CRAZY SHOES

One of my twin 15 year old teenagers, Joe,  is in the High School Musical, "Pippin" this week and may I add, with pride, that he is one of only a few freshmen selected to perform.

Anyway....the teachers asked each student to do something with their shoes to make them wild and crazy looking. So we grabbed a pair of Alan's (older brother) old shoes. I mean, these things were o l d! Soles worn through, bits and pieces starting to fall off them....and....worse still, he still wore them.....o f t e n.....well trust me....NO MORE! Cos' look what I did to them!

As soon as some of the other students saw Joe's shoes they wanted a pair...so yesterday, I worked on 3 more pairs.....a very large pair for one of the young men, David, and two smaller pairs for a couple of the girls, Daisia and Abbey. Abbey's were a really small pair of practice dance shoes...

And here is what they turned into after I spent 4 hours on them and crawled into bed at 2:30am!!!!

And one of the girls did a great lace on Joe's shoes...need to copy that!!!

The premier was tonight....I hope they all held up and that everyone did well!

Think I'm going to myself a pair for tennis!!!

Oh and to make a lot of you feel good, this is what my laundry room looked like this morning when I got up...ugh!

Hugs
Mandy
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OVERLOADED "TO DO" LIST

I know I'm not alone with this dilemma...

my "TO DO" list is so long I can't see the end of it!!!!!

And, to be honest, blogging has triggered my brain to want to do more!!!! 

I do love all the inspiration though, and I love to dive into a good project anytime... but part of the unfinished basement looks more like a bad case of "project overload" or a very badly managed furniture restoration site at the moment. Remember I showed you this pick from my post about my organized basement see here,

See the cute drop leave table to left? Okay, the top is now done but I need to paint the legs...thinking a soft aged green...

The two tall chest of drawers that used to look like this

are now down to the last coat of poly.

The two armchairs that go with my dining set are now painted to match the chairs I painted last November see here. 

So, why am I not seeing the end of the list???? Well, hubbie asked me to paint our kitchen counter chairs too. "Great!" I said, "Bring them down, I'll get started on them!". So down they came. 

Now, I have learnt with this particular project that not all chairs are built alike...duh....! My dining chairs had rounded spindles, here's one I showed you that a certain doggie chewed on....

but my kitchen Mission Style counter to chairs have squared spindles like these... 

And are much more time consuming to paint...they are close together, there are many of them....20 per chair to be precise with four sides each....80 sides altogether!!! And then add all the joists, legs etc.... So after a good sanding I got started...thought I'd try black stain instead of paint..liked it but too runny...(those spindles again!) so reverted to paint...but it stills builds up easily...hate that...

I over sanded after the first coat with my power sander, and had to smooth over everything with a higher grade sanding sponge...by hand...then wiped down, and painted again...then I have to let them cure before next coat, and do you find that you try to stick to a "system" when painting but get distracted by either outside things or by day dreaming and then miss spots or in my case entire inside legs?!! ...I am tired....I was down in my workshop ALL day yesterday and am NOT done...not even close .....

I'm pooped and soar 

And of course the life of a mother of three teenagers involves more than painting her life away....the "Engine Room" constantly needs attending to....

otherwise referred to as the laundry room,

And DOES NOT look like this too often!!!

And all the other things....like a part time job and kids stuff and, and, and!!!! You guys understand. Today, I am not going to get back down "there"... I have a tennis match...and dinner plans with hubby. So will probably get back to it this weekend...In the meantime, the boys' bedrooms look like a bomb hit them, the laundry is building up, the phone calls need to be made....

oh well...I do feel better having share my "scream" moment with you though

THANKS!!!!!

HUGS

Mandy

A TRIBUTE TO AUNT BERNIE

What a fine lady she was...I was truly blessed to have met her. She was known in our family as the "Fun Purple Lady" as this was her favorite color. She put together gift bags for one of my sons when he was little and in it were all sorts of nick knacks, bows, pens, etc and all were the color purple!

Bernie was our close friend Steve's aunt. 

She was a real character. She loved people and she decided early on that she wanted to live in an assisted living environment that allowed her to live independently in her own apartment but also gave her a community of friends and the social life that she loved. 

Here she is with Steve and Sue's lab Shadow. 

Bernie kept a diary and some of her entries are very funny. She wore a wig and always put on make up. She modified her clothes by adding large pockets to her tops so that she could have any necessaries on hand. She wore bright colorful outfits and described each one in her daily entry. She spent a lot of time in the home's lobby meeting and greeting people and visiting with the local home's pet. She would have meals with some of her favorite "inmates" as she referred to them...hilarious....!

Bernie was also very frugal. She loved to make pins out of gift bows, decorative butterflies, anything that would strike her fancy. 

Now look at how creative and fun her pins are:

I wanted to show you some of the individual pins and what the back of them looked like...

Don't they make you smile???

I grabbed a red felt rose pin and attached it to the chain on my necklace...love it!

Sadly Bernie suffered a stroke earlier in November and seemed to be recovering well when she suffered another stroke. This time, sweet, delightful Bernie was not able to recover and passed away peacefully...she was 94 years old.

Sue had these pins with her when she and Steve came over for Thanksgiving and I just had to dedicate a blog to this fine lady.

By giving so much and living her life to the fullest she left us with great memories and remains an inspiration to us all.

Thanks for visiting and hope you enjoyed this post,

Hugs

Mandy

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SHOWING OFF THOSE BEST WISHES!

I love receiving Christmas cards! Personally I prefer the good ol' fashioned ones instead of the now popular "photo" family cards. Don't get me wrong, I love to see all the families and friends, but receiving a pretty card with a beautiful saying just makes me smile! AND they don't go to waste. I re-use them to make my Christmas cards...that's another blog!....I also love to display them. Growing up my parents always strung the Christmas cards on ribbons and strings across certain walls in our home. 

So here is my first card display area....

Having seen this idea all over blog land I was dying to try it, so I grabbed this old frame from the basement. I took the poster out of it. I had previously painted it (very quickly) and it got scuffed up over time but love that now! Attached some ribbon and cording to the back and pegged up some of my Christmas cards! It is on the wall above the small desk...

Easy peasy but oh so fashionable!!!

In the living room I strung a long ribbon from either end of the mantle and just pegged them up. 

I did select the more muted cards for here.

Hugs to you all and hoping you all receive many wishes from your friends and families.

Mandy

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ORANGES AND CLOVES

What better scent at Christmas time than the sweet aroma of oranges mixed with cloves?!!!!

I love to do this to oranges that might be a little past their prime...it's actually a fun little activity for most family members to do. Leave a bowl of cloves & some tooth picks (to make holes so as not to break cloves) next to a few oranges and let the fun begin. 

Here they are a few weeks later...sort of brown and shriveled but they still smell awesome!

Will be continuing with the dining room tomorrow!

Hugs,

Mandy

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A NEW TABLE TOPPER FOR LIZ!

A  NEW TABLE TOPPER FOR LIZ!

I made this table topper for Liz' s dining room table to tie in with the chair covers that I had made earlier (see those here). Liz had already purchased the fabric which looks a little like burlap. I added a band of brown cotton ribbon and a band made out of some of the leftover drop cloth material to the outside edge. 

I made it reversible too. 

One side has a brown wooden bead in each corner,  these are the same beads I used on the chair covers.

The other side I added a rosette made out of left over scraps from the old napkins and drop cloth. 

And here how the table topper looks with the chairs!

Hope you like it!

Hugs,

Mandy

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