An old window!

Do you remember this old window? I got it a few weeks back. I was driving home and this girl had them outside of her house selling them for ten bucks a piece. I knew that was too good of a deal to pass up.

So I sanded it down, and took a razor blade and cleaned up the paint on the glass. Then I taped off the glass and spray painted it. Sanded it again for that distressed look and put some stain on too make it look old again. I didn't realize how crazy that sounded until a neighbor walked by and asked what I was doing.

Anyhow, here is the finished product.

I decided to put it in my kitchen over the kitchen cabinets.

I just might have to take it down for the 4th of July. I love how a lot of you bloggers out there put an American flag behind the glass.

So, I am quickly running out of ideas for things to blog about, any ideas???

A pumpkin for me!

I had to show off this darling pumpkin that my friend Megan made me. I LOVE it. I hung it from every little place in my home I could think of and decided it looked best here on my window mistreatment.

Megan was even nice enough to show me how to make a tassel of my own. Ok, don't freak out, I know I'm not the Nester or Susie Harris, I promise I'm not going to open my own shop or anything but it was fun to learn to make one of my own. Sorry the picture isn't the greatest!

This could definitely get to be addicting!

I think I'm about done trying to makeover my blog. I still need to tweak a few things. Are there any HTML geniuses out there? I can't figure out how to make the space between the pictures on my sidebars smaller, so if you know would you mine filling me in?

Under Construction

Ok, I know my blog looks funny, I'm trying to do my own bloggy makeover (maybe not the smartest idea). Anyhow, be patient with me for a day or two while I play around with colors and margins and all that exciting stuff.

{An Award, and how to hide those ugly cords!}

My friend Katie over at Ritch in love gave me this award forever ago, thank you Katie, you are a sweetheart. So I'm supposed to say 7 things that make me happy, so here it goes.

1. Friday nights when my family is all together snuggled in blankets and eating popcorn while watching a silly movie that my kids picked out.

2. Watching my husband say prayers with my kids at night when he puts them down to bed.

3. A clean house.

4. When my kids say, " Thanks Mom!"

5. Rocking my 19 month old to sleep.

6. Snuggling up to my hubby on a cold winter night.

7. Sunday dinner at my parents house.

Ok, so I get to pick some people now, you can just accept and then pass the award so someone else, or say 7 things to make you happy also.

Melissa over at 320 Sycamore.

Becky over at Looking Through the Eyes of Love.



Ok, I know your all just dying to know how I got rid of this ugly chord, you've probably been loosing sleep, it's just so darn exciting. Actually you've probably all already come up with this idea, and it's just taken me a while to catch on.

I took come paint that was the same color as the wall and then I painted it. Then, (this is where it gets really good) I got out the staple gun and I stapled it to the wall and painted the staples.

Much better, don't ya think!

Have a great weekend!

Finally - my canning is done!

This year we have been very blessed by very giving neighbors and family. But, I hope no one offers me anything else because I am really, really, really sick of canning. Of course I have to show you all of it so you know why I've been such a bad blogger lately.



My husband's Aunt lets us come to her house every year and pick all her rasberries. This year we got all these frozen rasberries and.............

Nine pints of rasberry jam!

Our bishops wife gave me two boxes full of pears! I ended up getting like 16 quarts of pears.

Our neighbor have us two big baskets of tomatoes, now I have 18 quarts of tomatoes!

My mom lets me pick her grapes every year since I'm the only one that does any canning. My friend Lawon always helps me and then we split it. This year we got 80 quarts of grape juice.

I think thats everything. I didn't even tackle doing peaches this year. Here in Utah if you volunteer at the LDS church cannery then they will usually let you buy what they are canning for a way good price, so I bought peaches through them this year! That was definitely easier and probobly cheaper then doing it myself.

So the moral of this post is........... be careful who you tell that you like to can. You might be a really busy woman. Ok, so I've always wanted to try pickles, so if someone taught me how to do it I probobly would.

{My first blog makeover}

I just designed my first blog. My little sister has been wanting me to forever, so I need your opinion. Does it look ok? Is there anything you would change or do differently? Go over and check it out for me. Peas in a Pod

{I think I may have a problem}

I think I'm addicted to fall decor! Never in my life have I bought so many decorations for one holiday. I've been watching my little niece since school started and so for like the first time since my oldest daughter was born, I have money of my own. My husband said I could just keep the money from babysitting and do what I want with it. So, do I by clothes that I desperately need, or put a little away in savings? No, I'll I've done is decorate and buy stuff for my home.

It cracked me up that on my last post about this little dresser/hutch thing, like half of you asked how I was going to decorate it. It was like instinctively you new, that was the next step. So here ya go, it's nothing special, but I like it. I bet your all noticing the black cord from the lamp, I'll show you how I got rid of it in another post.

The lamp is from Walmart. I was pleasantly surprised at their selection and of course the price was right. Ten dollars for the shade and ten for the lamp.

This I bought from the store down the street, Ben Franklins. I wanted something I could use for other holidays.

Your probably all really sick of hearing about the great and wonderful Tai Pan, but this is where I got this cool pumpkin. It was seven dollars.

Sorry about the blurry picture on this one. My blogging friend Tausha told me about the coolest place here in Utah called Taiwan imports, lets just say I was in heaven. The only problem is you have to have a business license, but lucky for me, my little sister has one. Anyhow, that's is where I got this cute little candle wreath. (I have no idea what it's really called)

I don't know what to call this little decoration either.

This I love. I got this one from Taiwan imports also. I think it was six or seven dollars. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but it has beads and little leaves on it.

For the first time in my life, I am not looking forward to Christmas. I just really like my fall decorations. Heck, I like them better than my everyday decorations. I have to restrain myself though, I think I need to call it quits and save a little money!

{One project finished, lots more to go}

Remember this dresser/hutch that I bought for more storage space in my kitchen??? Well, it's finally done.

I made myself a little furniture refurbishment station in my garage. First I sanded all of it down really good. Then I masked off the top and primed the rest. Then I added a couple coats of black satin spray paint. Then of course since I have to distress everything, I did a little sanding to distress it.

Then I stained the top and added a couple coats of clear satin polycrylic to the whole thing. I bought some pulls to match what was already in the kitchen and ta-da it's finished. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I love how it turned out.

I think my hubby thought I was crazy when I told him my big plans to re-furbish it, but I think he likes it just as much as me now.

I didn't intend to put it here in this bay window, but it definitely seems like this should be it's home.

So, if you have a piece of furniture that you've been wanting to redo, but your afraid because it was your great great grandma's and you think your mom will never forgive you, I say go for it. Ok, so I have a chair of my grandpa's that I'm to wimpy to paint, so hmmm, maybe just paint the furniture that was someones else's great great grandmas.

{I wasn't expecting this}

They said it was going to snow but I really was not expecting to wake up to this..............

I thought maybe a few flurries or something like that. Look at my poor bushes. I didn't get time to give them a good trim so the snow wouldn't do this to them.

I really
hope they will survive!

I guess if I'm going to live in Utah I need to expect things like this.

{What am I doing wrong?}

Ok all you canners out there, I need your help. My neighbor was kind enough to give me two huge baskets full of tomatoes. I was so excited. I love using these tomatoes for soups and stews all winter long.


I was able to get 21 quarts of tomatoes. Don't they look pretty!

So, what's my problem? This always happens. I lift the lid off of my steamer and the juice starts running down the sides of my jars and then they look like this..........

Here is the steam canner I use. It doesn't seem to matter how tight or loose I put the lids on the juice always comes out, it just ticks me off.

I need to figure this mystery out because my other sweet neighbor brought me two boxes of these that I am going to need to start canning.

Any advice???

{A little Halloween}

I finally got around to decorating my porch for Halloween this last Saturday. The weird thing is I don't really decorate inside for Halloween just for fall, oh well! Well of course I have to show all of you. I told my friend I think the reason I like blogging so much is before my life as a blogger I would do something that I thought was really cool to my home and really no one but my kids and hubby saw it. Well now I have all of you! It's great, you can tell me if you like it or it really stinks!





So, here is my Halloween porch...................

Hey look, you can almost see my decorations behind that big bush that desperately needs to be trimmed!

I bought these stars last year from a cute, fun and darling store up the street.

I bought this sign there too, I though it was so funny. It's hard to read the bottom part, it says, "curses extra."

Can ya tell I really like wreaths!

I loved this chair the minute I saw it, it's so fun to decorate with fun holiday stuff! The kitty was free!

And there ya have it, my 5 Halloween decorations!

I actually have some pretty good blogging material for next week, I might even post more than twice. Have a GREAT weekend!