So Pretty!

So, yesterday I was sitting at work and got a text from my brother-in-law.  You see we are in the midst of yet another remodel…this time our hall bathroom.  My brother-in-law is basically our contractor for all intents and purposes.  He stays at the house during the day while Hot Rod and I work to watch over the workers and let them in and such.  Well, he sent a text saying “look what I just found in your backyard.”  Then this picture followed…

Isn’t it so pretty!  I immediately texted him back and told him please don’t kill him or let Charlie kill him.  You see my dog will pretty much kill anything that ever comes in our back yard.  Well, turns out we have figured out the one thing that apparently put Charlie in his place…an owl!  My brother-in-law said that Charlie went over to it then quickly retreated.  I think those talons of the owl are pretty intimidating.  So my brother-in-law texted me back and said the owl has a broken wing and he had already called SPCA to come and get him.  They are going to nurse him back to health!  So, we rescued a beautiful owl yesterday.  I think it is so pretty too!  I showed the picture to everyone and my sister responded “It’s Hedgewig”  ha ha ha  What are the odds of finding an owl in your backyard in West Texas?  I’m guessing they aren’t that big but apparently we are just special that way.

I hope they fix his wing and he gets all better and comes back and visits!

Reflections

I know I'm about 4 days late for this post and I know I don't usually post about serious or thoughtful things here but I'm making an exception today. I've just been incredibly tired lately and last night I decided to just lay in bed from the moment I got home from work. Hot Rod laid with me and watched TV. He somehow managed to navigate to the History Channel and they were having the 9/11 shows on. I must of dozed off for awhile because I woke up around 9:00 and I was starving. I got up and got some cheese and crackers and brought them back to bed to share with him (and the dogs of course!) and after we finished and I put the paper plate back in the kitchen and turned off the kitchen light and crawled back next to my husband he just grabbed me and hugged me and he was crying. He said he just never realized how many people got to call their one and only and tell them "I'm not going to make it out but I wanted you to know I love you." I can't imagine the heart break all of those people went through. I can't imagine that city, the city I love so much, coming to a stand still for days upon days. But, it happened. 10 years ago...it happened.

I'm sure all of us remember where we were that day. I know I do. I was sitting at home actually that day. I was taking my motorcycle into the shop to get a last minute oil change on it before we headed off to the Ruidoso Motorcycle Rally the next day and I was sitting at home waiting for 9:00 to come when the shop opened. I turned on the TV and actually saw the second plane hitting the 2nd tower. I was in shock. At first I thought I must be watching a movie or something, but to my dismay it was no movie. I picked up the phone and called my husband who was at work. He was already watching. We just sat on the phone with each other in shock. Later we went to the motorcycle shop and it was a very somber day there. The TV's were all on and everyone was just glued to the set. No one could even express anything at all. It was too shocking, too sad, too disturbing.

We left the next day for the bike rally and instead of a joyous event that year, it was very somber instead. But, the one good thing that I will ALWAYS remember is just about every single motorcycle there (at least 20,000 bikes) were all displaying the American flag. Hot Rod had a huge flag on his bike and I had 2 smaller ones. I will never forget how proud I was to be an American those next few days and to show the world, you may hit us and you may knock us down but we will rebuild and we are stronger than you think.

I went back to New York in the spring of 2002, just a few months after 9/11. I was on a work trip to Philadelphia actually and we went to New York for an afternoon. I was the only one in our group that had been there before. I was the only one that had seen the towers before they were destroyed. I was the only one that could truly comprehend how massive they were and how the sky line of New York will be changed forever. The thing I remember most about that day was seeing this metal orb that used to be displayed in the courtyard at the World Trade Center. They found it in the wreckage and it was displayed in Battery Park.  I just stared at that mangled piece of metal because I had taken a picture of that very thing the first time I went to New York in 1996. I took another picture and then scrapbooked the 2 pictures together as a tribute to our great country. Here is that scrapbook page that I did so long ago. ..

I dug this out of a very old scrapbook and then scanned it. I just have to give a small disclaimer that my scrapbooking has come a long way since this was done! But, I'm glad I had these pictures. I'm glad I took the time to actually document this time in our nation's history. I hope someday my grandchildren and their children will inherit my scrapbooks and they'll look at this and they will remember what our nation went through. They will know that their grandmother was one of the people that stood on the sidewalk across the street from all that destruction and cried.

So, if you haven't already today grab the people that mean the most to you and tell them you love them because you just never know if it will be the last time you get to do it.

Would You Buy It?

Once again I’m a little late to the party but I wanted to join Stephanie’s (aka Junker Newbie) Would You Buy It Wednesday. So, this week I am actually posting about something I bought a long time ago (so obviously I’ve already ruined the surprise and admitted I bought this!) but I just recently found the perfect place for it. Here it is…

It is a vintage mirror from a hat shop. I saw this at a city wide garage sale about a year or so ago and just had to have it. I just loved it at first sight! It has mirrors on both sides that slide into the metal frame. The frame itself has just the right amount of rust to give it the perfect patina. The bottom of the mirror has these little holes for hat pins and it even came with one hat pin.

So, I’ve had this sitting in my spare room basically being unused for the last year. However, a week ago I found this great table at the Salvation Army Store and it is perfect to go in my hallway from the garage. I’ve been looking for something like this for awhile. I wanted to come up with a space to check my makeup before walking out the door and also to have a space to drop the mail so it is all in one place. After all, we don’t use our front door, we come in through the garage so I really wanted a place for us to use. My entry room is coming along fabulously but it still is not where we come into the house, we use the garage and come into the house via this long hallway from the garage so this set up is going to be perfect for us.

(Sorry the picture is a little fuzzy). I didn’t do a single thing to this table either. I cleaned it up and put in the hallway as is. I was so happy because for once my husband really LOVED it. Usually he’s really not on board with all of my thrifting finds so I was really pleasantly surprised when he said “I love it” and he actually meant it! So, what do you think? Would you have bought the mirror? What about the table?

Turns out they were both the same price…$20. I think I scored, but I’m anxious to hear what you have to say. Do you like them? Would you have bought them? Do you think the price was fair for both of them?
I'm linking up to...

A DIY “Art” Project for the Kitchen

I’m actually pretty excited about this project for the main reason that I actually thought of part of this all by myself.  You see people ask me all the time “how did you think of that?”  Most of the time I reply “I didn’t, I saw it online and copied it”.  Well, not this time!  Well, not entirely that is.  I did “borrow” part of this but the other part is mine all mine! 

So, I made this to hang in my kitchen. 

I started with a framed canvas painting that I purchased at Goodwill for $20.  The painting wasn’t even that bad but just wasn’t my taste.  I thought I had a picture of it but apparently I didn’t take one…yet again!  I’m going to MAKE myself take pictures of anything I buy after going to Goodwill, Savers, Salvation Army, Garage Sales, or Estate Sales the minute I walk in the door from now on!  But I digress…

The main reason I bought the picture though was the size of it.  I just knew it would be perfect for a large wall hanging and it would fill the big empty hole that I created in my kitchen (not a literal hole, just a hole in décor) when I moved the wire shelves out of my kitchen and into the storage room.  You can read all about that project here.  So, the first thing I did was take the canvas out of the frame.  Turns out that was a major ordeal.  The frame was actually physically nailed to the frame of the canvas and that was what was holding the frame together.  So, as soon as I took them apart, the frame fell apart. 

I’m not sure you can see it from this picture but this frame was actually just hideous!  It was white and then someone put silver glitter all over it.  I have no idea what look they were going for but my guess was 3rd grade craft project! 

I tried to glue it all back together and that pretty much worked, except for the last corner.  I just left it undone and started work on it.

My idea (the one that is all my own) was to cover the frame by mod podgeing something over it.  I didn’t want to use just anything to cover it either.  I wanted to use pages from a vintage cookbook.  So, I went to Savers one day and looked for an old cookbook and found the perfect one.  It was called Meats and it was printed in 1968…PERFECT!

The pictures were even better!

So, I tore out a bunch of the pages, mostly looking for some that had a cool picture or a recipe on them.  After I tore the pages out, I randomly tore the pages up. 

Next I distressed the edges of all the pages by rubbing a caramel ink on each edge.  (more on this later though).  I took all of my torn pages and just started applying them to the frame, also randomly, but making sure they were all in the same direction.

Once this was done I just let it dry and started working on what would be on the inside of the frame.  My plan was to just frame one of the coffee bags that I had bought online a few months ago.  I saw these after several other bloggers posted about getting this burlap coffee bags from this place online.  They were super cheap!  I think they are $2.99 for 3 of them.  I ended up buying 2 different kinds, sisal and burlap.  I liked them both so I asked my husband to decide which one he liked better.

These were his choices.  He chose the sisal one (the one on top here).  So, I cut off the back of the bag and then stapled the bag over the painting. 

I actually stapled it over the front of the painting too.  I wanted the back of the canvas to be open for easy hanging.  I was a little worried that the painting would show through the sisal but it really doesn’t.

So, now it was time to put it all together.  Unfortunately it didn’t look good AT ALL!  I was so disappointed.  The frame was just too black and white and it just didn’t look good with the natural colors in the coffee bag.  I was not going to admit defeat though.  I just started to think of how I could make it work and then it came to me, I just need to “color” the frame a little.  I didn’t want to completely cover it though because I really liked the recipes and art from the cookbook showing through.  I figured out that the edges that I had distressed by rubbing ink on them was almost the perfect color, but it was too late to ink the entire thing so I started to think of how I could achieve that same look but now while it was all together and decoupaged on the frame.  My solution was to stain it using a wood stain.

I tried to use a red walnut stain first and it didn’t look good at all, so then I grabbed a different color of dark mahogany and it was perfect!  I put on 2 coats and the end result was absolutely perfect and it matched the coffee bag very well!

Once the frame dried I just used my husbands nail gun and attached it to the canvas again.  It worked perfect and the end result was just what I pictured.

It looks great with my printer tray drawer too…

TaDa, it is done and hanging in the kitchen and I love it!  One more thing to do in the kitchen and then this wall will be complete.  I’m working on that next, it’s my thrift store plate wall….coming soon!

So, there you have it.  My very own idea added to a borrowed one and ending up a huge success!  (at least I think it is!)