Thursday, January 19, 2012

Make it Yours

Storage is something my house seems to lack. That or we have just outgrown our house, which is more like it. Regardless we are stuck here for a while at least. We love our location, just not so much the house. I’m constantly searching for storage style furniture. A while back hubby and I came across this grungy rolling extendable rolling buffet on craigslist for $20.00. As seen below!



I have witnessed many beautiful furniture transformations through various blogs, so we took a plunge on this piece of furniture. We started by disassembling the buffet as much as possible and lightly sanding it. Then taping off the top table part we painted the bottom a creamish color. The top table top was completely sanded/stripped, and then restained a dark cherry color. Next I went and lightly sanded all around the bottom section on the cream and applied a glaze. This took some time to ensure a good consistency. The nice thing about using a glaze is it is very workable before it dries and sets, so you can keep working on it until you reach a desired look. I kept all the original hardware and spray painted it to refresh its appearance. Finally I used an old book I had purchased from a library book sale (the pages were yellowing and really aged) then modge podged them inside the drawer. The age of this piece of furniture was really apparent especially in the drawer! Below is our transformed piece of furniture and I absolutely love it! This sets in our dinning room and holds additional kitchen pieces.






Not too long ago I found a piano bench w/storage at Goodwill for less than $5.00. I have some visions for this; we will see how they pan out! I know my hubby loves my visions…they always come with work for him! Thinking about refinishing something…take the leap you’ll be happy you did!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Finding My Groove

How does one even come back from such a hiatus? My last post was at the end of October and I don’t know what happened. Blogging is hard, especially when there are so many awesome people out there that just have a knack for blogging and creatively writing. I’m still amazed at all the things people come up with….and on occasion I amaze myself! Since last October I have made lots of great things, which I hope to blog about. Part of getting my groove back consists of getting back into using my Menu Board, so I know its Wednesday but I’m going to share this week’s menu:

Monday – Chick-Fil-A (Our lazy holiday meal)

Tuesday – Pizza Casserole w/salad (only changes I made to this was I used 1lb of beef and 1lb of sausage, also instead of two layers of cheese I only used one for the final layer on top) This turned out great! We have tried something similar in the Crockpot that the family wasn’t so crazy about. Everyone said this one turned out much better!

Wednesday – Crockpot Beef Stroganoff over egg noodles w/green beans

Thursday – Spicy Peanut Noodles w/broccoli

Friday – Steak & Potatoes w/salad

Saturday – Crockpot Potato Soup & Sandwiches

Sunday – Mandarin Chicken over rice w/green beans (This is so easy and a staple in our lives seeing as the kids love it and always ask for it!)

I actually veered away from my usual easy cheap meal style and tried to put a little variety in our eats this week. A few other things we are trying this week are:

Breakfast: Egg and Spinach Quiche Cups

Snacks: No Bake Energy Bites
Seasoned Walnuts (Walnuts are very beneficial for O Blood types)

Deserts: Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

I was lucky enough to receive a Kindle Fire for Christmas, which proves to be completely useful when it comes to cooking! Well that and Pinterest of course! I love placing recipes on my Food board and then when it comes time to cook using my Kindle to pull up recipes…Love…Love…Love..my Kindle Fire!

Comeback tomorrow when I share a buffet furniture makeover!