Moving Day

So some family friends moved this weekend and so my brother and I spent the day helping them out. We also had a great time.

 Kevin and Grandpa putting together Kev's bed. In his gigantic bedroom. And no, I'm not jealous. Not a bit. nada. nope.

I finally got Lys' flower hangy thingy I made for her birthday hung up. It'll look lovely when her room is all set up.

Here is Lys driving my car. She got her permit a couple of months ago so I let her drive the two miles from the old house to the new one.  She did pretty good and I didn't get freaked out (too much).

A view from the upstairs walkway down into the entry way. The house is huge and so beautiful! I loved the colors and the kitchen. The floors were amazing and I loved the wall color. And the kitchen! It's amazing. Yeah, I'm totally jealous. :) Michelle even gets her own sewing room. So lucky. :)

After a hard day of heavy moving and lifting, Steven, Kevin and Tucker (the dog) spent some time playing and wrestling.

The house is beautiful and I was impressed by how much was done while we were there. It looked like a functioning house already! :) Yeah for new houses!

And if there is room in the attic, I just might sneak in. :)

Life at Work

This is what I have to deal with everyday. 300 cases. This is what 300 cases looks like.

I was clever and used the panoramic option on my phone to take this picture. The room that my files are in is about 12'x12'. And this isn't even all the files. There are several on my desk and lots in my boss's office.

You see that large brown filing thing on the table in the room? That is where all my filing gets sorted so I can put it into the files.

Here is what it looks like at this very moment.

Yes, that's right. It is completely empty! I wish you understood what a HUGE accomplishment this is for me, but you'll just have to accept the fact that it is. Unfortunately come Monday, it will fill up again once we get our mail. :(

But for now, I feel good about myself! :)

Welcome to Cafe Disco!

Our office loves the tv show, The Office. One of our favorite episodes was the Cafe Disco episode (look it up on youtube!). For several years now, we've joked about putting a disco ball above the secretary cubicles. Well today was the day! Last night I happened to find the disco ball pictured above in my christmas ornaments (I was looking for something else) so I brought it in.

Melissa was so excited.

I wish we could have put a bigger one up and I wanted to hang it from the ceiling, but we didn't have a ladder. But for now the mini disco ball with the sticky note "sign" is fabulous! :)

End of Summer

I can't believe how quickly this summer has past. Or this year, for that matter. Goodness.

Yesterday I looked at the field behind our office and was so happy to see that bright yellow flowers had taken over. It was so happy and cheerful.

It made me happy. Today has been kind of rough, so this was a nice thing to see.

Oh, and this talk by Elder Holland was very uplifting. :)

Corn Sausage Pie

Growing up, my Nana made dinner for us every day. And we had dinner together every day. And we ate whatever it was that she made. Most of the time I loved her recipes. I was looking through my recipe collection and came across "Corn Sausage Pie" and remembered it with fondness, though I've never tried to make it before. But I was asking my siblings and apparently they didn't love it. Weird. What's not to love? It's got corn, sausage, and biscuits! It's a pretty easy recipe, so I thought I would make it.

It was just as good as I remembered!

So I thought I would share it.

Corn Sausage Pie
Brown 1 lb link sausages (I used turkey sausage, and then because there wasn't any drippings, used just a little olive oil for the next step.)

Pour off all but 4 T. of the sausage drippings, and sautee in the drippings:

3 T. finely chopped green pepper
2 T. finely chopped onion (I used green onions because that is what I had on hand. Delicious!)

Next, blend in:

3 T. flour
1 t. salt
dash of pepper

Remove from heat.

Gradually mix in:

3/4 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups cream-style corn

Return to heat and stir constantly until mixture is heated through. Pour into greased casserole (8 1/2" diameter and 1 3/4" deep).

Arrange on top of the mixture the browned link sausages. I sprinkled more green onions on top.

Cover with biscuits. I just bought Pillsbury biscuits that come in the cans. It worked perfectly! I tore mine apart to make them fit better.

Bake 20 minutes in 425 degree oven (hot oven) or until biscuits are cooked throughly. Serve hot. Makes six servings.

So yummy!! Hope you enjoy!

Coffee Table Uplift

As I previously described in ridiculous amounts unnecessary detail the other day, I bought a coffee table and a sander.

Here is a brief Recap:

The table:

The Sander: 

This entry is the story of my (mis?) adventures of the first re-finishing I've ever done.

Another couple of before pictures of the legs:



I did give the table a quick wipe down and cleaned it. I did not take the table apart. I was worried I wouldn't be able to put it back together. Now that it is done, it would have been easier to do all the sanding and painting with the wood in pieces, but since I didn't think I could put it back together, it stayed together.

I picked up a couple of different white paint cards at the Home Depot and then my roommate and I decided that "Coastal Beige" by Behr was the right shade of white to go with the livingroom.

I got the paint and some safety goggles and a face mask so I didn't die of an asthma attack.

So then, after reading the user manual (which I normally don't do, but since it was a power tool, I thought it *might* be a good idea), I started sanding, with the grain. I started on the inside of the legs because I wanted to "practice" sanding before I started on the pretty top.

Making Safety Sexy. And you can't tell but I'm wiggling my eyebrows at the camera. Oh baby, oh baby.

Looking better already!

So everything had gone really well so far. I started sanding the top and it was pretty easy. Then, because nothing in life is ever easy, when I had only about 1/4 of the top left to be sanded, my sander stopped working! The spinny part wouldn't spin the sand paper part (I love using techincal names for thingys). So I finished tsanding he last of the table by hand. 

So purdy! I was really tempted to keep the table the natural color. I loved it and I loved how the lines in the wood on top were still visible. In the end, I decided to paint, but I loved the natural color. 

I put a couple of coats on the table of the Coastal Beige. It came out a bit brighter and whiter that I had anticipated. I still loved it though. While we had been at Home Depot, waiting for the paint, Christiana and I wandered through the kitchen department dreaming. I showed her some cabinets that had some cool distressing that I really liked, but didn't know how to do. Christiana then said she knew how to do it and told me! Brilliant!

For the distressing, I took paint and a small paintbrush and painted into all the edges. Then took a wet paper towel and "dragged" the paint down the edge, allowing the dampness to dilute the color. Almost like a wash. I used a Camel color acrylic on my table. I loved that it gave the paint another dimension. 

 Here is the table in it's new home! And my roommate, Christiana. She loves the table too. :)

So there you have it, my table. I think I am going to get a clear paint/varnish/polyurathene something-or-other to seal the paint so it isn't damaged by water and such.

Great thing is the cost break down:

Table: $15 at Goodwill

Sander: $0 because I was able to return it to home depot after it broke

White Paint: $6 (2 sample size jars at $2.94 each)

Large brush: $1

Camel Paint: On hand

Small paint brush: On hand

$22! Much, much better than the $40 one I planned to get at IKEA. Wahoo!

Awesome Possum!

Don't worry, Possums have nothing to do with this post, just so you know. (And yes, I know that that is not how you spell Opossum--gosh. stop looking at me with your judging eyes. ;)

*

Alrighty, so my living room is a bit drab because my one roommate moved away and took away all our fun decorations. So now I have to come up with stuff for the walls. Fortunately I have couches already and they are awesome. I've been debating on whether I should get a coffee table or an ottoman because we, okay, I desperately need something to put my feet on when I watch TV in the living room. I finally decided on a coffee table. The next day I got an IKEA catalog in the mail.

So I found one for $40 that I liked okay and figured that I would probably spray paint it or something to change the color (it was a dark color, and I want something fresher and brighter in the room). I had decided I was willing to spend the money and planned to go to IKEA this weekend to pick it up.

Then inspiration hit. Maybe I should go check out Goodwill first, just to make sure I'm not wasting my money.

You see, I follow several blogs (like this one and this one) that frequently spotlight DIY projects like re-finishing various wood thingys, like chairs, tables, mirrors, etc. that they found at garage sales and thrift stores. They strip, sand, stain, and paint them and the pieces are so beautiful afterwards. The ladies are so talented and make it seem like it's so easy to do. So I can do it too, right? Right!

I've thought for months it would be really fun to try re-finishing something. But I didn't have the tools and didn't want to pay for them, so it's always just been in the back of my mind that I would do some day. But "some day" has finally arrived! I could do something small, like a coffee table. So I checked at Goodwill for and found a coffee table. After talking to 5 different employees and 25 minutes later, I found out it was only $15! Sold! And it came with these baskets that would have been cute if they were in good condition. I think I'll just replace them.

I love the top of the table. I actually really love the color, but it doesn't really match the room, so I'm going to paint it. I think I want it to be a creamy, warm toned white.

Now all I had to do was track down a sander. I called my sister and talked my awesome brother-in-law who said he was borrowing one from work, but had to return it soon. He said I could borrow it if I could return it in a couple of days. I didn't know if I would have time (I'm helping some friends move this weekend) so I was kind of bummed. I went across the street from Goodwill to Home Depot to find out about paint. I thought maybe I could hand sand it. But that was crazy talk and decided against it. The girls in the paint section at Home Depot were incredible helpful and gave me great tips about sand paper and types of paints. I explained what I wanted to sand my table and they suggested that I look into renting a sander from their tool rental place.

I went over and another helpful guy showed me their rental sander, but it was a belt sander and was a bit big and didn't have a way to do detail work. He suggested that I look at the ones that they had for sale.

"Maybe I could buy a sander," said a little, naughty, voice in the back of my head.

"Oooooooooo" said the loud craft voice in another part of my head. "If I did, I could re-finish my kitchen table and chairs like I've been wanting to for years. Oooooooo!!!" So I tempted fate and went and looked.

I browsed for a few minutes and looked at them. I don't like to buy the cheapest things because there is usually a reason they are cheap, I usually by mid-grade, mid-priced items--which in this case was $50-70! Ack! No way I could afford that. I looked around a little more and then saw it. A $60 Black and Decker Sander that had various detail attachments for only $25! YAHOO! I asked an employee to help me find it, but the display was their last one and it was missing the dust filter and the box. He kindly checked local stores and saw that the Lincoln store had one. Done!

I drove over to Lincoln to pick it up. I did stop at Lowes to see if they had anything on sale and nope. I quickly drove over to Home Depot to get my sander. I found the aisle and looked around. I didn't see it! I was so sad. I was able to flag an employee down and this adorable elderly man came over and helped me find it! And then we chatted for a few minutes and he showed me how to use it and made several suggestions about techniques on how to sand the table. He was so nice and helpful.

So now I am the proud owner of a electric sander! My first power tool. Yeah, baby!

So hopefully this weekend I'll have time to start working on my table. And I need to decide on a color.

Now, maybe if I get a staple gun...I could make my own ottoman...hmmmmm........