Plant Stand Makeover

I scored this little plant stand months ago, thanks to a friend. She was part of a local consignment/thrift sale, and she gave me one of her tickets. The tickets were for the consignors to come to the sale one day early & look around. I was so excited to go!! I found a lot of little things, perfect for repurposing, but in the end, I took only this little beauty home with me...

(Please excuse our lovely basement backdrop.)

It was only 6 bucks too!

I took it straight to the basement & sanded it well all over. I then began by flipping it over to spray paint the underside first...

Easy enough!...

After the two coats on the underside were dry, I flipped it over & painted three coats all over.

Then came the fun part- distressing!! I wanted the finish on this one to be similar to the one on my first furniture painting project, my side table. Both pieces looked pretty with the smooth, glossy white finish, but I am just really into the aged, distressed look lately. And the beauty of it is that I can always change it up later IF I ever get tired of it.

I tried to zoom in on the detail...

You can't really mess up sand paper distressing. I always like to start easily and make a small spot, then if I want it bigger, I can always sand more heavily.

I thought I would immediately put this baby into the yard sale pile in the guest room, but I actually needed to use it, atleast for a little while. I have just three plants left from when my dad passed away. One is thriving & looks beautiful in our living room. The other two are slowly fading, so I need somewhere to house them for the time being. This was the perfect place for one of them...

The lighting is bad in the last photo, because it was a pretty, sunny day & I had the blinds open. So thankful for the sunshine we've had for a few days lately.

So, a quick Before & After!...

BEFORE


AFTER


Isn't it crazy what a little spray paint & sand paper can do??

Hope you all have a great weekend! I can't believe how fast the weekends are rolling around lately. The weeks have been so busy, so they come & go really quickly. Recently, we seem to have things going almost every weeknight too, so that helps. Two nights ago, I went with mom & some friends to see Safe Haven. WOW. Such a great movie! I was skeptical going in to another (cheesy) Nicholas Sparks movie, because he really disappointed me with The Vow, but this one really got me. And if you've lost a parent, it will get to you even more.

I have some really exciting plans coming up, so that makes the quick passing of time more exciting too. I am going to the Elton John concert in Chattanooga in March (which will be here before we know it- yay!!), and my sweetie & I are going with his dad to the Crimson Caravan in May!! I was so excited that we were able to get tickets to that! I am also really shocked that it will be here in our little town, but it is! Woohoo!! I have never heard Nick Saban speak in person (Zach & his dad have), so I am super pumped!

Roll Tide!!

Simple Sausage Ball Recipe



(Not too bad for an iPhone picture, right? I was shocked at

how well it turned out.)

I made these little cuties over the weekend. It was one of those snacks that I had been craving for a while, and I (surprisingly) already had the ingredients for it on hand. I had made these not too long ago for the National Championship game, and I've made them a few times before. They're so easy!

The recipe I have been using recently came from All Recipes with just a simple Google search.

The three ingredients are 1 lb. sausage, 2 cups Bisquick, & 1 lb. sharp cheddar cheese. (It was A LOT of cheese, so I didn't quite use all of it.)

You first preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then take the sausage at room temp & place it in a bowl.

Then add the 2 cups Bisquick. I thought this added just enough breading- you may want to add more if you like it more "biscuit-y". Knead it through the sausage. This gets messy, but it is best done with your hands.

Then add the yummy cheese and knead through!

At this point, it looks incredibly unappetizing...

Once well-mixed, take small amounts and form them into "walnut-sized" balls. I covered my baking sheet with foil & greased the foil. The bottoms turned out lightly browned- perfect!

The recipe says it yields about 30, but mine went further.

I made 48 total.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. (I went the full 25.)

To me, they are best right out of the oven, but you can reheat them anytime- it only takes about 10-15 minutes, again at 350 degrees.

I know this is a simple recipe that probably everyone has tried at some point, but to me, it makes it more interesting with pictures. I hope to do more recipe posts like this this year... it's just a little difficult to have the phone or camera in the kitchen with me when I'm making a mess cooking. (Not to mention, I'm sure my hubby thinks I'm an idiot snapping pictures of food.)

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! Mine was full of rest & relaxation!

Monogram Wreath

It's good to be back to posting projects again...

 I toyed with the idea of giving up the blog for Lent, then it was Facebook, but now, I've decided on giving up the radio. I will not listen to the radio in the car. I will use that time to just be in the quiet & have conversations with God. I am in my car alone every weekday- on my way to work, to lunch & back again, then on my way home. Why not use this extra time for that, instead of listening to mindless babble and music??

This is just a quick project that I threw together a few weeks ago. I had seen some ideas on Pinterest (gotta' love Pinterest)...some examples are here, here, and here.

I had to have a replacement for our Christmas greenery wreath, and I thought it was way too early for the Spring wreath. This is more of a transitional look from Winter to Spring, I guess.

My momma got me this gorgeous wooden monogram for Christmas. I had picked it out a while back, and she got it for me. :) I have since discovered that my granddad could actually make these suckers! (I hope to post on some projects soon that he created & I painted. We have 3 "creations" already done, and two waiting to be painted by me! I am loving the partnership we've started, and we hope to eventually sell some of these "creations". It's a fun hobby for us to do in our spare time, and we're really enjoying it so far. If it makes us a little extra spending money,
it would be even more enjoyable!)

I had purchased the base grapevine wreath at the thrift store a while back, and have already used it once in my framed Fall wreath. I love that it's just a bare wreath & you can add anything to it- makes it very versatile!

The deco mesh bow was from one of my dad's funeral arrangements, and I have used it ever since. It decorated our mailbox all during the Fall.

 

I'm going to enjoy this on the door for a while. I probably won't bust out the flowered Spring wreath until March or so. I will then need to find a home for my wooden monogram. I had thought when I first got it that I would paint it, but I am really loving the natural wood color.

For now, I love the wreath on our front door. To me, you can't go wrong with a cute, classic monogram!

I hope everyone is having a great week & will have a great weekend! I am not looking forward to the cold up ahead, but I'm already planning on spending all day Saturday inside the house, so it won't affect me much. I have some projects I can work on indoors, but I am really itching to get out & work in the basement, painting a piece of furniture that I am super pumped about! It has just been too cold lately to get things done outside or in the basement. That's the only downfall I've found for my little crafting area. Oh well, it gives me something to look forward to for now. :)

Don't Mess With Us...

*Disclaimer: Not sure how you all feel about guns & gun control, but it has definitely been a hot-button issue lately, and one that's hard to ignore. I only know that Zach & I want to be prepared. We want to know that if anything (God forbid) should ever happen to us, or if we are ever in the terrible situation where we would have to defend ourselves, our future children, our doggies, or our home, we want & need to be ready. We also need to have some basic knowledge of using a weapon, if the need should ever arise.

Thus, he took me shooting for target practice over the Super Bowl weekend.

I had only shot a shotgun a couple of times with my granddad when I was younger, so this was the first time in a while I had been. And, I'll be honest with you- it was fun!

I posted these on FB that weekend, and couldn't believe the response that we got. I look a little out of my element here (because I was), so I guess that's why it caught everyone's attention.

Now, I cannot tell you the details of the guns we shot. Ask Zach if you want to know- he can rattle off all the details. I just know they are powerful, and I now feel comfortable with them. He has since made another purchase, an AR, and will be selling the bigger gun shown below, if anyone happens to be interested.

With this pistol, Zach stressed to me how it was more difficult to aim than the bigger gun shown above. I honestly took my first shot with the pistol, and bam!, hit the target the first time.

I felt like Jack Bauer. :)

Hope you enjoyed those... I was a little nervous about the whole thing when we first got to the property to shoot, but I ended up enjoying myself. I'm glad Zach cares enough to take the time to practice with me. Lord knows, he was probably a lot more nervous about it than I was!

Now, I can guarantee that with my next post, I'll be back to my girly-girl self, posting cutesy projects or recipes as usual. It's just nice to do a little something out of the norm for a change. :)

Christmas in February!

Well, it's now February '13, so I think it's about time I post the last of the Christmas '12 photos. :)

This is all Zach's photography- some is edited, some is not. Either way, I am just in love with some of them!

He took a few of me & my Daisy girl by the tree one night...

The next two are me opening my gift from Zach. It was a wireless speaker for my iPod/iPhone. Love it!!

My Daisy...

Handsome Cosmo...

Me & my sweetie on Christmas night...

Zach's family...

It's fun to relive those, now that it's been a couple of months. Zach has just been so incredibly busy with work, and we are so blessed by that!! With us both being busy at work & at home, we haven't had much time to go through these. We grabbed just a few minutes last night & looked through them.

Now that Christmas posts are out of the way, maybe now I can focus on catching up on my project posts!