Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Get Your Kicks On Route 66

Hi everyone, today I'm linking up with Bunny Jeans Decor and More for another great week of blog hopping or should I say "Bunny Hopping"...couldn't resist the pun...sorry :0)

Anyway, thought I'd post something I made for a friend that was relocating from Oregon to Iowa for a new job and new life. This gal is just the dearest friend and loves to cook and share recipes especially for company functions and pot-lucks. So we all decided to put together a "Memory cookbook" with all of our favorite recipes that we've shared through the years as a going away gift for her.
I was flattered to be asked to come up with a way to combine the pages in one book...I didn't have a lot of time so this is what I came up with. It was quick and easy and turned out really cute...I think anyway.

I recycled an old binder I had laying around like the one below...I'm a bad blogger, I didn't take pictures before I covered it nor did I take photos as I was doing each step but you get the gist!



I had this adorable Michael Miller fabric, very retro and "cookbook-y looking"...perfect as the outside covering. 


Then I cut it to fit the binder, sprayed the outside with spray adhesive and ironed it on while turning in the raw edges inside. 


Then I cut to fit this perfect...DID I SAY P-E-R-F-E-C-T map fabric for the inside cover. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was that I found this because my friend was driving across country from Oregon to Iowa and this just fit the bill for the inside of her cookbook! 


Now I don't think she took Route 66 but she did do a lot of driving!


I used the same spray adhesive method as I did for the outside fabric and again, turned in the raw edges, glued, then pressed with a hot iron for a really clean, finished edge both inside and out.


 You can see both the inside and outside together here in the picture above.

above the inside laying open and flat...love that P-E-R-F-E-C-T fabric for her journey across country!!!


The the last picture of the outside of the binder.
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Now as a special bonus treat for reading all the way down, I'm sharing one of the recipes I contributed to the book


FUDGY COCOA BROWNIES



The best part, they are low-fat and oh-so-yummy!


Hope you had fun on Route 66 and now if you take a little road trip you'll have a little snack food to take along and won't feel guilty!

Thanks again Bunny Jean for hosting this fantastic party...love it!


Saturday, August 13, 2011

In My Garden...

Well finally...its my favorite day of the week...Saturday! 
 I plan on enjoying the sunshine HERE in my garden for most of the day because we all know there are only so many Saturday's in one's lifetime and they are ours to do with whatever we want...
 so that's what I'm going to do while listening to the birds sing...
 outside...
 in my garden...
 for as long as the daylight remains, I will be out there where the air is fresh and the sky is blue...
I might even wear a long Pink frock and apron, 
who knows...because its my 
Saturday in the garden...


What do you have planned for your Saturday you've been given??
~In My Garden" wall hanging quilt made by me~

linking up with Beverly at 
Pink Saturday. 
Please head on over there to her blog and leave a comment on her post for 
"Miracle Makeover"

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Baker's Rack Outdoor Bar

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a wonderful summer weekend and before I begin I want to give a huge shout-out to Susan at "Between Naps On The Porch" for doing a lovely FEATURE POST about my little outdoor sun room! She has really done a nice job and I can't thank her enough so please head on over to sneak a peek at MY LITTLE SUN ROOM !!!


A few weeks ago, I was out perusing garage sales on a Friday when I came across an old Baker's Rack. The people putting on the sale had it listed for $120.00...not what I was willing to spend considering it was in pretty sad shape so I walked away however I kept thinking about it the rest of the day thinking it would make a great outdoor bar for my side porch. 
Fortunately I had taken their phone number "just in case" it didn't sell and when I got back home I called them and sure enough it hadn't sold yet so I asked what their absolute bottom of the barrel price was. They told me to make an offer...so I did...$40.00! 
Yep a pretty low offer but the thing was in really poor condition and needed a ton of work and honestly I didn't think they'd get anywhere near their original asking price of $120.00. Well needless to say they declined my offer and said they'd wait to see if it sold over the weekend...
And as you can see it didn't sell, I think because it was priced too high and anybody that saw it didn't see the potential it had all they saw was a big rack that needed work.
So you guessed it, on Sunday evening I got a call from the sellers asking me if I was still interested in it and of course I was and best of all they accepted my offer of $40.00! So here it is...



Now remember I said it needed work...well that was an understatement!

 The front of each shelf had this ugly brass strip on it that was all beat up and just plain outdated...

The butcher-block top was stained and scuffed up and smelled awful!

And as you can see, once I started peeling off that strip with my putty knife, it was caked with really gross goopy stuff...it was just disgusting!




I peeled all the ugly brass stripping off...all four shelves worth!

then gave her a good bubble bath with lots of soap and water...
then sanded the front of the shelves where the brass strip was; it was affixed with what looked like 
sticky tar! And just for the record...Mark's hands are all over in the pics but the reality was I DID all the work once the photo shoot was done!

sanded the butcher block top...
 what was amazing was this top turned out to be solid oak!

and re-stained it...


then masked and repainted the front of the four shelves with a gray primer then finished with a matallic Pewter Rustolium where...shall I say it again...that ugly brass strip was! 
This part was really labor intensive because I only wanted the front of the shelves painted...
 and we ended up with this cool outside bar area!


Remember that brass strip in pictures 4, 5 and 6? Well here you see its gone and in its place a nice Pewter finish...


Funny thing...I never make mixed drinks in fact I don't know how really and I have rarely ever purchased alcohol except wine...most of what you see has either been given to us as a gift or someone brought it to a party we were having and left it here. So I'm well stocked but have no clue as to what to do with it but our next party will sure be done in style!




I just love how it turned out although I still need to do a little tweaking because it looks a bit plain and I still need to order a piece of glass for the bottom. But it looks so much better than it did when I brought home!



Cheers everyone and please jump on over to 
Bunny Jean's blog hop for
Its the lastest rage! Thanks again Bunny for hosting!












Saturday, August 6, 2011

"Me and My Baby; a Love Story" for bedtime reading

Today I really didn't have a post prepared that had to do with a project I've started or finished...but instead it is simply just a little story about me and my baby. I titled it "Bedtime reading" because it has more text than I normally do so you may get sleepy reading but that's OK, it was a fun story to write...

Now mind you my baby is not your typical story about a "baby-baby" as in Gerber, but a story about a car, a husband and a girl that fell in love...



Everyday on my way home from work, I drive past a premiere luxury car dealership that just happens to have a stop light right in front of their corner window display. You know, the window where they put all their beautiful cars that "make a statement" so to speak and that they really want to promote.


One day as I drove home from work, the light turned red and I had to stop...right in front of that window! Well what to my wandering eyes should appear...but the loveliest little white Mercedes convertible I have ever seen...I mean she was beautiful...all white and shiny with a Burgundy interior and her little hard-top sitting on her just begging for someone to come along and "take off that bonnet" so she could let her hair down. 
So right there while sitting at the stop light, I picked up my cell phone and called the dealership to ask about it! 
Now I don't promote driving and talking but I didn't dare go into that shop or I never could have come home! I mean really, I know me, I would have been signing on the dotted line once the salesman saw me drooling over that car so I had to just call him instead! Well much to my dismay I knew after talking to him, I would never convince my husband to buy this baby, first of all because we're very practical and second another car was just not something we needed especially a car like this, "a pretty play car". 
However, for weeks I did try to talk him into it but the answer was always the same...no, no and no we don't need it!
Meanwhile a few weeks later my husband had to work on a Saturday morning but as he was leaving he said to me; I know you've been really depressed because we can't just go buy that car but I'll tell you what, how 'bout when I get off work around noon we go out for lunch and just play around town for the day? I thought to myself what a sweetie, he's trying to turn my pouty little mood around so I really needed to buck up and shut-up about that stinking car, it was a done conversation for Pete's sake and there are more important things in life! 
So we did...drove into town, had lunch and tooled around playing and having a great time and without even realizing it, my bad attitude was gone and I wasn't even thinking about the car anymore!
Well several hours later as we were driving out of town, we had to go right past the dealership and as we did, I found myself pointing furiously at the window with that darling little car still sitting there trying to get my husband to see her in all her glory even though I knew I had resolved it in my mind she was never going to be mine. 
As we came up to the corner where the light turned red (again) he asked me if I wanted to go in and just look at it. He had such a sympathetic tone like he knew how much I wanted that little car and out of kindness of heart wanted me to "see it up close and personal"! So we did, we went in and she was even prettier in person, oh my she was beautiful, just beautiful such a pretty little thing! 
Without even stopping to reply to the salesman saying "hello may I help you?"
I made a mad dash over to the car, I mean mad-dash, embarrassingly so...I was practically pushing and clawing my way over to that car! 
It was a horrible site, my feet were loosing traction, my hands and arms were flailing in the air and I had a crazed look on my face...I mean really who was this women I had become, it was truly an out-of-body experience! 

By the time I skidded into place to admire this vision of loveliness...a car for crying out loud, the salesman had finally reached me and all I could say while huffing and puffing was; its beautiful, just beautiful as I stood there drooling and sweating over a car!!!!...I was a pitiful site, I mean pitiful


Without skipping a beat, the poor salesman standing behind me, not knowing how to handle this crazy women in front of him, timidly spoke up and said to me; "I'm sorry Miss but this car isn't for sale".


At that point all I can say is I'm pretty sure I looked like the girl in the Exorcist when her head spun around on her shoulders and I was ready to whip around and scream at having no chance at all of trying to convince my husband that I should have this car...all hope was gone...gone...gone!




But, just then the nice young salesman that was standing there behind me, held up the keys to the car and with a grin on his face simply said;

"yes mam, that's right, its not for sale anymore because a very nice Gentleman came in this morning and bought the car for his wife and that must be you". 

The moment was surreal I mean it was like something out of a romance novel or love story...I was in tears, the salesman was in tears and then there was my husband...standing there smiling (and yes even he had a tear in his eye although to this day he denies that part!) knowing he made this girls' day!

He had gone in earlier that morning when "he had to go to work" and bought the car for me...something I thought he would never ever in a million years do!








 And pretty much all I can remember besides driving this baby home that day was what my husband said to me...
"good things do come to those that wait" 
which is so true in more ways than one.
As I look back it always makes me smile and I remember what a wonderful day it was...the day I fell in love with my baby...