kitchen workstation

as i mentioned in this post, i can really only get work done around the house when my prandsome hince is out of town. so my first mission was to get all this cleaned up..

 so i could put this together...

 it was a lovely housewarming gift from my aunt kay and my father. my mom was going to buy it for me before she passed away so aunt kay (who, in all reality, is my mother's soul mate.. seriously) and my dad jumped all over that and it was shipped to our house about 2 weeks after the funeral.

they are so sweet!

it came in about 300 pieces. i was a little overwhelmed at first. i have put together BYO furniture before but never anything this complicated. 

 (any good ideas for covering a dog's crate?)

i quickly started praying for an extra hand to spurt forth but it never happened. it took a lot of muffled naughty words (caused by cussing with a tiny allen wrench in my mouth while squinched in the cabinet trying to screw the top into the bottom) and several second tries, but by golly, here she is!

the cutting board on top was a wedding gift from a very skilled craftsman who is a friend of my dad.

 

he has actually (no jokes here) built his casket, and on the outside it say.. "casket made by contents". a little creepy yes, but the man is a genius when it comes to woodwork. unbelievable.

this is also my very first attempt at a vignette. not even close to being interesting... but it was what i had at the time, so i stuck it up there. :D

all in all, i am pleased with the cart. i am going to use it to keep my serving ware in and possibly some other stuff but right now she sits empty, but full of possibilities!

door as a headboard

about two weeks before we moved, mom and i found a door at a flea market.

its perfect. it has the original hardware, locking mechanism and doorknob on it.

so beautiful.

right now it is leaned up behind the bed that it will eventually be the headboard of.

i have been reading "making a door into a headboard" tutorials all over the internet getting ideas. my aunt kay will be here in october and our focus for the weekend is to make this into something even more beautiful..

 

like so...

from styleblog.cottagelife.com

or maybe this

from hgtv.com

and ooh i love the painted inset panels here...

from ohdeeoh.com

and so beautiful...

from remodelaholic

 any other ideas?? i would love to hear them! :D i will post a before and after once we get it done. i have plenty to keep me busy between now and then. more to come!

the barn raisin

the best and worst part of having a youth director as a husband is the fact that he is gone a lot during the summer. this summer that has been particularly interesting, given that after my mom died, i was afraid to let anyone i loved out of my sight for more than five minutes.

however, i have quickly learned that the only time i can get anything done around the house that i want to do has to be done while he is out of the house and therefore, out of my hair.

so the last few weeks have been, needless to say, pretty productive for me. all of that will be in blogs to come. today is about what he had to finish before all of his camps and mission trips started this summer.

it has been given the endearing term, the barn, but it is nothing short of an aluminum building and nothing close to an actual barn. it encloses my husband's inherited woodworking tools, lawn equipment and the like.

i used it for an opportunity to try to take some "perspective shots" with my camera.

don't judge. i really have no idea what the heck i'm doing with this thing! but i had fun taking pictures. we had a "barn raisin" and a bunch of our friends came over and lovingly donated over 12 hours of their time on a very hot saturday to help us put the dern thing together. yep, this big building, came out of those three boxes.

our friends are awesome. we could have never done this without them!

yep, even the dogs pitched in.

i was so ready to have this building finished.

because i was ready to move this...

and this...

yeah.

so i can officially pull my car into the carport. but we still have a long way to go!

but we did have some fun during the day, and i took some neat pictures along the way too. i know my hubby is so happy to have it done and i am glad he is happy. now that this is done, i can get some real work done! yay!

framework that goes around the doors

screws on top of a ladder

hubby being funny

where i had intended to be sitting, watching the action...

yeah, that so didn't happen.

a friend helping screw the building to the foundation...

a dewalt screwdriver. worth every penny.

the building is wonderful. my father is coming the weekend to run electricity down there so hubby can have an air conditioner and a light. very important stuff people.

anyone else ever put a building together like this? it's crazy work but very rewarding!

The Vintage Find

so, a while back, i posted about a vintage shop i found in our area called the vintage find.

today, i finally have an opportunity to actually go there. my friendy friend is in town and she likes to go to junk shops too. i am so happy today!

here is an very small example of some of the stuff they have pictures of on their website:

 

so, as you can see, i will be spending my future children's college fund there today. and i will most likely be in a lot of trouble when i get home. 

oh well! really though, i am after those tin buckets and maybe a couple of other things. i will post pictures when we return! 

have a good saturday everyone! :D

Home Video

wowza. after waiting for an hour i have finally successfully uploaded a video to youtube.

why is that so hard and take so long? anywho, here is a video of our home, shortly after we moved in.

y'all remember now, i'm from texas, and i have the accent to prove it. i'm a southern belle through and through, so don't laugh, too much. :D

please also remember that we had just moved in. there is stuff everywhere! it does not look like this now.

:D thanks for checking it out!

more to come...

so, yesterday would have been my mom's 55th birthday.

i was only recently struck with how unbelievably young that is.

miss you mom! i know there is no time where you are and the celebration is endless but i hope there was an extra balloon for you yesterday!

better and more detailed blog to come this week. my pransom hince was out of town all week so i was actually able to get some work done inside the house and not in the stoopid carport.

yay!

My Gussy!

Ok, I am only slightly hyperventilating...

I just ordered my first Gussy product.

Woot Woot!

I can't wait to get it!

Thanks, Gussy, for sharing your creativity and making us all feel a little of your sass every time we adorn one of your sooooper cute products! :D

P.S. Don't tell my husband. :D

SQUEE! My first award!

Really, the title does say it all... but

I got my first award today! What a surprise! :D

It's nice to know that people are reading my blog and think it is worth of an award!

SQUEE!!

This was given to me by Jennifer over at Life with the Lebedas. She is really sweet and has some amazing giveaways! If you don't know her already, I would definitely suggest checking her out!

Thanks Jennifer for making my entire weekend in blog-land!

Woot Woot!

Now I have to pick twelve people to give it to... 

1. Leslie @ Lamberts Lately (for my sooooper cute new layout!)

2. McCall @ Teaching Myself (my future SIL who has just joined up in blogging)

3. Shelley @ House of Smith's

4. Kelsey @ Create at Home

5. Susie @ Susie Harris

6. Struggler @ Struggling to be Stylish

7. Sarah @ The Cootie Queen

8. Beth @ The Stories of A to Z

9. Caitlin @ That House on the Corner

10. Tiffany @ Mom Nom

11. Lynn @ For Love or Funny

12. Kristin @ Sweetheart Moments

Homemade Open Faced Sloppy Joes

Necessity is the mother of invention.

One night, about two years ago, I was having a serious craving for Manwich. Yes, Manwich, that canned goo you mix in with hamburger meat to make sandwiches. Don't judge.

Lucky for me, we didn't have any. Thus, the creation of my homemade sloppy joes. This is the name I have given them. 

In real life, my idea of a sloppy joe is from Bodacious BBQ in East Texas and it is leftover brisket chopped up very fine and mixed in with their DELISH bbq sauce and then cooked in a slow cooker for a few hours. They serve it on a toasted bun smeared with butter and I put a slice of onion on it and die every time I take a bite.

There is a Bodacious across the street from where I went to night school. I was about 30% of their annual revenue that year. Seriously. Don't judge.

So, with the intention of being resourceful I used what I had.  I had no idea what I was actually doing. I just cooked the hamburger meat and added stuff and tasted and added stuff and tasted until it tasted... right... and voila. 

My husband said, "Honey, I would eat this once a week. This is seriously one of my new favorite meals."

ROCKSTAR

So I thought I would share this with you in the hopes that your husband would bestow you with such an amazing compliment... :D

Here is what you need:

Brown one pound of lean hamburger meat.

Add about a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of black pepper and a table spoon of dried italian seasoning. I don't really measure any of this. I just put it in there. Then I put in about 3/4 of a 14 oz. can of tomato sauce.

Then add about 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce, a big squeeze of mustard, a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce and some seasoning.

 

I used Glen's Cajun BBQ Sprinkles (which you can purchase here) or you can use one of your choice. 

Stir this all together and let it cook for a while over low heat. 

Finished product:

We serve ours over Jiffy cornbread with bread and butter jalapeno peppers 

(one of the congregants at the church makes those for us.. they are DELISH).  

Happy husband.

Happy dog.

(yes mom, I would love a bite of that yum-yummy whatever you're cooking... puh-puh-puh-please?)

linking to Quit Eating Out