Little J.'s Bedroom

 

For Little J.'s 13th birthday, my cousins, aunt, a couple friends from church, and we as a family decided to redo her bedroom as a gift. 

First things first, we had to clear out the bedroom and tear off the old teddy bear wallpaper.  Here are some before pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

There were actually two layers of wallpaper, a layer of paint, and the drywall.  As seen in more pictures below, some of the wallpaper we tore off brought the paint off of the drywall.  Needless to say, we had to put puddy on a lot of spots!



 

 

 

With a lot of input and help from so many loving people, trips to town for supplies, and work time, we got all of the paper off, the exposed drywall covered, and the paint ready.

 

 

 

 

 

Our cousin came over and hung out for a few days and in those days, we got the room painted with the light blue paint Little J. had picked out.  In the end, the shade of blue matched the carpet almost perfectly!

 
Now, here are some pictures right after painting.

 

 

 

Just giving the room a fresh coat of paint lightened the mood of the walls and brightened the atmosphere, but we weren't finished. 

 

Last but not least...the after pictures.

 

A friend from church gave Little J. a new cork board so all of her drawings and papers can finally have a nice home. 

 

 

Another cousin, Little J., and I made a trip to town for a few decorations and came home with a clock, desk lamp, and oval frame.

 

Mom and I grabbed a gold oval mirror we had sitting in the back room for years, and gave it a makeover.  I painted the whole frame white and then, after taping a pattern, filled in the exposed parts with black paint.  When we removed the tape, the result was a black and white pattered frame as seen in the below picture.

 

 

We also took down the old dusty blinds and replaced them with beautiful black and white curtains. 

Truth be told, we literally tossed the old desk (shown in before pictures) over the balcony because 1) it was falling apart 2) no one wanted to carry it down the stairs and through the doorways and 3) because, well, who hasn't wanted to toss/watch a large desk fall from a balcony?  I bought an old to someone/new to us desk to replace the now very broken one.

 

A lady from church made the quilt and pillow cases for my sweet little sister.

And our parents got her a brand new bed!

 

 

 

Nearly everything in her neat and tidy new bedroom has come from or was handmade by caring people in Little J.'s life.  And I wouldn't be lying if I said her room is always this clean as shown in the after pictures!

 

Personally, I want to thank everyone for all of the help!  She is very happy with the result.

 

 

 



The End of 2016

2016 was pretty good for me.  My business grew and kept me really busy every month of the year, especially during the holidays.  I had many opportunities to travel with the family, most of those trips I've already posted about, so here are some things my family and I did this year...in no particular order.  : )  Of course, we did do more than just these highlights I came across in my pictures and journals.  
 
We helped quite a few different friends/neighbors with cattle work, sometimes only we three kids got to go without Dad or Mom. 
We continue to run our own ranch as well. 
 

 
I helped at Vacation Bible School and loved it as always.  
We made some new friends and were reacquainted with others.
I had Mom cut off 20 inches of my hair in June. 
 

 
We got some nice rains and had a wonderful green summer.   
 

 

 
Dad, Big J., my uncle, and I went to a cattle marketing school in KS for a day.
We entered quite a bit in the county fair and got anything from nothing to a blue ribbon.
I branched out and got Wattpad and Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat.
We saw a lot of beautiful, breathtaking sunrises and sunsets.

Dad took we three kids to a plant identification school.  It was one of the most interesting things I've gone to. 
 

 
We went to some rodeos (to watch).
As I already said in another post, I flew in an airplane for the very first time.
We got to see some different, pretty terrain.

Mom and I got to see the Dr. Temple Grandin!  See my post http://happyfaceranch.blogspot.com/2015/10/movie.html to read about her movie.  Yeah, it was pretty amazing to see and hear her speak in person!
 

For Thanksgiving, everyone came to our house.  One night we three and a cousin stayed up till two o'clock I think it was, watching movies and eating loads of popcorn.
We went to town for Christmas on Douglas, where businesses had free food, cookies, hot chocolate, etc..  There were also horse drawn carriages which anyone could ride if they donated a canned food.

For Christmas, the five of us opened gifts on Christmas Eve.  On Christmas Day, we went to our church's candlelight service.  It was amazing.  Afterward, we stayed for the potluck meal.
And actually, we got a thunderstorm and rain on Christmas morning.  Go figure.  It was such a blessing, though! 

On Tuesday after Christmas, we went to Grandma's for Mom's side of the family Christmas.  During the day we played Frisbee and Jumbling Tower, visited, had soups for the noon meal and sandwich stuff for supper, and opened presents, mainly consisting of stockings since some presents had to be mailed and/or were forgotten at home.  Still, we had a good day. 

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Rejoice evermore.

Pray without ceasing.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18