Photo Day 268: I'm a hustler (6.25.11)

Photo Day 268:  I'm a hustler (6.25.11)
Cleaned out the garage. 
Organized the basement. 
And held our first yard sale ever. 

Our goal was to hopefully sell enough stuff to pay for dinner.  I know...such a lofty goal!  Real over-achievers here.  Makes me wonder how we accomplish anything in life with such low standards!!

Our progress was measured in terms of what could be ordered.  Again - we are such over-achievers!

"Looks like we have enough for dinner...now go hustle those people to cover the tip...."

Final tally:  $82.25.  Not too shabby...

Photo Day 266: I'm rusting (6.23.11)

Photo Day 266:  I'm rusting (6.23.11)
This is our 9th straight day of rain. No mud puddle shortages here. And it's cold. Wet, windy, and cold. The first official day of summer kicked off with temps around 45 degrees, 40mph winds, and 100% rain. Wonderful...ehh?

With such extraordinarily fabulous weather (I say that with utmost sarcasm), I am oh-so-NOT-motivated to tackle any of my projects. And now I'm rusty. Darn rain. Wish I was waterproof.

Well it's time to throw caution to the wind and just jump in. Feet first. Sink or swim. Or in my case...sink...then float to the surface. Winter pudginess = human buoy. If swimsuit weather decides to show up then I'll work on rockin' a swimsuit bod. Until that time...bring on the Oreo McFlurries!

The Chair

The chair.

I tackled this one a while back but then never shared it (well I kinda did here). Ahhh…the story of my life…a whole bunch of 90% complete projects. Or maybe nothing is ever 100% complete. Ya know…the whole infinity concept. Maybe 100% is never attainable.

Hummmm…I think I’ll go with that theory since it works for my life!

Anyway...time to meet my friend the chair...

Last summer I became a little obsessed with bringing home stray chairs. Lots of stray chairs.  I’d find them at my local free-cycle spot or on the side of the road. And since their former owners didn’t want them anymore and they were free…why not bring them home with me. Great idea at the time…except now I have a large collection of them gathering dust, taking up space in my garage. However, one chair managed to get a makeover and is now living happily in our bedroom. 

This little 1970's era beauty (I know...beauty is a bit of a stretch) was spotted by the curb a few blocks from our house.  Knowing my new obsession, the hubby made a u-turn without me even asking.  That's love I tell ya!  The chair had a great shape to it but was definitely upholstered sometime in the 1970’s. Thick, fuzzy, ‘70s gold fabric.  Yuck.  And once I started removing the fabric....yuck...really, really yuck! 

The chair put up a good fight but in the end...I won!!!

Then in true chell-fashion, I decided to tackle making a slip cover for it with no pattern and absolutely no experience.  Just some fabric, pins, and my sewing machine. 

That's living on the edge!  Right up there with sky-diving!  Not really but it's my story so yes sewing without a pattern is risky and life-threatening!

Anyway....I'm happy to report that this on-the-fly project turned out successful (and I lived to tell about it)!  It was touch and go there for a while there...especially dismantling that gold luxury upholstery job!

And my rescued chair, with it's mini-makeover, is lookin' fresh and fabulous in our bedroom.  Now if only I could find a reason to sit on the thing and actually use it.....

Photo Day 262: Cat naps (6.19.11)

Photo Day 262:  Cat naps (6.19.11)
Extreme couponing is hard work.  It helps to have a partner.  Of course, mine fell asleep on the job.  Literally.

Photo Day 250: Strike one (6.7.11)

Photo Day 250:  Strike one (6.7.11)
I made not one…but two…PB and J’s for the hubby’s lunch. And cut them on the diagonal ‘cause apparently that’s important…something about it tastes better with a diagonal cut. Really?!...okay I’ll go with it since being a tad crazy seems to run in our family...well I suppose ehh ya'll?! (I'm making it my goal to sound like a southern yankee canadian.  It cracks me up to use ya'll and ehh in the same sentence.)

Anyway...these PB and J’s are a miracle. Why?  Well...I was kinda on strike.  Not sure why or when it started exactly. It wasn’t intentional. It just happened. Let’s just blame the strike on frostbite ehh. It was “every man (or feline) for themselves” around here. All things domestic diva and housewife-ish would no longer be tolerated!

Then after a few weeks (yes…it took weeks), the hubby started to notice. Might have had something to do with running out of clean socks. Or requests to pick up milk and eggs were met with “Don’t you work in a pharmacy? Isn’t that pharmacy located in a grocery store? Well how about I send you my shopping list…”  So very mature of me...ehh?!

Well the strike is officially over.

I crossed over my own picket line.

 And it’s quite possible that the hubby may have coaxed me across with a McD’s sweet tea.  With Paris's help...of course!

Ya'll...I fall for such cheap tricks...ehh!

Bitter Lemonade

Smack! That’s left field pelting me with lemons.

And don’t get me started about making lemonade out of lemons. Hello!...if I wanted lemonade in the first place I would have made some and if all I’ve got is lemons…ummm NO SUGAR…then please explain how those lemons are going to miraculously juice themselves into a sugary beverage. That’s what I thought. They are not. Attention all you optimists: you are full of $#!t !!!!!!! Ooooo…I sound bitter…imagine that! Okay I’ll spell it out for you…lemons are bitter!


Why am I such an angry elf?!?! Because I don’t get to have a 3-legged cat.

As it turns out…Paris really is our lemon kitty. Bone cancer. Treatment = amputate the leg. But it’s already spread to other parts. So she gets to keep all her legs and take them with her. When she goes. Which will be sooner than later. So where’s the lemonade in all that?

Photo Day 240: Snow White and 2 Dwarfs (5.28.11)

Photo Day 240:  Snow White and 2 Dwarfs (5.28.11)
Just accept the dwarfs! That’s what I’m telling myself these days. The back of our house dwarfs everything in its presence. Hummmm…note to self…stand next to the house to look skinnier.

Anyway…we use our backdoor 99.9% of the time. Everyone does. The problem is that it’s lacking “architectural interest” as they say on HGTV. A very large white square box with a door and utility uglies running up the side. Not so welcoming. And I think the utility stuff is just screaming “paint me white so I blend in!” I wonder if the utility companies would even allow that? I can just see it now…calling the hubby to bail me out of jail after getting arrested for painting something! And I’m sure my response would be something like “but you have to agree the house looks prettier now…”

However, in an effort to avoid any scenario that would involve me and jail, I opted for some planters with colorful flowers instead. I’m going with the motto of clean and simple since magnificent and perfectly-sized-to-scale is not in the budget. I’m pretty sure we’d have to win the lottery to afford the 12ft or taller trees needed to fill up the space. So dwarfs it is.

And now I will share the joy of having Snow White songs stuck in my head.

Heigh-ho…Heigh-ho…It's home from work we go (whistle)…

Just whistle while you work…