The Project that never ends...Window Sills

So what are you working on this weekend?  I've been working on window sills all summer including this weekend!  I've been scraping, scraping, sanding, sanding, priming and painting...the never ending project.  It's truly the worst project I can think of.  I'd rather rip out the tile in the bathroom than do this.  It's not like it's a project that you can show off after your done.  It's extremely boring and unrewarding, but it is something that needs to be done at times.  What I find funny about this project is I asked neighbor boys to help out and I would pay them.  The boys lasted all of one hour and they never came back.  Well, I have to say, it's not a glamorous job, very time consuming and no one is lining up at the door to help me out.  The good news is, once I get them done it should prolong the life of the windows and save me money in the long run...I guess I'll see.  As you can tell I have lost all sense of humor while doing this, but I'm enjoying talking a break and blogging about the boring project.  Oh yea... REAL life can be boring at times:)  Have a great weekend!

 So here I started scraping and scraping.  Depending on how bad the windows sills are (lack of maintenance) will determine how much scraping is needed. You might need to dig out all the dry rot to reach the new wood and then fill it in with epoxies and fill in the void.  Thank goodness I'm getting to this before it became a crazy difficult job.  At this stage I'm scraping and sanding.  Then I use a paint-able caulk if I have a gap between the window sill and the stucco (In this case).  Then I let that dry and prime then paint.  This process can take days because I need the weather to cooperate with me and not rain.  This explains why these projects drag out.  Oh well, I'll feel good when they are done.  

Scraping and Scraping

Even more scraping

What I want to accomplish is a smooth surface before I fill in and prime.

Primed

All finished

Another set all finished...woohoo!

Easy Sauteed Vegetables with Chicken...Products I LOVE

Everyone likes easy meals for nights that are consumed by kid sports...RIGHT?  This is when I start looking for food that's NOT full of preservatives, gluten free and can add flavor to my standby..."SAUTEED CHICKEN".   I always saute boneless chicken breasts on Sunday's and keep in the fridge to grab for quick meals.  Tonight, I added all "O" blood type vegetables that are on my highly beneficial list and made this in less than 10 minutes.  This is why I always keep an eye for interesting new products that come out.   This product is called Maya Kaimal Butter Masala, in Mild!  They have 5 different choices but I usually stick with mild because the kids become a little too picky when I try spicy things.

Easy Sauteed Vegetables with Chicken

2 tablespoons Olive oil

1 cup cut up celery

1 onion,cut in chunks

3 cloves garlic, sliced

1 yellow pepper, cut into chucks

1 red pepper, cut into chunks

1 1/2 cups broccoli, stemmed  

3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into chucks and sauteed

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

1/2 container of Butter Masala (Of your choice, pictured below)

1/2 cup water

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Serves 4

Saute vegetables in 2 tablespoons olive oil, add the cooked diced chicken and 1/2 container of Butter Masala and water.  Saute until sauce cooks down to half and a little thickened.  Add salt and pepper and sprinkle with parsley if you ave it! Perfect, quick and easy dinner for an O Blood type.  This would be a great meal for other blood types as well if you change out the meat and vegetables to suit your blood type.  Enjoy...it's REALLY yummy.

Product I LOVE

Gluten Free Ingredients and one container can last for 2 meals for a family of 4.

Chicken Avocado & Tomato Salad

Can you believe the end of summer is here?  I'm not sure why summer seems to go by so quickly, but it's a reminder to LOVE every minute of it when you're able to!  Today, I decided to make a quick lunch and just "BE" outside.  I REALLY DID nothing!  I just sat out on the front lawn with my dog and just soaked in the sun.  I'm sure in a month or two I'll look back on this day and and dream about how wonderful the grass felt and how amazing the sun (Vitamin D) felt on my skin.  Here is a tasty end of summer treat to use up those amazing tomatoes you have in the garden.  Keep DREAMING...WE ONLY LIVE ONCE!
Oh... and if you're one of my O blood type friends this is great except for the Avocado, but you can always have a few things on your avoid list every once in a while.

1 boneless chicken breast, sauteed on stove-top in a bit of olive oil, diced

1 ripe avocado, sliced

1 vine ripe tomato

1 bunch of fresh basil

1 handful of spinach leaves

Salt and Pepper to taste (Salt with Iodine)

3/4 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic Vinegar

Method

1)  Saute 1 boneless breast on stove-top in a bit of olive oil... I add Salt and Pepper. (I usually do a package of chicken a week and keep the breasts in the refrigerator for easy food preparation on quick meals, this way I can make the kids quick burritos, salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes...or whatever).

2) Place handful of spinach in a bowl

3) Add diced tomato

4) Add sliced avocado

5) Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over top, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste and GO SIT IN THE SUN with your yummy salad:)     

 

Moss Filled Urns

What to do when your summer plants are dying and the urns are starting to look awful?  Well, sometimes I love putting fall plants in the Urn, like mums or a mixture of cabbages.  The trouble is they dye so darn fast I really don't like spending the money and have to change them out in a month or less.  These days most of use are looking for something that stays looking nice for awhile and doesn't dye within one month...who has time.  So here is something that has worked for me and I'm not running to the store to change it out every month.

Here is one of Urns

You can use a roll of moss, but my personal opinion is to find individual bags of moss, because you get more texture.

Use foam balls in the Urn and a glue gun to get the height you want.

Now you can see the texture of the moss I used.  It looks much better.

Here is one I made before moving 2 years ago and you can't tell its 2 years old.

This is another option for inside an urn

See the different heights you can go!

"ONE OF A KIND SIGN'S"...Decorative!

 Being a Swedish gal I decided that I wanted to put a few Decorative Sign's up around the house but, I didn't want them to just be the usual signs that you find at Hobby Lobby, or any other craft store.  I wanted them to really "MEAN" something to me.  So, I decided to find signs that were on major clearance and repaint them, making them "ONE OF A KIND"!
 My first sign I made, I took the wall paint color and painted over the existing discounted sign (I paid $5.00 for)!  I then took a little of the wall paint and mixed in a little white and black paint to streak it across the sign.  I then purchased Wood Letters and painted them red!  I glued them on the sign and VOILA... a sign that has meaning:)

SIGN #1

VOILA

This one Fit's PERFECTLY over the sliding glass door!

I like the three dimensional look this gives the sign...VERY CUSTOM!

Kinda hard to see in this picture because of the sun coming in the window!

 SIGN #2

The Next, sign I made I decided to GO BIG OR GO HOME...lol!  I purchased a $10.00 piece of wood from Home Depot.  In this one I decided to go a little more wild with the paint.  I first did a base coat using the wall paint again.  Then I took a damp paper towel and a little black paint and streaked that in.  Next, I took a crackle spray paint and sprayed the corners.  I let this dry.  Once dry, I sprayed some of the letters on the board and the others I used wood letters that I sprayed black outside, (These I glued on).  This sign is what my Grandmother used to say and I LOVE IT!  It reminds me of her.

This Sign puts a smile on my face:)

Here is a close up to see dimension!

On this Picture, I was trying to showing you the crackle paint!

HAVE FUN CREATING SOMETHING THAT IS YOU!

Organizational Queen...Kitchen Essential

Yep...I'm an organizational queen!  I really can't stand disorder...I can't think straight!  I've been seeing organizational posts all over, but have never seen one to "FIT" an area.  This was when I decided to make an Herb Magnet board on the side of a cabinet that would open up space in a kitchen cabinet.  So, when I was doing the kitchen I contacted a Sheet Metal Worker in my area until I found someone who would take a piece of sheet metal and clamp the sides over (So they weren't sharp), then I could make a magnet board for herbs.  This cost me $38.00 to get done, once I gave him the exact size of the side of the cabinet (make sure its a perfect rectangle or square and not different sizes on the top and bottom), then you'll just needed to pick it up, bring it home and hang it.  I then attached magnet herb containers I got at World Market (They even come in colors...I just got stainless)!  I will tell you that they sell the same ones at Bed Bath and Beyond, but they are $2.99 a piece and at World Market they are only $1.99.   I then found these mesh magnet holders at T.J. Maxx ($4.99), they are great but only came in ugly colors, so I bought 4 of them anyhow...even thou they were ugly and spray painted them in a stainless steel paint and ...VOILA...FANCY PANTS MESH HOLDERS!
 

Here it is...Very hard to take a picture of!

I put mine on the side of the cabinet that holds the oven...It's convenient while cooking to have it here!

I made the HERB sign by getting metal letters at a craft store and using a glue gun to attach magnets to the back!

Here are the little metal Herb containers from World Market, I took a label maker and printed out the names of the herbs for each one!  Then I put the herbs alphabetical on the magnet board for easy access!

These are the mesh magnet containers I found at T.J. MAXX... I had to paint them thou.

These things are heavy duty and don't come off once on the board so don;t worry about them not being able to hold your junk...lol!

Fall Floral Mantel Arrangements...$12.99

Well, this morning I woke up to snow on the ground...burrr! I wasn't ready for that one.  I decided I should put up a little fall decor so I can "get in the mood" and stay positive that summer is over...BOO!  I do however love the snow on the ground and a good warm fire so I say "Bring It On"!  The one thing I didn't want to do is spend any money on decorating so I went down into my storage area and pulled out my bin of floral stuff to see what I had.  I then ran over to Hobby Lobby and picked up a package of Preserved Willow.  One thing I learned while doing floral arrangements for Hotels in Minnesota was to always use a base ingredient that was a preserved "REAL" plant/floral item.  The reason for this is it makes the arrangement to "appear" REAL and not fake.  Below is what I ended up with.  Not bad for a total of $12.99!

I used 2 urns I already had in storage!

At Hobby Lobby I purchased 1 package of preserved willow and these grapevine pumpkins!

Then because the Grapevine pumpkins had short stems I attached each one to a curly willow stick by using floral wire.  You'll never be able to tell after I put this in the arrangement. 

Next, I added flowers and wired pine cones on some sticks and even added feathers I got from a hunting friend.

This should get me thru fall...Woohoo!