Sunday, October 20, 2013

Desk Chair Make-Over

I am so proud of this project!! When my sister and I were in the fourth grade, our parents bought us bedroom furniture. The dressers are still in use but my mom wanted to throw out the desk chairs. Before I moved, I grabbed them, wanting to try to fix them up. I knew there could be more life lived with them.

They were originally off white, with a gold seat cushion.  They were pretty tired looking.


I gave them both a light sanding and a good wipe down.


I had to google how to get the cushions off.  Who knew it was so easy??  You just flip the chair over and in each corner there is a screw hole.  Take the screws out and put them in a safe place.




I measured the cushions, added four inches to the sides and picked some fabric.  That was the hardest part!  So many pretty choices but I ended up picking this. Then I brought it over to the spray paint section to decided what I wanted..


I placed the fabric down, put the cushion on top and stapled it with The Husband's gun.


So easy!!


Then I took the spray paint, I went with a glossy, brown tone and sprayed away!


Each chair took two coats which was almost 3 cans of paint.  If you look closely, you might see a couple of drips....



I am very happy with the results!  Even my mom asked if she could have them back.  They are now in my craft room to replace the folding chairs I usually use.

This project was less than $10.00.  The fabric was $2.50 and I had gotten one of the cans of paint for free.  Not bad for 2 "new" chairs.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

sign with a sentiment

A few weeks? months? ago I saw this somewhere on the internet and fell in love.


How true is this saying? When the kids were little and they'd play with mud, color themselves with chalk, paint and food.  Well, they still are covered with food.  Even now, we come in filthy after a hike or camping or....eating.  Anyway, I loved the sentiment and thought the clothesline was cute.  I am a fan of a clothesline....

I had wished I could paint something like this but I am not a painter.  After awhile it came to me....I could use my Cricut and half-ass the project on my own terms.

I bought a canvas, picked some colors and went to work.  I arranged it the way I wanted, used some Modge Podge to adhere it to the canvas and ended up with this....



Things I learned?  If you Modge Podge over pencil, you can't erase it.  I would also have used smaller sized letters.  But since I had already cut them out, I made them work.




Maybe my color choices could have been better but I could change them if I want.  I thought about painting the clothespins but decided to leave them au naturel. 

It isn't hanging up.  Yet?  Not sure if I like it that much but it gave me a few afternoons of playing with my paper and supplies.  Doing something crafty puts me in a great mood, even if my project sucks.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Fall decor tour

I love decorating for Fall. It went from being hot here, to lots of windy/rainy days.  We even had sleet last week!!  But today feels like Fall and believe it or not, trees do change color in Idaho!

I had a coupon for mums so I picked up 3 to decorate the front door.


We haven't gone pumpkin picking yet but I did find a few gourds.


This is my favorite color of mums but I thought yellow would be a good pop since the house is brown.




Inside the house....This is the rest of the silk flowers that were leftover from the wreath.  I actually think they look really pretty in here.


We left this table by the stairs for now but it needs a better home.  I threw some of the things the kids have made over the years on it.


More orange in the family room.


I finally have a nice mantel to decorate!  At first I wasn't happy with how this came out but it grew on me.


I put my scarecrows on the "hearth".  Wasn't the look I was going for but the rest of the fam liked it so it stayed.





Happy Fall!

Friday, September 27, 2013

Apple Season!

We have an apple tree in our front yard. The kids have been eating the apples all summer but now that they are ripening, The Husband wanted to pick them and cook with them.


Very cool to go outside, pick some fruit and come back inside.  Just missing the cider and donuts from the orchard.



We cut up a lot of apples for apple sauce and cut the rest to flash freeze for pies and cakes for the next few months.


The Husband and The Girl worked together to get the apples ready for me to arrange and freeze.


We filled up the ziploc bags for apple sauce.


I filled up 8 quart size bags of the sliced apples.


Tomorrow we are going to try to can some apples. Wish us luck....

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Fall Wreath

I love decorating my front door and entry. I am not sure what happened to my Fall wreath but I realized I didn't have one. People around here go all out on wreaths but I didn't want to pay $30 or more for one so I decided to make one.

 I picked up a grapevine wreath.


And a bunch of "silk" flowers.


Then I pulled the blooms off the stems.


I felt a little like Morticia Addams, beheading those posies!



I took my hot glue gun,made a pattern and voila!  Wreath!


I am pretty happy with it.  Simple, easy and about half the price of a store bought one.


I had extra flowers so I threw them in a vase and put them on the dining room table.  Now I need some pumpkins and mums for the entry!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

dehydration fail

Here is another half-assed experiment that was a huge FAIL!!  I tried to dehydrate pears and I failed on 3 attempts.

Again, this is The Husband's dream.  We bought a dehydrator.  We bought a box of pears.  Adrienne told me what I needed to know and I googled before I tried.

The first night I prepared a batch of pears; I peeled and put them in lemon water (to stop them from browning).  I wanted The Husband with me when we used the dehydrator just in case I screwed it up.  We put them on the trays, turned on the power and.....

NOTHING!!

The dehydrator must have had a faulty circuit board because the digital read out was all flashy.  We tried several different outlets before he gave up and sat on the couch. (I have since mailed back the top and am awaiting a new one.)

Had The Husband not been there as a witness, he would have accused me of effing it up, right??

I couldn't waste all those pears but I so didn't want to be baking at 8:00 at night, but The Girl and I did.

We made pear bread, pear pie and pear sauce.  The Girl thought it was so much fun but I had lost my sense of humor. Luckily I am a pretty good baker so everything came out yummy and we didn't lose any pears that night.

The next day I borrowed Adrienne's dehydrator.  I prepped the pears and plugged it in all by myself.  It worked!!  Hard to believe but it takes 8-10 hours for those suckers to dry!!  I had to set my alarm to check on them but by 2:00 AM I turned it off but they didn't look right.  I think I cut them too thick.

  
They look like steak fries, no?

So I made another batch with the last of the pears. That night, by midnight I just unplugged the damn thing and gave up. They were slimy and maybe they were just over ripe. They looked like slugs.

Sigh. I will try again with apples. Glad the kids like dried fruit and it is something I can eat, with no added sugar. Sigh. This isn't rocket science!!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

canning peaches!!

Over the last year or so my husband has really become interested in canning, as in *I* should learn it. I had no desire. But then my friend Adrienne of Free Time Frolics, was willing to teach me. 

First I bought a box of peaches and needed to wait for them to ripen.


Then we soaked them in hot water to blanch the skins.

Add caption
The longer they soaked, the easier they were to peel.  I was slow and clumsy and for every one I peeled, Adrienne has at least 3 done!  We cut them into sections and jammed them into the quart jars, filled in the cracks with sugar water.  I was disappointed that you need to add sugar (for preservation) as I thought they'd be healthier without the extra sugar, right??

Adrienne has a fancy schmancy water bath machine that cooks up the peaches and seals the jars.


Some of the scraps.  My chickens would have loved this yumminess.  But they are back in CT.


At the end of the day, I had 14 quarts of yummy peaches, that I will be able to eat (I am allergic to most fresh fruit).


It wasn't  hard process but it is time consuming, and everything gets sticky.  I'd be happy to do more canning with friends or by myself, as long as I have a good movie to watch!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

decorating with greenery

With the kids at school and my day off at the gym, I wanted to run some fun errands.  I have/had a Michael's gift card burning a hole in my pocket so that was my main goal.

Of course, nothing really jumped at me but I did buy a few things for some upcoming projects. 

My cute little purchase was this:

Two sprigs of whatever this type of greenery this is and a decorative vase.  All on clearance.  I've been looking at the pre-assembled ones but either they are way too expensive or on clearance but the colors are off. 


 I've been wanting color in the Laundry Room but it is in my bathroom for now.

It is in front of the outlet so I am sure it will bother me when I need to straighten my hair.  But it's cute and I like it!


Then I went to the Thrift Shop to see what I could find.  Believe it or not, I brought home this baby:


I know, who uses fake crap like this anymore, right?  A lot of people use these around here on the really high cabinets.  For $2.95. I thought I'd try it out.



I think it looks ok up there.  If I find something better or we don't like it after awhile, I won't feel bad.  For $3.00 it is a donation to The Idaho Youth Ranch Thrift Store!



They had a couple pf those fake potted trees for $30 and I was tempted.  The Husband hates them but I think it would look good in our office.

My last goody was from Michael's. 


I need a frame like I need a hole in my head but I do have an addiction.  I thought this one (on clearance!) will be perfect for our holiday picture (not taken yet).  Someone asked where I got all my frames.  I look everywhere, especially in clearance sections at Target, Home Goods, etc.  I am not afraid to paint something a different color or tweak it a bit.  Lately I prefer black or white frames but I am trying to overcome that!

That was my morning.  It was especially nice to do this Kid Free!