Strikes my fancy

After Before Don't these THINGS just look fabulous? These are from our long ago attic pick that took place last year. We found these in their outbuilding. You can't quite tell, but these are very rusty versions of nesting tables. They may have orginially had glass, but since nothing out of that place had glass intact, I wasnt surprised to find it missing on these. I could have put glass back in them, but I wanted to try something different. I am not sure why, but I thought these would look very cool with reclaimed lumber or something with advertising. It took me several months, but I finally found the right fit. All the reclaimed lumber we had was actually too thick to fit into these, so I went the advertising route. I called up a wine specialty store in the city and asked if they sold their crates. They said no, but sent me to a store that did. So, for $5 each, I bought three wine crates. While watching Cranford (if you like BBC, you will like this show), I hammer...

After Before I spent over four hours sanding these chairs down. Paint just LOVES to hide in all those grooves. Its not fun, especially since you have to hand sand it. However, they look closer to the above picture once sanding commenses (the pic above was after a few hours.) That old paint really likes to hold on in places, yet flake in others. I could not leave it on, as it would paint unevenly. I bought two of these chairs from a friend. I was asked to paint them antique white and distress them. Unfortunately the deal for a buyer fell through, so they are still available. I primed, painted and then sanded the daylights out in certain places. Then put a protective sealer over them. The center table was done to match the chairs as a commissioned piece and has since gone back to its owner. A very pretty little table!

This is a story about a redo...in my restaurant! (there will be more coming, but these will be slow and far between!) When we rented our space - we bought about 90% of what was housed inside. Including this beauty: It was a dive bar in it's former life, so this fit right in. But it didn't fit the direction we were going. Originally I was going to paint right over the stickers, but found that with a LOT of hard work (and loss of fingernails) I could peel them off. I knew that would render me a better finished look. Once all the stickers were taken off this is what we had: But that wasn't enough for me! The fridges around it were all black and I wanted this to fit in - as opposed to standing out. So I spray painted it black (primer plus paint!). Not once, not twice, but three times! My business partner was more than concerned about the fumes! So here it is after it's painting: I'm pleased with it. It sits behind a bar, so it isn't overly scr...

I was very interested in this story when I first read about it. A woman - who works for an Ambassador to the US and lives in Maryland - becomes King of Otuam, Ghana. The story is about her struggle to balance her life in the US with her duties, dreams & desires for her village. There is corruption, disappointment and redemption....ah a perfect story! ;-) I'll admit, there were parts that I skimmed over as the story got a bit long. But overall it was very interesting and enlightening to see how things are handled in a different world. Also how Peggy balanced the traditions of her village with wanting to bring them more "up to date". A very interesting read indeed!

After Before I am sure you can understand the white of my title. That part is easy. Now to explain the negative. This was a super cute table that we saw in the trash on our way to church one morning. I made D pull the car over and put it in the back. And then I promptly made him turn around! While this was an adorable coffee table, it reeked of cat urine. BleH!!! I sanded this sucker down to the before picture, and yet it still smelled faintly. So then I used an odor blocking primer. Still kinda smelled. After paint and sealer, well, its much less noticable. However, this is one of those we priced to sell quickly!

Oh what fun it is when good friends go about adding to their families! This story started my first day of freshman year of college, when I met the little mother. We related to one another...somehow. Maybe it was because we were both Anglophiles. We were both homeschooled. We were both new to the school and didnt know many people. We both loved books, animal, laughing, and getting Krispy Kremes after a late night movie at the dollar theater. And lastly, I was from KY and she (though she did not know it at the time) wanted to live there! Providence had a hand in this friendship! That fall, I invited her to my house. I belive it was the first time she had carved a pumpkin, if I remember right. She LOVED KY. The horses, the hills, the wonder of it all. She ended up moving to KY, meeting the fella of her dreams and settling into life. Then, a new addition to the family decided it was time for her to enter the scene. Paige Evangeline is due at the end of the month, and of course we all had t...

In memory(?)-honor(?) of the Titanic's anniversary it was time for a novel about the Titanic! This story follows Tess as she races to escape England and finds herself on the Titanic as the maid of a fashion designer. Being a seamstress herself, Tess is excited to be doing anything for this woman! As the Titanic sinks Tess is separated from her employer, her employer's husband and her friend. All 4 survive, but their story takes an interesting turn even before they reach New York. This book does a good job of capturing both the excitement and the dread that Tess must have faced as she started a new life in a new country, but also dealt with survivor's guilt. And in an odd way this story makes 5 women stand out as strong women (especially odd for this era). I couldn't put this book down once I got to the part where the ship sinks!

I know, I know - these are becoming far and few between...but I'm striving to get better and frankly, actually cook! A lot of nights are spent at my 2nd job/business I own and so I eat there most of the time. One of the "joys" of living alone is that you sometimes get to eat the same thing over and over again after the initial meal. I had made some beef in the crockpot awhile ago and it was SPICY (if you know me, you know I'm a bit spice adverse)..so in the freezer it went until "I have people over". That didn't happen so I needed to make something to cut the spice. Enter All You April 2012 .... I started with this basic recipe and changed things (surprise!) *No chicken or soy sauce...I added the beef at the end. *No bag of frozen mixed vegetables....I just threw in whatever was already in the freezer (broccoli, snap peas, corn and red peppers) *No white rice...I used brown *Used sesame oil for the cooking instead of vegetable oil Overall - it's g...

After Before I had to share this story. We put this item on CL super cheap to see whether someone would be interested in finishing it themselves. We had lots of projects, so we were going to let a few go. We got several calls, but no one actually came. So, I got tired of the no shows and just painted the sucker. Probably took me less than an hour of actual work all together. Black paint + poly + raising the price = sold withing two hours of posting. Someone find me another table!