Celebrating Birthdays!

We celebrated the kids birthday at The Art barn at Morning Glory Farm!

This is a great place to have a birthday, the lady who owns it is a retired graphics artist so she has brought her love of art to her farm. She gives the kids a tour and introduces them to all of the animals (Donkeys, horses, goats, rabbits, cows, and chickens). She lets them look for eggs in the chicken coop and explains how chickens lay on their eggs and how long it takes a chick to hatch once it's been sat upon by a chicken. After meeting, feeding and brushing the animals the kids then go into the Art Barn where they create some art work of their own.All the kids had a great time painting a picture to take home. Garrett really got into this. He loves to paint at school and takes it very seriously!

After making an art project and eating cake it was time for a hay ride. The birthday girl and boy both get to help drive the tractor while everyone enjoys the ride. Genevieve drove first... The it was Garrett's turn, as you can see he was very relaxed and in control like he knew exactly what he was doing..... Thanks to all of his experience riding on the lawn mower with daddy! Happy Birthday my sweet babies!!! We love you both and hope you and your friends had a wonderful time down on the farm!!!!

Turd Polish! It's new to me too.... read on

Going from this....
To this....Stay Tuned

Turd Polish! It's new to me too.... Continued

Alright... To look at this pieces of crap "literally" you wouldn't think there couldn't be a gem hidden somewhere inside, right? I mean ca'mon. It is falling apart, all of the hardware is rusted, there are 3 layers of paints that have partially fallen off, the top and bottom shelves are rotten and broken, the side panels are rotten and there are layers broken off. Not to mention, it kind of stinks! like a really musty old house!!
I was going to salvage the door. I thought we could router out the panels and replace them with chicken wire, but the left side is too gnawed/worn away and there are excessive holes and cracks from the numerous door pulls that have been attached. Bondo can only do so much, it works great sometimes but this is a situation in need of major intervention not restoration.

This was something I found at a local antique place. There are many near bye but I purposely avoid them as to not buy anything, but this particular day I was feeling a little adventurous. After dropping my 4 year off at Pre-K I dragged my "almost 2" year old to a couple of stores. I was on the hunt for a cupboard. Something to put in my bathroom. To hold bath salts, bubble bath, towels, washcloths etc. I could very well keep these items on the edge of the tub or under the cabinet but that would be boring, as boring as the room already is, sigh.... Anyways, I found a few things that could have possibly fit but then I saw "THIS". It had all of the potential that I was looking for. A quick fix and a new coat of paint and I was in business, RIGHT! Not exactly? It would take a little more than that. My husband offered a suggestion; TRASH IT! Ya know honey "Live and Learn". It's alright I wont blame you, but you're not allowed to buy anymore "antiques" without me. Ohhhhh, that was a little too conditional for me. You might as well have put a leash around my neck as far as I was concerned. "NO", I was going to make this right and prove to myself and him, that this piece of junk could be everything I wanted it to be.

We decided that he was going to have to make a new door, the original was not salvageable. I put the thing on a work bench and preceded to dismantle it. I removed the side and back panels, those had to be replaced. It was pretty easy, it just pulled them apart. Some of it did break/splinter and there were a lot of rusty nails that I had to remove with the vise grips. This was probably the most tedious and unenjoyable part. I wanted to reuse the shelves and the shelf supports because they were routered to fit. I broke a few pieces through the whole process, but was able to glue them back together with wood glue.

I bought a 4x8 sheet of birch plywood to replace the side and back panels. I found a guy at Lowes that was pretty cool. He cut the panels per my specifications and didn't charge me for the cuts. Total I spent less than $10 for that. Then assembled the sides and back, and reattached the legs and shelves. used wood filler and caulk to fix all nail holes, seams and then primed it.

This is it painted with the new door attached. I was soo EXCITED!!! . It looks DARN GOOD if I do say so myself...... A Phoenix so to speak.

This was the first time I heard the saying "Polished Turd". Once it was primed and looking pretty good for the first time in a long while, my husband admitted that I might have actually brought it back from the dead!