some Furniture Finally Finished

Before - $1 garage sale bargain

I usually have big plans of accomplishment when my mom comes to visit from Iowa.  However, we usually spend most of the time kissing the baby, snapping pictures of the baby, kissing the baby, staring at the baby, kissing the baby... you get the somewhat exaggerated  point.  But a couple weeks ago when she was here, I finally got a few things done.  Here are a couple.

This was a barstool with a missing top that my mom dug out of her basement.

painted it black and added a glass piece to the top.  Awesome plant stand is born!

novel necklace idea

I really can't take credit for this novel idea, it was my mother's brilliant brainstorm.  Pretty slick and easy: put on a silver chain (or whatever plain necklace you may have) and hook an earing on it.  Wa-la! A beautiful and unique accessory is born!  The pink one is from a pair I found for 50 cents clearance at Family Dollar.  The other earings pictured came with necklaces I bought for my sister and a friend who don't have their ears peirced.  I'm having fun with this!!  Now, go dig through your old jewelry box and see what you can come up with!

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Parma junk day!!

So I live by the little village of Parma, population 846 (in 2008).  Every spring, there are city wide garage sales.  Of course, I am the first one to descend on the town, pockets full of quarters, walking shoes on.  Then the next week is what we call "junk day".  Everyone is allowed to put all their "junk" on the curb and it is picked up for free.  So how convenient - everything that doesn't sell gets put to the curbside.  So there's usually about a week while everyone unloads their "unwanteds" and before the pick up.  So for people like me (and believe me, there are lots of us!) this is one of our favorite weeks of the year!  Mom and I jumped in the car to pick up some things at Dollar General (Parma's only store besides the gas station and liquor store) but saw all the piles and got quite side-tracked!  Dollar General will always be there so we forfeited the shopping and drove around finding all kinds of stuff.  We drove home with the trunk hanging open, chuck full.  Came back and exchanged the car for the minivan, which has stow-and-go seats.  Here's the unbelievable list of things we got:

- 2 book shelves
- battery powered rideable dump truck - perfect cond.
- 3 fisher price kitchen sets - one has ironing board, washing machine, etc.
- kid's work bench, complete with battery powered sander, and 20 tools - perfect cond.
- a box of wedding stuff full of: 20 glass rose bowl vases, unused paper plates, table cloth covers still in package, gerber daisies, 2 jars full of white and clear decorative rocks, and 20 floating candles
- retro flyer tricycle. Had a bent back wheel so Dad took 2 wheels off of a free push mower I got on the side of the road a few years ago and replaced them!
- bowling ball (mom wants to paint if for her landscaping)
- 6 white vinyl shutters

- white cube shelf for closet
-3 plastic drawers storage unit on rollers (missing the top - good for the barn useage)
- stand and play table for babies - perfect cond.
- perfect baby exersaucer, same one that I have, only mine is dirty and nasty from being outside!

Patios, Pergolas, Papas

Four years ago, we decided a patio would be more suitable than the itty, bitty deck off the back of our house.  The deck was only a foot off the ground, and would create the most awkward situations for unsuspecting visitors who would get their chair too close to the edge and topple over backwards onto the grass!  The space underneath was also a great hiding place for ginormous spiders.  Definitely gotta go.  Wanting to save money of course, we did a little research and found it was cheaper to buy the patio bricks directly from Shell Rock, IA and have a semi deliver them to our house than it was to get them at our local Menards.  Someone HAD to be there when the semi arrived with a check in hand.  We got the call, they were arriving Wednesday at noon.  BE HOME.  At 2:00 that morning and pregnant with my first sweetheart, my water broke.  We left the check on the counter and drove like maniacs to the hospital.  My mother-in-law was there to hand over the check.  Then while we all oooooed and ahhhhhhed over the new baby, Dad and Tim set to work.  This year we decided a pergola would be just the perfect addition.  Kit's were more money than I had saved from picking up pop cans so Dad scratched his head again and made it!  A month later, with a third little sweetie for us to ooooo and ahhhhh over, Dad and my hubby finished it off with a wall.  Here are the before, during, and after pics.  Please come and sip a lemonade this summer with me!!!! :)

Let me just mention one money saving tip: the boards going across the top of the pergola are from the old deck.

As artistic as I get on furniture

The is one of those tables with the 3 three screw off legs with a glass top that you buy at any mega store for about $6.  Don't we all have at least one of those stashed away in a closet somewhere?  It painted up nicely!

This was an ugly old potato bin I bought for 50 cents at a garage sale.  It had some scary cobwebs and dustbunnies inside, but the argyle design was sure fun to paint!  I took off the hardware and spray painted them silver before reattaching.

and uhhh... don't look too closely at this one!  My first attempt and using a square stencil to make a checkerboard design - it wasn't worth the effort, though it turned out kinda sorta cute!

4 Ingredients = YUM for supper

Grilling chicken?  Grill a few extra chicken breasts and use the leftovers in this dish!

*Note: I do not measure anything, so all measurements approximate.

Creamy Italian Pasta

2 cups mini penne pasta (or similiar). Cook and drain
1 can Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
1/2 brick cream cheese
sliced up grilled chicken

heat through and serve!  Easy, fast, and tasty!!

If you don't have Italian tomatoes, improvise and use lots of Italian seasoning, onion powder, and salt with plain diced tomatoes.

Furniture - black and white

This was a plain wooden desk.  White paint and black knobs produce a clean and fresh look!

blond and boring wood before. The top already had the white tiles so the only white I added was on the drawer.

Previously beat up and scary looking, a man purchased this from me after I painted it black and white to sell in his antique shop.

BEFORE

AFTER

I found this in a St. Vincent De Paul's store for 75 cents.  It needed a little reinforcement, but overall ended up being fairly sturdy.  Picture it before as orange and yellow!  wowzers....