I'm a stripper, of furniture.

Remember these?

Well these don't look like this anymore! As we speak this desk and chair are sitting in my garage partially stripped, I only worked for about 45 minutes and have a long time to go before I will even be half way done with these two pieces. I've already learned so much from this experience.
1) Surgical gloves are not a strong enough barrier between the chemicals used in stripping and my hands. I went through three pairs of gloves because the gloves kept melting, who knew?
2) I need to wear long pants and a long sleeved shirt because I've already burnt my skin with the chemicals.
3) The chemicals used for the stripping are kind of expensive and get all over the place.

Maybe I need to step away from the chemicals and get out the sand paper? The only damage sand paper is going to cause will be a little tennis elbow from all the elbow grease and possible a little dust which can be remedied by a surgical mask, right? Then again, maybe I will use both techniques of furniture stripping and hope for the best! I know all 5 of you reading this are interested to find out how the stripping goes (insert stripper joke here), so I'll keep you posted!

Summer to do list:

Summer is finally here! For awhile it seemed like the summer was never going to come but now that it is here I need to make the best of these months of bliss so I've set some goals this summer!
- Chemically strip my desk (I bought this at a thrift shop so there are a couple layers of paint that I'd like to remove)
- chemically strip my desk chair (Same as the desk!)
- make strawberry jam (I tried making some last year and failed this year I know I will be successful!)
- make raspberry jam (did not make this last year but it is my favorite jam!)
- enjoy the lakes in the area by walking each of them weekly (one of the lakes is a 5 mile HIKE and the other is a lovely paved 2 miles)
- enjoy July 4th, usually my least favorite holiday I plan on changing that by spending the 4th of July in Michigan!
- Enjoy a visit from my mother and nana!
- Make the Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow
- Visit K.C. at least once!

DOGS! and cupcakes!

Winston got this from his Aunt Abby, he loves playing with his fake cupcake as much as I like making cupcakes!

This is Winston's friend Roland, such a cute puppy!

Trouble makers! What a crazy pair!

Soup!

The finished product! Chicken Noodle Soup!


Dry noodles, pre-soup!


The noodles on cookie racks for drying!


...and again!


The noodles right before they were cut!

updates!

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted. I guess I've been kind of busy? Here are some updates:

I am done with the Jillian Michaels 3o Day Shred, I still use the routines but for the most part I have been trying to exercise outside (especially with the nice weather). Working at a College has its benefits, one of them is being able to use the gym. I've always been WAY too scared to use the gym but yesterday I over came my fear and actually used the gym for a while. It was awesome, especially because there weren't many people there, I will certainly be going back.

Over the winter we did not go to the dog park too often, but when we did it was crazy how much snow there was! The cyclone fence around the park is about 5 feet high and the snow was so deep that the fence seemed to shrink to about 3 feet. Getting on and out was a hassle too, the snow and ice did the gates no favor.
We had an ice storm a few months ago, it was bad! But now the sun is out and we are all much happier!
Coconut Cupcakes! Chocolate coconut cake with a coconut butter cream frosting and toasted coconut garnish. Nummy!

This weekend Winston and I are dog sitting a puppy. It should be interesting and I am sure I'll have stories about Winston's little friend Roland to share.

Still shredding!

I can't even tell you what day of the Shred I am on. I know it's more than 20, but I am still doing cycle two because of the challenge it offers and I don't think my body is ready to move on to a new cycle yet. Last week for most of the week my right knee was in pain; any time I sat down or stood up I felt like me knee cap was going to pop off, it didn't thank God. I decided to try icing my knee and after icing I used "Icy Hot" my knee started feeling better quickly (did I mention I also pulled a muscle in my thigh at the same time, it hurt real bad). I usually workout in the morning but because of the pain in my knee I decided not to workout the morning after the ice & "Icy Hot," by the end of the day my knee was so much better I just couldn't resist doing my cycle for the day.

All Love

Ingrid Michelson has a new song out! "All Love" and it's a good one, check it out if you can!