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!

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!

Baby its cold outside!

Burrrr…today was one of those days you just wanted to curl under the covers and stay in bed and watch movies kind of day! While that would have been nice it just wasn’t feasible. Ya see Christmas is upon us and being on a budget well this require some homemade gifts. I’ve known this for some time now and really should have started sometime back, however I generally lack motivation! I did not get to Christmas gifts today, however am working on a gift for my cousin who had a baby girl a little while back. Hopefully I will start Christmas present crafting this week. If you are looking for a little ones Christmas gift idea or even Birthday gift idea I recently made this cute little set for a neighbors birthday.

I achieved this by using my son’s cape as a pattern. I then created a mask, arm cuffs, and crown. I embellished them all and it turned out great! Now to think of little ones I can make these for.
Also, since we didn’t put up Halloween decorations I am seriously considering putting up my Christmas décor in November. Let’s face it decorations are time consuming to put up and even more so to take down. I like enjoying them for as long as possible, without being tacky of course!
Tomorrow we will be cheering on my hubby who is running his 2nd year in a row the Marine Corps Marathon! He spends a lot of time training for this day, so I’m hoping everything will go as he plans!
That’s it for today…Happy Blogging!

Spooktacular Birthday Party

Today I am posting details from the awesome Halloween Birthday Party my fabulous neighbor and her family threw for her grandson’s ages 9 and 10. The detail and time that went into planning this party really paid off! We saw some awesome costumes and ate some ghoulish food! Get ready for some photo intensive viewing! First though is my kiddos in their costumes. Silly Whim and Stinky Face are both sporting Hula Girls costumes fashioned by myself. Actually the Hula skirts were made for Silly Whims recent 9th birthday party Luau, which I will share sometime in the near future. Bubby of course is Iron Man.

There were so many cute costumes below were just a few a caught on camera:

Our Party House hosts:

Some of the awesome decorations:

I even took a picture of the toilet!

Now I have saved the best for last, the FOOD! As gross as some of it looked it was all awesome! I made sure to get picture before all the hooligans devoured it! The green pie looking dish was Chicken Buffalo Ranch Dip. The Deviled Eggs were green with orange insides. There was a veggie dip that looked kind of bloody with a hand. I so loved the Mummy English Muffin Pizza’s, which we will be having this week for dinner with salad one night! The Rice Crispy Treat Pumpkins were to die for! Popcorn hands with ring embellishments. Gray Pasta Salad with Chicken, Veggies, and Ranch dressing. The Punch had a frozen hand in it with plastic rings! The cake was so cute as well! Loved it all! I was totally impressed, which takes a lot for me.

If you are preparing for an upcoming Halloween Party or considering planning one next year I hope you got some great ideas from this post!

Happy Blogging!

Lunch Note Monday on Thursday

Yeah…I’m thinking I might move to a Lunch Note Weekly theme…it leaves me open to do lunch notes anyway during the week as opposed to always feeling late to my own party. Who am I kidding though I will always be late to my own party and others too. So without further ado, just click on the image below to download.



Also, I just have to say the proofs are in from my oldest senior photo shoot. Below are just two of the proofs, but Susan D. Photography did an awesome job and I could not be happier. My little girl looks so grown up.

Happy Blogging!

Senior Sunday

Today was Senior Sunday, well at least at my house it was. If you have ever had a senior or even been a senior yourself you know there is alot of details that go into ones senior year. Today just so happened to be one of them in my oldest life...Senior Pictures! Honestly we could not have asked for a more beautiful day! We had a nice little walk around downtown Fredericksburg with my favorite photographer Susan Driggers from Susan D. Photography. I can't wait to see all the great shots she captured of my beautiful daughter!

On another note birthday parties are officially over in my house for the year!! YAAAAA..now for the serious stuff...Christmas. Needless to say when you operate on a budget you have to start thinking about this stuff early. Honestly this is not early enough for me, but with all the birthdays hitting me between August thru October this is as early as it gets! This week the kiddos will each be completing one of these! To download click on the image below.



Hope I've got you all thinking about getting a move on Christmas now!

Check back tomorrow for Lunch Note Monday.

Lunch Notes Monday and a Happy Birthday too!

Today celebrates a very special day in my life. It was 9 years ago today that my daughter Silly Whim was born. I baked cupcakes for her class, I baked cupcakes for Girl Scouts, and I baked a cake for the family all to celebrate her! Her sleepover is scheduled for this weekend and I'm sure some more baking will be involved! "Happy Birthday, my sweet girl!"

On a sadder note my stinky face has been sick today. I hate it when little ones get sick and they don't even complain, but they just are not themselves. She has been such an angel today and just sitting and watching her show and sleeping. I hope that she starts feeling better soon.

Below you will find this week’s lunch notes!



Happy Blogging!