You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

Every boy hopes for a Red Ryder B-B Gun for Christmas.

But my husband and I don't approve of guns in the home or gun play so.....

My parents bought the boys a Red Ryder B-B Gun, and we keep it at their house.

Now, every year we watch A Christmas Story and laugh along with the famous tag line,

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

Well, they didn't shoot out anyone's eye.

Just the next door neighbors window.

Happy Thanksgiving!! (The check is in the mail)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm in sunny California for Thanksgiving with the family. (Thanksgiving and 70 degrees seems wrong to me.)

We are blessed with good health, being together with family, and having great friends. I hope everyone has a great day!

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Dream On!

Everyone who knows me well, knows that I have really crazy dreams. The crazy part is that I dream about things that are about to happen A LOT.

Yesterday I was looking at The Old Painted Cottage, and came across this picture of a vignette with antique cameras.

Last night I had a dream that I was shopping and I came across the same cameras and thought Oh I should get those! Well I woke up and couldn't remember if it was a dream or real? Did I see them or did I just dream about it? I realized that it was a dream. So then later today my mom and I went out to her favorite "junking" spots and guess what we saw on the shelf. And there they were. I HAD to buy them. It was destiny.

Coffee Table Find

(Click photo to enlarge, and see that price tag all up close and personal.)

Are you prone to fits of rage, and petty jealousies? If you are then it is best that you stop reading now. I picked up this cool, chipped up, glass-top coffee table at my favorite boutique. I don't know if you have heard of it...The Goodwill? Eddie Ross shows off his Goodwill finds on his blog, so I thought that I would go and give it a shot. Well I walked in and there it was right in the front. $19.99. Who prices these things, and will you be my best friend? It is so adorable in it's state of shabbiness. It has the cutest aged brass feet with casters! Love It.
I can't decide to go with the light rug, or the dark one. Leave me a comment with your choice.

Party in the Pink!

Pink and girlie!

Cute apron made of a hand towel and ribbon from JoAnn Fabric.
Apron from the dress-up section of Tar-jay.
I embellished it with rick rack and a cuter cupcake for the pocket! So fun.
No! It IS too late for me to have my own daughter. I just like to borrow them!

Do you Kindle?

I love my Kindle! It is a great investment if you are a voracious reader, or if you have a few big readers in your house. I love the ability to download a book any time the mood strikes. Each download is around $9.99, and most top 100 New York Times Best Sellers are available. (There are about 300,000 titles available)

When I first had the accident I couldn't read. It was terrifying. Because I am a reading specialist by training it was very frustrating to diagnose my problem, but I wasn't able to "fix" it in my own brain. I am getting MUCH better. My short term memory is unreliable, so often I will have to re-read something, start over, or just read a novel straight through so I don't forget as I go. I have my fluency back for the most part, so reading the words have gotten much easier. When I'm tired I can't really read well, so I just read early in the day, and that seems to work.

My 13 year old son and I share it. He takes it at night to read, and I use it during the day.

Steven King's new novel, "Under the Dome" has national release and yet it's Kindle release is December 24, 2009. I'm wondering if other main stream authors will follow suit, and withhold releases to the Kindle to push book sales by the publishers. Only time will tell. Don't get me wrong, I do love the library, the look and smell of books, but the Kindle is amazing. Try one! They just came out with the international version, so you can download outside of the U.S.

Krista Bars

Krista is the sweetest friend EVER!

She happens to be married to "Keys" remember him? Their son is so cute that a stranger told ME that he was by far my cutest son. Oops! Sorry to my own two boys.
She thinks that she is very helpful on the playing field. (sometimes I have to move my chair over a little...)
She is quite the hoe-downer! Our dog LOVES her. In a very slobbery way. Krista was once awakened by my dog's tongue in her mouth! Sorry!!!! (Krista is so nice, she is still my friend after that unfortunate incident.) AND she lets me Staycation at her house anytime I want!

But what she is really known for are the bars. The Krista Bars. My sons dream of them, my husband laments the fact that he ever tasted one, and I finally agreed to make them for my family. And now I am giving you the gift of The Krista Bar.

Now if you are diabetic please step away and load up on the insulin. I'll wait right here.

Once you read what is in them, you may not want to have them in your home. Just try them once, and see what happens.

The Krista Bars
1 package butter recipe yellow cake mix with pudding
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1 (12 oz. pkg.) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
3 chocolate covered Heath bars or 1 package of Heath bar pieces (that is what I use)
1/2 cup of butter
32 vanilla caramels , unwrapped (duh)
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

Heat over to 350 degrees. Grease 13 x 9 inch pan. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs, blend well . Stir in Chocolate chips, vanilla chips and candy bar pieces. Mixture will be thick. Press half of the mixture in bottom of greased pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile in medium saucepan combine butter, caramels and condensed mile. Cook over medium heat until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring occasionally.

Remove partial baked cruse form oven. Slowly pour caramel mixture evenly over crust. Crumble remaining cake mixture over caramel.

Return to over, bake an additional 25-30 minutes or until top is set and edges are deep golden brown. Cool 20 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen bars. Cool 40 minutes. Refrigerate 1 hour. Cut into bars. Store in refrigerator.

I apologize in advance for your pants no longer fitting.

Target Tuesday

Can you imagine having a beautiful sheepdog? Now imagine that sheepdog with snow all over her. Now have that dog melting inside your beautiful clean home. Burst into tears because your house smells like wet dog and there are melted snow puddles all over your beautiful carpet.

That is why Mrs. Meyer's is so important to me! This is the best smelling cleaning product you will ever use in your life. It has a light pine scent, kind of like Pine-Sol but yummier. You have to buy in now during the holiday season, and buy lots of it!! It makes you want to clean!! (okay maybe that's just me, but whatever encourages a person to clean has to be good right?)
I use the Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena scented products as well. They are all excellent, the scent is delicious but not over-powering. We have discussed the bionic nose before right? Right.

Clifford the Big Red Chair Gets a Make-Over!

This is not Clifford the actual chair, but it gives you a good idea of what I started with. This is the chair that I had BUT...

This is the look that I really wanted. All Bloggers know that a Home Depot Painters Drop Cloth is the way to go. I bought two, washed them both a few times, ironed them, and then dreamed of a new chair and ottoman. (Less than $40.00 bucks for the fabric.)

So I had to get to work.

Here's the back of him. No that isn't the flash making a white spot, he's all bleached out due to living so close to the sun in Denver. (We are a mile high you know.) Notice that it was dark outside when I looked over and decided that I needed to reupholster a chair RIGHT THEN in the middle of the night. Good thing I had the drop cloths just waiting to be put to good use!

So I started ripping.

And making patterns with the new Painter's Drop Cloth Fabric.

Make sure to label the pieces or you will have no idea where it all goes back.

What the What!? Why is the wood stamped Graveyard inside? I don't even want to know.

I made sure to save the piping to re-use. I had to remove 9 bajillion staples.

But look how nice it looks going back on!

Here is the reupholstering part. I sent the cushions off to my seamstress to recover, cause I can't sew. (that I know of, I haven't tried...yet)

I frayed the bottom for a casual look.

Notice the adorable pleats and the dressmaker detail! I love my seamstress. (And she is a steal, I almost felt guilty)

Here is the beautiful chair and ottoman all covered in drop cloth and fabulessness.
See? There is the red underneath the ottoman, just to show you Clifford used to live here! What an amazing transformation if I do say so myself.

Clifford is now a girl. I'm not sure of her name.

Sunday Sneak Peak

Are you intreagued?

My Favorite Movie

I love Somethings Gotta Give. I LOVE it. It is my ironing movie of choice, which means I watch it almost every Sunday. Did you know Sunday is ironing day? Well, it is. The Hampton's Beach House is its own character. The home is stunning. I could watch it just for the house, but one needs to be careful not to "watch" the movie and not the iron. I have a huge bay window in my bedroom that makes up "the sitting room", and seriously no one is sitting in there. A reader suggested a desk. Immediately the movie came to mind.

But Erica's view here is of beautiful hydrangeas and the ocean. Mine is my friend Missy house. Hmmmm not the same. (I love Miss and her house, but it just isn't the same)

My other favorite part of the movie is the extended crying scene. How many times have you wanted to just bawl like that and just get it out! Men don't get it. Sometimes a complete hissy fit just makes you feel better. I'm sort of a control freak when it comes to crying. I HATE to cry. HATE IT! I'm so jealous of her ability to just let it out! Ahhh, makes me want to go watch it again!