Building a built-in

I always felt that our entryway was lacking, missing that something to give it the Victorian Era charm it deserves. The staircase and stained glass window are a good start but it feels like it should be even more dressed up. I convinced my husband of this and he began building the built-in bench that I designed. The bench is in this little corner in front of the the second set of stairs. I wanted to move the duct work and grate off the floor and into the bench, and he didn't disappoint. Next to the grate is an area to add baskets for storage. The next step is for me to add the boards for the seat, trim it out and paint it up. I am reusing as much of the wood and trim work as possible. The top of the bench will be made from the planks that were once the landings on the staircase. We had to remove them once we realized that there was no sub floor under them, they were supported by one 2x4 in the middle and much smaller boards on the sides. They are not made of oak, but much softer pine, so it didn't take much discussion before I agreed to allow Bryan to replace the landings also.

The stairs and landings were covered with layers of glue, linoleum, and gunk, which I sanded off.

Before the sanding:

After sanding:

I love the distressed patina of the wood and will be leaving it.

Heart Attack on a Plate

My husband has the metabolism (and energy) of a humming bird. It seems he can eat anything and never gain a pound. It is not unusual for him to eat 3 or 4 hamburgers and a couple hotdogs everytime we grill out. He also had a french toast eating contest with The Boss a couple years ago, eating over 2 loaves of bread between the two of them. Only stopping when we ran out of bread.

It is scary sometimes what he decides to be a good idea after watching the food network. He once watched an episode on competitive eating and was convinced he could enter one of those contests. So he started stretching his stomach by eating tons of salad. Fortunately that phase ended pretty quickly.

This week he watched an episode on a restaraunt that offers a 5lb cheeseburger and 5 lbs of fries, with the person who is able to eat it all getting the meal for free and having it named after them. He decided that he would try to make one of these hamburgers at home, on the stove of all places, greeeeaaasy!!! Luckily after all the kids had eaten there was only enough meat for 4 patties.

I wanted to be a writer once

When I was in Jr. High I decided that I was going to be a famous writer. Why? Well because I had a love of reading and thought it would be easy. I wrote poems and my one and only novel. This novel sits in a box in my basement and I secretly hope my children never find it. It is more a diary than a novel, the main character has many of my experiences only she is able to do the things I could never had imagined possible for me to do. I quickly learned that my horrible grammar and the inability to put my thoughts down on paper were not going to launch me into a life as an author and I would never see my name on the Best Seller list. I am now trying my hand at being a Blogger. I am finding my inabilities are again holding me back. I want write the blog posts that make you laugh. I want to share my family experiences with you. I want to write what is on my heart, but I find it more difficult every time I sit down at the computer. I read blogs posts that make me laugh out loud, some that make me cry, and then others that make me want to do the projects or activities they write about. I want to be one of those Bloggers.

New White Coat

The finish line is in sight!! It feels like I have been working on the fireplace since the day we moved in. The trim is all installed, I have caulked and puttied, and now everything is getting a pretty new coat of white paint. I am in love with this mantle, the hand carved details are amazing.

When ever I am in the middle of a project and have to stop I cover the paint tray with Press 'n Seal. It fits perfectly and sticks to the edges even if there is a little bit of paint there. Seals it up tight even for a few days.

Banana Sour Cream Bread

This is one of the best banana bread recipes I have found. It is dense, moist and oh so yummy. My daughter thought it was gingerbread since the cinnamon and cloves give it a bit of spice.

You can add nuts to this recipe but with our nut/peanut allergies we do not.

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 4 loaf pans.
In a small bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon. Dust pans lightly with sugar mixture.

1/4 c butter
1/2 c applesauce
3 cups white sugar or substitute Splenda
3 eggs
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 container sour cream (16 ounces)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
In a large bowl, cream butter and 3 cups sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda and flour. Divide into prepared pans.

Topping: (optional)

I'm sure you will regret it if you do not add make it!
1/4 c flour
1/4 c brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
3 tablespoons butter
Mix flour, sugars, and butter. Sprinkle over batter.

Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

New Endeavor

I have always had a love of thrifting (or junking) and flea markets. My husband, well not so much. He has been very accommodating of my hobby and collections, but I had so much stuff I didn't know what to do with it. I have decided to simplify my decorating but I hated to have a garage sale and basically give my collections away. I also have a fear of becoming the crazy hoarder lady and be buried alive by my stuff. When I saw that a local antique store had a few open booths I decided to bite the bullet and make an inquiry. The price is right and a new business has arose. I officially move in on the 10th but I have been pricing items for the last week. My photography studio will be closing it's doors, as I begin to offer on-location sessions only. I will be selling many of those items on ebay and the antique prop items at my booth.

Here is just a sampling of some of the items I will offer.

I have also been thrifting quite a bit, looking for pieces to fill in the booth space. My favorite find is this Tootsie toy miniature toilet. I bought a grab bag for $3 at a goodwill that held many many adorable little pieces but this one is my favorite. Especially after I did a little googling to see what it might be worth.

Century old barn board bench

One of my first purchases for our new kitchen http://5monsters.blogspot.com/2010/07/99-complete.html was this bench. I fell in love with it when I first saw it at a local antique store (the same store I am now renting a booth in). I didn't think there was a place for it in our house so I passed it up. When I got home I noticed this empty spot in the kitchen, where all our shoes seemed to land. I measured the wall and rushed back to pick it up. This bench now has the perfect spot, great to sit down on to take your shoes off. It also sits under our Grand Central Station board, so it works great for Little Buddy to stand on when drawing on the chalk board.

I love how the boards are weathered and cracked.
Old nail holes!
Beautiful patina. I'm linking up to


Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

To Do List:

We have quite a list of items to fix or remodel this year. When we bought this house my husband said it would take us 5 years to renovate and then we could sell. We are now at 5 1/2 years and probably not even 1/2 done. I'm not sure that I will want to sell it once we have it finished, but I know my husband is looking forward to buying a house that does not need to have everything fixed or replaced.

*fix front porches

*remodel upstairs bathroom

*add shower to downstairs bathroom

*new floor in upstairs hall

*finish the remodel of attic including replace old windows

*fix ceiling in dining room

*makeover back entry

*replace back door

*insulate and install drop ceiling in basement

Oh the joys of a remodel!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Some of my favorite quotes come from Dr. Seuss or Theodor Seuss Geisel.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

March 2 is National Read Across America Day in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. The kids' elementary school has been celebrating all week with fun activities. Today the kids were able to dress funny for Wacky Wednesday. Little Buddy really got into it, wearing his shirt backwards, and shorts over his pj's. Badger Boy is sporting a faux hawk and a backwards shirt.

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

What my camera does at work

My camera has a pretty cushy life... it gets to photograph beautiful babies and then when I actually get around to working on a project it takes before and after shots.

Flea Market Finds

Little Buddy and I went to the Flea Market in Lincoln together. He did very good, until we got to the booth with Hotwheels and toys. I told him I would give him $2 to buy a Hotwheels car if he was good and let me finish looking around. I was able to squeeze about 30 more minutes out of him before that money just about burnt a hole in his pocket and he was begging to go back to get his hotwheel.

I found a few treasures. My favorite being this little wooden box.

Inside of the box was all of this old furniture hardware. I was lucky enough to get the box for $20. The cool $2 silver tray came from a goodwill we stopped at after lunch.
This box held almost 40 drawer pulls, over 20 brass plates and key plates, 10 locks/levers, and a few items that I do not recognize.

I was able to pick up these 2 doorknob sets for $8, they are in working order and have matching doorplates. A little bit of cleaning and these babies will be beautiful.
I have a project in mind for these metal tags but haven't been able to find them locally. I almost purchased some for $5 a piece online a couple days ago. I'm so glad I waited since these were only $1 each. The dealer threw the keys in for free!

I'm not sure of the age of these little canisters since they have plastic inserts but for $3 I couldn't pass them up.

While I was taking pictures of my loot Little Buddy asked me to take some of his treasures.

Honey I love you but...

48 boxes of $.10 clearance chocolates does not make up for you not getting me anything on Valentines Day.

Homemade Chicken and Noodles

With this last snow storm came the need for a little warm comfort food. Chicken and Noodles to me is the ultimate comfort food, maybe that is because everyone in my family loves it and because my mom use to make it.

This is one of the only recipes that I can make from scratch, no recipe needed.

Broth:

chicken thighs

onion (I use dehydrated)

grated carrots

salt

garlic powder

pepper to taste

bouillon cubes

Boil chicken in stock, remove from bone, and continue to simmer while you prepare the noodles.

Noodles:

Flour

Salt

Eggs

Water

I was never taught how to make these noodles but learned from watching my mom. I have no recipe (sorry) but I have found that it is pretty much foolproof.

I normally mix everything directly on my counter. Making a well in the flour (I start out with 2-4 cups depending on how big a batch I'm making), add 2-3 eggs. Add water (slowly) until you have a nice lump of dough.

Since I make it on my counter it is already covered in flour, but if you use a bowl, flour your counter/cutting board.

Roll your dough out. I like mine pretty thin since they will puff up while cooking. The first couple times I made this I ended up with Dumplings because I made my noodles too thick/large.

I cut my noodles directly on my counter using a rocking motion. It doesn't take much pressure so I don't worry about cutting or scratching the counter tops. I then leave the noodles to dry a little, usually about 15 minutes, this makes them easier to handle.

Drop your noodles into your boiling broth.

Around here we eat them on top of home made mashed potatoes and sweet corn.

Grand Central Station

One of my additions to the kitchen was a Memo/Chalkboard. Luckily my handy dandy husband was able to build me exactly what I wanted. I finished it off with trim and the same paint/glaze treatment that is on all the new cabinets . The chalkboard is a real piece of slate that I believe my mom got from an old school. This has become one of the best organizational items in our house, since we actually use it. We use the cork board to hold school papers and the kids chore list. The chalkboard is where I leave the kids notes or lists of chores that need to be done. The kids use it to draw on, it is always covered with doodles or teen graffiti.

Now that there are 4 teenagers (well one is preteen) in the house it has become apparent that I can harness all that teen energy. Each child (except 5 yr. old Little Buddy) now has a day to do their laundry. We will be starting this next week so hopefully it works as well as I hope.

The main chores are highlighted.

Pink-Dishes

Yellow-Laundry

Green-Dog Duty

The other chores include wiping off the table and sweeping for the two younger ones. The older 3 have cleaning the bathrooms and sweeping other areas on their list.

Badger Boy also has trash duty. The list also includes items that everyone will be expected to help with.
I'll leave you with Little Buddy's 100 day of school artwork.

When I am 100 years old...I will have a job.