Mr. Amazing

So Tim can make anything. Which I'm realizing more and more.

We were cutting up the fallen tree in the backyard and Tim was dying to make some of the logs into something. So he grabbed one and made an iPhone charging station.

A few coats of polyurethane and lots of drilling later and here it is beside our bed:

Close-up:

And the back:

Yeah. Awesome.

Then the next day he was feeling particularly crafty again. First he took apart a broken motion light and made it into a normal overhead light for the Great Room (gonna get a picture soon...). Then he took another log and another broken lamp and made it into an epic accent lamp for the Dining Room.

And here's the aftermath in the Great Room. He even used part of a coat hanger. Wha-?

I wonder what he's gonna build next...

Food, food, food

It's Day 21 of Four Weeks of Frugality and we still aren't eating Ramen noodles (yet).

Monday night we had my favoritest meal: Taco Dinner. Every summer we spent weeks and weeks at my grandmother's lakehouse. 6 girl cousins in one room - so fun. But the best part was all the yummy meals each night. Taco Dinner was the best because it's easy to feed a big crowd and everyone can customize it to their liking. So here's the list of things necessary for Taco Dinner:

Rice
Taco meat (with red or black beans)
Cheese
Shredded lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Sour cream
Ketchup (I know it sounds weird - but it's totally necessary!)
Crushed Doritos (the best part!)

Layer all ingredients and enjoy!

We ate it Monday night but we sadly didn't have any Doritos (*tear* *sniff* *sniff*). We tried subbing mini Cheez-its - I thought it wasn't half bad but Tim loved it.

And York Pieces for dessert - yum!

Tuesday night we had delicious Brunswick stew (thanks Ethan!) and corn muffins. We didn't have any milk for the muffin mix but we did have evaporated milk in the pantry - added a little water and it was perfect!

Tonight we had a chicken casserole from the back of a stuffing box. It wasn't bad - but we had to use Kroger brand frozen chicken so the chicken was a little chewy. But the rest of it was pretty good. Add some cinnamon bread and it was a very yummy meal.

Cabinet Before and After

So last week I went to help out at church and they had a white cabinet that was falling apart and they were going to take it to the dumpster. I figured Tim could fix it up (and then I could use to for sewing storage) and said I would come pick it up the next day. Well, when I got there the next day, they had already taken it to the dump but they had another cabinet we could have. Thanks!

Tim and I managed to squeeze it into my car and got it home. But it was kind of plain and boring so I wanted to spice it  up a little. At the suggestion of sister-in-law Lydia, I thought I could add wrapping paper to the back. So I did!

I had some wrapping paper that I got for half off at Hobby Lobby after Christmas and some spray adhesive that we had leftover from the Tardis doors in the living room.

Start by taking off the backing of the cabinet by removing all these little nails.

Once you have the back off, be sure to get out all the nails (even the ones you drop on the floor).

Go around and hammer all the spots where the nails used to be - mine didn't come out very cleanly:

Lay the wrapping paper down and make sure you like the look (I love it!).

Cover the floor with something to protect from overspray from the spray adhesive (I used shipping boxes). Spray a light coat of adhesive and then lay down the wrapping paper (giving special care to match the seams). Lay something flat and sorta heavy on top to help adhesion. Let dry at least an hour.

Trim the wrapping paper.

Hammer all those little nails back into the back of the cabinet.

And TA-DA! I *love* it! And I didn't spend a penny! 

Tim made me a table!

So Tim is amazing.But you already knew that. But he was even more amazing that usual on Saturday because me made me a table!! Yeah. He found these table legs at Lowe's on clearance a few months ago and grabbed the last four planning to make me a table for my sewing room. We thought about turning an old door into a table but all the ones in the shed were rotten and holey. So we put a table on the back burner. Then Saturday we were taking a walk through the woods behind our house (towards our landlords) and passed this dilapidated shed. The roof had fallen in years ago it seemed, and all the wood was just rotting. You couldn't even get to the "building" without hacking through loads of briars and undergrowth. Anyways, Tim spotted some boards that looked better than the others and braved the thorns to retrieve them and then carried them on his shoulders like Paul Bunyan all the way back to the house. He wasted no time and set about making me a table right then despite the now-present darkness. 

No kidding about the darkness.

Anyways, so he laid the boards upside and attached a frame that the legs would attach to. 

Then he screwed on these neat little metal things that would be the base of the legs.

And he got to use his Christmas present from me: a new drill!

Then he found some more old boards in the shed and used them for facing pieces (at least, that's what I'd call them). They look shnazzy.

After it was all done, he put a diagonal 1x4 underneath the table to brace it even more but we forgot to take a picture of it. ;-) So here it is in the Great Room (it will go in the Sewing Room as soon as the paint on the walls dries!).

The sign on top was a Christmas present to us from my brother Watts. He made it with twine (for the "The") and cut chicken wire for the Carsons part. Creativity runs in the family!

I am LOVING the new/old table. I may get a piece of glass cut for the top and use it as a sewing table (after January of course!) or I might just put a coat of polyurethane on top to seal it. Still can't decide. But I'm so excited about it!

Oh, and DAY 4 of Four Weeks of Frugality was great! We had four friends over for dinner and I served spaghetti (with more deer meat from Ethan - he gave us a lot!) and garlic bread (that I had in the freezer - I bought the premade bread with garlic spread that Walmart sells AND it was on their "We Overbaked - Save 40%" rack - making the loaf about $1 (and it serves 6-8). It freezes great and all you have to do is pop it in the oven.) Ethan and Paige brought a salad so we were all set. Hooray for entertaining on a budget!

Little changes that make a world of difference...

I have a love/hate relationship with bedskirt. I love that they had the fact that you only have a super cheap bed frame. I love that you can store boxes and junk under the bed and no one can see it. And I love the tailored look that it adds to the bedroom. I hate that I can't see if there are crickets under the bed. Seriously. There could be bugs under there! And Rylie constantly loses her ball under the bed and I have to lift up that bed skirt and reach my hand into the dark abyss. *shudder* ANYWAYS! Despite the fact that it could be harboring ferocious insects, I still wanted a bedskirt for our bed. But apparently the cheapest you can find is $30. Say wha-?! I contemplated making one from a flat sheet but didn't want to devote the time. Imagine my glee when we were shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (and using some of our gift cards!) and we found bedskirts on clearance for only $15. Unfortunately, they only had twin size and king size in white. No problem - I can sew! According to Wikipedia, a queen and a king size mattress are the same length but a king is wider by 16 inches. The bedskirt already had a pleat in the center of it so I decided to just add two more pleats! I measured half-way on each side and then made a box pleat taking up 8 inches on each side. I just stitched it flat. I didn't bother taking up the flat fabric that would go between the mattresses - it isn't seen anyways! I got the bedskirt in place (quite a feat alone) and then just used straight pins to secure the bedskirt to the box spring. No more sliding bedskirts. And the pleats look totally natural! YAY!

The other thing I needed to finish off the bed was decorative pillows over our sleeping pillows. Shams had come with our duvet cover that we bought at Ikea but because we bought a king-size duvet for extra width, the pillow shams were king-size - which apparently just means about 8 inches too long. I fiddled with some ideas about how to "make it work" and wanted buttons to sorta pinch the shape smaller. Well, I did one pillow and it looks stupid. You could barely see the buttons and the pillow still looked stupid. So I threw the shams in a corner and didn't look at them for a few weeks. When I finally got up the courage to try them again, I was armed with my good friend: grosgrain ribbon. And of course, it totally worked. I stitched the cream ribbon about 4 inches in on each side. One end of the sham is still open to take it off and wash but I handstitched it in a few places to make sure the pillow didn't slide out. Then I added my white buttons back on the sham and BAM! It totally worked. I'm LOVING our finished bed! Who knew such little changes could make me so happy?

Catching up...

Oh dear! It's been two weeks since my last post! What a terrible blogger I am...

But! Other aspects of life had taken over - namely, sewing! In the 12 days I've been selling costumes on Etsy, I've sold 6 things! That may not seem like a lot, but every little bit of extra money helps! Currently top on the list of things that extra money will go towards is a medical bill from the hospital when I had a my freak allergic reaction - and now I owe them $900. Great. Anyways, but God is providing and I'm getting to sew which I LOVE! I've also got sewing commissions from Rock Bridge for their Fall Festival and Dalton High for their fall musical. YAY!


Tim and I celebrated our 2 month anniversary today - well, "celebrated" by him working 16 hours. ;-) But tomorrow we're headed to watch Watts play football at the UGA vs. Tennessee game - Go Dawgs! It's crazy to think we've been married two months already; time sure flies when you're having fun!


And on that same Tim-is-amazing note, he decided a few weeks ago that he wanted to build a bench for our dining room table. We only have 4 chairs and I've always loved the whole "bench at the dining room table" look. So when he found gorgeous Queen Anne chair legs on sale at Lowe's for ridiculously cheap, he built a bench. From scratch. Like, with wood. He did a ton of research and bought strange sounding screws and planed, measured, sawed, and drilled. After a couple nights of work, he had made a bench! I forgot to take finished-finished pictures so you'll have to content yourself with in-progress pictures!

First, he collected supplies.

He measured a lot...

He did cool things to make the legs attach to the base he made...

And reinforced the side pieces of wood to the top...

And suddenly... A BENCH!

He stained it with some leftover stain (3 coats!)...

Looking SOOO great! We wanted to cushion the top, so that's where I came in! Foam we got for 40% off at Hobby Lobby...

We put a layer on top with about half an inch space on all sides:

Then did ANOTHER layer of foam that wrapped all the way over the edge and some fake leather we got on clearance at Joann Fabrics...

A few staples later and we had a cushioned bench!

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the bench at our table. I'd go take one now but I'm sitting at Chick-fil-A while Tim works an event until midnight. And now I'm contemplating a milkshake... hmm...

The next update (tomorrow or Sunday) will show the decorative pillows I "upcycled" for the bed and the new bed skirt AND the new furniture in the dining room. YAY!