AWESOME FIND

I just love finding something unexpected.  As I was cruising down my regular route to work I spotted this little gem flipped upside down on a couple of plastic barrels. I had passed it up before I fully realized what it was.  I did a quick turn around and went back to take a look at it.

With a little loving care this gem can be made to look awesome.  It's the perfect craft table for me! The nice thing about it is that it can be raised up to a higher position than what the picture is showing it to be in.

It tilts to the left or right.  The rollers are in excellent shape.  Can't wait to get to this little gem and work on it but, "alas" there are other items ahead of it that I need to redo.

This picture shows the rod that lifts it up and down.  It's made of real wood and the metal is gray black color.  As you can see Prince had to check it out.

When I start work on it I'll try to remember to take in progress pictures so you can see what all was done to bring out the beauty of this little gem.

Thanks for dropping by my blog! Ya'll have a blessed and joyous weekend.

Drawer Bookshelves

Finally I have  book drawers to put all my books in!! Yea!  My new book shelf  is made out of three dresser drawers.  I had gone out on free cycle and put a message in to see if anyone had an old dresser that was falling apart but the drawers were o.k.  I got a answer back and went to check it out.  The awesomeness about the drawers were they are made out of real wood not the cheap particle board most dressers are made out of today!!  SCORE big time for me!.  My original idea was to make two of the drawers into an end table, but the more I thought about it the more I realized they would be perfect for all those books I had lying on the floor in my hall. There is already a small bookshelf there with all my novels that I keep and read at least once every year.  The books on the floor next to this shelf were either children's books I did not want to get rid of, some Christian books on different subjects and a few old Harlequin I had kept.

I did not think to take a picture of the drawers before I set them up, so you'll just get to see the end results.  This is by no ways a finished project. I've got to decide which color I want to paint them and the book shelf.  I'm thinking about a deep garnet red color that is in the pattern on my sofa bed. Not sure but I'm going to think about it for a bit before I make a decision.

The nice thing is when I set two of the drawers next to the bookshelf it filled the space perfectly between my bookshelf and the trim on the door to one of my bedrooms.  Here let me show you what I mean.

You can see the bookshelf in the lower right hand corner.  As stated the drawers are a perfect fit between it and the trim on the door.  YEA!!  One of the drawers had the face plate (that's what I call it) already off, so I decided to pull the plate off a second drawer.  That way the 3rd drawer could sit on top of the two without any problem.  Let me tell you I had a time pulling staples out of both of the drawers on the bottom. Oh, there were nails that I also pulled out. Let's just say my right arm and thumbs on both hands are sore from pulling to get those crazy staples and nails out.


Here's a picture of the "plate" I pulled off.

 

I figure I can put it to good use for something!!

Here's another view of the book shelf.

It may seem crazy to have book shelves in the hall, but my home is only 1200 sq foot of living space about 1500 sq foot including the garage.  My living room is small so I was unable to include bookshelves in the living room.  I figured why not the hall.  It's only me and my dog who live there with the occasional family visits so it's no big deal.  There's still plenty of space to walk down the hall  even with the bookshelves in there. Here's why I say that.

This is looking from my dining room to the hall. Right behind the chair is the wall so there is open space the entire length of the book shelves/cases whatever you want to call them.



Hope you enjoyed my seeing my new drawer bookshelf.  When I paint the drawers and book shelf I will take a picture so you can see the completed results.

Have a blessed week!

I LOVE LUCY TIME

My darling niece  called me while I was having my vacation and asked if I could take care of her precious little bundle of joy Lucy.  Of course I said "YES!". I mean how could I pass up this wonderful opportunity to spend time with Lucy.  My darling niece brought her little bundle of joy over around 11:00.  She told me that she would probably be back around 4:30 or 5:00 to pick her up.  That was fine with me after all when would this opportunity arise again to spend time with little Lucy.



Here's a picture of Lucy.

 Ha! Gotcha I know you were thinking I was talking about a baby.  Wrong Becca is not married but she just got her first puppy dog.  She brought Lucy when she came to visit her parents. Her Mom couldn't dog sit since she had to pray and study for her sermon the next day.  I got the privilege of dog sitting.  Lucy is around three months, I think, in this picture. She is a bundle of energy! While she was at the house she rarely stopped moving.

Here she is with Prince having a great time aggravating him.  She loved to chew on his short tail and the back of his legs.  After a while Prince decided this little play mate was too much!! He'd try to get away from her but she would just follow where ever he went. Lucy found Prince's basket of toys to play with and pulled out a tennis ball and chew bone.  She really liked the chew bone. 

Even when she was trying to take a nap every time someone would move she'd pop here cute little head up.

The funniest thing she did was when she discovered Prince's water bowl.  She would take a drink and then put almost are entire body in his bowl then with her front legs start splashing water everywhere. Twice I had to clean up a big water mess she made on the floor.   I never was able to get a picture of it but it was rather cute.  Becca said she likes to swim so I guess maybe she thought it was a little swimming pool.  

My darling granddaughter had left her back pack on the floor. Lucy seemed to like it and would lay down on it to chew her bone.  Sometimes she would try to chew on the bag strap.  I think the little bundle of joy was teething.

Once Prince got up in my lap to get away from her.  She couldn't stand that he was up in my lap so she tried to get up in the chair with us.

Here we are all in the chair. Ok, ignore the table next to me.  With five us in my 1200 square foot house it got kinda messy when they were here.  We did pickup every night so it wouldn't look so bad.

Here's some pictures of Lucy playing with my daughter and grand daughter.

 She is a very good and obedient dog.  The only problem I had was she is still in the midst of being potty trained.  She does fine when she has to pee but with the other well let's just say she is still learning.  We had one accident and that was it.  Thank God I still had some dog stuff to clean it up with. 

I leave you with one last picture of Miss Lucy!

I don't know why she liked my black pillows. Prince loves them to. 

Don't know if I'll ever get to dog sit again, but that's ok.  This day we all had a grand time playing with her.  Prince was definitely glad when she left.  It was as if he gave a big sigh of relieve.  No more little sharp teeth chewing on his tail or legs!

My brother-in-law called about an hour after Becca got back home asking me what I did to her.  He said for the rest of the night all she did was lay in Becca's lap and sleep.  I told him that Lucy never stopped long enough while she was with us to get a good nap.  She always had to know what was going on.  I thought it was rather funny.

Hope you have enjoyed Little Lucy!  Have a blessed rest of the weekend.

VACATIONING DURING THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

I took vacation this year from July 21 to July 27.  My daughter and grand daughter flew in from Florida and my other daughter and grandson came down from Tulsa. The title of my blog came due to the extremely hot and muggy days we were having.

Ever wonder what "dog days" means? Well, I did so I had to look it up.  Here's what it had to say.

The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky (viewed from northern latitudes) during January. 

In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.

Thought that was rather interesting!  Yet I could definitely say Oklahoma and Texas are having a wee bit more than dog days.  We're having a drought!! But that is subject to change!! We finally got a small cool front with some rain last night and today!! YEA!!  We'll see what the rest of the week brings.  I pray we'll be out of  this blasted 105-113 heat soon because I'm not fond of having to stay in the house all the time!   

On to the reason for this blog.  I had a wonderful time with my girls.  We didn't do much but we decided to go to a favorite place we all really enjoy. Little Niagara in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulpher, OK.


Now here is a picture of the falls last year.  

When we arrived this year the place was crowded,but we were still able to find a picnic table close to the falls.  This is how the falls looked this year.

Barely a trickle went over the falls.  The creek water was dirty not crystal clear as it usually is.

My oldest daughter and grand kids went in and took their usual walk up to another small fall and back down to the large fall.  See the girls in the background?  That's the small fall. It was barely trickling down the rocks.  


We all had fun but it didn't last very long since it was hot and crowded.  Here are some more pics I took.

After we ate our picnic lunch my youngest DD put down a couple towels over the plastic tablecloth so she could lay down and read.  I was in sitting in my lounge chair taking pictures and watching people.  I love to watch people!!  You see some very interesting things.

This is a little fall just below the big (LOL) Little Niagara fall.  I was wanting to take a picture of a small cave I saw down at the  bottom of these rocks.  I wasn't watching where I was walking so of course I slipped on some moss and landed on my rear. When I fell I tried to catch my self with my hands and jammed my thumb on my left hand.  I sat there rather stunned that it had happened.  A teenager did ask if I needed help, but I said no.  Took my a bit to get up.  I felt like an idiot for not taking into consideration there being moss on the rocks that was still wet.

I just thought this little pool of water was kinda cool looking.

My granddaughter so graciously took the camera and went down to take this picture for me.  I never even realized there was a small opening in these rocks.  Course you never really saw it due to the water flowing over the rocks.  Or maybe you could and I just never noticed it.


The only other interesting thing we did was take the grand kids to a splash pad not too far from my house.  They enjoyed it until too many people started coming there, so we decide to go home. On Tuesday night we went to see  the "Green Lantern" movie.  It was better than what I thought it would be.  My niece ask if I would babysit her dog on Saturday.  Her  Mom was having to study for her sermon Sunday so she really did need to be watching little Lucy. I'll tell you all bout that in another post I'll share this weekend. Other than that the only exciting thing we did was watch movies at home, sleep and eat take out food my daughter from Florida wanted. Hey, there were things here she did not have in Florida so we let her do most of the choosing.   Not the most exciting vacation, but I did enjoy being with my daughters and grand children. Oh, I forgot my youngest DD and I did some thrift shopping one day, but I'll post about that one later.

Enjoy the rest of your summer! 

DIY - - HOME MADE DISHWASHER DETERGENT

I finally got to make the homemade dishwasher detergent!  YEA!!  I really do enjoy making my own laundry and dishwasher soap.  Especially since it cleans  even better than store bought and on the plus side its CHEAPER cost per load! You're calling my name when something is better and cheaper!  The original dishwasher recipe had called for citric acid.  When my DD was here last week for a visit with my DGD we were talking about making our own laundry soap.  I mentioned I wanted to make the dishwasher soap but could not find any citric acid locally and DD told me that I  could use unsweetened  Kool-Aid lemonade in place of citric acid. I had forgotten that I had read you could replace Kool-Aid Lemonade for the citric so I was totally excited that I could now make my dishwasher soap.   Friday after work I came home and made detergent.

Here's a picture of the ingredients. Remember my camera does not take good pictures (or maybe it could be the operator)!!

As you can see by the already opened pkg of Kool-Aid I thought of taking this picture after I had already made the detergent.  Here's a close-up picture of the unopened Kool-Aid.

This is the recipe as I found it on line:

1/2 cup  20 Mule Team Borax
1/2 cup  Super Washing Soda
1/4 cup Kosher Salt
4 packets of Kool-Aid unsweetened Lemonade.

Put all into a bowl and mix well. 

Use 1 TBSP per load 

I wanted a full quart jar of the detergent but did not have enough Kool-Aid packets. I had only bought 10 packets so I fudged on the measurements.

My Recipe Measurements

2-1/2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax
2-1/2 cups Super Washing Soda
2- 1/4 cups Kosher Salt
10 packets of Kool-Aid Lemonade.
   
From what I read on line they stated use only the Lemonade Kool-Aid since the other Kool-Aids will color the inside of your dishwasher.  I can't vouch for that just telling you what I read. Also, on http://jenerallyspeakingblog.blogspot.com/ she used the entire box of borax and super washing soda, 3 cups of Epsom Salt and 24 pkgs of the Kool-Aid.  I just might have to try that next time to save making the soap for a long time.


Here's my finished product.

I went on line and found a picture of a dishwasher. I then saved it into my pictures and opened it up in my handy-dandy GIMP Editor and added my words.  I also did a label for the lid.

 Here's a picture of the dishwasher without the words on it.

 

Feel free to copy the picture of the dishwasher and use it if you want. 

This label I got free off of http://www.cottage-industrialist.com/blog/  They also have other free labels.

Next I will try my hand at making the liquid laundry detergent.  For the recipe on that go to http://andthenshesaidblogblogblog@blogspot.com/.  This is my DD's blog.

I'm off to use my first tablespoon of detergent!!

Have a blessed and wonderful weekend.

PS:  I tried my first dishwasher load with the detergent.  It worked even better than the Cascade I've used. Cascade always left spots of detergent on my lock and lock that I use for work lunches.  Nary a detergent spot on this load and it looked cleaner and brighter than any load I've ever done with any type of store bought detergent. The white vinegar I put in to eliminate spots was awesome! No spots!  This is definitely a keeper.

PPS:  One suggestion.  Put the detergent in something that will not break because it tends to clump up and harden if it sits too long.   If it's in a glass jar you won't be able to hit it against a counter to help break it up. 

CRAFTING SATURDAY!!!

I woke up this Saturday morning in the crafting mood.  I haven't been able to do a whole lot for a while so today was my day!!  What I really wanted to work on was a small metal stool I got at a garage sale for $1.00, but I could not get one of screws out so I'll have to wait on that until I can get someone to help me with that crazy screw. I started my morning by making two small bulletin boards out of picture frames, but when I went to paint them well lets just say I had problems.  On the first one I ran out of black spray paint :<( and on the second the paint is still in the process of drying.  Oklahoma is having extremely hot weather this summer and it's running anywhere from 100 to 110. Mostly in the 105 up area.  It's also humid so paint is not drying quite as fast as it usually does.  So those will have to wait for another post.  Here's what I did today.

My first one was this:

I got the texture from here:  http://www.mayang.com/textures/Metal/html/Flat%20Metal%20Textures/index.html.  Sorry it's so long I bookmarked the page so I would have it to go to. I found a texture I liked and saved it to my pictures on the computer.  When I pulled it up it I opened it up using GIMP Image Editor.  This allowed me to size it big enough for my gallon can.  I actually had to cut off a portion to make it fit the width.  I then took my handy dandy Mod Podge and glued each sheet onto the gallon can.


Cost:    Gallon Can - Free (got off Free cyle)   Texture - Free

You can't beat anything better than that.  In fact all my craft projects today cost me nada, zip, zero!!!

I did two more cans.  The first one I got the image off The Graphic Fairy. Again I used my handy dandy GIMP Image Editor to size it just right for my needs and then Mod Podged them onto the can.

 

This is the last can I did for the day.

You may be wondering why I am doing so many cans.  Guess you could say I am preparing for next spring.  I'm going to use them to put plants in.  I.E.  ivy, succulents, etc.  I have four more can's to do!!

And for my last project of the day. 

This is part of a container that held cd's.  The sound guy at church has to buy the cd's by the case, since we use so many.  They just throw away the container when the last cd is used. One day I noticed them in the trash can and it got me to thinking "Surely they can be used for something else." I pulled three out of the trash.  Each container had a little round black disc that you pull out  Guess it was used on the top of the first cd.  I hung on to them for several weeks and then one day it dawned on me. USE THEM TO HOLD YOUR BRACELETS AND RINGS, so I hung them on the wall and put my rings and bracelets on them.  They look rather bland hanging there without any embellishments on them.  I wanted something to make them stand out.  I looked on the web for something to put on the little round disc and found nothing.  I looked through all my scrap book paper.  Again, nothing, but then I remembered I had some material, so I pulled out the box and found the leopard material.  I used the big portion and drew a circle on the material then cut it out and Mod Podged the material on the disc. Hopefully I can find something besides nails to hang up my wonderful little jewelry holders.  If you have any ideas please let me know.  In the meantime the old gray matter will be putting a lot of thought into what I can use beside the ugly nails.

 

Here's all three of them. I think they look pretty good over my mirror.  As for the lids to the cd container.

I used them to put all my ear rings in.  In August I get to buy the paint for my bedroom.  Can't wait to paint my room.  

 I had a fun and fruitful day!!  Really wish I could have more of those days.  There's nothing more fun than doing somthing creative.

Hope ya'll have a fun and blessed week.

No Longer One Of Them

This is a fairly long post so please bear with me.  This has been on my mind for several weeks so I decided to just write this post to get it out of my heart and on to paper.  You might wonder why I keep putting Love in parenthesis out next to God.  That's because in 1 John 4:8 &16 (Amp) it states God is love.  When the Bible was translated they used the word God which was a German word which meant supreme being.  That could mean any god is your supreme being. So to clarify who I mean as God which is Love the creator of heaven and earth and everything you see and don't see.

One day during my quiet time with God (Love) this portion of verse from John 15:18 (Amp) stood out to me. NO LONGER ONE WITH IT.

John: 15:18 (Amp)

If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world [NO LONGER ONE WITH IT], but I have chosen [selected[ you out of the world, the world hates (detests) you.

Ok, I knew my spirit man was born again when I asked Jesus into my heart years ago, but that did not mean my mind or body changed any.  God (Love) did not change my way of thinking or my body didn't just suddenly line up and be healed or made whole from whatever was the matter with it.  I suddenly started thinking about how so much of my speech and way of thinking is like the world's way of thinking and speaking.  I decided then and there with God's help to start changing the way I think to His way and the way I speak to His way. This one small portion of scripture started me to thinking about other scriptures.  i.e. Romans 12: 1-2 about making our body a living sacrifice and not being conformed to this world but renewing our mind on the Word of God (Love) and 2nd Timothy 2:15  study to show thyself approved, etc.

How many Christians hardly ever pick up their Bible to even see what God (Love) has to say to them on how to live a Godly pure life?  They just go on about their business and get more en grained with the world's way. How many simply go to church each Sunday and take what the minister is saying as truth? How many are deceived simply because they were too lazy or simply did not want to read and study the Word of God?  Too many I believe!!  There seems to be a lot of Christians who are just like the world, but I also know and realize there are  many more Christians who are not this way.  They live as best they can studying to show themselves approved by God, working on speaking and thinking God's way not the worlds.

 We as Christians have so much of the world's thinking or way of doing things en grained in us that we don't even realize it.  If you notice the worlds way of doing things is going downhill and believe me when it crashes you don't want to be caught in it.


Things on what we say such as "that just tickles me to death" or "I'm afraid". There are many things  that comes out of our mouth that are nothing but death words and not life words.  Here's a good one that I'm working on getting out of my vocabulary.  "I'm sick and tired---"!  Proverbs 18:20-21 talks about there being life and death in the power of the tongue and we will with the consequences of our words be satisfied whether good or bad.  I kinda used the King James and Amplified when I typed that scripture, but go look it up and read what it says.  We've picked up the worlds way of speaking. I for one want to change my words to words of Life and not death!!  You don't realize how much you do have of the world's words until you start working on lining your mouth up with the way God (Love) talks. Also think about this!  God created the world and everything you see and don't see by speaking.  Read the very 1st chapter in Genesis.  And God said--- is mentioned  quite a bit.  If we are created in His Image then we were created to speak things into our lives and too many, including me, have spoken death instead of life!!  So next time you wonder why something is going wrong in your life go back inspect two things 1)what words had you been speaking over the situation and 2)what had you been thinking for it states in Matthew 12:34 and Luke 6:45 "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh".  We create our world by what we speak!! So don't blame God for what's happening with your life check out your words and thinking.  Now I'm not saying everything that happens is a result of either of those, but I can almost say 98 to 99% of it is. Even the medical field is realizing just how much our words affect our body.

As for the way we think, well, how many people think it's ok to go into debt when God desires us  "To owe no one anything but love?" Romans 13:8.  Or a big one that a lot of people do is to sleep around  before you're married?  There are many ways we think that has to do with the way of the world, and I for one do not want to think or talk their way. Here's a scripture from Proverbs that says it all Proverbs 12:7A For as a man thinks so is he.

Now if some of you are doing these things I'm not condemning you.  Believe I've done my share of things that aren't pleasing to God. I pray that you decide to change your ways and follow how God (Love)  wants His children to act and talk. Look the only way any of us are going to be perfect is to go on to heaven, but while you are here on this earth why not make a decision to walk and talk like God (Love) to the best of your ability? Why not decide to read the Bible daily and talk to God (Love) daily?  He's just waiting for His children to come to Him and talk to Him and to learn about Him.  God's (Love) greatest desire is for you to have a relationship with Him so He can be the Father, Papa you've always wanted.  I realize a lot of people never had a good Father to show them much love or care for them, but you do have God (Love) who so wants to be a Father to you.  Today decide to change your way of thinking and speaking to God's way of thinking or speaking. Today decide to pick up your Bible and read about God and His promises for His children.  If you decide today to do this I can guarantee God will whole-heartedly meet you where you are at.  You will find there is nothing more fulfilling than delighting yourself in God and His Word.

MONOPOLY MONEY/HOUSES AND A TIN CAN

While browsing through someones link party(I can't remember whose or even what blog I went to wish I did so I could give them both credit) I came across a project someone had done out of a tin can and monopoly money.  I thought that would be fun and easy.  Now when you see mine you can have a good laugh.  It's not pretty but hey I am going to use it to put a plant in. Who knows how it's going to hold up but everything was free.  The tin cans, monopoly money and houses I got off Free Cycle. So for your viewing pleasure here is what I started with.

 

A gallon tin can, monopoly money and the green houses.  I only used the 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 play money.  Using my handy dandy Mod Podge I glued the money all around the can.  There was a small space at the bottom where the money did not cover the can.  I started to put more of the money there but decided to glue the greens houses around the bottom.  For this I used Gorilla Glue.  When I finished with the houses at the bottom I thought the top looked  rather bare so I spaced some houses around the top.

Ok it's not beautiful or even pretty (hmm where have I heard that line at before anyone know?) but it was kinda fun doing it.  Since I have thirteen more houses I thought about spacing them equal distance between the ones at the top. What do you think?  Should I or shouldn't I?  I'm going to get an ivy and put it in the can, so maybe that will help make it look better. Course I am going to have to poke some holes in the bottom before I do that to help with drainage or I could put some pop corn and rocks in the bottom to help.  I have to think about which I want to do.  If I ever decide to do another one I am going to put the money in different ways, slanted, straight, etc. that way it will cover the top rim and bottom. 

Give me your honest opinion. Ugly or pretty?  Hey I can take it!! Anyway it's all in the fun of doing it!!! Which I really did enjoy doing except for getting Gorilla Glue on my fingers.  That stuff is hard to get off!!

KEY/MAIL HOLDER REDO

I was walking by my door that goes into the garage the other day and noticed my mail and key holder. I've had this for years and decided it needed a make over.  I went to Walmart and got some supplies that I needed i.e. Mod Podge and some FolkArt Cardinal Red paint and some other items for another project I hope to do this next weekend.  The first thing I did was put some stripper on it to try and get some of the finish off.  This helped some but not much so I then got out my sander and went over it several times trying to remove what I could of the finish.  At this point I should have thought to use a primer on it before I started the painting, but no I didn't think of it until two coats had already been put on.  I kept adding coats of paint until the it was so covered none of the wording or pictures shown through.

 

.

Please excuse the lousy photography.  I do not have a very good camera, but I thank God for what I do have until the time I can get another one.  This picture is after all coats have been put on.  Not bad but it needed something else.  I have brown glaze I thought would look good on top of the red.  I put a light coat on and this is how it came out.

Doesn't seem to be much difference but the red is not quite so glaring.  I added my items I was going to put on the front.  A key and a stamp which I found on The Graphic Fairy.

Here's another look at the stamp.

I got the "mailing service" out of my phone directory.  I thought it looked really good at the top of the stamp.

                            The "keys" also came from the phone directory.

I thought it looked rather bare in the middle so I searched and found this.

Again from the phone directory.  As you can tell I can rarely ever cut anything straight, but again that's o.k. with me.  Here's how it looked after adding the "Adventure Travel."

Much better.  I spray painted the hooks with Krylon Satin Champagne Nouveau spray paint.  Here is the completed key/mail holder.

The only glaring problem with the whole thing is the Mod Podge I was unable to get off when I set the key onto the wood.  You can notice it in the picture because of the shiny part it left.  I tried getting it off put it wouldn't budge.I might try and paint it so it will remove the shiny part.  It's not all that noticeable except when you look at it a certain way and the camera really picked it up.

One project down and a bunch more to go.

Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Memorial day.