Another project

the original bottom was super ugly..

The finished product!!

Adorable no?

I used acrylic paint in "Caribbean Blue" 3 coats, some fun clearance paisley fabric and hot pink satin ribbon.

Stars and Stripes no more..

I went thrifting with my mom recently.  I got a ton a furniture, for like $30. My first completed project was this chair..

It had lots of potential..

It wasn't terrible, but it was far from great.

It had been blue, then white, then red and white striped, then half red... It was a mess.

Painter's Tape. Use it.

I took the seat off...

The seat cushion, was sadly attached with hot glue. I re covered it with this cutesy scrap of chicken fabric my mom had..

The bottom of the actual seat was horribly warped and cracked..

I used a smaller scrap of green fabric to cover the sad seat bottom.  Then finished covering the cushion..

I tried to center the chicken stripe, but it wasn't wide enough.

I painted the whole chair yellow (Valspar Golden Maize), and actually I'm pretty pleased with the results.

What do you think?

Essie

I adore Essie nail polish. I try to stick with one color a week (usually only on my toes.. all my crafting and wood working wrecks my mani's), but with my incredible collection of polish (Maddie thinks I'm crazy) it's always hard to choose!!

My current color is Watermelon:

So yummy!!

Secrets of a Shoe Addict

Another great girly book by the extrodinarily talented Beth Harbison.  It took me like 4 hours to read, but it was awesome!! I love books about the strong relationships between friends.  Check it out for yourself!! I purchased the hard cover edition from the BAM bargain section!! Best $5.47 I've ever spent!! Get yourself a copy!!

Confessions of a Rebel Debutante

I just finished this fantastic little book. Set in Burlington, NC (only 30 minutes from yours truly!!) It was a fun, even if a little slow at times.  It was a fun little autobiography of one girl growing up, and growing into herself. 

Plus, I love any book that's filled with Scarlett references..

TheoBaby

I Love this kitty cat. He has completely stolen my heart..

He's beautiful, and so sweet. Plus, he's a pretty great snuggler!!

On another note... Check out my Green Eggs...

I put these and some yummy country ham in a gift basket and gave to one of our neighbors.  Green Eggs and Ham.. get it?!

Noah's big mistake...

He had some sort of hole in his back.. If I cared more, I might have investigated this...

Time for your close up...

If any animal should have been thrown off the Ark, it was the Opossum.  They are the most foul, vile, disgusting creatures in the world and I hate them.. It's been a week and I've caught 2 raccoons (also pretty foul, but yet slightly cute) and a opossum.  Why all the hate? in my post declaring war on the rodents {Clicky here and Here} I mentioned that these menaces are responsible for the death of my 3 baby chicks {Another Clicky here and Here}.  I haven't personally killed any of these rodents, and only 1 has died (the opossum in this photo actually, but I think it had more to do with the hole type wound on his back and the 100 degree temps, he was going to be shot though.  We've relocated the 'Coons.  The War on Rodents continues...

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road...

 I recently started leasing a space at the new consignment store downtown.  I've been collecting Wizard of Oz stuff since I was "knee high to a grasshopper" (I Love that saying!!).  I have been fascinated and in love with the Wizard of Oz since age 3.  It was the first movie I remember watching, the first book I remember reading, and the first play I was ever cast in (as a Munchkin, Ozian and a Crow... The stage version has crows in the scene with the scarecrow), really W of Oz was my first love.  People have given me W of Oz stuff for birthdays, holidays, Tuesdays, all my life.  Auntie Gail joined the Hallmark Ornament Club so that she could get the "exclusive club member" ornaments for me every year (she's an amazing person).  Anyway, after much thought, I decided that it was time to get rid of my Oz Collection.  I've decorated with it in our last 2 houses, displayed it.. Even decorated our Christmas tree with it one Christmas while my parents were out, but now that I'm married, and married to a Marine, I don't see us using W of Oz stuff to decorate our home, nor do I see the point in packing it up every few years, carting it across the country, or worse, having it get broken by military movers.  I researched and found that some of my collection is actually worth quite a lot of money.  So it is all for sale now at Ken & Amelia's (located in Downtown Asheboro, across from the Sunset Theater). Check me out!!

Quite the Collection, if I do say so myself..

 After I set everything up I decided that it needed a little something special... I had a perfectly BRILLIANT idea. I bought this plain boring rug at habitat for humanity for $2.00...

Shampooed and Vacuumed it...

Taped it all off, and spray painted it..

Voila!!!

I created a Yellow Brick Road!! Feel free to lavish your praise on me!! I don't really want to sell the rug, but Everything is for sale!!

Madeline Dawn Finn

I'll teach you to take pictures of yourself with my camera!!

Love you Maddie!! You're the best "little sister" I've ever had!!

Cute as a Button

I absolutely ADORE this color!! It's super fun for summer and looks great on fingers, ANND toes!! Run on out and get yourself some!!!

Hard Boiled Eggs

Hate when this happens?

 I am kind of a master at hard boiling eggs.  I mean it, I get perfect hard boils every time.  The secret.. or a few secrets.. are in the eggs.

1. Use old eggs.  I mean it, They peel easier.  If you like hard boiled eggs a lot (excellent source of protein), and you buy eggs at the store reserve 3 or 4 and store them separately.  Eggs that are 2-3 weeks old are perfect!! Personally, I date my eggs before I put them in cartons.

2. Salty water takes longer to boil.  If you like to boil your eggs with salty water, add the salt when the water is at a rolling boil. Same goes for pasta.. Add the salt after the water is boiling.

3. Bring the water to a boil first, then add the eggs!!

After I bring water to a boil, and add my eggs, I then turn the heat off.  I leave the pot on the eye and set a timer for 15 minutes.  When I'm ready, I pour the hot water out and add cold water to the pot. I crack the shells and peel them off (I save my eggshells for my girls, they will FIGHT over eggshells..)

Voila!! Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs, Every time!!

Hawks, Racoons, and Opossums. Oh My!

 As I mentioned yesterday, I have a Opossum problem. Or at least, I thought it was just a opossum problem. As it turns out, it is actually a Hawk, Raccoon, and Opossum problem.  I set a trap last night {Havahart humane traps} baiting it with catfood and apples.  Around 11pm, My dad and I were about to go to bed, we looked out and saw a raccoon in the chicken yard. I donned my Chicken boots, and my garden hoe (though what I planned to do with it is still unknown) and the raccoon in the yard scampered off, but lo and behold!! there was a raccoon in the trap!!!  Seeing 2 that close together, I realized we have a family of raccons, and probably a family of opossums as well!!! Dad and I loaded the trap in the back of the jeep, and made a drive down to Montgomery County and dropped the little guy off.  I came home and reset the trap with a peanut butter and honey sandwich, when I woke up this morning.. the sandwich was gone, but the trap was empty.

I do not like being made a fool of by some stupid rodents.. even if raccoons are kind of cute.

Shoe Addicts Anonymous

I recently went on a Books-A-Million excursion and I was super proud of myself for my purchases.  For Maddie's birthday, I got her a BAM gift card. She likes to watch MTV and "hates to read".  She read the Twilight series, but  lets face it.. Who didn't?! I, a complete book nut, in an effort to get her to read more, drag her to BAM on a weekly basis hoping she'll find a book she likes (usually I find like 28 books that I like).  Anyway.. I picked up 4 books (3 of them from the Bargain section).  This book caught my eye (1 guess as to why).

I simply devoured it!!! It was absolutely adorable.  I'm trying not to label books as "quick reads" because, a quick read for me (1-2 days, mostly because I usually only read at night for an hour or two) would take my dear mom, 3 weeks. She tends to forget she's reading a book, where as I think about the books I'm reading off and on throughout the day!!

Anyway, Shoe Addicts Anonymous, is a charming story of 4 women with secrets, who come together in a bond of sisterhood... Designer Shoes!! Lorna, a 30 something waitress with a mountain of debt. Helene, the unfortunate victim of a controlling husband. Sandra, an overweight phone sex operator with agoraphobia. Finally, Jocelyn, a young nanny forced to work for an over-zealous boss with secrets of her own. The result is Adorable. A perfect pick for a summer read, or a  girly book club!!

Pospect Park West

My Dear friend Jerrica {View her Blog here} convinced me to pick this book up, and I was super glad that I did!!!  It was a really fun, quick read, full of lesbian longing, affairs, drug use, and Babies!!! Ha ha.. It sounds odd I know, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!!

A delightful summer read, though not suitable for the kiddos!!

I am Plum Crazy about these books!!!

I finished all of the published Stephanie Plum books!!! All of my copies (5 & 7-17) have been mailed off to my friend Cate, who will the mail them to Kara, who will then mail them off to Danielle.  Thanks to Janet Evanovich and Sara G (who first introduced me to the books), the Military Brides board on The Knot has established "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Books"

Seriously, The books are incredible and YOU should pick them all up!!

Tape as Wallpaper?!

Ohh Myy Goodness.

While playing around in blog land, I stumbled upon LitteGreenNotebook, and I fell in love!! I clicked, because I liked the look of her desk, but found a post about using Tape (masking tape) to spruce up plain jane walls.  As a future apartment renter and a lover of color, I was seriously sweating the white, white, white walls. I kind of hate white walls (even though I did just paint my upstairs white). I'm placing an order with happytape.com (fantastic Japanese tape that acts like vellum, so it's kind of transparent) for black tape, then I'm going to try this out on my bedroom!! If I like it and it works out well, it'll be a fun way to add color and design to my new apartment!! And at $3.50 a roll.. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than wallpaper.

New Home

Hubs and I are mailing & faxing in our paperwork for the apartment on Monday!! It's a brand new complex (as in so new that it's still under construction!!) located in Sneads Ferry, NC.  I'm excited about this. At first. we fought about it because he wanted a 2BR/2BA and I felt like we only needed the 1BR (mostly because it's cheaper). After looking at our finances we decided to go ahead and go for the 2BR and now I'm glad we did.  Hubs gets his "Man Cave" and then I don't have to worry about hiding unsightly xbox, PlayStation and wii cables and consoles. The best part of course is that I get to decorate, place, and design everything!! Yayyyy!!! I have ideas already!!


If everything goes according to plan, our new home (starting in early 2012) will be The Quarters at Stones Bay  {Link here}. Conveniently located just 20 minutes from base and 40 minutes to Wilmington and mere minutes to Topsail beach.  Sneads Ferry also hosts the Sneads Ferry Shrimp Festival every August. I am totally stoked to be moving to the beach. I love the beach. I love to walk, read, play, frolic, and drink on the beach. I can't wait to kiss my handsome Hubby on the beach!! After being apart for the last 2 years (Our entire first year of marriage btw..) I'm excited for us to start over in our beautiful new apartment!!

Opossum Problems.

    I have become completely infatuated with our chickens. I thought my mom was crazy when she first told me she bought chickens. I am now a reformed chicken hater (although I do kind of hate the rooster, but that's only because he attacks me). I love our girls (Ginger, Cinnamon, Pepper, Jodi, Kelly, and the baby Marty.. or Speedy Gonzalez as I like to call her). Today while driving down Dixie Drive, Dad and I saw that they had the Chicken Swap going on outside Tractor Supply!! I nearly wrecked my Jeep I was so excited!! We turned around and I went and saw all sorts of beautiful hens, roosters, turkeys, guineas, a goat(?) and some adorable rabbits and puppies.  Among them I fell head over heels for a pair of Silkies. The rooster was black, and the female was white. We have a pretty capable rooster already, but so many people will only sell them in pairs. I don't want to buy another rooster only to have Fred kill him... Alas, I returned home silkie-less.

How can you NOT love that face?!

     I'm really wanting some guineas because I've been reading a lot about them lately. They eat ticks (we have millions here), wasps, bugs, slugs, all while not destroying my mom's incredible plants and flowers. The chickens will also eat bugs, but since they scratch, they tend to wreck the flowers so we keep them in a fenced in area.  Mom and I are also trying to talk my Dad into letting us turn the shed into a chicken coop (mostly for protection) but also because WE WANT MORE CHICKENS!!!!! Or we've picked out a rather striking model for only $1,500. Your move Steve!!



   All of this leads me to my current Opossum problem.  Last night when I came home from dinner, I was taking the girls my leftovers (Our Chickens will eat A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!, much to the dismay of more serious Chicken owners).  I donned my Chicken boots and went to scatter rice and chips from the Mexican restaurant when I see a large mass of gray fur and the tell tale skinny little pink tail. A OPOSSUM!!! Before discovering my love for chickens I would have cared less!! But I came inside and found some disturbing research on Opossums.  They like to take a bite out of roosting(sleeping) chickens. Sometimes gnawing off toes, feet, beaks and in some cases entire legs.  They steal eggs, baby chicks (which explains how 2 of our 3 babies went missing.. we have previously thought it was a hawk).  They will kill hens by chewing their heads off and then eating the insides.  Opossums are a Problem!! I barely slept a wink last night worrying about my girls!! I came downstairs every few hours flipping the lights that shine into the Chicken Pen on to check for Opossum activity or (gulp) feathers and a dead hen...  He got in their pen twice last night!! I should say, I saw him go in there twice last night. I ran downstairs, pulled my boots on, grabbed a spray bottle of Clorox (It was all I could find) and a shovel and crept outside.  There he was, just eating their food.. Our tom-cat, Max woke up, but was absolutely NO help. Squirrels and Mice he can handle.. He's even chased a copperhead away.. but a opossum the size of a basset hound (they're bigger than you'd think!).. No.  The opossum was at least twice the size of Max.  I threw a large rock (trying to hit the opossum) but it landed right beside him and he scampered into the night.  At first I felt like a failure.. but then I thought.. "Ha!! Now I know how he gets in there!! and which direction he goes out!!".  I swear, if I had a gun I would shoot him!! I went to Weston's {Link Here} and they're letting me rent a trap for a week. This opossum and I are at war!! He is going DOWN!!! After I catch him, my mom wants me to take him to the Zoo so they can "let him go", me.. I want to kill that SOB Opossum!! He ate 2 of my babies and for that he will pay!!!

Off I go to rake up old straw and put down fresh new straw, and spend some quality time with my girls!!

Happy Saturday!!

Caylee's Law.

Go to the Website, and sign the petition. Caylee's Law

Honey, We have Orders!!

Hubs and I found out yesterday that we got orders!! In February we'll be moving to:

It'll be apartment & job hunting, furniture finding & packing.. for the next 6 months!!

Wish us luck!!

Other Various DIY projects.

This frame had been gold.. and I hated it.. So it's red.

Getting ready to paint the walls..

Good bye Pepto Pink walls!!

Getting the mattresses down the tiny hall, and the steep stairs, was NOT fun.

My Dresser. It had been all white. I forgot to take a before picture, but this is an after!!

I painted the mirror black..

and this mirror frame had also been gold..

My first attempt at upholstry.. Pretty good if you ask me!!

A nightstand I bought off of craig's list for $15!!

I crackled this, and then put the black stripes on the seat of this chair.

The nightstand was a pain in the ass to paint.. but I fixed it!!

Close up of the newly striped nightstand..I also added the black knob..

My reward for my weekend of hard work, this piece of delicious Pineapple Coconut cream cake

 Hard work, but it totally paid off!!