enough.

We writers all deal with this.

As Kathy Steffen says, “So what? Nobody else has to ever see it. When you get right down to it, writing is simply putting pen to paper and writing words. No one ever said what you write has to be interesting, good, or earth-shattering. Just write. No one has to see the first draft.”

She gives great tips for pushing past the fear and writer’s avoidance behavior (or legitimate blocks).

I loved her creative writing exercises, such as writing about a word like echo or about someone who is passive, a list of 20 things you’d like to do in the next year, or eavesdropping on a conversation, haha.

You can read her tips by clicking here.

In what ways do you find yourself doing writer’s avoidance behavior? Share in the comments below. (Yes, WRITE in the comments below!)

June 15, 2013 by Beth Jones

Blog, Faith, Marriage, Parenting, prayer

Pics of our new home!

I’m so excited because we’ve been praying for awhile now for a new rental home ~ and we found one! I LOVE it and am SO thankful to God for it.

I am still getting my new office ready, and we still have to buy some new furniture for our dining room and front entry room, but we are settling in. I wanted to show you how God has so graciously BLESSED us.

As you walk through the back door, there’s a utility room for coats and muddy or snowy shoes or boots.

The bright butterfly decorations, which Ray bought as a souvenir for me on one of his Haiti trips, brightens the walls.

Utility room

This room also has a little sink and cabinet for storage, where I’ve put Leah’s paint and drawing supplies and some of my office supplies on the shelves.

Utility room cabinet

The utility room also has a little closet for storage of a broom, a mop, and cleaning supplies, which I put on the top shelf this week. For a woman, storage like this is important!

Mop and broom storage closet

One reason I wanted this house so much was that it has a sunroom.

I first saw these in Florida when I was stationed there as a flight attendant. They are common there.

This one looks like the screened porches in the south, but has glass windows on the side. I immediately envisoned taking out the front window screens and replacing them with glass to let the sunlight stream in, retiling the floor, and adding fresh plants.

The sunroom is my “coffee with God” sanctuary room. I LOVE IT! The last couple of mornings, I’ve gone out there to pray and read my Bible. I’m planning to get new chairs for it soon, but right now I’m using my lounge chair. 🙂

Sunroom

Here’s a view of the beautiful yard, where I watch the birds and squirrels.

Sunroom view of yard

Here’s a pic of me with my feet up, in my slippers, relaxing in the sunroom.

Me in slippers in sunroom

The kitchen is bright and cheery with yellow paint, stone tile floors, new cabinets, pretty green and black counter tops, and several windows for plenty of sunlight.

One of the reasons I wanted this house was the beautiful Spanish arch doorways in the kitchen/dining room and front entry (living) room. I love the character and unique quality these arches add to the home.

Kitchen

The kitchen also has a breakfast bar, which I’ve always wanted for our kids! (We still have one at home.) I found these cute, dark wood, saddle seat bar stools for the breakfast bar.

Kitchen breakfast bar

I’m in love with the Spanish arch doors and this painting of the red wine and the wine glasses blesses my soul. I’m planning to decorate the kitchen in an Italian theme with paintings, decorative pepper bottles, etc.

Spanish arch doorway and wine painting

This is our dining room. I’m planning to buy a modern, new dinette and some Italian painting art to decorate the walls asap. I love all the light in this room.

Dining room

This little arch and the shelf in the dining room are another reason I wanted this house. It is so cute! Yes, I’m easily entertained. It was for a phone to sit on. I’m going to shop at Kohl’s or Target for a little deco.

Little arch and shelf

This is the front entry, or living, room. The big windows allow plenty of light into the room.

Living room

The fireplace doesn’t work, but its pretty mantle makes a perfect shelf for my Willow Tree angels. You can see from the picture that the walls aren’t your typical modern sheetrock. It’s a special material made in older homes.

The angel on the left is called “Blessings: Each day unexpected blessings.” Amen! Look for those unexpected blessings in your life each day!

Willow Tree angels

This couple angel’s name is called Promise. Hold onto God’s promises. They are “Yes and amen.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Promise angels

Here’s our upstairs hall. The upstairs mostly has the hardwood floors. I can only clean these with vinegar and water.

Hall

This painting of a mother and her baby is one of my favorites that we’ve had since Leah was born. Its inscription, Jeremiah 29:11, ESV, says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

I like the NIV version which says, “plans to prosper you.” And I also love the CEV version says, “I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering.” God wants to bless you with success!

Jeremiah 29:11 painting

Here’s the main bathroom. I just know you are dying to see this! haha.

MaIn bathroom

I bought a new shower curtain for the bathroom – chocolate brown and teal, squares- and a chocolate brown rug. Yes, anything chocolate, please!

Chocolate brown-teal curtain and brown rug

Here’s Leah’s desk and computer with her graphic art tablet.

Leah’s desk, computer and graphic art tablet

Here’s Leah’s bed. The room was painted a pale blue, so we found a comfy, new, chocolate brown and pale blue striped comforter for her new room.

Leah’s bed

Leah saw a picture of trees with sunlight streaming through that she liked, so we bought that. I also hung up her picture that she drew with her graphic art tablet of the moon. We’re still hanging pics.

Leah’s moon

Above her dresser hang the pictures of Leah’s English riding horse show, where she won the blue ribbon first place. I was so proud of her that day!

Horseback riding blue ribbon show pictures

Here’s our bedroom. Our new comforter is a stark, black and white floral theme. Curtains for each room is on the to-do list.

Master bedroom

I’m still working on my office, but you can get a sneak peak at it here. This weekend I’ve been going through plastic tubs.

Tubs in my office

Here’s the stairs to the downstairs recreation room – a partially finished basement. The unfinished part of the basement is for our washer, dryer, and storage.

Stairs

When I first saw the recreation room, I thought it’d make a perfect man cave for Ray.

I used a pretty, cherry tree room divider to separate the “recreation” area from Ray’s office area. The recreation area is where our big screen t.v. is now, so he and Leah can enjoy watching Star Trek and other sci-fi movies.

Recreation room

Ray hates parting with anything and refused to get rid of a Victorian sofa we bought years ago. He also put his grandparents’ antique dining room furniture and other antiques there. I’m teasing him that the man cave looks more like a woman’s parlor right now. 🙂

If you know anyone who wants a Victorian sofa, email me at elizabethdjones@gmail.com. (Make an offer!)

Recreation room

Here’s Ray’s office area of the recreation room – his desk, his swords, and many of his plaques for his accomplishments.

Man cave

The rec room/ man cave also has a bar, for cold drinks. I think this is cool.

Man cave bar

Here’s the downstairs bathroom.. Everything in the house has been completely remodeled. I really like the blue stone tile in this bathroom.

Downstairs bath

Outside we have several bushes of pink peonies. Beautiful!

Pink peonies

Over our front door we have this sign: Our commitment: We will serve the Lord.

We will serve the Lord.

This is our new, beautiful home! I’m SUPER excited to be here, and just walk through the house smiling.

It’s peaceful and beautiful here. We are SO grateful to God for this blessing! What do you think? Leave your comments below.

May 26, 2013 by Beth Jones

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I'm an International Speaker, Author of 30 books (and still writing!), traveler, wife to fire chief/paramedic Ray, and a blessed mom of 3 beautiful daughters, Heather, Eden, and Leah. I encourage women to use their gifts for God's glory, fulfilling their great purpose, and living a life they love. I help aspiring Christian speakers & writers to share their hearts' unique, powerful messages. The ocean is my happy place and place of peace and refilling. I love Jesus, my family, my cats Natalya and Nichodemus, traveling, chips & salsa, coffee, chocolate, nature, music, and art. My husband Ray calls me an enigma: I love to laugh and cry a lot. What about you? I'd love to connect more with you and hear how you desire to make more of an impact here for God's glory. Thanks for stopping by here. I pray you will find the hope, inspiration, and motivation you need to become all God created you to be. Dream big because we serve a big God!