I LUV MY STUFF

I have so much  junk  stuff.   I have a very hard time getting rid of any of it and I am constantly adding to it. 

I have found a solution…. STACK IT!

See this  piece….

I picked it up a couple of years ago for like $10 at a yard sale. It used to be pretty ugly and bead up. I painted it black and added new knobs and used it in my dining room for my stuff.

See this….

It was my parent’s and it is probably 60 or 70 years old. It has seen alot of use and wear but I of course could never part with it.  I painted it black as well a few years ago.

So I got to looking at them yesterday, trying to figure out which one to use on my new orange wall and I said to myself,  “Self, wait a minute, why not use both!”

So this is what I did….

Good idea but I don’t like the look of that bottom space. Soooo, I got to thinking and thought maybe I could cut the bottom off but…. I didn’t want to ruin my parent’s piece.  I turned it over and yup! It was screwed on. They knew how to make furniture back then.

So I unscrewed it…

Now it looks better

With some touch up work and tweaking it will look great.

(It really looks better than than it does in the picture.)

TO ADOOR OR NOT

Here is a  sneak peak of one of the projects I have been working on. I have been wanting to add built in shelves for years on either side of  my living room window.

Well, I finally did it!

Now my big question is… Do I add doors to the bottom section and if so do I make them solid with beadboard inserts or with glass inserts?

What do you think?

“ORANGE” YOU GLAD……

Well I am! 

See the wall in my dining room with the  arrow pointing at it?

It’s gone!

See this other wall with the arrow?

It’s still there.

It used to look like this…

Well, I added something…  2 more feet…

and some texturing……

Then….

I painted it ORANGE!

Then added some gel stain …

And you have my new undecorated orange wall.

Now what should I do with the rest of the mess?

POLKA DOT PLATES?

I love plates! I have tons of plates! I want red polka dot  plates. There is no way I can justify buying more plates. My solution…

Take my red plates  I’ve had for years …

And add vinyl Polka Dots.

Of course they’re not to eat off of.  Just to sit and look cute.

Yup, now I have red polka dot plates. HEE HEE!

Now I need little white polka dot plates.  Hummm…

I have lots of white saucers, so….

Ahhh, white polka dot plates. Add a rooster in the middle…

Now why do I want polka dot plates?

To put in my plate rack, silly.  My son Josh made this for me in woodshop class about 18 years ago and I love it. It has found lots of different places to sit over the years and seen lots of different plates.

Now it houses my new old plates.

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS

CAN’T GET ANY SCARIER THAN THIS

This summer we had a load of wood brought over to the house.  One day I noticed a little black widow spider in the yard. We’ve never had them before so I called an exterminator. I thought he had done a really good job until….

I found this lady just inside my bathroom window. SCREAM!!!!!

You can believe I didn’t bother to take the time to find my camera and take a picture of her on the wall.

She is huge! At least and inch and a half across. GROSS!!!

I called the exterminator again and he came out and said it was one of the biggest he’s seen. This time I had the house fumigated and sprayed and I am setting up spider traps everywhere. YUK!!!!!

HALLOWEEN HOUSE

I’m a slacker this year. Normally I do Halloween really big but this year I got involved it a home remodeling project and lost my interest.  But here are some pictures of my decorations.

Back in September we got everything down from the attic.

This hangs in the garage year round and I love walking past it. It reminds me who I really am.

This guy actually made it into the house.

The buckets made it around to the front deck. Very scary?

I hung up my favorite witch! I’m moving now!

Actually, the inside of my house does look a little scary.

Oh yes, my bat also got hung up.

See my branches? I was going to hand lots of spiders from them. Do ideas count?

Yup! I did Halloween up big this year.

Check out lasts year’s October posts if you want to see what I usually do.

PRESENTS AND PLATES

I have two friends named Sue. I call them, “My Sues” to my family and I love to play with them.  Mime Sue I met through blogging.  My other Sue, I have known for 16 years. We love to get together and often give each other little presents.

We got together last Wednesday and this is what they gave me.

The cutest towel and a leaf candy dish. I am so lucky.

Look at the fun way the little candy bars were done.

I made them a present as well.  I saw this on someone’s blog but can’t for the life of remember where so if it was your idea, let me know and I will gladly give you credit.

I went to the dollar store and found these plates and I cut out the witch with my Silhouette vinyl cutter. Very simple.

I didn’t have anything to wrap  things up with so I grabbed some cheese cloth and did this… Ahhhh, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” That is one of my favorite sayings.

TEASEL POD SPIDERS

Yes I have been MIA for a long time but it’s time I got back into things.

I’ve made these little guys several times over the years and I thought I would share.

First you go on a nice adventure just driving down the road and slam on the brakes when you see these guys growing on the side of the road.

Just ignore the mean old man in the big fancy pickup truck behind you who honks his horn and waves at you in that funny way with one finger sticking up. He just doesn’t understand. You can wave back the same way if you want but for some reason that just makes him meaner.

Make sure you always have leather gloves and a Leatherman in your car because these babies have sharp little spines.

Get lots of them in all sizes and just ignore the teenagers who drive by in their jeep and honk and whistle at you because they think you are sexy.

Then take them home and forget about them and let them sit in your trunk for a few weeks.

Then open your trunk to put your decoration on….

And you find that your little darlings have “pooped” all over the place…

Next cut their stems off, grab a can of black spray paint and spray away.

When they are all nice and black, cut and bend some pipe cleaners and use your glue gun to glue them on. Grab some googley eyes and glue them on and ….TA DA

You have a nice little family of spiders.

You can glue a loop of fish line on their backs so you can hang them up.

Tips…. Use your blow dryer to get rid of all the little hot and glue strings , and spray paint the globs of glue so you can’t see them.

GUESS WHAT

I went camping and nothing bad happened. Well I did get stung by a bee but that was so minor compared to what happened the last time I took my motor home out. 

We went to Perception Park which is only about 25 miles away.

It is a really pretty little place with lots of big trees which are good for shade and climbing…

And some wildlife to share our food with… (I forget to put the watermelon and S’more makings away. The raccoons totally cleaned everything out!)

And the river is right there…

Which is good for playing in…  And catching fish in…

And just being ourselves…

And looking cute….

And resting….

And adventuring…..

And just hanging out.

 

It was a really fun time.

THE JULY FROM #^&^%$@#

Just to recap everything….

1. My motor home ran over me and dragged me down the driveway under it.

2. Next day my hubby came home from Iraq and my Josh left for Peru.  (Good things)

3. Head off to a family reunion in Cedar city and lost 2 wheels while driving down the freeway.

4. Got a speeding ticket while going to get a new part for the motor home.

5. Had a great time but when loading the 4 wheeler onto the trailer at the end of it all, the ramp broke and I tipped backwards and fell off onto my butt. (Big huge bruise to match all my others)

6. Had two days to make a baptism quilt and slide show for granddaughter Aubrey. (it was a lovely day)

7. Sent my husband back to Iraq on the 14th. (It takes 3 days of travel for him to get home.)

8.  On the 21st, I headed up to Canada to say my final good byes to my Dad but he died while I was en-route so I turned around after going 250 miles and came home.

9. Made arrangements with the Red Cross for Roy to turn around and come back home for the funeral. (He had only been back to work for 4 days.)

10. Broke a tooth.

11. Honey got home Saturday (extremely tired) and we left for Canada the next morning.

12. Oldest daughter Liz called to say she couldn’t come anymore and since she was  going to bring Bekah with her it meant we had to turn around after 100 miles  and go back to get her.

13. Stopped in Glacier for the night and to pick up youngest son, Caleb who just happened to be vacationing there.

14. Viewing on Monday, July 27th. Fun to be with family we hadn’t seen forever.

15. Funeral on Tuesday.

16. Wednesday, head back home to Utah.

17. Sunday, sent hubby back to Iraq.

GAVE ONE, GOT ONE

My two Sues and I had a get together for lunch and a movie. Of course the movie was JULIE AND JULIA.

When we get together we like to give each other little gifts. This is what I made…

They’re bracelets made from old spoons. (My dear friend Mearritta gave me a whole bunch of them)

I pounded them flat with a hammer.

Used my metal alphabet punches to put their names on them. (This is not an easy task!)

Then I drilled a little hole and added a charm, bent the handle around and there you have it… A SPOON BRACELET.

Then I got the cutest things from them. Sue F. just got back from visiting her daughter and family in Indiana and she visited this little Italian place and brought me back this pretty little placemat and pencil that has Italian cities printed on it. (I love pencils.)

Then in honor of the movie,  Mimi Sue  gave us this cute dish towel and slotted spoon.  (I needed a new one badly)

See how cute it is all tied with a cute bow and a tag that says, “Bon Appetite”

Thanks gals. I really had a good time!

LIFE GOES ON

On our way to Canada for my Dad’s funeral we stopped at Glacier National Park for a night.

It rained and rained for the last hour of our trip but when we finally arrived it started to clear up a little.

 

This is the little cabin we stayed at.

 

At the bottom of the road to our cabin there was a place to rent horses and go on a ride. We didn’t have time but the kids enjoyed them anyway.

They thought it was so much fun to feed them.

This little pony was so tame.

The next morning we got up to a beautiful day and spent a few hours driving through the park. It is such a beautiful place.

We didn’t see as much wild life as we had hoped

These little guys were all over.

Hey, where did he go?

We stopped at the turn outs and acted like tourists.

We visited with the ranger for a little bit.

He even let the kids wear his hat.

I love the tour busses. I remember them from when I was a kid and always thought they were so cool.

These girls of mine are so fun.

  And BEAUTIFUL…..

It was a fun time.

 

WELL I DIDN’T QUITE MAKE IT

I headed out really early this morning to go to Canada to say good bye to my Dad and I had gone about a third of the way (250 miles) and my sister called to say that my dear daddy was gone.  Oh how I will miss him. He was a wonderful man.

BURNARD JAMES DAWE 1916 - 2009

I turned around and came back home since the funeral will not be for a week. Now I just need to get my husband back from Iraq. He just arrived back there Thursday and now he needs to turn around again.

Day 5 will have to wait.

I’m off to Canada in the morning to say my final goodbyes to my dear sweet 92 year old Daddy. We don’t expect he will last much longer so I want to see him and love him one last time.

DAY 4

Yeah! We’re here at the family reunion and ready to play, But first we need to move the motor home to a better place than where we just landed the night before. Soooo… I start it up and it squeals and smells funny so up goes the hood again and we check the oil. Down three quarts. What the heck???? Totally weird. And… Roy thinks the alternator is bad and that is allot of the problem .

So out it comes and we borrow our nephews car to go into the city to have it tested. I drive and we’re just going along having a nice time getting reacquainted and then he reminded me that this is where he got his ticket a year ago so I start to slow down but too late! Yup, I got a ticket.

53 in a 35. Of course the policeman waited till it went from 40 to 35 before he clocked me so he could add 5 more mph onto my ticket. I was probably 50 feet into the 35. AURRRGH $165.00. So I took my medicine like a real woman and off we went. A few miles down the road I just busted up. This was all becoming too funny. (Welcome home from Iraq honey and welcome to my normal!)

Well we had the alternator tested and of course it was bad so $85.00 later we headed back. I think I forgot to mention in my other post that at Scipio the oil cost me $6.99 a quart! Can you believe it? So I bought a 5 quart container in town for $7.99.

We made it back, put in the new alternator and it started up like a charm and things are really looking up. Wahoo, lets play with these guys….

Just a few minor things to come for the next few days…..

DAY 3

Josh had a 6:30 AM flight to Peru. He is studying physical anthropology and goes down there every year to dig up skulls and skeletons and stuff. Since Roy was still on Iraq time, he was awake and took him to the airport while I sort of slept, (They always say that the 3rd day after an accident or surgery is the worse and boy are they right!)

Now it is time to head off to Cedar City for a big family reunion.  So we finished loading up the motor home and hooked on the trailer with the 4X4 and scooter and toys. It was 11:00 AM. Roy was too sleepy to drive and I was fine driving because fortunately it didn’t hurt to sit, so off we went.

We figured it was about a 6 hour drive because we only go about 60 MPH in old Bessie here.  Everything was fine and dandy and I made it through Salt Lake and Provo and all the traffic and then…..

Believe it or not ,  THE BACK DRIVER’S SIDE WHEELS CAME OFF!!!  and I watched one of them roll right past me and down the freeway and then over to the side where there was a guy working in a trackhoe. Now there was nothing  for miles on the side of the freeway but of course my tire had to hit and damage the only thing there was.  (Boy did I ever wake up that guy) The other tire just  stopped in the outside lane so poor Roy had to run back and retrieve it out of traffic.  I just sort of pulled over to the side of the road and said a giant prayer  of thanks that we were okay.

Now I know we tightened those puppies up really tight. I have no idea why they came loose. Here is my resident grease monkey tightening them so I have proof… We have a book all about the specifications and we torqued them down good and tight.

Anyway, before we knew it we had the Highway Patrol and Incident Management there to help us. Roy was really impressed at how efficient they were and he now wants a cordless pneumatic drill.

(So do I!)

They put our spare tire on and we gathered up my wheels and I apologized to the trackhoe driver for the millionth time and we limped into Springville where we spent several hours trying to find a new rim and new studs and other things to the tune of $286.48.

Of course they never could find us a new rim because older motor homes have an odd size. So we just used the one off the spare tire.  Here’s what I did to it…

 

So by now it is 6:30 PM and we had only gone 100 miles but our adventure is not over yet.  We carried on and made it to Scipio.  (It’s in the middle of nowhere and if you blink you miss it.) We stopped because the engine was making a very funny noise. Roy checked the oil and it was dry!  We added 6 quarts!!!!!! I had checked the levels the day before and it was full. Very weird because it has never used oil like this before. 

Then it wouldn’t start but I got out and gave it a really good talking to and hit the starter with a wrench and it actually started.  So off we went again.

Somewhere around 10:00 PM it started to run funny again so we pulled off in the middle of nowhere and added two more quarts of oil. We finally pulled into Cedar City at 11:00 PM.  Twelve hours to go 300 miles.  But of course the troubles aren’t over yet, Day 4 brings more…….

 

DAY 2

Ever hear the expression “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck”? Well I felt like I’d been run over by a motor home. The Dr. in the emergency room would not give me any pain pills. She said that my arthritis medicine would be enough. HAH!!! I wanted to run over her with my motor home to see how she would handle the pain.

In her defense though, I can understand her thinking. I was in greasy dirty clothes and looked a wreak. My neighbor, who was in the accident as well, looked even worse. (They love to work on cars and are covered in grease and oil constantly). My son Josh came in with me. Now Josh is the sweetest most caring person on the planet and I love him dearly, but this sweet child of mine has decided to get tatoos all over himself and he looks rather scary at times. So I am sitting in the emergency room with this odd bunch and I’m sure the Dr. thought I had done this on purpose just to get drugs.

Anyhow, I took 4 Tylenol and hobbled to the car and drove to the airport to pick up my husband who had just spent 4 days trying to get home from Iraq. Can you imagine my dread of the big bear hug I knew was coming? He knew nothing yet. OUCH!

At least this time he came home looking like this…………

Not this……

Last time he came home it was Halloween and he thought he was pretty funny and I though he was pretty creepy!

So all in all it was a wonderful reunion even though it hurt. A great day compared to what had happened the day before and what was about to happen the next day. Stay tuned for day 3…..

I NEED A VACATION FROM MY VACATION

DAY 1

I was having so much fun. Then….

The day before my hubby got home from Iraq, I decided to do one last thing to my Motor home. My neighbor boy is my local mechanic and all I was supposed to do was hold a part while he unbolted it.  We have been working on it for a month and were always so careful to block the tires and jack it just right but we were in a hurry and forgot.

We’re okay but it really put a damper on things. My ribs still hurt but were not broken.  My back got pretty beat up and I have some wonderful bruises.

This was only the beginning of the fun times.  Remember my mantra… “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth over doing.”  Well,  there’s more to come.

WHAT KID WANTS A CHORE CHART FOR HER BIRTHDAY?

MINE!

My Bekah had a birthday this week and that is what she wanted. So this is what I made her. (sorry the pictures aren’t any better)

I cut out a board and painted it brown.

 

 

I printed the chores down the side and the days of the week across the top on a piece of scrapbook paper..

 

 

I glued a piece of  tin to the board and added the vinyl letters and notes.

 

 

Then I printed out a sheet of the letters of her kids names and cut them out with my Silhouette.

Then I glued them onto round magnets so they can be moved around.

And there you have it. A chore chart for a birthday.