Summer is…..

Summer is in full swing.

The first part of the summer has been crazy busy.

I’m looking forward to things slowing down after this weekend. I’d like to put things into slow motion from here on out.

Even though I am so very anxious to get into our new house, I don’t want to wish this summer away.

Speaking of- We just signed the purchase agreement for our new house. I think we have the kinks worked out. And construction on the renter’s house is scheduled to start soon. Slowly but surely.

For us…

Summer is…..

lots of baseball and softball

growing beautiful hydrangeas and tasty vegetables (I get to admire my precious babies next door from afar)

pool and beach time

garage sale-ing

Michigan’s Adventure

4th of July fun

camping in Pentwater

working on projects

Tigers game

fruit picking

visiting my dad’s

Summer is….awesome.

Hope you are having/will have a great one too!

Happy Weekend :)

Pinterest Project- Bottle Breaking

I got this idea from Pinterest this past week.

I thought it looked like a fun and easy thing to try.

Boy was I wrong.

Here are the materials-

And, no, we aren’t big wine drinkers. But we are big latte drinkers!

Anyhow, so you take your clean bottle and wrap your string around the bottle five or six times. Tie the ends and cut off the extra.

Then you slip the string off the bottle and soak it in Acetone fingernail polish remover for 10 seconds.

Slip it back onto the bottle where you want your cut to be.

Make sure you have a bucket or sink full of ice cold water ready to go.

Take a match or lighter and light the acetone soaked string.

Keep twisting the bottle as the flame burns to keep the heat evenly distributed.

Eventually the flame will dissipate and then plunge the bottle into the icy water.

The bottom will easily release from the top leaving you with a perfectly cut glass bottle.

Here is where I would show you the after.

Only I cannot.

It was a total and complete flop. I tried it four times. I’m not sure what I was doing wrong. Maybe my string wasn’t thick enough. Maybe my bottle was too thick.

Either way, I was DISAPPOINTED to say the least.

This lady makes it look disgustingly easy-

Sorry to leave you so unsatisfied.

So, to try to make up for it. I made a bracelet out of the ridiculous string I used for this project.

I will share it with you-

Not quite the same, I know.

I almost didn’t blog this project but I thought I should share the failures as well as the good stuff. Just keepin’ it real.

If you try it and it works- Take a short walk off a…

Just kidding. Let me know if you try it and what you did or if you have any advice. I’d love to pinpoint my problem!

Thanks for looking!

Summer Reading

I am pretty excited.

I just walked into my local library and grabbed this off the shelf-

I had recently heard about it and wanted to check it out. It is a nice summer breeze-through type of book. I’ll let you know what I think.

I am currently in the middle of this book-

It’s good. But I am able to tear myself away. It’s entertaining but not all-consuming. I checked it out because it looks like it may be part of a series.

For my book club, I am supposed to be reading this book this month-

I haven’t even started it. I still have a couple of weeks left. When we meet together we will be watching the movie. Yay! I haven’t seen it yet.

My sis-in-law lent me this book-

She read it and loved it and knows that I am trying desperately to love running. So far, it isn’t happening. But maybe this book will help.

That’s it for now.

A quick update- My mortgage guy said there was a purchase agreement being written up Monday morning. So maybe something will be happening soon! (I hope!)

What books are you reading or planning to read this summer?

No Oven Meals

We were without an oven for a little while.

It was my fault. To be fair, the oven was slowly dying. But I finished it off. (on accident)

So I started googling ideas of food to make without an oven.

This is really good information for those doing a kitchen renovation, working with just a stovetop, or those that want to keep a cool kitchen during hot summer months.

Here are some things I found-

You can do a lot with a microwave, electric skillet, grill, or crock pot.

You can grill a lot of things: chicken, steaks, hamburgers. Even pizza. You can also do a lot of side dishes: potatoes, corn, asparagus, kabobs, and lots of others.

There are a lot of Breakfast for Dinner options too: eggs, French toast, pancakes, along with bacon and sausage. One of my favorite things to do is to make omelets in a plastic bag. Get a pot of water boiling, add two eggs and some milk into a plastic zip-loc bag (along with whatever else you like: peppers, onions, cheese, ham). Zip it tight and drop it into the water. Make sure you get all the air out. You’ll end up with the perfect omelets.

I also found this site with lots of skillet meal ideas. There is a lot of good links from that page to other good posts. Check it out.

For those with a crock pot, here is a great site for you. I love it when you can start dinner in the morning and forget about it until it’s time to eat.

And there is always the usual- grilled cheese, tacos, hoagie rolls, sloppy joes, quesadillas, burritos, spaghetti and other pastas, soups, and salads.

What are some of your ideas to keep the kitchen cool this summer?

Console Table Makeover

I found this gorgeous little piece at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago.

I was determined to make my own chalk paint. Have you heard about the wildly popular Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint? It sounds like it is amazing stuff…but also super expensive.

The redeeming qualities it has -it adheres to things without prior sanding or priming –it can be distressed easily and beautifully.

Like I talked about in this post, I had been doing some research online to find a recipe for DIY chalk paint. I discovered this tutorial and decided to give it a go.

The color? YELLOW

I went to our local Menards to pick up the supplies. I bought one of the sample size paints and had them tint it to Crazed Corn (at least I think that was the name). That was $3.

I bought a four pound container of Plaster of Paris (that was the smallest they had) in powder form. I believe that was around $6.

I used an empty plastic container to dump the paint sample into. I then started adding the Plaster of Paris a tablespoon at a time.

I just kept stirring until it was all combined and close to the consistency I thought I wanted. I also put in a splash of water to thin it out a little.

I painted two coats. This is how it looked.

And a close up.

Very chalky and pastel looking, right?

At this stage I had already taken a fine grit sanding block and went over some of the edges and places that would get worn naturally.

I was ready for the wax. Problem was, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I read online not to use MinWax, but that was all I could find. They recommended using BriWax but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

So, I decided I would try Annie Sloan’s Wax instead. I knew a store that stocked it in Zeeland. But when I got there, I found out they didn’t anymore.

Instead they had a new line of products from someone else named Ce Ce Caldwell. Here is her website.

I grabbed a sample size of her Light Aging Wax.

It was easy to apply. I left it on for a few hours. Then wiped off the excess with a lint free cloth.

Here is what it looked like when first applied.

You can tell the legs weren’t waxed yet. Ha!

Then wiped off.

And the completed piece.

I think it turned out great for my first try.

I intend to try to make more chalk paint in the future.

Now I have to decide- keep it or sell it? Not sure yet.

Thanks for looking!

Photo Mish Mash

Yes, that’s right. I’m stalling. No painting got done yesterday. Between the rainy weather, my son getting his first cavity filled(he got funny gas and it was funny!), laundry, and baseball/softball games- I didn’t even get it out of the garage. :(

That’s life.

I decided to throw an old one in the mix. Sorry about the poor quality.

Furniture makeover first thing on Monday- Promise!

Enjoy the beautiful sunshine this weekend!

Thursday Updates

1. I started painting late yesterday evening. Today will tell if I got the chalk paint formula right…or not. We will see.

2. I have to get two cavities filled tomorrow. I. Hate. The. Dentist.

3. Even as an adult I suffer from breakouts. I read about an all natural way to clean your face using castor oil and extra virgin olive oil. I got it from here. I’ve used it for two days. So far so good.

4. One benefit of going to E’s baseball games in Grand Rapids- scouting new second hand stores. The Salvation Army on Alpine is awesome. I should have bought these boat shoes.

5. I haven’t heard any news from our mortgage guy. It’s so hard to be patient.

6. We have no big events this weekend. Time to relax. Except for the part where I have to dig my photography equipment out of our incredibly dangerous storage unit. Doing wedding pictures the last weekend in June and it is coming up fast.

7. My in-laws got their pool opened. My kids were ecstatic. I sat pool side. Too cold for mommy.

I hope to get project- bright colored- DIY chalk paint- desk finished for tomorrow’s post…but no guarantees.

Thanks for looking!