Gotta Love a Garage Sale

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This weekend I was helping my mom get ready for her garage sale (mostly making sure she wasn't getting rid of anything I  wanted) and while going through her mountains of clutter lovely possessions I discovered this little cutie that she had bought at JoAnne's.  Nothing special I know, but I saw possibilities. 

I've been looking for a utensil caddy ever since I saw this little beauty. 

I don't even remember where it was from (sorry-if anyone recognizes it let me know so I can add a source link).  It was sold out of course, and waaaaay outa my budget.  I kept the image to remember and drool over it's lovely patina.

I thought about trying to faux paint my mom's to resemble my dream caddy, but in the end I decided that I liked the enamelware look of it just fine.  It just needed some sprucing up.

I had some stencils from hobby lobby and decided to paint a number 5 on the front.  

While it did come with some pretty sha-nazzy silverware I decided to replace it with some of my great grandmother's mismatched silver my mom had given me.  I'll keep those fancy green numbers to send in the kid's school lunches.

Final result?

Pretty stink stankin' cute!  It even had two empty holes to throw my salt and pepper shakers into. 

And what can the hubster's say?  I spent nothing on the project!  Of course I spent my whole morning playing around with an old enamel utensil holder...hmmmmm....maybe we'll just keep that one to ourselves.

I'm linking up to these fabulous parties:

savvy southern style - wow us wednesdays #74

no minimalist here - open house party #11

New Stairs!

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Oh my Lawdy!  I feel like I have abandoned this little blog!  I have just been crazy busy lately.  


I FINALLY finished this project and wanted to write about it!  I  have longed dreamed about doing something with my stairs.  Ripping the whole thing down and using a ladder even crossed my mind.  I mean really, the boys would just love me!  Or better yet a rope swing.  They could just swing down like Tarzan in the morning.  Coolest mom EVA!  No worries I haven't totally lost my mind.


Here are my lovely stairs before:

Snooze.  Not to mention the three crazies that live here and that horse of a dog have wreaked havoc on that carpet.

So while the hubster was recently on a trip I went out and bought myself a can of poly shades in Bombay Mahogany and a can of white gloss paint and went to town!  I also painted the little wall green to match the rest of the walls.  'Cause that beige wall covered in little hand and foot marks (I was blessed with climbers) was just nasteeee....


Here is what he came home to. 

I'm gonna be honest here, I was pretty stinkin' proud.  Do you know what he said? Do you?
He said "You made the stairs look to good, it just made the carpet look worse".  Serious.  Like a heart attack.  
Okay pull on your Pollyanna undies cause...
                            I'm getting new carpet!  
oh yeah, oh yeah...


So after 800 trips to every local carpet place within a 50 mile radius, my stairs now look like this.

Did you notice all the "junk" on that goofy plant ledge?  It is a hobby of my boys to see if they can land helicopters, planes, wrappers, window crawlers, etc. up there.

Sigh.

The joys of boys.

One last before and after:

What do you think.  I'm loving them!

I'm linking up to these awesome parties:

savvy southern style-wow us wednesdays #67

home stories a to z - tutorials and tips link party #62

project queen-turning the daunting into the do-able #33

Do you Bookoo?

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Have you been to a bookoo website in your area?  We have a couple around here and I looooove them!  It's like craigslist but totally local (I can only take so long in the car listening to Max and Ruby, soooooo the closer to home the better)!  


Do a quick Internet search for bookoo and see what you find.  It's way to much stinkin' fun for this stay at home mama!


Check out my latest treasure

He has a broken pane but all that chippy goodness makes up for it!  

One thing I have learned using these sort of sites:
I always ask where the closest public place to meet is.  I don't even care if it is on the curb in front of their house.  I'm just not going inside their home. Ain't gonna happen. 
If it is a larger item I send the hubster to pick it up.  (That sounds kinda mean, I just figure no one will mess with him)


Better safe, than sorry right?  If they wanna sell it, they'll meet you.  


I had the perfect home for this little fella all planned.  We have transom windows above all of our downstairs windows.  Over time the seal on the transom over the kitchen window must have cracked because it has condensation in it all the time. 

As Velma would say, Jinkies!  I don't get out much.


So, I screwed some hooks into the back of my little window and popped it right over the transom!  

Be. Still. My. Heart.
It's the little things, isn't it?

Plus, I'm gonna let you in on a little trick for those pesky "hooks" on the back of pictures that are spaced just so apart.
Put lipstick on the hooks (FYI--this is sis' lipstick. I may not get out much but even I know not to wear sparkly purple lipstick!)

Then when you hold it up to the wall the lipstick will leave marks on the wall that tell you exactly wear to place your screws!

I'm a thinkin' gal! ;) 


Plus you can't imagine how many "oops" screw holes I have had to fill in this house!  Talk about learning the hard way...

P.S.  I'm linking up to these awesome parties!

savvy southern style-wow us wednesdays #60

skip to my lou-made by you monday #94

home stories a to z

Easter Egg Traditions

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When my oldest was just a peanut and we began dying Easter eggs he didn't like hard boiled eggs.  So I would dye raw eggs and use the eggs in cooking or baking.


Then I remembered a really fun tradition I saw a lot of when we lived in South Texas.  Cascarones!  Cascarones are egg shells filled with confetti and broken over people's heads for good luck on Easter morning.  


So I began cutting a  hole in the bottoms of the eggs (each time I needed an egg for baking) and then the kids fill the shells with bird seed using a funnel.   Cover the hole with tissue paper and glue when the egg is done.  You can buy Cascarones at stores like Walmart but I figured, hey, I have the eggs, why not?


As you can tell from the glorious picture below we used to use the traditional confetti but trust me it makes a gawd awful mess, and with bird seed the birdies are happy too.  

As the kids got older I was forced to come up with a second activity (never a dull moment), because each kiddo always has their "favorite" egg that they can't bear to turn into a Cascarone.
So we began turning our favorites  into a diorama egg to display every year.  Here is how:


Step one:
Agonizingly decide which egg is the favorite

Step two:
Spray the dyed egg with a sealant to protect the color, because your fingerprints will lift the color right off the egg.  I use Aleene's sealer (bought it at Michael's), but I'm sure any will do. Oh, and I don't cook with this egg. Because of the sealant this egg just goes down the drain.

Step three:
Cut a hole in the front of the egg.  I have found that a pair of sharp embroidery scissors work best.

Step four: 
Agonizingly choose how to decorate the inside.  We have glitter, glitter glue, little glass animals, flocked Easter bunnies, you name it.  Sister choose these cuties:

Step five:
Hot glue your fingers to egg sustaining multiple burns chicks into egg.  Carefully.


Step six:
Glue ribbon around egg opening.

Step seven:
I always glue a flat bottomed "guy" with a string to the top of the egg as the hanger.  They usually come in a package (I think they are for mini trees) at Michael's or Hobby Lobby.


My mom uses ribbon tied with a knot inside the egg.  That is just more than my blistered fingers can handle.

The kids love going through all their old eggs.  And remembering what their "favorites" were each year

Happy Easter egg dying!

P.S. 
I'm linking up to these awesome parties:


project queen-turning the daunting into the do able #27
skip to my lou- made by you monday #93
savvy southern style-wow us wednesdays #59
home stories a to z-tutorials tip link party #54

I Made That!

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Here is the scenario...It is 8 o'clock and time for bed.  All of a sudden one of two things happen.  


1)  The stars align and all three kids begin playing beautifully together.  This is not normal around this joint.  At any given moment one child (or many) has wronged the other(s) and screaming and general mayhem ensues.  But when the clock strikes eight they become the best of friends.  GRRRRRR....how can I put you monsters into bed when you are finally (probably pretending) to enjoy each other.  


The second thing that occurs quite frequently is the "I FORGOT ___________".  Fill in the blank with any nonsense that would make an exhausted woman yank her own hair out.  


Does this happen to anybody else?


Last night fell into the second category.  Mister 10 realized that he had told ALL his friends that he was going to wear a Hunger Games shirt to school tomorrow.  We don't have  school on Friday- We are officially calling it Hunger Games Day.   


Seriously.  Child.  You are lucky I love you.  


I had bought Heat Transfer stuff (probably not the official name) for my Silhouette so I shakily got out all of my materials.  I Gotta be honest here, my Silhouette scares the beejeesus outa me! Irrationally so. I can't figure it out.  Expensive equipment will do that to me.  


But it worked!  I am singing it to the heavens y'all!  30 minutes and those little monkeys were tucked up into bed wearing their new shirts.  HA, take that!

And just for fun...I'll give you one guess as to what kind of lovely mood mister 8 was in this morning.

Oh well, at least that nasty attitude has a cute shirt on it.  MADE BY ME!!! 

P.S. I'm linking up to these awesome parties

no minimalist here-open house party #21

A Little Morning Swim

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I hate cleaning.  There I said it.  
At any given moment my house looks like it has been ransacked. 


Picking up after the ruffians that reside in this house is exhausting.  


Yes, I referred to my children as ruffians.  Anyone who can't manage to pick up their own underwear or those choosing to wipe their noses on the couch pillows will hereby be known as such.


I especially hate cleaning bathrooms.  Yeech...there must be some scientific reason for my spawn's lack of aim.  
I frequently try to assure myself that it simply cannot be that they are that disgustingly lazy. But, I know a lie when I hear one (especially one that comes out of my mouth).


Not only do I have to go around flushing toilets (when did we forget the golden rule: If it's brown flush it down?) but there are always toys in the sinks.


Today is was a herd of cattle.

*sigh*
Wuz up cows?  
Are you clean yet?

Look clean to me.

Good 'ol Erma, she sure had our number.  Maybe our house does look like an episode of hoarders but at least we have some damn clean cows!

linking up to these awesome parties:
skip to my lou - made by you monday #92
project queen- turning the daunting into the do able #26
my life and kids- finding the funny #9

Prettied up the Garage Door

 We have had some crazy nice March weather this week.  Which of course means the kids are outside playing.  I like to leave the garage door open so I can hear them fighting frolicking nicely in the sunshine. Plus it creates a great cross breeze through the house.  The only problem is that my garage door is right in my entry way.  It is one of those heavy steel numbers.

Shuddering as I look at this.  This is what you see when you look to the right after coming into our house. 
Apparently one of the boys took a hammer to it at some point.   
Why?  
Who knows.  
Because they are boys.  
Nuff said.  
Look how gross and dirty it is.  Bleeeech... 
So I got out some paint left over from this project and mixed it with some cream paint leftover from who knows what and got to work.


I wanted to do something besides just the paint. 'Cause that door is U.G.L.Y.


Here is what I ended up with. 

What do you think?   All the hubsters said was "It's a lot of words".  What is wrong with that man?
I used a simple transfer method.
All you do is print off the words in whatever font you choose and flip the paper over.  Color with pencil over the letters (on the back of the paper).

I used a level and some chalk to draw lines  onto the door.   If you have read any of my entries you know I am notorious for crooked writing.  

Then flip the paper back onto the printed side (not the side with pencil) and trace over the letters.  You will be left with the outline.

Then just fill in with paint using  a steady hand.  I only did one coat, I kinda liked the chalky painted look of it after one coat.

At least I don't have to look at that dirty metal door anymore.  Now if someone could just come clean up that garage...

P.S  I'm linking up to these great parties:

skip to my lou - made-by-you-monday 92

project queen link-turning the daunting into the do able #26

home stories a to z - tutorials tips link party #52

savvy southern style - wow us wednesdays #58

no minimalist here-open house party #21

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