Birthday parties Oh, MY!

it's a little late in coming, however with school starting on the 1st, it's hard to commit to a bday party RIGHT after school starts.  My theory is to get her to make some new friends and THEN have a party.  it worked to some extent with ONE new face in the crowd - so that's a great thing!

Roxanne, Angela, Sydney, Grace, McKayla, Marina

 Opening presents

 Blowing out the candles on the cake

What happens when Mom turns her back for TWO seconds...

Lord have mercy - 12 going on 2?

Project completed

Well, here it is in it's beginning glory.  Where I failed was the before picture.  It was about the same color as the lamp started out.  Brownish/bronzie color. 

 A little antiquing to take out the BRIGHT red factor

 regretfully, I don't like the red on burgundy look this has so it's been since moved out of this bathroom and placed on the edge of the tub with a bright red vase instead.  Hum... bad color combo - note to self, put reds together before committing.  I think what I'll do is paint it BLACK and then distress it to have some red/bronze show through.  What do you think?

Rain!!!

Over the last two days we have had some LARGE thunder storms with a lot of lightning and quite a bit of rain!!

We had .7” on Monday (8^th) and 1” on Tuesday (9^th)

Now the only issue I have with this, as we really need the rain, is that it comes in a HUGE downpour and we get all that rain in about an hour then there’s not a drop after the deluge!

I guess beggars really can’t be choosy about it, eh?

Lamp Project done.

Much more "teen girl" than the one that was in there before.

My FAVORITE!!

This one is by far my favorite project so far.  the original had a piece of metal attached to the finial that I removed.  Looks like it used to have a 4 sided glass shade that bit the dust ages ago.  The base is ornate and pretty - just HATE the color!!

Oh, so pretty in white...

I'll post when I get a cute shade for it!  it's going in Angela room for her dresser....

there may be a few things that get a bit of a makeover in her room. 

A jewelry box is SCREAMING for a bit of paint :) 

Used to be that I would vinyl everything -

now beware, I could PAINT you if you stand still too long!!

Now some of you are probably wondering just WHY do I do these things?  Well, I just don't know... I felt the need to surf the net last week, found a bunch of stuff on the DIY pages with Pintrest so I was hooked.  There are soooo many cool ideas of things to do with Goodwill finds.

It all started with a wooden bowl... but have I done MY bowl project yet?  Nope.  That one requires a drill with a countersink.  I'm just not worked into doing that one just yet... but I'm getting there!!

What is the cost you ask?
For the three projects you have seen so far and two more you have not:
Thrift store cost: $11.00
Paint: $8.00 (estimated becasue I can NOT find that receipt - but two spray cans of paint)

So - who can say that they have gotten a lapbase for less than $19.00 that would have THIS much character?

One more!

Dirty little thing, isn't it?

I'm sure it was used for condiments in ages past...

 Now it's used as my catch-all for keys and box tops for education, tape and receipts.

 May need a little depth added - what do you think? 

Antique it or leave it as is?

The necklace tree in the bathoom...

One more project down

well, it started out the natural wood color:

 This paint is the one that matches the girls bathroom.  It's a very (and I stress VERY) light lilac color:

What do you think??

First day of school

Angela

Entering 7th grade

In her own words, now in the MIDDLE of the food chain!

 Liz

Entering 11th grade

Scary that my "baby" is now a Jr! 

 The only time they're together now for school is the bus ride in the morning.

 What LIZ really feels about this whole "summer is over" business!

Day 5 post - op and almost back to "normal"

Not too happy after a HOT day on the band practice field to catch up on what she missed with the tooth removal.

maybe she won't flub it all tomorrow at "official" band practice?  Hum... follow the leader Liz, follow the leader!

Inspirations and projects

well, after spending three work days home two of which timing ice packs, so not really having time to settle in and DO much, I started surfing blogs.  I found the following inspirational blog: http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/p/good-eats.html  She does some phenominal work... so I got to thinking about an item in my house that doesn't quite "fit" in the color it currently is...

In my burgundy and brown room, this one is just too WHITE to fit in properly, so the seeds of the idea were struck.  and the transformation began! 

First painted red to be more in fitting with my room:

Then antiqued and put in place:

Liz has lost her wisdom...

Wisdom teeth that is.. poor Liz!  She went in last Wednesday to have it done.  It went OK for her, but she sure puffed up like she's hoarding marshmallows!

 Shhhh - you're not supposed to take pictures in there :)  Couldn't resist!

 All trussed up and ready to go!  No IV just yet.. but it's coming soon!

 AFTER - no more wisdom teeth!  Not sure where the before is... somewhere in my archives of stuff :D

 Looping our way home... NOT happy with my taking a picture of her at the stop light!

 Settled into the bed her little sister kindly set up for her... favorite blanket and all - ah, the life!

 Later in Day 1 when she can actually walk better and not 'tilt' so much - ha!  Slightly puffy... but not bad.

 REALLY puffy on day 2 - we did the walking thing a bit... get out and move and get out of the house...

Day three - either I'm adjusting to the new "look" or she's going down just a bit on the puff factor.  She's able to eat easy to chew things - even wanted and was given hash browns for dinner tonight :o)  Ah, to be the injured spoiled one.

Indianapolis Continued

Well, as is par for the course, work travel = food and hotel details.

We were in the Sheraton downtown Indianapolis. 

The view would have been GREAT however the city is a mad frenzie to repair EVERYTHING in prep for the Superbowl so even the lady at the top of the center of the circle was taken down for refurbishing AND the fountains surrounding it were fenced off - very sad.  The good new?  Next year we'll be here again, so we'll get to see it in it's full glory then.

View from my room of the rooftop pool, I had grad plans to go to it, but never did.  I even brought my suit and we had the highest temps in the last 12 years while we were there.  Lovely, eh?  Right in the middle of a heatwave.  Yuck!

 Of course the room - to include the potty below - small, but efficient

Night one was actually Ruth Chris Steak house.  I'm still in shock at the cost - not really.  I knew what it would be... however, still have a little issue with $65 for a steak, one side (we split between two of us with each picking up a single side) and water... mostly because the waiter forgot I ordered wine - what a goober.  Oh, well, I didn't need it, right?

Day two, meeting began and four of us decided to hit the challenge spot of Bub's Burgers.  Finish 1 and you get a 3x5 picture on the wall - there were a LOT of those.  Finish 2 and get a 8x10 on the wall - fewer.  Finish 3 and get a small poster size on the wall - 11x18 - much fewer of those.  Finish 4 and get a life size poster on the wall - only ONE of those.

 The Challenge Burger!

 The rest... I got the middle one on here 1/4 lb was enough for me!

  Jason and Jerry decided the challenge was ON

They both finished without much effort.  They even had ice cream AFTER - yes, both of them!  Jason commented after the fact he could have done two, no problem.  After last year, I have NO doubts!

More meetings and another dinner.  Weber Grill - one of the ONLY ones outside of Chicago.  It was good... and this isn't perspective until you see the person working with the meat - they are BIG grills.

OK, maybe the steak size will tell you - those are full size steaks.

More meetings and a wrap up at RAM Brewery where two of the folks got a heart attach on a bun - but it looks OH so good!  That's onion fries, hamburger, cheese, ham, bacon, egg on that burger.  It was said to have been VERY good.

 Mine was a Blackjack burger with the edges rolled in black pepper, but not overpowering.  then with pepper jack cheese.  Very good, but I should have gone for the egg one!

 what the square should look like.  The tower actually holds an elevator and stairs and an observation deck at her feet.... this was the wallpaper at the elevators.  maybe next year you'll get a color picture of the real thing?

 When I got home, it turned out to be puffy cloud type of weather... I LOVE puffy clouds!!