Happy Desks

I have still been working on multiple projects to keep myself busy and here are five of them! These children's school desks were my mom's and she gave them to me to refinish.  

I started by sanding all of the desk, which was a task, because they were not in the best of shape and needed a great deal of sanding to remove the rust.  After sanding I started by painting the red desk with regular old paint and quickly moved on to spray paint realizing that regular paint with take forever on the metal and would leave streaks.  The spray paint was very messy, but I was much happier using it than the regular paint and paint brush.  If you look close to the black and teal desk you'll see they still have the tape and paper on them from the spray paint.  

The wood tops of the desks and the seats and backs of the chairs were, like the metal parts, not in the best condition so they also needed to be sanded.  I chose to paint the wood parts with a clear polyurethane, giving everything a nice finish.  What I am going to do with five school desk you ask?  I am going to try and sell the pieces on Craig's List or possibly at a Craft Bazaar in the next few months.       

A New Chair: Part 2

This is the second project I tackled this summer, another chair, but one with a lot more work.  In its previous life it was the Elton John of chairs, I mean check out this purple velvet, you cannot be serious?  While the fabric on this chair was in better condition than the other chair, it smelled horrible and had to go the chair was also missing an arm, so I decided to remove the still existing arm to make things a little easier. 

There were a ton of tacks and decorative tacks in this pieces so it took a little more work than the other chair. I also had to remove all of this chairs padding.  

 This chair was then sanded and repainted, I chose white - obviously I am really into white furniture lately - then a few coats of polyurethane for shine and added staying power.

I also added the detail of the last piece with the decorative chair tacks.  

While posting these projects I am working on others, currently I am painting metal, which is a huge pain in the butt.  I am starting to think it is not worth my time to use paint and a brush, spray paint would be a great solution and a time saver.  So while I work on my fourth coat of paint I'll also be planning to buy spray paint.  I hope you enjoy the cute a comfy chair!

A New Chair

I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping myself busy lately and one of the things I have been doing is refinishing furniture.  I have really been enjoying the furniture projects, they certainly give me something to focus on and I think the outcome is pretty great too.  Here is the first project I completed.

 This is what the chair started out as, pretty ratty.  The fabric on the seat obviously needed some changing, so did the padding and the wood. 

 After I dismantled the chair I sand it, keep the board and the hardware to use again later.  Nothing else on this chair was really worth saving, the next step was painting.  I choose white.  Then I put new padding back on the chair and covered it with fabric. 

This was the outcome of my project!  This was simple and I would gladly redo more chairs like this, I think I will be on the look our for a few more like this more to make a mismatched dining room set.  I love the finished result of this project, and was very proud of myself, who's ready to see my next project? 

A cross country move

At this point is it obvious that I made it from Iowa to Portland Oregon, with Winston, Nana, Papa and all of my things!

The trip was eventful and full of driving (obviously). 

I finished work around 11:00am on the 31st of May and off we went, driving through Iowa and about 300 miles through Nebraska.  On June 1st we headed out early in the morning and made it the rest of the way through Nebraska, almost all the way through Wyoming.  Then at mile post three I smelled smoke and saw a huge plume coming out the back end of my car, EEEK!  We stopped and took a look at things, luckily the car still drove - just no power steering.  As we got back on the highway Nana got out her GPS and we found that there was a Chevy dealership a mere two miles away!  God was smiling on us, we were very blessed to be so close to a place that could help us so much!

After stopping at the dealership and making an appointment for the morning (Papa made the appointment, as I was a sobbing mess "my car, my car...") we drove another 2 miles to a hotel. The next morning we got up early and waited at the door of the dealership to open, come to find out the power steering line had come loose and the engine burned a hole in the line causing the fluid to hit the exhaust pipe which the caused smoke.  It would be another day until we could get the line from Denver and repairs would cost $500, there  was also no guarantee that the pump would work after the line had been run dry.

We opted to pay the pretty penny for a U-Haul truck and trailer, throwing my things in the truck and pulling my car with the trailer.  We left Wyoming around 11:00am, drove through Utah, Idaho and Oregon, making it to Washington around 2:00AM.  Exhausted but happy we collapsed in to bed, WE WERE HOME!

Along the way we did see some sights, including this list of license plates:
Iowa
Texas
North Dakota
Kansas
Nebraska
Indiana
Oklahoma
Illonios
Missouri
Florida
Arizona
Pennsylvania
California
Wisconsin
South Dakota
Colorado
North Carolina
Georgia
Utah
Idaho
Michigan
Washington
Tennesse
Ohio
Maine
Oregon
Arkansas
Mississippi
New Jersey

Canadian Provinces:
British Columbia
Ontario
Manatoba

Special Vehicles: 
The OSCAR MAYER WIENER MOBILE!!!!!

That's thirty states, three provinces and ONE Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile, all in three days!

Here's what - five things I am loving

Starbucks Coconut Creme Frappuccino - a delicious, frosty, treat, perfect for cooling down in the heat of Summer (or Spring as it may be). Enjoy Starbucks Happy Hour until the 15th of May 3:00pm - 5:00pm!

It should come as no surprise that I love the color green!  I have really been enjoying the GREEN grass lately, walking in it, sitting in it and playing with Winston in the grass - all great fun! 

Philosophy, Peaches and Cream lotion and shampoo.  This is a very happy scent and not too sweet, I also have Apricots and Cream body spray which is pretty great!

The song "Rill Rill" by Sleigh Bells - I could listen to it on a loop for hours.  

Another frosty treat - Dairy Queen's Star Kiss, I prefer cherry but the stripes are good too.  I great way to cool down and it's less than 100 calories, sounds like a win to me!

A Classic Cupcake

This is always someone's favorite; Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting.  I originally found the recipe in a magazine and changed a couple of things that the recipe called for, hoping for a more signature way of baking.  This is a moist and very sweet cupcake that everyone has something nice to say about.

One of my favorites!  The cake of this cupcake is my traditional chocolate cake with  coconut milk instead of regular milk and coconut extract for a little extra added coconut-ness.  The frosting is Coconut Butter Cream with toasted coconut as a garnish. 

This was my first attempt with this recipe and I think it went well.  This is the very traditional yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  I, once again, found the recipe from a magazine and changed somethings about the ingredients in hopes to enhance the moisture of the cupcake.  I think that this recipe was successful, the top of the cake had a sort of candied quality which seemed to help preserve the moisture of the cake. 

Below is one of my favorite cupcake photos, I didn't take the photo and the hand isn't mine but the cupcake is my creation. 

I hope that you have enjoyed learning about my cupcakes, there are more to come! In the future I plan on sharing my Lemon Cupcakes and eventually Ginger Bread (we'll wait for Christmas).  I am also going to explore recipes for Cherry Chip, Stout, Merlot, Key Lime, Margarita, Strawberry Shortcake, Rum-Cake and many more so stay tuned for more cupcakes full of Whimsy and Merriment!

Fritta...

I made this!  Special thanks to my recipe book and a hunger for eggs!  Frittata with green peppers, green onions, bacon, salsa and cheese!  Yummers!