Summer Time Cutie Pies

So far this summer it doesn't seem like we've done much? Genevieve spends everyday in a bathing suit. Garrett gets to spend about half of the day in his. Those pesky naps he still has to take get in the way of his pool time and he gets pretty upset about that.

He lets me know how he fells about it. Sippie cup in hand, he climbs the stairs to his room saying "No, I no want take nap, I want some swimming!" Poor little guy, If he wasn't such a stink by supper time, I would let him stay up. He just can't make it that long yet. Unfortunately, our day still sort of revolves around Garrett's nap time so we've been staying pretty close to home.

Summer time Cutie Pies!

Dishwasher Tablets - No clumping!!

I have been using some homemade dishwasher detergent for the past few months and I really like it except I do not care for the way it clumps together( I looked but I can't remember where I found the original recipe that I'm using). Over time you'll have to use an ice pic to break it up. My little measuring cup's handle has had it. It's been bent so many times I fear it will break off the next time I have to straighten it out. I even tried a bag of rice made using cheese cloth (recommended). That didn't work so I was kind of getting ready to give up on the stuff.


The original recipe is as follows:
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Citric Acid (food grade, you can find it with the canning supplies)
1/2 Non Iodized Salt
These are the basic ingredients and it would appear that the citric acid is the "clumping culprit". You see my big jug of citric acid? I have such a big jug of it because I make bath bombs. The ingredients are a little different but it dawned on me the other day to make dishwasher bombs! So to do this you'll need a few additional ingredients/items:
Water Spray Bottle
**Ice Cube tray (Traditional or a silicone like I'm using)
**Wooden block or Spoon (For Tamping)

STEP 1
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Smash any lumps with the back of a spoon or you can use a sifter if you don't mind washing one more thing when you're all finished :)
STEP 2
Put some water in your spray bottle. You won't need very much, maybe 1/2 of a cup.... This is the tricky part. You want to add water to mixture but you do not want the fizzing action of the bath bomb. To do this you want to mist the dry ingredients and stir. This way you can dampen the mixture. After spraying and stirring a few times the mixture will start looking like this.

What you want to achieve is a mixture that you can "PACK" into a mold. Spoon some in your hand and squeeze it, if it sticks together then you're ready. I use these Silicone molds from Bed Bath and Beyond to make bath bombs, but ice cube trays work just as well. I wouldn't spend the money on these unless I needed them to make something else.

This batch will fill up one silicone tray (yielding 15 cubes). The easiest way to do this is to fill up the tray with the loose mixture. Use the back of a small spoon to pack it into an ice cube tray. If you have one like mine, you'll need something like I have. I use a piece of a 1" square dowel to tamp down the mixture. Once you do that you'll have packed 1/2 of each cube. Now you have room to put the rest of the mixture in the tray. Pack it in really well.Set it aside for approx 12 hours so that it will dry out and become really hardened. I leave mine out over night. It's a little tougher to get them out of this type of tray. Turn it over and push the bottoms. It's flexible so you can push them out far enough to pull them the rest of the way out.

Stick them in a jar and just throw one in with a load if dishes. Pretty easy and now I Do not have to fool around with clumped powder any more. Yippeee!

P.S. You can use white vinegar in the place of expensive rinse aids. It works just as well if not better!!

I've been slipping! Shame on me!!

I officially opened my Etsy shop! It's full of the kinds of things I've been working on lately, however I do lots of custom ordered items as well.

I have lots of stuff to share, pics of the kids etc. I will have those up in the next day or so. I haven't been on blogger or Facebook much since Halloween. Sorry! I promise, I will catch up and try harder ;)

Fund Runners!

Getting ready to embark on her Pres-School's 3rd annual Fund Run this past Wednesday.

This was Garrett's first time to participate now that he has begun his first year in Pre-school. He wasn't sure what was going on or what he was supposed to be doing. I tried to get him to wear the Fun Run shirt but he wouldn't let me put it on him. He decided that he would do this bare chested.

Genevieve, a seasoned pro started off strong. Pacing herself and breaking only to get a drink, she ran a total of 25 laps.

Garrett "The Beast" Holland just ran, and ran his little scrawny legs off... He didn't ask questions and he didn't complain. He gave it his all and ran a total of 19 laps!! WhooHooo!!!

Both did a very good job! Genevieve was awesome, she cheered her brother on and helped him figure out what he was supposed to do. He followed her and did it with a big smile on his face.

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!

Repurposing a Changing Table

OK, so I decided to re purpose my children's changing table and use it as a table, and storage chest (for all my picture stuff) in the hallway upstairs. Needed some additional lighting there anyways, so it's perfect for a lamp. As you can see it's kind of cherry colored and the drawers all have a see-through plexi glass panel. Didn't want to keep the see-through effect so I'm going to prime and paint that as well. FIRST I filled all of the holes on the top left by the bumper/back splash thing. I used water putty and later just wood filler. I sanded the top smooth and just hand sanded the other surfaces so they would accept the primer.

SECOND I removed all of the drawers and door, but left the hinges so I could paint them as well. I primed all of the outside surfaces. I also used a spray primer to coat the inside shelves. The primer I used is one that was left behind by the painting crew that painted our house. It's good stuff but I probably won't purchase more, KILZ works just fine.

THIRD I then applied the first coat of paint. (I used "Silhouette" by Martha Stewart. It's a very soft black) I didn't sand anything before hand because I'm going to sand after this first coat dries thoroughly. I painted the door and drawers separately, they are sitting to the left on a drop cloth. FOURTH Once the paint dries run your hand across the top, if you feel any roughness now is the time to sand using a fine grit sandpaper. You can use an electric sander if you prefer, just don't push too hard. This is a light sanding to make all the surfaces smooth to the touch.

FIFTH I applied a second coat of paint to every surface, your brush strokes are more important for this coat. Once dried I reassembled and touched up any places I could see that I had missed earlier. Now comes the fun part because you're almost finished! YAYSIXTH I used my 100 and 150 grit sand paper to give it a worn look on the corners and knobs. To give it more depth, after sanding take a MINWAX stain pen (light-medium color) and stain the exposed wood. Wipe clean with a cloth. Reapply as many times as you need to achieve the color desired. Here are a few close-ups...



LAST STEP I tried MINWAX Furniture Polishing Wax instead of a clear poly to seal it. It's kind of a pain, just like waxing your car but it does look nice and I think it's worth all of the sweating. I tried both the electric buffer and plain old elbow grease, and I think you need to use a little of both to achieve the desired sheen. It does need to cure like paint so don't be alarmed if it feels a little sticky. Try to wipe off any fingerprints you might leave. By the next day or so it should feel dry. Hope this helps you and/or inspires you to put something you have sitting in your basement or garage to better use and love it again! Here is the finished product sitting in my hallway upstairs. I love that it's now sitting there and can hardly remember what it was like with nothing sitting there!!

ALL ABOARD!

What do you do when you get some freakishly cool summer weather that feels more like fall?

Take the kids for a ride on the Blue Ridge Train!

The train ride is an hour in each direction with a 2 hour stop on the Georgia/Tennessee border. The kids loved it until the last half hour of the trip. The Engineer felt it necessary to blow the whistle randomly and frequently. It's startling when you're sitting in an open car, especially for a tired little boy. He finally had enough and started crying. Matt had to take him back to one of enclosed cars where he cried himself to sleep... Ahhhh, it was still a good day!

The 4th Down South!

We spent the 4th on the Mississippi coast with family. Everyone had a great time as usual, especially the little kids!

My cousin Davey and his wife Melissa are expecting a little girl "Emma Grace" later this year!

Goofing off and having fun was on every one's mind. We're all on an extended break and ready to enjoy it!!!

The pool is where these two spent every waking minute (including Garrett). The bigger cousins graced us with their presence around 4pm, or when they woke up ;)
We were all thanking the Hilton's for their pool and especially Steven's watermelon!! It was too HOT to do anything else and the kids had the best time!!!