I’ve been thinking a lot lately. (I know…dangerous.)

I’ve been thinking about YOU.

You have been heavy on my heart.

I wonder what you think and feel when you visit my blog.

One thing I know is that God has placed this blog in my life.

I also know that it is HE who gave me a creative mind. I feel God’s pleasure in my life when I am creating.

But lately, I keep thinking about things I do NOT want to create.

I do not want to create…

discontentment.

It is very easy to look at all the beautiful home blogs out there and feel discontent with what we have in our own homes. If you are like me, I sometimes look at other blogs and think, “Wow! I wish I had a house like that!” or “My house would look so much prettier if I had her furniture.”

Do you ever do that?

It is my prayer, that you do not find discontentment when you visit my blog. I want to inspire you to try new things and encourage you to to flex your creative muscles. However, I do not want you to visit my blog and feel discontentment because you cannot do or have something you see on my blog.

Please know that it is not the things we possess in this life that bring us true joy and peace. True contentment can only be found in Jesus. If we have him, we have all we need.

Whenever I feel discontent with my home or with my circumstances, I remember my sweet mother singing to me, “Count your blessings, name them one by one…Count your blessings, see what God has done….”

Oh, how good He has been to me.

And Oh, how he loves you.

I pray you find rest and contentment in Him.

I do not want to create…

frustration.

I pray you do not get frustrated with yourself. You may feel like you never do “enough", or that your “enough" is not as good as so-and-so’s.

Please understand that my blog has become my business. I now make money from my blog. It is my “job” to provide good content for my readers. I am always thinking about new projects that I can tackle and share on my blog.

If I were not blogging, believe me, I would not be putting out as many projects as I am right now. Yes, I would still be doing DIY projects with my husband. We’ve been doing that in every house we’ve owned for the last 15 years. But I wouldn’t be doing them as quickly.

Do what you can do, and don’t worry about the rest. It really doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things. Rejoice in the things you do accomplish, however big or small they may be.

This may be silly, but sometimes I worry about your husbands. Smile

I am very fortunate to have married a very handy man, but I know that I am in the minority. Please do not get frustrated when your husbands do not have the desire to do major renovations in your home. Please do not give them a guilt trip by showing them my blog and saying, “Look at what Traci’s husband did!”

Maybe you do not do that. But I’m not as sweet as you. Smile

I will confess that I have given my own husband a guilt trip to try and get him to do something I wanted him to do. And I shouldn’t have.

Ultimately, our relationship with our husband is way more important than any home improvement project. Can I get an Amen?!

I do not want to create…

a false picture of who I really am.

Of course, I would love to always put my best self on my blog. I would love for you all to think I had it all together.

But the reality is, I am usually a total mess. I am always behind on laundry and dishes. I yell at my children and hate to clean my house. I’d rather eat out than cook. I dye my hair to cover the grays, and I am desperate for a miracle cream to get rid of the ever-appearing wrinkles on my face.

And though it is humbling, that is who I want you to see on my blog. I do not have it all together, and I never will.

But I am beginning to find beauty in my messed-up self. Smile

I love the old Amy Grant song, “All I ever have to be is what HE’s made in me.”

God loves me as I am. HE is the only one who can make me into a better person and more than I could ever dream to be. It is my heart that matters most. I pray that He sees beauty in my heart.

I pray that you see me as someone just like you. And I pray that we can uplift and encourage one another along this journey called “life.”

Here are a few things

I DO hope to create on my blog…

1. A place of inspiration.

2. A place of encouragement.

3. A place of authenticity.

4. A place where you see and feel the love of Jesus.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for following my blog.

Thank you for always supporting and encouraging me.

You are a blessing in my life!

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I am gonna do my best to tell you how to install wood on your ceilings for a beautiful farmhouse look.

I’ve always wanted to have wood ceilings. I was hoping for an inexpensive way to get the “look”. So when I saw Kevin and Layla’s post about installing wood ceilings in their dining room, I knew I could make it happen. They used pine tongue and groove boards that came in a bundle at Lowe’s.

The most important thing in installing the wood is finding where your ceiling joists are so you know where to nail the boards to the ceiling.

We used a chalk line to help us see where we were suppose to nail. I show you how we did it in my video.

I used a power saw and a nail gun for this project. These tools make the project a whole lot easier. I cannot imagine nailing those boards in by hand!

Here is a video I put together of the process. I am a visual person, so I hope this helps some of you “see” how I did it. (Yes! I installed the whole ceiling all by myself!)

(If you are reading this post in an email or reader, you may need to click on the post title to view this video on my blog.)

We decided not to paint the boards before installing them. Either way, I think it will be a pain. We used SO many individual boards on this ceiling, that I cannot imagine painting each one individually, then waiting for them to dry, and then installing them.

We are going to use a paint sprayer to paint the ceiling, and I think that will much better than rolling it. We’ll see. Smile