The gift of light

I have had a Home Depot gift card just burning a hole in my pocket for about a month now, and this weekend I finally used it.

I have been wanting to change the lights in the dining room and kitchen for a while now, and since I had some funds available then I decided to go for it while I was able to get my husband to help me.

We started off with these standard brass chandeliers in the dining room.

I know, don't look at the mess on the table.  It's the light you should be focusing on.

So, here is what we have now.

Isn't it amazing?  

I absolutely love it.

So we went ahead and took down the chandelier in the kitchen and put up one of these beauties in there also.

Ta Da!!!!

I know, I really do need to clean off my tables.  

That will be next on my to do list, I promise.

It's 100 years old!!

About a month ago, I was lucky enough to get 2 pieces of furniture to experiment on.

This one was my favorite!

I had already taken out the drawers because they had veneer on them and it was chipping so I have been working on that this week.

As you can see, well you can see part of the drawer anyway, and I have finished the two large drawers.  I still have to give them a sanding to smooth them out but the veneer is
GONE!!!!

Here's how they looked before I started scraping.

Nice flowers, huh?

I did all the research on the best way to remove it and the steam method is what most of the bloggers said worked best.  Of course they used a damp rag and an iron, but me, I like
to be original and I thought why not use my steam mop?

Right?

Same basic principal, steam and heat, then I just scraped it off.

I have to say it worked great.

I know I am painting it, but I haven't decided on a color yet.

But I can't wait to show you when I am done.

Oh, I almost forgot.  

When I was picking the piece up from my friend her husband kept telling me how she would always tell him how old it was.  She has had it since college and next year, she has a daughter heading off to college, so she has had it quite some time.  

He said anytime he said something about the veneer peeling off she said, "Well it's 100 year's old, my daddy got it for me when I went to college."  

So, I hope she approves when I'm finished.

I know her husband will be because the flowers are gone!

Reorganizing my pantry

It has actually been a few weeks since I did this but I am just now getting around to 

showing it to you.

I didn't take a before picture, but trust me it wasn't pretty.

All the shelves were lined on the back wall.  There were 4 big shelves and 

1 skinny shelf on the bottom where I put some extra Pyrex dishes.

I pitched the idea to my husband that I wanted to take those out and make them

skinnier and L shaped, so that I had shelves on 2 walls instead on one.

Let's just say he didn't take to the idea.

If I heard it once, I heard it a hundred times, you won't like it.

You are going to lose space.

Blah, blah, blah.

So, I said just do it, I will take full responsibility if I don't like it.

All the while knowing I was gonna like it.  It was him that needed the convincing.

So, I got up on Saturday morning and emptied EVERYTHING out of the cabinet.

See.

I use to keep kids so, I still had my first aid posters on the door, just in case someone got choked or something. 

Mr. Wonderful came up with a way to use the braces that were in there already for the back shelves and we headed to Lowe's to get some brackets for the side shelves.

I painted it so it would look all clean and new.

And Voila!!!

A pantry reorganized!!!  Mr. Wonderful was excited to see that we had enough room to move the spices from another cabinet into this one.

I know I need some baskets for the rice and beans, but trust me, it is an amazing improvement.

Also the 2 white trash cans are for our recyclables.  

PS.  I took the CPR poster's down after I took the picture.  I just hope nobody gets choked.

My Wagner spray painter!

This past year for Christmas I asked for a paint sprayer.

And I actually got it.

This is the kind I got.  It's a Wagner as you can see.  And it certainly isn't what you might consider top of the line, but I have never used anything like it before so I thought it best to start small.

This was a find off of Facebook that I got for $35.


I know, I couldn't believe it either!


Anyway, I decided the weather was finally nice enough for me to use my sprayer.  I took off all of my hardware and removed the drawers, and got ready for working.


My color of choice was Cosmopolitan.  It's in the blue family.


And here she is all prettied up.

I am loving the color.


So, how was the sprayer?  


I thought it did well, I had to practice a few times but after I got the hang of it I thought it had a nice smooth flow.  


As you can see there was quite a bit of over spray.  Seemed a little wasteful but I learned to live with it.


When the paint starts getting low, it will mess up the spray pattern and I had to reload my paint cup twice so that was a bummer.
But it does come with the hose so you can do continuous spray, which I may try next time.


All in all, I liked it.  


I did two coats, and I have to say it was definitely a huge time saver, I would still be painting this thing if I had hand painted it.


So I will give it a Thumbs up!

Great day for a Yard sale

I don't know why but it seems like lately I just have not had time to do anything that I want to do.  You know, like how all your time is filled doing stuff.  And sometimes that's all it is "stuff".  


So I decided to fit in a little bit of me time.


Last week when our church had its Free to you yard sale, I went on a little scavenger hunt of my own and found some great stuff.

Probably about 3-4 yards of toile fabric for $1, yes I said $1.

The plate was $3, but I really liked it, and the candle stand was 50 cents.  The plan is to paint the candle holder.

And I got this cabinet for $15.  I actually got that for my mom because her microwave stand has had it.   But of course I am painting it first.

Anything you can think of. . . .

you can find out how to make it on the Internet.

I decided to give making my own clothes detergent a try, I have to say bloggers make everything look so easy.

And they were right it really was easy.

I used this recipe.

Powdered Laundry Detergent

2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated – I used Octagon, basically the same thing)


1 cup Washing Soda


1 cup Borax






■Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.


■Use 2 tablespoons per full load.

I was a little skeptical at first.  But I have to say, I couldn't tell any difference in how it cleans my clothes, and I actually like the smell of the soap a little better than any powder detergents I've used. 

I am getting use to using powder again because I was using liquid but other than that I am completely satisfied.

I will say that the recipe above didn't last very long so I have since doubled it and because I didn't want to stand over the grater for so long, I decided to try to put the soap in the blender to shred it up. 

It stuck at first, but then I learned that if I add some dry ingredients (like the Washing soda) it worked fine.

I never ceased to be amazed at what I learn from blogging.