Valentine Topiaries

Saw THIS and decided to get some felt of my own and make these.

 

 Puts me in the mood for romance crafting!

Crumbs and the like

Ya know when you start cleaning and then you see dust and grime everywhere and you just cant stop?

 Yeah. Me too.  I'm stuck in a horrible grimey bubble and I can't seem to clean my way out.  I think I might be going crazy. 

I want some organization in this home.  I NEED IT!  Badly.  

It all started with the "cleaning out" of the pantry. I oh so innocently went to grab my store bought bread crumbs and couldn't find the darn things.  Look, I'm all for making my own but...why?  I knew I had them.  I looked on every shelf, behind every half open bag of chocolate chips and outdated bottle of dressing.  Something had to be done.  Darn it. I was gonna have to take every last item out and clean and then...put...everything.....back.  Ick. 

Here's the mess before I began.

It doesn't help that everything in the kitchen winds up in the pantry.  With 2 teenage boys constantly rummaging through there it's bound to be a mess.  Right?

Let me add that I just realized that a girl's pantry is pretty personal.  You can tell a lot about of family by their food stuffs.  Take for instance my pantry.   Someone might be trying to drop a few pounds by the look of all the slimfast products.  You might notice that we enjoy cuddling up by a fire with all the hot cocoa around.  The canned items might suggest that convenience is important to me.  All the cereal might tell you there are kids in the vicinity.  Hmmm.....interesting no?

Finished.  All Tidy. 

....For now.

 

What does your pantry say about you?

p.s.  Here is what I'm working on next.

Oh no you di 'nt!

xoxo

Here's to lots more!!

21 years ago today was a good day.

I married my best friend.

I liked him from the first moment I met him.

He made me laugh.  He made me happy.

We spent a lot of time together.

He went away for 2 years to do some very important work.  

This made me love him even more.

He came home and we decided to get married.

We've had a lot of adventures over the years. 

   We stuck together through those early 90'.  Fads, hair and all.

 

We learned new things and grew together.

We made a beautiful family.

I think he's pretty darn cool.

I love him more than words can express.  I would be lost without him.

So glad he's mine!

That poor old man

It's raining, it's pouring............you know the rest. 

I also don't think it's kind to make fun of that poor old man. So he snores a little.  Maybe he has a cold and because it's raining he can't get to the store to purchase the needed medications.  Maybe he doesn't have any breathe right strips.  He's old. Maybe he got his licensed revoked because of his age and he needs one of his adult kids to come and drive him to rite aid and they are just too busy with their own lives to care.  I mean he went to bed and bumped his head.  I don't want to even think about why he couldn't get up in the morning.  Let's just pretend that his alarm clock didn't go off. 

ANYWAY.........

It's raining and we've been hibernating in our nice dry warm home. 

The girls and I were getting a little stir crazy and needed something to do.  Perhaps something to make.  This "something to make" needed to involve supplies that we already had.....'cause I ain't going out in that weather. 

We decided to make Inspiration journals.  At least that's what I'm calling mine. 

All it took was some composition books, some decorative paper, some spray adhesive, some ribbon and a little hot glue and

VIOLA!

Now......

On to the Inspiration!!!

New again

We have a dining room.  We have a dining room table.  If we actually eat in the dining room we have to lug 2 more chairs in there so we can all fit around the table.  ugh! This room does not inspire me.  I don't sit in there and glory in my surroundings.  We don't often eat in the dining room.

That is until now!

I decided that  waiting around for a new table and chairs was not the route I wanted to go anymore.  I'm aging here people....I got dinners to make and people to feed.  I would take this matter into my own hands and re-do what I already had.

I got my inspiration HERE

It seemed simple enough.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole set before...but here is the table as I began the sanding process.

I only sanded the top of the table.

I just made sure to sand off anything "shiny".

Painting the chairs was the hardest part.  All those legs and rounded edges.  After letting the first coat dry, I actually went back 2 more times and touched up all the areas I missed.  It's amazing what one can miss.  I think those glorious paint fumes were starting to get to me.

After all the painting was done I roughed up the edges with my trusty medium grade block sander.

I then applied an oil based polyurethane to the top of the table only. More delicious fumes for my brain.

Here is the finished project.

I went with the hubby to JoAnn's and after looking and looking and changing my mind and then changing my mind again right before the cutting table I chose some fabric to re-cover the chairs.

My sweet hubs also made me a bench.  Yea! More seating.

I also painted the side table.

Now I need a beatiful centerpiece for my "new" table.

Any ideas?

Well helloooooooooo there!
I would like to apologize to my faithful readers...
(that means you Sara and Kimmy)....for this little blogging break.
Don't fret, I'll be back before you know it posting lovely pictures, delicious recipes, beautiful craft projects and wonderful stories of yesteryear.
Until then I thought I'd share Dylan's latest photography session entitled .."emotions".


I have a feeling the teenage years are gonna get interesting!