Cerused furniture

It started with a blog post:
http://www.addicted2decorating.com/cerused-oak-dining-table-table-makeover-finished.html

AND a road side chair:





I forgot to take the true before picture with the top off looking like a snaggle tooth because the spindles were split about 1/3 of the way down from the top and the center piece was laying on the ground. Sigh. I tried to see what it would look like without the center piece. Yeah, it looked terrible so when I glued it all back together the center piece stayed.

And I waited and ordering started because I needed some liming wax.

I didn't take pictures if the chair after paint and stain. But it was impressive then.





And even more so now with the wax buffer out :)

Goodwill finds this evening

On a whim I stopped at Goodwill tonight and found some folding chairs like these:

very nice for $8.99 each for a seat of 2
I also found a cute poppies painting... I have at thing for RED and a thing for poppies from our time in Italy.  That and sunflowers, but my red fetish has me always going to the poppy pictures in stores.  This one is a Kirtland one that was originally $80 for $20.  Can't beat that... and I love the theme :)

Summer

While reviewing this years calendar for summer, I noticed something - there really is NO summer for Angela this year.  She was out of school on the 22nd of May.  In reality she got out a few days early due to exempting finals (GREAT work on her part to be over 90% in all her classes!!).  Her color guard practices started on the 5th of June - what's weird is this didn't even give her the first two weeks of summer off!  In the past they have had guard all summer, however they have had two full weeks OFF of school to get things done, to have some fun and play. 

 

I had planned on sending the girls to Florida for a week during those two weeks off and wouldn't you know it the VERY first week of summer Lizzie broke her foot.  No, really - school for Angela got out on the 22nd; Liz broke her foot on the 27th. 

 

Sigh... not even 5 full days after summer officially began.  Let me tell you, this ruined some plans for me too!  She was to be my driver this summer to make sure the little ones got to and from color guard camp during the week and cleaning of the house.  Surprise!!!

 

Needless to say summer is flying by already and it's just begun!  Right now it's full of appointments for kids and such.  Liz for foot issues and revisits to make sure everything is healing just right.  Angela for Color Guard camp and trekking her from point A to point B.  Butch and I are in charge of Tuesdays - Butch takes them TO the school and I go get them at noon and take them home.  Today is the first Tuesday (they started last Thursday)... we'll see how much this impacts my day having to go all the way home and back to work in less than an hour if I'm lucky!  OH and grabbing food on the fly as well.

 

On to MORE summer updates... pictures to follow when I get a few (I'm updating via email that I take DAYS to compose!).

Beds.  Angela has had her daybed for a few years now and it was purchased from the local "junk" store - love that store, but not revealing where it is to keep it "my" little treasure trove to DIG through... :)  Anyway, it was a steal from there.  I want to say it was $40 total for the whole thing, trundle and all - $20 each piece.  It needed some love even then.  It was missing a few of the springs (I got the replacements from Lowes) and needed to be updated a bit (it had gold accents).  So, I dragged it home, painted it all white and she has loved it ... a LOT.  It's taken her growing and growing and pushing on the bars and breaking the bars in her sleep ;)  So... after many a mend with white tape (used for her color guard or we wouldn't have known it existed) it's time for it to go away...   I don't think it's salvageable without some serious welding at some of the joins and honestly - not worth it even if I paid $40 for each piece.  It has lived its life and given it's all for a few children, I'm sure!

 

So what is she going to sleep on now, you ask?  She wanted to take the futon from upstairs to her room.  I was in agreement until I really thought about it.  I LIKE having two beds upstairs for when company comes.  I like having two beds up there when the girls have sleepovers.  Lets face it I like having two beds up there and having a futon and a bed is just ideal in that the girls can go upstairs to play games and watch TV with friends and make all the noise they want during a sleep over and NOT disturb us.  Bonus!!  So, no, that futon had to stay upstairs and we took a trip to Wal-Mart last night to see what futons they had available.   They had a gray one to match her room colors and a plan was hatched and futon purchased.

 

The good thing is that they are packaged in such a way that the box is rather "square" and fit perfectly into the back of the pilot!  It was meant to be! 

 

THEN I went to Target... BAD Donna, BAD!  I have been looking at a different solution for the foot of my bed as my little "puff" boxes are getting really ratty looking where the pleather is peeling off from being well loved and used over the years.  I have been looking at a bench with cubbies for a while and made the choice last night to purchase it at 30% off... I wasn't willing to chance it not being there at 50% off.

  

 

Well, this poses a problem as I have two kids and the entire back of the car is FULL... hum... so I have to pull my seat forward to get the TOP of the long bench box into the car, then into the foot part of the seat next to Liz, then move the seat back again.... while holding the box a bit higher in the car.  Sigh.  It worked, it all fit and life was good and we went home with a CAR full of goodies!! 

 

 

OH and the last thing I purchased was wall paper... why wall paper?  What for?  Well, the back of my china hutch.  I had been looking for the perfect accent to put on the back wall of the unit and I FOUND it.  It's perfect.

I’m IN LOVE!!!!

So now I will push forward with the hutch remake and get it on the move.  I have the “glass” taken out now and it’s sitting waiting for the next move.  This was the clincher.  It will be white with this lovely yellow wall paper on the backboard… I’m excited!

 

 

Storage wars and weekend adventures

Is your house like mine and stuffed to the gills?  I have a big house, but I have a bigger clutter problem L  I’m working on it every chance I get and this weekend I got a BIKE TREE.  A what?  I bike tree.  Yeah, I have never heard of one either… but they have them.

 

Mine looks similar to this – this one is nicer as mine has four supporting brackets coming up from a square base to a single central pole, but you get the gist.  It was a BIG debate in our house as no-one thought it would be worth it for a mere $45.00.

Well, I got the first one home from Harbor Freight on Saturday after going out running around with mom and Lizzie.  I had started the day out going to Lowes to pick up a replacement part for the palm sander… yeah, I even told the guys there, we will NOT be discussing HOW I messed this up, just how I can FIX it – ha!  So, parts in hand I was going to Mom’s to help her on the computer.

 

I got side tracked a few times with yard sale signs… Georgians really tick me off, however… you’re zooming along a busy road and see a brightly colored sign with YARD SALE big as can be.. and a TINY address printed at the bottom.  Hello???  I don’t know where the heck that road is in the labyrinth that is your neighborhood.  DO NOT put an address… leave me a trail of signs, thank you very much!  I gave up on two in my neighborhoods because 1) I don’t have a “spotter” in my car to read your address and 2) who has a spotter that can read your freaking TINY address on the sign while zipping off a busy road.  Gracious folks!!

 

So, off I go towards mom’s house without stopping at ONE garage sale I pulled off the road to find… only to spot an Estate sale sign… you guessed it – with a tiny freaking address.  I literally had to circle the block THREE times to get the dang address – then had to pull over, put it on my GPS because there were no signs on the road further down.  AGGGRRRRREEEEE!  I went to the estate sale, left with … nothing!  But on the way out I was friendly to the gals at the checkout and they told me to go to a “moving” sale down the road and the description of how to get there was something like go down to Gordon street, but not the first Gordon you come to, the second, then you’re going to go to a house on the curve – it’s on the curve and has a Century 21 sign out front.  The sale is in the back yard, just go on back.  Hum… I teased them I would be walking into some strangers’ back yard and it NOT be the place – then the jokes on me.  Well, I finally find the 2^nd Gordon Street and there is a house to the right that has a Century 21 sign.  The house is deserted.. nothing out front, no signs of life.. and I pull past the sign and am just getting ready to drive away when I noted in my rearview mirror there is a moving sale taped to the other side of the house for sale sign…Ok, I’ll bite.  I walked through the back gates and there is NOTHING out there but some kids and a few adults standing around talking… so I asked them if it was indeed a sale.  Yep, anything and everything in the outbuilding is for sale.  It’s all pretty much junk, but I found a cute decorative bird house in one of the trashed rooms and asked how much - $2.00.   Ok, for that it can come home with me J AND I had exactly $2 in my wallet.  It was meant to be. 

 

After all that, I went to Mom’s fixed here stuff up and went on a ride with her to find a replacement switch for Dad’s lift chair.  We finally ended up calling the place they bought it from - Phillips Furniture - and was told that we would have to order one on Monday – in the meantime, that is where dad sleeps and if he gets the chair BACK he can’t get it up as that is the button that is broken.  I explained that to the gal and they were so sweet they came out and WIRED a new one in for him!!  Really – what great people they are at Phillips Furniture (yes, another blatant plug for them!)  Talk about wonderful service!!!

 

While all this is being arranged, Mom and I were headed to Macon to go to Sams club and we decided to try and find a medical supply place she has seen advertised on the TV off Gray highway – we go on a wild goose chase – never found the place because 1) we don’t know the name of it and 2) we don’t have an address.  Funny, hu?  But we went anyway hoping to find it.  Nope.  So, while we’re on that side of town, we go to the Subaru place so I can test drive a Forester.  They’re nice, but feel smaller, well, because they are smaller.  They are about a foot slimmer than the Honda.  Not sure I can deal with that in the end.  But they drive nice!  We finally made it to Sams and shopped, had a piece of pizza and headed to the house.  Angela and I started to put the bike tree together when  we discovered the issue with the wheels of the unit we purchased.  I had known the box was banged up pretty bad and had immediately asked about return policy before buying – so I had the thought.  Sunday I returned the original and after fishing through two more boxes for parts and pieces, found two good wheels to add to the mix and repurchased the bike tree – came home, put it together and in the process found two wheels out of 6 had lost 90% of their bearings.  Sad… the bad ones were chucked and the good ones were installed and the bikes were all loaded onto the tree to test it.  Works like a champ!  Now to see if the girls can get their bike OFF of the tree J

 

Roadside find chair.

I always forget to take the true before before pictures where it was in three pieces. The top was off and the spindle was divided at the top 1/3 of the overall spindle. Making the top have "teeth" sticking down. The center piece was off and I debated not putting it back on however it was too plain without it, so I glued it back in place. The other two spindles were long gone, so wood putty was the option of choice :)


So today the clamps came off and the sanding has begun. It's going to be an awfully cute chair ;)




The bedside table below was a roadside find also and the top got a good sanding as well. Still debating it it's worth trying to save. It has the cutest shape and it would give me a chance to try and make a shelf to replace the missing top drawer. :). It's not solid wood and had had a rough life.

Goals....it's been a while (may 2012)

From the last list...and ashamed they aren't done in some cases!
· PAINT the backdoor.
· Sprinklers - yes, we HAVE to add this back on there
We are down to just one (not so) little thing left... and that is run the final wiring to the box by the driveway bump out. Butch wants to go under the driveway for this one... which will entail some tunneling.
For the sake of THIS exercise, I’m going to put the whole “sprinklers” and backyard stuff to bed with a “Butch is doing that"… and pray the progress continues
· get the rest of the house organized with the group
· get the craft room up to snuff (scary statement)
The group is dying on the vine out there and I'm tempted to take it over as I really need to get back on track

New :
Plant the north west flower bed and put gravel down for the drainage area.
Plant the long flower pots

I need to hit the lotto so I can stay home... then I stay home and I don't DO anything...
Guess I don't really NEED to hit the lottery, but boy wouldn't it be nice? Sigh. Not going to happen.

I guess if I would stop buying projects, I could get ahead in life. I have a number of projects...
They are:
(you KNOW I’m doing this to motivate myself, really, I am!)
Left over from last year...
· The cheese domes
o In my defense they are HALF painted now… well, more than half painted, but not fully as I was using my new trusty sprayer and I was running low on paint so the dresser won the battle as it really needed to be painted more than the cheese dome bases J
o What am I going to DO with these domes? Well, the goal is to put them on the mantel during holidays and have them filled with items of the season – easter eggs with grass, pine cones with fake snow during the winter…
o Do I really NEED these? Uhm, probably not… but I still want to get them done!
· Coat rack
o Yeah, about ready to put that bad boy out back to test it in the weather BEFORE I paint it to see if I’m on track with that. I want to put it out there in the winter so my towel will be RIGHT next to the hot tub
NEW this year – well, sort of.
· China hutch – repaint and paper the back wall with something cute. Maybe in a yellow pattern?
· Purple dresser repaint (Angelas old one)
· Paint the desk chair and recover it
· Figure out what I'm doing with the long dresser.
· Refinish coffee table and end stand for Liz
· Refinish small cedar chest

I'm sure there are lots of things that go hand in hand with these tasks as I need to go to Lowes to see about a pad for the palm sander and things like that. All in good time, I guess.

Now that they are on paper (?) again, maybe this will help motivate me again to get things DONE...

Craig's list find!

And they really were $20 for the two. Score. :)
They are a bit scratched, need a good sanding and resealed. They are VERY sturdy. They will probably go to college with a girl the end of next year :)

Angela's teeth

What are you looking at? Angela's molar movement. Top X-ray is one year ago. The bottom was today. The top was when her 12 year molars were laying on the sides. And wisdom teeth were tucked in there too (more like crammed in there). This is the most improved tooth it's almost totally upright now! Nice!!





Here is the other side. This was the more difficult side to move, thus the spring loaded "pusher”。still quite and impressive amount of movement! I think another 6 months and we will have that bad boy in place as well! Wednesday is the orthodontist appointment and we will learn more of what they will be doing to get that last tooth in place. Today was just the dental cleaning but the hygienist had me come in to see the movement that has been accomplished. :) love my dental office!

Lizzie's foot

Today was the day to get the foot looked at by orthopedics.

The doc decided it wasn't far enough off (3mm) to justify surgery so she is getting a cast

First a sock the the padding:






Then the under layer with no color.



Then green:



Tada!



The issue was that the foot was too flexed. They wanted it more if a 90 degree angle.

So off comes THAT cast:






And down on the belly to let gravity help with the position of the foot






Much better angle!



And then we went to lunch with gma and gpa as he was in town to have HIS foot worked on as well!


They match! Ha!

Also did you know it is illegal for her to drive with her right foot in a cast? Yep not just difficult, illegal. Sigh. No driving for her for the summer and now we (parents) get to juggle band stuff :(

Butchs birthday cake

It all started out so innocent.


Then it went downhill from there :)


Putting more touches in...


Eeek!!


Happy (day early) dad! She was too excited to wait another day to share it with him ;)





Happy birthday honey!

Med stops oh my

Elizabeth was goofing off at Walmart Tuesday night. She was hopping into the house at 10:30 and I asked about the hopping and she said she hurt her foot. Nothing more so I told her to 1) keep noise to a minimum and to I've the foot. Not another peep out of her.

I oh to work Wednesday and come home to this.
Meet potato foot!


Doesn't look as bad until you compare it to the normal foot


Then do a side by side to REALLY see the difference.

Off we go to the MedStop. And mind you she's still saying "it's fine I don't need to go in"





Big hump!


Crossing her leg up so the toes don't get cold and tingly.


And the results. Shall we play "count the breaks?"


Got a number? I'll tell you in a minute if you're right.

Here she is being wheeled out to the car.


And in we go!!


She's in crutches and the foot is not in use. :(

You still have that number? Did you get FOUR? Yep 2nd, 3rd and fourth with two on the 3rd. Good job Lizzie!!

A long lost photo ..

A lost photo from the Savannah collection



Cute girls wondering home after shopping. And found a great spot to park for free :)

Lowes is my "crack" in spring!

It all started with my trip to Lowes last week and the CUTE hanging planters. Sigh. I went to Lowes to get two more planters


Which I did. Along with two types of tomatoes, cherry and Roma; a bell pepper; a eggplant


AND 6 ground cover flowers as my verbena bit the dust with the freezes this year. Oh and 6 wave petunia to put in the hanging planters AND two potato vines just for good measure...and one succulent.

Before the flowers.


The other side in full bloom and perked!


With flowers:


Then I decided to put my pot if succulents over here too. And low and behold it did survive it just too a while coming back this spring.


The flowering ground cover... Alternating pink and yellow (hard to see as they are traumatized still)


And the veggies at the stair way. Right side


Lest side.


Now to keep them watered and happy!!