Leprosy

Wanna see something gross???

I thought so.

These are the "good" pictures. I just took a baking soda bath that is supposed to dry up the puss. Mmmmmm....

It's poison ivy. I got into it helping my friend tame the landscaping at her new house. I don't think it was in the landscaping, but rather in the woods-y area behind her house where we threw the trimmings.

Good times.

Here's the shots with calamine lotion. It's easier to see how many spots there are. :)

 

 

Re-organizing

Inspired by this post I decided to tackle two areas that are constantly disorganized in my kitchen (1) the "snack" cabinet and (2) the pantry.

Now don't get too excited here. I am taking baby steps. This is not a major organization overhaul. I re-organized the snack cabinet while Dan made dinner, and the pantry in about 20 minutes after dinner.

I was able to purge some slightly expired items along the way. Olive Garden salad dressing from Betsey's wedding, anyone? I'm embarrassed to admit how long she's been married. Let's just say it expired two months after her wedding. Two months! Really, unopened salad dressing is only good for two months? How do you think it is after two years???

The Snack Cabinet - Before

 

The Snack Cabinet - After


I moved the large unopened items to the pantry, and tried to stack things neatly.

Why do we have so many marshmallows?


The Pantry - Before




The  Pantry - After





I have precious little cabinet space in my kitchen so I turned one of our coat closets into a pantry. It is really hard to get a good picture in the narrow hallway so that's why it took two shots.

You will notice tons of junk still on the floor and a bowl or two still precariously perched on top of the crock pot. Baby steps, folks, baby steps.

My organizing structure is:

Top half shelf - dog stuff and Korean ingrediants

Middle half shelf - baking items

Bottom half shelf - snack and drink items

What do you think?

Dining Room Table Reveal

So I thought I would blog about every step in the table re-do process. However, it was an agonizingly long process. I found it hard to spend time on the project so it was delayed and delayed.

Also, it took so many coats of paint and poly with sanding in between that I think it would have been an extremely boring series of posts.

Painting Coat 1

Sanding Coat 1

Painting Coat 2

Sanding Coat 2

Poly Coat 1

Sanding Poly Coat 1

Poly Coat 2

Sanding Poly Coat 2

Poly Coat 3

Sanding Poly Coat 3

Poly Coat 4

Sanding...

Get the picture? Boring right? Oh and I would have had to keep going all the way to 7!!!! I stopped the chairs at 5 coats of poly, but the table top has 7 coats. Land sakes almighty, 7 coats.

I now know the issue with the table top. Unfortunately, it needed a better sanding job. I only sanded it with 60-80 grit sandpaper to remove the old finish, and I didn't go over it again with a lighter grit like everyone told me to. I was so sick of sanding (Betsey, are you with me on this one??). It's a bit of a bummer now because the table top isn't as spectacular as it could be, but oh well for now.

Enough lamenting?

Before:

After:

Woot woot! I love it!

Patio Furniture

I'm so getting the DIY/ decorating bug! 

In the midst of the massive dining room table project (which is finally finished!), I found a lovely patio set on Craigslist for a good price. While still fully functional, I thought I'd jazz it up with a fresh coat of paint.

Before:

 

I used Rustoleum which adheres to anything and stops rust. The rust wasn't bad on the table and chairs, but the umbrella stand was another story.

I did my best to brush off the rust, but I didn't do so hot on the umbrella stand. I decided to paint over it anyway. Why not put the paint to the test to see if it really does stop rust?? It doesn't look perfect, but it will be hidden under the table.

Look at the side-by-side comparison of the chairs. Isn't it amazing? The color of spray paint is oil rubbed bronze, and I love it!

Here are some finished shots...

Patio before and after:

Of course, we like to torture George. He's such a good boy!

The best pizza ever

Italian pizza dough (Betty Crocker Recipe)

+

homemade pizza sauce

+

fresh mozzarella

+

bacon

+

pepperoni

+

red onion

=

deliciousness

Things are growing!

Nope, not pregnant, but my cannas are growing! 

Unfortunately, I thought the blubs were already split from the prior growing season. They were not. Oops. 

I thought I was planting two cannas, but surprise, there's four! Truthfully, there were six. Two are dying out beneath the two on the right.

Aren't they lovely? I can't wait for them to flower!

Dining Room Table Project - Painting #1

I'm labeling this post "#1" because I can tell already the painting is going to take a while.

I only accomplished half the table in about 30 minutes tonight. As the chairs require much more skill and carefulness, I anticipate me finishing this table in August. Here's to positive thinking!

I chose Linen White semi-gloss latex paint by Behr. Why Behr? Because that's what Home Depot sells. As for the color, all I did was look at a few white color samples in the store, pick one, and take it home.

I did make sure to get semi-gloss finish so that it would be nice and wipe-able in the future.

 The paint looked particularly yellow next to the stark white primer. I'm getting scared. 

Well, that looks ok. I hope once I get it all painted, the color will even out. If it doesn't, I will try my hand at glazing!

One word about a good paint brush. It is worth every penny. I bought the nicest paint brush that Home Depot sells (probably not saying much to all the pro-painters out there, but it was the best the store had). Let me tell you, I can make a straight line, no problem, with that brush. Priceless!

Now for an action shot! Yours truly painting the table.