Another Ikea Frame

I loved how the pink frame turned out so I decided to stay with the same idea and just change the colors up a bit! 

Baseball Stool!

Finished my second stool...my heart belongs to baseball so that's the direction I went with it.

My latest refurb!

Bought this little stool for $2 at a flea market, who knew she could dress up so pretty!

Well poop...

Fancifying my blog is beyond my depths of comprehension, six hours later it looks just like it did when I set out on my tranformation hell....

Ta Da!

Love, love, love recreating cheap finds so when I came across two Ikea mirrors at the Salvation Army for $1.99 each I snatched them up like they were made of solid gold and the the owner of a Gold & Silver Buyers store was quick on my heels.  My win, my imaginary foe's loss.

For less than $5 my frame is complete.

Meltaway Cookies aka Heaven on Earth

I've been to Heaven and my husband and kids came too!  My heaven on earth came in the form of a cookie, yes I said a cookie.  One of the rewards of being a Pinterest fanatic are the tasty treats that are created from my repins....delightful!  These cookies are the easiest I've ever made and require only 5 ingredients, simple as getting out of bed in the morning.  The icing is very, very sweet so I recommend leaving some plain because sometimes plain is better!

Meet my new friend the Meltaway Cookie :)

Meltaways

1 C. butter

¾ C. cornstarch

¾ C. powdered sugar

1 C. flour

1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting (see below)

In a medium bowl, cream butter until fluffy.  Add cornstarch & sugar and blend well.  Beat in flour until thoroughly mixed.  Drop by small teaspoons onto baking sheet & flatten out with the bottom of a class. (Dip glass in powdered sugar to prevent sticking).  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on wire rack & frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (3oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1 C. powdered sugar

½ t. vanilla

I heart Ellen and other stuff...

I just love Ellen, she reminds me of the person I think I am but know I'm really not!  She's so darn funny and laid back and of course the dancing...gotta love someone that can dance on a whim in front of millions of people.  I would so do that!  I think I'll post my video of my dog Cricket jumping at the ceiling fan on YouTube in hopes of catching her eye, she does a love a silly animal video.

Ellen is an old love, racquetball is my new love!  Who new having your husband zing a ball past your head at a high rate of speed could be so fun?  I don't know the rules and probably never will but it's just too fun to not want to get in that room and bounce a ball around with my honey.  Fun times at the gym for sure.  Now to make myself stay on the Elliptical for the entire duration and not cheat so I can sneak to the courts! 

And to the dislikes....I really, really dislike when certain people in my family (cough cough honey) don't give me their debit card receipts.  It's no fun to think you have x amount of money only to find out your missing x amount of receipts totaling a huge x amount of money.  U to the GH!  Poor guy, it must be hard to be married to an anal penny pincher that counts every dime.  I should really work on that, how lovely it must be to dance through life not caring what things cost or how much money is in the bank or if you have 3 months worth of "cover your a$$ moolah" in your savings account.  Man I long to be that woman.  Guess that's two dislikes, two strikes for the old married couple. 

I'm a broken woman...

After promising myself that I would be a good girl despite the fact I was eating lunch with a friend, I bent to temptation and ordered cheese enchiladas.  Were they scrumptious?  Oh my goodness yes, but the thought of those 4 pds I've lost and the two flippin' months it took me to lose those 4 measly pounds weighed heavily on my fork as I consumed each bite.  A meal that should have been heavenly tasted more like the devil.  Why is that?  After so many days of chicken and Special K and chicken and fresh veggies and chicken and chicken and chicken can't I partake in "real food" and enjoy it?  I just want my thin body of yesteryear back when chocolate cake and cheese pretzels didn't enable my butt from fitting into cute jeans and my tummy into fitted shirts.  Instead I'm waddling through my days in elastic waist pants and baggy tees hoping everybody thinks I'm hiding a hot bod underneath them.  WAH...

I made it out of the closet....ALIVE!

Nothing like logging into Facebook and seeing that your local police have confirmed a tornado on the ground less than half a mile from your home, yep that is how my morning started.  Before the storm approached my husband had told me to go outside and lay in the bottom of the dry creek bed and my mother's call was full of recommendations like putting my son's football helmet on before I climbed in the tub and put a mattress over me.  The suggestions were thoughtful but pushed to the wayside because "it would probably blow over anyway".  Wrong.

Hurricanes I am prepared for, tornadoes not so much.  The storm was scary, but the death trap I found myself climbing into was far more scary than the unseen funnel cloud roaring outside!  I had entered a closet....my 13 yr old son's closet.  I won't lie and pretend that I didn't know it was mess but trust you me I had no clue such a small confined place could hold so much cruff (crap and stuff).  Throwing things out, I made my way to the back of the closet and perched myself on a Rubbermaid container full of who knows what, clothes hanging in my face, things under my rear and my feet atop of that football helmet I just couldn't bring myself to put on.  As I sat in my little teen cave I imagined the ideas I could find on pinterest to organize this black hole and I also wondered if the pillow I had grabbed from the top of the closet had been washed since his days of napping in kindergarten, then I began to question my own cleanliness and if I had passed down a gene that others saw in me but I didn't see in myself.  Nah, that thought fluttered away just as fast as it had fluttered in!

After my all's clear call I emerged from my cavern and went about my day, waiting on my "angel" boy to come home from school and help me clean his closet.  It's amazing all of the things "he never knew he had", "had been looking for" or "had forgotten about".  You think?   Wish I had that problem, I mean, who has shoes they had forgotten about and backpacks that have never been used?  I think I'm a little jealous, it was almost like a shopping trip to the mall for him.  Nothing like being rewarded with "new stuff" for being a slob.

All's well that ends well I guess, the closet is clean, we have a box full of garage sale items, the son has cool new cruff he didn't know he had and I am out of the closet!

It's me, Michael

Here goes nothing!  On the advice of those that love me I have taken to blogging, or at least attempting and this is my first go at that attempt!  Never one short on words, topics or opinions I have been instructed to take it to the web, if nothing more than to spare those that normally have to hear me babble!

My name is Michael, I'm 38 and the mother to two children that are of course the most perfect, gorgeous and intelligent beings God ever created (gag), Amber and Colton.  I felt obligated to say those things because of course if they ever show an interest in anything I do their sensitive little hearts would break in two if they ever thought my opinions were less. 

My husband is my main man, the guy I love the most and get along with some of the times!  We have been skipping through this thing called life together since we were 15 yrs old (wholly guacamole!!) and married for 19 yrs.  Every "normal" household has to have a dog right?  Well we have three!  Nice..nothing like a furry floor and hairy meal.  Cooper James is my saving grace and best poopie friend, he is a black lab, my husband has the crazy Boston Terrier, Cricket, that everyone pretends to like when they visit.  Our newest addition is a miniature Dachshund and she is perfect (because she's new and a puppy)!

I'm cheap, I love to save money, I love to thrift, I love a good sale, I love to eBay,  I love God and family....I am a mom named Michael