Not your plain ole' high chair!!!

This is one of my favorite projects for so many reason.  

First, I love doing "kid's" stuff...chairs, desks, dressers...anything kids would love!  

Second, it was free.  Well, the CHAIR was free...the materials and time were a little excessive!  But I love the way it turned out so it was worth it! Truthfully, if I paid myself by the hour on the items I repurpose/reupholster/refinish and then sell, I would make about $1.32 an hour...not sure I would even clear that on this chair!

This was another "abandoned" piece I found at my apartments. 

And it was N.A.S.T.Y!

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Every square inch was covered in nasty gunk!!!  But other than the tear in the seat (Duck tape? Seriously?) it was structurally sound. And super neat.... the top of the chair lifts off the base...and the base can be flipped over and used as a desk with a dry-erase top...nifty little thing.

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Since the tray was missing and it probably is no longer considered "high chair safe" I decided to spruce it up and make it into a little child's booster chair!  Definitely not something you would want to put your toddler in and leave unattended, but sturdy enough for a young child! 

First I removed the seat and back and the old tray brackets. 

Then I had to clean it!  I put it in the tub and saturated it with straight ammonia....

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The nastiness just melted off.  I can not tell you how disgustingly filthy this thing was and I am sick that someone would put their child in it...just gross.

After scrubbing it with ammonia and steal wool, I let it dry thoroughly and then gave it the ole' KSTP treatment...Kilz, sand, tack cloth and paint.  

I decided to spice the frame up a bit with bright red paint. I used a black and white damask with red piping on the cushions. The seat was pretty thin so I added a little foam padding before recovering it. 

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I painted the dry erase board on the base with chalkboard paint! I'm kind of addicted to that stuff!

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Just darling.  I just love anything that is "unique."

And while it really isn't safe to use as a high chair, it would make a perfect "kitchen helper."

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Easy recipe book....

I love recipes.  I've collected a lot of recipe books over the years, including one my mother received as a wedding gift in 1961....a church recipe book.  It is awesome!  Best peanut butter cookie recipe EVER!

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My uncle inherited my Grandmother's recipes and I brought them home and scanned EVERYTHING....every handwritten recipe, every newspaper and magazine clipping, every box recipe.  Anything she had in her recipe boxes, I scanned.  Someday I plan on making a recipe book with all the scans...someday.  They have been on my computer for over two years...but someday. 

So when I started cruising Pinterest I wanted to keep ALL the recipes that sounded even remotely good.  But I discovered that sometimes when you pinned a link, it was no longer there when you went back later.  So I had to find a way to organize all the recipes. 

I started printing them off, tacking them to the refrigerator and then if we liked them, I would put them in a "recipe book." 

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I found the easiest way to do this was to "cut and paste" the recipe into an email, email it to myself and then print it off.  If it passed the family taste test, I would slip it into my recipe book. 

The book is a simple scrapbook with the little clear sleeves with paper inserts...50% off at Hobby Lobby.  I can add additional pages to it when I need to and the sleeves make it easy to slip the recipes in and keep them from getting cruddy when I splatter stuff on them.  

If I am feeling creative I will put holiday scrapbook paper in place of the white paper inserts.  

Pinterest and the internet are loaded with awesome recipes...and I really believe the secret to being a good cook is the willingness to try new recipes, even if you need to change them up a bit! 

Keeping up with all those recipes can be daunting and most of us rarely have the time to write them down on nice little cards and file them in nice little boxes like our mothers and grandmothers did.

Print, trim and slip....easy.  

Ode to Joel....

I try to come up with clever post titles....Lindsey at Betterafter.net ​always has the most clever titles for her blog posts.  Just too much brain effort on my part.  Sometimes I am funny, but it is just because I say and do stupid things...not because I am necessarily "witty."   Besides, if you aren't over the age of 45, you wouldn't get the title of this post.  (Ode to Billy Joe....not so great song...even worse movie)

Anywho, it was one of those days I had a million errands to run, one of which was to Hancock Fabrics to pick up some piping for the pillows I am making (another post for another day...if I ever get around to it!) Always on a hunt for a bargain, (i.e. digging around on the back shelves)​ I found some 90% Christmas clearance.  CHRISTMAS IN MARCH!!! LOVE!!!   I love Christmas...I love decorating for Christmas.  And every single year I proclaim "THIS IS IT!!!  Not another thing!"  But then I find the bargains....

Seriously, who wouldn't love boxes of ornaments and gingerbread cookie cutters for .59 and strings of silver beads and pearls for 1.49 a strand!!!  And those cute little metal trees for 1.69!  Seriously, who wouldn't love finding this stuff in MARCH!!??? If I didn't love spring and fall so much I would be antsy for the Christmas holiday!!!

Anywho, taking this picture reminded me of how much I LOVE MY UNDER COUNTER LIGHTING....which brings me to my "Ode to Joel."  My FAVORITE son in law in the whole wide world.  Now, he will be quick to remind me that he is my ONLY son in law, but honestly, that is not the point.  He is my favorite.​

And not just because he is an electrician who is gracious enough to work during his visits.  See, I always have some electrical issue that is just a tad over my head...or rather one that I know would take him 4 hours to complete when it would take me 2 DAYS!  And who has time for that during the holidays...seriously! ​

So for YEARS I have wanted to put can lights in my kitchen.  I just thought they were so cool looking AND my kitchen felt a bit "dark" and "smallish" because of the lack of decent lighting.  But the "in" can lights right now are a little pricey and I knew I wouldn't be happy with the ones like I  have in my den...because, after all, those are not the "in" lights right now.  The "in" can lights are like the ones Joel installed in ​my bathroom last summer...that I love...but rarely turn on because you could land a jet in there now when both the vanity and can lights are on!

So last fall,  I went to Lowes (again, my fav) and started looking at lighting options.  I have never been a fan of the little "pot" lights that go under cabinets...kind of thought they were silly looking...but I did like the LED strip lighting they had...and while an 18" strip was around $60, I only needed three!  ​And they last "a lifetime" and you never have to change the bulbs.  Hum....that is right up my alley. 

So that is what we bought.  Long story short, we created a new switch next to the disposal switch (that required adding a larger box and second switch and some unanticipated tile repair....good thing I keep spare everything!) The lighting was hardwired to the switch and Joel was able to run the wires behind the microwave and refrigerator so the wiring wouldn't show.  ​

Oh, My. Goodness!  I swear my kitchen doubled in size!!!​

It is just sooo difficult to appreciate what a difference this makes with pictures.  Joel installed them the day before Thanksgiving last year, and I swear my kitchen prep space doubled in size!  It made a huge difference in my usable space because the two corners were just always so dark and impossible to use as prep space. ​

Again, he only installed three...one over the coffee pot (far left), then ran the wiring behind the microwave to the left corner cabinets and installed one there, then ran the wiring behind the refrigerator to the corner in the right.  AMAZING!!  ​

I installed new granite counter tops two years ago (talk about the steal of a lifetime...for another time!) and these new lights just made them POP!!!  Seriously, it has "sparklies" in it I didn't even know were there.  Like little pieces of quartz all through it...I knew it was beautiful granite...but with the added lights, it is breathtaking...seriously! 

But the biggest difference, again, was the amount of usable counter space, which in a small kitchen is a huge plus!!!!​

So....Ode to my SIL Joel...not only is he a wonderful husband and father...but he is a pretty handy dude to have around when there is some serious electrical work to be done!  Is this a "DIY" project?  Yes...it very easily could be and I have no doubt I could have done it myself.  But honestly, he did it in a quarter of the time it would have taken me to do it, at a time when I was a bit busy making pies and stuffing.​

So in my book, that makes him the BEST SON IN LAW IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!​