Re-use, Reduce, Recycle!

I mentioned a few posts back that KC’s mom was here and we were working on doing her yardsale stuff in my garage.  She had a lifetime (x3) of knick-knacks, curtains, kitchen pieces, country flair, wood country crafts, floral pieces from the 50’s…you name it.  WOW.  The good thing about hanging out in my garage with her and her yardsale stuff was that I had PLENTY of time to look at all her stuff and come up with some remakes.  Naturally, I kept the remakes…;-)  Even though, after I finished, she kept wanting her things back.  ;-)  I’m such a terrible daughter-in-law like that.  LOL. 

So are you dying yet?  Wanna see what I rescued? 

Well, I’ll start with this one since it’s the only one I have before/after shots of:

I snatched this one up for our master bath the second I saw it.  Sure, it had no door front, a icky country wooden heart handle, and was just sad, but I saw potential!  Sure enough, after bashing the heart off the handle (I’m so cold and HEARTLESS, my mother-in-law says…LOL!) and sanding the bugger within an inch of its life, then a few coats of paint during slow yard-sale moments, and finally, distressing the edges just a smidge and hot-gluing a strip of burlap inside the door….OH YEAH! 

And then there is the glass jar rescue.  I knew I had to find something to use them for.  Candy corner in the kitchen looks SOOO much more appealing now!  Don’t ya think? These were just dirty jars (two milk jars and two heavy duty open topped glass bowls) and all it took was a little cleanup and organization.  MMMM….wonder if it will last till October 31st…lol!   

And this sled?  Well, wood country craft…that’s all I can say for it.

I looked at it for awhile, laid it aside, thought about it awhile longer, and then decided to paint it up and then distress it a bit to make it look worn and now…

I’m thinking wintertime baby photo prop!  A white backdrop, a little fake snow, a baby in a black toboggan with tassels dangling down….yeah!  TOTALLY!  And for free, too!  ;-)  Love a little recycling!  =)  I did a few more little projects to rescue some outdated stuff (think country wreath to fall gorgeousness, glass bottle and starfish put together…you know, little stuff), but those up there were my favorites! 

What do you think…have I inspired you to rescue any old yard sale stuff yet?  ;-)

Sunday Linkies

Here’s a few things I’ve found on the internets this week that I like and/or want to try…  Since I’m not feeling the creative blogging urge today, I’m substituting.  *grin* 

• This leaf in the frame is from a blog called Cottage Hill…I just like the idea for decor…it’s a thrift store frame redone…I could see this as a group of three hanging in a hallway…not just for fall either…i like it!  =) 
• Here’s a second tutorial from Cottage Hill on the leaf in the frame idea…i LUV it!  Gotta try it! 
• Then there’s this sheet music lamp shade recovering…i like, i like.  It’s from Tending the Nest and she used it as a hanging light, but I could see it used as an actual lampshade, too.   Something about recreating using printed pages just hits my happy spot.  I just like it! 
• An autumn-y front entry by Cleared For Takeoff…I need to do something to ours…I’m thinking a wreath, too, but I’m just not sure what I want.  LOL.  Maybe one that says “I Miss Summer” (LOL)
• This is just a neat idea for a gift or even for personal use (subway art print from Endless Crafting)…i love the saying!
• I’ve seen it before, but I really love the block idea (these are by More Than Just Mom).  Oh and by the way, if you read my blog and get a gift from me at any time that looks similar to any of these things, pretend to be surprised, okay?  =)
• I love furniture re-do’s…they take so much time that I hate tackling them myself, but the finished products are soooo yum…check out this table redo from Hydrangea Home.  I’m totally gonna have to try something like this…SOME DAY!  *grin*  Just not any time soon.  =)

Well, there’s more I’ve been looking at, but the hubs has already hit the sack, and it’s 10:44 and I’m tired myself, so I better get a move on.  =)  Night!

Crazy Life

It’s official, I’m a horrible blogger anymore.  I haven’t even felt like blogging anonymously lately.  Well, okay, I take that back…I actually have felt more like posting some major rants but I have totally resisted.  Partly because if anyone ever stumbled across my pink apartment (not that I actually HAVE a pink apartment), but IF I did, and IF I ranted the way I wanted to about the topics I wanted to rant about, it would give away my anonymity…lol.  Not that anyone will ever find my hypothetical pink apartment…teehehe.  How did I get on that? 

ANYWAY.

So I really don’t even feel like being here now, plus it’s already getting late and morning is coming way too quickly these days…soooo…how bout I just wrap up with misc pictures from this month?

I found this jewel at a yardsale on Saturday.  A quarter for the lid and plastic dish it’s sitting on.  I couldn’t resist it for $.25…it reminds me of my Grandma.  Grandma’s was beat up, too, and always had homemade biscuits underneath that dome…

Well, I ain’t Grandma, but I did bake some cookies today to put in it…and most of the cookies are gone already…how does that happen?  LOL!Speaking of Grandmas…KC’s grandma was here today…that was nice.  She’s 90, although you’d never know it…she is spryer (is that a word?) than most 70 year old’s…yikes.  

Let’s see…here’s a random shot from labor day.  This is when Little Mama was still here…

speaking of her, she’s doing good, I think…settling in her new place okay.  Weird though, with her not being here.  Gonna take a little getting used to again.

And last, here’s a few shots from 9/18 at my cousin’s wedding.  Have a great night! 

OH and the facepainting shots are from KC’s company picnic which happened earlier in the day before the wedding.  We washed it off before the wedding…somehow it didn’t quite fit with the formal look…lol.

For anyone who still reads this blog…thanks.  =)  PS I’m going to try to do better.  I don’t think there is an exact NaBloPoMo anymore…I think it’s any month you want to do it now, but I’m going to try for October…we’ll see how far I get.  LOL.  It’s good to have goals, right?  LOL!  Anyway, goodnight!

*Twitch*

I wonder if I can call this week without internet a “fast” if it wasn’t really by choice?  LOL.  Probably not, but I know I’m sure ready to have internet back.  So tempted actually, that the idea of going out in Grandma’s driveway right now, at 10:21 pm, in my jammies, to see if there is any way I could catch some hint of access…well, we’ll just say that sounds like such a good idea right now.  LOL. 

You’ll be pleased to know that I am resisting.  (Mother, you can breathe again, first of all because by the time this posts, the moment is long past, and second of all, I’m not going to sit out on the street in the dark in the middle of NY, even though my sheriff cousin DOES live like 2 doors down, LOL).  ;-) 

This has nothing to do with personal safety and much more to do with the fact that I let my battery get too low on my computer and now I’m sorta restricted to the kitchen table since that’s the only outlet in the house that fits a three prong plug.  LOL. 

Oh well.  I’m sure nothing is going on in the internet world of you peeps.  Not that I would know…haven’t been online since I drove by Wegman’s the other day to post that last update.  *sigh*  I’m not twitching….much.  ;-) 

Grandma still worries me.  I wasn’t used to it at first because last time I was up here, she wasn’t anywhere NEAR this bad, and even though I’ve kinda gotten used to how she is now, I still feel bad for her.  It’s so sad. 

Uncle M got back from his camping trip with my cousin on Wednesday night, so last night my aunt and uncle came over to hang out for awhile.  They ate here and my uncle mowed Grandma’s yard.  Sheriff cousin came over for a little while, too, which was cool.  I’ve been really bad with taking pictures, so I don’t have any from last night…which is not cool.  *sigh*  Anyway.

Today we went and got my uncle and went out on the hunt for yard sales.  I got my camera out today.  LOL.  That was cool.   

This one yard sale we stopped at, I didn’t even get out….I told Uncle M that MV (my friend that got roped into coming with me to help me drive), K-man, and I would wait for him in the car because it was a MAN YARD SALE.  LOL.  So I sat in the car and took a picture.  LOL.  My uncle is over in the middle of all that guy goodness.  LOL.  Tools, gadgets, and guns.  Not my cup of tea.  Hahah.  I did find a few things at other yard sales, but I was so picky that I didn’t get much.  ;-)  Oh well. 

Then Uncle M took us to this little pizza joint in Fairport.  They had great food…my favorite part though, was this Proverbi Italiani on the wall over our table. 

I don’t know if you can read any of those or not, but they’re pretty good…haha…

the best one:

Nulla si fa senza volonta!  

These Italians…they so smart.  ;-)  ;-)

And then, before I hop off for the night to finish getting my stuff together to get ready to leave in the morning (can’t believe the week is already over!?!), here’s one last picture I took of MV at the park earlier this week when we took K-man out to burn off some of his energy.  (You know, watching musicals in grandma’s living room just doesn’t burn off too much of little boy energy.  lololol)

      Looks like she’s walking in the treetops or something.  LOL. 

And on that note….goodnight.  *twitch* ;-)

Where Do I Start?

I guess I’ve been cheating a bit by posting videos of my adorable dogs instead of posting real blogs….sorry…please forgive me.  I’ve been a little on the busy side this week, not to mention when it comes to my personal life, that’s been a little disgusting lately and I haven’t wanted to bore (or gross out anyone) so I’ve tried to stay away. 

But unfortunately, one can only do that so long before one runs out of cute videos and it turns into a bad (or sad) case of blog neglect.  And since I hate it when other people commit that crime, I’m here to keep from being the pot.  You know…the one that called the kettle black? 

Speaking of committing crimes…I went yard saling this morning, and although I consider it a crime for people to throw trash in their yard, put a price on it, and call it a yard sale, that was the only crime committed this morning.  I went yard saling LAST Saturday morning as well, only it didn’t go quite as well for me.  Not quite as well, as in, $255 out of my pocket and not a single piece of yard sale treasure to show for it.  I didn’t even GET to a yard sale…I drove all the way across town and right before I got to this gigantic yard sale I was headed to, I got a blue light and a nice WHITE slip of paper.  No pink warning for me.  So I turned around and just drove back home without even getting in one single yard sale.  Man, I consider every single one of those things I just mentioned to be a CRIME…seriously.  Everything except the part where I had just turned onto a different road, hadn’t noticed a speed limit sign yet, and was very clearly out in the country and it *SHOULD* have been 55, in which case 60 wasn’t a big deal, not to mention the fact that I was from out of town and not familiar with the area….that’s a mistake and deserves a warning, right?  Hello?  And I was even really nice and polite to Mr. State Trooper.  BUT ANYWAY!  This week I followed all the highway rules and regulations.  I even went 10 miles BELOW the speed limit just for safety’s sake.  Not to mention I had cops behind me like three separate times and I’m now 1000% paranoid.  Not even rolling stops today!  I was NOT going to ruin my yard sale time like it was ruined last Saturday.  But then every single yard sale I stopped at was nothing but junk and I didn’t buy a single thing.  Phoooo---eey.

And we won’t even DISCUSS how much of a crime it is that every mistake I make gets me pulled over and KC can pass in a no passing zone, be going at least 15 over the speed limit, and not have his seatbelt on and the cop will wave and drive on by.  And I suppose I’ll have to admit, it was probably a crime for me to drive home that Saturday praying fervently that KC would get a ticket on his way home that very day so that I could get a little empathy.  LOL! 

Moving on.  That gory-ness I mentioned earlier?  Well, I’ll just try to gloss over it, but I’m a total klutz (which anyone who knows me already knows) and totally ripped the top of my toe off almost up to my toenail on a sharp corner of the metal sawhorses in the garage.  Wearing flipflops and my toe slid underneath and I didn’t realize it and when I backed up, I tried to leave the top half of my toe under there.  I don’t even know how bad it was except that there really isn’t that much skin on the top of your toe anyway, so I’m guessing it was pretty close to the bone, I just closed my eyes and flipped the flap of skin back over the wound…and I’m not doing a very good job of glossing over this, am I?  Okay, well, skipping over the rest of that, I spent 3 days limping and bleeding through dozens of bandaids and was thisclose to going to the urgent care to get stitches, but it did finally stop bleeding every time I moved, and now it’s just blue and very sore.  Actually, my entire toe is blue and yellow, and looks kinda gross.  I’m sorry…I said I would gloss. 

I’m just making up for a week of not talking.  ;-) ;-) 

Speaking of not talking, I posted a full update on our kids situations on the private blog tonight.  If you don’t have access, feel free to shoot me an email. 

Also on the topic of not talking, I’m kinda proud of myself, because I was reading something the other day that was completely inaccurate and I wrote out this long comment disputing it with facts and maybe a little sarcasm and then decided that I should just hold my tongue for peace’s sake.  You know, Peace….that’s Pete’s sister.  ;-)  So I just closed out the screen, took a deep breath, and said, they’re entitled to their opinion, just like I’m entitled to mine.  Thank the Lord for that gentle nudge that said, “You really don’t need to say that, just leave it alone.”  Of course, I can’t say that I’m proud of the fact that I tried to rephrase my disagreement in all kinds of different ways and without the sarcasm to try to find some way to be able to disagree without disobeying that nudge, but when I couldn’t, at least I listened.  LOL.  And that’s the beauty of the internet…if I’d been in person, I’d just have blared out my opinion and had to retract it; on the internet, I can blare out my opinion, think twice about it and delete it without saying it.  *GRIN* 

What else from this week?  Oh yeah, Little Mama and Little Bit will be here til August.  She and I went out yesterday and thrifted up a brand new dresser for 15 buckaroos.  LOL…it was that cheap because the top was damaged, but we’re gonna use wood filler and then paint the entire booger black.  And since we are painting it anyway, I also picked up one of those bookshelf mirrors that was missing the dresser to go with it for 5 buckaroos….and we’ll just paint it to match the dresser.  It will work and that way she will have something to put her stuff in and a mirror to get ready in her own personal space.  So I was pretty psyched that we found a dresser and mirror for 20 bucks.  I’ll post before and after pics when I get it finished. 

Court was interesting…I had K-man and I wanted to be in the courtroom this time since I was pretty sure she was going to decide to stay with us and I wanted to hear for myself what was going on.  And I don’t know who all has been to court lately, but around here, they don’t let you take in cell phones or purses or bookbags of any kind anymore.  Not even diaper bags…which is kinda stinky (LITERALLY) when you’re taking a baby in somewhere for more than a couple of hours!  Well, I needed something to occupy K-man (and also to keep him from hearing/seeing some of the stuff that goes on in court…this particular day, there were a bunch of juvie cases and a parade of little boys in chains came through the court during various cases…CRAZY!)  Anyway, I snuck in his Leapster case with fresh batteries and headphones and sat him in the floor under my feet where he played happily (mostly) and quietly (mostly) for 2+ hours and thank God, nobody noticed or heard anything.  LOL! 

Gone swimming several days this week…weather has been awesome (minus the super thunderstorms, which we enjoyed from inside the house…lol). 

And um…let’s see…tomorrow is my little brother’s birthday.  He doesn’t read my blog, but Happy Birthday anyway, Nate!  We are driving down to the town where he lives and going to church and lunch with him tomorrow.  My parents are going, too…that will be cool.  =)  Speaking of tomorrow, it’s almost here and I need to get some sleep….

NIGHT ya’ll!  Sorry for the boring and grody post. 

Solved

What do you get when you take (well, I didn’t TAKE them, I bought them, actually) two mini skirts from the thrift store + one tall church of God girl? 

Well, if that’s all you take, you have two cute skirts that I wouldn’t show my face (or knees…or…um…anyway…lol) in public with…

BUT….

If you also throw into that equation, a smart mom (who suggested the idea), a pair of scissors, a sewing machine, and 15 minutes…

You get this:

And then if you try it on, try to take a picture of yourself in it, and throw in some terrible lighting, you get this:

OH WELL. 

For what it’s worth, I think I’m getting better at this redoing skirts thing…cuz this one was a breeze!  KNOCK ON WOOD!  LOL!

So now I have a Gap miniskirt -- that I can wear in public. 

LOL! 

Now I need to go shopping to find a shirt to go with it.  Teehehe!

Moving on, got more pictures to work on and stuff to create, so I need to run.  I just posted a couple shots of a cute kid that I took pics of over the weekend.  They are on Always Faith Photography. 

I just stopped for a second to think about all that I still need to get done…and whoa.  Can’t think about it.  Just gotta keep moving.  *wide-eyed glazed look*

Oh, also, here’s a tip for you digital scrappers out there: the designer for the creative team that I’m on has a promo going on starting Sunday. 

Click on the ad to check it out.    

While I’m thinking about the digital scrapping stuff, LeAnn, the website I was telling you about this past weekend, that has the best tutorials and classes on the whole digital thing is JessicaSprague.com.  She’s got lots and lots of stuff and it’s awesome!  And your name doesn’t have to be LeAnn --if that sort of thing interests you, check it out.  LOL!

Later!

A Bit Of Thriftiness

Well, apparently this is her last Thrift Store Thursday, so I figured I’d jump on board, but then I saw there is another one called Thrifty Thursday, so I figured that would work, too.

This is my favorite find from a couple weeks ago…

My dad was over at my house and saw my teflon coated pots that I’ve had since we got married. A few days later, he told me I needed to buy stainless steel because the teflon was in a bad way and majorly scratched off.

Well, I knew stainless was a bit pricey so I figured I’d just start working on KC but then not a week later, I was in one of my favorite thrift stores with my mom.

And I found this set:

It was a bit pricey (I thought) for used at between 4.99 and 9.99 for each pot, but mom assured me it was likely worth it, so taking her advice, I bought the entire 13 (or maybe 15, I don’t remember what I counted) piece set and it totalled up around $60.

Then I got home and looked up the name on the pots. This Flavorite set is a 22 piece but I have all the major pieces and a few of the minor pieces. Check out the price! Amazon has a 13 piece set for a list price of $1595…of course, Amazon is actually selling it for like $250 or something but hey, the list price is astronomical! LOL! Even at $250 though, I think paying $60 was a good deal! LOL!

Anyway, all the teflon pots are now gone…and I feel like I’m cooking at home again because these are the kinds of pots that my parents had when I was a kid and like grandma cooked with. *grin*