GOLDEN June 15, 2013

Golden Birthday

A golden birthday is the birthday when you turn the same age as your birthdate.

This year is my daughter’s.  She will be 7 on July 7th.  However, summer birthdays are often hard with friends on vacation and summer schedules.  We decided to celebrate at the beginning of the summer this year with a gold themed party at the pool.

First stop was Dollar Tree.  I found the gold and silver pinwheels, gold ribbon, and wreath form.  Next stop was Party City for the gold table-cloth, gold utensils, napkins, cups and beaded necklaces.    For decoration I spray painted a soup can with gold glitter spray paint, put some rocks in the bottom and added the pinwheels and tissue paper.  I took the straw wreath form and wrapped it black yarn.  I tied a bow and hot glued a number 7 in the middle.  I also took a cardboard beer container (a 6-pack carrying case) and also spray painted it gold.  I used it to hold the napkins, utensils and sparkly table weights (like they might use to hold balloons down).

   

For food, I made a HUGE pitcher of fresh lemonade (in the future I would recommend buying it, very time-consuming!), hot dogs, fritos and Doritos chips, goldfish, freeze pops, and sunrise fruit cups.  I made the fruit cups ahead with crushed pineapple, sliced peaches, mandarin oranges, and grapes.  I froze the cups and let them thaw out when we got to the pool.  I forgot to take a picture of the dessert.  I took 2 vanilla Oreo cookies and dipped them in white candy melt.  After they dried, I brushed on edible gold sparkle dust.

I spray painted 100 pennies gold and we had a gold coin dive in the pool.  Our goody bags were cellphane bags filled with gold wrapped candy like rolos, reeses peanut butter cups, and hershey’s nuggets.

       

Projects May 29, 2013

I always get the urge to tackle projects over long weekends.  I have projects I would like to get to all over the house, some small, some large.  I look at them and think “I will get to you one day”.  And I have the best intentions…..

This Memorial Day weekend I went with the projects that needed to be done for sanity.  There are three kids and two adults in this house.  That’s 10 feet.  On average we each have 3 pairs of shoes (actually the adults have more, but I am not tripping over those).  At any given time there are about 12-14 shoes scattered around by the doors.  I have shoes mats, I have shoe boxes in the garage for each child.  But still, shoes are scattered by the doors.

      

I have been looking for a better way to store and organize these shoes.  Ikea, magazines, on-line.  You name it.  First I was thinking about a storage system in the garage since that’s where most of the shoes/cleats/ect are.  But It had to be closed since I didn’t want spiders and insects getting in.  Then I had an idea for a dresser.  If I could find a dresser I could use it for shoes, socks, and miscellaneous kid stuff.  I didn’t want to spend a lot.  And it had to have specific dimensions for the area it was going to fit in.

Out running some errands, I happened upon a dresser.  I measured it, saw it was of good quality construction, and I thought, “this may work!”   So I started the transformation.  Something fun and colorful.

  

It was a light wood color  with tarnished brass handles.  I rubbed it down with a cleaner to take off the clear coat.

  

I found a paint color “paprika” in the Rustoleum furniture kit make-over.  (go figure, it’s a food color)

  

After 2 coats of the paint color, then I put a coat of dark glaze over.  It dried over night and then I applied the clear coat.

    

I spray painted the hardware in a black metallic finish.  Everyone now has a drawer for socks and shoes and I have a “junk” drawer for all the stuff that gets left on my kitchen counter.

I also bought a dress last fall while we were in Georgia at vintage boutique.  I liked the dress, but wanted a skirt.  I decided to cut off the top and put in elastic.

  

I also tackled cleaning out the lint screen on the dryer.  Regularly cleaning out the lint keeps the dryer operating efficiently, takes clothes a shorter time to dry and therefore uses less energy.

    

Lastly, this weekend, I decided to see if name brands really matter.  Extra virgin olive oil.  San Marzano tomatoes, Vidalia onions.  Would using specific products make a different in my tomato sauce that I would be able to notice a difference?

   

The sauce was good, but compared to other sauces I have made without the brand names, I am not sure if I could tell the difference.

Another project! June 15, 2012

I have had this bug lately for fixing up old furniture……It is starting to get really hot here now and it is going to prevent me from working in the garage for a while.  THis may be the last big project for a while  (your welcome hubby).

This is the dresser I found for $14

It was in bad shape, but I saw potential in it.  We had a TV cabinet in the playroom, but since it had glass doors, and the kids had almost broke them off, we took them off.  And now the 2 year old climbs in it and on it.

I wanted to distress it, and I saw a technique using vaseline.  Why not?

I sanded down all the rough spots (chipped wood, scratches, but left a little for a distressed look) I then painted all the edges with a cream paint I got for $2 at the oops! spot in Home Depot.  After it dried I went over the edges with vaseline using my fingers.  The more you use the more will sand off revealing the color underneath.  You can also see I filled in the old drawer pulls because I wanted to move them and use different ones.

   

Next I painted the whole thing chocolate brown.  2 coats.  I let it dry and then I took a sanding block and went over the edges I had put vaseline on.  The brown paint came off super easy and left the cream paint showing through.  I then sprayed a clear coat over the whole thing.

  

I added new drawer pulls (that is actually the most expensive part of the project at $4 a drawer pull) and then stenciled numbers on the drawers.  Here is the finished project!

  

It nows stores the kids board games, dvds, and dress up clothes.

I also finished a tray from IKEA with a little spray paint, paper and modge podge.

  

And I painted a stool too!

My next project is to clean and declutter and organize in the house (toys….clothes…..ect).  It’s air conditioned in the house so I can gets lots of decluttering done!