Tweet Tweet!

Ok, I am now on twitter. Can anyone tell me the benefits of being on twitter and maybe some basic stuff on how to work it? I would really appreciate it! I don't know anything about it. I just followed a few of my favorite bloggers! :)

Edit to add: is Twitter always over capacity?? Geez!

Nacho Mama Tees

Really? Need I say more?

Go to Life with the Lebedas to register to win one of these or many other funny tee shirts from Nacho Mama Tees.

Finally!

So....

We are FINALLY HOMEOWNERS!!!!!

Signed the papers this morning.

Oh yeah, you better believe I am doing the happy dance.

Woot woot baby!!

Mason Jars

I could fund a small rebellion if I sold my Mason Jars. The problem is, I don't want to!

They have come from all different places. I bought 3 or 4 dozen to make Christmas presents with last year. I have used canned goods that have been given to me by family and friends. I decided that I wanted to be a gardener and grow green beans and jalapenos and can them, so I bought 3 or 4 more dozen. Then I inherited about, oh 20 or 30 dozen, from the husband's Grammie.

And, on top of that, I think they are breeding and taking over the garage. Every time I turn around there is another box labeled "Mason Jars - Skye" or "Canning Jars" or "Please Knock - We are Making Baby Mason's in Here."

It has become quite apparent to me that since I cannot even keep an ivy plant alive (which I have been told are the easiest plants to take care of) that I will not be a gardener. So, I will not be using these Mason jars to can bumper crops of tomatoes, refrigerator pickles, green beans or bread & butter jalapeno peppers. Yes - they are as delicious as they sound!!

So I scoured the internet at work (praying they don't fire me before I can quit) for pictures of Mason jars doing double duty. I was surprised to find that a lot of people out there share my obsession with them!

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This is an obvious one, if you ask me. Candles make a really great addition to any decoration and the mason jars just give it a little extra character. I also love that these are in an old rusty milk container. Cute!

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What a pretty light fixture! Wouldn't this be great over a sink or a little reading nook? Just enough light and filtered through the glass to.

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This one makes me want to cover my laundry room door in painted 2 x 4s and cover it with Mason jars. I have no idea what I would put in them but wow! Just the visual effect would awesome!

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I love the straws. What a great idea for a outdoor sweltering summer cocktail party.

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I love the scratchy lables on these. Wouldn't that be a cute idea for a placemarker on a table and then fill it with a candle or maybe some Kickin Krackers for a nice little party favor?

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Buffet anyone? Put silverware already wrapped in napkins at the end of a buffet line, fill one with wet naps, use it to put the servingware in to save the tablecloth and minimize messes, toothpicks, the list could be endless!

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Along with my large collection of Mason jars, I also have quite a few biscuit cutters. But, in a pinch, this would do just fine!

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Love love love. I can see these lining the brick on the back of my house after we get our deck built giving perfect mood lighting to one of the many soirees I plan on having out there.

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Nothing says "Hi, I'm from the South!" more than a cold, wet glass of sweet iced tea out of a Mason jar. It is most definitely a Southern staple.

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Now I know why I didn't register for a trifle dish when we got married! Why would you want to be all formal when you could serve your layered dessert or salad in such a sweet little jar? SWOON!

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Yes, this will be the first project my husband will complete once we get the wood working shop together. If you come to my house next summer, expect to see one of these hanging from my new porch roof. The end.

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This will also be on my buffet table with hand sanitizer in it, and in my bathroom with soap, and in my kitchen with dish detergent, and in my bedroom with lotion, and.....

Do you have any ideas??

Holiday with Matthew Mead Contest

Does anyone else out there love Layla @ The Lettered Cottage as much as I do?

Today she posted about the book, Holiday with Matthew Mead.

I want it. There is no contest to win the book, but you can purchase it HERE.

However, Matthew Mead is offering an opportunity for them to come style your home for the holidays and then showcase it in a three-page spread in the book-azine.

What are you waiting for??

GO REGISTER!

Closing Date & Under the Sink

Guess whaaaattt!!

We got a CLOSING DATE TODAY!

We are closing on our house on Thursday, June 17th.

Exactly one month, to the day, after Mom passed.

Now, finally, I understand why we had to "wait so long" to close on this house.

God sure knows what he is doing, especially when we don't!

Anyways, to commemorate our closing, I finally have a before & after project to show you!

DOUBLE YAY!

Under my kitchen sink. It isn't really messy to begin with but I just wasn't thrilled with having things just.. well.. sit there. I wanted them to look pretty and somewhat organized while I was doing it.

So while hubby was at work last night, my future SIL got down on the kitchen floor with me, the three dogs (my two and hers) and this:

and this:

So what? I like to have a plan!

We started with this:

The small trash can is for cans that we recycle for Habitat for Humanity. The green basket I have literally had for 10 years, and it was holding bathroom cleaning stuff. (yeah right... i do not clean bathrooms. PSH!) We don't have a dishwasher so I wanted our dishwashing detergent and my scrubby brush to be close at hand, along with the drain plugs.  I also wanted somewhere to store dish rags and cleaning rags that was easy to see and easy to organize.

This is what we ended with:

Not too shabby, eh? I ended up using 3M removable hooks for the baskets in the doors because the wood isn't thick enough to put the screws in without them bursting out of the other side. So, they are removable, movable and totally adjustable. Which I LOVE. I bought three small, clear shoe drawers from the Container Store to put dish rags, cleaning rags and sponges in. The wire rack beside the white trash can has two removable drawers to use for cleaning supplies so I can carry them around the house. I also needed somewhere to store my plastic baggies and wraps and the other door was the perfect place! You can't see it but there is also a hook for a drying towel for the dishes. Finally, the empty spot to the right is for my dish drainer, and it is just the perfect spot for it!

I lurve, lurve, lurve it!

Do you have your sink organized? I would be happy to help if you need somewhere to start! :) 

Thanks for all who have offered prayers and words of condolence in the past few weeks. Please know that they have been felt and I have treasured every kind word! I am healing but still have my bad moments. But thank you thank you thank you! and Beneath My Heart's Kitchen Clean Up Party!

i am linking this to CSI's Organization Challenge and Beneath My Heart's Kitchen Clean Up Party!

Poppy Seed Fabric Giveaway

I know you know all about Poppy Seed Fabric.

WHAT? You DON'T??

Today, my friends, is the perfect day to find out!

Hop on over to my bloggy friend House of Smith's and learn all about it...

(And while you are there, check out her fun and super-easy tutorials.. This girl is a catch-and-a-half!)

And then go on to Poppy Seed Fabrics and see what she has!

I guarantee you will be in LOVE before you get done! :)

Unfinished Projects

I wish I had a before & after to blog about, or a room that I have decorated to show you, or perhaps some fun thrift store find to share the story of. But I don't.

Since Mom passed, I have been in a funk. Which, I suppose, is "normal." There were just so many things that we were going to do together in the new house that now I have to do by myself. I mean, sure the husband plans on helping me, but really... It isn't the same.

Mom wanted to buy white wooden blinds to replace the cheap-o plastic ones that are there. She wanted to buy me a pot rack so that I would have somewhere to put my pots and pans in my tiny kitchen. She was going to help me turn this KILLER door we found at a flea market into a head board for my guest bedroom. And now I have to do all of this without her there... and I only get to think about how much I miss her while I am doing it instead of listening to her whine and go on and on about how hot and muggy it is or laugh at one of my latest horror stories from that wretched place I work.

I thought it would make me feel better to come home to my husband after spending a few days with my Dad after the funeral, but walking into our new house just opened up all these fresh wounds and the gnawing hole in my chest just gaped open and I could hardly breathe. I was there for around 20 minutes and I had to leave. I couldn't be there and look at all the projects that we had been so excited to do together over the summer.

Mom was the ultimate picture hanger. I have boxes and boxes of pictures and crosses and other decorative wall hangings that are staring at me in disbelief wondering why they haven't been removed from their musty containers and displayed proudly on the wall. A couple of memories come to mind about hanging pictures.

In our last house, we had a tall, skinny space where we wanted to hang my husbands college choir pictures. (He was a member of the Centenary College Choir - The World's Singing Ambassadors.. very prestigious!) It was a tricky little arrangement. Mom got out her calculator and her measuring tape and after about an hour of intense trigonometry had a drawing of measurements and where to drive in the nails and everything. I have it somewhere. If I can find it, one day I will scan it and put it on here. It was really quite amazing. But we always laughed at the amout of work it took to hang those 4 pictures on the wall.

The other one involved six 4x6 picture frames that I had spray painted black. I found a slideshow of pictures that someone had made out of their vacation to Paris and had six of the best pictures printed and then put them in those frames. I wanted to hang them behind my TV in the guest room, so again out came the paper, calculator, and measuring tape. Once we had it all marked and figured we started hanging the pictures. For some reason, I still to this day don't know what got into me, I got tickled and could not stop laughing. She started laughing too and we just had to stop and sit down and laugh. I have no idea what was so funny. Maybe we just needed a break and needed to laugh together.

I don't know how soon I will be able to bring myself to do any of these projects or start on any new ones. I know they will wait on me as long as it takes and that when I do get to them, it will really be a healing experience for me. I expect to cry a lot while I hang those [damn] Centenary pictures (mom's words, not mine) and laugh a lot while I hang my Paris pictures. I know she will be standing right there next to me guiding my hands and telling me where each picture will look its best. I just wish she could cry and laugh with me.

Big Backyard Project

So much has been going on in our little world.... Aside from the obvious arrangements that come with a death in the family, we are still working on things around the house. The main problem is that we have yet to actually close on the darn thing and that has brought on so much stress and wishy-washy behavior and that is so NOT my style.

We were working through a credit union, and about a day before we would have been given an actual closing date, their underwriters passed a new requirement that dropped the approvable debt-to-income ratio for Rural Development loans from 55% to 41%. Ours was 43%. Our loan officer couldn't "grandfather us in" and she couldn't crunch the numbers to make it work.

Rant - How irritating is it that my husband and I, who both have higher education degrees, steady, well paying jobs and minimal revolving debt, cannot get a home loan because of our FREAKING STUDENT LOANS, but a Hispanic couple, who the husband mows yards and the wife cleans houses and they have three young children, have not one problem. I am not racist by any means, but does anyone else see a problem here???

Anywho - They slid our loan to another institution, one that has their own private underwriters. After we finally got all of our paperwork completed with them, the Rural Development program ran out of money.

REALLY?

So, as of today, the bill has been passed to continue funding the RD program so we are finally moving in a positive direction as far as closing on our house is concerned.

The only thing we have been able to work on is something that we would have needed no matter where we will end up living. My husband inherited about $10,000 dollars worth of woodworking equipment from his grandfather about a year ago. Until now it has been making its dusty home in our garage at our rent house. When we went into contract on the house we are trying to buy, we purchased a storage building to put in the back yard to hold all of said equipment. So, our yard has undergone somewhat of a transformation over the past couple of weeks:

First, we had to rake a very large portion of our yard. The building is 10 x 21, and the foundation was to be 16 x 24, so we could have a lean to on one side and a small deck to sit on. (until hubby builds me a real one >:)

This is the back left corner of our yard, which very conveniently measures about 20 x 25. And FYI - If your husand doesn't already own one, a burn barrell makes a very exciting gift for any man. If I had know how exuberant husband was going to be when he got one I would have done it a long time ago. (And if you know the right people, they are free. Double yay!)

We spent about three hours one morning raking, burning and bagging leaves from this corner.

Then we started on the foundation, which was of my Dad's design.

This is Prentice (friend of husband) on the left in the white shirt, Chris (husband) in the blue shirt) and Jerry (dad) sitting in the back, supervising. This is them building the first half of the foundation. It consisted of a lot of cussing, laughter and eventually nailing some boards together.

This is the (almost) complete foundation:

We still have to screw sheets of plywood on the top of it to deck it out before we can actually put the building on top.

So that is what we have been able to accomplish over the past few weeks since we moved in. I am ready for a closing date or something so I can finish my work on the inside of the house! I have lots to do and blog about!