klmno
Active Member
A trip to family dollar could inspire me!?! I went to pick up a few misc. items to make the townhouse a little more livable and homey...for instance, I'd forgotten that I'd returned the original shower curtain I'd bought because it didn't fit the colrs so well after bringing it home so I've just been using the liner by itself. No problem when it's just me and I have no visitors upstairs. So I went to buy a shower curtain, a basket to keep toiletries in that I could stick in the bathroom counter because we have no medicine cabinet, and a cheap tablecloth to use on a daily basis, to save the off-white nice one and nice table runner.
First, I found two fish decor shower curtains which will match the wall decoraations of fish difficult child and I bought on vacation one year (that are still packed away somewhere). I bought both because the lady said I could return one when I figured out what I wanted. LOL!
Then, I found the baskets and threw in a pack of men's combs for difficult child and then ran across the small wall plaques with inspirational sayings. I didn't want to overdo it but I bought one that says "If you believe, all things are possible" and it's my colors on a black background, which matches the entryway and guest (1/2) bath. Then, I found a pretty but simple stand-up one of etched glass of the serenity Prayer (they also have difficult child in substance abuse although that's a little odd because he only popped one drug test out of countless). I planned to put the small one in the guest bath since I have hardly any shelf space and the mantel is covered with difficult child photos and his 2 trophies from elementary school.
Then, I found a whole section on Chef Bubba- as I call him- and I had started a collection of Chef Bubba stuff for my kitchen decor years ago. I bought an inexpensive Chef Bubba tablecloth to use on a daily basis, a small wall rack witth plates including one that says "Good food, Good life", and a pair of wall hooks- all in chef Bubba decor!
Then, I found a ceramic coffee pot planter that I thought I could turn into a center piece for the table (for fruit or something) and a matching candy dish that is not Chef Bubba but in matching colors and of a kitchen design- an apple with green stem/leaf on a beige background.
Then I came home and found that the planter isn't completely round like I'd thought- it's flat on one side. So unless I can figure out something else, I'll be taking it back but I figure I can just as easily get a decorative bowl at Walmart and do the same thing with it. I'll get a little fake greenery from the hobby/fake flower area and throw in the bottom and stick some fruit in it.
Then, I was asking mysel what on earth I'm going to use those Chef Bubba wall hooks for and I remembered an old shelf difficult child and I had found years ago that we both painted black and tuurned it into a small curio (sp) cabinet, although it's open and doesn't have a door. Still, he'd shopped with me before to find small kitchen and Chef Bubba things to put in it and I'd packed it and brought it when I left the house, even though I'd never finished my collection of things to fill it. I think that small glass Serenity Prayer might fit in there and look nice and I can work around something and use the wall hooks with it.
So now I'm inspired to get all this done and even unpack a few more boxes to get to a nice hand towel for the guest bath, the fish decor for the upstairs bath, and that curio cabinet difficult child helped me work on. There will be some memories from the past but plenty new stuff here so it isn't always a reminder of what we lost...we can and must move forward and while he's had a hard life in Department of Juvenile Justice, I have gotten thru the worst of picking up and moving forward on the home-front so he'll be coming home to a comfortable, if not elaborate or big, home to live in and start his new life. difficult child will need to help me with some things- hanging larger pictures, getting a desk and LR tables bought and moved in because I'm not willing to pay someone to do it. I think it might be good for him, too, though- to help put the finishing touches on this place.
I have a feeling reentry lady assumes all kids in Department of Juvenile Justice come from the projects with parents who have no idea how to cultivate or encourage their children how to do constructive things. She might be shocked when she comes here. LOL! I remember the first PO assigned to us here- he did the home visit right after I rented that first house 18 mos ago. He came in and I had nothing but boxes, a blow-up mattress on the floor in the DR, and a lawn chair in the LR with a small TV on a stand. But difficult child's photos and trophies (nothing big- just elementary stuff) and his plaque from going all the way thru cub scouts on the mantel. He just made smiled, made a comment about that stuff, then left.
I have realized that when my son's life has fallen apart, there can never be "home" anywhere, right or wrong. But when he's moving in the right direction, he doesn't even have to be at here with me or wherever I'm living, and I am just as inprired to create and maintain a Home as I was when I found out I was pregnant.
And this all started with a trip to Family Dollar to pick up a cheap shower curtain. Well, I'll admit....I was in there about 1 1/2 hours. I spent less than $60 though. LOL! Oh- I can hang my Chef Bubba pot holders on the wall hooks!
First, I found two fish decor shower curtains which will match the wall decoraations of fish difficult child and I bought on vacation one year (that are still packed away somewhere). I bought both because the lady said I could return one when I figured out what I wanted. LOL!
Then, I found the baskets and threw in a pack of men's combs for difficult child and then ran across the small wall plaques with inspirational sayings. I didn't want to overdo it but I bought one that says "If you believe, all things are possible" and it's my colors on a black background, which matches the entryway and guest (1/2) bath. Then, I found a pretty but simple stand-up one of etched glass of the serenity Prayer (they also have difficult child in substance abuse although that's a little odd because he only popped one drug test out of countless). I planned to put the small one in the guest bath since I have hardly any shelf space and the mantel is covered with difficult child photos and his 2 trophies from elementary school.
Then, I found a whole section on Chef Bubba- as I call him- and I had started a collection of Chef Bubba stuff for my kitchen decor years ago. I bought an inexpensive Chef Bubba tablecloth to use on a daily basis, a small wall rack witth plates including one that says "Good food, Good life", and a pair of wall hooks- all in chef Bubba decor!
Then, I found a ceramic coffee pot planter that I thought I could turn into a center piece for the table (for fruit or something) and a matching candy dish that is not Chef Bubba but in matching colors and of a kitchen design- an apple with green stem/leaf on a beige background.
Then I came home and found that the planter isn't completely round like I'd thought- it's flat on one side. So unless I can figure out something else, I'll be taking it back but I figure I can just as easily get a decorative bowl at Walmart and do the same thing with it. I'll get a little fake greenery from the hobby/fake flower area and throw in the bottom and stick some fruit in it.
Then, I was asking mysel what on earth I'm going to use those Chef Bubba wall hooks for and I remembered an old shelf difficult child and I had found years ago that we both painted black and tuurned it into a small curio (sp) cabinet, although it's open and doesn't have a door. Still, he'd shopped with me before to find small kitchen and Chef Bubba things to put in it and I'd packed it and brought it when I left the house, even though I'd never finished my collection of things to fill it. I think that small glass Serenity Prayer might fit in there and look nice and I can work around something and use the wall hooks with it.
So now I'm inspired to get all this done and even unpack a few more boxes to get to a nice hand towel for the guest bath, the fish decor for the upstairs bath, and that curio cabinet difficult child helped me work on. There will be some memories from the past but plenty new stuff here so it isn't always a reminder of what we lost...we can and must move forward and while he's had a hard life in Department of Juvenile Justice, I have gotten thru the worst of picking up and moving forward on the home-front so he'll be coming home to a comfortable, if not elaborate or big, home to live in and start his new life. difficult child will need to help me with some things- hanging larger pictures, getting a desk and LR tables bought and moved in because I'm not willing to pay someone to do it. I think it might be good for him, too, though- to help put the finishing touches on this place.
I have a feeling reentry lady assumes all kids in Department of Juvenile Justice come from the projects with parents who have no idea how to cultivate or encourage their children how to do constructive things. She might be shocked when she comes here. LOL! I remember the first PO assigned to us here- he did the home visit right after I rented that first house 18 mos ago. He came in and I had nothing but boxes, a blow-up mattress on the floor in the DR, and a lawn chair in the LR with a small TV on a stand. But difficult child's photos and trophies (nothing big- just elementary stuff) and his plaque from going all the way thru cub scouts on the mantel. He just made smiled, made a comment about that stuff, then left.
I have realized that when my son's life has fallen apart, there can never be "home" anywhere, right or wrong. But when he's moving in the right direction, he doesn't even have to be at here with me or wherever I'm living, and I am just as inprired to create and maintain a Home as I was when I found out I was pregnant.
And this all started with a trip to Family Dollar to pick up a cheap shower curtain. Well, I'll admit....I was in there about 1 1/2 hours. I spent less than $60 though. LOL! Oh- I can hang my Chef Bubba pot holders on the wall hooks!
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