A Houndstooth Honey

Did you know when a houndstooth print is a very small houndstooth 

it is called

puppytooth?

 I'm not even kidding! 

So I wonder if you take a small table with two cute little shelves and paint houndstooth 

on the top of that small table, 

can that be a 

puppytooth table???

 Remember that cute little table I painted school-house-turquoise and paid $15 for on Craigslist?

Well this is the sister table that came with her. At one time she was just an 

ugly brown mess. 

 Until she went in for her make-over. 

 Then the little brown table got a new look. 

Did you know that houndstooth (and puppytooth) originated in Scotland?  To keep people from fighting each other ? The duo-tone check was never registered to a clan. It began to be tied to the idea of acceptance. 

The houndstooth played an important role in the social society of Scotland, as the warring Scots could wear the abstract-four-point-shape and present themselves as fashionable but neutral! 

Donning houndstooth became the sartorial strategy of choice for gents in Scotland.

Wider business and social connections became possible.

Now you know.

My cheap little table was the perfect candidate for the ever-popular houndstooth.....And since it is a little table, I am sticking with the 

'puppytooth' label. 

Who said houndstooth...or puppytooth had to be used on clothes? 

By the way: 1. I used Annie Sloan Chalk paint in graphite and old white for the table.

2. I used a stencil I found in a book.

3.I passed the cute little table on to my houndstooth-loving-daughter Taylor.

Linking to:

Wow Us Wednesday

Metamorphosis Monday
Open House Thursday
Stone Gable TTT
Feathered Nest Friday
Furniture Feature Friday

Power of Pinterest Party

Winter's Colors

I took down my flashy Christmas mantel

   and replaced it with a New Years mantel...(Which also served as a solid-week-of-first-of-January-birthdays-we-celebrate.)  Then I packed that away the first half of January and replaced it with calm. 

The New Years-and -first-of-January-birthdays-mantel

It feels so good to be a Simpleton for a while. 

 I rummaged through my dish closet/staging closet and found a variety of pine cones. I also pulled some old children's books off my shelves to add as well. 

 Without even purposely meaning to, I built a mantelscape of browns and grays and beige and a little moss green. 

 I knew I was picking all those colors, but I did not realize until I saw the pictures on the computer, that those are the colors of our winter right now. It is SO dry in Oklahoma that everything is brown and gray.  And yes, we even have some mossy green. It has been so mild, that not everything green even turned for the winter. It did dull up though because of the intense drought. Even the twig balls are representative of our dry, crispy winter.

 My collection of pine cones are all Wal-Mart specials, except for the large white ones. Those are from Kohl's several years ago at 90% off. Grouped together the wax-candle-pinecones, the faux-mercury pinecones and the faux-whatever-the-finish-is-pinecones don't look too bad. 

 The other great thing about pinecones is that they can take you through Fall decorating, into and out of Christmas and still have them setting out for just plain 'ole wintertime. 

 Plain 'ole dull and dry wintertime....like I said. 

 Let me just say that winter's colors look much better inside my house than outside my house. 

 And because I still had twig balls and faux pinecones, pedestals, orbs and spheres to spare, I set some out on the table by the front door. 

 The weatherman said tonight that we have a great chance for a significant snow early next week. It is so bad here that this I-hate-snow-more-than-anything-gal is hoping and praying that we do get a big snow. 

 Not only do we need every single drop of any kind of moisture we can get, but then the outside of my house will look as pretty as winter's colors do on the inside of my house. 

Pray hard for that moisture, Okie friends!...And anyone else that wants to pray for us! 

Linking to:

Wow Us Wednesday

Open House Thursday

Stone Gable TTT

Be the change......

My students all have to keep a notebook,

which they turn in for a grade several times per semester. 

The notebooks have a section called "Bellringers", where the students have to write about something I assign at the beginning of class each day. It takes no longer than 10 minutes. I try to pick timely topics or some pop culture that is applicable to the day. 

One of my students that is new to our district this year, always includes a little "doodle" that is relative to the writing topic. The little graphics are done so quickly, yet have so much fun detail. 

I look forward to grading her notebook, just so I can look at the "doodles". I love how her mind works and I love her talent. 

One day I  casually asked her if she would be interested in doing some chalkboard drawings for me and she enthusiastically said yes. In fact she asked me every day when I was going to bring her something to "chalk" on. 

I finally made it to Lowe's and bought several cheapo square boards. You know, those that are precut and around $5ish. I went home and painted them with chalkboard paint and took one to school. My cute little student had it back to me the next day. Oh my word. She was even better than I thought. (It was the cute little Christmas Bible-verse wreath). 

So then I took the second board to school and told her how much I loved the quote, "BE the change you want to see in the world." 

The next day she brought me this cute little board. I love what she did with it, putting the quote around the world. It will look so cute with my collection of globes. 

I had an electric globe which I paired it with. Actually, I had never even tried the globe to see if it still lit up. I did not have high hopes for it . I plugged it in, tried the "on" switch and she lit right up. Perfect!!  

Since this one, she has made me a couple of more. I promise I am not working this girl to death. She just loves to create and loves that I LOVE her creations. I prop them up at my desk when she brings them to me and other students love to see her work too. I think I will have her make another one like this one to keep in my classroom, 

After all, is there a better message for high school students?  

BE the change you want to see in the world.

Linking with:

Metamorphosis Monday

Wow Us Wednesday
Stone Gable TTT
Open House Thursday

Table Top Thoughts

At the beginning of Fall I found a table on Craigslist that looked like 

a perfect candidate for a little project I had cookin' in my head.

 The table was only $15, so I figured I would get it and try out my idea. I sent my daughter to get the table and she came home with two tables. So, the deal was even sweeter. (I'll show the other table and its make-over later.) 

 Sad little ugly-duckling, wasn't she? 

 I had a can of "oops" paint from Lowe's that was a turquoise. It kind of made me think of "school-rooms-in-the-70's-kind-of-turquoise". Perhaps that's why I was drawn to it. ...That and the fact it was only $5!  So I bought it. 

 When it went on, it had more of a green tint than I was expecting. Not that I didn't like it, but it was not as bluesy as the Annie Sloans I had been using. So I slathered some "oops" beige on first, then the "oops schoolroom-in-the-70's turquoise".  It was beginning to look better. I still was not sold though. 

 I kept the frame around the top the "oops beige". Then I decided to paint the very top black. I painted it regular black to begin with, then I went back over it with black chalkboard paint. 

 Then I had the brilliant thought to add baby casters to it. Really. Aren't those the cutest size? Now I can push it around anywhere. It will make the perfect game table.

 Since I still was not sold on the color of the table, I added Minwax paste wax in a dark brown. 

 I gooked it on then buffed it off...making sure to leave some in all the right places. 

 Then there was still the matter of that top. After all, the project I bought it for initially was because of the "framed" top. I had a big idea for the top. 

 Then I imagined my sweet Leightyn loving the table-top chalkboard...Not to mention the fact she could push the table wherever she wanted to. So I left it. 

 But every day when I see the table I just keep thinking about that idea. Hmmmm. 

Should I or shouldn't I? 

 The table sits in our second den. Or office. Or study. Or whatever you call the room we can't decide on a name for. It is the room where I read or get on the computer. The dogs have their toys in here. There is a TV in here that I have yet to turn on. (I'm a book and computer kind of girl). There are lots of homages in this room to my love of letters......

 So I might as well show you. My big idea that I am still mulling involves lots and lots of wooden letterpress blocks. I think that table would be perfect. And just in case you didn't know, my family has been in the newspaper business for over 100 years. Now you see where I am coming from. Hmmmm....

 So...should I or shouldn't I??? 

Chalkboard top??  Or letterpress blocks in a word maze???

Linking to:
Metamorphosis Monday
Wow Us Wednesday
Stone Gable TTT
Open House Thursday
Furniture Feature Friday

First and ten.......

I blame it on my Dad, really.

My love of football,it rests solely on the shoulders of him.

My earliest, earliest memories are of being bundled up and taken to football games.

Heck, I was born in Norman, Oklahoma...(home of the Sooners)...I had to love the game!

 My Dad coached a (young) team when we lived in Norman. I am too young to remember that, but I am told I made it to every practice and game. I do remember though going to high school and college games from the age of three or four and on. My Dad expected me to sit right beside him and watch the game while we feasted from the popcorn my Mom had sent with us to the game. It was always in a large, brown paper grocery sack. You could see the butter stains on the sack where it leaked through. My Dad would shake the sack when we were in our seats, getting the butter and salt to coat each kernel. We would eat our buttery popcorn and watch...and talk about the game. 

 I have no doubt I asked a million questions. ...Which was fine...IF I learned from the answers to those questions. If I had asked the same questions week after week I probably would have lost my Friday night ballgame with my Dad! 

 When we were at local ballgames, many (and much of) the time my Dad walked the sidelines of the game, notepad in his hand and camera around his neck. He owned the local newspaper and he was the reporter as well as the cameraman. He would set me either on the front row of the stands, or sometimes I would even get to sit against the wall that separated the crowd from the team...on the team's side of course! I thought I was very special. And I still knew that no matter where I was sitting I was expected to watch the game. 

 Later, as my younger siblings got old enough so that they and my Mom could come to the game, I sometimes sat with them as I watched the local games. My favorite spot was still against the wall as my Dad roamed the sidelines though....with my bag of home-popped popcorn. 

 Later, as my siblings and I became school age, it was my Mother who would load us in the car on Saturday's and drive us to Norman to watch the Sooners play. We had great season-ticket seats that were (at the time) right behind the Sooner team. I not only watched the game intently, I studied the players on the sidelines. I loved to watch how they interacted with each other, the coaches and sometimes even the crowd. 

 Years go by and I think that the top of my "Boyfriend Criteria" must be the fact that he is a football player. Oh there was plenty of other criteria on that list as well, but that one requirement was right there at the top!

 I found the football player of my dreams, married him and went on to have three football players of my own.

(As well as one football cheerleader and another football-crazy daughter.) 

 Through the years of raising all the football-crazy children, we hosted many, many, many football dinners at our house. We lived only a few blocks from the schools my children attended. Many of their friends lived on farms outside of town. It was easy for our home to be the one where friends gathered. 

 And of course I wanted to make sure my football players and their friends, and my cheerleader and her friends and my other football lovin' daughter and her friends were fed well before the game...and after the game. 

 That long story, my friends, is what I use for an excuse of why I have so many football-themed dishes. Generic football and Sooner football...I have several crates of each. 

 But when I pull them out each Fall, there are a plethora of memories attached to the dishes. Memories of a little girl and her bag of popcorn, sitting with her Daddy learning the game of football. Memories of a young girl watching her boyfriend and her classmates play Memories of a mother sitting through game after game after game and dreading the day her sons no longer played. 

 Many of my best memories involve the game of football. Some of the sweetest years I ever spent were all the years my sons and their friends play. Football parents forge a strong bond, and there are many special memories attached to those days. 

 So today we'll use many of those many football dishes for the last time, till they have to be packed away for several months. 

 And this football loving mama will rue the fact that football season is over once again. 

 In the old days I would have pulled out my calendar and counted the days till late August when football season once again kicks off. Today though, I will look it up on my phone and mark that kick-off day in August with a special alarm.

 Then tomorrow when I  am packing dishes away in the dish closet and lugging football "extras" to the basement, I will once again blame it on my Dad. 

 After all, it really is his fault. He's the one that took his little girl to all those games and expected her to actually learn the game of football. He had no idea what he was starting! 

Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday!