WackyWhimsy

Stocking Stuffer…. Schedule?!

2012-01-14T11:26:00.001-06:00

Ok, so this post is more of an accountability thing than anything…. to make myself stick to it…. but if the idea helps or inspires one person like me, then it is worth typing.

Here’s the skinny – every year, I start Christmas shopping in October. There are a few things I buy throughout the year, but for the most part, its October.

By Thanksgiving, I always say to myself, “Holy Crap! The stockings!” Stocking have always been a big deal in our house, and they are filled with stuff that’s no more than 10 bucks per item, but the problem is that many of the items ARE 5 to 10 bucks per item. Yanno, razors (holy moly why are razors and blades so expensive?!?!) and specialty soaps, funky socks, makeup, small tools, etc.

Point being, by the time I fill 5 stockings (for the hubby, two teen boys, and my parents) it is a honking big expense. And since I don’t think of it til the Macy’s Day Parade, I always only have 2 paychecks til Santa is supposed to be hanging these things. This year was a tight economic year for us, so there were some things I wanted to put in the stockings that I just had to leave out.

SO. This year, I got all OCD on myself, and made a schedule of stocking stuffers. The plan is to spend about 20 or 30 bucks a month on specific items for the 5 stockings, with the hopes that by Thanksgiving, I won’t go into panic mode. (20 to 30 bucks sounds like a lot – per month, but divided by 5, it’s really not that much- not to mention some months won’t be nearly that much.)

I won’t bore you with the entire list, but just enough for you to get the jist.

January – Any small exercise equipment like jump ropes, exercise videos, etc. January retailers lean towards either organizational items or exercise stuff (for all those New Years resolutions) so I try to find any little specialty items like that.

February – heart shaped post it notes, etc. Stuff that they sell for Valentines Day.

March – all razors and shaving items. That should take up my monthly budget plus some.

September – mini flashlights, glycerine soaps.

October – candles

Etc.

I tried to plan items that might be available or on sale due to the specific time of year. For months that don’t have anything specific like that, I chose the other fillers. Hair items, office supplies, make up, etc.

I left the items with a shorter shelf life to put towards the end of the year. Food, candy, even makeup. I put candles at the end of the year, so I don’t have to worry about them melting with shipping.

I also tried to keep the most expensive items towards the beginning of the year, since anything after about July I’m spending tons of bucks on our Halloween haunt, and October forward I’m buying the big Christmas gifts.

I have a big box in the bottom of my closet, with 5 bags in it, labeled with each family members name. As I buy the stocking stuffers, I put them straight into the bags, so I wont lose anything over the next year. Yes, I have already bought stuff.

Anyways, now that I’m putting it on the blog, I hope someone will email me in like April and ask what I have bought. I really, really, really hope this works!

Good Grief!

2011-11-26T00:32:00.001-06:00

Holy moly I have been away for a long time! Lets recap:

Spent my Fairy Hobmother money on smutty romance novels, that kept me away from the computer for a while...
Got pneumonia. Wow, that was a lot of fun.
Two weeks after getting back to work from my pneumonia vacation, my mouth started hurting so bad I refused to open it to eat, talk, or breathe, so I went to the dentist who took my wisdom teeth out. Don't wait til you are 40 to do that, I'm just sayin. It made pneumonia look like a cake walk.
No models were harmed in this portrayal of sheer painful widom tooth terror.
Became addicted to Pinterest. 1385 pins later, I remembered I had a blog.
Had a little party in my front yard at Halloween. Some of yall might remember, my hubby and I are weird like that. If you are interested in seeing what people do when they are sad they can no longer take their kids (who are now teen agers) trick or treating any more - go to Nickols Manor page.
Oh, got addicted to Scentsy. No, that didn't stop me from blogging, I just thought I was listing all my recent faults and failures here. :)

I baked a ton for Thanksgiving, ate very little (the wisdom teeth thing was just last week) got home last night at midnight, took a 3 hour nap and then we Black Friday'd all day today. Think I will go hibernate until tomorrow, when it's time to drag out the tree.

Kohl's had my favorite Black Friday deals, if anyone still has shopping to do.

If anyone is on Pinterest, I would love to have some more friends to follow - leave a link for me in the comments, so I can see what y'all are up to over there!

Yes Virginia, There is a Fairy Hobmother!

2011-09-19T06:35:00.001-05:00

I'm sure you have already heard of the Fairy Hobmother, from Appliances Online. He is known to flit around the Blogosphere, and sprinkle fairy dust in the Comments section of blog posts, sending prizes, and generally spreading cheer.

I heard about him last week on this post of Debbie's. She said to have a chance to win, leave a comment with a wish. So I left my wish. It happened to be a wish (and a prayer) for a poster above me with much bigger wishes than I could have.

A few days later, I got an email from The Fairy Hobmother, who sent me a $30 Amazon Gift Card. I can't tell you how shocked I was, I never imagined being one of the ones chosen!

I can only tell you that if you Google "The Fairy Hobmother" you will see many winners - typically Amazon Gift Cards here in the states, while the denominations are all different. It really is an amazing concept.

Did I also mention that while my official wish was for another, it just HAPPENED to rain buckets in Dallas over the weekend, so I think the Fairy Hobmother is telepathic as well. ;)

To continue the tradition, The Fairy Hobmother will be visiting the comments section of this post to find other lucky people to bestow some magic upon. Who knows, you could be next!

Thank you Fairy Hobmother!

Wow.

2011-09-03T10:57:00.001-05:00

There just has to be something said for today being Dallas' 68th day over 100 degrees.

My plants are dead, as is my lawn. My foundation will never be the same. The lake that I live on has boat docks literally sitting on dry land. Where has my lake gone?!?

I hate cooking in the heat. No new recipes lately. I hate going in the garage in the heat. No new projects. No new projects means nothing new for the house, and nothing new for Halloween so far, either.

Depression starts to set in at some point - the entire town is cranky, and little annoyances like long lines at the supermarket almost make us break out in a brawl.

My blogs have gone dormant, as have my outdoor activities.

Tomorrow, the 100s are supposed to break, with a cool front from up North that is supposed to take us to 94. I know, some of you would still think thats hot. Dallas, we are BEGGING for it. We havent had a LOW temperature under the 80s in months. We SO need this temp change.

The hurricane in the Gulf is not supposed to bring us any rain - which we desperately need as so many acres of land are burning at this moment due to wildfires.

There. I almost made myself feel better, just talking about it. Heavens knows, you can't talk about it to your neighbors, its just not nice to make people cry! *chuckle*

MOVING ON!

I hope you are all doing well - for the next 60 days I should be appearing at Nickols Manor exclusively, as we get ready for our annual yard haunt. Our entrance columns and fence should go up in about 2 weeks, with the Countdown to Halloween sign for our neighbors, then the entire Haunt should be up for display by the weekend of October 1st. Lets see if the heat will allow us to stay on schedule. I will be back here in November for more wacky-ness!

One last thing. I have a good blogging friend, Nita from Mod Vintage Life that has just lost a beloved pet that is more like a son to her than a pet. She made a post about it here that just shows such raw emotion - it ripped my heart out. If you have ever experienced a loss like this, please consider going to her page and letting her know that all of us in the blogging community are keeping her in our thoughts and prayers. She has not made a post since letting us know about it on August 28th, and I just want to send some positive wishes her way.

Everyone stay safe, duck those hurricanes, enjoy Fall football, and if you are interested in Halloween at all - you know where I will be!

Why You Should Never Decoupage Your Fridge.

2011-05-08T20:36:00.001-05:00

In your mind, the question might be why WOULD anyone ever decoupage their fridge.

To that, I answer - "I understand. It's a bit odd". But I'm all for color, and NOT all for little tiny specs of rust on a 30 year old white Kenmore fridge. It looked like someone had done the toothbrush in rust paint trick, and there were tiny pin point sized dots of rust that would NEVER wipe off, no matter how many times I unconsciously tried.

There is no Before pic, people - it was too hard to see. Just imagine a really old fridge. Then one day, I was bored, and had the house to myself for a good 12 hours. Just long enough to do this and be in bed asleep before the Hubby and Boys came home to see what I had done.

Scrapbook paper + Mod Podge + about 4 or 5 hours total = No rust spots.

Ok, so I liked it - the Hubby and kids liked it - My mother on the other hand, thought I was nuts. But that was ok, she thinks everything I do is nuts, LOL. I mean - it was just for us, no one else would really see it - I don't entertain in my kitchen.... hardly ever, LOL. It hid the rust, it made me smile, and all was good in the world. For about 2 weeks. (And now, Why You Should Never Decoupage Your Fridge).....

Then it started making a noise like a small donkey being tortured inside the freezer. Seriously, high pitched. That lasted 4 days before I decided that I had to get a new fridge. (Do I think the decoupage had more to do with the fridge dying than the fact that it was 30 years old? Yes. Karma. Mama says you shouldn't do something like this, and suddenly - look what happens. LOL)

So the new one was delivered today. That led to Jayson taking pictures of my fridge for me, pulled away from the wall (as in the first pic) in order to move it out. So.... in come the delivery men. One little snicker, then two, as they loaded it on the dolly. Who would ever decoupage their fridge, then expect strange men to be looking at it from an inch away? Not me, that's who.

Wait, here's the best part. One guy unloaded my pretty new black fridge onto the street. Then they rolled out my Ice Box de Mod Podge and rolled it out to the truck. Did they immediately put it up INTO the truck? No. They put it on the truck dolly at ground level, then began unwrapping the new one. Jayson thought the old one looked so odd out there that he ran out to take a pic.

See them next to the old one, unwrapping the new one?

He was rushing to take the pic, because surely this would be the last time we saw ol' Mod Podge, right? They would be lifting it into the truck in just a sec, right?

No, no. It sat out there, just like this for 45 minutes. My little dog was barking a storm at the delivery guys, so I took him out in the front for a walk - just to give our ears a break. And in a short span of 10 minutes, I counted four cars that came to a complete stop next to this fridge. I feel bad for my neighbors - people probably thought it was theirs! Ya just gotta laugh.

And just for the record - I have a grown up Refrigerator now. The French Door Style is hard to get used to - but we are loving it.

And the flowers you see on the island? A mix of gorgeous lilies (my favorite)... Stargazer Lilies can fill a room like no other flower I have ever smelled. I got these and an adorable card from my boys - This was one of my luckiest weekends in a long time.

Happy Mother's Day to my own incredible Mama - my Mom, best friend, confidant, my everything :) And Happy Mother's Day to all my friends in blog land - I hope you smiled today.

And..... don't decoupage your fridge. :D

Frog Tape: The Blooper Reel

2011-04-10T04:54:00.001-05:00

Ok, first let me say, if ever you wake up at 3 am and decide to spray paint, don't video it.

Second, let me say - Am I the only one that wakes up at 3 am to spray paint?!?!

Anyways, in my sleep deprived stupor, I was sitting there, praising Frog Tape in my head, mentally writing out a blog post, and decided to video taking the tape off one side to reveal my stripes.

Well, I video'd one side, and it was horrible - the video & my accent, NOT the stripes. "That's ok", I thought..... I have another chance when I do the other side.

Well, I would have thrown this video in the trash bin too, except its now 4:40 am, and the end of this video is the funniest thing I have ever seen. Like giggly-girl-at-a-slumber-party funny. So if you aren't in a goofy mood, you won't think it's funny, probably like I won't when I watch it again tomorrow.

The point?? I love Scotch Blue, don't get me wrong. I still buy it, because I can get it in wide widths, whereas I can't find that in Frog Tape. (Unlike the video, where I said I can get it in wide LENGTHS. What the heck, Dawn?!? It's a roll of tape.... REALLY long... doh.) Remember when we went from beige masking tape to the blue painters tape, and what a great improvement that was? That's how I feel going from Scotch Blue to Frog Tape. Blue is still good, but Green is amazing.

Oh, and for the record, I don't put GLAZE over my tape, as I claimed to do in the video. (Shooting video at 4 am... *sigh*). But with Scotch Blue, I do usually brush a light coat of my base color or clear sealer over my tape to get sharp stripes. Not so with Frog Tape - just lay it down, smooth with your fingers. Sharp.

This video has one wordy dird at the end of the tape. But it's one that you can hear on National TV. Just a warning, in case you have small children (aka repeating parrots) in the room. :D

Don't ya just HATE it when you are trying to be all "HELPFUL VIDEO" like, then realize at the end that even with the Masking paper, it still suffered overspray?! Not that big of a deal, it is already fixed, but the moment when I figured it out (on tape) was just funny.

Here's to Day 2 of the Weekend, yall make it GOOD!

Random Wacky

2011-04-07T22:28:00.001-05:00

I'm really, really glad it's going to be Friday in a few hours. Really.

Had teen ager drama for the past day or two, and I for one am ready for some peace. harmony. paint. glue. yanno, the stuff you dream weekends are made of.

I still have to work tomorrow, but I got myself in that weekend-kinda-mode early by painting my nails. And since I normally ruin good manicures with splotches of paint everywhere, I felt a bit wacky and ruined them..... on purpose.

Here is a picture of today's first bloom on my Queen Elizabeth. Heaven help me, it's already 90 degrees in Dallas, but at least my roses are happy!

I also caught a picture of a lady bug on my Magnolia tree, but my camera phone didn't think it was important enough to shoot clearly, so let's all just imagine a cute lady bug right now. Ok, good.

Meanwhile.... at the BatCave.....

A couple of things I'm working on.... Craigslist cart for $20, a $1 wire rack, and a LOVELY 50 cent canvas. The first rounds of redoing last weekends garage sale fodder is beginning...

And last but certainly not least - an introduction to one of my favorite hobbies - collecting what I call "Desk Toys" and putting them in my office at work. It's fun to watch people stare at the almost-40-year-old lady with goofy fingernails and toys all over her desk. I have a pretty stressful job, and am constantly surrounded by more dark brown wood grain than ANY lover of color should have to be. The potato-head-couple makes me really happy. Thanks to my Co-Worker Brandon for bringing my lil Ms. Potato Head the love of her life... they are truly happy together. :D

HAPPY FRIDAY every one!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to the Circus. A lampshade reveal.

2011-04-03T21:19:00.001-05:00

Ok, first up, as promised, the lampshade.

Spray paint the whole thing white.... (you can see it's original flecked beige on the right in the picture below)

It took about 3 coats to cover the white. I was worrying about the usefulness of my tape at that point....

And at last.... All I can say is... it turned out perfectly. But reminds me more of a circus than of the Yankees. Bless the boys heart - he said he loved it. I told him he was allowed to throw a towel over it when he has friends over. LOL.

_________________________________________________

I also wanted to update you on another weird thing I painted.... the cloth cushion on my bench stool.

I think it's been a month or more, and I have used it plenty. It is showing no wear places, it's not rubbing off on my err.... jeans, and I am LOVING it. Hid all the paint blobs and looks great. Just remember - light, light strokes. Build them up. Let the layers dry. I don't know what kind of fabric this is, or if it would NOT work on another type of fabric or something - I just work in a constant state of "experiment" and toss out the FAILS.

Speaking of fail.... the lampshade above? The reason there is no picture of it on the lamp? About 3 days after I gave it to my son, the ring fell off the top. Yanno, the brass ring that holds it on the lamp thingee. I'm such a technical writer, huh. Anyways, the 30 year old tape that held it finally gave up the fight. LMAO. I will hot glue it back.... but damn, that's the downfall of experimenting on old (not so quality) stuff.... having it break before you even get to enjoy it ;)

Had Garage Sale-ing Saturday with my hubby yesterday, I think we hit 13 in all. WHEW! Got lots of goodies I have already started on, and will have more to show you soon. Not to mention the fact that Mom and I are finishing up on removing the last of the items from my Grandparents house, trying to make it ready for sale. They have been gone 3 years now, and we are JUST NOW able to get rid of every last little lamp, table, pillow, and such. They lived there for 50 years, thats a lot of time and memories to go through. But as we come to the end, I have even more and more things to paint, fix up, re-do, etc. Don't worry, I'm not painting or "ruining by polka-dotting" any of the cherished items... just mass merchandise stuff that I know my Nana wouldn't care if I painted.

I might even have a few Halloween Prop builds in the mix.... as it is now April, hubby and I are WAY behind on the 2011 build. But... that's another blog, isn't it? *grin*

Have a FABULOUS week!!!!

PS. I am not posting this to ANY party this week. *I'M* not even that brave. HAHAHAHA!!!

Yes, I Really Did It....

2011-04-01T23:37:00.000-05:00

I pinstriped the lamp shade for the Yankee's Lamp. Here it is in WIP mode...

I will show you over the weekend how it turned out. If I'm brave enough, that is.

Adding Some Sassy to the Kitchen

2011-03-24T21:20:00.001-05:00

Start with a $100 Ikea Kitchen Island

Pick out a main color theme....

(Jewel Tones. Only because CIRCUS is not an official color theme... in the *kitchen* anyways)

Then use some of all of your acrylic and latex paints, in every color....

Then use up all of your Scotch Blue and then move onto Green Froggy Tape....

(Yes, I wasted A LOT of tape, but that is a lot of slats to individually stripe perfectly even all the way up and across. It was a casualty of spontaneous creativity, I tell ya)

NO! Way too bright on that pink sunburst looking creation (what was I thinking?!?!)

I sanded the pink to start over, and actually liked it that way. BONUS! And no, the painters tape is not still on the bottom, those are 2 tone blue stripes :)

Add about 4 coats of Poly. To every one of those tight little spaces (yes, I could have sprayed, but i wanted thick, shiny, and smooth!) and you get this:

Go ahead and mess up the edge of your lazy susan the exact same colors as your messed up island....

Then add some of THIS amazing stuff that some wonderful blogger that I can't remember who talked me into ordering THE DAY I read about how wonderful it is.... (click the pic of it for info. I swear by it now)

(Got it at HD for about 8 bucks. Did 3 coats on the island top and 3 coats on the lazy susan, and have not even used a quarter of the 12 oz bottle)

To make it all look like this

Well.... the crappy camera in the crappy lighting in the kitchen makes for a crappy picture that you cant see how pretty the wood is. Or how vibrant the colors are against that white floor and those white cabinets.

I gotta add some Sassy to that kitchen. Pronto!

SPOTTED on the Web...

2011-03-05T13:56:00.001-06:00

I just fell in love, and had to share......

Found at Chrissiescollections blog here - go check out the transformation that ended with this adorable "I-So-Want-It" piece.

As a side note, I found Chrissie via Donna's bloghop at FunkyJunk. Blogland is such a good place to be right now ;)

NY Yankees. Yay. :/

2011-03-01T07:06:00.000-06:00

Lamp from my Grandmother. Not really my style, but one that I want to keep, and just make it fit my decor. Nothing but a can of spray paint can make THIS match my decor.

Verrrrry nice back in the early 80s, I'm sure. Not my particular shade of brown. Err, let me state clearly - I don't really HAVE a particular shade of brown!

So I ask the kid. Kid? What do you want your NEW lamp to look like?

Kid says - NEW YORK YANKEES!

Did I mention I live in Texas?!? *sigh* Gotta give the kid what he wants.

Brown to Yankee Navy Blue - coming right up.

Hmm. All that did was turn the flower arrangement neon blue. Oh dear - of all the times NOT to prime? When have I ever had to prime glass? Ok, don't tell me I'm an idiot now - I already said that.

*Note, I still didn't sand it, or TSP it, or anything. I adore spray painting on glass, and have never suffered for lack of prep.

What would a NORMAL person do at this point in the game? Prime over the navy blue? Naaaah, I just assume the second coat of blue will do it.

Nope, it didn't.

Plan B. Take a better quality of spray paint (I love you Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover 2x!) with a lighter blue to cover the white. That worked believe it or not. Another coat of the Navy, and I was on the road again.

(I'm sure the Rust-Oleum would have covered it the first time, but I didnt have any of it in Navy)

Time for a touch of the Yankees.

Google gave me a picture that I printed through Windows picture viewer as a 5x7. Covered the back of the print out with masking tape, then cut out my GhettoFabulous stencil with an Xacto blade.

Now, it's not as bad as it looks here. I took little pieces of painters tape and rolled them to be double sided, then placed them on the edges - ghetto-spray-adhesive style. I'm all about faking it if I'm out of a product, can't ya tell.

I thought I was a REAL genius too. Until the moment of truth.

The stencil worked pretty well, considering it was copy paper and I was using spray paint, but....

It's hard to tell in these pictures, but you can make out the pieces of tape perfectly where the

overspray lines went. Still not bad for a piece of paper stencil!

Ahhhhh... but how to touch up the blue when I originally spray painted it??

Spray paint on a paper plate and brush on your paint from there of course!

* I FREAKED out when I was done, as the paint would NOT come off my brush - and it was hard as a rock! I was really freaking .... Until Hubby came in, calmed me down, handed me a cap full of Mineral Spirits, and told me to chill. My brush came out perfectly soft, but is now this nice shade of YANKEE BLUE, hehe.

I touched it up, added some Poly, and I think it turned out pretty good.... for a lamp without the Rangers on it, that is. ;)

Now... I just need a non girlie shade, and he's good to go! That was easy!!

*For a good laugh - note the cord coming out the back of the lamp. Yes, half navy blue, half aging white cord. Hehe, when I cut corners, I really cut corners. ;)

Adding to My Collection of Wall Letters

2011-02-26T21:52:00.001-06:00

As you might remember, I made an N for my last name out of pink foam insulation. If you weren't here in March of last year - you can see how it came out here.

If you don't want to go check out that past post, then you can just look below. March must be the month I get inspired to work with foam.

Since I have already droned on and on about how to do it, I'll just post some pictures, and call it a wrap!

That last one is showing me trying to pick out a cool scrapbook paper....

I don't have them all up on the wall yet, since I'm planning on putting them on the highest wall in my very open living room - about 14 feet up in air.... and the wall extends up to 25 feet, so I have a lot of N's to make! Best part is, I'm using scraps, so I all turns out free for me!! I will work on a few more, then start hanging them, and get some pictures to you pronto!

Happy Saturday Night! Working in the garage with the door open - thermometer showing 75.1 degrees - LIFE IS GOOD!

Sewing Question.

2011-02-22T20:30:00.001-06:00

Just a quick question - how do you sew? Can you show me how?

Hahaha, not a quick question at all. Which leads to my real question.

If I am considering jumping into the sewing world - only because I really want to learn how to sew pieces of fabric together - not to do fancy things.... then.... can I just buy a machine, and read the manual? Won't it teach me how to thread the thingee and lower the dohickey and feed the fabric through until it is magically sewn?

Ok, if that won't do the trick - does anyone have any favorite Youtube videos, or articles, or something else that could help me?

Oh, and if I don't want to spend $300 on a new machine, and was instead looking at a little $150 jobbie, am I just wasting my time?

Whew. See how overwhelmed I am? It took me 4 days to get the courage to write this post. I might chicken out after reading your answers, and go back to duct tape hemming my drapes and zombie clothes. hehe. But it's worth a shot.... you guys know EVERYthing!!!

Thanks Y'all!

Genius - Flea Market Trixie

2011-02-18T19:20:00.001-06:00

So many of my readers all ready subscribe to FleaMarketTrixie, but if there is just one person that doesn't, and will get to see this post of hers that otherwise would not have, then I feel good about it.

To see her turn this lamp

Source

...into a TABLE.... (and you SO should see that)

Go here.

I just love her. :)

Sudden Addiction: Swagbucks.

2011-02-14T00:03:00.001-06:00

Wow. So last week I read on someone’s blog (I SO wish I remember whose it was!) about her glowing review of Swagbucks. I had never heard of the website before, and clicked to check it out.

Upon reading the “How it works” link that describes what it is, I read: “Swagbucks.com is an online portal dedicated to helping you earn digital dollars called "Swag Bucks", which can be redeemed for exclusive Swagbucks.com merchandise.”

So, I thought, Ok. I can use it instead of Google for a few times, just to see what happens. On about my 3rd or 4th random search, I won 10 Swagbucks – which, I have subsequently got it in my head that its about a penny a point (thought that is partially wrong – the conversion amount depends on what you buy from their store). I think I got 50 free just for signing up, then a few more for installing the toolbar in Firefox.

Don’t get me wrong, it took me about 2 days to install the toolbar, convinced that it was spyware or something. But after enough research, I found that it was not.

In my opinion, it is basically a marketing research portal – trying to get people to do online surveys, watch commercials, take polls, stuff like that. The reason it pays you to search is because through their search engine, the top 5 or 6 results are all from their sponsors – if you click on them, they get paid.

So, I search using swagbucks.com now instead of Google. I know to start looking for good results about 7 lines down. I do the surveys while I watch TV. I watch their little commercials and take polls. All of it takes time, but c’mon – I’m ALWAYS vegging out in front of the laptop, why not get paid for it.

Paid. How do you get paid. I first thought the “Swag Store” would be full of crap that no one would want. And while that stuff IS there – it seems that the majority of the Swaggers ALL redeem their points for Amazon gift cards. Here is where I talked about what you buy makes the points worth more or less cash value.

If you buy a $5 Amazon Gift Card, it is 450 points. So a little more than a penny per point. If you buy a $5 Paypal card, it is 700 points – not near as good as the Amazon card. Even within the Amazon cards, it is different – if you buy a $25 card it is 3150 points, much more than buying Five $5 cards (at 450 per card) for 2250 points. SOOOO, what I’m getting at – most Swaggers do this for $5 Amazon gift cards. And I am working on my 3rd, in one weeks time. Oh, another fun thing is once a day or so, they will put a code out for just a few minutes or hours, that you cut and paste into the block on their webpage – and you get freebie Swagbucks for finding the code – it makes it like a scavenger hunt, and thats just enough to keep the gambler in me happy. ;)

I admit, I have put time into it every night after work. But I’m thrifty that way….. In my opinion, I have nothing but time in the evenings, if it can make me something over nothing. Yes, I realize that makes my time at night about a dollar an hour (lol) but my thought is – if I do this all year, I will have quite a good amount of credit built up at Amazon by November, and will be Christmas shopping with it – just for goofing on the internet.

Check it out, and if you like it, click on the Swagbucks button over on my right sidebar – I will get points for referring you, and you will get extra points for signing up. Then YOU can put a button on your blog’s sidebar, and get points when you refer someone too!

Make sure you set up a spam email address through Gmail or Yahoo, because some of the offers ask for an email. Don’t spam up your good email box. And I never do the offers that ask for a cell phone – heavens no. But after a weeks time, there is no spyware involved, and with just a bit of time, you can make a bit of money on the side!

Back to painting next week. For now, I’m off to collect some special collector Valentine Bills before tomorrows deadline!

Puppy in the Snow...

2011-02-04T10:16:00.000-06:00

I realize that most of you have TONS of snow on the ground... making this seem trivial... but for me, having to make a path for my puppy was just too good not to video, and then post. This is Bear, and his first snow - makes me wish I were 5 again. It's snow day number 4 at our house, so cabin fever may be to blame for thinking this is the cutest thing ever. :)

Dear Purdy

2011-02-03T09:40:00.001-06:00

Dear Purdy,

I have just finished reading a blog post about your painting supplies. Pam @ DIY Design Fanatic raved about your brushes, and said that she has used only YOU for years.

Then I started thinking, and within seconds, thought of 2 other amazing bloggers that I highly respect, that have previously gushed over YOU.

Gail at My Repurposed Life reviewed both the brush, and the 6 in 1 tool, and at some points during the post I felt like I was intruding upon a secret love affair. She undoubtedly loves YOU.

And then there’s Mary @ The Decorative Paintbrush. If having the word PAINTBRUSH in her title, and loving YOU doesn’t make her an authority – then the fact that she said she wouldn’t paint with anything else – does convince me. She also lists the exact reasons YOU are better than all the other poor little brushes.

If you are as good as ALL those people say, then I am sure that I will be singing your praises soon too. I do, however wish that you had found some cheap-brush-buyers like me to send a free review kit to…. as we are the idiot schmucks that need to have the light bulb turned on for us. However, since you didn’t see me over here, waving and begging, I wanted to let you know that my favorite bloggers, and their glowing reviews did it for you – and I shall buy you as soon as the ice melts. :)

Regards,

Cheap-Brush-Buyer-Dawn

*Are there any Purdy owners out there that would be willing to share with me WHICH brush is your favorite? Their Brush page has a lot of choices, and none of them specify “For OOPS paint that has been on the shelf too long”. I’m just curious if there is one you are loving over the other. Or, has anyone used the Brush Comb?

I mean, if I’m going to buy a not-cheap-brush, will this help me keep it for years, like I have heard some people can do?

Isn’t this funny. A paintbrush is such a personal thing, apparently. I feel like I am cheating on my cheap brushes just by writing this post. LOL!

Frozen Tundra and Works in Progress

2011-02-02T23:55:00.001-06:00

So, this past weekend, it was 70 degrees in Texas. I walked around in shorts and giggled for 2 days. Started a couple of projects in the garage, with the sun shining down on the driveway, I was whistling a happy tune.

I’m really glad I appreciated it while it lasted.

And yes, I realize that 90% of you that read this got MUCH worse weather than I could ever even imagine this week. But I thought if you lived in Texas and put up with it being 110 degrees for 22 straight days, you didn’t have to learn what frozen pipes meant.

Anyways.

Here’s two of the things I started…. note, I didn’t say finished. This Texan doesn’t work when its 9 degrees outside!

And YES, I did spray paint the beige upholstered seat. STAINED seat, I might add. Too many paint splotches to even look cute. This is me wiping it with a white wash cloth after it had dried overnight. To test if I was going to ruin my pants on the first day. Cloth came back clean, no matter how hard I scrubbed. Will have to do a working test later, when I have on my sweats, LOL.

Then…………. this got involved……….. And, well, you will just have to wait til later to see what it comes out like. So will I, for that matter.

Next on the chopping block, err, project list…

Grandma’s cute lil end table. I have kept it original for 15 years now, and I’m ready to move on with it. :)

You’ve seen their kind – solid as a rock, but the wood thing finally got to me. It’s not as red as this crappy camera phone is showing it to be…. (Take note of that checkerboard thing happening up there…. you will be graded on it in a minute) Happened to read Pam at Be Colorful talking Navy Blue the other day, and instantly got up and started painting. Things usually never turn out good when I do that… LOL

Well, I was ok with this – leaving the wood top alone, but I had this vision of an off white colored top. It doesn’t look as white as the picture below though. Ugh, I want a new camera – Hubby, you read me? ;)

THEN I get this wild idea to keep with the checkerboard pattern from the wood grain, and paint THIS idiocy. What did I think the border around the blue and white checks was going to be? You can sort of see where I started sanding the edge of one of the sides, just to see if I can get down to a shabby wood grain color, enough to make a border.

And this is where it sits now. In the ~~frozen tundra~~ garage. Waiting on a warmer day.

School is out here for the 3rd day in a row tomorrow – and I’m staying home with the boys for the 3rd day in a row. We haven’t been out of the 20s since Tuesday, and dipping into single digits at night. Our pipes, and heaters, and our power grid just doesn’t know what to DO with those kind of temps! The roads are still icy in most places, and I just don’t want to leave the boys home by themselves during rolling blackouts, etc. I should be getting a lot of stuff done, but it’s too cold, and so I’m going to work on my blog design for the 3rd day now, LOL – well, in between blackouts, that is ;)

Ironically enough, its expected to be 55 here for the Super Bowl on Sunday. I think I will be spray painting, myself! (Rassa frassa… Steelers playing in MY house, instead of The Boys! It’s a travesty, I tell ya! Sorry Steeler fans, I’m a child of the 70s, and can hold a grudge for decades!)

Y’all stay warm!

Please Pardon the Dust…

2011-02-01T13:34:00.001-06:00

If you are new to my blog, please accept my apologies – because if you ARE new, that means you are reading directly from my page, and not from a blog reader. Which also means you are seeing a jumbled up mess – and you probably can’t even find this post on the page, so basically – this paragraph didnt help you – sorry. lol.

Hi Blog-Reader readers. I will look normal to you, within the cozy generic blog reader interface. I started playing with my template this morning, and half way through switching to a 2 column layout, I remembered that I actually designed all of my graphics specifically FOR a 3 column layout, and so now, nothing fits anymore.

If you think my old 3 column annoyed you – you should see a 2 column, without all of my colors imported in yet, and everything in those 2 columns off centered, or centered, or right aligned, or left aligned – all jumbled together.

The worst part is, I’m now irritated, and since I’m iced in here in DFW, I’m going to take a nap, and deal with it all later. So it will be a mess for a few days, while I’m knee deep in html.

Yall stay warm out there – you are undoubtedly cold, no matter WHERE you are today! ;)

PS. Just for a laugh – you know how I’m always making fun of Dallas during snow/ice events – we make such a CRISIS out of it… and especially so today with THUNDERSLEET, but it just happens to be that the Packers and Steelers just arrived, in the middle of the 1/2” crisis situation, and I swear, I can hear them laughing all the way over here. :)

Google Books

2011-01-28T04:30:00.000-06:00

If you know me well, you know that I am addicted to Google. I love Google, and yes I would marry Google if I could. My husband knows this, and as a technology geek himself, he is skeptical, but allows it.

Google has a Cloud. It stores data in the Cloud. Just like a cloud in the sky, you can see the data you store in the Cloud from anywhere in the universe with an internet connection.

I live for the Cloud. Hubby is skeptical of who runs the Cloud, and what it is doing with all of everyone’s data – but if the Cloud owner steals my recipes, song lyrics, and pictures of my dog sleeping on his back, then I’m ok with that.

If you are too – continue reading. If you think there’s a nasty, evil Cloud master selling your data – then you can stop here.

I have a Google phone, that has automatic access to my Calendar, Email, Contacts, Task list, etc. It now has my books too. (Well, not all the hundreds of trashy romance novels that I collected during the 90s, they still have to reside in the cardboard box in the garage) But any new E-Books that I buy, are allllll stored in the Cloud.

I now read on my phone, my PC, my hubby’s phone if my battery is dead, etc.

I do have some Kindle books. And I have some with Amazon. But I really like knowing that anywhere I go with an internet connection – my book will be there – bookmarked at just the right place.

Prices are the same price as the bookstore, or cheaper, it takes only 5 seconds to buy one thanks to Google checkout (there goes Hubby worrying about my CC info being in the Cloud – if someone steals my identity and gets all $74.21 cents of my wealth, then I will just have to call it a learning experience) and you always have your library at your fingertips.

It allows you to create bookshelves, rate books after you read them so you can sort them later – it’s really a pretty robust organization system.

Books of interest – 81. Hmm. I guess the Cloud now knows I like historical romances. Hehe.

Anyways, just passing that along, in case it interests anyone!

Blog Critiques

2011-01-27T22:12:00.001-06:00

Now here’s something scary I just ran across. A verrrry interesting link party from two wonderful bloggers:

Megandvd from Beauty In The Attempt

and

Gail from My Repurposed Life

Go Here or Here for very good descriptions of the link party – much better than my words would do justice to.

Did you read them yet? ok. Carry on.

Now I adore Gail, so if she thinks this is a good idea, then I will go for it. Putting my little bloggy button in this linky party, laying my creative heart on the chopping block… asking for a knife, *pant pant* hehe.

Ok, drama much? Yeah, I know. I’m silly.

Join this linky party and not only will Megan and Gail take a quick spin around your blog and give you constructive criticism, compliments, and/or tips as necessary, but other members of the blogging community might see you and do the same.

So, your assignment – if you so choose -

1. Link up to this fun party – it’s about as useful as you can get, for us bloggers – and will allow us to probably meet a few more friends!

2. Take a look at my blog for me – tell me what annoys you, and if you think its ok, well then that’s fine too :D

PS. I super duper promise I won’t post again tonight. I know – 3 posts in one day is just goofy. I’m on painkillers for a migraine, and I’m hyper!!!!

Full Blown Furniture Painting Inspiration – The Decorative Paintbrush

2011-01-27T20:54:00.001-06:00

Have you ever had one of those moments when you come across a new blog and everything you read in a 5 minute period just SiNGs to you? As if a kindred spirit wrote it? I have had that moment a time or two since joining the blogging community, and it just happened again.

I already saw several of my friends on their Subscriber list, so if you already follow (then shame on you for not telling ME, haha) then you know what I’m talking about.

Mary is the author of The Decorative Paintbrush, and she details the amazing work that she and Maggie produce. I am about to steal some of her pictures (I’m so sorry Mary!) but it’s the only way to show you just how amazing they are.

Storage boxes galore

Then, some of my favorites – the chairs….

On a barstool…

And can you believe THIS???

I just could.not.sit.on.that. Just amazing.

And ohhhh, the end tables…..

There is a lot more to her site, including info on custom orders, and a link to her Etsy.

Ok, I am really, really going to stop stealing pictures now…. but only if you PROMISE to go check out The Decorative Paintbrush. You will love it like I did, I just know it.

uhhhh….

So I stole one more. You K N O W I had to show THIS one, right?!?! …………… Right? Be still my heart!

Birthday Tradition

2011-01-27T16:03:00.001-06:00

On your Birthday, you can pick anything in the world that you want for dinner. You can have Mom cook your favorite, or pick your favorite restaurant. Your choice. No one can say no.

Because of that last stipulation – no one can say no – this is where I ended up for my FIFTEEN year olds birthday (15?!? How in the heck did that happen? I still get Stride Rite emails! Argh)

Seriously. Popeye’s. He knew this was the only night of the year that I could not say no. (Because I ALWAYS say no to that place, but he adores it, LOL.)

But we all had a good time, in a relaxed and much cheaper setting, so I guess that can’t be beat. I just wish I knew why teen agers are so afraid of smiling, LOL.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

(I am really glad he doesn’t read this blog, to find me calling him that in public!!)

DIY Kinda Things

2011-01-23T17:27:00.001-06:00

And so, I’m back to this… only THIS time, I really fished for the juicy stuff that might interest us trash to treasure kinda people.

Remember, it’s sitting on my coffee table (even though I don’t drink coffee) and you are just glancing through it… hehe

So, I’m not organizing by topic, these are all just random. (And I haven’t tried these things – you and I are just discovering them together… over coffee… that I don’t drink…)

Duct Tape: Hang items that come in tubes, such as glues and caulks: Put the edge of a 2” strip of duct tape on one side of the non-opening end of the tube, fold the tape over to the other side to form a loop at the end of the tube. Smooth the two sides of the tape together so that it forms a tail of sorts. Punch a hole in the loop of tape, and hang on your pegboard.

Alka Seltzer: Clean the hard to reach areas of an oddly shaped vase – fill the vase 1/2 way with hot water, add 2 tablets of Alka Seltzer and wait for the fizzing action to stop, rinse well. *Don’t leave it sitting though, or you will make a bigger mess as the Alka Seltzer will dry on the side of your glass, then you’ll never get it off!

Tin Foil: If you have clean scraps of foil that you are about to throw away – put it to good use first – cut through the foil with your favorite pair of scissors a few times to sharpen them.

Another Tin Foil: Vinyl floor that is popping up? Take a piece of tin foil and position it over the offending tile edge. Iron the foil until you feel the glue on the tile melt, then place heavy object on top of tile to hold until the glue resets.

Foil? Again? Cover door knobs with tin foil prior to painting. GEEEEN-YUS.

Ammonia: Strip wax from resilient flooring…. add 1 c ammonia to 1/2 gallon of water – let sit on floor for 3-5 minutes and scrub with a nylon scouring pad – rinse well. *I added this one because I know a lot of us try to restore things rather than buy new. I, personally won’t be using this one, since I had to actually Google the meaning of “resilient flooring” and secondly because if I am even NEXT DOOR to someone using ammonia, I am in bed for a week with a migraine that I usually have to name, because we become such long time friends. No way, baby, noooo ammonia for me.

Baby Oil: Remove latex paint from skin. Now WHOOOO would get latex paint on their skin?!?! *snicker* Can’t wait to see if that one works better than scrubbing the first layer of skin off – like I normally do.

Baking Soda: Remove coffee and tea stains from china – Dip a moist cloth in baking soda to make a stiff paste. Rub on, rinse well.

Baking Soda: remove MUSTY smell from old books (can you say Book Page Wreath?!?!) Place book in brown bag with 2TB of baking soda. Let sit (no shaking) for one week. Take out, brush off, and must smell is gone!

Baking Soda - (Ok, this isn't a DIY type tip, but it’s just one of those smack-to-the-forehead, why-didn't-I-think-of-that type of moments?) Absorb bathroom odors – place plain baking soda (or scent with a drop of essential oil) in decorative dishes (no lids) around the bathroom. I wonder if you could put some epsom salt in the same container to make it look more spa-like, and less…. baking soda like?

Plastic Milk Jugs: Got an old dented paint can? With a funnel, put the paint into a cleaned plastic milk jug. Not only will it pour easier, but you will be able to see the color in an instant, and can write any info you need on the jug with a sharpie.

Bucket: Are you going to be painting on the top rung of that ladder for a while? Don’t risk needing something and having to go back down – take a bucket and fill it with your rag, putty knife, detail brush, whatever…. and then hang it from the paint tray rail with an S Hook. I really liked that idea.

Ok, last one for the day – and it is hard to explain. It’s a tip on how to line up your upholstery tacks straight and even. If you don’t care about it, don’t even bother reading this:

Cardboard: Take a strip of lightweight cardboard, (I’m thinking cereal box) mark the spacing of your tacks with a ruler – onto the cardboard. After you have all of your spacing marked, press your tacks onto the markings, very close to the edge of the cardboard. Hold the cardboard/tacks up to your furniture, and after driving the tacks in almost all the way, carefully tug the strip of cardboard out. You should then be able to hammer them in all the way – and they are evenly spaced, and straight.

So, I’m going to try some of these out, and see if they work…. if you try any, let me know – we can talk about it next time you come over for coffee. (or Mimosa’s. Whichever.)

Cool Uses – Everyday Things

2011-01-09T12:19:00.001-06:00

I got a cool book for Christmas, and have now read it front to back at least twice.

In the real world, you might be over at my house having coffee (except that I hate coffee) and you see my new book and ask me to borrow it. I say sure! and you take it home for a few days.

In the internet world, we can drink whatever we want, we don’t have to get out of our jammies or wear makeup to talk, and here – I will let you borrow my favorite parts of the book right here.

Today’s Section:

DUCT TAPE

Hem your pants. Or your Halloween costume (which I have done, since I’m so short) and it works like a charm. I hate to admit I have done this one for years because I hate to sew, and I hate to iron (fusible web).

Hide a key – this is probably good in theory, not good in practice. It says to duct tape a spare key to the undercarriage of your car, and never be locked out again. I don't know that anyone still locks their doors from the inside anymore – using a key fob once out of the car instead – but it would work for house keys too.

Replace a shower curtain grommet

Remove lint from clothing

Seal a bag of chips (We do this at work, and it keeps it closed no matter how many times you reopen it)

Repair a vacuum hose

Loser Idea: It actually says “make your own bumper sticker” by adhering duct tape to your car and writing in whatever you want with a Sharpie. Yanno, something catchy like “I don’t care about the paint finish of my car”

Replace broken lawn chair webbing. Does anyone still have these? I haven’t seen them in stores in years. Good idea though – would save many an embarrassing 4th of July tumble.

Extend the life of Skateboard Shoes – tape along the areas that take the most abuse from the board, and protect their feet as well.

Repair a cracked garage can. I can see doing this, and then painting it a fine Oil Rubbed Bronze to hide the duct tape, then not wanting to get a new trash can, LOL

Now we use Duct Tape (actually, Gorilla Tape) by the day during Halloween prop building season – we make a lot of monsters from cardboard, newspaper and duct tape, then cover them in a variety of top layers, so we know what it is like to use this stuff for reasons other than intended. So I thought it strange that the following was NOT in this book: (haha)

Duct Tape Dress Form

Lovely slipcovers (Bachelor much?!)

And last but not least, one of my favorites – a stencil in a pinch. Tape two pieces of duct tape together, draw out your pattern, cut with an Xacto, and tape onto a piece to be painted.

Do you guys have some killer tips for Duct tape that I can use? I always ask for it at Christmas time, and I have rolls and rolls waiting to be played with!

Need YOUR Ideas!

2011-01-07T20:13:00.001-06:00

Is anyone familiar with my weird Wacky Wednesday dinner tradition? If not, I have 3 of them posted on the blog…

here, here, and here.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way – here’s my next crazy idea. I want my next Wacky Wednesday to be created in YOUR heads… You – my friends, my confidants, and the poor souls who have to put up with my dribble. (Is that supposed to be drivel? dribble? I like to say dribble. LOL)

So, your assignment, should you accept, is this: Leave a comment with a dish I should make, or an item to serve food in, or a “platter” for which they should eat off of, a “utensil” off which they should try and spear the food, or a “vessel” which they should try and slurp a drink out of.

Remember, it came from Seuss – on Wacky Wednesday, nothing was as it should be – tables were on ceilings, dogs would meow and cats would bark. We are trying to take simple things like dinner and food and making them as NOT normal as possible, in a funny way!

You can throw out ideas for a general theme, such as my Yellow Night, or just leave the theme Wacky in and of itself, and tell me a wacky place to eat at, like the living room floor.

You dream it, and I will choose a few of the ideas, and make it happen, and photograph the whole thing. Then we can all laugh about it on Thursday, lol.

There’s one Mama (ME!) two teen sons (14 and 17) and one Dad that acts as mature as his sons. Those are your players, try to keep the ideas cheap, as I’m still paying off Christmas, lol, and don’t worry about any idea being too weird…. thats just unheard of at our house! Let’s see how funny we can make this!

Depending on the ideas, and what I need to do, I might have it next Wednesday or if it gets complicated, I might do it the following Wed. If I have lost all my readers and get no comments, I will just photograph us eating Chinese and watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay. (C’mon yall, help a girl out – I don’t really like Chinese!!)

Spatulas as forks. Picture frames as plates. Casseroles in clean flower pots. Eating spaghetti with wood skewers. Drinks out of baby bottles. Making the dinner table the kitchen island placed in the hall. (hmm. now that’s interesting!) Just brainstorm ANYTHING in the comments, and we will see what we come up with!

I’m tired of my own ideas, they don’t make me laugh – I’m certain though, that YOU can!

2010 In Review. Sheesh.

2011-01-05T05:04:00.000-06:00

Everyone else is doing it, and I have found I am LOVING all the posts…. getting to see the best of my favorite bloggers, all in one concise post, thats just gravy! So, I wanted to try it too. I found that my list is a little less motivational, and more like…. “what the heck did I DOOOOO in 2010?!?!” I said Sheesh! alot…. but anyways, for posterity, here goes.

January

I did nothing. I got a new puppy and planned a 14 year olds X-Box gamer party. I fought the lazy, and the lazy won.

February

I chose all the paint colors for my entire house while Home Depot had a fabulous sale going on. I think I bought about 6 or 8 gallons…. here was the plan.

I completed one of the THREE of these projects. Hahaha. I have learned not to buy all the paint for your house just for a sale. I’m sure they have had good sales within the last YEAR that I let that paint sit in the garage. Another SHEESH moment.

Can’t leave February behind without one last look at our unnatural Texas Snow Monster

March

How to live without a Cricut

Adventures in Glass Painting

Another Wacky Wednesday dinner

A week of Foam – showcasing everything you can do with a sheet of foam

*Sheesh! Moment: These never got put up in the living room. Truth be told, I used most of them for the base of my 7 foot tombstone, LOL

I have these on the wall in my office at work – I love them every gray, dreary, long work day!

*Sheesh! Moment: This shamrock literally hung on my kitchen door until NOVEMBER. I liked the sparkle. My kids friends thought their Mom had a mental disorder.

April

SHEESH. I painted the ugliest thing I have ever painted. I then fixed it, but I still don’t like it to this day, hrrumph. Garage sale season was in full swing. And I was painting everything that didnt have the ability to run from me…. I loved the Yellow candlestick so much, it prompted a Yellow Night. LOL

May

I did a Youtube video showing how much I love my Black & Decker mouse sander for the blog, my husband laughed at me.

I took a week off from crafting to go to Vegas. There was no spray paint on my brand new sparkly nails. Not til I got home anyway.

I shocked my Mother with this dresser

and ended the divorce proceedings by saving my marriage with the brilliant His and Hers Garage

(still working like a charm, I might add!)

June

all my plants died, and SHEESH - so did my blog.

Two teen agers and a lot of work stress finally did me in. I took a break. More like a coma. But I came back….. just in time for Halloween.

And December, well, SHEESH - thank heavens it’s over. Thats about all I have to say about December. LOL

Well that was kinda fun (funny. silly. sad. depressing. SHEESH) – now I know why everybody’s doing it. And no, Mom, if everyone jumped off a cliff, I wouldn’t do it too…. I would be too busy up at the top looking for cool rocks to paint.

Here’s to 2011!

2010 Time Capsule

2011-01-04T05:30:00.000-06:00

Started a new tradition this year – I’m a bit late, seeing as how my boys are 14 and 17, but well, better late than never.

A week before Christmas I jotted down some questions that I thought would really paint a picture of the person that was answering it, and gave a copy to each member in the house, including myself. Asked them to fill it out, and then put it in a box to be opened at Christmas 2015. I figured 5 years is enough, especially when these Men-child people change from week to week!

Next year we will do it again, and open that one on Christmas 2016. As the family grows, the number of surveys will grown, and it will be an annual tradition to read from 5 years ago. I love it.

If you are interested in trying something like this – here is a link to my Google Documents, where I have the 3 page document stored. HERE

The Recipe Showdown

2011-01-03T11:17:00.001-06:00

Some of my recipes were the windshield, and some were the bug. As I spend this morning going through the recipe box and putting little stars by some, and shredding others, I thought I would share some of the winners with you, in case you want to give them a try in YOUR kitchen stadium. (thats only funny if you watch The Food Network. If you don’t, disregard that last attempt at humor.)

Also, this ensures that I won’t loose these recipes, which I do… often. Thank heavens for Blogger, my cyber memory. :)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

1/2 cup butter (yes, alot of butter, I know. I think it works with the cornstarch later to thicken?)
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves minced garlic
Basil and/or Oregano to taste
2 (16 ounce) packages frozen chopped broccoli (chop some finer if desired)
Shredded carrots - as desired
Worcestershire sauce
Dry mustard, optional
4 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 to 2 (1 pound) loaves Velveeta, cubed (amount of cheese depends on taste)
2 cups half n half (or milk of your choice)
2/3 cup cornstarch
8 oz shredded cheddar to garnish only

In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion and carrots in butter until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute, avoid burning garlic. Stir in broccoli and cover with THREE cans chicken broth. Add a dash of Worcestershire, pepper, and a pinch of dried mustard. Simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Reduce heat, Mix in milk, stir. To the 4th can of chicken broth, add cornstarch and stir vigorously til dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently until thick. If still thin, Remove 1/4 to half of the soup to another pot or bowl, and puree with immersion blender. Return to pot. Add a touch of regular milk if it is too thick at this point.
Stir in cheese cubes until melted.

Cucumber Dip

This comes from my friend Sarah at work – I told her I didn’t like cucumber dip, and she pretty much shoved a cracker with it in my mouth. I have been a believer ever since.

4 cucumbers

2 lg containers whipped cream cheese

1 packet dry Italian dressing mix

Lemon juice – fresh or bottled

Peel cucumbers. Cut into quarters, remove seeds, and dice. Lightly salt and place in colander over a bowl – put in fridge for 30 minutes to draw out the water. Remove from fridge, squeeze out the excess water.

Mix cream cheese and Italian mix in a bowl, add cucumber.

Add lemon juice to taste.

*Notes on this one: Don’t spend the extra money buying seedless cucumber because you have to spend the time scooping the “meat” of the cucumber out anyways – thats where all the water is that will make the salad soggy and watery. The whipped cream cheese is just a convenience item – regular cream cheese that is softened can be used.

TORTILLA ROLL-UPS

So super easy to make….My son loves these, they are like eating soft tacos!

1 pkg. flour tortillas

1 pkg. cream cheese, softened

A couple TBs of sour cream, just to make spreadable consistency

1 package of your favorite Taco Seasoning

1 can chopped green chiles

1 can chopped black olives, if desired

Shredded cheddar

Mix the cream cheese and sour cream to spreadable consistency. Mix in taco seasoning. Add green chiles and black olives. Once well blended, take a spoonful of the mixture and spread evenly onto the center of a tortilla. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of shredded cheddar. Roll the tortilla tightly and chill to firm up the cream cheese. Cut into 1 inch rounds. Serve with salsa. I make these a day or two in advance, without cutting them, and store then in my 13x9 cake pan with a lid in the fridge until the day of the event – then cut for serving.

And last but not least, a recipe I found here at my favorite site – Allrecipes, this is for a fantastic chocolate meringue pie, with custard that does not flow into the pie plate after cutting. I only used this recipe for the custard portion, I used my own pie crust and meringue…. but if you have been searching for the perfect chocolate part of the recipe – this is it! (I made one change from the original recipe, so my version is a tiny bit different, below)

Chocolate Meringue Pie

3/4 cup white sugar

5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

4 tablespoons cornstarch (I increased from 3 TB to 4)

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

3 egg yolks, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I added 2 tsp)

1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked

Meringue Recipe

Mix together sugar, cocoa, corn starch and salt in a medium saucepan. Gradually mix in milk. Cook and stir over medium high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat to medium low; cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove pan from heat. Stir about one cup of the hot filling into the egg yolks; mix back into the custard. Return saucepan to heat, and bring to a gentle boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in vanilla. Pour hot filing into crust.

Top with meringue, Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden.

Just whatever you do…. do NOT ask me about my Peanut Butter cookies. LOL!

Testing Blogaway

2011-01-03T00:41:00.002-06:00

Just testing blogging from my phone.

Im slooooooow on this little phone.

Will need to practice, lol.

Goodnite!!!

Does It Count

2011-01-02T22:50:00.001-06:00

If I at least got the ornaments off of the tree?

Well, I hope so, since we just got home from our Christmas around the country side tour of 2010…. whereas we have a “Christmas” for three weekends in a row. I am just now finished with the holiday season as of about 30 minutes ago, and I am READY to take it all down now – for sure!!!

Tomorrow the decorations come down, the tossing of everything old in order to have some place to put all of this new.

I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year, I hope everyone made it home safe, sound, and WARM!

I can’t tell you how excited I am for the ONE month of the year that I go minimalist – January!

If you are of a like mind, and want to have some blog fun while you are at it – head on over to Organize and Decorate Everything to hear our “marching orders” to get organized and ready to link up to the party on Wednesday. I know *I* am interested in hearing any good organizing tips I can find right about now!

PS. Yes, I know thats a really bad cell phone pic up there – but my camera is giving me fits, and I refuse to let that stop me from blogging for even one more minute. I missed you guys something awful! Talk to you soon!

Let’s Try This Again.

2010-11-16T20:40:00.000-06:00

I have read many stories of things people have gained from blogging. Friends. Knowledge. Tips on a new hobby/trade.

Me? I learn things about myself. Like traits of my obsessive personality. Or my ability to jump and run in the face of being overwhelmed.

Case in point. I had a Halloween blog. I found a lot of craft blogs through that blog. I became enamored with the thought of putting more color into my life. I followed 1300 blogs. Ok, not really, but close. I came home to 1358 unread blog posts in my Reader every day after work. I read them all, daily. I commented on 348 of them. I then did a project, took pics, wrote a post of my own, and went to bed, got up, went to work for 10 hours a day and started the process all over again.

Take that schedule, and add a few family urgencies into it. Two teen boys would be enough, but woah. I crashed and burned.

By the time I emerged from the slight panic attack, it was time to start the Halloween build, which takes months. Enter shades of black and gray, and forget color. Out went my Wacky Whimsy time.

So anyways, I learned alot about how I handle things. But I also know that another bad trait is that I am persistent, and after figuring out where I went wrong, I want to try it again. If anyone out there is even reading this, I’m a step ahead of where I think I should be. ;)

Halloween is now over, and Christmas is coming soon. Hubby hates decorating for Christmas, so that leaves all the fun to me. While we do NOT do a yard decoration (out of storage space, yanno?!?!) I love bringing bright colors to the interior, and this is where some of my favorite projects come in. Time to dust off Wacky Whimsy, and come to the realization that I’m not a very good blogger, but I will have fun doing whatever I can.

In the meantime, here are just a few of my favorite shots of the haunt, I know – everyone is out of the mood now, LOL – but just thought I would throw it out there, to show why on earth I disappear from July to October. :D

A shot of our yard from across the street. On one of the columns there is a countdown to Halloween sign that we started at 60 days. The kids LOVED it!

Ms. Zinnia the deranged Pumpkin Bride. She’s holding a candle and boquet. $20 vintage wedding dress from eBay, score of the year!

Ms. Petunia, the tortured zombie trick or treater. It’s hard to see, but that’s a big monster right behind her, poised to attack, lol.

A stone from last year, but still my favorite. If I have shown you this one already, my apologies! I took a stanza from the Edgar Allan Poe poem and added the birth and death date of his first wife. Always a romantic, I am. In the right background, you can see one of the monuments I did this year out of foam. 6.5 feet tall, and a blast to build and carve.

Anne Boleyn with the author of Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Odd little cemetery I have. ;)

Now. Enough black and gray and shades of midnight blue. On to some nesting, decorating, holidays, and some color!

Thank you so much for hanging in there!

Apparently Taking a Break

2010-06-14T21:44:00.001-05:00

Rough times around here…

My father in law was in a very bad bicycling accident over the weekend, and has crushed all of the bones in his left arm, so that it is being rebuilt with prosthetics in surgery after surgery… broken ribs, lacerations, etc.

Add that to a bunch of drama in another little family sector that has caused several of my loved ones a lot of emotional pain that will be felt for a long, long time.

I’m trying to keep it all together, while driving back and forth to attend each side, keep working (since I just took a vacation, I’m not up for any more time!) and trying to keep myself from a valium meltdown…

I apparently am not motivated to paint anything, plan anything, or do anything in my spare seconds other than sleep.

I’m not giving up, but just need a bit of time to take care of things around here, then get back to my beloved bloggy world.

I miss so many of you, and have realized how much I think of you during the days in my real life. Know that I’m doing the best I can at keeping up with your blogs, and will catch up with you soon!

Back Burner Blues

2010-06-09T19:40:00.001-05:00

Everything in my “normal” life has had to take a back seat in the last week and a half since I returned from ~~fantasyland~~ Vegas.

My blog

My TV Shows (Incredibly useless fluff, I know, but it’s like Survivor: Love Edition, and I can’t NOT watch!)

Even my plants are dead.

There goes the Lavender, thank heavens for heat-loving Rosemary!

(Thanks for watering while I was gone, Honey!) hehe

And I haven’t had time for ANY projects. I have found that reading 1800 blog posts in my Google reader (wow, a weeks worth, really?!?!) took several days and just recreating my Paint Shop environment from scratch is about a week long process, then there was a weeks worth of laundry, and now I am in the midst of planning a 4 day camping trip over the 4th of July weekend. Whew. I’m whooped.

I will be back to normal soon, I hope, and having fun stuff to post.

In the mean time, here is a funny side note. While I was in the yard, taking pictures of dead plants (don’t you know the neighbors think I’m a KOOK!) I noticed my porch… from a NORMAL persons point of view… and just had to laugh.

One side of the porch. Notice the planter chair….. with no plant. At least I didnt take the time to plant it, then let it die.

Then on the opposite side of my front door… this….

Everybody knows how popular chippy looking cottage ladders are right now… and well…. the gargoyles and the “antiqued” angel… just goes to show that even my front porch has two personalities. I can’t put ALL my Halloween stuff away all year, now can I?

I’m not even going to show you the place in my yard that has my 2 foot angel that is also antiqued with black and gray paint…. I just don’t want the hate mail. *grin*

Yall have a wonderful Wednesday evening!!!

If You Care: Digi Scrapbook Sites

2010-06-02T22:51:00.001-05:00

I’m continuing to rebuild my computer goodies, and hoping I can help just one person out there find something they don’t already have.

Today is the Digital Scrapbook Sets – freebies. Scrapbook papers, elements (which are various graphics that would be put on a scrapbook page – such as flowers, or paper clips, diamonds, butterflies, etc.)

I use these in Paint Shop to create all kinds of stuff from Greeting Cards, printable signs for the kids, holiday stuff, and some of them even allow you to use the graphics for web sets, banners, buttons, etc for personal (non-commercial) websites. Just check the terms at the particular web site. (I made this webpage using an approved scrapbook kit. Makes it really easy to coordinate your buttons, headers, etc)

So, again, here are some of the places I am frequenting to rebuild my collection. In no particular order. (Well, except that I have a big crush on this first one…)

Shabby Designs

Free Digital Scrapbooking

BeckysScrap Blog

ScrapMatters – this includes a blog, and a shop where you can buy some really great looking kits for an average of $3 to $7 bucks.

Digital Scrapbooking Free site

CraftCave free digiscrap section

Miriams scrap blog

Digital Divas – this is a pay site, but they have lots of stuff at good prices.

***Edited to add this blog, as I just spent forever+two days there… I like her stuff a lot. Summertime Designs

And finally, a link to a good article on Digital Scrapbooking… just in case anyone wants to download any of the freebies, and try actual scrapbooking with them. ;)

CottageArts.net Digi Scrap basics

Woohoo, Happy Thursday y’all! And special thanks goes to Frog Queen for taking the YEEHAW challenge yesterday. It made my day ;)

Recreating My Fonts Folder. Sigh

2010-06-01T23:43:00.001-05:00

Thought I would share some of the sites I am stalking, for well… two reasons.

1. I think some of you might find them interesting places to find some cool fonts for free.

2. So that when my entire computing world comes crashing down again, and I find out that even my B.A.C.K.U.P is corrupt, I will have a quick way to try and recreate my hobby life.

Below are some of my favorites in no particular order. Note: I “rate” a font site by not only the unique-ness of the fonts, but the ease of navigation. If they are listed by font name, A-Z, I’m outta there. I could browse an alphabetical list for dayyyyyyyyys, and still not know exactly what I’m looking at. I like categories – script, comic, 3D, scary, etc. Everything below has easy, organized navigation.

Blambot – really cool Comic style fonts. Some are free, and some are for pay.

Urban Fonts – they have 49 categories, and an entire section of freebies. You will find interesting ones here that you like.

dafont – I have been cruising this site for years, always find something I’m looking for here.

Font Diner free fonts section – As I have discussed here before, Fontdinerdotcom is one of my all time favorite fonts, and this link leads you to fontdiner.com’s free fonts section. Even browsing the pay section here just makes me drool.

Font River – there are categories, and subcategories. Tons of good fonts organized so well it makes my heart flutter

Scrap Village has a font section that I really like.

Font Squirrel – 100% free for commercial use. Rare to find that.

A special category that is close to my heart is Handwriting fonts. I first fell in love with a Windows architect font and have been hooked ever since.

dafont has my favorite architect font here.

Kevin and Amanda's Fonts for Peas is an amazing collection of handwritten fonts that are made from user submissions. I’m sure you have heard of it, but if not… This is real world handwriting, folks…all for free download. And if you are interested, you can even scan and send your own handwriting to be made into a font.

Bored yet? Sorry if you are…. I will leave you with the list above, just knowing that I will be at any one of those places for the next few days, rebuilding a collection that was over 5 years old. Whew.

Have a fabulous Wednesday! Can I get a YEEEHAAW for short work weeks!!!! (c’mon, say “Yeehaw”… out loud… just once, for me?)

Lost.

2010-05-31T15:08:00.001-05:00

And not the show Lost either.

The change in reality from Las Vegas, Nevada to Dallas, Texas is so strange and all encompassing that it’s hard to put into words. I had one thing on my mind on that plane.. hugging my hubby and kids, then dropping them like a hot potato and logging onto my trusty laptop to check my blog reader.

This is where the lost part comes in, and Vegas to Dallas reality got all the more real.

My laptop would not boot up. My entire registry was gone, all my data, all my EVERYTHING…. gone. LOST!!!

I hadn’t done a backup to my external hard drive in months. Months and months, I tell ya.

I became that client on the telephone that I have talked to hundreds if not thousands of times – telling them the importance of backups. DOH!

I wonder if mechanics have cars that don’t run, if doctors have personal illnesses not detected, if chefs eat TV dinners.

I worked the computer customer service desk for the last 10 years, and didn’t have a current back up.

Ok, I’m through moaning about my idiocy now. Major props to my programmer husband for spending 12 hours picking through my corrupt user folder and my oooooold backup to find at least a small fraction of my data. Thank heavens I had just recently moved about 10 gigs of family pictures to our server – they were safe.

Any pictures of any projects I have done for the last 6 months are gone – if I want to see pictures, I have to look on my blog, LOL!

So, I am doing laundry, reloading all of my programs, trying to retrieve thousands of fonts, and moving any of my remaining documents to Google Docs. I actually had to download Windows Live Writer, and remember all of my old passwords to even post this. Oh, and to add to it, Hubby loaded Windows 7, so I am learning a new operating system, and a new version of Paint Shop, so I have to get friendly with that too. UGH. Where’s the Calgon?!?!?!

Point: Don’t go on vacation. LMAO!!

Once I get my bearings together, I will tell you a little about the trip (nothing boring, I swear) and what I have in store for projects. HINT: After I realized my laptop was a goner, I put paint brush in hand, and soothed my troubles that way!

Hope you are having a GREAT Holiday weekend, (I am thinking of my Papa, a veteran of WWII today… thanks to all the Troops for everything you are, and do) and I will see you again in a day or two!

Memories…

2010-05-24T05:46:00.000-05:00

Becca over at Blue Cricket Design recently did a post about what she hoped her kids remembered about her many years from now.

It was a really great post, one geared towards realizing what is important, and what actions should be taken now to solidify those memories in the future.

Only it got me thinking. What if the things that *I* want them to remember are not exactly how they see it?

For instance…… What I want them to remember… and what they DO remember.

Every so often, I injected fun into dinner time by making something a little wacky. “Sometimes Mom completely lost her marbles and we had donuts for dinner while hanging from the ceiling. That’s when we started to realize she was a bit looney”
I loved cooking for them, making things from scratch as often as possible to make it special. “She never made the *good* stuff for dinner – we never got Hot Pockets, Kraft Mac and Cheese, or Spam, like all of our other friends got…. and she never let us have one of those awesome Stouffers Frozen Lasagna’s. Man, those things looked good at the store.”
I always believed that Camping is a huge part of growing up – gives the family 2 solid days to learn to work together, hear each others stories, and have fun together. “We were so glad when the camping trips went away… nothing worse than being away from your FRIENDS for an ENTIRE weekend, just to go sit in the forest for 2 days and act like we *need* those Nutri Grain bars and packets of Capri Sun to survive…. Ugh.”
I always tried to include my sons in the household decision making, so that they feel included, are prepared for life events and choices once they leave our house. “My parents could NOT make a decision on their own to save their lives. They even had to ask us what color they thought looks good in the laundry room?!? We don’t CARE, just paint it already!!”
I reused things, and saved money wherever I could. “Oh, my poor mom was so cheap. She made home decor by wrapping wadded up balls of newspaper with string, and throwing it in a glass vase thing?? She couldn’t just BUY a new chair, she had to recover it 14 times over 40 years. Now that she’s 90 years old and moving to the retirement home, I’m finally going to buy her a new purse. One she won’t have to duct tape to keep it closed.”

Yeah, I can see where that one is headed… and it makes me laugh. I really love my boys, and I think THAT part at least, will ring true.

Submitting Vacation Request

2010-05-21T01:32:00.001-05:00

Dear Employer (err, yes, you)

I would like to request 2 weeks vacation. Effective Saturday May 22nd, 2010 through Saturday June 5th. Yes, I do realize that I have already been off one week “sick” (cough*packing*cough), but I am confident that when I return from said vacation, I will be rested, refreshed, the laundry will be caught up, and I should have had time to scrape off the remains of 3 Totino’s pizza’s off the floor of my oven. (Leaving 3 boys at home for a week is never good!)

If you see fit to allow this request (meaning you won’t unsubscribe, unfriend me, kill my dog, wrap my house or shoe polish my car) I would be very appreciative.

Sincerely,

Desperate for a Vacation in Dallas.

Anyone care what I did with my nails? (I love doing weird stuff for Vegas, its the only place I know of that you can be as obnoxious as you want for a week and not have anyone look at you weird)

I know – not TOO out there, but I just wanted some bling. My toes are done the same way, I laugh every time I see them.

Well, that picture didn't turn out too well, but they are silver glitter tips with iridescent glitter on the bottom section. They shine as much as my ring does in the light. And if a casino has one thing – its lots of light!

As my friend Kimily pointed out, it’s hard to keep nails looking good when you craft as a hobby, and I agree. That's why whenever I get away from the garage for 8 days and 7 nights, I take full advantage of a manicure! ;)

Back to the blog.

I don’t do the whole guest post thing, so that means I will be sitting idle over here in bloggy land for a week or 2. Hang with me, I’ll be back, and spunky as ever!

(PS thanks for everyone that checked on me, I’m still here, I just WAY procrastinated all the things to be done, and haven't had a moment to get online…. I really appreciate your thoughts!)

I will miss talking to y’all… have a GREAT week, and I will talk to you when I get back! Hugs!!!

Tales of a Sunday in the Garage

2010-05-16T18:35:00.001-05:00

Gorgeous weather. Organized, open, airy garage. Heavenly.

It started with these first two pieces. You will meet them in more detail later.

Then it went into a picture session trying to answer some emails I got about the Black and Decker Mouse sander.

That led to this hilarious informational video that I can’t believe I’m going to share. My accent is atrocious, even my native Texan husband laughed at it. But if I don’t share it with you, then I’m just some weirdo chick making videos in my garage for no. good. reason.

Wow. I even laugh at myself.

Once my Hollywood minutes were over, I got to work. I sat in a folding chair, bending over to sand this thing on the floor, so that I could get the top and all angles. The hubby said he was going to run to the store and came back in about 30 minutes.

With this.

He said I was going to kill my back by the time that table and chair were done, and put this together for me in about 10 more minutes. I was rolling around in 360s painting from all sides.

Sometimes, men are really WORTH all the trouble. Hahaha, thank you Jayson, I really love you for thoughtful surprises like this!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I am back to painting and packing for Vegas. I don’t leave until next Saturday morning, but there is no reason putting things off, right?!? (I could have packed 3 weeks ago, I’m so ready to be GONE!!)

Heading out to the Sales this Weekend?

2010-05-14T18:45:00.001-05:00

If so, check out our wacky friend Debbie from Debbiedoos new link party…

The party will be on Sundays, but she will be putting the McLinky up on Saturday nights, I think….

So keep this in mind if you head out in the morning… get some pictures of the treasures you buy, and any interesting ones you leave behind… then you can join her first party and meet lots of thrifter’s just like us!

And if you don’t know Debbie yet…. click on her blog even if you don’t have a thrifting story to share… she’s just… FUN. !!!

I adore this picture. Click on it to take you to the ~~explanation~~, err, post.

And she has totally woo’d me back to Krylon, after a long abstinence in the name of Rustoleum. Now I have to make space for BOTH brands on my shelf! ;)

Happy Friday Night! Wooohoo, we made it!

Choosing My Weapons: Preparing to Paint

2010-05-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

In case you have forgotten who I am, and why you are even here… or what in the heck this post is about, you can check out my whacked out ideas and theories here.

How I Prep Furniture for Painting

Pre clean. Wipe off cobwebs. Remove old price tags. I say this tongue in cheek, because I rarely do this step. But for pieces I sell, or want to look good for more than 6 months, this is what I would do.

If you asked me this a month ago, I would have said the first step is: but can now say that my pre cleaner of choice is and some water. Not too much water, this is wood. Let dry well.

If the wood is rough, I will sand it. My weapon for sanding is my trusty Black and Decker Mouse. Love this thing. Perfect for my hands.Although I have been known to have to “slum it” and use good old fashioned sand paper. This is for tiny places that even the pointed tip of my mouse can’t get to.

One last favorite tool for sanding little places?

Nail files for acrylic nails. Find em’ at any drug store for a dollar. They rock.

I have a Dremel, and 4 billion sanding wheels. Have yet to use it specifically for sanding. Would be interested to see if anyone else has good luck with it.

Oh. One more thing I am a pretty big stickler on. Is ‘stickler’ a word? Spell check liked it – so it must be ok. Anyways, Removing saw dust. They sell but I hate it. It’s sticky (DUH!) and I don’t like touching it. I use two different cloth diapers to wipe the wood down with. This also allows me to catch any splinters I might have missed, and sand them smooth.

*Cloth diapers – the wonder cloth. My parents used them ages ago to apply wax to their cars without scratching the finish. They kept one in a drawer to wipe their eye glasses. Clean the (old fashioned) TV screen. You will be the only 45 year old woman in the baby section trying to find the “out of style, and getting hard to find” cloth diapers, but they are worth it for so many things! And they are so multi purpose – no need for different specialty cloths for all that stuff, just get diapers!

Moving on……………….!

If the wood is sticky, gummy, or otherwise nasty, my weapon is (another ultra favorite) CitriStrip. It is a citrus scented orange goop that resembles… well, a gel. (Not really what I say it resembles, more like something you blow into a handkerchief, but well, yanno. Ew, how crass). You brush it on with a OLD chip brush that will most definitely be thrown away. Then let it sit a bit, and scrape the gunk off with a plastic spatula thingee. (Oh so technical). It’s at HD and Lowe’s.

I haven’t tried the spray yet, but oh, just let me at it. I’m so enamored of the Gel, that I know I will probably love the spray too.

Word to the wise. This stuff is not toxic, I actually use it in my closed up garage in the winter, and I don’t even get headaches (I’m prone, so that’s really saying a lot). BUT. B U T. Anything and everything this stuff touches, will become so sticky you have to throw it away. The container you put it in (I use an aluminum paint roller tray – its non reactive, wont melt, and is cheap enough to throw away), the plastic thingee ma bobber. Why cant I think of what this thing is called right now?

There’s one in action above. The scraper thingee, pushing the paint off with ease. But it’s that stuff they are scraping off that is “could kill you sticky”.

Also, your shirt, your shoes, your HAIR… oh, and your hands. Better get these – yanno, the kind you throw far, far away.

I know, that’s a lot of warnings. But. If you find a piece that you just cannot sand through all the layers of paint, has intricate detail, etc… this stuff does the trick. I adore it. Much.

Piece is cleaned, paint is stripped, sanded, or otherwise not a factor.

Prime.

I skip this step a lot too, when I shouldn’t, because Primer can be expensive, and most of my pieces only get used 6 months to a year in my own home, then I re-do them. But for good pieces…. anything of my Parents or Grandparents, momento pieces from my son’s or my childhood… get primed.

My choice is

but when I’m being especially cheap, and just want to buy enough for one project, it is

Trusty Rustoleum. And it works like a charm for me.

Signed, sealed, delivered.

Cleaned, sanded, primed, ready.

Those are my weapons. Now tell me what are YOURS. Let me soak up all your knowledge, and see what I have been missing!

One last thing. You might note that I didn’t touch on old toxic paint that might be on a thrift store/garage sale piece you just bought, and the hazards of sanding or stripping such items. That's because without consulting my hubby GOOGLE, I have no idea. Maybe someone much smarter than me will comment, and keep me from poisoning myself.

Happy Thursday! Any Survivor fans out there?! Oh. Just me?

Darn.

Choose Your Weapon

2010-05-08T08:36:00.001-05:00

Not that kind of weapon. I just thought it was cute.

For each project we have in mind, we make a list of supplies necessary to complete the task. Some supplies might be something new to us, and some are items we have on hand, or have bought hundreds of times before.

We reach for the products that work for us, things that have given us great results. We become loyal, and forget that there might be other ways, or other products that we never even knew of.

I find this a lot in blog land, reading others tutorials. I love those posts, not as much for the completed product usually, but more for the “how does SHE do it” factor. I know how *I* do it – I want to know how she does it… is it easier than my way… cheaper… faster…. better results? Do I still like my way better in the end, or am I going to convert?

In the event that there might be someone else out there pondering along those same lines…. I am going to do a few posts called Choose Your Weapon. I’m not going to do tutorials, because I don’t do projects that are any different than anyone else… but my methods or products might be.

What I’m really looking for with this, is the comments section – I want to know what you think after reading the post… how YOU do it, is your product better, are there steps that I’m completely leaving out, etc.

Bloggyworld has so many unique individuals, with such different senses of taste and style, skill level, specialties, etc… Just imagining the creative possibilities of working together boggles my mind!

I would love to make this some kind of round robin thing where each of us did a post on our own blogs at some point… to harness the skills of sewers, painters, carpenters, paper artists, etc… so that when we find a project we have no idea what to buy, or how to do it – we have the arsenal of our blog list as a ‘go to’ for the basic supplies and techniques.

Man, I get grand ideas at 8am on Saturday mornings. :)

You guys have a wonderful Saturday. I’m off to go shopping with my Mama for rhinestone covered sunglasses and sequined flip flops. Gotta look like an idiot in Vegas, yanno!

Happy Friday!

2010-05-06T21:57:00.001-05:00

Since I have no colorful pictures, I will share a few random thoughts for this “Friday Eve”... Or “Thursday Night”. Whichever you prefer.

Dear Midwestern and Northeastern Frost & Freeze Warnings:

Couldn’t you just dip a little farther South?

I know it’s only the mid to upper 80s in Texas

and many would kill to have weather like that this weekend,

but I’m already hot, and it’s only May 6th.

One last freeze will get me through the 90s and 100s we have coming until October.

Dear Owens Corning,

You could make a lot of money in the crafting biz, if you would only sell foam in the South that is thicker than 1”. I’m telling ya, you could.

Dear General Public,

The nicer you are to the innocent customer service rep on the phone, the more likely they are to help you. If you would stop screaming for more than 10 seconds, you would realize the poor dope you are abusing on the phone is trying to feed their family, and cannot quit their job, no matter how many curse words you spew at them. If you treat them well, they will go to the ends of the earth for you.

Dear Chanel no. 5 Powder,

I love you, and cannot live without you.

Dear Windows Live Writer,

I love you too, and can’t live without you either.

Dear Allergies,

I’m SERIOUSLY over you now.

Dear Turquoise,

You have been my favorite color for somewhere around 35 years, when I first saw “Blue Green” in my box of 64s. Whatever am I going to do when this crazy fad is over, and people begin to turn their back on you? Will I date myself with you just like so many women did with Rust or Harvest Gold? Oh man, it just hurts my brain to think about it.

Dear Jayson,

Thank you for your unwavering support. Thank you for never once belittling my artistic endeavors.

Dear Kodak,

The hubby really doesnt like you. If you don’t step it up with something he won’t laugh at, I will end up with a Canon I’m too intimidated to use. C’mon, give me something to strive for here.

Dear Google,

I call you my second husband. You probably know more about me than my first husband… all my spending habits through Checkout, all my Contacts, you know my exact location thanks to Latitude, you know where I will be next Thursday night thanks to Calendar, and who I’ve been talking to via Gmail, and chatting with via GTalk. Add to that my beloved Google phone, with all that info synched to me 24/7… I’m still seriously crushin on you, every day.

Dear Rustoleum Spray Paint Trigger Grip,

I could not spray paint without you, oh my how I thank the stars for you every day!

Dear YOU (say your name out loud)

Thank you for being here – even on nights like this with no abrasive colors to look at… every new follower makes me all mushy, every comment makes me smile, even when you are telling me I’m nuts, haha! I really appreciate you.

Now, go out there and make it an Amazing Friday!

Domestically Speaking – Power of Paint Party

2010-05-04T21:44:00.002-05:00

Ah, Wednesday, another favorite blog day. (Ok, it’s Tuesday night, but work with me here!) All those links to painting projects, it makes my heart flutter!

This weeks post starts with a dresser that belonged to my Grandfather who has passed away. He was a amazing woodworker by hobby, and I have many of his original pieces of furniture, and other treasures that I would never touch. This dresser, however, was not one of those pieces, it was store bought, and when it comes down to it, he probably cared nothing for it….. also when it comes down to it, I’m not even sure it contains any real wood at all, so I decided to dress it up, and use it for storage on the GIRLS side of the garage. (haha, decorating the garage, oh how I love that!)

We start here, with it in all its beat up glory. And oh, my favorite color, brown. (There is not enough sarcasm dripping off that word, so let me reiterate…. I hate brown)

At this point, I still thought it was wood with just a really rotten finish wearing off of it. Shiny, gummy, and ugly brass handles pretty much describes it… but I do love the little shutter type insets.

So I start cleaning it. I grab my favorite cleaner of choice.

If there are any of you groaning out there for me right now… where were you a few days ago? If you ARE groaning, you know what I mean.

Spray on the Clorox. Is that Dirt? No. Something else scary? Nope. That…is…the… FINISH. Turning the cleaner brown. “Ewww” is right.

Clorox and an old toothbrush… well, its cheaper than paint stripper!

The Clorox side to the left, and the non cleaned side to the right. I don’t know why I constantly spell Clorox as “CHlorox” sometimes, especially when I’m in photoshop. :/ POINT BEING: See the difference? And that bleached side was smooth as silk, ready for paint.

Don’t try this at home. I’m not advocating this by ANY means, but it was already a dresser in really bad shape, and I wanted to see what it would do. If I find out in a month that it also slowly eats through paint applied over it, I will be really sad.

I realized half way through I was doing the drawers in my website’s colors, haha

These drawers (standing on end) are getting the heave-ho. Gotta make room for stuff that I don’t want to put in drawers.

Here was my second clue that I was in trouble. The back of the dresser? Cardboard. If I were Gail or Rose, I’m sure that I would have just walked over to my STASH, grabbed a sheet of plywood, cut it to size, and drilled it onto the back or something handy like that.

Me? I paint cardboard. I count myself impressed if I wipe the cobwebs off before I start.

Exhibit A.

Prosecutor: Your Honor, the defendant did in fact use an entire can of her brand new Krylon Bauhaus Gold to paint the inside of this one little area, not realizing after a few sprays, that because she didn’t prime, and with the porous nature of cardboard, that the gold was not going to work for her. What more do we have to say to have her proven guilty?

Defense Attorney: Yes, Your Honor, she did in fact commit this crime, and then began to use up another can of Rustoleum Satin Black as well…. this obviously proves that she is not mentally competent enough to stand trial. I move to have her committed immediately.

I *do* go off on tangents, don’t I?

Luckily it turned out ok in my book. (But then again, I have a weird book, I realize this)

Then a little sumthin’ sumthin’ on the top….

And yes. I taped, then spray painted right there against the white garage wall. And as my husband turned and GASPed like a girl at the wall, I used that moment to exercise my first “TSK, TSK, Don’t worry- it’s on MY side!!!”

Walking around feeling so proud of myself that I can do whatever I want, I forgot how BAD it was going to look when I took my pictures for the blog. Hrrrumph. Can’t even complain about it to hubby! (Look how the flash off the gloss red stripes makes like a halo effect on the wall, making it even worse, LOL. I will fix it, I swear!)

Besides, I have to paint the wall white again, so I can put up my new peg board above the dresser, haha! Hubby hates that too – says it hurts his eyes. It will be hung horizontally, unlike the angle above.

The stand that my paint is on, above? That is the bottom of a monster that the honey is working on for Halloween – look at the little feet, so cute! Its a box because speakers will go inside. Sorry for the distraction, just thought it was cool. And i like it for a paint stand ;)

My mother thinks I’m nuts, but she said she is glad I’m getting use from it… man, I hope she meant that!

I on the other hand smile and giggle like a school girl every time I pass it. I’m going to put shelves in the polka dot section, a place for junk waiting to be transformed.

Happy Wednesday, and if you are visiting from PPoP, thank you for stopping by!

His and Hers

2010-05-03T05:48:00.000-05:00

I have seen alot of people in Blog land posting their OCD tendencies, and I guess I have one to admit as well.

If the kitchen is not spotless, I won’t cook. Most nights I have to clean up from the boys getting home from school, before I can make dinner. If the laundry room is piled with clothes on the floor, I wont climb over the piles to work the machines until the perpetrator, err, family member gets those clothes off my laundry room floor.

And if my… er, our garage is dirty or cluttered, I cannot work in it. That means, I’m not working on Halloween props. And in that case, it becomes my Hubbies desire to get the garage in tip-top shape so that I will get my butt in gear.

We basically had way too much stuff. I keep throwing things away, hubby is too…. but then there’s my garage sale habit, and my husbands prop building materials habit, and well… we were just moving stuff around once a month or so.

Finally I came up with a funky plan. I had to talk hubby into it, he thought I was bonkers, I think. But I told him we would just TRY it like this and see if it works.

Here is what I presented him with.

A his and hers garage floor plan. There is no actual dotted line on the floor, but we knows it’s there. I get to do whatever I want to my side, and vice versa for him. Decorate if we wish, clutter if we wish, or over-organize it if we wish. Either way, our side is our own responsibility.

At the top of the page, you will see the door to the house, the hot water heater, etc. Everything from the solid line and up is shared – meaning it is either for the house, or the pets, and we both have stuff up there. That keeps us from having to bicker over where the dog food has to go.

I will openly admit right now that Hubby gets the short end of the stick since it is HIS lawnmower, HIS weedeater, HIS blower, etc. Hahaha, thank the stars I don’t do the lawn work. That stuff takes up tons of space! ;)

I have already started putting my Wacky Whimsy touches on my storage items, and you will see those in the next day or so. I just thought you would find it fun to see the birth of the His and Hers Garage, just in case the whole idea goes up in flames in the next few months, LOL!

The Traveling Door

2010-05-02T17:37:00.001-05:00

Yanno how there are people that you just “click” with…. you really like their work, their taste, their talent – then you meet them via email and exchanging comments, and you like THEM every bit as much as their talent.

I click with a couple of people really well, such as Chris from Davis Graveyard and Frog on the Pumpkin fame…. and there is Gail from My Repurposed Life, Rose from Confessions of a Curbshopaholic and Terry Lee from All Things Terry Lee just to name a few. All such talented ladies with hearts of gold that I just love talking to.

But the person I want to talk about today has everything that I mentioned in the ladies above, added to the fact that her style is the closest to my own wacky style that I have ever seen. I remember the first project of hers I ever saw, an *awesome* desk, and I don’t think I breathed for 2 minutes, scrolling through her post, just amazed at her style.

Pam from Becolorful is the person I speak of, and she has my favorite website for beautiful painted furniture. Her writing style is fun and easy to read, she tells you of the ups and downs, decisions to be made, and progress of her work day by day almost. I don’t think I did anything all afternoon while scrolling through her archives, completely interested, the first day I found her.

Photos below credited to Becolorful, click to enlarge. They are worth it!

It’s stuff like this that makes me adore her so much!!!

Oh, how I love this dresser. It is the sister of the red one in the first photo.

The desk that started it all for me – nothing but love!

Ok, enough mushing, it’s down to business. The reason I’m posting about Pam is because she is part of an amazing troupe of female artists that work under the name The Traveling Door.

The website explains it so much more eloquently than I do, let’s let them tell us:

The Traveling Door was created in 2007 by five women for the purpose of sharing our creative endeavors with the public. Without a permanent residence to showcase our one-of-a-kind expressions of altered art, home decor, and textiles we resorted to a traveling venue. The purple door that we had so much fun painting and embellishing together has become our logo and signifies to the public where and when our artistic affairs are taking place.

So not only do they have Pam’s amazing painted furniture to drool over, but a complete assortment of different items, created by equally talented artisans. See The Traveling Door’s blog post from yesterday to get an idea of just what we are dealing with here, its amazing. Traveling Door post here.

The reason I’m sharing all this with you (other than the obvious inspiration that comes from checking all these links out) is that The Traveling Door is making an appearance soon, and if you are lucky enough to be in their area, I want YOU to GO, so that I can live vicariously though you, since I’m way to far away to attend. (Enter sobbing sounds here)

Thursday May 6th

East Post Plaza

1195 East Post Rd. SE

Cedar Rapids, IA 52403

from 11 am - 6 pm

….PLEASE GO FOR ME!! I will be so jealous! :)

Good luck to Pam, and all the very talented contributors to The Traveling Door. I hope Thursday is a huge success for you!

A Strong Wind Could Blow Me Over,

2010-05-02T01:00:00.001-05:00

That one is for you, Frog Queen ;)

Because I’m just that tired. Even I can’t believe everything we accomplished today. Add the fact that I had to leave work yesterday at 3pm with an allergy attack so bad I could barely see through drippy eyes, coughing and sneezing so much I couldn't talk.

I am NOT going to miss leaving Dallas behind in a couple of weeks and landing in Vegas. The desert is always 7 days of guaranteed NON-allergy vacation for me… and after this spring in Texas, I NEED it!

Anyways, 6 Benadryl and 20 hours after leaving work so sick, and I’m feeling oh-so much better. I woke up this morning at 8am, after going to bed at some dreadfully early hour, and got to work. We continued cleaning and organizing the garage, and I can’t wait to show you what we did.

Then I made it through 39 thousand more loads of laundry (since when do teen age boys change clothes 3 times a day and shower even more??!!), and painted a dresser, dressed up my front porch, rearranged furniture in the dining room, and tidied up the house. Notice I didn’t say cleaned the house – I used up the last of my time just putting everyone's stuff back in the room from whence it came – I have yet to engage with the vaccuum cleaner yet. Good thing hubby had pity on me, and ran it a few days ago, haha!

Anyways, pictures coming soon…. I will probably have plenty of time tomorrow since we just “clocked out” a few minutes ago, and its close to 1am… Hubby said he wants tomorrow off, and I don’t blame the poor man. He had to include the yard work in that long list above, LOL!

Happy May Day (even though I missed it, since it’s over now) and I hope you are having a glorious weekend, no matter what your plans are!

Amarillo. Jaune. Gelb. Giallo. Yellow.

2010-04-28T06:58:00.001-05:00

In case you think I have lost my marbles in that title… That is the word ‘yellow’ in Spanish, French, German, Swedish, and English.

Yellow Night. And on a Tuesday, not a Wacky Wednesday… shocking! hehehe

I got a wild idea last night when I got off work at 5pm to have Yellow Night…. Stopped by the store and picked up the following yellow food items:

Chicken Breast, Frozen Veggie Mix: Yellow carrots and white beans, Broccoli Rice Casserole, Corn, Bananas, and a loaf of French Bread.

Home by 6, started cooking. Slowly cooking because I was also frantically trying to find yellow dishes and serving plates. Then I started doing stupid things like picking out every last yellow and white jelly bean and putting them in a little bowl…. randomly scattering bananas and bubble gum in yellow wrappers around the table.

Sometimes I scare myself.

But dear son 16 made me really happy when he walked to the table for dinner… (at 730pm, when I finally finished, I might add, YIKES!) he got a big smile on his face and said “By golly, it must be Yellow Night!!” He even got the name right, lol.

I am easily entertained, obviously – and luckily, so are my kids.

Ack. Just please don’t judge that I took longer searching for yellow dishes than I did baking chicken and reheating frozen veggies… some nights I have to do SOMETHING to make dinner even worth the effort!

If anything, it led to some wacky discussion about other colored nights to have – DS16 wanted GREEN night, and hubby said that would not be so good for us, LOL. DS14 wanted RED night… all the while, I started mentally walking the aisles of the grocery store by COLOR, not by price, lol. This could be a fun addition to my Wacky dinner rotation!

Everyone have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!

Weekend Update

2010-04-25T21:18:00.001-05:00

Notes from Friday in black.

Update notes from today in red.

Tile bathroom floor. Not all that difficult – I’m using the tile stickers. (Laminate, lol) Nothing that I care about until the teen age wonder twins move out. I don’t know what dummy wrote “not all that difficult”… but I sure hope it wasn’t me.
Finish painting bathroom cabinets Done
Finish up bathroom – hang new shower curtain, finally put up the towel hooks, etc. Done, done, and done. Thanks honey :)
Plant new flowers that I bought at Home Depot last night. I need to buy stock in HD, that’s all there is to it. Done, yay!
Buy lavender and rosemary essential oils online. Done
Buy new jean shorts for trip to desert. Done. Two pairs of shorts and a new shirt. Don’t tell hubby. :D
Make something in the garage that would let me participate in a link party this week, ugh! Reality has set in. This just aint happenin’.
Wash clothes. Possibly just throw them all away, and buy new. We could do that instead of eating, right? I would be saving on water, and detergent? Done. Actually washed them. Bummer.
Find the carpet, and vaccuum it. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the junk that is currently cluttering my carpet, but I’m considering renting a trash hauler this weekend…. for the clutter, and the dirty laundry. I *saw* the vacuum once this weekend, but we did not engage.
Argue about budget with the Hubs. He loves these talks. I usually decide that I want to talk about THE moment he turns on a big game, or movie, or something like that. Put off again. Captain Procrastinator and his lovely bride did not get this one tackled.
Decide just how many pounds it is conceivable to lose in 29 days. Give up on that, and have a Twinkie. Done. Changed it to coffee cake though. Don’t really like Twinkies all that much.
Possibly go out to dinner with Hubby, since the boys will both be gone all weekend. Go someplace expensive and fattening, which sort of negates number 10 AND 11. Score! Well…. Dear Son 14 stayed home after all this weekend, so it was just the THREE of us – but we went to Waffle House at 10pm at the son’s pleading, and actually had a blast.

Ok, time for the work week, whew!

Everyone have a fabulous Monday!

Craigslist Addiction

2010-04-23T05:25:00.000-05:00

I have admitted it before, so I don’t know why it still shocks me. Craigslist ROCKS.

The one thing about this recent dirt cheap find is…. it was made for my hubby and I…. the Halloween haunters that we are….

A work bench….

That is already gray, black, and orange.

What are the chances?!?!

I really love my Craigslist, my Hubby, and his Truck.

Thank you honey!

Always Kiss Me Goodnight….

2010-04-22T22:23:00.001-05:00

I just can’t go to bed mad. Not that my last post made me mad. I can’t go to bed irritated, with blisters from a soap box either.

Plus, it’s time for

and I can’t have any new visitors think that I’m a total witch! (I am a total witch on a post I made earlier tonight, but I have taken my meds now, and am feeling much more like myself. Darn. New visitors, and I’m scaring them again. Ok, I’m not on meds, and I have a really warped sense of humor, sorry bout that, LOL)

So. I need to end on a happy note, because I’m just happy like that, right?!?!

Since it’s 10 PM, and I don’t have time to whip up a project (although it pains me to say “can’t”)…. I will instead work on my Weekend To Do list, to get me back in the spirit of hustling my lazy self!

Tile bathroom floor. Not all that difficult – I’m using the tile stickers. (Laminate, lol) Nothing that I care about until the teen age wonder twins move out.
Finish painting bathroom cabinets
Finish up bathroom – hang new shower curtain, finally put up the towel hooks, etc.
Plant new flowers that I bought at Home Depot last night. I need to buy stock in HD, that’s all there is to it.
Buy lavender and rosemary essential oils online.
Buy new jean shorts for trip to desert.
Make something in the garage that would let me participate in a link party this week, ugh!
Wash clothes. Possibly just throw them all away, and buy new. We could do that instead of eating, right? I would be saving on water, and detergent?
Find the carpet, and vaccuum it. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the junk that is currently cluttering my carpet, but I’m considering renting a trash hauler this weekend…. for the clutter, and the dirty laundry.
Argue about budget with the Hubs. He loves these talks. I usually decide that I want to talk about THE moment he turns on a big game, or movie, or something like that.
Decide just how many pounds it is conceivable to lose in 29 days. Give up on that, and have a Twinkie.
Possibly go out to dinner with Hubby, since the boys will both be gone all weekend. Go someplace expensive and fattening, which sort of negates number 10 AND 11. Score!

Woof. Now I’m tired. Think I will go to bed and dream about polka dots in lime green and turquoise. At least I have forgotten all about my soap box issues!

Always kiss me goodnight!

PS. If you are here from NFF (and you actually READ this entire post) don’t worry, I’m not usually this…. err… wordy. I actually have projects on this blog, if you wanted to look around, LOL!

Sensitive Bloggy Subject

2010-04-22T20:42:00.001-05:00

There are so many times that I have to bite my tongue when writing on this blog…. Everyone has their own opinions, and you obviously don’t want to offend anyone…. especially when you lose followers and friends that way. But sometimes, I feel strongly enough about something that it just spills out. Advance apologies for anyone that takes this the wrong way – it’s just my opinion, and I don’t mean to get personal.

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors has a very thought provoking post today about Link Parties. Questions like:

How many parties do you link to
Link backs for the party host
Hidden party link ups
Advertising your own giveaway at a link party
and so on.

All this is leading to me and my

I love a good link party. I used to save the bookmarks through out the week, then on Saturday morning while the house is still asleep, grab a cup of tea and sit down to click through hundreds of links to amazing projects through several different parties.

Now I barely look anymore.

I mean, admit it. It takes a while to click through a party with 100 links. To find out at the END of that 100 links that… oh, say… 62 of them were “RERUNS” of links you just read on the other link party….

flat. out. pisses. me. off.

Pardon my crassness, but that's the only way to describe it.

I had been known to link to 2 parties myself when I first started blogging, but usually they were blogs that were in a different “clique”. So there wasn't much danger of people running into my duplicate party link.

Then I started kinda getting tired of the “reruns” and made it a strict policy to only place one of my posts on ONE party.

Yes, it meant less viewers and therefore less followers, but at least I didn't feel like I was adding to the problem that annoys me so much.

The argument that I can see for multiple linkings is that each blog you link to has different viewers. But… it is just my opinion that many of the blogs have the same circles and we end up clicking the same project 5 times a day.

I made myself a promise that if I ever hosted a link party someday, the one rule would be you could only link to this party – no multiple listings… that way, it would be a guarantee when you sit down to 100 or so links, that you were seeing something new… for the first time.

Worth your time, in other words.

Again, this is just my opinion – from the standpoint of a link party participant and viewer. Please don’t let me offend anyone that DOES do this… I know it is very beneficial for a blogs numbers, and I don’t begrudge you of that. Just as long as you turn the music on your blog off.

Nothing like having 10 tabs open at a time, and 3 of them playing completely different music all at once. Gah, I’m already listening to the blessed quiet when I read blogs – that’s what it is – MY PERSONAL QUIET TIME… why do I have to have music?

Wow. My soapbox is BIG. Sorry about that!

My Countdown Begins…

2010-04-22T05:46:00.000-05:00

One month from today, I will be on my way to Vegas. I have gone with my parents every year for the last 10 or 11 years. The hubby went with us a couple of years ago, but Vegas is not really his cup of tea… Alas, he still allows me to go – and stays behind with the boys.

(I have the world’s best Husband, for sure!!!)

It’s really the coolest thing – being 38 years old, and having the best time hanging out with your parents. We are a very small, tight knit family, (I’m an only child, so it’s just the 3 of us that go) and I love that we each have such a soft spot for this city, and enjoy it together. Since my brain refuses to comprehend what it will be like to not have them in my life one day – I instead choose to appreciate them for everything they are, and all they have done for me. These annual trips we take to Vegas… they are memories that I will have with me always.

Mom and Dad at Fremont Street, May 2009

Ok, I won’t bore you anymore… just wanted to be a little mushy.

Y’all have a wonderful day!!!

Yard Sale Treasure.

2010-04-21T22:20:00.001-05:00

Frames are always fun

Another angel for my collection – it will be the top of a tombstone or a statue or something – Halloween shopping in April… totally normal, right?

Ok, I really don’t know what this is. But for a quarter, I decided I would figure out something weird to do with it. It’s not springie like it looks – it is very stern and unmoving.

Heavy, heavy. All 3 of them for $3. I was practically drooling.

First, in the background, you can see two curly little votive cups – so cute, don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but they were a bright shiny quarter a piece. In the foreground, you can sort of see the single candlestick. See below for detail.

Yes, blown glass. Swirlies. Blown glass swirlies. I’m in love. This was a whopping dollar. For a buck, I will FIND a place to put it until I can find a way to make something with it! (And yes, I SWEAR, I actually put that toilet bowl cleaner away when I cleaned the garage the other day. Man, I’m sick of seeing that stuff in my pictures, LOL! I’m sure you are too!)

Here’s my handsome son displaying my big splurge – an out of style wall shelf. 5 bucks, and the hubby thought I was crazy. I just saw a blank canvas for colorful polka dots and black/white checkerboard. (My son by the way is 14 years old and 1 inch shy of 6 feet tall. That’s so unfair, I’m like 5’2”, haha)

I hear this little plant stand BEGGING to go red. It hurts my heart not to paint it turquoise, since I keep my garden flowers blue for the most part, but I think I’m going to branch out. I might still chicken out and go turquoise. Guess it depends on which day I paint it, and how I’m feeling. At 3 bucks, I can’t go wrong!

Now it is time…. for my favorite piece. The SQUEAL of the day.

You see, I have a collection of blue and green glass ware that I keep in my high window ledges. I really need to get in the living room and get some pictures, so you will know what I’m talking about… anyways, here it is… the $3 find of the YEAR…. (for me, anyways)

Oh look, there’s my new table in the background, instead of the toilet bowl cleaner… i told you! :D

I’m just in love.

Still have one or two more pieces to show you, but we are trying to dig it all out tonight and tomorrow night…. We at least got the tables moved around, so there is SOME progress being made… but…

I saw this last night while taking pictures of the kitchen table, and thought it might give you a laugh.

In the spirit of keeping it real…. on the back of the door that goes from the kitchen to the garage…. hangs…..

How sad is this?!? I can’t quit creating long enough to pack away all the seasonal crap that I create, once the holiday is over!

Maybe that’s why I am such a Halloween enthusiast. I never really have to put all of it TOTALLY away, haha!

Have a great Thursday!

PPOP. Into Wrought Iron Now.

2010-04-20T21:16:00.001-05:00

Short on words today, going to let my loud paint speak for itself.

Weekend yard sale finds.

My favorite part is how unexpected they are.

Now I just need to shop my house and find some to paint red.

*grin*

Go check out the Power of Paint Party at Domestically Speaking…. every week there are tons of projects that offer loads of inspiration!

More garage sale transformations coming up this week… stay tuned!

Cheap Table, Costly Decisions ;)

2010-04-20T20:47:00.001-05:00

This week is flying by, and I can’t believe I’m so behind on posting. Maybe I should just admit I’m not going to be a daily poster, and get on with my life, LOL

Ok, so last Saturday, there was like 8 garage sales, then the world’s longest nap. (Hello, spring allergies, kicking my butt!) Sunday brought 36 hours of cleaning the garage in the cold mist, and yes, I know there are only 24 hours in a day – it just FELT like 36.

I can’t even show all of the goodies I got, because some of it is still scattered across the house. You see, we bought an unplanned kitchen table that is really putting a wrench in getting everything put away. There is now parts of the table all across the living room (can’t put it in the CLEAN garage, right?! And 6 chairs scattered ANYWHERE they will go!)

There should be a prevention class for garage sale-ing…. but alas, there isn't, and you end up with three kitchen tables, and not that many dining rooms to house them.

I’m going to get rid of the hideous table that is in my eat-in kitchen area. It is I-don’t-even-know how old, and was originally one of those brass legs-light colored wood-with glass top jobbies, that I spray painted. Painted the brass off white, and the wood turned to an aged sage green color. The paint has held up for 4 years, through 2 boys and all MY clumsiness, not a scratch – I’m just sick of it. If only all our crafts turned out that well, right?

Goodbye old table! CL free section, here you come!

Ok, now you will notice there are two different chairs above. The white legged ones, that are currently in use now, look like this:

Cute enough, but after 4 years, no longer as cute, or as comfortable. They are destined to look like some of Rose’s Amazing Garden Chairs!

This is the chair that goes with the new set, that I can’t show you yet.

Forgive my blog photography issues, I just don’t spend the time on staging that I should.

Oh, looooookie at all those little crevices to hold a contrasting color of paint. Makes me want to grab my brushes right now! Oh, and did I mention – hubby does NOT want me to paint them?!?! Almost to the point of setting his foot down?! YIKES! He NEVER sets his foot down when I have paint brush in hand! What am I going to dooooo??

I just can’t stop thinking of Gail's amazing table when I look at these spindles!

Anyways, the table is still not put together, until we:

A. Get rid of the hideous table

B. Move the current big dining table into the kitchen

C. Stop arguing over to paint the new table, or not to paint.

This could be a long ride. Hahaha!

One round table with humongous leaf, 6 chairs, $50.

More tomorrow!

Thanks… Y’all are the Best!

2010-04-18T20:28:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone on their input on the commenting question. You all had such valid points, and made me realize I am probably sweating the small stuff.

As for the weekend, whew. I bet my hubby is glad that it’s over, LOL. We started at 8am yesterday morning with a yard sale list a mile long, and made it to them all. (We had to go back to the house and unload twice or more, haha.. oy!) Got to the laundry, cleaned out the garage, what else can I fit in here – it’s only 8:30 pm!?!? haha

I will show you throughout the week what I scored, and what I’m doing with it. Tonight, however, I’m watching Cowboys in tight Wranglers, singing to me from the MGM Grand. (The ACM Awards, LOL) What on earth could be better?

Have a wonderful Monday, and be thankful for all that you have today… I know that I am!

RE: Blogging Etiquette

2010-04-17T17:52:00.001-05:00

Quick question.

When you leave a comment on blogs, if it includes a question, do you subscribe to the comments for the day to see if it is answered?

Even if it’s not a question, do you go back and check?

I have been running my blog, just like I follow other blogs… as in, I leave a comment, and don’t really think of it again. I don’t know that I ever return to the comment boxes – Once its marked READ in my Blog Reader, its gone… *POOF*

If it’s a question that I would like answered in order to do a project or something, I email the blogger specifically.

Reason I’m asking…… after reading some discussion on Blog Frog, I realized that some people think a blogger not responding to everyone of the comments is just down right RUDE. And I feel horrible, since I hardly ever consider responding via my own comments section, thinking no one would come check it. I do reply to a lot of comments via email, but not enough to get out of the R.U.D.E category, I think.

Anyways, the last persons on EARTH that I would want to be rude to are you guys – the ones hanging with me post per post.

So, I throw it up to you. If you care, that is.

Would you prefer me to respond to questions and comments via my own comment area,

This handy, dandy nifty idea that Gail from My Repurposed Life is doing… here’s an example post from yesterday to see what I mean:

One of Gail's Q/A and Comment Posts

I think that’s a really neat way to handle it, so that if one reader has a good question, we all get to benefit from the answer.

So, help me out if you can – let me know what you would like to see. I will be walking around here smacking myself in the meantime for being so rude! :D

Happy SATURDAY!!!!

My Garage Sale-Ing Strategy

2010-04-16T18:47:00.001-05:00

Garage Sale-ing? Garage Saling? Sailing? Garage Shopping… no. Ugg. There is no cute word for what I do on Saturday mornings, I think I need to work on that.

In case anyone is interested in how I get ready for heading out for the sales, here’s what I do: (and if you are the ONE friend of mine on Earth that I know, that doesn’t like garage sales – yes, you know who you are) then you can skip all this silliness. Everyone else, sit back down. You have to read. Hahaha.

Supplies needed: Printer. ATM Card or Ball Jar full of Quarters. :)

1. Craigslist.org. Click on your city. Click on garage sales. I’m pretty sure that 100% of you know how to do this step.

2. Type in the name of the specific town you want to canvas. This will narrow it down for you. (At least thats how I do it here in DFW Texas, where there are about 40billion cities… your particular CL might be smaller)

3. Open each of the sales you are interested in, in new tabs in your browser. Sometimes I have as many as 20 tabs open, trying to arrange my sales geographically.

4. Once you have them in some sort of order by location, put your home address into Google Maps. (I just do this by googling the address, then hitting MAP) It will show you a map of JUST that address. (I obviously do NOT live in Downtown Dallas, but am just using this to protect innocent Garage Sale Personnel, LOL)

5. Now we are going to make Google Maps tell us how to get from sale to sale. Your URL bar should still have your home address in it. Now, copy and paste the address of the first sale into the url bar so that it is after your home address, and add TO in the middle of the two addresses.

HOME St. dallas tx to elm street dallas texas

Here you will notice the following:

1. The little green dots are letters - A is your starting destination … your house. B is the first sale.

2. The map has now changed to show A and B like little flags on a wall map. This shows you… ur… point A to point B. How handy. haha

3. This would show you the turn by turn directions, if I had not cut the picture off.

OK. Now. We want to add more sales.

Click Add Destination, they copy and paste the next address from the Craigslist ad.

Yeah, yeah… I know. Not a lot of garage sales happening on the Grassy Knoll, but it was all I could think of.

So it adds the turn by turn directions for you, as well as gives you a visual on the map. Here I can see that I made myself do a Loopty-Loo around Downtown Dallas, and that might not be so good with gas at $3 a gallon.

So if I decide I want to change the order, for better driving efficiency, I would go back to this section

and move them around according to the map.

Once you have all your sales in – add as many as you want (and I have gone up to like M or N in the alphabet before, there were A LOT of sales that day) put your home address in last, it’s always good to know how to get home.

Now the fun.

Above the map, click the link for Print.

This is the screen you will see.

A couple of fun things here.

At the top, it lets you pick Text Only, Maps (what I choose) or Street View. There is also a check mark box for “Include Large Map” which will show you the large map first, with all the flags marked on it – kind of the big picture to see where you are driving to.

This sections lets you type in notes that will print out with your directions. I usually type in specific sale times, or sales not to miss if we are running out of time, etc. Handy little box.

Then it shows your directions, one by one. I just think it’s the coolest, and I have yet to get lost, trekking all over Dallas to all kinds of garage sales.

I hope this wasn’t redundant for all of you – if there was even one person left in the world that didn’t know you can manipulate Google to be your best garage sale buddy, and they picked it up tonight, then I’m a happy girl!

Well, that, and about 15 sales on my list tomorrow REALLY make me a happy girl!

NFF and Where in the Heck Have I Been?!?!

2010-04-15T23:09:00.001-05:00

Salutations!

(any Charlotte fans out there?!?! Hello? Is this thing on?)

Well, all I can say for me, and this week is…

Second Week of April: 1

Dawn: 0

That’s right. I fought the week, and the week won.

I guess I’m trying to get back in the groove after being gone so many weekends in a row.

But this weekend, ahhhh. I’m going to clean, do some laundry, and paint. Steal some of my own furniture out of the garage, and paint.

I cannot wait.

In the meantime, Happy Friday! And you know what that means…..

This, I must say, is one of my favorite link parties out there. You don’t have to do a special post (although some do), you just link the main page of your blog… and meet a lot of really great bloggers on the list. It’s just a fun day of networking, and meeting people that you really jive with. Jive? Where in the heck did I pull that word from? 1978?

Anyways, if you haven’t participated in a NFF, try it out…

Have a wonderful Friday, and even better weekend, and I will see you soon with more weird projects, and hopefully no goof ups this weekend!

Coloring Your Glass – The RIGHT Way….

2010-04-12T08:10:00.001-05:00

Maryann’s turned out so much better than my disaster...

You can find full instructions and gorgeous pictures at Domestically Speaking….

Photo courtesy of Domestically Speaking

I love how you get the color, and still see the shine of the glass….Thank heavens SOMEONE can do it…. LOL

Happy Monday!

Wow!!!

2010-04-11T22:17:00.001-05:00

It’s amazing how much can happen while being gone two days.

First, I spent the weekend with my in-laws, and can happily report that my MIL is going to be fine. She is in pain still, and can’t get out of bed, but she is alive and can be put back together. She is in great spirits, and after spending the weekend with me and my 3 very talkative boys (hubby being included in that number 3) she will be GLAD to rest tomorrow, I think, LOL.

Second, I can’t believe it, but I won that oh-so-adorable apron

from Polly @ MakeMineBeautiful.blogspot.com. Donna and Polly, I can’t thank you enough – even though it was a random draw of course, I’m just so thrilled to be the lucky winner. This is ONE thing that I *know* hubby won’t steal!! hahaha. I only enter contests that I really, really want, and I fell in love with the items in Polly’s shop. If you get a chance, check out her Etsy shop, you will drool…. much.

Third. On the winning post at FJI, Donna attributed a photo to me as if it were my creation, when it actually was not. It was this one, an inspiration photo that I used for my foam initials:

The photo belongs to House On Hill Road. My apologies for not being clear enough in my post for Donna to catch it – I meant no disrespect, nor did I want to appear to have done that gorgeous wall myself.

Fourth. (Are you still with me?!? Haha)

Heidi at The Craft Monkey emailed me to let me know that she used one of my little tips this weekend on a project. From the Week of Foam Series she picked up on blockposters.com, and used it to make large art wall hangings on a recycled foam. My kind of project! And it’s absolutely adorable, you should check it out - here @ Craft Monkey.

Photo courtesy of The Craft Monkey

Thirteenth. (Or at least it feels like this post is that long, right?) I came home after a long weekend, and found that my post count was through the roof (ok, through the roof for ME, ok?! haha) and I had gained like 10 followers. That’s big time for a little timer like me. I’m so overwhelmed and grateful. I don’t know that grateful is spelled correctly, but spell check isn’t screaming, so I guess it’s ok.

Anyways, welcome to the new followers, I’m so happy to have you, and I will continue to come up with some wacky stuff to keep us all laughing.

Y’all have a fabulous Monday – you have put such a smile on my face tonight. :)

Hrrrumph.

2010-04-09T07:12:00.001-05:00

I can’t say exactly what made me do it… but I just opened the main page of my GMail and looked in the spam folder.

Yes, 241 offers for better times in the bedroom, drugs shipped from heaven knows where, and other general riff-raff. But…

There were 3 emails sent directly to my email, not through the blog, that were comments… emails from readers of the blog.

Whether it was the fact that they were strangers, or first time emailers, or SOMETHING, I don’t know… but GMail sent them to spam.

Now I have some serious butt to kiss when I email back and try to excuse my lengthy delay in responding!!!

If you are like me, and not a frequent reader of that little spam folder, (no matter who your email service is through) you might want to check it. You never know what you might be missing!

Happy Friday, (again) finally, whew. Let’s get this weekend on the ROAD already!!

Happy, Happy Friday to us ALL!

2010-04-08T23:42:00.001-05:00

I don’t know about you, but this has been a long week.

My dear MIL was in a bad wreck yesterday, and being 3 hours away, we couldn’t rush to help her now that she is home. We will be going tomorrow, so I will be scarce again this weekend …. she is ok, but has broken bones, making mobility impossible. Thanks be to God for keeping her safe.

If you are following here from NFF, thank you so much for stopping by… take a look around at some of my crafty fun, and some crafty FAILs too, lol. (The goof ups are almost more fun than the successes, in my book!) Whatever you do – don’t stand in one spot too long, or I might just spray paint you. I seem to have a problem with that ;)

Anyways, everyone have a wonderful weekend, hopefully you are having glorious weather like we have here in Texas!

Trifle Bowl, Take 437.

2010-04-06T21:41:00.002-05:00

It all started with a chip. A Glass chip, that is. The kind that makes me never want to serve pound cake and berries in it again, kinda chip.

After the decision was made not to serve food in it anymore, I got to experiment with it, without guilt...

Pulled out my heavy duty nail file. The one for fake nails. Started slowly sanding. (Yes, I could have used my Dremel, but I was watching Survivor, and needed something quiet, LOL)

I think it worked pretty good! I wasn’t trying to even it out, just get the broken and sharp edges off. I was able to make it so smooth that I can run my fingers across it, no problem.

Still going to use it for decorative purposes only though (I actually have a couple of trifle bowls, so it was no huge loss in the serving dept.)

Painted it white. *Note to self… should have stopped here. But I have never been one to leave well enough alone. *sigh*

Had this great idea to tape off sort of a mosaic pattern, and paint it all in blues, greens, and aquas…. then put it up in my window ledge. *What’s that you say? You can’t do that with such wide painters tape? Well, I pulled one of those “I’m too excited to worry about that now, I’m just going to do it, and see what it looks like”. Famous last words of an impatient crafter.

Painting the different colors….

Yes, here’s where that “too wide painters tape” comes in…. Right about now I’m thinking - “That’s not what I saw in my head”

To make matters worse, I did the worlds WORST taping job – look at those ~~sharp, crisp~~ muddy, blotchy lines!?!?!

Brilliant idea #2. Hand paint in some more “stones” or whatever look I was going for. Work on that for about an hour, stand back and check out the progress.

Possibly the ugliest thing I have ever seen, let alone create on purpose.

Whine, cry, sniffle a bit, and

Start over. Although….

My awesome little squares have now textured it.

Yes, I know what you are thinking. I should have lived with the smoothed out chip, and left it a trifle bowl. Or at the very least, the beautiful smooth, white. Sometimes I’m not all that smart, ok?!? :)

I had to do some kind of paint treatment that would either blend with my new texture, or at least not let it show too much. Sponging would have worked, I just chose to stipple with my 3/4” art brush.

Horrible. Hate it. Words just can’t express. My stars, HOW could I actually make something UGLIER than the one before it?!?! Wow!

Had one last idea. Something straight out of my Halloween bag of tricks.

Sprayed it navy blue. Not worrying about the texture right now. (And boy, was there ever texture by this point)

Grabbed my favorite 3/4” brush, put a tiny bit of white on my palette, dipped my brush in it, and wiped most of the paint off my brush.

And dry brushed all of that would-be-horrible texture…. and instead of letting it ruin my trifle bowl, I embraced it. Loved it. Made a shabby, chippy, GLASS bowl. (ok, it’s not quite natural, but work with me here!)

In the shot above, the NON dry brushed (plain Navy) paint is in the top of the pic, vs the dry brushed in the bottom. Notice how the dry brushing with flat white also knocks that gloss shine off of it too.

The texture, close up.

In this next one, you can see the tiny chip towards the left side.

That’s it. I have put my brushes and my spray paint cans away. I’m done with it. And it’s a good thing too – because I really like it. I have never seen anything like it, so that makes it A-OK in my book. Someday I might embellish it a bit, but for now, I like letting the texture do all the talking.

Believe it or not, I’m actually linking this craziness to the Power of Paint party…. oh yes, Paint has the POWER to make one say “WHAT Thaaaaa?” I think I’m going to put this in as a “What NOT to do” link, lol.

Garage Sale Season

2010-04-05T21:35:00.001-05:00

The start of Garage Sale Season (MY first for the season, anyways) was pretty awesome. Hubby and I left around 8am or so on Saturday, and made it to about 4 of them before we had to head over to my Parents.

Wow, it’s really hard to tell size in this picture, but it’s about 8 inches tall… I have a glass collection in some upper windows, all in blue, green, and turquoise. I will show you one day!

The following pieces are all for Halloween. Yes, I actually buy things for our yard haunt all year round, since we work on props for about 8 out of 12 months :)

I will go ahead and put the pictures up, just so you can snicker at me for not using them in my home, as I should, but for a yard haunt instead! ;)

Hard to photograph, but they are two silver candelabras for $2 each. Score! I intend on attaching them to copper pipe or PVC, and making spooky floor candelabras from them.

Pieces for more floor candelabras. I saw a project on the E6000 website that shows you how to use elaborate shelf brackets and pieces of wood to make them as well. These are cast iron, and heavy, but I’m sure that I will find a place to use them.

Ok, not for the haunt, but for my strangely Halloween themed hall ways…. The kind lady having the garage sale painted this canvas, and I fell in love at first sight. 16x20, she sold it to me for $5 (a shame, because I would have paid much more!!) I had her sign the back, because I love things with stories in my home.

(I didn’t show a picture of her signature, since I forgot to ask her permission)

Look at the leaves on the trees! I love how it captures that Summer into Autumn feel, with the colors.

And yes, it will hang in my Halloween hallway all year long, along with the poster of our house on Halloween night. :D

So anyways, I got everything above, as well as 2 linen tablecloths for $16. Man, I love garage sale season!!!

Dimples & Dragonflies… amazing!

2010-04-04T22:29:00.001-05:00

I won a bloggie give away from one of the most beautiful blog friends I have met since I started writing. Her name is Terri, and if you have ever had the chance to read her writing, you know exactly what I mean.

If not, make sure and visit her website and blog HERE.

The giveaway was about a month ago, and I JUST got it in the mail. I was really getting worried, but finally it arrived. I think it spent a few days or more on a desk or conveyor belt somewhere, but my patience paid off.

It’s here… it’s HERE!!!

Upon getting my tube open, this is the first thing I find – a letter with a beautiful picture of Terri, and a little note. After following her blog for the last few months, I feel like I just got the autograph of Da Vinci, lol. (cool touch, Terri, thank you!!!)

And then, I swear, I heard birds chirping, and the laughter of small children… I was so happy…. Look at how sunny and colorful this is!!!

Oh my stars, these details!!! Look at the little sunflowers on her skirt, even!!!

I was drinking every little detail in….

Wait, what? R. Hill? But… but… she’s Terri Smith!

Here’s the most endearing part. As quoted from her Etsy shop:

“In honor of my maternal grandmother, REEDER HILL, I sign each of my canvases in her name. My special way of keeping her memory alive and to somehow let her know I still love and miss her every day”

Makes me misty eyed. I knew there was a reason that I adored her so much. Such a talented, beautiful lady, inside and out.

To see and purchase her beautiful work, click her for Terri’s DimplesDragonflies Etsy Shop, or visit her website today!

PS Terri, thank you very much. It is a beautiful piece that I will proudly display in my home, and will always remember the kind artist that painted it, as well as Ms. Reeder Hill.

Random Thoughts: April 1st, 2010

2010-04-01T06:58:00.001-05:00

Happy April Fools Day y’all! Go get someone good today! ;)

Time For Another Edition of….

2010-03-28T23:02:00.001-05:00

Last week, we had another Wacky Wednesday. The culprits that started this particular Whimsy feast were 4 of those plastic back scratchers with the little hands on the end - I got them while in Jefferson a few weeks back. Actually, my MOM found them, and said - “Wouldn’t this be funny, watching the boys try to eat with these little hands?! What a great Wacky Wednesday utensil!!!” Not to mention that the little hands were connected to a flimsy plastic stick about 24 inches long, LOL. Anyways, I just thought it was really cool that my Mama is getting in on the action now…. thanks Mom, for understanding how weird I am, and for still loving me. :)

I have used just about every flat surface I can think of for the “plates”, so I ended up kinda cheating the fun by getting these disposable pan thingees… they are supposed to be Disposable Toaster Oven Trays, but I thought they would be funny because the lip is so short, I thought food would spill out.

Everything just ended up looking like a TV dinner from the 60s, lol.

Dinner menu was a Rachel Ray recipe, Tacozagna. It’s a combination taco and lasagna, and it was pretty ok. If you go to that link, the title is Tacozagna and Banana Cheesecakes, which obviously are two different courses, but she lists the dessert ingredients in the Tacozagna recipe. Weird. Make the taco thing, don’t add bananas. Thats just…. well, bananas, the way they did that.

Tacozagna in the pan. You use flour tortillas and taco meat instead of lasagne noodles and red sauce…. layering with cheese just like normal.

Cut in slices and top with cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, whatever you like on weird soft taco casseroles.

Put it all on a SUPER DUPER FLIMSY “toaster oven tray”…. and make your own TV dinner looking thing that your kids are too young to understand anyways.

Notice the white cutting board underneath the TV dinner? That’s how I had to carry them to the table, as that little tray was NOT going to make it on its own. (I would call this a Wacky Wednesday FAIL, haha)

Here’s a good shot of the eating utensil for the night.

Put your funky painted Ikea table in the middle of the living room floor, make everyone sit on the floor. Remember that you have a dog, and that maybe this part wasn't such a good idea.

He just KNEW someone was going to drop something sooner or later..

Drinking Mountain Dew from bud vases should be on every Teen Aged Boys Bucket List. (Other than WW, Mountain Dew is strictly prohibited in this house. Mountain Dew and XBox just should NOT go together) hahaha

Lots going on in this next shot. I drew a map.

A. My son, trying to get food INTO his mouth. Those back scratcher hands look big til you load them with food and try to get them in your mouth.

B. Our everyday bread basket. No bread this night. Filled with doughnut holes. The kids thought I had lost brain cells.

c. Ok, so a lot of the time I won’t use serving dishes for every night dinners, and it has gotten to be old hat to serve food at the table directly from the pan. Tonight, I poured an entire bag of tortilla chips in a pan to use as a serving dish. It felt really weird dipping your hands in a pan of chips. LOL

D. One of my prettiest serving dishes. This one wasn't noticed for a few minutes, while the boys tried to figure out what exactly tacozagna was, and how to eat with the hand. THEN they noticed my best bowl filled with donuts. Another “Mom, you have lost it” moment, followed by huge smiles when I told them they could eat one before they finished dinner if they wanted. (Isn’t that funny, we are so programmed to “No dessert til you finish your veggies” that eating dessert AND dinner at the same time is just… FREAKY to a kid!)

Donuts WITH dinner?!?!

Dad’s even feel like they are cheating~

It wasn’t too long before the bowl was empty, LOL. (Don’t worry, it was only one donut per person, but it sure looked cool before we attacked it, haha)

So, as you can see, a fun time was had by all. I do, however, need to start keeping an eye out for fun, wacky, interesting “plate” options. I have over done the cookie sheets, baking dishes, and cutting boards. I might have to move on to terra cotta planter saucers, or latex paint trays, or something else. Who knows what will be on my next Wacky Wednesday table!

Oh, one last thing. It’s funny, but as you sit on the floor, taking pictures of your kids while you eat, you remember that you haven’t shown where you put your foam Monogram, and how cool it would be to get that up on the blog. So here it is.

So now I just need to fill in around it with more pictures, higher up, and I will be a happy girl!

Oh, and don’t worry about hubby there…. I think he was just in a sugar coma. Apparently there was a REASON our Mama’s wouldn’t let us eat dessert first. :D

Happy Sunday and/or Monday to you all! Here’s to a great week!

Admission: I Do Not Have A Cricut. Or a Cricket.

2010-03-27T10:07:00.001-05:00

Another admission. Instead of a Cricut, I am… I… am… a…. Fontaholic.

I don’t know if you can look that one up or not, but I KNOW it exists. I am addicted to fonts. And to my printer. And I don’t mind scissors and ModPodge, so I use that as my cricut.

Let’s take some of my favorite fonts. All free. No cartridge needed. Today, I’m looking at my Cartoony kinda fonts. (I have some really Type A style folders on my computer, seriously organizing my fonts, LOL)

Click the pictures below to go to the font website to view or download. I have used these sites for years and have never gotten spyware or anything from them. All free.

And one of my favorite all time fonts, across any category, is….

Even though I just realized that I spelled it wrong in the picture above, its Font Diner DOT Com Sparkly. Dot Com. Hmm, who woulda thunk DOT com?!? Duuh.

Anyways, that’s a really fun font to play with. I will admit, that one would be (ahem) better with a cricket. (intentional misspelling there, lol. from now on, I’m gonna call it a Cricket.) haha

I have used free fonts and my printer a couple of times on this blog,

Here

and

Here.

But there are a million other ways… so if you are still waiting on your budget to allow the almighty Cricket, then dust off your printer, it’s a lot of fun itself!

I’m off for the weekend, going to see the family 3 hours away, going to relax, and laugh, and try not to think of paint. (Yeah, like THAT is happening!)

Yall have a fabulous weekend, I hope it is beautiful where you are!

Seeing Spots: Everywhere

2010-03-22T07:04:00.003-05:00

With the same process I used for spray painting the vases (no prep, point, shoot, paint) I did some dessert plates this weekend. Garage sale fodder that I didn’t really care for, but wanted to see just what would happen.

Started off spray painting white, just to get an even playing field with those dark green hearts. (Not even primer, just white spray paint that I happened to have)

Then went to town with three different colors.

Got them fully covered on the front and back, grabbed a small brush and some white acrylic, and started painting dots while watching TV.

I hand drew them, so they aren’t perfectly crisp lines, nor are they perfect circles, but I like them that way – kinda comfortable, not too stuffy.

Decided I liked what I saw, and my next victim not able to run away was this old Christmas candle that was obviously $5 to start with. Let me just say, I didn’t even wash this glass down before spraying it – all in the name of ~~laziness~~ Experimentation.

Dirty or not, the spray paint when on like a dream. Did I also mention that I was doing all of this spray painting in a 32 degree garage with Texas Snow on the ground outside? Six inches of it, just to bring in the First Day of Spring with a little bit of shocked drama!

As you know, that green doesn’t photograph well, but you get the point. I tried to be very light around the edges, so that I wouldnt cover the candle. As it happened, it was only dusted with some overspray.

Again, I went with the polka dots. Ever have one of those weekends where you are stuck on one motif?

Hubby thought it was a small vase, I’m happy with that.

Oh, and before I put the white acrylic away, I hit one of the vases from last week. I like it a lot better now. It will be just different enough on top of the cabinets to give some interest.

The last spotted item I have for you was unintentional. I finished painting the cabinets black in the boys bathroom, and of course I hate to use gloves…

And the other hand looks even worse. It’s amazing my manicurist even puts up with me!

Happy Monday everyone!!!

Bathroom Blogging

2010-03-19T22:22:00.002-05:00

Bathroom Blogging

Yeah, that thought frightened me too. Especially after I noticed that the way my Label cloud is currently arranged it appears as though I have a category called BATHROOM BLOGGING.

No.

There is...

Bathroom

and there is

Blogging.

Never would I blog in the bathroom.

And I wouldn’t suggest you do either.

And if you do, please don’t tell me about it.

So now, I have to fabricate a category that will alphabetically arrange itself between BAthroom and BLogging.

How do ya feel about a new Begging category?

Binders? Baybee’s? BLAthering?

What? Bedroom? Yes, that would work!!! But….Ugh, I have to do my Kitchen before I do my Bedroom. I hate the thought that I have to change my redecorating plan to fix the appearance of my label cloud.

Bathroom Bedroom Blogging.

Well, that doesn’t look so good anyways. But I bet a Bedroom Blogging category would get me more followers than Bathroom.

The funny part is – I now have to label this post BLOGGING. Maybe that will officially be enough posts to make the word BLOGGING bigger than Bathroom, and the whole thing is solved.

No, I can’t give you the last minute of your life back (the time it took you to read that drivel) but I wish I could. :)

Painting Glass Experiment

2010-03-17T21:30:00.003-05:00

As you know, I am trying to build a collection of colorful glass to backfill my very tiny, budding collection of Fiesta. I have a few pieces that I have spray painted, and am very happy with.

To answer a few questions:

1. Prime or treat the glass first? No, I just sprayed directly to the glass.

2. Paint the inside of the glass or the outside? I painted the outside, in case I ever wanted to put flowers in the vases, I could still put water in them.

3. Will it rub off? It won’t RUB off, but I wouldn’t stick it under hot water and take a veggie scrubber to it. You could easily get the paint off with a razor blade, as glass is as non-porous as it gets, but I have been handling it (alot) and not a single blemish. Just don’t let it get around something sharp. I plan on putting all these pieces on the top of my upper kitchen cabinets, so they will be fine. I can dust them with a soft cloth, no problem.

Ok, onto the experiment. I’m going to tell you every gory detail of what I did wrong and right.

Painting the Inside of a Vase with Acrylic Paint.

Find a glass vase, pick out an acrylic paint color. Shake acrylic paint, squirt a blob onto the bottom of your vase. Turn vase slowly while tilting to allow the paint to slowly dribble around the glass and cover beautifully.

Realize that your paint must be older than you thought. Your blob isn’t dribbling. Laugh at the sentence “your blob isn’t dribbling”. Pour a glass of wine and try to decide what to do.

Add some water to your paint, swish it around with a paint brush, then turn vase slowly while tilting to allow the paint to ~~slowly~~ quickly ~~dribble~~ run around the vase. Set the vase upside down to let the paint run on its own, and finish your glass of wine. Pour another glass.

Turn vase right side up and realize that the paint didn’t run quite so evenly as you imagined. Take another swig of wine, and keep turning vase.

Take a step back, admire your handy work. Toast the air and proclaim your success.

Look down and realize there are some horrible icky blobs that you can’t touch without ruining the whole effect. Down the rest of your third glass of wine like a shot, mutter a curse word, then look around to see if anyone saw you.

Decide that watering it all down is the way to go. Take note that you have now gotten rid of the icky blobs of paint. Try to ignore the pool of paint water at the bottom of your vase.

Take another drink or two, since it apparently makes you think more creatively, and then decide to go back over your watered down mess with some streaks. Take another another another drink, and think of those bottles covered in drips of candle wax that your Mom used to make back in the 70s.

Wonder to yourself were those WINE bottles your Mom was dripping candle wax onto back in the 70s?!?!?!

Set it next to your other pieces, decide it is UNIQUE, and DIFFERENT, in its own WACKY way, and call it done.

Decide you are never going to drink wine again.

You might want to do it a little differently. :)

PS. The Wine part was a joke. The method and procedure used to paint the vase, unfortunately is not a joke. ;)