The Final Touches!!!

So...my dresser was a hand-me down from my great grandma's house and you'd think that it would've been solid wood and every part with the exception of the top was! I don't know what kind of genius decided to put a laminate top on the dresser but it made for an interesting halt in my staining process. I went to Home Depot and then Lowes in search of SOMETHING to use on the top of the dresser that would look better than the carmel color faux wood laminate that it already have. I finally (after taking home handfuls of sample squares) decided on a laminate to order. The funny thing is, that I had it narrowed down to the top 5 and then I THOUGHT I'd picked the top 2 but when Sherry came over I had her give her opinion and she'd picked another from my top 5 and then I fell in love with it! I then went down and special ordered a 4x8 foot sheet of laminate from Lowes and it came back in under a week! So on Saturday afternoon I measured, cut, scored with and Exacto knife, and snapped off the pieces. This process took more time than I'd expected and due to the grain in the back of the laminate scoring a straight line was difficult and tedious! My hand and fingers were so sore and crampy from holding the knife so tight and pushing with so much pressure! Then on Sunday morning, I began coating all the surfaces with contact cement because everything has to dry before you can put them together. My mom came by around 10am to help with the sticking process and surprisingly it was easier than I'd expected...we did a good job and again it is a one-shot deal! If someone got down with a scrutinizing eye you could find some imperfections but to the casual passer-by it looks great! Enjoy the pictures...it is the finally to the last of my summer projects! Tomorrow morning is back to school (work) bright and early!!!


**PS...if you missed the photos from the rest of my bedroom re-staining project...scroll down a couple of posts to my previous blog and the bed, clock and nightstand before and after photos are there! :)

Been watching too much HGTV!!!

So...I've had a huge home improvement wish list for a while now and within the span of my month and a half summer (reduced from the typical teacher length because I taught summer school!) I have accomplished almost ALL of it! My newly found do-it-yourself confidence is thank to watching hours of HGTV!!! I finally finished hanging all the faux wood blinds throughout the house and then it was onto my next project. I decided to sand and stain all of my mis-matched bedroom furniture...a BIG JOB, truly bigger than I'd expected!!! The sanding was by far the hottest, hardest, most tiresome part of the job. I sneezed for DAYS after breathing in all the sanding dust and the skin on my poor fingertips still hasn't quite healed...and yes I know, I'm sure I was supposed to wear a mask and gloves but of-course I didn't! Once I got the light colors sanded off it was into the sauna I call my garage to start the staining process. The first coat went on rather smoothly (given I could keep the stinkin' flies outta it!) but the color came out with more reddish tones than I wanted, so I was excited to see what the second coat would bring! I was pleasantly surprised to see the second coat really darkened everything up while leaving subtle red undertones. Now my mis-matched furniture finally LOOKS like it belongs together...the only thing I needed to purchase was a couple of nightstands (because I was using a dumb little table and I really wanted something with one drawer and maybe a shelf). I looked at second-hand stores first but NOTHING jumped out at me! I finally gave up and went to Woodland Furniture and picked out a set that was unfinished and ready to stain that had feet similar to my existing bed posts. I was so stoked that the guy roughed up the surface for me prior to me leaving the store so I literally came home and was able to start staining! I then got a bit carried away and added clock with wooden "spokes" that I stained to match just for the fun of it. Now the last thing I've gotta do is update the laminate top on my dresser. I had gone to Lowes to scope out the various colors offered and brought home a handful of samples. Thanks to the opinions of friends and family I finally settled on a color and special ordered it. It came in today so I'll be learning-while-doing this weekend but I'm happy that I'll get it all done before the school year starts! My bedroom (after about a week now) still has a hint of varnish smell but it has gotten much more faint (hallelujah)! THEN I tackled another "make it better or totally ruin it" project by putting a peep-hole into my front door! This was SCARY because I took an electric drill, put a mid-evil looking wood boring bit and headed to my perfectly functioning front door in hopes that I would not completely mutilate it! I got it right on the first try and considering there wasn't a second try option, I was super happy with it! Now I can see who is at my door without going into the office to peek! Well...fingers crossed for my laminate and contact cement dresser top weekend project...'cause in two days it is back to the grind with a 5-day student filled work week, keep ya posted!!!

Pool days...summer is almost over!

I really think these photos are a medley of a couple of different days but I'll consolidate them for y'all in hopes of preventing monotony! For those of you who know Baylie and have seen her reactions around a pool already know that she has some serious issues with the diving board...specifically people on or near the diving board especially ME! So on this particular day I was sitting on the diving board chatting with mom who was putting chemicals in the spa and Baylie wouldn't leave me alone! She will bark and paw at anyone who's around the dumb diving board and I'm not sure if it's because she's scared of it and thinks she's saving you or what!?! Today though, she kept throwing herself over my lap perhaps an attempt to prevent me from falling or something (who really knows what's going on in that crazy little head of hers)??? Mom thought it was funny and preventing her from taking photos is next to impossible...so I'm putting up some good ones she captured! On another day Carter (My sister's little one) came over for a swim and although he was slightly unhappy at first he quickly got comfortable in his little float and was looking super laid back in his shades!

Banana Plants...

So Matt and Sherry have these banana plants in their back yard that are beautiful but grow like weeds...so they cut some off for me and brought them over! Matt and I spent about an hour planting in the back yard while Sherry played with Carter and tried to keep the dogs from giving him too many kisses. Some of the plants they brought over were like 5-6 feet tall! Matt told me that they will probably loose all their leaves and look dead but Sherry said they'll come back in only a couple of weeks! Now I just have to keep Ginger from eating them so that they have time to get their roots growing! Day one...they really add green to the yard...sounds bad but I can't wait for them to die so that they can come back and really grow!

Gigantic Sagos!!!!

So my Mom has these 2 GIGANTIC 25-ish year old Sago Palms that flank the front entry to the house and had actually become so overgrown that you'd have to bob and weave to get to the front door without getting poked and stabbed by the big needle-like limbs! My Mom had called a tree trimming company to come and chop out the big torpedo-like seed pods from the queen palms in the backyard that make such a mess in the pool and thought that she might have them do the Sagos in the front the same day. They were supposed to show up at 8am so I showed up a bit after 7am because I wanted to scope out the sagos for big "pups" that I could pop off and re-pot before the guys came and chopped them up. I got started around 7:30 and once I got a couple popped off I could then see what I was doing and was able to make progress much more quickly. With a lot of elbow grease and sweat...I had one full sago stripped by the time the tree trimming service FINALLY showed up which was somewhere around 10am! I must have gotten more than 30 good pups off, ready to re-pot but there had to have been more than 50 total that I popped off. I already had a good blister in the center of my right palm and my poor arms looked like I stuck them into a fire ant hole...those pokey sagos are MEAN! I told mom I'd be happy to attack the dual headed gigantic sago next weekend once my hand healed up a bit but we'd saved enough of the big pups that we'd run out of pots so she decided to have them prune it up. Once they were done and cleaned up I drove home to get my girls and the 2 big bags of potting soil that I had left over in my garage. The girls went swimming while mom started cleaning all the debris out of the pool that were left over from the palm pruning and I began potting the pups...both MAJOR chores! In the midst of all this, Sherry needed a sitter so that she could do some back to school shopping without Carter his diaper bag & stroller! It gave us a much needed break...he got to have a quick swim with "grandma"...then a quick diaper change and bottle later he was down for the count! We went back to work while he slept and just checked on him every 10 minutes or so...the little guy slept 'till Sherry got back around 4pm. They went home but we kept working...I was determined to finish even though by this time sore was an understatement...you name it, back, arms, shoulders, hands...EVERYTHING hurt!!! Once mom got the pool in check she began helping me water the newly potted pups and arrange the numerous pots around her yard. Finally we finished up a bit before 8pm...it was a rough day but like they say, no pain-no gain and we CLEARLY got a LOT done in that 12-ish hours!!! Now I just hope that most of the pups live so that the hard work was not done in vain! Fingers crossed!

Customer Comments to Kraft & Crystal Light!!!

So...I've been complaining about this for a while now and I decided to try to DO something about it! I wrote two separate customer letters to the Kraft corporation (they own the Crystal Light Company)...the first was just a customer comment letter but the second was a customer innovation admission letter that they will actually respond to! I'm attaching my customer letter so you understand what I'm talking about because the innovation submission was in a bunch of different entry boxes rather than one paragraph. ENJOY!


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Hello! First I'd like to say thank you to those responsible for creating the Crystal Light drink mixes because they are wonderful! However, I'm a woman in a professional job and my favorite flavor is the Cherry Pomegranate. I don't feel comfortable drinking this mix during my work hours because it stains my lips and teeth for a good 30 minutes after enjoying my beverage! Is it truly necessary for the flavor to have SO much food coloring added in? You are marketing these mixes to grown adult women with hopes to help them drink more water, not young children who need the bright colors to get excited! I understand that your recent commercials are all about the colors and that is fine, make THEM colorful and make the packaging colorful but PLEASE make the drink mixes colorless!!! Adult women do not need to look like clowns with "Kool-aid" style mustaches, red stained gums, and tinted teeth! For me, and others I know, this side-effect has become a deterrent to using such mixes. Even mixing the powders with water becomes an issue if ANY powder manages to escape the desired container as it will inevitably stain fingers and worse, clothing! Drinking the Fruit Punch, Cherry Pomegranate, Pomegranate Lemonade etc. (primarily the red-colored flavors) comes with consequences that has caused me to use these products less often which is the exact opposite effect that the marketing campaign is trying to accomplish! I really would like to routinely add these wonderful flavors to my water and would do so if I didn’t have to worry about looking so silly! All I ask is that you at least consider making some clear choices like a “white cherry pomegranate” still containing all the fabulous flavor but without all the unnecessary food coloring additives. In a world of people searching for more health conscious options I really believe that your market population would be accepting and truly welcome such an alteration! Thank you for taking the time to read my concerns. Best wishes,


Melissa Stonecipher
Bakersfield, CA

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Hi Melissa Stoneipher!This confirms that Kraft Foods has received the idea that you electronically submitted through our Innovate with Kraft web site. We sincerely thank you for choosing to share your idea with us. You can expect to hear back from someone on our Innovations Team in about 6 weeks.Please do not respond to this email, as we do not have ability to receive responses at this web address.If you have further questions about our Innovation policy, we invite you to review our FAQs at innovatewithkraft.com.



Sincerely,Kraft FoodsKim McMiller

Associate Director, Consumer Relations

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Making Drapes and Hanging Blinds!!!!

Finally accomplishing summer projects!!! I have this ridiculously lengthy summer to-do list and I'm satisfied to know that I've accomplished a couple of BIG ones! I bought this upholstery fabric that I thought would look great as drapes in my living room back around Christmas time when my mom and I were actually on the hunt for leather and foam to fix my torn apart couch (thanks to Ginger). We had big plans to re-upholster my couch and make drapes over the Christmas break and although we did finish the couch, the drapes were a distant dream. So we planned a 3-day weekend during summer with hopes of knocking out the drapes in one fail swoop...again, that didn't happen but we did get a good start! After a day or two of mom showing me the proper way to fold in the hems and understanding why you need to zig-zag stitch edges that have been cut to prevent fraying I was able to continue sewing after she went back to work. I finished all the tabs and the 3 long panels for the living room drapes during the week and then she came back to help draw and cut out a pattern for my sliding patio door's valance. The planning and measuring was the worst part...but I think they turned out nicely and they block out light fabulously! Now I just want to add buttons onto the tabs of the long drapes and possibly add a valance to the kitchen drapes but until then, they appear finished! THEN my next big thing was to take measurements (myself) and order some faux wood blinds off of selectblinds.com and then install them myself! Although, I found I needed help balancing, climbing ladders, and drilling and luckily my mom was willing to come over to help. We got two hung (which was all I ordered to start)...now I'm more comfortable with the measuring and hanging process and more confident with the company that they'd be cut proper and look good! Now I can order more!