Periscope

Upon hearing about Periscope from my first born, my initial reaction was...sigh...another social media time sucker...I resist.  My husband convinced me to get an account to keep up with him live in his mission trip/humanitarian aid world travels.  Other than that, I didn't get it.  Watch other people I don't know in other parts of the world?  Why?  [Just because everyone can now broadcast live does not mean that everyone should.  Just sayin'.  I watched more than one mind-numbing eye-witness account of paint drying and grass growing.]

And then it happened.  I discovered my first celebrity with a Periscope account...John Mayer.  Cool. Subscribe.  Whatever.  And then a day or so later...Periscope hooked me.  When John Mayer went live on his back patio in front of a flickering fire, playing classical guitar for 30 minutes while little ol' me did dishes in my little house on the mountain in Arkansas.  Suddenly, I got it.  ha!

The next thing I did was look up Chip Gaines, because I knew this medium was made for him.  Sure enough, there he was.  And I was right...he's especially hilarious freestyle on Periscope.

At least for me, what I love about Periscope is following varying degrees of famous people and seeing them live, unfiltered and on the level ground of humanity with their smart phones, fumbling cross-eyed with the camera, losing signals & coming back again, turning the phone the wrong way, trying to figure out how it works, seeing their double chins and their un-coiffed hair. It's hilarious and real [read: unedited, unfiltered].  I applaud them for their fearlessness in vulnerability with their public.

It's kind of like seeing a favorite band in concert.  For me, a concert makes or breaks an artist.  I've seen people in concert whom I was head-over-heels for just listening to their album, but in person I realized their talent had been propped up in the studio.  Or maybe their music was good, but I realized their acting was better because they would open their mouths between songs someone else had written for them and it was obvious they were as dumb as a rock.  Or the really great thing is when I go to a concert not knowing the artist or even thinking I don't like the musician and they totally win me over at the concert with their authentic artistry, comedic timing, intellect or powerful anointing.  OR the very rare occasion when I go to a concert already loving the music and the artist and then the concert blows me away and I can't even breathe because they are so amazing.  Like U2.  But I digress.  The ultimate test of a musician is when they are performing solo with minimal or no accompaniment.  For me, Periscope is an unplugged mini-concert.

The Periscope Whistle is akin to the "You've Got Mail" of the 90's.  It's always exciting to see who is scoping live, right this minute, "just for me."

My pet peeve is when whoever is scoping gets distracted by the comments.  It's not fun to watch somebody say, "Oh, hi!" forty-eight times in 5 minutes to people you don't know.  Unless they are responding to me.  Which has not happened yet.  Maybe then I will feel differently.

Not everyone I follow currently scopes.  Most (like me) just have accounts to watch other people and that's cool.  My favorite people to follow are the ones I know are going to add something positive to my day: amazing artistry, a pop of inspiration, something that will make me giggle, etc.  And they keep it snappy...5-10 minutes or less.  Unless they are John Mayer or George Strait.  Scope faves so far:

• John Mayer because he's an incredible musician, usually serenades, is musically educational & is kind to his fans.  
• Chip Gaines because he's funny & from my hometown & just a natural in front of a camera.
• The Nester (Myquillin Smith) because she scoped live in her house on a regular Monday and it wasn't perfect...a few piles, her house was topsy-turvy because she was in the middle of a big project, little makeup, bedhead.  She's just like me.  And she authentically practices what she preaches.  My hero.  
• David Binion & Nicole Binion because they are anointed, humble worship leaders.  I know their scope is probably going to include some spontaneous worship and I'm all about that.  They will scope when they're thinking through an arrangement or holding choir practice in their living room.  They use their scope to nurture worshippers, which is so rare & refreshing.  This is one of those exceptions when I don't mind if the scope is a longer 30 minutes or so.
• lifeingrace (Edie Wadsworth) because I know she's going to have something specific & quick with which to encourage, educate or inspire me.

I'm following many more, famous and not, whom I think have the potential to have the same kind of positive impact with this medium.  Praying for them to figure it out, work up the courage & get busy with it already.  (I'm looking at you, Tracy & John Porter.)  And also, I have not scoped one single time on as of this writing.

So what are you thinking about Periscope?  Have you tried it?  Who are your favorites to follow & why?

Little House On The Mountain - Part 8

So, I've shown you how the original little house was transformed (and is still transforming)...Now, let me show you around a bit upstairs in the new addition.  Honestly, I have not decorated much upstairs so far.  You get to go on that journey with me in real time.

First of all, I'll show you the stairs themselves.  I painted the kick plates with chalk board paint so that I can change out words or quotes any time I want.  You can clearly see the stairs all the way up from the kitchen and dining room, so anything written on the kick plates is almost like wall art for the downstairs.  We are working on getting a banister.  Thankfully, no railing is not an issue because we don't have small kids.

In the addition, I went mostly with the wall color Mushroom, which is a smokey grey.  I got the recipe for it from Pinterest and took it to our Sherwin-Williams for a color match.  In the bedrooms, I went with SW Biscuit.

These autumn leaves from the immediate area around our house serve as my inspiration colors for the public spaces upstairs.  Nothing about our home is formal, but the upstairs is more casual than downstairs.  There are more mementos from our kids' childhoods than our own.  It's where our teenagers & twenty-something hang out together most of the time.

At the top of the stairs is the green armoire we bought for our baby girl's nursery because her room in our 100 year-old Texas ranch house didn't have a closet.  Now, we use it to store extra pillows, quilts & linens.  On top of the armoire are books from my childhood, an old milk can that was my husband's grandfather's, battery-operated candles with timers, a pair of our kids' cowboy boots, a globe & a Wahoo board from my childhood.  [Woo!  Forgive all the glare.  I'm working on my photography skills!]

Here is our new, upstairs bathroom.  I wanted it to look like my Daddy's dairy barn.  

Vintage medicine cabinet from Round Top (about $25).  Barn lighting from Lowe's.  The rusty corrugated metal was about $25 for all of it (and then some) from a flea market.  

I built the sink base out of vintage table legs from a flea market and a chest that was used in a mechanic's garage (and had several layers of paint & grease when I rescued it) that was sitting in a junk yard.  The new faucet is made to look like a hand pump, which is a nod to farm life and what my husband does for a living.

The linen closet has a screen door.

We used slate tile on the floor and surrounding the tub/shower, all the way to the ceiling.

I love the varied colors and it is very forgiving about showing dirt in a kids' bathroom.

To be continued...

Inspiration Mondays

Because Mondays need a little help...

Here's what's inspiring me...

homemade ice cream

garden fresh homemade fried okra

a patchwork reupholstered piece by Carol Hicks Bolton (I believe the photo cred goes to Anne Lorys)

What's inspiring you right now?

Little House On The Mountain - Part 7

The laundry hallway remained the laundry hallway for a year, just with upgraded appliances.  We also had our computer desk there.  I didn't love that the first thing my guests saw was our washer and dryer, but it did motivate me to keep on top of the laundry!

Once we got to this stage of the remodel, we hit the pause button for a year.  We had to focus our attention on our ministry and funding a water well project in Africa, among other things.  To learn more about the ministry we founded over 20 year ago, click here.

Fast forward a year.  It was time to build a modest addition.  We added a two story structure: 2-car garage, laundry room & walk-in closet on the first floor with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a small living room upstairs.

We installed central heat and air conditioning.  YAY!  We decided to keep the gas floor heater for ambiance and because it's handy if the electricity goes out in a winter storm (which happens on the mountain).  

We relocated the water heater (and upgraded to a tankless system) to my walk-in closet.  We finished the water heater closet and turned it into an extra storage pantry.

We relocated the washer & dryer to the new laundry room.  We moved the living room upstairs.  We turned what had been functioning as the living room downstairs into the dining room.

I hadn't done any redecorating at this point, just moved furniture around slightly to get the rooms functioning.  I cried tears of joy & gratefulness when I got to pull our farm table out of storage and actually have a real family table again.

Here are a couple of pictures from Christmastime, but you get the idea.

The laundry hallway (between the existing bedroom & bathroom became the sitting room.  (The storage pantry is just to the right of my boots in the above pic.)  The downstairs bedroom, sitting room & bathroom have become the master suite.  The sitting room is for my husband and I or a cozy spot to sit downstairs with one of my kids or company.  This room is currently in "transitional phase."  Later, we will take out the back door, replace it with a big picture window and add seating.  Currently, we just have a TV, loveseat & ottoman.  

The mirror is just above the floor heater in what is now the dining room (formerly the living room).  In this pic, you see the bathroom door; the storage pantry is to the left of the bathroom door.  

Here, I just moved everything on the wall above the sideboard to above the loveseat in the sitting room.

To be continued...

Little House On The Mountain - Part 6

This was the existing bathroom the first time we saw it with the previous tenant still living in the house. #notfabulous

Yessss.  Let that wash over you for a moment.

I knew that I wanted to paint something red because it's my favorite color.  Also, when we lived in Arkansas years ago was the first time I ever saw red walls in the home of Kirk & Debby Thompson. The effect was stunning.  I loved it.  Since this bathroom was a small space, I decided to go for it there.  I realize it's not on trend at the moment.  I. don't. care.

Hello, lover.

First stages of remodeling.  We put real tile down (in place of linoleum that looks like tile) & painted the walls red and the ceiling Old Gold 3.  We could not get the old border off the wall, so we just textured and painted over it.

I fell in love with this Melody Ross print.  I loved the colors (red, bluesy turquoise, several shades of green) and the words were perfect.  There was much to grumble & grieve over for different family members at that time.  It was a great reminder every day.  This was my inspiration piece.

I found these metal roses at a flea market and decided to make my own frame.  I painted an unfinished Hobby Lobby frame with several colors of Annie Sloan.  Then I took the painted frame to Hobby Lobby and had them frame the print between two pieces of glass so the red wall color could act as the mat.  Once I got that back home, I glued the metal roses onto the frame.  

Burlap lamp shades from Ballard Designs mimic the burlap in the Melody Ross print design.  (I think the actual lampshades I got are discontinued, but you get the idea.  They are readily available.)

I painted the existing oak vanity in Annie Sloan Coco with dark stain.

This Pottery Barn shower curtain fit the bill...I just added brown pom pom fringe at the bottom to personalize it & tie it to the room's dark stained wood trim.

Log cabins are indicative of the early Ozarks and early Texas, so I decided to do a faux log cabin wall above the vanity as a nod to that.  We just used reclaimed boards to look like square logs and in between the boards is drywall compound (to mimic early chinking).

Why, yes, I use King's Crown to hold my Q-tips, soap & candles.

These are my $10 curtains.  I got two vintage panels from Round Top, $5 each.  I got them at the end of the week from ladies who were making purses out of vintage fabrics and selling them for over  $200.  (Yay them and yay me.)  I found the vintage Parisian trim in a bin in an alley in Round Top.  The owner of the store had so much that she hadn't gone through the tangles of trim yet and didn't really want to.  I think she only charged me 15 cents a yard, maybe.  The peely medicine cabinet was a find with my bff (who has since passed) 13 years ago at my favorite antique store in Gruene, TX.  It hung in my baby girl's nursery once upon a time.

This bathroom required new flooring & drywall around the tub.  Excluding those structural things, I would estimate that the decorating part of transforming this bathroom (including new plumbing & light fixtures & tile on the floor/around the tub) cost about $300 & elbow grease.

To be continued...

Inspiration Mondays

Because Mondays need a little help...

here are some things that inspire me...

One of the rusty metal sheds at the feed mill my Dad managed after he sold the dairy.

Freshly-picked pears from our heirloom pear tree in the pasture...in a bowl my best friend gave me years ago...on a chippy metal stool

The classic, velvety red rose.

Old dog trot home in Independence, Texas.

What's inspiring you right now?

Little House On The Mountain - Part 4

So, our main room downstairs was the kitchen/living room combo.  A "Great Room," if you will, but that makes it sound too grand.  I wish I had a better before pic, but just think the kitchen, minus the cabinets, plus a window unit.

We closed up the existing doorway to bedroom that faced the front doorway without a door. 

We made the existing broom closet into the new doorway for the bedroom.

Move in day.  The view of the living room from the kitchen.

The view of the kitchen standing in front of the TV.

Candlelight makes everything better.

 I had this vintage map of my hometown framed at Hobby Lobby.

I bought these lamps at a flea market for $25 for the pair.

The floor heater is more inviting now.

Friends warming up the space.

This is more homey above the floor heater than the flyswatter.

Again, for about $150 (not including the cost of the wood floors), our living room went from "not fabulous" to warm & cozy.

To be continued...