Yard Sale Glider Make-over

I found this chair at a yard sale before I had William last fall because I knew I would need another rocking chair to rock him in. I think I paid $6 or $7 dollars for it. It did NOT look pretty when I bought it, but it was functional. I inteded on recovering it, but never really got around to it (taking 3 kids fabric shopping is NOT my idea of a productive shopping trip!) until Leslie was here. We don't have a huge selection of fabric stores, but we did find this cute black and white cottage fabric that fit perfectly with the newly painted black and white bedroom furniture. Here is a picture of the nasty early 90's blue fabric that the chair used to flaunt:
Blech, into the garbage it went!

Also, here is the before picture of the other dresser for our master bedroom:
And the after . . .

Ahhhhh, much better! I spray painted it with a glossy black paint, and replaced missing hardware with some fabric scraps from the re-covered glider. I'm still working on the white dresser, I took apart the door and I'm re-doing some hardware. Hopefully pictures to come.

Yard and Garage Improvements

While Bill and Leslie were here, we got a ton of work done! Here are some pictures of the landscaping we did around the edge of the house. It doesn't look like it was a lot of work, but it was a long process! We had to kill all the grass, till it up, remove the grass, lay down newspaper for weed control and composting, plant in some roses, lilacs, hydrangeas, and finally spread some mulch on top. It looks so good now that it is done!!


Bryce and Bill also organized the garage. Wow, it looks like a whole new place. It was awesome to get things done that have needed to be done for a while.

Furniture Re-Do's

Some friends of ours moved and left us with their old bedroom set. It wasn't anything exciting to look at, so I decided I would be adventurous and try to paint it to make it look better. Here is one of the pieces that I did:


After:
I painted it white, and then took a black glaze over the top to make it look a little antiqued. I'm not quite finished with it yet - I think I'm going to change some of the hardware to fabric pieces and the decor on top is totally temporary (found the candle holder for 50 cents at a yard sale this weekend!)

Strawberries!

We found a cute strawberry patch only about a mile away from our house! We went berry picking last week, and had to go again today because we went through them so quickly! Leslie and I have been busy making jars and jars of jam (only half-way done according to Bryce). We also made two strawberry pies that dissapeared WAY too quickly. We might have to make some strawberry shortcake tonight :)

Spring Break

My kids have been on spring break this week. The weather has been warm and sunny (until today!), so we've had some good outside time. We hit a few parks, visited an art museum, checked out library books, had friends come visit. Its been so nice to have them home. I think I am ready for summer!




Caleb finished the last Harry Potter book today! It was so fun seeing my child enjoy this series as much as I did!

Spaghetti and Lentil balls and Bean Fudge

These were both experiments for a Relief Society activity we had last night. Probably won't make them again without adapting the recipe some. The Lentil balls lacked flavor and the bean fudge never really set up. I guess it would have made a good fudge ice cream topper! Worth a try.

Tonight I made a thai chicken in the crock pot (PB, Curry, ginger, soy sauce, honey, and garlic), served with raw vegies and fruit.

Veggie Delight

I am aware that my food-picture taking skills are quite lacking. But who is going to be looking at this, anyway? Probably just me. Anyway, this is your basic rice and fresh stir-fry veggies. Two secret ingredients: about a teaspoon of sesame oil (delicious flavor!), and sweet potatoes. That's right - those aren't carrots. Sweet potatoes. But don't tell the kids! They eat them up like crazy. This was inspired by a dish Michelle and I ate for lunch at Winslow's while she was here.