Goodwill + The Dollar Store + Trash = (I'm not sure yet..)

I have an idea....


This thing could go either way... I'll let you know how it turns out.

You know who's cool....?

Besides Grant, do you know who's cool?

This girl:

She's hilariously funny. (A total smart-ass, yet manages to be self-deprecating.) She juggles 2 busy daughters, 3 crazy German Shepards, keeps her hubs happy, runs her own personalized sign business, handle PTA meetings and still finds the time to do sweet things for people she's never actually met IRL. Amazing.

Look what she sent me! A box full of cute, wrapped gifts! For no apparent reason, other than the fact that she's just cool and practices random acts of kindness!


And clearly, she's been paying attention.


A cute water bottle, because that is what I drink all day long.... Until I switch to wine (or Patron).
And hello! Chocolate and fuzzy socks that moisturize your feet.

The next time I get an evening all by myself, I'm gonna put on my fuzzy socks and have Patron and Molten Chocolate cake(s) for dinner.

I lurve her! Seriously.

Holy Cow-hide! A dresser make-over.

Hooray! I might actually be ahead of a trend!
There was a fabulous collection of cowhide rugs show-cased at The Stories of A to Z. I don't know that I want a whole (very expensive!) hide. However, I am glad I hung on to a dresser re-do from a while back. I did this project for an old cabin we had several years ago, but I liked it so much that I kept it even after we sold our cabin.

I'm using it as a buffet in our dining room.

This dresser started out as a purple, aqua and white monstrosity. Someone tried their hand at sponge-painting. However, it was solid and was only $25 on craigslist.

I used a chemical paint stripper, scrapers and finally a wire brush to get the paint off. Since it was acrylic paint, it really wasn't too bad.

Once all of the paint was off it was obvious the dresser had previously been stained a dark wood color. It looked old and rustic (perfect for a cabin), so I just rubbed a little wood polish onto it.

I scoured ebay looking for genuine cowhide. After a couple of weeks I had enough to do the drawer fronts.

Each of the drawer fronts had a raised rectangular panel. I cut the cowhide to size and then used regular old Goop/Gorilla Glue to adhere the hide to the wood. (I had been thinking that if I got tired of the cowhide, I could also do a similar treatment with burlap or some other fabric...)

I used nail-head upholstery trim on the edges. This was the fabulous trim that comes in a roll and you only need to nail in every 5th or 6th nail-head. Making sure the corners lined up well was a bit of a challenge, but otherwise it was very easy.

I like the texture it adds. I used the hole placement from the old knobs to poke a hole in the cowhide and add new ones.

This definitely falls under the "eclectic" category of home decor. I put all the things I like together... doesn't matter the style, as long as it is pleasing to my eye. I'm sure I'm breaking all sorts of design rules, but I figure if I like it, then it works in my home.

I've received a lot of questions about the orange subway art/family rules piece above the dresser.
Click HERE for the full tutorial.

Pin It

So simple, it's stupid... Dollar Tree make-over.

These little resin birds (and other hideous little figurines) are available in every Dollar Tree, 99 Cent store, etc in the country.


Despite the fact that this little birdie was manufactured with gorilla toes, I brought him home and introduced him to my good friend Rustoleum Heirloom White. (Then I sprayed him with a coat of clear gloss to make him EXTRA shiny...)


Now he looks pretty.... 'cept for those wacky simian toes he has going for him. I figure that those toes will help distract from the fact that I need to dust.


To borrow from some bloggy pals of mine: Don't you judge me!

Linking up with:
Just A Girl

My mommy likes wine...

Scene: Our kitchen cleaning up after dinner. Braised short ribs with a wine reduction glaze.
Handsome Hubby holds up the remaining glaze.

HH: "Should I save this?"

Me: "You can if you want to, but I don't need it"

HH: "How about I feed it to Corsa?" (the dog)

Me: "No, that's a bad idea. It's too rich."

HH: "That's right, and there's wine in it."

Grant: "Oh! Well, then you can just give it to mom...."

He was totally serious.
I'm still laughing about it 2 days later.

Lucky Number 7

How did this happen?
How is it that my baby is 7 years old!?

He's always been a good eater...








He's always been a total crack-up...







Links to a few of my very favorite Grant-isms:

On why we celebrate Christmas...

On the proper way to serve a meal...

On poor choices...

On pregnancy...

On songwriting...

On pet care....

On classic rock...

On the circle of life...

It has certainly been an adventure...





Happy birthday to Grant!!! We are always excited to see what you're going to do/say next!
We love you!

Check out lane temptations.

I'm in the check out lane at the grocery store.

I am in Busy-Mom-Mode: putting my items onto the little conveyor belt... getting my coupons in order... ignoring the 6 year old who has been starting each of his sentences with "Hey Mom! Can we get.....?!?"

I have my back to him when I hear, "Hey Mom! Can I get THIS?!?"

It is the giggles and snickers of the other shoppers and the check out girl that shifts my focus from the grocery tasks at hand to realizing he is asking for more than just a candy bar in this latest Mom-Can-I request.

I turn around to see what it is that he wants.


Um. No. You have enough.
Let's get you a nice bag of M&Ms instead, kpumpkin?

Pirated Pears (kinda).

Once upon a time, a long, long, long time ago, there was a Common Peasant Girl (CPG) who lived in the Land of 1997.

CPG was in love with Prince Ballard, for yes, even far away in the Land of 1997, young (shut up shut up shut up) girls gazed upon Prince Ballard with desire and longing.

In particular, CPG had the hots for Prince Ballard's artwork... botanical pear canvases to be precise. Sadly, CPG did not have the $279 dowry required to be united with the artwork that she longed for.

There were no scanners for computers in the Land of 1997. (OK maybe there were, but CPG did not have one.) CPG knew that she was in charge of her own destiny.

Throwing caution to the wind, she took Prince Ballard's catalog of treasures to her local color-copy-smith. She magically blew up the catalog pictures of the artwork until they were the right size to fit into the Goodwill frames she had on hand for just such an occasion.


CPG cut the copied images to size and used a magical potion called Mod Podge to adhere them to a board. When dry, black paint was brushed around the edges of the image to remove any remaining evidence that her precious pears were once in a staged catalog photo.

(CPG also had no photoshop capabilities in the Land of 1997.)

(She did have big, poofy Monica Lewinsky hair though...)



When the paint was dry, CPG burst into tears. Her artwork looked terrible. She hated it.
She pulled her hair and gnashed her teeth.
She cursed. (Just a little.)

In an act of sheer frustration, she slapped more Mod Podge on top of her poached pears.
(Get it? Poached...? Cuz she was copying...? Never mind.)
And then, for reasons she cannot quite understand (or remember) she pressed a sheet of tissue paper on top of the whole mess.

It looked fantastic! She did the same thing to the other piece. They looked even better when they dried, because they dried clear and shiny!

(Not a good picture as far as glare, but an excellent example of the texture the tissue paper created...)

And thus began a love affair that has lasted 13 glorious years.

And they lived happily ever after.

The end.

EDITED TO ADD: this project is not in violation of any copyrighted material, as it was solely for my own enjoyment in my own home. (I know, I checked with Hubby The Attorney...)

Linking up with:

and
at Just A Girl's Show and Share.
and

and
Bubbly Nature

The Truth about my Lie....

Yesterday I posted 5 true things and one lie. Most of you seem to know me pretty well. Here are the answers...

#1 I love to shop for clothes and shoes, but only if I am not looking for a specific item. I just enjoy wandering around looking for deals.
TRUE - I hate what I call "Mission Shopping" where you need to find a specific item (usually for a specific event.) Last summer I needed to find a white dress to wear to a wedding (per the bride's request to all of the guests...) It made me so nuts that I was ready to buy a red dress just to spite the bride.

#2 I have been to Yugoslavia, Greece, England, Canada, Italy, Mexico and France, but I have never been to Las Vegas.
TRUE - My dad was stationed overseas when I was little. We lived in Yugoslavia for two years, visited surrounding countries, and then I've done some traveling as an adult. However, I have never been to Vegas and I am not planning to.

#3 I am a huge basketball fan, have season tickets to Laker games and during March Madness I will bore you to tears with my predictions.
LIE - I hate, hate, hate, haaaaayyyyyyyte basketball. (And basketball players' attitudes, their bling, etc.)


#4 I did the Macarena on Live With Regis and Kathy Lee when I was 5 months pregnant.
TRUE - I was in NYC visiting my BFF and she was on the show that day. They were also highlighting the dance craze of the moment (in 1996). They asked her to do the Macarena as they came back from commercial. She said she would only do it if her big, fat whale of a friend would do it with her. I just found the vhs tape and might have to post it.

#5 I am afraid of spiders, snakes, heights, and the pressurized rolls of Pillsbury biscuits.
TRUE - Is the can going to open with a quiet poof? Is it going to explode in your hand? Are you going to have to pick biscuit dough off your ceiling...? I hate those things. (And creepy crawlies and for sure heights....)

#6 I do not like vegetables or soda.
TRUE - I do not like soda at all and I hate most veggies. I am probably the only mom in the world who has had a kid hang on the grocery cart and whine and beg for broccoli. "Mom, can you just buy some? You won't even have to cook it, I will just eat it raw with some Ranch dressing... please mom? Please?" Gah. Whine for a candy bar... at least I could understand that.

I serve fruit at every meal. This is due in part to the fact I don't like veggies, but also, since I don't like them, I never bothered to learn how to cook them. One day HH told me he would like to teach me how to cook them on weekends and then I could recreate them on weeknights. I agreed to do this. Then he said, "pfft. Who am I kidding, you aren't even going to remember this conversation..."

So I wrote it down, signed my name and taped it to the front of my recipe binder.

Please note the date. This was almost 2 and a half years ago. Do you know how many times he has held up his end of the deal? None.
Zip.
Zero.
Nada.

Fruit... it's what's for dinner.