We have a winner

I had so many entries for this giveaway picking a winner with the random number picker was difficult.  Good thing is, I wont have to pay shipping! Mamabee, my friendly neighbor was the winner. I am sure little bee is going to love this!  This will be dropped at her door this afternoon, shhhhh. Stay tuned this weekend for an awesome new giveaway.

Table dismemberment

Awhile back while visiting the house of my neighbors parents, I came across an item I just had to have.  Problem is I'm super cheap. (just disregard the recent purchase of my Bernina 830, lol) My neighbs mom had this cute round coffee table that was once a dining room table.  Ever since I had been on the lookout for the perfect, cheap, round dining room table to turn into the cutest little coffee table. Well fast forward to a month ago when I bought a dining room table that was quit large from a different neighbor.  It was her mothers, and she talked about how it was their table as children, blah blah blah.  I was having a hard time thinking of dismembering someones dinner table, where they might have once shared great memories, so, I moved on.

Fast forward to last weekend during our Indy excursion, Mamabee found a small round table that the previous owners had left.  Problem was solved, it came home with me.  Thats what I'm here to show you today.

Here is the before, just pretend the legs are attached and its standing upright.

It was just about 100 degrees outside where we live, so I brought this project inside.  Make sure that you pick a place on your nice hardwood floors that you had just cleaned, the spot right next to the white couch, that was also just cleaned because your big bad nasty dirty dog decided to nap on it.  Yep thats the perfect spot. now you need some supplies, since we are wanting to take this from dinner table to coffee table, I used a jigsaw, and a palm sander, your gonna need an extension cord.  Make sure you take safety measures.

First leg off, now three more.

I sanded the bottoms of her legs.  They will get felt pads but I wanted them smooth before I painted. I took my legs outside and I painted them a toupe color to match a side table I already have in this room.

Here she is (and the big bad dirty dog who nastified my white couch!)

The top is laminate, and I wasnt in the mood to fool with painting it, because you see I have the perfect fabric picked out to make a table cover for her, and her matching side table.  More to come on that later.

Have you modified something that you would like to share?  Please leave a link in my comments.

Thanks for stopping by.

I love pickles

Are you here to enter my giveaway?  scroll down there are a few hours left!  Come back this Saturday for another giveaway!  You wont want to miss this one.  Im hoping it appeals to more then the last. ;)

I love pickles.  Its that simple.  My girls love pickles.  We could easily go thru a jar in a weekend.  It's been done.  Every year that we have lived here I have planted a garden.  Amongst the flowers in my landscape you can find green beans, green, red and yellow bell peppers, zuchini, summer squash, eggplant, jalapenos, cucumbers, brocoli, tomatos and an array of herbs.  I scored the coolest job ever working for a local country store, selling flowers, herbs and vegetable plants.  My husbands only request was that at weeks end I broke even.  There were questionable weeks, shhhhhhh.  lol  During the season I turned my none gardening friend into a gardening fool. We will call her Abbey. Hi Abbey! She had about a 20 by 20ft plot that was set up for a swimming pool.  For safety reasons, she didnt set it up this year so we made full use of the plot.  It was filled with sand so we werent sure how the plants would do.  To our surprise, they are thriving! With the help of Mama bee, all her plants were successfully planted.  I know when I showed up with more plants each week that Mama bee wanted to strangle me.  But she will soon be enjoying the fruits of her labor;) 

I helped Abbey harvest a couple dozen cucumbers last week, combined with my harvest of jalapenos we got to pickling tonight!  Mama bee and I made strawberry jam last month, so I felt like I knew it all when it came to canning.  Mama bee made it look to easy.  The process for canning pickles was a little different then jam.  We used the recipe for kosher dill pickles on the back of the canning salt bag.  It says to wait 3-4 weeks before using your pickles.  So, I have a long wait to see if all our hard work was worth it.  In the mean time, we are going to have more cukes, and will try a bread and butter flavor recipe. Possibly a wickle recipe for relish.  Yummy! 

Here is what we started with tonight

I have a pressure canner.  I like to have all the best tools for whatever I am doing.  I dont like to be ill prepared for the job. lol  So, I purchased it years ago when I was attempting salsa.  I have a regular canning pot that I thought was a lobster pot. Who knew?!?!  I couldnt find it tonight.  Apparently it has disappeared in the process of cleaning and packing our basement.  So anyway, here is our hot water bath getting all bubbly and excited!

I am sure in the canning ettiquete guide there is something about not putting jars of different sizes together, but it was dark and it was getting late, and ...  I didnt care. lol

I was hoping for the magic pop of the lids when I took them out of the bath, but apperently they popped while bathing.  So no magic pop. The lids were firm, so I am taking that to mean they are sealed?  when they cool completely I will check the lids again.  If not sealed, they will hit the fridge and all will be good!

Here is what we ended up with

4 quarts of dill pickle spears, 2 pints of dill pickle chips, and 2 pints of dill jalapeno chips.  We knew we were going to have extra pickle brine so we went out to my garden and decided on jalapenos!  Who knows, maybe they will be good! I will let you know in 3-4 weeks.  The recipe says they have to sit for that long before eating. Do normal people really wait that long? ugh 

Next week we are going to make bread and butter pickles.  Yum!  

Have you pickled before?  Have any tips or tricks?  I am also hoping to try a Wickle recipe!  Hot and Sweet pickles.  Might make a really good relish.  I will report back on that one too!  Leave me your ideas or comments. 

Sweet dreams!

Happy Monday!

So happy to have this weekend behind us.  I pray for our neighbors that they have much luck with selling their house and then that the luck trickles down the street to our place.  lol  Spent the weekend in Indy helping friends get their house ready to sell.  They had rentors, I guess you could call them, and the house was left in disarray and needed paint in just about every room.  We spent many hours painting, priming, painting, did I mention we painted?  lol  Luckily floor cleaning was left to the pros and they are coming tomorrow! Another friend and I found our way to the cutest little quilt shop, on our way out empty handed I spotted some fabric that screamed her name, then some super cute Amy Butler fabric followed me home.  What can I say, I love her fabric.  I have just the project for her.  More on that later.

Hope you are passing the word that  my giveaway is coming to an end.  Go spread the word and I will chat with you all tomorrow.

Have a great week!

Weekend getaway

Dont forget to enter my giveaway.  I know there is a little girl in your life that you can give this too, or donate to. 

This post has very little content that will interest most.  We are heading to Indianapolis to help a neighbor and do a little shopping.  Since Betsy(my new Bernina 830 sewing embroidery machine) came into my life, I have had dreams of things to make and quilts to finish.  My quilt frame wont be here til August, but I hope to get a few quilt tops finished by then.  Anyway, we have the gps programmed with stops at several quilt shops, and then a short stop at Trader Joes.  We dont have one here, and I havent been in a awhile.  It should be a treat.  If you are from the Indy area and have any shops that you favor, drop me a note and I will add it to my list of places to go. 

Since the hubby is deployed we arent celebrating fathers day, so mama's having a girls weekend!  I see lots of painting, camping out, and new quilt fabric in my future.

Happy Fathers day my love!  and to all the dad's out there.  Have a great weekend, see you bright and early Monday.

Hot Locks and a giveaway!

A little while back, I was given the opportunity to review a product from WOW Toys.  Let me tell you, this was a fun product! The dolls are properly named HotLocks.  They offer lots of hair for your budding beautician to practice on.  Lots of hair accesories to adorn her "locks".   Hours of fun.  With the product to review we were given a second doll to offer to my readers.  She has gone unclaimed.  So I am reposting this giveaway.  All you have to do to win, is leave a comment on this post. Please give me a way to contact you if you are not otherwise registered.  This giveaway will end next Monday, June 21st, at midnight.  I will post a winner on Tuesday.  Here are a few pictures of these cuties



While visiting my list of favorite blogs to read I stumbled upon Sinful Southern Sweets page and she has an awesome giveaway going on right now.  Check her out here 

Feel free to share my link and if you have a giveaway, share yours in the comments below. 

Good Luck!

PS-I'm linked up over at  Cocktails with Mom   ,   Suburban Saving Mama  ,   5 Minutes for Mom  ,  Go Graham Go  ,  Jolly Mom

Check out their link-up's of great giveaways

Movin' on up

Almost 3 years ago we moved from the Ft Campbell area up to Evansville to be closer to our kids.  We roughed it out in an apartment until I found the most charming of places in a quiet little neighborhood just steps away from our kids.  They have since moved and we have itchy feet to find a new home too.  I am leaving this up to the husband.  Since I chose our current home(and bought it, while he was in the field, and never even saw pictures) I've decided he gets to pick out the next one.  We have our eye on one.  We are hoping WHEN our house sells, crossing fingers, that it will still be for sale.  Since I am leaving the house selection up to the hubby, I am anxiously awaiting the purchase of new furniture.  When my husband and I moved in together we had a mixture of hand me downs and left overs from our past.  Im not one to get rid of anything with life left in it, so as things reach the end of their use they have been replaced or repurposed.  One thing that has well outlived what I expected was our sofas.  The hubby and I have very different ideas on what our next sofa will be.  Since we are sure to have a family room and a living room, I am guessing we will each get what we want.  Here are a few I have picked out.

There is only one requirement, well maybe two.  First one is, has to have room for the hubby and I to nap together on it, side by side of course, and it has to be comfy. There are so many choices out there.  Its a toss up.  I love the seating a sectional brings but I love the look of a sofa and chairs. What to do?  Anyone have any opinions on fabrics or sofa brands they would like to share?  I would love to hear your opinions.

I cant believe how many sofas this website has http://www.csnsofas.com/   And great prices!

Check it out

Key Fobs for everyone!

Not to long ago, right here on this blog, I announced a new item that was going to be appearing in my shop.  Only problem is, it never showed up!  lol  Seems that I have been selling these cuties, but never added them to Etsy.  Well today will be the day!  If you have been wanting one, your wait is over.  Head in to my shop this after noon and place your order.  Here are some recent orders.

Since Betsy's arrival(that name still hasnt grown on me) I have been an embroidering fool.  Lots of fun stuff leaving the house on a semi regular basis.  Some things dont leave the house.  Im finding new things to personalize everyday.  If I can hoop it, it gets some lovin'.  Im not so sure how my boys are going to feel about this. ;)  Maybe they will get in the spirit with me! 

More to come on the embroidery front.  But I just wanted to share these cuties, and let you know you can stop by my Etsy shop and get one for yourself.

Enjoy

Happenings

Wow, Im finding it hard to believe that my last post on here was back in April. Has it been that long?  Life has happened in our house these past two months.  Husbands deployment, started a job outside of the house, school, soccer, softball, girl scouts, and an array of house projects I was determined to start.  Yes, those house projects were started, some were finished, others(many) are still in progress.  I hope to have the paint and dust cleared by the time hubby comes  home for R&R.  That may just take a few all nighters!  I have had many a sewing order, most of which took way to long for me to produce because of the schedule I was trying to balance.  And somewhere in there Momma got a new sewing machine!!!!!! Yes, I did it.  Its a Bernina.  Im thrilled.  I also picked up a quilt frame.  That is on back order but will be set up in my home in August.  Here is a picture of her.

We call her Betsy.  But the name hasnt been growing on me.  We might need to rename her.

In order to keep the balance, and keep my house straight, I vowed to stay off the computer.  This is what led to the 2 month hiatus from my blog.  Im working less, activities for summer have stopped, and house projects are coming together.  Hopefully this will give me more time to get on here and post. 

If you have made it this far, you really need to check out MamaBee's blog.  She has a super cool giveaway going on for a gift certificate to one of our favorite websites.  here is her link http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2010/06/giveaway.html

Go enter and buy your self something cool when you win