Music Cabinet turned Baby Cabinet

 This came out of my mother-in-law's Dad's house.  I was pretty excited to inherit it!  If you don't know (as I didn't!), it is a cabinet to store sheet music in.  If I'm wrong, correct me.  But that's what I was told and who am I to argue?  When I went to paint this, I decided to do a really good job and scrape off all of the old finish.  It took me hours to scrape just the top off!!!  I multi-tasked though by doing the job outside in the sun so I could get a tan while I worked. :)  I decided not to do the rest and just paint over the finish since it was so hard to get off.  I couldn't BELIEVE IT.  It went over the old finish like magic.  But the part I scraped off???  After about seven coats, a pinkish hue still showed through!  Needless to say, I've learned my lesson about doing some things the "right way" (which really end up not being the right way afterall!).

I replaced the chunk of wood that latched the door shut with an antique wood button.  I guess I should have painted that white too, huh! oops.

It is the perfect piece of furniture in my baby's room.  See that cute little box for holding all those baby socks on the bottom right?  Some kleenex boxes are just too cute to toss, so I have to try to use them somewhere. :)  I just cut the opening bigger and it's just the perfect little "sock box".

Before and After - The "B".

This is how it started out.  A beautiful blanket made by my uncle's talented wife. So bright and cheery.  It was love at first touch.

Two years and some months after growing attached......  here is what his "B" (as he lovingly refers to it as) has become.  Not the before and after kind of pics you normally find here, huh! :)

The "B" is:  Comfort during trying times (broken leg)

Play mate at the park....

And the completion of every outfit!

Free Fries at Wendy's

Let's celebrate it being FRIDAY with a FREEBIE!!!!  Since I love all you readers so extra much, I thought I'd share this with ya to kick off the weekend.  Click here to print a coupon for FREE WENDY'S FRIES!  Mmmmm.  Have you tried the new natural cut fries they have now?  If you thought they had good fries before, you might just do a cartwheel in the restaurant when you taste these!
I love french fries.  Maybe that's why my last cholesterol check wasn't so nice to me!  Happy FRIDAY!!

Mozarella Roast Beef Quesadillas

Mozzarella Roast Beef Quesadillas               

"First you take the sour cream and you spread it, you spread it,  first you take the sour cream and you spread it, you spread it.  Quesaaaaaaaa....Quesadillas - Yummy!"  I seriously hope you know that is from the peanut butter and jelly song, if not you must not be reading this in the land of the stars and stripes. Because every child should learn that song in kindergarten!  Anyways, ON TO THE RECIPE!!  So you got left over roast beef from that good old fashioned farm meal you had last night?  Here's a delicious way to enjoy the leftover beef!

1. Spread sour cream on tortillas (whole wheat of course!), then cover one side with shredded roast beef, diced tomatoes, and green peppers.

2.  Cover with mozzarella cheese (shredded or sliced) and sprinkle cumin powder on top.

3. Fold in half and hold in place with toothpicks, then bake on a cookie sheet at 375 for 12-15 minutes.  Me gusta Quesadillas!!!  Y tu?

Siamese Twin Vase

Haha, yes I know this is just a ridiculous BEFORE picture, but I forgot to take one so I quickly did a paint over in photosuite to give you an idea what this thing looked like.  It was actually a little more brown than orange originally, but at any rate it really grabbed my attention at a flea market one day and I couldn't leave without it.  Just curious, is this something that would grab your attention??  Or maybe I had a Siamese twin that never developed and so I have this longing for...... ohhhh I'll stop that train of thought right there before this gets creepy.

Introducing..... Painters!  I LOVE THESE THINGS!!!  Too bad they cost a fortune for the very small amount of paint each one of these little canisters  contains.  I've tried refilling them, googled how to refill them, stood on my head hoping to refill them and still not having success.  So if you've done this, please let me know a sure-fire way to get 'er done!!  So why I'm bring up painters?  Well, I painted the vase black (actually my 3 year old did, he wanted to paint something "adultish" and I figured he couldn't go too wrong with lots of newspaper for drips, a small brush and paint.)  Then I used my blue and green painters to make the following design........

I personally think it's a crazy fun little piece.  I have friends who have voiced a different opinion, not in a rude way (sheesh, I wouldn't be your friend if you were rude to me, haha) but just didn't dig it AT ALL.  But hey, good thing we're all different.  I don't think I could live with another Kammy on the planet, could you?  Don't answer that!

We Have A Winner!!

So not being a very techy savvy person, I didn't know how to use those random giveaway winner things that everyone's using these days sooooo I painstakingly gave all contestants a number and then had Tobin draw a number.  The winning number???

#9!!!!

okay, so that doesn't do you much good until you know who that is, huh.  Well I confession to make here.  I was tempted - teeeeeeempted - to quick throw that one back in and tell Tobin to draw another one because well, I have to mail the prize to Mexico!  But my conscience would never let me do such a thing!  No worries!  Haha!  So that could only mean one thing....  the winner is  SHELLEY!!!!!!!!   And who cares if I gotta send it South of the border, what was I thinking?!!  You deserve to win.  You've been SUCH a faithful follower, and probably should win an award for the most comments on my blog.  Please get at me with what you'd like - 2 headbands or a pack of Kam's Kards.  I know how to say Feliz Compleanos, I could make some cards that have espanol!  :)

The extra bathroom floor tile

My bathroom floor.  Beautiful, huh.  I personally might have gone with something a little brighter, but hey, I'm not about to rip that nice ceramic tile up!  They must have had one left over, obviously, since it was in one of the kitchen drawers when we moved in.

 I found these soft foam things in a bag of crafty stuff I bought at a garage sale and hot glued them onto the bottom so the tile wouldn't scratch my newly painted counter tops.

It looks nice enough to keep out on my kitchen counter as a cutting board....

And makes a great trivet!  Okay, so am I the only one that has lived my life scared to death to put a frozen pizza "directly on the rack"???  I guess I always pictured cheese dripping down and burning on the bottom, or the whole crust flopping over inbetween the cracks and erupting into flames and having to run and find the fire extinguisher, which I have no idea how to use... anywoo you get the point. But the last couple of frozen pizza's I've made, I decided to follow the directions.  I'm sick of a less than crispy crust.  It has turned out PERFECT!!!!  No more dirtying up a cook sheet!  When it's done, I just slide it onto my new handy dandy pizza plate aka extra bathroom tile and slice 'er up.

One Day until the Giveaway!!! Kam's Kards or Headbands

Don't forget to enter the Giveaway!!  Tomorrow we will be randomly selecting a winner!

Here's how to enter:
-Send a picture of your baby (or girl, or yourself) wearing a Kammy's Kreation Headband to kammyhayes@hotmail.com OR
-Become a new follower
OR
-put a link to my blog on your facebook or blog and let me know you did with a comment!  I've noticed on FB some of you have put the link up, but I may not see it so make sure you tell me you did!  Thanks!

Here are a few pictures of little sweeties in their headbands.  Enjoy!

Adorable little Michigan State Fan

Precious Cutie Michigan girl living in Ohio. :)

A little Iowan Beauty

Another Iowan darling.  They sure grow 'em cute out there, don't they?

Who could ever resist those eyes?!

Winner will receive two headbands of their choice or a pack of seven handmade greeting cards (you may choose the occasion - Valentine's Day, birthday, wedding, baby, anniversary, thank you, thinking of you, friendship humor).

Coffee table before and after

It is Saturday, and I have zilch in my brain to blog about.  So you're getting a before and after of a coffee table that I dug up from the photo archives on my computer.  I really should have plenty to blog about - after all, Tobin had a little 8 year old girl who is bursting apart at the seams with imagination, vocabulary that would make a high school Enlish teacher proud, and non-stop chitter chattering using that vocab, spend the night last night.  They got a few hours of sleep.  Oh my.  I never take naps on Saturday, but I did today! 

After.  I painted it black, obviously :), and then I used Old English stain on the caning on the bottom.  It was hard to get it even, especially since I spilled some directly on the piece and it soaked it up like a sponge!  Rats.  Probably had a baby on one hip.  Babies and stain are not a good combo.  And with that, good night, I'm out of here.

Mirror - funky to feathery

I can't remember where I got this, it was probably around 10 years ago, and my memory worker just ain't that good.  But it was just plain wood then and I painted it all funky like this to match my funky gerber daisy basement thing I had going on.  It has since been in the lime green bathroom, but it's really been bugging me so I finally took it down and gave it a makeover.

Here's the end result, however I don't know WHAT to put in the sconces?  Candles I suppose would be the normal answer, haha.  I was thinking of some greenery trailing down...  or perhaps I should just take them off?  But dunno.  So I'll just leave them stuffed with the Styrofoam that was holding those fuchsia daisies.

Not Your Average Blueberry Picker

I've had all sorts of odd little jobs it seems.  But I want to tell you about one today.  I have no idea what made me think about it, but every time I do it makes me laugh.  You see, I was newly married, newly moved to the state of Michigan, and bored out of my mind while my hubby was at work all day.  So I had heard that Sodts Berry Farm paid people to pick berries for them. I had been there strawberry picking before with my mother in law.  I will never forget when I parked my car and climbed out to meet her there.  The woman in the little booth yelled out "Are you old enough to drive?!" Followed by quite the exclamations of how I couldn't possibly be old enough to be married, let alone have a driver's license.  So anyways, I called them up, and they told me where to grab a bucket and start.  Hey, I love being outside. I'll do this for money!  I had never picked a blueberry in my life (I was fresh from Iowa you know, where the focus is corn and beans, and no not potatoes either, that is I-D-A-H-O.  You wouldn't believe the amount of people out there that don't know the difference between Iowa and Idaho!), but figured it couldn't be too hard.  Why not?  I was the only person out there, humming away to some tune stuck in my head.  Wow, it takes a LOT of blueberries to fill up a bucket.  Not long after, a van drove up and a group of Mexicans poured out.  No longer was I listening to the sound of birds, but the excited chitter-chatter of Espanol.  I have nothing against Mexicans (just better have your paperwork, darn it.) and was perfectly comfortable being in my own little english gringo world, picking away and enjoying God's creation.   After two hours, it didn't look like I had many berries.  I swear I hardly ate a handful.  I sheepishly brought my bucket up to the owner who looked as though he was trying to stifle a laugh, and handed me $3.75.  Wow. I think when I was 8 years old, that would have made me pretty joyous. But, as my mom would says, "Better than a stick in the eye....."  Less than $2 an hour?  I have to be faster.  I will come back tomorrow and focus on speed!  I never did have the best fine motor skills.  My hubby's fingers are three times the size of mine, yet he's the one who has to get little knots out, fix a tiny broken chain on a necklace, etc.  Maybe this lack of fine motor skills has something to do with my inability to speed pick.  I think I made about 25 cents more on day two.  When the dude with the crazy curly hair paid me, he looked at me for a while and finally asked "what does your husband do?"  To which I sort of embarrassingly replied "he's an electrical engineer and such and such a company....) The man slapped his leg and hollered out something to the effect of "THEN WHAT THE DEVIL ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?!!!!!  Go home!!!"  I didn't go back.  But my mother-in-law has brought me many a delicious container of berries since then, as she still loves to pick.  Mmmmmm.

Kam's Kards Sampling

All cards are 3D and have a tastefully written verse laser printed on the inside. $1.10 each OR enter the giveaway going on to win a pack of seven Kams Kards HERE.

 

Wood Samples = Cool Wall Decor

Okay, so we're back to this "BEFORE" pic.  But I'm geeked about this.  I think it turned out FUNK-EEEE  cool.  Am I just weird?  Is it because I made it from cupboard wood samples?  Man, I'm sure glad I pulled those out of that dude's garage sale "free box"!  (Click HERE to see the coasters they also turned into).  Let me know if you would hang this on YOUR WALL, or if you're thinking, Kammy, go fly a kite.  And go back to making coasters.

This was time consuming little project, by the way!  After painting each circle with 3 coats of paint, I glued each circle together, but only did about three at a time and then let it dry before adding more.  Otherwise they would wiggle and wander on me.  What do you think?  I would love your feedback!
Note: I still have six left.  (Likely more, which I may find when the kids clean up their kazillion pieces of Lincoln Logs). Oh what shall I do with them?

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Crescents

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Crescents

We are putting an addition on our house right now so I feel like it is my duty to keep the working men out there filled up.  So every morning, if those Carhartt encased men are out there, I try to bake them something fresh and give 'em a little mid morning break.  I am under the impression they will do better work if I keep this up.  :)  But one morning I was plum out of ideas for what to throw together so I concocted these and it was quick, simple, and turned out pretty good!

Beat together in a bowl: 1 package of cream cheese, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, and 1 tbls cinnamon.  Spread mixture over rolled out crescents, roll up, and sprinkle a hefty amount of cinnamon and sugar on the tops.   Bake as instructed on the package.  Carry out to workers, have a 30 second chat, and run back in house to nurse frost-bit fingers.

One Old Christmas Card = 5 new cards!

So I gave you a sneak view of this on Sortin' Through Old Christmas Cards/Letters and now you can see how this ONE card was cut apart and used to make the following FIVE cards!  Now that, folks, is recycling! :)

Can you find the part that was recycled on each of these?  Okay, so I've been doing too many activity coloring books with my kids!  Nonsense, you can never do too many of those with your kiddos!  Scratch that!  I probably don't do enough!

Thrifty Thoughts - #21 - 25

21. Rethink those "extras" when baking.  Sure those heath bits would make those brownies extra amazing, but you just added at least $2 to your pan.  And dumping a bag of shredded mozzarella on top of my pasta and baking it would add so much yumminess (and calories!!) but then again, I'm adding at least $2 to the dish.   If you just did those two things, that's an extra $4 that you didnt' need to spend.  Bear with me now.  Let's just say you did the above scenario (with different dishes) 15 times in a month.  You've just added $60 to your monthly grocery bill.  On the other hand,  if you look at it the other way around and start "rethinking" those extras, you've just SAVED yourself $60!!

22. Don't get frustrated with that hard-as-rocks brown sugar and throw it in the trash. Stick a piece of bread in it.  It will be as good as new in a day.  Or less.
23. MY AMAZING NEW DISCOVERY!!!  (wellllll, I THOUGHT it was a new discovery until my good pal Melly Mel burst my bubble and said she already knew this trick!)  But I had some cookies that I over baked and the next day were pretty hard.  I decided to try the bread trick and low and behold, the next day my cookies were SOFT and fresh tasting!  I could hardly believe the good fortune!  I for one, am extremely disappointed when I have to "chomp" into a chocolate chip cookie.  No, no.  You should be able to eat those without putting your false teeth in.
24.  Another discovery to save money.  I hate buying vacuum cleaner bags.  Seems like they fill up soooo fast.  (Maybe my carpets are just extra dirty?  Goes with having two boys?)  Anyways, I cringe when I pull the last Y bag out for the Hoover.  Well, it was my last bag, and it was full....  I pulled it out and said to Hubby, "hey Dude, just take this outside and empty it out.  Here's a needle nose pliers to help you with that job."  He obeyed like a good puppy, I mean Hubby, and put it back in the vacuum.  So there, you can recycle those too.
25.  Shop the dollar store!  But WISELY.  Some of that "dollar only" merchandise really is cheaper elsewhere.  But here are a few things you SHOULD buy at a dollar store:
-wrapping paper.  But make sure you get a roll that has at least 30 square feet.  Sometimes that takes a little detective work.
- picture frames
-books for toddlers.  Some are cheesy, but some are great!  Just look!  And some have CD's that read along with the story which my kids love.  Great gift idea.
-Greeting Cards.  Most dollar stores sell them two for a dollar!

-jewelry.  Okay, laugh at me.  But I really do get lots of compliments on my necklaces and those complimenting people would never guess where I got them!  Don't knock it, till you try it.

I really had to scrounge to try to come up with some pics of me with my cheap jewelry, but here ya go.  Unfortunately, you can hardly see my favorite piece - the turquoise one on the left - but that's okay cuz there's a sweet little face covering it up!  Sorry for the bad pics, but you get the idea.

Before publishing this post, I decided to look up Dollar Tree online and was quite excited to see you can shop there online!!  I think I'll be checking that out.  I see some cool organizing bins that I'm pretty sure I'm in the market for.  Adios, Amigos!!!!

Wood Samples Turned Coasters

You've seen them.  And avoided them.  Those notorious boxes at the end of the driveway at a garage sale, with the word "FREE" sloppily scrawled across the flap of the box.  They usually consist of a half used bottle of motel lotion, toys from a long gone Happy Meal, and maybe a lone mitten who lost it's mate out on the playground last winter.  Well, I've been known to say, "Excuse me, but I'm just going to take the whole 'FREE BOX', is that okay? "  Last summer I scored three containers of these wood samples in a free box.  Who knows what I'll do with them, I thought, but those just can't go to waste!!!

While the kids are away, Mommy gets to play.  As was the case yesterday when they all went to Grandma's and I got to make a run to JoAnn Fabrics and found me this nice bird stencil.  Using my 40% off coupon, it was just over a dollar.  I went right to work on turning those wood samples into coasters as soon as I got home!  This brown and light blue/green are seriously two of my favorite color combos - have you noticed? :)

Giveaway!!! Headbands or Pack of Kam's Kards

Baby Isabella - 1 day old and already a Wolverine fan!

-Send a picture of your baby (or girl, or yourself) wearing a Kammy's Kreation Headband to kammyhayes@hotmail.com*
OR
-Become a new follower
OR
-put a link to my blog on your facebook or blog and let me know you did with a comment!  I've noticed on FB some of you have put the link up, but I may not see it so make sure you tell me you did!  Thanks!


Random drawing will be held on January 25th!  Spread the word!
  Don't have a headband yet?  There's time to get one!  Email me with your order and you'll be sent one same or next day.

Winner will receive two headbands of their choice or a pack of seven handmade greeting cards (you may choose the occasion - birthday, wedding, baby, anniversary, thank you, thinking of you, friendship humor).

*Pictures of babies wearing my headbands may be posted on a future blog, unless you tell me otherwise.

Ham and Broccoli Bow Tie Pasta

Ham and Broccoli Bow Tie Pasta

8 oz of bow tie pasta
1-2 cups cubed ham
2 cups frozen broccoli
1 8oz cream cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 Tbls milk
(1 cup frozen peas optional)
salt, pepper, and onion powder to taste.

Boil  bow tie pasta and broccoli until tender (about 12 minutes).
Drain and add remaining ingredients, stirring over low heat until cream cheese is completely melted.  SERVE.  My kids gobbled this down, and the Hubby gave it a 5 star review.  :)  Try it for supper tonight and let me know what you think of my latest kreation!

Ladybug Shelf before and after

I felt inspired to do a ladybug shelf today.  I took this ugly little shelf down that was in my stairwell, holding about five times the amount it was made to, and replaced it with something with more hooks.  Who digs the heart look?  Uh, hopefully nobody.  Haha.  So, we'll just fix that with some little wooden ladybugs.  Here's a before and after - and maybe some inspiration too - for your enjoyment.

You can get these wood ladybugs at JoAnn's for something like 29 cents.  Leave it to me to use my 50% off coupon on one of them.  Haha. 

Finished product.  Now I just have to find someone who has a ladybug room.....  I have enough ladybugs in my house, without decorating with them!  Click HERE to see my other ladybug shelves.

Sortin' through the christmas cards

You can't save EVERYTHING.  Yes, I'm slowly learning this.  But you can't just TOSS everything, either!  Here's what I do with all those Christmas cards/letters/pics that I get from all my wonderful family and friends.

I put them into one of four piles.  Here's how I sorted the piles. Pile 1. Keep all photos to put in a photo album.  I can't make myself throw away beautiful smiling faces.  Pile 2.  Christmas cards that have no "reuse value" and letters that used every square inch of paper to tell us every square inch of how their lives went down in 2010.  Pile3. Christmas letters that have a blank backside to use for printing coupons on.  Pile 4. The cards that are made of nice cardstock that I can cut up and reuse, or cut out a cute picture, etc. to create new cards with.

 

Back side of a christmas letter

And this Christmas card (Shout out to Big Johnny, Paula, Steve and Randall) was recycled into not only the two cards below..... but has lots more life left in it for other cards!!  (can you figure out what part was used for the birthday hat card?)