Victoria's Randomness & a cake

So Christina posted her 7 random things long ago and now it's my turn.

1) I sometimes eat ice cream in the morning for breakfast but only when my husband isn't around to roll his eyes at me. I have also been known to eat pizza for breakfast, a fact which my husband finds extremely weird!
(Photo courtesy of Edy's)

2) I started in one college basketball game and managed to trip coming down court and fell flat on my face. From there I watched the other team scoop up the ball and make a lay up.

3) I met Jimmy Carter on our airplane the last time we flew home from New York. I woke the guy up next to me because I didn't want him to sleep through meeting a president. He thanked me later.

4) I was homeschooled and had to wear coulottes. Yes, even in the winter!


5)I absolutely LOVE to travel. I have been to San Fransisco, Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Denver, Boston, Ontario, St Louis, Washington DC and the Bahamas.

(Hubs and I riding horses in Pikes Peak National Park)

6) When I was a teenager I had to break up a mating cow and bull when my Dad was out of town.
(Baby Sis took this picture, isn't it great?)

7) I was on the Today Show (ok, in the crowd, but I did make it on tv!) the morning I found out I was pregnant with Sweet Girl. Al Roker was the first person I told I was pregnant besides my husband.




And the cake.......
When I was shopping for Sweet Girl's Christmas presents I came across a darling apron on Etsy that I loved!



The apron gave me a theme for her Christmas so I picked out mini cake pans, a pink breast cancer awareness spatula (thanks Christina for the idea!), a small whisk and rolling pin for my little helper. We had not used the cake pans until a couple of weeks ago my husband was out of town for a conference so the day he was coming back my Sweet Girl made him a mini cake to welcome him home. I forgot to take a picture of it before it was half gone.


Hope you have a wonderful, restful weekend!

~Victoria~

It's the Little Things

Thanks for all of the lamp love. I enjoyed reading all of the comments and had so much fun with the re-do.

Today is a great day for the next installment of "It's the Little Things."

This hot tea.


A plate of sunshine and Vitamin C.


Our fruit bowl.


Oh my, have you ever had Pepperidge Farms Peach Turnovers? They are really yummy and honestly could be a great winter dinner party dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.


This plate looks certainly looks like summer and is a bright spot on a dreary day. We received the smaller peppers in a co-op shipment and the large peppers in the back wait for my hubby's delicious stir fry.


Oh yum. Strawberries and Fage (pronounced fay-ah) greek style yogurt.


My daughter making oatmeal packets for her daddy to take to work. And some for us too.


We are having this for supper tonight.


I made it up up as I went along because we wanted tons of veggies and this bowl of comfort food is just what we wanted.

Choc Full of Goodness Shepherds Pie (Is that how to spell Choc?)

1 pound of lean ground beef browned (I used venison)
1 medium onion chopped
1/4 to 1/2 head of sliced cabbage
2 to 4 cups chopped spinach
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large carrots shredded
1 to 2 cups frozen peas
1 can tomato sauce
1 T. Rapadura or Sucanat (I'm sure brown sugar would work too)
2 T. flour
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup water or more

Brown your ground meat until almost browned. Add in next six ingredients and cook until all ingredients are soft and cooked down. I will add in just a little olive oil and or some water and turn on low heat, stirring frequently.

After your veggies are cooked down, add in your tomato sauce and Rapadura and stir.

Sprinkle the flour over your meat and veggi mixture. Add in Worcestershire sauce and 1/2 cup water. Stir until thickened. You may want to add more water if this gets too thick.

Make mashed potatoes as you usually would. Spread mashed potatoes on top of filling and bake at 350 degrees until slightly browned.

Serve to happy and hungry family. They will love it, and you will know it is full of things that are good for them.


It really is the Little Things. And I'm so thankful for them all.

Cozy Lamp Light

This weekend was busy and fun. I had two photography sessions with a bride to be. One for a few shots in her wedding gown and the other session was for engagement pictures. Busy, busy. But the good kind of busy.

Little work was done on my lamp until today. Last week I did get it painted black, the base color I chose, so I could try to mimic a weathered zinc finish. Sorry, forgot to take a picture at this point. It took me awhile to decide on the zinc idea, so I kept procrastinating.

A few years ago I found this burlap covered lampshade at a thrift store.



I often buy lampshades that are interesting shapes, and sturdy with potential to be recovered. It is just so hard for me to pay as much as you have to for new lampshades. More often than not they are more expensive than my lamps. I had every intention of recovering this one. At that time the burlap didn't interest me, but now---I love it.

Out came the rusty trusty glue gun and some leftover black ribbon to add some umph to the shade. Also wanted to cover up a sort of old fashioned looking gold edge. I enjoyed this project while catching up on my DVR log.

I added some creamy paint with a wet and then dry rag until I achieved what *might* kinda sorta look like weathered zinc. : )

Before:



After:



Lovely cozy lamp light. It's just right.

Put a Little Love in a Frame

Just a little project.
Here's sneak peak before we begin.



Print the word "love" using letters from here.


Get a frame, or even just a piece of thick cardboard the size you want.
My frame(12X21)came from the thrift store more than a year ago. When I bought it it was stained with a redish stain and had a bird picture in it. Soon after it came home with me, I sprayed it with white primer while doing another project. It has since languished in storage (another word for leaning against the wall in a corner).



I cut out my letters and used some adhesive to affix to some of the same canvas fabric that I used for my bench project.





Place in frame and enjoy.





Some of my inspiration for this was pure accident and some came from these pillow cases. I can't stomach paying $56.00 or so for these, so this framed picture will have to do.

P.S. I have started working on my lamp. I have two conflicting ideas and can't decide which way to go. Have to decide!!!

Finally-The Bench

Well, my bench is finally done. Not that it really took that long, it is just that you have to do life in the midst of doing a project. That's what makes it take longer.

Here is my rusty trusty Black and Decker Power Shot that my hubby bought me years ago. It is not electric, but is very easy to use. This makes any chair or bench covering project very quick and easy.



At Home Depot you can get a huge hemmed canvas drop cloth for $9.00.



This gives you a huge amount of canvas fabric for many projects. (They also make wonderful curtains. Just add clip rings or sew a pocket on top). There were lots of fabric pieces in the running, but in the end this neutral canvas won out. Because I am not sure where this bench will be permanently I may change the fabric soon, and if so I'll show you that too. Often I have to move things around and live with them to know where something will stay.

Just to remind you of before: (click to enlarge)



After: (click to enlarge)



`

Here is a lamp that I am making over. Hope to have a post up about it in a few days.


Christina

The starting of a Bench Project and 7 random things about me

So, hope everyone's year is off to a great start. My posting has been few and far between since Christmas, but Victoria has bravely forged ahead. That is partly why we decided to blog together. If one of us is busy, crazy, having wildly raging hormones, we can help each other out. So, glad to be back.

Today I started a project that involved a very scary ragged bench, which I paid $2.00 for. It may have been to much for this:




But not too much for the vision I have for it.

I took the disgusting vinyl cover off, under that was another gross piece of fabric which was dry rotted. The side wood peices were too brittle and were falling apart, so gluing was out of the question. I just decided to tear this all out. It fell apart in my hands. Here is it all striped of fabric and splinter-y wood pieces:


Getting started on the paint job:


Stay tuned for the reveal tomorrow. I realized after one coat of paint that I need to run to Home Depot for more. That is how it goes around here.

Jackie at Empty Nest Full Life tagged us for the "7 random things about myself." Here goes.

1. I have a terrible memory. Seriously. There are times that I cannot remember my age or even my phone number. I draw a total blank. It can be scary.

2. Love,love magazines. It is a great day when one comes in the mail. Usually I save it until my kids are in bed and I dive in and enjoy. Right now I am enjoying, Country Living (gift from sis-in-law), House Beautiful (gift from sis-in law), Veranda (just ok), Better Homes and gardens and Southern Living.

3. I am a major procrastinator. It is often because if I can't do something over the top or perfectly, it is easier just not to do it.

4.My love of photography is growing everyday. I am still an amateur, but have aspirations of becoming more than that. Practice, practice, practice is my motto for 2009.




5. Love, love, love candles. My newest, a Christmas gift from my son, is Vanilla Cupcake from Yankee Candle. Oh my, it is yummy.


6. Cool and cold weather is my friend. Love it. Summer is not my friend and around here it lasts forever. I am always glad to see winter come.

7. I enjoy sleeping in on the weekend. I will skip all sorts of thing to enjoy some extra zzzzzzz's.

Mmmm, need to tag some people for "7 Random Things about Myself."

How about,

Meg
Sarah She is the lovely girl in the picture with her cat above.
Victoria (cheating here since she blogs here w/me, but you may want to hear from her)
Amelia
Katie
Manuela

If any of you have already been tagged or have done this before or are just too busy, I understand. Have a great Tuesday everyone. I hope to see you back here tomorrow afternoon for my bench reveal.

Favorite things...

Here are a few of my favorite things (imagine Julie Andrews singing) on this cold but sunny January day.

My $2 tea cup from Goodwill.


Biscoff cookies (found these at Publix) and coffee in the middle of the afternoon. Mmmmm.


Martha Stewart glitter my husband gave me for Christmas. He picked out wonderful colors and I can't wait to use them!



I love the way the afternoon sun glints off of my "winter" centerpiece.


My stained glass dragonfly from the Sunflower Festival.


Hope you find time to enjoy a few of your favorite things today!

~Victoria~

Good deals

It has been raining for awhile here in Ga so my Sweet Girl and I decided to venture out to the mall today. We don't go there very often but when we do we have to do a few things.

1) Ride in the glass elevator at Sears
2) Play on the playground inside the mall
3) Meet up with Daddy to eat lunch (since his work is only about 10 min from the mall)

Today we went to Gap where I had a gift card to spend. The Gap in our mall is closing so I found a lot of great deals including these two shirts for my husband for $3.97 each!


I also hit what was left of the Target Christmas clearance which was 90% off.

Tinsel Christmas tree for 99 cents

Christmas cards for next year for 69 cents each - grand total of $2.76 for 64 cards. Hmmmm I wonder what the chances are that I'll pull these out early and get them addressed before Dec?

Little 18" high pine tree for 59 cents


Tags, garland and an "A" for Sweet Girl. All were 19 or 29 cents.


Gift boxes to package cookies or other goodies for 19 and 29 cents. Love the buttons on the first one.


Love these little feather wreaths from Sears Christmas clearance. Probably my most expensive purchase at 99 cents.


I also got 2 rolls of Scotch tape for 10 cents! Who knew that Scotch tape is seasonal?1?!?! It was so seasonal that it didn't even come up in the Target system anymore!

Melissa over at 320 Sycamore did a post today on her yearly calendar and how she marks down the sales that each store has. What a wonderful idea! I have never done this but plan to start this year. I will use the info she posted on the sales and see if the stores here in Ga run their sales along the same time tables.

~Victoria~