Desk Fixer-up

Our town has a month bulk waste pick-up and people get rid of all sorts of old, but still useable stuff! We've picked up a plastic kiddie slide and picnic table, the shoe cubby I posted about recently, several random chairs, two garage shelves, and most recently two desks.  Now these desks I don't need personally but I saw the potential and I'm hoping I can refinish them and then sell them!

So this is how it started.  The top is a little water-damaged and the paint is peeling and faded.  It also had knobs on the drawers.

I started by wiping all the dust and grime off.  Thank you diaper wipes!  I was going to sand off the paint, got the paint off the drawers and decided to stop there.  I used putty to fill a few holes, including a large chunk that was missing off the back corner, and glued, clamped and nailed down with some finishing nails the warped corner of the desk.

I painted the hole thing, except for the drawers, a super dark-charcoal color (practically black, I think it's called 'carbon' from Behr paint) and stained the drawers with and espresso stain.

I went to my favorite antique store and found these awesome drawer pulls in their original packaging for only $2.50 each! 

And voila!  From trash to treasure, the power of a fresh coat of paint!

Now to sell it so it doesn't sit in my front room forever!  (of course, if it doesn't maybe I'll talk my husband into keeping it and replacing his old desk! shhh...)

Can anyone tell me anything about the pulls I used?  The era maybe?

Shoe Cubby Fix-up

So I've been on a bit of a furniture refurbish kick lately!  So here is my latest project, and let me tell you, couldn't be easier!

I found this cubby-thing on the side of the road recently and thought, perfect!  We've wanted a bench by the back door to put our shoes for a while now, and this was just what we were looking for!  

The previous owners had kids, and the top had some crayon and it needed a few nails to reattach the back.  But I taped it off and spray painted the top red (at Mr. A's request)

It turned out great!  

Now Mr. C and Mr. A and myself keep our shoes in the cubbies and my Husband has his in a basket next to it.  We love it!  The Power of a can of spray paint.

Flag blocks

Not long ago I was looking for a quick project and especially one that was patriotic in nature!  I came across these super easy flag blocks from Simply Kierste.  

She has such an awesome set of directions I'm not even going to put up my own.  Hop on over and see how easy it is to turn a 2x4 into an awesome flag decoration in no time flat!

Carseat Cover - Update

If you remember, back in January we took one more plunge into potty training!  You know that one piece of advice that everyone always gives on every blog ever.  The one your mom/friends/woman-you-look-up-to keeps giving you.  You know, "When he/she is ready it will just click," yeah, that piece of advice.  Well it's true.  Sad, but true.  You know what?  This time Mr. A was ready, and here we are 4/5 months later, and we rarely have an accident!  So if you're there, don't give up!  It will come!  There are windows and if one closes, another one will open!  Good luck!

You can do it!

Now you'll maybe recall that I went all out-no pull-ups except for nighttime-100% fabric undies.  Now, my purse at the time included a bunch of small trash bags, a couple pairs of undies, a spare pair of pants and a shirt, diaper wipes and sanitizing wipes (along with all the regular stuff...), so cleaning up on the go was not a problem.

That being said I did NOT want to have to take his carseat cover off every time he had an accident!  I also didn't want to have to buy a 'piddle pad.'  So I took to the internet and came up with this fantastic carseat cover

Looks snazzy!  You can visit that post HERE and see the two patterns I put together and how I layered my different fabrics (all from my scrap pile!)

Well, it turns out that in four months we have not had a single car accident!  Wahoo! (knock on wood!)  As a result it hasn't been washed....

Front

 Eeew!

Back

So prior to a recent road trip I tossed it in the washer and dryer and it looks sooooo much better!  I have also made a second one for Mr. C.  I mean, look how much nasty it kept from the actual carseat!  Yikes! 

As far as how well it works.  Fantastic!  I know, I know, I just said we've had no accidents, but Mr. C is the KING of spilling drinks in his seat.  Just today he spilled most of a water bottle in his seat, and guess what?!  The water pooled in the cover and just sat there.  The seat is dry, but I had to bring the cover in tonight so it would dry!  Success!!! 

I'd love to see your covers!  They are so easy and there are so many ways to customize!  Let me know below how you made it your own!

Canning Fresh Orange Juice!

Living in Arizona there is NO shortage of citrus!  I don't feel like I am exaggerating to say if you really wanted to, you could find fresh citrus, off the tree, 12 months out of the year!  

It also seems that there is always someone wanting to get rid of said citrus!  Recently a lady from our ward (church congregation) offered up her oranges... begged someone to come get them is probably more like it!  So me and the boys went and picked some!

Well, a bunch!

I filled my laundry basket nearly half full, and that was because I couldn't carry more!  There were still several on the tree!

Then I started researching.  I figured there HAD to be a way to preserve that liquid sunshine somehow!  I simply don't have the freezer space or I would have loved to freeze it all into ice cubes and saved it that way! so I resorted to bottling it!

I found the recipe from Yellow Rock Country Girl and I was super pleased how simple the process is!

(my juice, preprocessing)

First, you juice your oranges,

and juice them,

and juice them,

and juice them,

and juice them,

then juice some more!  Seriously, it takes forever! 

Of course it probably doesn't help that there are two more pitchers full that never made it to the pot... but seriously, it tastes so good!

Then ever so slowly so you don't burn your juice, bring it up to 190 degrees -  But don't boil it!

Then pour into hot, sanitized jars (dishwasher for me!) and process them!  They need a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

Here are the exact instructions from Yellow Rock Country Girl, because don't forget, it is SUPER important to follow directions EXACTLY when canning food!

Wash the oranges; drain. Extract and strain the juice. I strained twice with a basic strainer  so I got all the seeds and the excess pulp removed from the juice. Pour strained juice into a large stock pot, add sugar to taste if desired, my oranges were pretty sweet so I only added 1/2 cup sugar to a full gallon of juice.  Heat juice to 190 degrees farenheit and then maintain temperature for 5 full minutes at the 190 degrees farenheit. DO NOT BOIL.  Ladle hot juice into prepared hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a spoon. Cap with two-piece canning lids. Process 1/2 pints (good for single servings) pints and quarts for 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner

I got 11 pints out of those oranges (plus two gallon pitchers that didn't make it to the jars!).  So far it tastes great!  We labeled each of the jars with a month so that each month we can try it and see if we still like it even after sitting on the shelf.  I bottled them in February (yeah, I know, I'm a bit behind) so we've tried one (skipped March since I only got 11 jars) and it was fantastic!  Not the same as fresh-squeezed, but still so delicious!

One VERY important TIP

NO RIND!  We didn't get much, but it is important to note that rind/pith in the juice will turn bitter when processed.  As such, don't use a juicer that mashes out everything!  

Try it!

Super easy!

Let me know how things go in the comments below!

Wedding flowers

Remember how I said I was really busy, wedding, funeral, family, family, family, etc. Well I'm finally getting around to posting pics of the flowers that I did for the wedding!  Ok, so really it was a group effort, but I did do the Bride's bouquet, half of the bridesmaids nosegays, and all of the boutonnieres.   my two sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law wrapped all of the flower crowns and I finished off about half of them (pretty wire-stuff and lace)  It was so much fun!  Perhaps someday I will do tutorials on bouts, corsages, and bouquets, but today, just enjoy the gorgeous flowers!

Grooms Boutineer

Groom's Bout and his four Grooms mens' Bouts

All together

Flower Crowns!

Bride's (far left) 2 mothers/4 bridesmaids and four flower girls 

The Bride's Bouquet is in the middle with the two bridesmaids on either side!

Congrats you two!

Let's Make Believe!

As you probably know by now, I have two boys that I love so, so much!  And being boys we have lots of bows and arrows, fireman hats, pirate garb, and capes, SO many capes!  I needed a place to put all of that sort of thing, but a 'dress-up box' seemed too, well, girly!

I opted instead for a "Make Believe Box."

So first I found myself a trusty diaper box!  Where would all of us moms be without our diaper boxes!

I folded the top tabs into the box so that when we move next I could pop them out and close the box up easily.

hmmm... I had pictures of the process, they are missing...

Then I rummaged through my fabric pile and found this great piece of cotton, green, and a tiny bit sparkly fabric, and quite a bit too!  Starting at the top and the middle of a side I started hot glueing my fabric to the box.  When I had a seam (there are two, but they are on the side and back!) I folded the fabric over and hid the glue underneath/inside so there are no raw edges.

Then I printed off the words "Let's Make Believe" (I totally wanted to leave that template here that you could print and use, but me and my computer are arguing over the ease of that... and I'm loosing... soon, maybe...) and some stars on my computer and traced them onto some double-sided-iron-on-stuff, as I call it (stitch witchery as it is technically called) and cut out the letters.  When you do this!  Either trace so the letters are forwards on the rough side or tell your printer to print it backwards (then trace so the words are backwards on the smooth side) or you will end up improvising and putting your S on backwards and your L on in two pieces and your E and Bs on upside down (no one can tell...).  Not that I speak from experience *wink, wink*

Then cut out and iron the double-sided-iron-on-stuff **wink, wink** first to a variety of felt.  Cut out again (this time the felt), peel off the paper side and iron them right onto the box!

Wahoo!  Easy-peasy make believe box (aka. dress-up box for boys!)

This box sits conveniently in our living room next to the TV and is always overflowing with capes and masks, dino tails, eye patches, fireman hats, bows and arrows, if it's cool for a little boy, we probably have it!  Enjoy!  Leave a picture of your creation in the comments, I'd love to see them!