~Toast Anyone?...If You Can Find The Toaster~

Hello everyone! I got my toaster cover done! I am so excited! I can just hear people now...."Sarah don't you have a toaster"?....."Why yes I do, it is right here under this clever little cover"! Hey girls I finally have a "Hide and Seek"! Haha! I got this last weekend....my nephew went to visit my Sister & Brother-In- Law (his Mom & Dad) in my hometown....and my Dad had it done for me~so he brought it back! I love it when my family takes trips back home~it works out so great for me! :) Thank you family and THANK YOU Dad! I had so much fun working on this, it just took me a couple hours, another fun project! Here is the before picture~

And here is the After picture~

I just love how the stain brings out the grain in the wood and the imperfections in the wood...well I love them too! I think they give it so much character! I still have to put a sealer coat on it. I can't wait to start using it and make a little display on top, I got a beeswax bunny today and I know he is going on it, more Spring, Yay! I am sure my family will just love moving my toaster cover with all my little prim goodies on it! Oh well they will get used to it!! My Dad is going to be working on my bowl rack and a candle box next. He truly is the greatest and so talented! I Love Him so much!!

Hmmmm don't know what I will be working on next but I will think of something! Until next time, take care everyone. ~Sarah~

Here is my little beeswax bunny I got the other day on top of my toaster cover~Bringing a little more Spring inside the house! Because tonight outside it is freeeeezing!! I will say it again~Hurry Up Spring~Please. :)

~Busy Fun Project Weekend~

Happy Monday everyone! I just wanted to share my first two attempts at back stitching! I have to tell you one of my best bloggin buddies Lisa from Black Sheep Prims Homeplace made it all possible! I told her that I loved her Prim Stitcherys and that I would love to try my hand at it. She offered to make up and send me a little kit to get started! Everything I needed was in my little package! Isn't that the sweetest! Here is the first one that I got done. I have been working on these for a few weeks off and on. I just got them all tea stained this weekend. I painted and distressed an unfinished wood frame for this one~

And here is the second one. This is one of primitivebettys freebie patterns. I saw it and just fell in love with these two sweet sheep~

These were two fun projects. I KNOW that I will be making more. It was so relaxing. And there are days that we all need something to relax us! Now I have yoga AND back stitching to calm my nerves! :) If any of you have been with me since my very first post. I had mentioned that it was one of my "goals" to try to do some prim stichin! And now I DID! Check that off my "to do" list! The other thing I wanted to get back into was painting and I DID! Check Check! Hmmm what's next.....? Oh yea...my Dad got my toaster cover all done (bless his heart) so that will be my next project! I am so excited to get started on it! Until next time. Take care. ~Sarah~

~A Couple Of Makeovers~

I know.....me blogging again so soon?......I just wanted to share my Saturday projects with you. My hubby and I went to a little antique store and I found this shelf for $15.00. It was a shiny dark green and I thought that it would look great painted black. So after we stopped at the Salvation Army and picked up a couple of goodies there (which I will share in a minute). I went home and got to work. Although I hardly call it "work" I really really enjoy it! Here is the before picture~



And here is the after. I painted it black, distressed it and then put some stain on. I might distress it a little more. Haven't decided yet.

And at the Salvation Army I got this little wooden box cheap. Here is the before picture~

And here is the after. I painted it red and then painted a black topcoat, distressed it and stained it. I just love it. Not sure if I want to go the practical route and use if for bills/mail. Or I just think it would look so great with some greenery in it. Hmmm I will let you know what I decide. Unless any of you have any other great ideas....they are surely welcome!

The other little item I picked up at the Salvation Army was this iron "corn"bread skillet. I have been looking for one, but the ones I had come across were so expensive. So when I saw this one for $7.00 I picked it up. Thought it might look cute hanging in the kitchen somewhere.

So that was my Saturday. Hubby and I had fun running our errands together and he is so sweet to go along to antiques stores and thrift stores with me. Today he found an old toy that he got as a gift when he was in the hospital in 3rd grade with a kidney infection. He called me over to look at it and he had tears in his eyes. He said it was his favorite toy as a kid and it brought back so many memories for him. He is so sentimental and so sweet, that is just one of the reasons that I love him so much. The toy was $75.00 so he didn't buy it and he said he really didn't want to buy it, that it was just fun seeing something from his past. He is now wondering if his Mom still has it? I told him that the same thing happened to me the first time I went antique~ing. All of these memories and thoughts just came flooding back to me. It is a wonderful way to remember and re~visit your past. I am glad that it is something we both enjoy doing together. We even found time to workout together today~45 minutes on the elliptical! Yay! It was a good day! Finished it out with family movie night. High School Musical 3.......Mom and Emily were excited...all the boys~~~not so much! Hey sometimes it is all about the "chick flick"!

Have a great Sunday everyone. Until next time. Take care. ~Sarah~

~Hurry Up Spring~

Hello everyone~well I think our family is on the road to recovery! We had had pneumonia, bronchitis, lots of runny noses and nasty coughs! Needless to say Kleenex made a mint off of this family of seven in the last week or so! As did Walgreens~six prescriptions to pick up in one visit! I am so ready for it to get warm and stay warm! It has been so difficult where we live to know how to dress your kids~really warm one day (like 68) and then freezing and snowing the next~ the winds have been horrible lately....Hmmmm maybe that is why they are sick? Oh well I hope that we have had our share for this season. Thus the title of my post! Hurry Up Spring! I have been putting out my bunnies and wooden eggs around the house~wishful thinking I guess. But if it can't quite be Spring outside maybe it can be like Spring inside! This is a little table in my basement~

I have also been putzing in my basement. Spring cleaning and rearranging. I just moved around what I had, didn't buy anything new. Nothing too fancy but it's cozy. The sectional is great for family movie nights. I am hoping to get window treatments soon and I would love to have a black trunk for all of our blankets~we have TOO many! And then when it is not blanket season I can decorate on top of the trunk~~See I am always thinking! :) Like I have said before every square inch of our house is lived in and used! So not a lot of what I put out stays in in place and some of what I put out sometime becomes a casualty! :( Yes we have footballs that get thrown......among other things. We've even had underwear being kicked off hitting some unfortunate prim decoration! Thus it is glued if possible or takes that prim stairway to heaven! I have a pretty good attitude about it, if it is truly something that I would not want broken then I don't put it out. Simple as that! Here are some shots of our basement "family" room~

I took the last two pictures with lightning speed~I lit the candles long enough to get the shot and blew them out as fast as they were lit! Wish it could stay that way~ I love the glow of a candle. The battery candles are great but just not exactly like the real thing. Well that's about all I have had time for with five sick kiddos! My Dad has started my toaster cover, my bowl rack and my candle box~woo hoo! Can't wait to get those goodies and paint them! Until I can get those I am going to give some of the pieces he made me quite a while ago a facelift! I will show before and after pictures as I get those things started. On those pieces I will be getting rid of some mauve and country blue colors~we all remember those don't we girls!? I have also been working on a couple primitive stitcheries. Thanks to one of my very best blog friends Lisa over at Black Sheep Prims Homeplace. (I need to learn how to put a link to someones name or website! Any help would be greatly appreciated)! Anyway Lisa is absolutely the sweetest person I know, she has been such a help to me~getting me started. I am staining my fabrics and primming up some frames~will show those when I am done too....whew...I have a lot in the works! It may be a while before you see finished products! LOL! I am having great fun being creative again! It just feels good! Until next time~take care everyone. ~Sarah~

~Did Some Decorating~

Happy Friday everyone! Just a quick post on this Friday the 13th~Yikes! We had some snow today finally! I know that sounds so silly to some of you but I feel like we didn't even have a winter here. Not many nights to just sit inside and watch the snow fall, which I enjoy doing when there is nowhere to go and no place to be. But today was a snowday and we spent the day inside together! I did a little decorating on my doughboard and tabletop bench. Not sure if everything will stay this way but it is fun experimenting! I am sure I will get some questions on the doughboard from some of my family members~like "you mean you have to move that everytime you want to cook something"? "Won't that be a pain"? Well I know the answer to that......"I guess we will just have to eat out"! Haha! Just kidding, I am excited to finally have one and I will be happy to move it over to the bar in our kitchen when I need to use the stove. Or into my bedroom on the bed when we have people over and need the counter space. No biggy to me! Here are some pictures~I tried both pieces with fabric and without fabric, I guess I just thought the fabric softened everything a little. And if you'll notice I am trying to "Think Spring" with the bunny and chick on my doughboard! :) Like I said just having fun experimenting!

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Valentine's Day! Until next time. Take care. ~Sarah~

I'm Painting Again!

Hello everyone! So excited that I am painting again. If any of you read my very first post I mentioned that my Dad used to cut out wood projects for me and I would paint them. Well it has been a LONG time since I have done any painting! But happy to say that I am back at it! And it feels good and I realized today how much I have missed it! A few weeks ago I sent my Dad some pictures via email and asked him whenever he had time if he could make them for me I would be one happy camper! Well....he got right on it and made all THREE of the things that I asked him for! Bless his heart! I couldn't wait to get them and come to find out my sister was coming for a visit so he sent all the wood goodies with her! :)

Here is what they looked like all naked:

And here they are now:

I cannot tell you how exciting it was and how fun it was to be painting again! I am sure any of you out there that paint and create understand the satisfaction and the pride in doing something yourself! I was painting the doughboard and distressing it ~ when I put the stain on at the end I could not believe how the wood came alive! I know it sounds so silly but it was just like this spark in me was re~lit! I was like "well what do you know" it's really turning out!! :) Once I started there was no stopping me.....I finished all three projects in one day! My Mom and Dad are coming for a visit tomorrow and I am so excited for him to see everything all done! It was just like old times~Dad cut it out and put it together and I put the finishing touches on! I told him that next on my list is a toaster cover and a shelf for my basement and he said "well just send me some pictures of what you want"!!! Aren't Dad's the absolute best!!

Can't wait for everything to dry completely so I can put all the "fun stuff" on them! I will post more pictures when they are all decked out! Until next time take care. ~Sarah~

Here is my Webshots address if you want to see close up pictures of the doughboard, tabletop bench and the whales tail shelf: http://community.webshots.com/user/deeb5

~D is for~

Hello everyone I am also joining in on the alphabet fun! Linda passed along the letter D to me! And after a few days of computer problems I can finally reveal my list! So here we go.....this is what D means to me~

1. Deeb~ This has been my nickname since I was a baby. This name was given to me by my brother Paul. To this day I have no idea how I got this name or why my family calls me this but they do and I love it! The name is such a term of endearment and it means the world to me as does my family. This is a picture of me when I was in kindergarten~

2.My Daughter~What can I say. I am so proud of her. She is so talented in so many things! She loves art and excels at it! She is probably one of the kindest people I know. She is so great with her little brothers! She is growing up so fast~highschool next year I can't believe it. Where does the time go? This is an older picture of her but it is one of my favorites~

3. My Dad~ What can I say here as well he is a wonderful man. His family means the world to him and he would do anything for any of us at any given time. He is a good man and I love him. This is him with my son Alex~he is happiest when he is with his family~

4. Driving~I love to go for drives. Turn up the music and just drive. In the nice weather roll down the windows and feel the wind. In the winter I love to look at Christmas lights! This is my nephew and I having some hot chocolate and taking the kids for a Christmas light looking experience!

5. Decorating~Any of you that have read my previous blogs know that I love to decorate! Here is one of my latest creations! I got an old washboard at the antique mall the other day. This is what I did with it, it's hanging in my upstairs bathroom~

6.DVDs~Although I don't get a whole lot of time to watch movies and I never get to go to the theater I have my 80's favorites that I just LOVE to pop in and watch whenever I get the chance! They take me back to a time of big hair and rolled jeans and pastel polos the list goes on and on! I loved the 80's~

7. Diamonds~Who doesn't love diamonds?~ A girl's best friend! :) This is a wedding picture of our hands 17 years ago this July! So many wonderful memories over the years, thanks for all of them honey and all the memories yet to be shared~

8. Daiquiris~These are so delicious I can't not mention them! This is Geoff and I in Vegas having a daiquiri before we went to a Cirque Du Soleil Show! What an amazing night~

9. Dieting~ I'M JOKING...just making sure that you are all still with me!! Haha!! :)

10. Dazzling Bellagio Fountains~In Las Vegas! I know I know these do NOT start with the letter D but they are one of my absolute favorite things! They are memorizing, beautiful, amazing~there is not enough adjectives in the world to describe them! I wish that I could bottle up the feeling I had the first time I ever saw them~I was like a child! I asked my sister "can we just stay for one more show please"? And I just saw them for the first time 2 years ago, I was stunned~

Well there you have it~Whew......that took some thought! I feel a little bit like David Letterman right now! LOL! Until next time~Take care. ~Sarah~