Following her July divorce, Maria and her dear friend Robin (on left) loaded up a trailer with her clothes and personal items, washer and dryer, a few pieces of furniture they had stored away and hadn't been using, and the rocking chair Mama and Dad gave her 15 years ago when Wyatt was born, and drove off into Maria's new life!

She was fortunate to find this nice little rental place nearby...

...and for the first time in nearly 20 years, Maria was on her own.

She bought a couple of nice leather couches, a dining set, and mattresses for her and her two children to sleep on.  After hitting up a few local thrift shops for some dressers and end tables and digging through her boxes for a few decorative items she'd had stored away, her new home was as good as she had time and funds to make it.

But Barb and I had a plan, and got Mama in on it too!  We toyed with the thought of throwing her a house-warming shower, but we just couldn't seem to work out the logistics of that. So...we decided that we'd take one day for a House-girl house-spending frenzy, take her shopping for a bunch of things to decorate and spruce up her new home, and help make her house into a home.

Operation Transformation.

Where Maria lives, shopping options are few.  There's the mainstay Walmart and Bealls Outlet...those were pretty much our choices without driving the hour to Gainesville and fighting the college students on move-in weekend.  No thanks...been there, done that plenty of times.

So, with Maria in tow (although she doesn't show up in this photo because SHE'S the one holding my camera!), we filled a couple of carts up at Bealls...

...and got a bonus sermon from the very friendly evangelist-clerk.  "When we're in the valley, we know our Lily is right there with us.  Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord (insert strong southern accent!) for our Lily of the Valley!"

We filled up 3 more carts at Walmart...

...and thankfully we stopped buying just at the point when Mama's Encore could hold no more!

Yep, that's Mama in the front seat and me and Barb crammed in the back seat with a rolled-up area rug and a mirror wedged between us!

Let the MAGIC begin!!!

We rearranged...

...hung...

...hemmed...

...and carpentered pretty much the rest of the weekend.

Operation Transformation took over our lives!  That is, when we weren't drinking coffee or napping or having ice cream...

Living room "before"...

...and "after."

Quite a dramatic change!!!

Seanna's room when she left for school Friday morning...

...and when she came home after school.  She loved it!

Wyatt's room when he left for school Friday morning...

And when he came home.  Little things make a big difference!  In the manner of most 14-year-old boys, he didn't really act like he cared much, but he sure spent a lot of the weekend lounging around in his newly-decorated room!

Barb has a knack for putting things together in beautiful ways, and she added a few other little touches throughout the house that just made it warm and cozy.

Not that it wasn't WARM outside, but now the inside was warm and cozy too (we're talking ambiance here...).

Mission complete!

Operation Transformation.