Sideboard Refurbish- a Long Time Coming.

I have been working on...

or meaning to work on this sideboard since November.

It sat in the basement for a while. Meanwhile we actually finished the basement and she took up residence in the garage, and my husband had to park in the driveway.

And that is a sad state of affairs at our house because it is a pet peeve of our household when people can't manage to park their cars in their garage.

She finally got finished up last week.

Here is what she looked like when I got her.

I found her at the local thrift store where they were asking $100. I talked them down to $80 seeing as how somebody had cruely cut off two of her feet.

After lots of clean up, putty and sanding, the top was taped off and got four coats of stain.

It could not have turned out prettier, and I almost wished I would have stained the whole thing.

Though I doubt those beat up legs could have ever come out so smoothly.

The majority of the piece got high gloss Behr Creamy White paint left over from trim painted in the basement. I know some funky emerald green paint would have made people swoon, but I wanted it to be classic and I didn't want to have to repaint it in a year or two when trends change.

Because it took hours and hours and hours to paint.

HOURS.

Even my husband pitched in to help, as his 8 month pregnant wife while sat on the cement garage floor trying to finish the project.

I tried to cover the piece in KILZ first but it did nothing for it.

I ended up having to paint and sand and paint again five or six coats of the white paint.

The handles were spray painted rustoleum hammered metal.

again- before

After.

You could call this another before picture as well. This was the old tv stand, with the old tv.
Though the black stand had been functional and well enough looking for the past 8 years, I am not sure Shopko furniture is meant to be used that long. I actually took it to Savers to try to donate it and they wouldn't take it. Sad sad sad.

Sweet Thank You Gifts

I whipped out these thank you gifts yesterday for an upcoming event.
I thought you might like the idea.
They ended up being about $1.80 a piece.

What you need

4 oz mason jars
1/3 yard muslin
lots of honey
ribbon or rafia-

and this free graphic from the Graphics Fairy printed on cardstock

I took mine into photoshop and added the words
"BEE-cause you are so SWEET"

Then I just filled the jars with honey, cut a square of muslin, cut out the graphic, assembled and tied it up with a bow.

I know I would love this as a favor or hostess gift-
And I love that I could whip 12 out and have them on a shelf all ready in the need of a thank you, instead of what I usually do- which is bake something so I can bring a gift as I need something..
In fact I think I will whip up 12 more for my own personal stash of thank you's.

I love giving a thank you too that is not a treat- but something the recipient would store and use.
and not just ruin their good eating habits with.

I hope you like them!

Two Pies for Dinner

We spent the weekend on my sister-in-laws Idaho farm.
The kids had a blast feeding the animals, driving tractor, and most of all running around with 6 cousins.

Other than good memories :)
we came home too many brown farm fresh eggs.  36 of them to be exact.

And in an effort to use some of them up I made quiche for dinner.
I found this recipe here on allrecipes.com. for a Spinach Quiche.
It had received 4.5 stars.
And other than a minor adjustment.... the adding of 5 more eggs, it was created for my family tonight.
And the recipe was actually enough for two pies. I find that is almost always the case with pie recipes.

It turned out.
or so I thought.
Until we went to eat it and I saw my husband not eating. nor my daughter.
I asked if it was alright. I was on my second slice.

They went ahead and made themselves turkey sandwiches instead.
It is the 1st meal I have prepared for my husband in eight years that he didn't end up eating.
It is mostly funny.

I decided with the other pie crust and left over cream, I would make some dessert after we spent the evening working in the yard.
It was reviewed by the family much more positively than the Spinach Quiche.

Nutella Pie.

I found that recipe here.

I changed it up a bit.
here are the directions.

NUTELLA PIE

1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked
1 box brownie mix (or homemade)
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup semi- sweet chocolate chips
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make brownie batter as directed on the box and pour into a prepared pie crust. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.
Using a mixer, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Transfer to another bowl and set aside.
In the same mixer bowl, mix Nutella and cream cheese until well combined. Spoon in 1/3 of the whipped cream and gently fold in. Repeat with remaining whipped cream- be careful not to stir- it won’t be as light and fluffy. Chill the mousse until the brownie layer is completely cooled.
When the pie is cooled, spread the Nutella mousse evenly over the brownie layer. Drizzle with melted semi sweet chocolate. 

Step 4 in Preparedness- Fire Safe

I'm posting now for a food storage company, and I thought I would share what I am posting for them with you as well.

Preparedness is a big task.
But not if you take small steps.
I like to think that the first steps are.
1. Basic 1st Aid Kit.
2. Some water Storage (maybe 5 gallons a person)
3. 72 Hour Kit
4. Fire Safe.

That is what I am talking about today.
I was given a fire safe similar to  this for Christmas a few years ago.
and was delighted.


It happily holds my hard drive and a 3 ring binder with all our original important documents.

It is not the best safe out there clearly, but it is what we have for now, and I'm happy we have something.

If I was to get a new one though, I think I might get  this





The digital lock gives you no need to store keys in several places or a safe deposit box.
It is water proof in addition to being fire proof, and it has a one hour time fram safety and integrity of discs and drives inside during a fire like many.  It is larger than my current safe in cubic feet, so I think you could still get all the same contents inside and hopefully a little more.  It contains file hangers and a key rack too.  You program in your own code, and it does come with an override key you can store in a separate location in the event your panel malfunctions.  To top it off, the safe floats in the event of flooding or water from fire rescue.


Right now it has free shipping from that link above.
Like!

Get it and you'll be done with Step 4.
Not that I have all the steps laid out....
maybe I should.
Step 5 :Car emergency bag
Step 6:: 3 months complete expenses saved
Step 7:.....???

What do you think steps of preparedness in order of importance might be?
Do you have a fire safe you like... or that has even saved your stuff?

Kids Bedroom Makeover- Woodland Creatures

The finished kids room. After
With a new baby on the way, and only two kids rooms upstairs our 4 year old girl and 2 year old boy needed to share a room. This meant moving Sam to a big boy bed, getting them to sleep in the same room, and combining what I had of the two rooms into one common gender neutral theme.

Kate's room before . It had actually changed a lot from this photo of the nursery we brought her home too in 2007- well it had a dresser and a daybed instead of the crib. But the decor and bedding were still the same.

Samuel's nursery. It had actually changed quite a bit too since this photo. But the idea is the same except we had added a bunch of Dr. Suess stuff. I am sad now that we didn't photograph the children's bedrooms more before we took them apart.
I came up with making the room into a woodland creature sort of room based on trying to use things we already had and not wanting to paint.
The kids bedding was down in the guestroom and it was brown and white polka dots. The walls in the room were white and green. I knew we had a wide collection of stuffed animals and rocks around. Sounds like a forest to me.
We started off with taking the bunk beds that were downstairs in the guest room and painting them with some paint left over from the basement banister. It took us several nights to get all the nooks and corners painted, but in the end they look shiny and new..ish.
Reading corner. One of the best things about the new room is that there are no toys in it. That means that even on its worst day, the room only takes a few minutes to clean. They do have a large selection of books in the bookshelf that I refinished last year. As well as an ottoman that was in Sam's room that they use to reach the top books.
I like that the room is colorful. Brown, green, red and a dark turquoise.
Kate's bed and shelf. That gnome was one of the splurge purchases of the room. At all of seven dollars. But I think it fits well
Sam's bed and shelf.
Dresser topped with more stuffed woodland creatures, woodland creature print and plant. Sam has really taken to owls since Dad put the one outside to scare off the birds. All the prints I got off google images and just printed them on my home computer. They look great considering. Then I spray painted a bunch of dollar store frames dark turquoise with some spray paint I had from another project.
One of the biggest tasks for the room was combining two children into one closet and one dresser. Obviously things aren't perfect, but it is in and somewhat organized. All the baskets are from Sam's former nursery.
Each kid has a personalized woodland alphabet above their bed. I'm getting pretty good at making whatever I want on photoshop, including art I see other people have made.
Each kid has a shelf. I filled them with their memory boxes, a woodland creature picture, special books, blocks, jars of pinecones and rocks, and stuffed animals.

Cost breakdown.
Blue Curtains- $19.99 at Ikea
Wood underbed Storage boxes- $9.99 each
6 frames from Dollar Store- $6
One gnome- $6.99
Shelf from Ikea- $11.00

Total $63.96

And a good third of that is just in storage boxes not decor.

I'm really pleased at how the room came together just by shopping our house and leftover paint supply.
I'm even more pleased that Sam is now a big boy who sleeps in his bed all by himself for night and naps without complaint. He never gets out. Just yesterday we heard him awake and talking almost an hour later after we had put him in bed, but he never comes out because we threaten him with having to go sleep back in his crib. He doesn't want that. He loves getting to share a room with his sister. Bonus his big sister wasn't sad one bit to give up her pink girly room to share a big kids room with her brother. The two of them are best friends and love their new room.

On to another new nursery.
Yup my 3rd to create in four years.
We are crazy.

Nesting

Perhaps you remember this post see #6.


Where I gave you the play by play of us trying to get the birds to stop pooping all over our entry.
We ended up accidentally drowning several baby birds, getting attacked by a pack of adult birds, and eventually armored our column with 50 or so long nails to prevent future problems.

We thought that was the end of the story too.
Until yesterday evening- when we peeked outside and found a very large nest.
It had been built at the top of the column- within a three or four day period.... right on top of the nails- even using the nails for support.
Shocked!


It really is quite beautiful.
And we debated what we should do.
Clearly a mother bird was preparing this home for the eggs she would soon lay.
Jake was refusing to get it down.
Not because he felt bad for the birds, but because he refused to be attacked by the barn swallows like last time.
After much debate I had him get the ladder. I climbed up. And removed the nest from its location by the front door.
I was surprised by its weight. Easily 4lbs. And its intricacy. Mud caked outside. Softer straw in the inside. Strong sticks woven in and out of the nails using them as support.
I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I placed it as close as I could to its original location in a large bush hoping its creator would find it. But I don't think she did. I saw her looking forlorn and lost on the garage gutter later that night.
Being about to bring a baby into the world, it almost makes me cry that I destroyed this mother's hard work.
I am reminded of myself- 9 months pregnant with Kate staying up until 2:00 am determined to finish the bedding I was sewing for her room.
I am reminded of just how much work I have spent for this new child, cleaning and organizing its soon to be room, and clothes, and things. The fabric I special ordered for a quilt for her.
And I know it is just a bird. A barn swallow we can't rid our house of despite drastic measures. A bird who tries to fly in the house, and leaves poop all over the sidewalk and entry.
But I still almost couldn't do it.
I did though. I left her with no place to lay her eggs, no safe place for her babies to be born.
And I feel pretty awful about it.




Of course now in what apparently is prime barn swallow real estate- we have placed this tacky owl, so thwart future attempts of nesting.
In the end I am not sure what is worse, all the bird poop, or this owl that looks like we forgot to take down one of our Halloween decorations.
Hopefully it scares off the birds from now on, so I don't have anymore moral issues on my hands concerning whether or not I can ruin all another mother's nesting.

Photoshop Actions- By Pioneer Woman

How this blog post was published almost a year ago, and I just found it is one sad thing.
Pioneer Woman is a saint.
Well I don't actually know that. But if the standards for sainthood were somehow contingent upon free photoshop tutorials, she'd be a shoe in.
I just downloaded like 14 free actions for free, including a "bring out the eyes" an editing skill that I have attempted, and only been marginally successful at before now.

Go find the post if you care about that sort of thing yourself.
My pictures editing time just got cut in half.
Thanks PW.

Free Food Storage!

Yup,
You heard me right!

You may have noticed my, blog is back to preparedness basics lately, and less about crafts and shopping and other things like that. Really the reason is, I am still working on redecorating a kids room, a new nursery, a new living room, and a basement. Taking all four of these rooms on at once really has me doing a lot of projects, but not finishing much. I am close though with some of the rooms and will share that soon. In fact all I need to do is hang one shelf in a kids room, and it will be complete. Thank goodness.

In the mean time, spring clean out means for us, reorganizing and inventory of 72 hour kits, water storage and food storage. As if we needed more projects around here.

Lucky for me, I just got 12 meals of free food storage- dehydrated real meals like Chicken and Rice Casserole and Tortilla Soup for free.
These packets are perfect for filling 72 hour kits baby.

All I had to do was enter my info and pay the shipping.
It came in two days.
The best part, nobody ever called or emailed me to follow up on the product and try to sell me more.
I've done these offers before with other companies and they always do a follow up call. Not this time.
Though I did buy more, because it is pretty reasonably priced, and you can only get the 12 meals for free.

Go here to get yours.

Click on "Take the Food Freedom Tour" on the left hand side.
Then you will get your free meals.

Gotta love things that are free.

72 Hour Kit Revisited- Solar Power Cell Phone Charger

I revisited our 72 hour kit this past week.
It had been a little too long, mostly because of the basement remodel.
It was disassembled, then reassembled with new things.
Luckily most everything in the kit was still good, the only replacement items I needed were food items, water, and sunscreen because it had also expired.
I went ahead and added some more cash too, because I had some left over from a recent vacation.

It really only took about 20 minutes at the store and home to collect new items and place them in our backpack.

The one thing I don't have in my bag yet is this

A solar charge for (most any) cell phone.

I found this
one on Amazon. It is the best rated charger and at only $29.99, maybe I should just go ahead already. The biggest complaint consumers have with it is that solar power- in general will only charge your phone to about 50%.
But hey my phone is usually only 50% charged anyways because I always forget to plug it in at night and let it go for three days without charging.
Most the reviews of the charger are glowing!
Also it can use solar power, or be plugged in to any computer to get power- two options is always better than one in an emergency.
It also has an LED light that people raved about too as an extra.





How about any of you?
Do you have a solar power charger for your cell phone?
Do you have one for your car and one for your 72 hour kit.... like I want.

Water Storage- a simple plan

I took on the chore of changing out the water storage today.  It was a silly day to do it too because it rained all day and instead of using all the old water to water the lawn or fill a kiddie pool, it just got dumped down the sink.  Silly!

Water storage can be so easy.
I remembered that I wanted to put new water in all the containers when I came home from the grocery store with what will soon be more containers.  If you are anything like my family of four, you come home with two bottles of juice (for my kids) and two 2 liters of diet soda (for me and the husband) each week.  My kids kind of love juice and we kind of love diet soda, over ice, for our evening snack. 
Hey it is better than ice cream.

Back to the storage.
It has been so simple to build up our water storage.
Each week I just rinse with dish soap the juice containers.  I wash them inside and out and remember to wash the lid.  Then I fill them with new water, and store them.

It is recommended to store a 2 week supply of water at the very least.  That is 1 gallon of water per person per day.  We have a few large 10 gallon storage containers of water, but most of our water storage is juice containers and 2 liter bottles.  And each week (I try to remember) not to throw the bottles out, but fill them for storage.  The collection is getting fairly large, though we don't have much more than our two week supply- and it took me most the evening to do this project. 
I believe my system will get even easier with time.  When I have around 100 gallons stored, then I will stop refilling, date my water and then just replace the oldest four with the new four each week.  That way my containers are newer and I will never have to replace all the water in one day.    It will only take me a minute each week to keep the supply always new. 
Well I think it is a good plan anyway.


A few more tips to keep your water storage safe with this simple plan.
-You don't have to add bleach if you water is chlorinated... and most tap water is.
-Make sure you are using juice and 2 liter bottles- not other containers or milk cartons that could deteriorate and pollute your water.
-Be sure to not store the water containers on the cement as chemicals can seep into your water supply.   If you want to store the water in your basement just throw a piece of cardboard or plywood down underneath.
-Make sure your storage is not stored in an area with too much light or heat.
-Rotate the water out at least once a year.... but maybe be smart and do it on a day when your lawn or garden could use the old water.

Want to calculate how fast you can get your two weeks storage just by filling empty food grade containers.

Our family empties 2 juice containers and 2 2 liter bottles of soda each week.  We may be heavy drinkers :)
but I think this is close to average.
1 juice bottle and 1 2 little bottle = almost exactly 1 gallon.
which means we are adding 2 gallons of stored water to our storage each week.
Our family of four needs aprox 54 gallons to meet a 2 week requirement-
54 gallons /2 gallons per week means in 28 weeks your family of four could have water storage for 2 weeks too.

Nutella Muffins

image from here



I found this recipe over on Pinterest.

I knew I would make them.  My kids love Nutella.  They ask for Chocolate on their sandwiches sometimes.  They think this Nutella makes a chocolate sandwich.  Well it pretty much does.

These muffins gave us a new use for the Hazelnut spread and a delicious breakfast.


Preheat oven to 325.
Makes a dozen.

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola or mild vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 cup Nutella, at room temperature


Beat butter, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla.
Mix dry ingredients together
Spoon mixture into muffin tin- greased or lined.
Place 1 tablespoon of Nutella on top, swirl in with  bamboo skewer or candy making stick.

Bake for 25 minutes.

2 acres IS what I dream of

Have you seen this graphic?

I found it here.
I claims to you need at least 2 acres to support a family of four on a mixed diet of grains, veggies, proteins, etc.  It is pretty discouraging when you think I just put our 2- 12 ft by 5 ft garden in last night.  Not only was it tons of work.  It hardly would make a dent in supplying what we need if there wasn't a grocery store 5miles away.

Good thing there is food storage I guess!

Pinterest

Have you heard about pinterest yet?
It is just what it sounds like- a place to pin your interests. A virtual cork board.
No more bookmarking, and no more intentions to print stuff out and keep it in a file.

I have been wanting something like it for some time.
Now I can always find that project I saw on a blog once that I wanted to try, or buy that dress I saw but wasn't ready to spend the money on yet. I have more recently been using it as a place to store my decorating ideas for the living room.

If you spend time browsing the internet, and you want to be able to find stuff you found once before you need a pinterest account.

You can check out my boards here
Or go here to create your own

2nd Round of Playroom Planning

chevron fabric
green fabric
walmart rug
canvas bins
posters
curtains

We finished painting the new basement playroom  Now that the yellow is on the walls, I am reconsidering my decor from before.  I think I like this new palate better.  What say you?

Play Room Inspiration

The playroom in the basement is almost finished.
And by finished I mean framed, wired, sheetrocked, mudded, textured and on its way to be painted.
I can hardly wait to move the toys in.
And I lay awake at night... mostly due to pregnancy insomnia.... thinking about the decor.
My dreams really include making the children leave for the entire day, and setting the whole thing up so they can come downstairs to a magical room of toys and fun.
It is more likely to be created, ordered and assembled piece by piece though.

I am mostly posting about it because I want to see the ideas all together, and maybe I will think about something else as I lay awake in bed all night instead.



Some bunting like this made from fabric scraps combined with some vintage flashcards I have.
Kidkraft play kitchen

Rug from Ikea I already have
Fabric from Spoonflower
Fabric from spoonflower


Spoonflower fabric
For pillows and curtains.



Carnival prints form this etsy shop
or maybe I can take my own.
and maybe with this wall map

Ikea bookcase- in black/ brown