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.

Retail Therapy

Most women head to the mall or some boutique when they need a little retail therapy, but not me, I hit the antique stores and thrift stores. I had a great little shopping trip and I only went to two places. The first items aren't really from my shopping excursion I actually picked them up off the curb. They are currently getting a nice coat of black spray paint.

These are also getting a new coat of paint. I scored these for $4 at the local Salvation Army.


Matching serving plates for $.25 a piece. They need a little cleaning but will look great in my china hutch.

I picked up the cute little galvanized drawer for $6, the hymnals for $1 each, and a folding ruler for $3. Also not shown was 10 wooden pant hangers for $.25 each.

This great little hymnal held a few surprises for me. All the writing is in German, but the lyrics to the hymns are in English. The binding (which is falling off) is made of old classified ads. The listings are for cars made in the 60's.

The last two items are my favorite finds. I was able to get this wooden drawer for $10.

I believe this is a foot pedal for an antique treadle sewing machine. This $7 treasure has taken up residence in my fireplace.

Wordless Wednesday

One last table post

This is my first attempt at building without any help from my husband. The table is pieced together with some leftover bead board, legs salvaged from a curb side coffee table, an old window, and scrap wood . I probably will never make a living at furniture building but it makes me smile. I have been slowing acquiring the old letterpress blocks and will hopefully be able to finish the top by the end of summer and flea market season.

Forgiveness

I have recently joined a Bible study group. This has been a huge step, but it seemed simple until this last week when we discussed Forgiveness. I struggle with wanting to forgive, but my stubborn and grudge holding side is finding this a very difficult task. I did some searching for quotes to help in my forgiving journey.

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future"

-Paul Boese

"Never forget the three powerful resources you have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness."

-H. Jackson Brown

"Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting."

-William Arthur Ward

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."

-Mahatma Gandhi

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:13

This table measures up

I forgot to take any before shots of this table, but the after shots are pretty sweet if I do say so myself. I loved this $20 table when I saw it at one of my favorite junk spots. The metal "chicken wire" on the sides are icing on the cake.
I had purchased a bunch of old (and not so old) rulers at a shop for $.25 a piece and had this idea floating around for a while. When I did some measuring I found out that this table was the perfect size. My math head husband figured out what sizes to cut the rulers. I only had 11 rulers and I wanted some to run the full length but didn't want to have more than 2 cuts per ruler. I glued the rulers down, added brad nails, and 3 coats of poly. A little white paint, distressing, and some glaze/paint really shows off the pretty woodwork.

My favorite part is that since the rulers were purchased at a local antique store they are all from this area.

Mis-Matchy endtables

Before:

After:

I did not know how lovely the top of this table was until after I stripped and sanded off the ugly stain. I think this is one of my favorite pieces in my living room now.
This one has a beautiful inlay pattern on the drawer. I stripped and sanded the wood, stained it with dark walnut, painted and distressed, and then applied paste wax.

I have one more end table to share with you but it deserves its own post.