If you give a mom a few moments of peace

If you give a mom a few moments of peace, she will remember she has to look for some papers for her sister.

While she is looking for those papers, she will get the urge to create a new desk space.

In order to create a new desk space, she will need to reorganize the office.

In order to reorganize the office, an entire armoir will need to be sorted through and purged so that four bags of trash can go out and the armoir can go to Goodwill.

After the armoir is gone, the room will need to be rearranged so that it looks nice.  Two bookshelves will need to be emptied of all the books, dusted, moved and reshelved.  In categorical order.

To fill the space between the shelves, a desk will need to be created using a five foot folding table, some muslin and a whole box of nailhead trim.

To clear the top of the desk, files will need to be created for all the piles of papers mom had to look through.

And no.  I never found those papers.

But my newly reorganized office rocks.  And I spent zero dollars.

Yummy

Gluten Free Casein Free Brownies

Banana Bread

Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

Alton Brown's French Toast

Mixed Berry Cobbler

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Pecan Pie

Pasta With Mushrooms and artichokes

Popovers

Strawberry Jam

Fig Jam

Bacon and Okra Griddle Cakes

Cherry Beer Margaritas

Gluten Free Bread

Chocolate Chip Chia Seed Cookies (gluten free/casein free)

Sweet Potato Brulee

Decrappification efforts

mason jar solar lights

mason jar pendant light

Backyard Deck

Bedside Sconces

Why is it so hard to decorate a mantle?

Front Porch

Back Yard

Dry Erase Boards

Mason Jar Solar Lights

After seeing that photo of the mason jar solar lights, I knew I really wanted to try it.  And two days ago, I go into our local dollar store than they have solar yard lights for only $1 each.  I knew it was meant to be.  I bought four to try.  I probably should have only bought one to try, but I was a little overzealous.

The results?

It was meant to be.  Like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

I took off the plastic stake that the solar light was on.  At first, I just tried to put the solar light into the jar, but the jar wasn't wide enough.  So I grabbed a ring and then it fit perfectly.

This way, I can glue the solar light to the ring and not the jar.  If for some reason I ever want to use the jars again, I can.  I've only lost the ring, which can be unscrewed.

Time to head back to the dollar store for a dozen more.

Let there be light - Mason Jar Pendant

I have a new drop down pendant light over my kitchen sink.

And it was love at first sight.

This is what it used to look like.  Just a plain can light in the ceiling.

The best part was, there was no rewiring involved.  I put this up in about five minutes.  You unscrew the lightbulb and an adaptor screws right in and voila, instant hanging light.  They had several light shades to choose from, but I wanted to use my antique blue ball jar.  I didn't want to drill a hole through the zinc lid, so I used a regular lid.  I drilled a hole right through the top and screwed the bulb and adaptor on.  Now when I need to change the lightbulb, all I have to do is unscrew the jar from the lid.

I'm in lighting love!

I need to scrub out the jar again.  Do you know how hard it is to get 80 year old grime out of a jar?  I don't even want to know what it is either.

Here were a few more I found that I loved, but some of these require electrical skills I don't currently possess, so I'll just go with the $20 light kit from Lowes.

This would be super cute in a rustic bathroom.

This would be really cute on my new patio!

Not sure the husband would love this one, but I sure do.

And I saved the best for last. I will be doing this immediately!

It's Prom Season

It's time for Senior Prom.  sniff. sniff.

No, I did not cry.  I might have wanted to, but I didn't.  Her parents can not say the same.  For some reason, my house was voted the place to stop and take pictures.  But I really didn't mind.  I like getting to know their friends.  And I'm a very lucky mom because my kids are awesome and they have really nice, respectful friends.

Yes, she is wearing sparkly tennis shoes.  She said she wasn't going to be miserable in heels like last year.

The friends came in waves.  Which I guess is a good thing.  If they had all been here at the same time, it would have gotten pretty crowded.

.  

This group of friends came back to my house after prom.  They wanted a place to hang out and I loved knowing that they weren't getting into trouble somewhere.  They spent a half hour taking off dresses, makeup and bobby pins because they wanted to go swimming.  Two minutes later, they were back in the house, squealing about how cold the water was.  Duh.  It's been raining all week, that water was going to be like ice.

Sometimes I just sit in awe of what good kids I have.  They make some truly remarkable choices and have wonderful friends.  

I am blessed.

How I spent my Mother's Day

First, I slept in.  It wasn't hard because when I got up at 9am, every single one of my kids were still asleep.  They eventually got up and made me breakfast in bed, like all good kids are supposed to do.  I was then bestowed with cards and gifts, because they know better than to ignore this day.  I managed to lay around and read for most of the morning, then my ADD kicked in and I couldn't just sit there another minute.

So I refinished some furniture.

I have some nesting tables in my living room that are old and not the most attractive things.  But they are functional and I have a hard time replacing something that is perfectly good.  It's the cheapskate in me.

I started by sanding them down.  They were really shiny and I wanted to stain the tops and paint the bottom.  I did a much more thorough job on the tops.  It took a while, even with my little sander.  I had a more heavy duty sander that would have used, but it was broken, so I was stuck using my little mouse sander.  It's better than trying to do it by hand!

Ta Da!!!  I used my favorite blue paint, Behr Hazy Skies.  After they were dry, I did a little sanding and distressing.  Why?  Because I have seven kids and two dogs.  Crap gets distressed here pretty quickly, so I thought I would give it a head start. And now, I love my tables.  They are very versatile and if we need them spread out around the room for a party, it's easy to do.

And the best part?  My very very brown living room now has a tiny little bit of color.  Yeah!  Something in my living room isn't brown.  It's a Christmas miracle in May.

My daughters thought it was hysterical how dirty I was.  I didn't find it hysterical when I realized that I went to Lowes to buy stain like this.