Deck the Halls-Part 2

Christmas lights purchased and now we can move forward to decorate the tree!  Andrew found my nesting dolls--I've had them since I was a little girl.  For some reason they do seam magical and mesmerizing!

I love this picture because it captures Rory and Andrew's personality perfectly!

Rory was SO excited to put the angel on the tree.  With some much needed help from Dad, he topped the tree beautifully!

It took us 2-3 days to get the house decorated and this year our tree was a hot mess.  Only 20 or so ornaments on the top half of the tree and the lights at the bottom were so bunched up.  Andrew would pull them off and I would put them back on.  Ha!  By the world's standards it was a sad tree but it was our tree and that is what mattered!

A lesson from my Dad...

When we purchased our home a few months ago I was trying to come up with a great idea for the formal living room.  It's not a huge space and we aren't really formal living type of people.   Don't get me wrong-lots of people have formal living rooms and they are beautiful.  It could be that I think too practically so I was trying to be more useful.  How can I use this room with a toddler?  Ding-ding!! Craft room!  I've always wanted one--the pictures in the home magazines look amazing.  A place where inspiration abounds.  This room will also double as our music room.

So far this room contains my piano, sewing table and an amoire my Dad built that holds all my crafty supplies.  What I lacked was a table to sit down and work on projects.  I was hoping for something long and narrow so Rory and I could sit down and work on projects together.

My vision started coming together when I found this table out for the trash.  The legs were the valuable part.  Josh took the legs off and got rid of the table top because it was in bad shape.  My Dad sanded down the legs and smoothed the tops.  All we needed was a board for the top.  Dad and I headed to Lowe's and purchased a pre-cut 2' x 6' board.  We got it home and started laying out the pieces of the table.  Dad was moving his tools around in the garage so we could get to work.  As he moved his table saw into the center of the garage he casually mentioned, "Hey, there is that piece of cabinet board from your old house."  He quickly moved on but I had to reminisce for just a quick moment.  I quickly realized that piece of board would work perfectly for our table (and cost $0)!  We cut it down just a bit and had the perfect table top so we returned our pre-cut piece to Lowe's.

It may seem silly--I could have gone to Target and bought a long narrow table.  Not only did this table cost me less than $10 (all I had to purchase were small brackets to hold the table top to the legs) but it is now chock full of memories.  It holds a small piece of our very first home--our home that Josh and I started as newlyweds and a home that we put in a lot of time, money, sweat and I'm sure I shed a few tears.  This will be a table that I will always remember building with my Dad.

My Dad has always taught me how to use tools properly and I may be more adept than most women only because my Dad took the time to show me.  When you ask me for a screwdriver I will respond with, "Phillips or Flathead?"  I don't ever remember specifically learning to use a power drill but my Dad made sure I knew how.  In my teen years I'm sure I grumbled as I stood in the garage and watched but those have turned into powerful and very useful lessons.  Not too long after Josh and I purchased our first house our faucet busted and by busted I mean water started spraying everywhere!  Not that I'm a plumber by any stretch of the means but I knew how to shut off the water,  what to purchase and asked enough questions to install a new faucet and pipes.  I'm not saying this to toot my horn but to give credit where it's due.  I owe a lot to my Dad.  If it weren't for him giving me these valuable lessons I would be intimidated to learn these things or try out new "handyman" skills.

The two things I will remember most is that I learned to use a table saw (and if you don't move cherry wood fast enough it will burn) and that I used a hand plane from my Great Grandfather.  I never met him, in fact, neither did my Dad.  He was killed in a car crash when my Grandfather was a young man.  It was humbling to hold the tool in my hand.  We think my Great Grandfather worked at the railroad docks as a carpenter, literally miles from where we live now.  It's like coming full circle and it's a feeling that is hard to describe.  He was where I am now and now I'm holding his tools....

Anyway, what I thought would be a fun simple project will now be a piece of furniture that I treasure for as long as I'm alive.  The little piece of our first house, the tools of generations past, the memories made in construction and the memories that will be made as we gather around the table to create.

My New Treausre and Menu Plan thru May 4, 2013

I love a good find--especially if it's free.  Since Josh and I just purchased a home we've been doing our best to furnish and decorate.  The house has a formal living room but we aren't really formal living type of people so I'm turning into a craft/music room.  We will get much more use out of that!  Long story short but my craft room needs a table.  My Dad and I came up with a plan to build one.  He's good at building things like that and I'm good at coming up with ideas of thing for him to build.  It's great teamwork!

On the way home last night I spotted a table in our neighborhood out by the curb.  The table just called for me to come and get it.  So, Rory and I walked down the street to get the scoop.  The homeowner said it was indeed out for the trash and that we would be doing her a favor if we took it.  Well, I do love to help out and be a good neighbor! 

My plan is not to use the actual table but take the legs off and put it on a longer rectangle piece of wood so it will be more like a desk where two people could sit and craft together.  What do you think?  I have to wonder what Rory in his 3 year old mind thought as his Mama is rolling a table down the street.  Ha!

And this is what's up in my kitchen this week:

Monday-Chicken Carbonara Risotto
Tuesday-Rory and I will grab something quick before music class
Wednesday-Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, fresh or steamed broccoli
Thursday-Buttermilk Waffles and Breakfast/egg casseroles
Friday-Grilled hot dogs, grilled zucchini and applesauce
Saturday-leftovers
Sunday-Out to celebrate Josh and I completing our first half marathon!

Breakfasts:
Chocolate Chip Scones
Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cupcakes

I'm linking up to erinbrans and orgjunkie.

Happy Cooking!

Using What I Have: Saving the Soap Pump

So, now that Rory is nearly 3, he like any toddler, can be somewhat destructive.  Pages get ripped out of books, toys thrown across the room and stuffed animals tossed down the stairs.  I've been trying to instill in him that it's important to take care of the things we have so they will last.  I try to mend, tape, or sew what I can back together because toys are expensive and let's face it-he has plenty!

I know this seems like a long stretch but this lead me to an internal dilemma of my new soap pump.  After buying our house, I splurged and bought a fancy smancy soap pump at Home Goods.  It was $12.99 and had all the colors from my kitchen.  It was a bronze base and then a coat of plaster with pieces of colored pottery all around it.  Rory, being the helpful toddler that he is decided to wash it along with his hands a month after I purchased it.  Well-I now realize why this cute pump was at Home Goods.  When plaster gets wet it falls apart...literally.  After it's proper washing pieces kept falling off and it looked ridiculous.  So, I got out a knife and finally pried the rest of the plaster and pottery off so it looked like this....

It was still very useful but certainly lacked the original beauty that influenced my purchase.  I was "this close" to throwing it in the trash but then felt like a hypocritical mother--how can I tell Rory to take care of his things if I just toss this in the trash and don't make it work?  Especially, since I just bought it?  (A stretch I know)  I didn't want to spend anymore money on it but I did want to jazz it up--insert my love for a hot glue gun here.

I have glass beads in a jar that sits on the tub upstairs so I grabbed that and dumped out the blues/greens that I liked, plugged the hot glue gun in and some twine. 

The twine that I had was too thin so I did break down and buy a roll of jute for $2.50 from JoAnn Fabrics.  After some glue gun magic and burnt fingers this is what I came up with...

I think I like my version better than the original one I bought-which leads me to think maybe I could have done this project much cheaper than the original price I paid.  At this point Josh would tell me I'm thinking too hard about it!

This mini project has me dreaming now of other wonderful things to hot glue together!

One Man's Trash....

...just might be my treasure.  Let me preface this by saying I'm not a trash picker or a dumpster diver.  BUT, sometimes these amazing treasures find me.  I've found some really great things that were on there way to the trash dump and I'd like to think it was my "green" duty to rescue them.

My first amazing find was about 4 years ago.  Someone in my parents neighborhood and done some remodeling and they were throwing away 2 long (like 12 foot) pieces of the white wire shelving.  It's the kind that Home Depot sells for almost $1 per foot and is great for closets.  I sent my Dad to get the mini-van and those shelved ended up saving us a lot money when we renovated one of the closets in our old house to a pantry, turned a storage area into a coat closet and gave us lots of extra storage in our laundry room.

I've also been looking for one of those Little Tyke picnic tables for Rory for a long time.  You know, the yellow, red and blue plastic ones?  I've kept my eye out driving by garage sales and had yet to find one....until now!  Driving to meet some friends for dinner in our hometown, low and behold a picnic table and little plastic bike was sitting by someones mailbox.  I asked Josh if he thought those might be out for the trash...I wish I could have captured the look he gave me when he said, "I don't know...do you want me to turn around?"  Josh humored me and back tracked so I could knock on the door to get the scoop.  A young girl answered the door and said if I wanted them to take them.  Seriously??  I offered to pay her but she wouldn't take any money.  It was like hitting the lottery.  The picnic table will get a good scrub down when it gets warmer and I found another little boy that could use the bike since Rory already has quite a few.  Josh gets props for this one too because the picnic table wouldn't fit in the car with our suitcases so he carried it the 1/4 mile back to our friends house.

My latest find was coming home after Trick-or-Treat.  We live in a condo (not ideal) and the carports are set up so we share one big carport with our our neighbor.  Each condo gets one parking spot in the carport.  I pulled in our spot and noticed some furniture on the other side.  I dismissed it but then quickly realized that I should get a closer look.  I turned the headlights on and found these beauties....

The little side table is solid wood and just needs a new handle, some sand paper and a fresh stain or paint job.  The dresser might be a little trickier because it's not solid wood...I guess laminate maybe, but envision this...new decorative trim, painted white and glass knobs on the front.  Both are great pieces but they just need a little love.  I'll keep you updated on their new and improved look!

I should also mention that I did ask my neighbor about the furniture and he was more than willing to get rid of it.  Even offered to help me carry it in the house!

I've never done very well at garage sales or second hand stores so I guess the curb it is!

What treasures have you found lately?