tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70483558546406580702024-02-18T22:24:11.366-05:00Pembroke LaneAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-81685548103285777922013-12-10T12:41:00.000-05:002013-12-10T14:49:57.624-05:00Filofax Malden A5 in Grey! My New FriendI have been trying to do things electronically for years and not loving it. My iPhone deletes my old appointments after a few months so I cannot remember when I went to the dentist last etc. Of course, if the battery dies you are out of luck anyway. I used to have a planner back in college and it worked wonders for keeping all my dates and agendas, to dos and such together in one place and I just threw it in my backpack and went off. <br />
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I have been wanting to get back to those days for some time now and ran into a lovely group on Facebook that does paper planning. When I found the Filofax website (they are like me, British... my dad is from the Cayman Islands and I was born their too, and my mom is from MD) I was thrilled with the site. I, however, in my crazy internet search fell in love with the grey color which is discontinued. So like any good planner, I stalked every website known to man until I found it. Finally, the elusive planner was mine on Ebay for just slightly more than you would pay for a new A5 from the Filofax site so I deemed it a success. I tracked that package like a mad woman! It was coming from Austria mind you so it had a few places to stop before it came to me. The expected date came and no Filo. :( Then, it arrived, two days late. I was SO SO SO excited I may have petted it.<br />
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Now, I am the owner of 1 A5 Malden, waiting on the delivery of a pocket Malden and a personal Malden. I also have a few Daytimer Malibus in various colors. This planner thing is truly addicting!<br />
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Here he is in all of his grey glory. Yes the pictures look more black but he is a dark shade of grey to begin with. <br />
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The Malden is a super floppy planner with pockets galore. It has a large pocket (which you can see a white paper folded in half peeking out), 4 credit card sized slots, a second 1/2 size large pocket (where you can see my post its peeking out) and a zippered pocket. All of these pockets are on the left with a pen loop. I have a nice mechanical pencil in that loop right now.<br />
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In the very front is what we call the dashboard. I used scrapbook paper and traced the plastic dashboard that came with the Filofax. I then punched it using a Rapesco punch (from Amazon) but you could use a single punch as well.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000J6EXM6/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000J6EXM6&linkCode=as2&tag=ourfr0d-20">Rapesco Adjustable Diary Punch 66-P</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=ourfr0d-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000J6EXM6" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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I used month tabs from Girl at Work (from the container store, also found on Amazon). These are stickers that can be removed and used a second time. I originally used the diary that came from Filofax but decided to create my own pages so I took the dividers tabs off and put them on these pages. <br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003SNL9II/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003SNL9II&linkCode=as2&tag=ourfr0d-20">Girl Of All Work LLC Peel and Stick Tabs (GWO713a)</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=ourfr0d-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003SNL9II" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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I used the original Filofax dividers to trace and create my own dividers. Here I used Bazill cardstock I purchased from Michaels. I then laminated them and used a label maker with black ink on clear tape to make my dividers. I chose a rainbow effect for these dividers.<br />
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I like to decorate my weekly pages. I have found that the week on two pages works well for me. This past week was fruit week. I found these adorable fruit stickers at Michaels the other week and only ended up using a little bit. My washi tape (the paper tape at the top and bottom) is from an etsy seller.<br />
https://www.etsy.com/transaction/157620967?ref=fb2_tnx_title (the shop is called Mind the Wrap)<br />
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I really haven't stuffed him too full yet as I haven't printed out my monthly diaries past March and I have not yet put in a cleaning schedule or other cute printables I am saving to my computer.<br />
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I did get a cute charm at Hobby Lobby when they had their 50% off sale two weeks ago and added it to my planner using a cell phone lanyard (also purchased at Hobby Lobby).<br />
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I will say that using a paper planner has been great but lugging around an A5 (which is 5.5. x 8.5) has been rough. When my personal and pocket come in the mail I will try and see if those will work as portable planners and then this A5 will become my go to planner at home. I have heard you can really stuff these babies full but I don't like clutter so we'll see how full he gets.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-5904186731139299242013-12-10T12:09:00.001-05:002013-12-10T12:09:48.610-05:00Vinyl Stick Kitchen Floor Update<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It has been basically a year and a half since the crazy upheaval of our kitchen floor. Thank goodness it is over! I wanted to come back with some updates on how the floor has held up. The vinyl planks themselves show no wear at all and we are rough on our floors. There are spots (just a few) where I am SURE it was installed tightly but have now shifted slightly because of use and have left small gaps in the floor. This is my only problem with it. I have spilled countless things on the floor, dropped dishes and silverware and the rest of the floor is fine. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This was always meant to be a temporary (few years) floor until we decided to put down hardwood throughout the main living space. </span></span>With the way things are falling apart around here, that is down on the list so it may be a few more years in the making before we replace all floors.<br />
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Will this continue to work for a few years? Yes. Is it starting to have a few gaps? Just by the back door and near where we stand (sink/ dishwasher). It isn't horrible and it isn't noticeable so we will live with it for a few more years. Yes, I would still recommend this tile. We bought these at Lowes in the vinyl flooring section. We purchased by the box and any additional pieces were 88 cents more.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-4955437495852333212013-11-30T16:53:00.001-05:002013-11-30T16:53:11.088-05:00Forever and a DayIt seems like it has been FOREVER! and it has.... well a year and a half. Lots has happened. We have been busy with pre-k, my husband switching to teaching special education, beginning a masters program, and my oldest doing math field day, violin and social studies and science fair. She is a busy little bee.<br />
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I have also been working on using a paper planner. I have a *few planners. ahem..... but my favorite is my Filofax Malden A5 in grey. An A5 is a half size sheet of paper for most people. I purchase my paper from Staples or Office Max in 28 lb weight and cut it in half and then load it into my printer and print my own inserts.<br />
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I will be filling everyone in on things that have happened in the last year and a half and show off some household developments. :) Hang in there. I'm back!!!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-69789100102777514492012-07-09T15:24:00.000-04:002012-07-09T15:24:15.262-04:00Finally the Kitchen Floor!!!! A Vinyl Plank Floor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As you may have remembered from <a href="http://pembrokelane.blogspot.com/2011/10/our-kitchen-transformation-not-yet-100.html">HERE </a>back in October, we had finished our kitchen cabinets and painted our backsplash. We still had our stained island and our hideous racing stripe floor! We recently put bead board on our island and painted it gray but the floors still remained. Then came this! <br />
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The horrible linoleum commercial tiles were glued with industrial glue that you use to attach to concrete. The previous homeowners screwed a 1/4 inch thick sub floor on top of the vinyl kitchen floor and then glued the linoleum so we were tasked with ripping all of it up. It put up a crazy fight!!! Every 2-4 inches was a screw into the sub floor under the linoleum. We even rented one of these bad boys.<br />
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$60 later, it took up the majority of the linoleum but left us with the sub floor to finish taking up. We were left with very beat up vinyl roll flooring when it was all said and done. We took a box cutter and cut around the ripped up spots but that also left the floor uneven in spots. If this was our forever floor we would have done a better job, but after 3 weeks of just serious demo, we were finished!<br />
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We purchased vinyl plank tiles from Lowes for $0.89 cents a square foot for now until we can afford to hardwood floor our entire living, dining, kitchen and hallways! That is almost 1,000 square feet and will be very expensive!<br />
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It took about 3 days of off/on again work to finish putting down the floor and quarter round.<br />
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The children were so excited to finally get to walk back into the kitchen that they did "floor angels".<br />
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Here we are without the quarter round or the finished island. Doesn't this floor look 1,000 times better? I can't believe we lived in this house for almost 6 years without changing that floor! What were we thinking?<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-21545840268500977622012-04-13T22:42:00.001-04:002012-04-14T21:18:56.073-04:00Working on a Bead Board Kitchen Island UpdateLast we left off with out wonderful kitchen island it looked pretty sad and pathetic against our newly painted kitchen. You can see <a href="http://pembrokelane.blogspot.com/2012/01/kitchen-island-make-over-part-1.html">HERE</a> how we spoke of refinishing our dear island and our color choices and why.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Fp3v718i1h-Xi2HRz6HrzlQMf2D9PCbBy31iabwJq7NG3twqSfL5mTYw7xGCdYuirHjBOBUn4tjW3L3xGYdpW1-OgvWBfMqrttOyqXsPPfksi8YGYaHe5rrrWsA9a9KXQBxbnTxMVE2X/s1600/2012-01-021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Fp3v718i1h-Xi2HRz6HrzlQMf2D9PCbBy31iabwJq7NG3twqSfL5mTYw7xGCdYuirHjBOBUn4tjW3L3xGYdpW1-OgvWBfMqrttOyqXsPPfksi8YGYaHe5rrrWsA9a9KXQBxbnTxMVE2X/s400/2012-01-021.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Since this week was spring break and we thanked the dear Lord for letting us finally make it to another one, we worked our tails off. First off, we worked on the yard, more on that later, and then we began more work in the laundry room, also more on that one later. We cleaned out part of the garage, still in progress, and we began work on a second garden bed, and painting the island. First up, the color I chose, which was the darkest on my paint chip was too light. The top color is comet dust which is our kitchen cabinets, the walls are notre dame which is the second color and so we chose the third, granite dust. Once opened, I realized it was way too light. So... I did what every cheap DIYer would do, I tinted it myself!<br />
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I had a quart of some shade of black in my garage and decided to mix it in with the granite dust so this color is a deep gray with a hint of blue and I have nothing to color compare it too! Sorry.<br />
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I also did something that I should have never done: I tried to prepare the cabinets using steel wool and my sheer good looks. Well, that didn't work too well and even though the front of the cabinets were painted and beautiful, they peeled off like a college co-ed at spring break!<br />
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Here you can see where I actually cleaned out the bottom. It didn't get wiped out until much later but most of our junk is gone! Know where it went? On top of the island! HA HA HA. It is all gone now too thank goodness! <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYGnk2t3F2jL3TWK2zb8Navk8fAUGHPi_7eEpjEkprs3c_21RqY9LUyRe0AxFX5ZVmmAct3p9NTwczmHlIW6vc3oo3ztzxZVvjmri4jfSWHqTnT1F11DuQl4kt1wQq6VML3EX4yCVmqPwR/s1600/046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYGnk2t3F2jL3TWK2zb8Navk8fAUGHPi_7eEpjEkprs3c_21RqY9LUyRe0AxFX5ZVmmAct3p9NTwczmHlIW6vc3oo3ztzxZVvjmri4jfSWHqTnT1F11DuQl4kt1wQq6VML3EX4yCVmqPwR/s400/046.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> I took the doors outside the first time but the wind was blowing so hard we got pieces of leaves and yard stuff on them so I am kind of glad they peeled so I could do them nicely. I then deglossed them using the left over deglosser from our kitchen make over last summer. I scrubbed and scrubbed and then used 150 grit sandpaper from the garage to rough it up a little just in case the deglosser didn't work as well as I wanted. I was grumpy doing it all a second time but I would NOT do it a third time.<br />
After two nights of repainting and letting the front dry, I rehung the doors and drawers and put on some pretty hardware. This was hardware that I had when we decided to redo the kitchen. I purchased 9 but needed 13 so I have these beautiful knobs to use on different projects until I find what I am looking for to use on our actual kitchen cabinets.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW16D65FTDlFrkKfOmcAMptUNrWRZOMHfghKrLEC-lQvMpwqUMqNRHVrIN1EgTSNG-da3x77pxJKfxHfjjhpbBwYOP89MRdT3Tc1RSMkTuG2K1JIIFLqPgru70kguKTRbdEOsDNkglMoFa/s1600/072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW16D65FTDlFrkKfOmcAMptUNrWRZOMHfghKrLEC-lQvMpwqUMqNRHVrIN1EgTSNG-da3x77pxJKfxHfjjhpbBwYOP89MRdT3Tc1RSMkTuG2K1JIIFLqPgru70kguKTRbdEOsDNkglMoFa/s400/072.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>My brother had dropped off a bunch of bead board when he moved because I guess my garage looked like a storage facility but I don't mind because I had all the pieces I needed except 1 small pieces so my purchases for the island were one $9.37 pieces of bead board and two $8.00 pieces of trim. I already had all the paint, knobs and other bead board pieces so this whole project so far is under $30.00.<br />
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Oh, and our hideous counter top? That stays until I can figure out how to get a huge IKEA butcher block counter top home or we drive there and have it delivered. The island actually featured a place for bar stools but it was a separate piece of counter top screwed into the island and didn't look really nice.<br />
You can see the counter I ripped off on the floor behind the island in the picture above. Oh and don't worry about the bottom of the island, that is where the trim goes. The piece below is not attached, I just leaned it against the island for effect. He He.<br />
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I plan on replacing the entire piece with one counter so it has a seamless look. I am in love with this island at Thrifty Decor Chick so I may end up with a routed edge to ours as well.<br />
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<div style="line-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px;"><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/190206784232386054/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="768" src="http://media-cache2.pinterest.com/upload/190206784232386054_1uxdpCyP_c.jpg" width="576" /></a></div><div style="float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px;">Source: <a href="http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2010/09/beautiful-kitchen-island-finally.html" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/melissagolliday/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Melissa</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div></div><br />
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I am still in the middle of finishing up the trim parts but the entire island is covered in bead board. I am not sure I love the gray but I did find this gem on Pinterest where it is a very dark island with a gray/white kitchen so it may end up repainted again?<br />
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<div style="line-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px;"><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/190206784232128865/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="450" src="http://media-cache5.pinterest.com/upload/230528074645557768_V2ZTkZZP_c.jpg" width="600" /></a></div><div style="float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px;">Source: <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7048355854640658070" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">Uploaded by user</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/melissagolliday/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Melissa</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div></div><div style="line-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px;"><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/190206784232191147/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="733" src="http://media-cache2.pinterest.com/upload/56787645271324236_Sz2N1dK0_c.jpg" width="550" /></a></div><div style="float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px;">Source: <a href="http://www.bhg.com/kitchen/island/colorful-kitchen-islands/?sssdmh=dm17.583529&esrc=nwkbi022712&email=3923664056#page=2" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">bhg.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/melissagolliday/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Melissa</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div></div><br />
I totally loved this yellow island but hubby shot me down! Boo! This would have totally rocked out against our gray kitchen. I still may turn our barstools this color so we get a touch of this greatness.<br />
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For right now this is how our island looks. I hope to finish the trim/moldings tomorrow and then the top will come sometime next month. At least I know it is better than before.<br />
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No the molding on the back is not nailed in place, I sat it there to ensure I had made the correct cut and don't you know it is about 1/2 inch too short but nothing a sliver cut off of another piece and some great paintable wood filler can't cure.<br />
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Http://www.iheartnaptime.comAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-14333273430795382262012-04-02T21:15:00.000-04:002012-04-02T21:15:08.227-04:00Reconstructing a Raised Garden BedOkay so I painted the garden bed and was all excited to get planting our new higher garden bed. We had previously told you <a href="http://pembrokelane.blogspot.com/2012/03/constructing-raised-garden-bed-tutorial.html">HERE</a> all about how we had built our raised garden bed and had filled it with the remainder of our dirt mixture from last year's beds.<br />
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Since then, we purchased 10 bags of hummus/manure to mix in with 1 more large bag of Peat and 1 bag of Vermiculite. We got the vermiculite and peat into the box and were able to get 7 bags of hummus into the bed before I realized/thought about it and decided that the double 12 inch boxes (24 inches total height) was just too high. So.... we worked on it a little.<br />
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After unscrewing the 4 large boards I grabbed a saw and took the studs by the horns and cut them in half.<br />
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Then we screwed the pieces back together to create a 2nd garden bed. That bed isn't filled or ready yet but now I have two, one on either side of the deck and it didn't cost me any more money. Of course, I will need to purchase more manure/hummus, vermiculite and peat for the 2nd bed but whose really counting? Not me right now.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hjttSC_xQgBLHYJFpWUynBz2Y1UDvd7qz6_vxs5i8rrXIHdlaVnClZ_h8gkbF3J85WSAIJGQnRvWJGl8ETeHPux2jXqxOULctFuqdPhyGJPBZJhrRklWY3fX9QsdLKRBG91cItyKDZyU/s1600/039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hjttSC_xQgBLHYJFpWUynBz2Y1UDvd7qz6_vxs5i8rrXIHdlaVnClZ_h8gkbF3J85WSAIJGQnRvWJGl8ETeHPux2jXqxOULctFuqdPhyGJPBZJhrRklWY3fX9QsdLKRBG91cItyKDZyU/s400/039.JPG" width="300" /> </a></div>
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More on the rain barrel soon. For now, we are weeding, killing some grass along the fence line and around the deck/rain barrel and then filling and getting our second garden bed ready. We can't wait to have a lush, beautiful garden! </div>
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In case you are wondering, we currently have 2 Big Boy tomato plants, 1 Steak Tomato plant, 24 Georgia Sweet Onions, 2 Romaine Lettuce plants, and 9 Bib Lettuce plants. We will be getting other things to plant this week. We also have two strawberry plants in a pot as well as Raspberry bushes we need to move from the front of the house to transplant somewhere in the back. They kind of took over where we had them last year.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-56451826666385302092012-03-31T10:21:00.001-04:002012-03-31T10:21:56.877-04:00Constructing a Raised Garden Bed (A Tutorial)We purchased raised garden bed kits from Home Depot about 3-4 years ago. They were 4 feet by 4 feet and quite expensive at $30 a piece. We spent about $150-200 purchasing all of our dirt supplies (compost, vermiculite, and peat). Mix those three together and you get a really healthy soil where most plants will flourish.<br />
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Fast forward three years where we have not added compost and we want a more cohesive look to the backyard and taller beds to keep out the dogs who have no idea and trample over the garden beds.<br />
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We also have a weed filled mess since the garden beds were not too far from a tree and weed paper isn't the greatest barrier apparently. Our oldest graciously offered to assist in the weeding since we wanted to reuse the old soil mixture and add more when completed. <br />
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After the first bed was weeded, we unscrewed the lattice on top of the bed and got to work building our new bed which we would pick up and place in the spot of the first garden bed we had just weeded.<br />
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For tools we used:<br />
Deck Screws (because it was an outdoor use and we already had them)<br />
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My new <strike>BABY</strike> drill, our Rockwell! I have the Sonicrafter and LOVE it! So far we are also in love with the drill as well.<br />
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We also purchased 6 pieces of 8 ft by 12 inch lumber (not treated) from Lowes. We used a coupon and a birthday gift card so we paid about $40 for all of them once it was over.</div>
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Two studs were also cut apart into 8 22 inch pieces to use as supports. These we already had that I had purchased for a closet project and had changed my mind on the design and still had them sitting in the garage. </div>
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We cut the two of the 8 ft pieces into 4 ft so we could stack them on top of one another.</div>
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We had to flip the board and cut from the other side as our saw isn't wide enough and I do not have enough control over our skill saw to use that for this type of work.<br />
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We began by cutting some studs into 22 inch pieces (the boards were not really 12 inches. More like 11 1/4 if we were lucky so 22 inch pieces went from top to bottom of two boards together.<br />
We screwed four deck screws into each stud (2 screws into each pieces of wood) through the stud. We also screwed two studs spaced evenly in between the ends so we could make sure it was sturdy. Once we had two sides screwed together in this manner, we too the 4 foot cut pieces and screwed them into the ends of the long boards.<br />
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Here is the 3 pieces together. We finished it up and moved out our old garden bed and placed the dirt in our wheel barrow. This allowed us to get the garden bed in place without trying to work around the soil we wanted to keep.<br />
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We had three garden beds that were 4 x 4 and had left 4 feet of space in between each one so our total original space was 24 feet and some change (near the propane tank we didn't count). So when we removed garden bed #1 we ended up with a 12 foot empty space in which to work. Our 8 foot bed fit in nicely.<br />
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Pardon my daughter's fashion choices. Once we are home for the evening she gets to pick whatever she wants to wear. Today's outfit was an apple pajama pant, a sunshine pajama top, magenta tights and church shoes. They are old church shoes so I didn't mind.<br />
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We leveled the garden bed with some slate outdoor tiles we had to ensure that when watered the garden it would not all drain to one side. We also laid the old black weed paper in the bottom as we put the dirt back in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOz-3a_906MtmDyqP9BY0mnCsnLuIF1L1Z375aL1ekxwCBMk-BZiGKOpb0LvFQavHiqNSRJZdhnglf-GiS2CvfEu-oXzBe55jtr7ttVz2RBQNQsxpLIDwMVXwEeRfE_puzbeh3CbVpQyZ0/s1600/052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOz-3a_906MtmDyqP9BY0mnCsnLuIF1L1Z375aL1ekxwCBMk-BZiGKOpb0LvFQavHiqNSRJZdhnglf-GiS2CvfEu-oXzBe55jtr7ttVz2RBQNQsxpLIDwMVXwEeRfE_puzbeh3CbVpQyZ0/s400/052.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Here is the bed once all three garden bed's were deconstructed and the dirt added to the new garden bed. And yes, the child added a red tutu by this point to complete her look.<br />
<br />
You can see here how the garden bed is situated in comparison to where the old beds were. It sits on top of the first bed. See how much room we opened up by condensing into one large 8 by 4 foot bed instead of 3 4x4 beds? The last bed by the propane tank never did well anyway because it was overshadowed by the propane tank and cover. So we really only utilized 2 of the 4x4 beds anyway.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6tfw4DpSvPPs_qZ8v1jHpOxuiUpM2GtX2ohsXsDR1fs9QWy0nxvWp_LHhmMyj2eqBodG19B6H_mpTsoushTuLvDy-0XheRlc7XduBhWoO2V6-RQCha5jlJxWrOEV2Ne-MAAcL-6ylRHG1/s1600/054.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6tfw4DpSvPPs_qZ8v1jHpOxuiUpM2GtX2ohsXsDR1fs9QWy0nxvWp_LHhmMyj2eqBodG19B6H_mpTsoushTuLvDy-0XheRlc7XduBhWoO2V6-RQCha5jlJxWrOEV2Ne-MAAcL-6ylRHG1/s400/054.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Here is what the garden bed looked like inside before we added the dirt. We raked up some of the pea gravel to help the bed drain and then dumped the soil into the bed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERdxj4XOZSIenEcexpewfD6D_ofhKZNIPIVto2ePKPHWGJbyTAMuq0xyxml-B3_NpEXtp3Z88c3d7z9bnkiAsdeaYvW4OggbX-kk8aSdTQyMaeR2KNH20UkMWmaw-i18Zsu0sA0DfL3Sb/s1600/049.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERdxj4XOZSIenEcexpewfD6D_ofhKZNIPIVto2ePKPHWGJbyTAMuq0xyxml-B3_NpEXtp3Z88c3d7z9bnkiAsdeaYvW4OggbX-kk8aSdTQyMaeR2KNH20UkMWmaw-i18Zsu0sA0DfL3Sb/s400/049.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
This is what the old soil from the last 3 years combined looked like before we added any of the new mixture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyl3I2pmu50jA6JJAUzUC_lVkFHS99xzUajPxsmunhPKGz-Yfnsy9Ik3iUi9oUxFQdg3pg_53LNjqFwP_Ix_8ciQTP0MdarNKt2znrG56xn56dc7Ao5BjltN7pXggNbKS4nnpTVvzxOoPJ/s1600/057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyl3I2pmu50jA6JJAUzUC_lVkFHS99xzUajPxsmunhPKGz-Yfnsy9Ik3iUi9oUxFQdg3pg_53LNjqFwP_Ix_8ciQTP0MdarNKt2znrG56xn56dc7Ao5BjltN7pXggNbKS4nnpTVvzxOoPJ/s400/057.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Next up, painting the garden bed and refilling with new mixed soil!<br />
<span id="goog_108490682"></span><span id="goog_108490683"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-72672579410925988722012-03-19T18:05:00.000-04:002012-03-19T18:05:06.151-04:00March Swagness with Swagbucks! Earn More FREE Gift Cards!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTrcxYM9lloK86vZvUVeQpKX_m2KepQpWD0ULThE2Jv6-3etGIPFjC6Ks0Y_NbtpnBNHMt0ioSFynPk2ZkLGHlB0grraGfI_Kw9fDAnxutlj_uU3GnJ2ylUYOloxkYqjsARWBrLLxvdUh/s1600/marchswagness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTrcxYM9lloK86vZvUVeQpKX_m2KepQpWD0ULThE2Jv6-3etGIPFjC6Ks0Y_NbtpnBNHMt0ioSFynPk2ZkLGHlB0grraGfI_Kw9fDAnxutlj_uU3GnJ2ylUYOloxkYqjsARWBrLLxvdUh/s400/marchswagness.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Get your March Swagness on starting tomorrow, when the goal will be <strong style="font-style: italic;">50 Swag Bucks!!</strong></div>
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<strong style="font-style: italic;"> </strong></div>
</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-89917219004083501372012-03-01T08:30:00.000-05:002012-03-01T08:30:03.494-05:00Homemade Cream Chese Wontons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjyU4gklh5F0yrTx_oYwXi6GSle4Q6UXI-WQI5kXO68K-riFjjH5wzGvt54o2GdRV3UYJ2bs1f9L2glTJiGMPfOnP9y7CEnOXukZytxAlrd6kOP-T7Z-iRSUop1fgnITPqPc8oC-WsBxSC/s1600/008_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjyU4gklh5F0yrTx_oYwXi6GSle4Q6UXI-WQI5kXO68K-riFjjH5wzGvt54o2GdRV3UYJ2bs1f9L2glTJiGMPfOnP9y7CEnOXukZytxAlrd6kOP-T7Z-iRSUop1fgnITPqPc8oC-WsBxSC/s400/008_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
We are trying to eat more plant based at our house. I know cream cheese is not at all plant based but we had not yet made wontons so we wanted to try a fairly simple recipe first. The verdict? We LOVE them!<br />
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Step 1: Buy your ingredients:<br />
<br />
1 8 oz. package cream cheese<br />
1 small package of green onions (green parts chopped)<br />
1 package wonton wrappers<br />
1 small bowl of water<br />
2 cups of oil (we used 1/2 veg and 1/2 olive)<br />
1 small pot to fry<br />
<br />
Step 1: combine cream cheese and green onions.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DZJhd_p67RPbwSqmx6EbFIYL8xhlzl_ZSzJYszcfhoeL1NakF4peMrngLVatHv4InSZpUvBfFVVFaXyXTOwDdt16z6C9X2PWjIBxZy4j3rHT2l_NzCV9uY1fGSo2fzMuLASUfVm6aCIT/s1600/003_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DZJhd_p67RPbwSqmx6EbFIYL8xhlzl_ZSzJYszcfhoeL1NakF4peMrngLVatHv4InSZpUvBfFVVFaXyXTOwDdt16z6C9X2PWjIBxZy4j3rHT2l_NzCV9uY1fGSo2fzMuLASUfVm6aCIT/s400/003_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 2: lay out wontons and fill each with 1/2 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK618ik3NRkiL7LyJl5E3EhewPQSVD7JEFfq51kUCT0-kfH6jMqdppjnm10BgPVwJaUnMHQSwq6zEuOeE79RhLn30jDi2GXsMOz0meYeR7ipyRVOCYhvxYMZaj9zO0AJ_PExQ_BU-65AWG/s1600/002_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK618ik3NRkiL7LyJl5E3EhewPQSVD7JEFfq51kUCT0-kfH6jMqdppjnm10BgPVwJaUnMHQSwq6zEuOeE79RhLn30jDi2GXsMOz0meYeR7ipyRVOCYhvxYMZaj9zO0AJ_PExQ_BU-65AWG/s400/002_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTAmtz8dfvu5D_2J2i1Ow_e1L02Mo-zMJj6kFiH3afFjYrPsE4_-rjiq3lpCsmvFRMq_FFtykPwEdXh-x103IMWq4vNTX4NQewQDG36QXyazuQxvKzqXAxHm3kCsak3nhl5hZidzemoJIW/s1600/004_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTAmtz8dfvu5D_2J2i1Ow_e1L02Mo-zMJj6kFiH3afFjYrPsE4_-rjiq3lpCsmvFRMq_FFtykPwEdXh-x103IMWq4vNTX4NQewQDG36QXyazuQxvKzqXAxHm3kCsak3nhl5hZidzemoJIW/s400/004_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 3: Fold wontons into halves. We experimented with the envelope shape but I didn't like how they fried so we stuck with just folding them in half.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLiiBaX5NmSucdgRVQG5SKDGF4ZYjdPYJOgLARD6MqRciFlMDLFapdctA3Jg3OPXPL75goKPjeACpaO2DLhNDe_j8laT5sfC_R96dOyKAjGkEonGSBaH0pMeS7q9_de67n6IqR24Ux8KC0/s1600/005_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLiiBaX5NmSucdgRVQG5SKDGF4ZYjdPYJOgLARD6MqRciFlMDLFapdctA3Jg3OPXPL75goKPjeACpaO2DLhNDe_j8laT5sfC_R96dOyKAjGkEonGSBaH0pMeS7q9_de67n6IqR24Ux8KC0/s400/005_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 4: Fry in the heated oil for about 30 seconds on each side and drain on a paper towel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFCpzaJECUpwswHWbTpRuIo_dr5kOzv2gVxgW70iw49RoaxexURcj3siwYJPghz1VhYP461sUuk-HGunPjCOFlt_3xK29obEmmLfR4kl9ca0_0TRtd6Np8-ZyE-koaZn8niW3hbuMIcb8/s1600/001_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFCpzaJECUpwswHWbTpRuIo_dr5kOzv2gVxgW70iw49RoaxexURcj3siwYJPghz1VhYP461sUuk-HGunPjCOFlt_3xK29obEmmLfR4kl9ca0_0TRtd6Np8-ZyE-koaZn8niW3hbuMIcb8/s400/001_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 5: EAT!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGqJIHPXiptG-xNlAh7eNSPGSstqSpgQrPYtOYc1huA6suGlJew6GOUfe0LvOkfIBNBfFzpQCrB2LjqHQRrEfUom1n2QEUYyKdm34GHrLnuC_BX6GMcxFajSqUi9F1xI734uCv25xKBJe/s1600/008_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGqJIHPXiptG-xNlAh7eNSPGSstqSpgQrPYtOYc1huA6suGlJew6GOUfe0LvOkfIBNBfFzpQCrB2LjqHQRrEfUom1n2QEUYyKdm34GHrLnuC_BX6GMcxFajSqUi9F1xI734uCv25xKBJe/s400/008_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-10512223624749987862012-02-28T20:34:00.000-05:002012-02-28T20:49:35.848-05:00Dr. Seuss Thing 1 and Thing 2 Pinterest Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg324bj_aJ-YU3iLHNEa5jaqdexFzRnLdvoD9LFcJxyVAdZOhMG40LuanI8WlavkrO76mi4YwmlWj-5tP1Eulg0Yl1vrMPkD-asQBM289WlSl5bwYBaMpE4EJyacpbeRPwWkDXWzvEFcQlc/s1600/022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg324bj_aJ-YU3iLHNEa5jaqdexFzRnLdvoD9LFcJxyVAdZOhMG40LuanI8WlavkrO76mi4YwmlWj-5tP1Eulg0Yl1vrMPkD-asQBM289WlSl5bwYBaMpE4EJyacpbeRPwWkDXWzvEFcQlc/s400/022.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
My friend I teach with found a great craft for her autism room for Dr. Seuss day this year on Pinterest. She did these adorable thing 1 and thing 2 hand print crafts with her students yesterday and I just had to do this with my girls at home. I would have liked to have done this with my 2nd graders but I can't imagine hand painting 24 students' hands 4 times each! That would create chaos in my classroom. We are doing other crafts less labor intensive.<br />
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Here is the original pin from Pinterest.
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<img border="0" height="320" src="http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/197595502370377960_Lbpj3Q55_c.jpg" width="213" /></div>
<div style="float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<div style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px;">
Source: <a href="http://littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-04-18T20%3A02%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/lisha77/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Alicia</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
</div>
<br />
We began with collecting our supplies. They include:<br />
1 container peach colored paint<br />
1 container red paint<br />
1 container blue paint<br />
1 black sharpie<br />
4 pieces of construction paper<br />
3 small paper plates<br />
3 paint brushes<br />
2 willing little girls<br />
<br />
We began by painting one of the girls' hands with the peach color in the center and the blue all around. Repeat with other hand on other piece of paper. Repeat with other girl :o)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhnycqYsztCnLcma794qJI0SxIA628fO5yJ97dkMnlTaPNnuAchy0foT7mm4yl3Qk7cEgXDTsim-bSPnEvebaNfGK49mXlW9-sK4ep69R6kket7dnLemb8zmywYNV_7N2m7q6ekEjL-iu/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhnycqYsztCnLcma794qJI0SxIA628fO5yJ97dkMnlTaPNnuAchy0foT7mm4yl3Qk7cEgXDTsim-bSPnEvebaNfGK49mXlW9-sK4ep69R6kket7dnLemb8zmywYNV_7N2m7q6ekEjL-iu/s400/007.JPG" width="266" /></a></div>
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Once both blue hands are stamped and dry, repeat with the red except skip the middle finger or your things 1 and 2 will have 3 legs. If you skip the middle finger when painting you get two arms and two legs with your red prints. Flip the paper over to stamp the red hands.<br />
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Once they are completely dry, draw on the faces and names on the peach colored sections and have each child sign them. I dated them with today's date and hung them on their bedroom doors. Once we have finished all of our Dr. Seuss celebrations we will take them down and put them into our scrapbook.</div>
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Happy Dr. Seuss Week and Read Across America Day!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yKF353hyphenhyphen72QheDDZK4R5fUH6uEi65srZ8fxOhw2Ujh3o8u683dO1wSlwuzjmu0M6_d2R-E4CsIhem_NL4MTFrzvpqneScIAfLiS7IoxBGEqWK6pw2T9LFjZuwhaJXaBRWt9yXZAKm1RY/s1600/018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yKF353hyphenhyphen72QheDDZK4R5fUH6uEi65srZ8fxOhw2Ujh3o8u683dO1wSlwuzjmu0M6_d2R-E4CsIhem_NL4MTFrzvpqneScIAfLiS7IoxBGEqWK6pw2T9LFjZuwhaJXaBRWt9yXZAKm1RY/s400/018.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://shoprubyjean.com/2012/02/sew-crafty-tuesday-12-and-features/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TVzL2Fggeyc7lNXwugR8X2kJtkCiIf8lINe-yo0vrORwAOJ5b-_aNyXHAqvMS3detWs5mEw2MNU8GIXpKeemxyGhW-S0XBMJGhPKK6dND1e3NSMwHGVPeEsfdYijwn5VoifYp_sroW3y/s1600/114.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/" title="Oopsey Daisy"><img alt="Oopsey Daisy" src="http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae356/alpal917/Wowzers_good.jpg" style="border: none;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-62828926380907366592012-02-20T21:15:00.000-05:002012-02-20T21:17:55.488-05:00Pinterest Challenge: Ice Cube Lunch TraysMy children were off of school today but alas, as the teacher I was not. While my mother in law got to stay with my two adorable girls I was working. To celebrate a day where both girls can stay home together I decided to complete a Pinterest Challenge I had been dying to try. I found this great picture of a toddler lunch idea.<br />
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<img border="0" height="600" src="http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/157555686933485333_K0GAgL4c_c.jpg" width="204" />.</div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.wileyvalentine.com/blog/2011/11/21/mom-monday-toddler-lunch-idea/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">wileyvalentine.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/melissagolliday/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Melissa</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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So I make my own for both of my girls. Now, our tray was a little bigger but both girls just loved it. Here is my interpretation of what I called a Rainbow Lunch Tray.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfR_oaLf-Tc9qLq3YPrY98ekCFf8No61tUV23Bvjgw5pBCEQShjDbpoI6Cf0P42Sqwjc7c92FP7u5DbItfuqzOuO40K5JOj_C1CM97WWhwGStB7P4UarGhrss4Z-Hw9WvOBSKwSe2mNqe/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfR_oaLf-Tc9qLq3YPrY98ekCFf8No61tUV23Bvjgw5pBCEQShjDbpoI6Cf0P42Sqwjc7c92FP7u5DbItfuqzOuO40K5JOj_C1CM97WWhwGStB7P4UarGhrss4Z-Hw9WvOBSKwSe2mNqe/s400/004.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
From left to right is as follows: 1/2 slice of American cheese, mix of chocolate and white chips, 3 sections of purple seedless grapes, 1/2 filled container of ranch dressing, two containers of brocolli, 1 container with 6 mini carrots, 1 container with cheese cracker birdies (Target brand), 2 containers full of animal crackers (about 6-8 animal crackers total), two sections of blue jello roll up (another Pinterest find) and two sections of strawberries (about 2 large strawberries).<br />
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My oldest who doesn't usually like raw veggies devoured her plate while my youngest didn't eat all of her veggies but everything else was gone. I think this may be a snow day/ day off from school/ fun Saturday tradition around here. Long live a $2.00 ice cube tray!
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/" title="Home Stories A2Z" target="_blank"><img src="http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad2/bethcrabtree/tutorialsandtips.jpg" alt="Home Stories A2Z" style="border:none;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-80422172490867755182012-02-02T09:00:00.000-05:002012-02-02T09:00:02.301-05:00Spraypainting Curtain Rods and DIY Tablecloth into CurtainsI looked and looked all over the blogisphere for something to do with my 3 HUGE windows in our living, dining and kitchen. I did find a lovely tablecloth at Target that I was going to split in half for each curtain. I didn't want them too full and I didn't want to close them as we just pull our blinds down each night instead.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4oM-E_POl0_Bpw2SdCQxr3oLVyLBa0EtT4yzDLrb4InTFwJpqAwz4jrTGxUU2TkYzXElkouQDCfheoJRBS-fdsz8om04r093khSoAnUDGgPbSRcYM_-8E4teIbhZ-1_7SpIqsk6m-tcQ1/s1600/weekendforsythia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4oM-E_POl0_Bpw2SdCQxr3oLVyLBa0EtT4yzDLrb4InTFwJpqAwz4jrTGxUU2TkYzXElkouQDCfheoJRBS-fdsz8om04r093khSoAnUDGgPbSRcYM_-8E4teIbhZ-1_7SpIqsk6m-tcQ1/s400/weekendforsythia.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I was able to purchase 3 tableclothes at $19.99 each and split them down the middle. I then sewed a very basic seem down the side I cut and hung them with clips purchased from Wal-Mart.I purchased 4 bags at $7 each so those were quite costly.<br />
I was able to get 3 curtain rods for $7 each at The Christmas Tree Store and sprayed them with ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint which was $6 at Lowes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM5SllAp7x6UCtOfLJCcavZH8TyIzZOy71NT83RrYhlC7QsxH0ldpBT_XwkMPnG-FAflpnU1_sBq0G8gv9F_59Gw_ZvxdI4m9eOveRTUre_DIm9_rRxZyOYubFReRmJU8KT-qksEK8hRcy/s1600/035_picnik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM5SllAp7x6UCtOfLJCcavZH8TyIzZOy71NT83RrYhlC7QsxH0ldpBT_XwkMPnG-FAflpnU1_sBq0G8gv9F_59Gw_ZvxdI4m9eOveRTUre_DIm9_rRxZyOYubFReRmJU8KT-qksEK8hRcy/s400/035_picnik.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The total project cost was:<br />
Curtains: $60.00<br />
Clips: $28.00<br />
Curtain Rods: $21.00<br />
Spray Paint: $6.00<br />
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Total: $115.00 for three HUGE windows that run the length of my house. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-84730788587032501622012-01-31T20:04:00.001-05:002012-01-31T20:04:22.646-05:00Pink and Yellow Ikea Klippan Dyed Couch Slipcovers + a Tutorial<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We have two Ikea couches and absolutely LOVE our Klippans. We have the 4 seater Klippan sofa and absolutely adore it. We also love it and that the natural covers are pretty cheap at times to purchase. You can see the pink cover we dyed lying on the chair behind the 4 seater couch.<br />
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We also have the Klippan loveseat 2 seater. We originally purchased one and dyed it pink for my daughter's birthday. This is truer to the color than the picture above of our pink cover. This was using 2 bottles of Fuchsia on the 2 seat loveseat cover.<br />
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We also wanted to dye a cover dark gray but didn't/couldn't find any black in liquid form at the time and used the powdered gray. It totally didn't work out well. You can see in the picture from this post <a href="http://pembrokelane.blogspot.com/2011/07/adventures-in-dying-ikea-klippan.html">HERE</a> from last time we talked about dying that it looked too blue.<br />
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Well, we bleached that one with a gallon of bleach and lots of rinse water in the bath tub.<br />
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We rinsed and rinsed the cover and even did a quick wash in the washing machine to make sure there was no residue of bleach left to mess with our new color.<br />
Then we put two bottles of golden yellow and 1/2 a bottle of sunshine orange into the water.<br />
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We then put our freshly washed cover into the water and let it soak. We constantly came back and moved the fabric around to ensure it was all covered with dye.</div>
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This picture doesn't do it true justice but we LOVE it with our new curtains and curtain rods.<br />
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So now we have a dark gray couch and a yellow loveseat and we just LOVE them both!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-43713354240631331812012-01-26T20:10:00.001-05:002012-01-26T20:10:33.951-05:00Bible Cake for Pastor's Birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My grandfather's 84th birthday was yesterday. We had a fabulous church service last night in honor of him and took a 50 question quiz on how well you know your pastor. I only missed 9 which isn't bad since he is also my grandfather.<br />
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I made this cake last year for his 83rd birthday and found the pictures today when I began making our 2011 year in pictures book. I also realized that I never shared this awesome cake on the blog. And so... today's post was born.<br />
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I began by making a large yellow cake in two rectangular pans. I cut the edges so they would form more of a page look and slid them together on my cake stand.<br />
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I made some great homemade chocolate icing and put a layer of coconut beneath it. My grandfather loves German sweet chocolate cake so I pulled a little coconut influence from that.<br />
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I covered the entire thing in white fondant and began painting. I took gel food coloring in ivory and gold and brushed the entire surface. I then created edges to resemble a book and painted a darker tone.</div>
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Do you just love how I steal my child's plastic plate as a palette? Me too!</div>
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I added a good Bible verse my grandfather likes and some leaf and ribbon detailing. I also purchased a plain white gumpaste cross from the local cake supply store and painted it up. Somehow I got so wrapped up that I totally forgot to take pictures of the process.</div>
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I covered the entire cake in gold luster dust to give it a little extra sheen. This picture was taken in my fridge after I finished the cake.</div>
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Happy Birthday Grandpa! May you have many many more!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-46269791303865859592012-01-23T08:30:00.000-05:002012-01-23T08:30:03.880-05:00Autumn/ Fall Themed Child's Birthday Party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am tremendously late in posting my youngest child's birthday. Her birthday is October 12th and we had our party the 16th. 3 months late isn't bad right? Thanks, I feel better now.<br />
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This was my attempt at taking pictures for her invitation. It didn't work out well and I used an adorable picture of pumpkins instead. She has the worst "fake" smile but she's still cute anyway. At least I think so.<br />
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I bought hay bales from our local nursery and used three on my porch and three to tear apart for the hayride.<br />
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I made orange/vanilla cupcakes with orange infused butter cream frosting. I got the cupcake wrappers from Michael's. I totally forgot to take a picture of the food table but at least I got the cupcake table. Honestly, isn't it only the desserts that matter anyway? :o) I thought so too!<br />
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I purchased a vinyl birthday banner to use year after year for both girls. Here is Eryn's. It is quite large at over 3 feet long.<br />
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The handmade blocks were done by my mother. She made the bottom block double sided with my other daughter's name on it so we can just turn them around. She hasn't set up an official shop anywhere yet but if you want to send me an email I can get prices and info. I do know that they are wood and she hand paints, sands and decorates each block. <br />
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She made these cute blocks for her birthday to sit on her shelf. Eryn just loves princesses and requested these blocks.</div>
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The hayride was the trailer pulled by my father in law. My husband and brother rode along as chaperones. The hayride went just around our development which is a private area so all parties involved were totally safe as only one major road goes out into the town and all the rest are just quiet little streets with no exit to the main road.<br />
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The kids loved it, especially Eryn. <br />
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Her older sister liked the ride as well.<br />
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After she opened presents and cards she dressed up in a Disney princess dress just because so she could eat her cupcake.<br />
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She had some difficulties using the gloves to eat her cupcake but she eventually just took them off. </div>
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All in all her party was a success. She put back on her party dress in the end and took a few pictures with her baby doll on the front porch.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-77765877418727369622012-01-21T21:22:00.004-05:002012-01-21T21:25:03.415-05:00Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie with Boca Soy Crumbles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
My family and I watched a great documentary called "<a href="http://www.getvegucated.com/">Vegucated</a>" and I honestly wanted to cry. A few times I did in fact cry and so did my 2nd grade daughter who insisted on watching with me. I had long known that animals were killed for food, what person doesn't? But what I didn't know was just how cruelly animals were kept and treated.<br />
<br />
I began my journey into "vegetarianism" by listening to my own body. I have horrible energy swings, headaches, feel tired and groggy, get tummy troubles, etc. I seem to have issues with lots of foods. What food was it? Who knows? I know that I couldn't sleep at night all night because I couldn't breathe. Was it my allergies? Maybe. I do have two dogs and two cats but getting rid of them was not an option. I love my animals but I also love to breathe. I had read that dairy causes more mucus production so I thought maybe getting rid of dairy would help my breathing issues at night. Can I give up milk and yogurt? Sure! Can I give up cheese? Maybe not. Cheese is a staple in my home and is used multiple times a week for a majority of meals. <br />
<br />
My husband and youngest daughter are total meat eaters. My youngest LOVES her chicken nuggets and will eat meat over anything else. My husband looked at me when I said I wanted us to give up meat and flat out said "no". I am slowly convincing him by switching out our meat for soy substitutes for 2-3 meals a week. We still have some beef and pork in the freezer to use up and it would be horrible to throw it away especially since the animal's life has already been forfeit but I have purchased Boca and Morningstar Farms products and soy milk to get us started. Believe it or not, the youngest meat eater LOVES her 25% less sugar Westsoy Plus Plain soy milk! She asked for it twice today and she NEVER asks to drink milk. Yeah!<br />
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This recipe I found at Peta's website in their pdf version of the <a href="http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx">"getting started" Vegetarian information packet</a>. <br />
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I mixed together:<br />
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1 can of peas<br />
1 can of carrots<br />
1 packet of gravy (made to serve)<br />
1 bag of <a href="http://www.bocaburger.com/products/crumbles.aspx?productBox=0">Boca Soy Crumbles</a><br />
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and spread into a sprayed glass dish<br />
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Wash, peel, and boil for 20 minutes 4-6 medium potatoes.<br />
<br />
Mash with 1/2 cup of soy or regular milk<br />
2 Tb of margarine or real butter<br />
Salt & Pepper to taste<br />
1 tsp Garlic Salt<br />
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Spread on top of mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until potatoes are slightly brown.<br />
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*This recipe differs slightly from the PETA recipe as I doubled the amount of veggies and added two potatoes.<br />
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Of course mine does not look nearly as pretty as PETA's version as I believe I pulverized my potatoes but my family still ate it and my husband even went back for seconds! I also had a little gravy sneak out on the side (bad gravy).<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-80376175389067872462012-01-16T19:24:00.001-05:002012-01-16T19:45:49.194-05:00Birthday Present previewSorry about the raw picture but I am posting this from my phone. We are dinner at my mother's house this evening and she asked me to check out my birthday presents in case I didn't like them. My birthday isn't until February 4th but she wanted to make sure she didn't have to do any exchanges. One of the the things she found for me I just had to take a picture of and daydream about where to put it. You see, she found an amazing white elephant at Marshall's. The store clerk told her it was the only one they had gotten in and they had and had just put it out. Yeah me! Look for our favorite new pachyderm when my birthday rolls around. I'm sure he will be featured lots in the future. <br />
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I originally had these Tupperware organizers but wanted a more sleek, updated look where I could clearly see when I needed more ingredients instead of the little peak a boo window.<br />
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<br />
I found these great glass jars at Target. The largest ones (they hold a gallon) are a little under $6, the medium size around $5 and the small ones are under $5. I purchased a bunch of each a little at a time each week. Yeah, I totally go to Target every week! I LURVE Target just a little! Oh and I got those blue cups for our camping trips for around $2 on clearance! Score!<br />
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I washed the jars and let them dry thoroughly. Can't have all those cute ingredients gunking up the bottom can we?<br />
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I purchased really cute custom labels from <a href="http://www.sayitonthewall.com/products/view/396/SET_OF_10_Kitchen_Labels">Say It on the Wall</a>, since I have yet to get my Silhouette Cameo. Anyone listening and wish to purchase one for me, my birthday is in 2 1/2 weeks! :o) You will also need your favorite music like my Glee station on Pandora Radio.<br />
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<br />
It is really easy to put vinyl on anything. First, rub with all your might, or a Petco gift card so that the vinyl sticks to the transfer paper. Then slowly at an angle peel the vinyl off the backing.<br />
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Situate the vinyl and transfer paper combo to the glass jar. </div>
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Press with fingers on top of the vinyl. Then slowly, very slowly peel the transfer paper off, pressing the vinyl down if/when needed.</div>
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I pressed down on the vinyl again after the transfer paper was off just to make sure it stayed down and was secure.<br />
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Then just fill with your favorite ingredients and place somewhere really cute. <br />
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The orange scoops are freebies I've gotten from Tupperware parties. They don't measure but they are great for filling a measuring cup or just dumping things in. I <strike>never</strike> always measure my rice, don't you?<br />
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Hope this little tutorial helps and happy vinyling. :o) That's a word right? Ha Ha.
<a href="http://tipjunkie.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Tip Junkie handmade projects" border="0" src="http://www.tipjunkie.com/images/TipMeTuesdayButton1.png" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-31482201792926295762012-01-13T07:32:00.000-05:002012-01-13T07:32:40.465-05:00Organizing the Pantry (again)It seems like just yesterday I was posting about organizing the pantry. <a href="http://pembrokelane.blogspot.com/2011/01/21-days-to-getting-organized-day-7.html">HERE</a> is the old post about just such a thing. Actually it was a little over a year ago. I have organized it since but nothing too crazy.<br />
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This time I pulled out all the <strike>stops</strike> shelves. The house was originally designed to have the laundry area where the pantry is. Strange enough, with an open floor plan that means in my dining room. The lovely people who first built my house (not me) changed the idea and had the laundry area moved into the 4th bedroom and the bedroom redesigned into a laundry/huge extra random closet. The old laundry area then became the pantry.<br />
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This isn't horrible except the shelves are so far apart you can't seem to utilize the space well. Honestly, it totally stinks! <br />
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Three huge shelves just doesn't cut it. Look at all that extra room between shelves! Time for a change!<br />
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Step 1: Clutter your <strike>entire house</strike> kitchen with all the things from your pantry while you demo. Do it during something fun like on a Wednesday night after church and two days before something major (like report cards due at school). :o)<br />
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Step 2: Grab your hammer! This is the really fun part, DEMO! Take out all your pent up aggression issues out on the shelves.<br />
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Step 3: Stand back and realize you didn't think about patching holes or painting and don't really have time for it. Ooppssyyy!<br />
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Step 4: Tell yourself you will paint behind there later but right now this has to be put back before your family strings you up.<br />
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Step 5: Begin shelf reassignment. We had some old shelves we had purchased from Lowes to use in that extra closet that we also ripped out (more on that later) and had placed these shelves and the track system in the garage. They were quickly re-purposed. <br />
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Step 6: Cut down the 2nd shelf so that you can have one seamless shelf the entire pantry wide.<br />
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Step 7: Quickly put everything back and call it a day.<br />
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It still isn't 100% perfect because I just can't find a solution for bagged items that are large. What do you do when you snag a great coupon deal and get 6 bags of Chex Mix or Chips?<br />
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I was able to put many small items into these great containers I bought at Wal-Mart. They were about $12-$14 each but I saved so much room by unboxing items I purchased from Amazon and placing them into the drawers. Each drawer then got a label from my label maker so my <strike>husband</strike> kids knew where everything was. I was even able to make room for my extra candles (they are in the left container, bottom two drawers), my plastic silverware and extra napkins (bottom drawer on the right organizer) and all those annoying drink packages and tea bags.<br />
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With the extra shelves and the items more compact, I was able to bring my cookbooks into the pantry where they freed up an entire 12 inch cabinet in my kitchen to put dish towels and extra ziploc baggies.<br />
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I will be posting more on these cute glass jars tomorrow! So what do you think of the pantry now? Is it horrible that I didn't patch and paint first?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-27616345052207793252012-01-05T08:00:00.000-05:002012-01-05T08:00:05.502-05:00The Kitchen Island Make Over Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The kitchen Island has long been an eye sore right along with my <strike>totally hideous racing stripe</strike> beautiful kitchen floor. We have thrown around some ideas and pinned pictures on Pinterest of great things one can do as a kitchen island.<br />
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I scoured Craigslist for an awesome dresser and just haven't found it. I also took a look at my remodeling budget and with a total lack of funds, sighed loudly and went to Lowes for paint. I picked up the paint that was the last color on the paint sample for my kitchen. Our cabinets were done with Rustoleum's Cabinet transformations color matched to Valspar's Comet Dust.<br />
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<a href="http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/89679_Valspar-5006-1A-Comet-Dust" title="Valspar 5006-1A Comet Dust at MyPerfectColor"><img alt="Valspar 5006-1A Comet Dust at MyPerfectColor" src="http://images.myperfectcolor.com/repositories/images/colors/MPC00089679-1.jpg" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/89679_Valspar-5006-1A-Comet-Dust" title="Valspar 5006-1A Comet Dust at MyPerfectColor">Valspar 5006-1A Comet Dust at MyPerfectColor</a><br />
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The walls and back splash in the entire area are Valspar's Notre Dame.<br />
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<a href="http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/89680_Valspar-5006-1B-Notre-Dame" title="Valspar 5006-1B Notre Dame at MyPerfectColor"><img alt="Valspar 5006-1B Notre Dame at MyPerfectColor" src="http://images.myperfectcolor.com/repositories/images/colors/MPC00089680-1.jpg" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/89680_Valspar-5006-1B-Notre-Dame" title="Valspar 5006-1B Notre Dame at MyPerfectColor">Valspar 5006-1B Notre Dame at MyPerfectColor</a><br />
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I wanted the island to be darker than both and still coordinate so I went with the last color which is Valspar's Granite Dust.<br />
<a href="http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/89681_Valspar-5006-1C-Granite-Dust" title="Valspar 5006-1C Granite Dust at MyPerfectColor"><img alt="Valspar 5006-1C Granite Dust at MyPerfectColor" src="http://images.myperfectcolor.com/repositories/images/colors/MPC00089681-1.jpg" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/89681_Valspar-5006-1C-Granite-Dust" title="Valspar 5006-1C Granite Dust at MyPerfectColor">Valspar 5006-1C Granite Dust at MyPerfectColor</a>
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The Granite Dust color is slightly darker in real life. Since we aren't keeping this island forever, I purchased Olympic 15 year semi-gloss interior paint and had the Valspar color matched to it. Honestly, it was just price. The Olympic was only $18 and the Valspar $33. If it was a forever piece it would have been the Valspar hands down.<br />
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This means I can finally get rid of the evidence that I sprayed my cabinets on the kitchen island! It is a war wound I'd like gone.<br />
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Step 1 is to remove the hardware, doors, and drawers.</div>
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Step 2 is to degloss. I'm using the same deglosser left over from the cabinet transformation. </div>
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Step 3 is scheduled for next Friday night! Whoo hoo! What adventure!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-32797320965305633732012-01-03T08:00:00.000-05:002012-01-03T08:00:12.699-05:00Holiday Craziness and Adorable Holiday Milk Bottles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So in the event of saving <strike>tears</strike> time, I will explain what happened in the kitchen. I will just direct you to the post <a href="http://pembrokelane.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-diy-goes-horribly-wrong.html">HERE</a> about the dishwasher. Lucky for us, I was able to fix it quickly and it is now working very well and beautiful to boot!<br />
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Pardon the fingerprints. The 4 year old likes to help "load" the dishwasher now.<br />
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We have a Christmas gathering for my husband's side of the family each year at Christmas Eve. For the last five years it has been at our house. We got off at 12 on Friday from work and hurried like crazy busy bees to finish everything. Saturday we had two other places to go before our party that night so we were totally <strike>wiped</strike> excited by the time ours came.<br />
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In the middle of it all, I also decided to make all of our Christmas gifts for adults. I made cake balls, coconut/dark chocolate cookies, peppermint bark, peanut butter cups, and peppermint patties. Here is what my peppermint bark looked like but I didn't think <strike>like a blogger</strike> a head because I didn't take pictures of anything else.<br />
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We also didn't put up a large tree this year because well, we didn't have one! Our fake one died last year and we never found one after Christmas shopping. I found this adorable 4 foot one and we were going to put it on the porch until we realized we didn't have one this year and it became our tree inside. We <strike>gagged </strike>refused when we saw that Michael's wanted $229 for a 6 1/2 foot fake one.<br />
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I showed them though. I bought it at 80% off after Christmas for next year. It has colored lights which seems so retro to me but the girls thought it was awesome. We left it up for a few days just so we could saw we had a tree up. <br />
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I made some adorable milk bottles from Starbucks frappuccino glass bottles using some great printables from <a href="http://www.etsy.com/listing/85044127/candy-christmas-gingerbread-printables">HERE</a> . It is from Shindig Parties on Etsy! I love Etsy!<br />
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Step 1: Drink Frappuccino :o)<br />
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Step 2: Wash out bottle<br />
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Step 3: Soak bottle in soapy water for about 20 minutes to loosen up the labels.<br />
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Step 4: Peel off the labels (there are 2) and use Goof Off or Goo Be Gone on any residue that remains.<br />
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Step 5: Wash again in hot, soapy water or your dishwasher.<br />
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Step 6: Cut out adorable labels from Etsy and tape around bottle<br />
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Step 7: Put coordinating straw in and enjoy!<br />
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They were also good Christmas morning with apple juice while Daddy made pancakes!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-35637813799905120512012-01-02T19:51:00.001-05:002012-01-26T06:10:22.138-05:00Valentine's Day MantleI took all the Christmas decorations down (left up some snow ones), and decided I needed to LOVE my mantle. Out came all the holiday floral and reindeer and in went some pinks, hearts, a candlestick and more hearts!<br />
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The two glass jars are from Michael's last year and all the other hearts: Michael's as well. The hearts are pretty easy to imitate. Just take a heart cut out of cardboard or wood (also found at your local hobby store) and cover in glue and drizzle with sequins or beads. It won't be as 3-D looking as these but it will do in a pinch. You can also find Christmas ornaments and rip things off of them to create hearts. Trust me. It's wrong but it works. <br />
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I have some snowflakes that were christmas ornaments tucked in here and there. The candle stick was purchased at Marshall's a few years ago. A little ribbon and some off-white Partylite candles and shazzam! It is now Valetine's ified. :o)<br />
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The "Wish" was a Kohl's after Christmas sale about 2 years ago. I use this for my Christmas/Winter mantle and it stays up for Valentine's day. It sometimes comes back out for the girls' birthday parties depending on the themes.<br />
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Linking up to:<br />
<a href="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/2011/03/tutorials-tips-tuesday-4.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%2520thestoriesofa2z/Visw%2520%2528The%2520Stories%2520of%2520A%2520to%2520Z%2529">Stories of A to Z</a><br />
<a href="http://herecomesthesun-kelly.blogspot.com/">herecomesthesun</a><br />
<a href="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com%20/">www.homestoriesatoz.com </a><br />
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<center><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.thestoriesofa2z.com/%E2%80%9D"><br /></a></center>
<a _mce_href="http://www.yesterdayontuesday.typepad.com/" href="http://www.yesterdayontuesday.typepad.com/" target="_blank"><img <div="" _mce_src="http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv157/KTnestingspot/Blog%20Buttons/YesterdayonTuesdaypendantcopy.jpg" align="middle" alt="A Crafty Soiree" border="0" src="http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv157/KTnestingspot/Blog%20Buttons/YesterdayonTuesdaypendantcopy.jpg" width="150" /></a><a href="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/?p=7022" target="_blank" title="Home Stories A2Z"><img /></a>
<a href="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/?p=7022" target="_blank" title="Home Stories A2Z"><img /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-67154805500028978222011-12-15T22:32:00.001-05:002011-12-15T22:37:31.813-05:00Our Christmas Card<div class="sflyProductPreviewWidget" style="height: 494px; width: 425px;">
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Pretty Pattern Christmas Card</div>
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We just love this picture I took of the girls at my friend's wedding reception back in August. The girls haven't changed any at all and it is SO hard to get them both to look great in one picture that we decided to just turn this one black and white, crop a little closer, and slap a Merry Christmas to it. After all, my husband and I both believe they are our greatest accomplishments period so we take every opportunity to show them off. </div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-42412019198304404612011-12-13T07:18:00.000-05:002011-12-13T07:23:31.188-05:00When DIY Goes Horribly Wrong!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let me begin by explaining the saga that is my life. I over analyze EVERYTHING! It is a fault that I am working on daily. However, because of this issue it takes me forever to make decisions regarding important purchases. For example, we were given a dishwasher about 2 1/2 years ago by one of my mother's neighbors when she purchased all stainless appliances. There was nothing wrong with the dishwasher it was just younger than our own hideous one that came with our house when we purchased it. Our house is 16 years old so the original dishwasher was 13 1/2 when it was replaced.<br />
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The dishwasher from our friend lasted the 2 1/2 years before it finally gave up working. During that time, we had repairmen out once to fix a worn out part but that this point it had broken pieces and rarely washed a load of dishes where they all came out clean.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnCbBgF0Rp9aOpmr_kT8mU7RQwV0QdKBPA9XzNX1FZ7eRa3QGhbnjGP9JLIhT5lk-161f00P1Rjcn82Y6y93iyoRYTXdR8yIhgp87oIdKzS5XmbAOCCRUstD2UMUgU0FL9bmRwXz2UAK8Y/s1600/183.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnCbBgF0Rp9aOpmr_kT8mU7RQwV0QdKBPA9XzNX1FZ7eRa3QGhbnjGP9JLIhT5lk-161f00P1Rjcn82Y6y93iyoRYTXdR8yIhgp87oIdKzS5XmbAOCCRUstD2UMUgU0FL9bmRwXz2UAK8Y/s400/183.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can see part of the dishwasher here. This was taken in October before our youngest daughter's birthday party. </td></tr>
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We had been debating whether to replace our stove (which is acting funny and not in a ha ha sort of way) or the dishwasher when the dishwasher made the decision for us. We shopped around a lot. By WE I mean I scoured reviews from Lowes, Home Depot, Amazon, Best Buy, HH Gregg, etc. All the dishwashers with the hidden controls had horrible reviews where the control panel motors had all been replaced 2-3 times and people warned potential buyers away like a proverbial lions' den.<br />
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After looking at all the sites over and over again, I decided to check out the Black Friday sales which may or may not have something I want. I found a Maytag dishwasher from Lowes with great reviews and an even greater price point. The only thing it had that I didn't want was controls you could see. Oh well, it was still stainless, it had an all stainless tub and I could actually fit pots into it? I was sold! I purchased it online with a few coupon codes on Thanksgiving Day and VOILA! for a reasonable price it was going to be delivered to my home on Black Friday!<br />
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The delivery men were amazing and came exactly when they said they would. I unboxed my beautiful new appliance and set off installing it. Problem number one. I had never heard of a strain relief for electrical wires and thought it isn't necessary according to the directions so I just won't use it. Then the new dishwasher did not come with wire connectors but I just used the ones from the old dishwasher. They worked so we were great! After about an hour and a half I had a beautiful dishwasher in my kitchen! <br />
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Then, we ran it. It worked very well the first time Friday night. Saturday we were a flurry of working on organizing the garage and finishing up the laminate floors in the girls' rooms (more on that later). On one of the trips back in to the house from the garage we smelled a noxious odor that made you want to throw up/cry/scream all at once! I thought it could possibly we the battery we were charging for the drill as our drill is old and trying to die. We immediately unplugged it and also turned off the dishwasher just in case. We spent an hour trying to figure out what was making the smell. We decided to turn off the breaker for the plugs in the kitchen and the dishwasher just in case. We took the kids out of the house and to the store for 2 hours just to make sure the smell was gone. When we came home I smelled the odor coming from the little vent in the dishwasher (see photo top left). I was immediately horrified and decided not to mess with it before I hurt myself or the dishwasher. I have been working on Christmas candy, laundry, lesson plans, wrapping presents and just life for the last 2 weeks and have ignored the lovely dishwasher. In the meantime, our kitchen has become a cesspool or disgusting dishes as since I am making the Christmas Candy my husband is in charge of dishes. He is slacking BIG time!<br />
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Pardon the horrible lighting, this is an early morning picture. My floor is still also nasty as we haven't decided whether we are doing tile or hardwood, so there is still a nasty stripe of sub-floor in front of our beautiful cabinets. Of course we also have Christmas candy <strike>carnage</strike> presents everywhere!<br />
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Finally, last night I decided to tackle the problem head on. I pulled the dishwasher out and left all connections in place (remember the breaker is off at this point). Everything looked fine until I pulled out my connections. Don't ask how but one (only one of two) wire connectors decided to melt. This had nothing to do with the strain relief but apparently with the wire connectors. So, it is off to Lowes to buy both a strain relief (just in case) and a new set of wire connectors. UGGGHHH! At least it wasn't worse and I can salvage the wires and fix it. I am not sure exactly what happened but it will be fixed so I can reclaim my kitchen and my beautiful new dishwasher.<br />
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On a side note, both girls' floors are finished and so is a new shelf and all decorated for our Christmas Eve party.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048355854640658070.post-47519278188887860572011-12-04T14:19:00.001-05:002011-12-04T14:25:26.646-05:00Working on ChristmasI'm in the process of finishing up some great things around the house but I stopped to decorate a little for Christmas. Of course, as a teacher, this is my favorite time of year as winter brings snow and can possibly brig unexpected days off with my family. Here is a new shelf we hung in the kitchen last night. I just love looking at this while making my cookies!<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLwjx7Rt5gQs7l0pkElbelNDm5plGf4u_e5DXLwcHvMcdAthb71TUiVH2yWhtRNS64V5vVJD0XiiHvDWy7vN5pRcca0CHvJtaYSm4my_hm7-IjFp3UmvRC8RrBn2BwvluPgJ_X8ujmjRt1/s640/blogger-image-1685190718.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLwjx7Rt5gQs7l0pkElbelNDm5plGf4u_e5DXLwcHvMcdAthb71TUiVH2yWhtRNS64V5vVJD0XiiHvDWy7vN5pRcca0CHvJtaYSm4my_hm7-IjFp3UmvRC8RrBn2BwvluPgJ_X8ujmjRt1/s640/blogger-image-1685190718.jpg" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05451990483634881804noreply@blogger.com0