Old Fashioned Tool Box

I thought for sure a tool box that looked as if it had a little grease in it would not do well with paint. But with a hot sunny day in one hand and a bucket of soapy water in the other, I gave it a good scrubbing. It dried in the sun for 2 days, was primed and painted, and passed the test.

Black or White

So this summer

 I painted a few projects over the summer that I'll begin to share. As you can see I wasn't sure what color I wanted this table, but in the end I am glad I went with Charcoal Grey. Alot of the pieces I show that I have redone were either in our house when we moved here or put out in a neighbor's garbage. You can see the wood is split on the coffee tabletop in the white painted photo. It's not noticeable when it is painted the dark color.

Simply Cake

A family favorite. Yellow cake with chocolate pudding and cool whip, with Coca Cola :) It's pretty neat how you can please your family with simple homemade recipes. This was a favorite of my husband's growing up and now is a favorite in our family.

BHG Yellow Cake

Ingredients

• 2-1/2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 2-1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 2/3  cup  butter or margarine
• 1-3/4  cups  sugar
• 1-1/2  teaspoons  vanilla
• 2    eggs
• 1-1/4  cups  milk

Directions

1. Grease and lightly flour two 8x1-1/2-inch or 9x1-1/2-inch round baking pans or grease one 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set pan(s) aside. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter or margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 1 minute after each. Add dry mixture and milk alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just till combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan(s).
3. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool layer cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove layer cakes from pans. Cool thoroughly on racks. Or, place 13x9-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with desired frosting. Makes 12 servings.

All that extra lotion

 It drives me a little crazy to have a bottle of lotion that cost about $8 on sale and not be able to use it all. For years I have been cutting the bottle to get to the bottom but have keep it in a container. I guess I never found a pretty container b/c inconvenience led me to figure something out.

 As you can see I have cut the middle section out of bottle, cut the straw accordingly and rejoined the top and bottom to have a mini bottle of lotion.

New Rose Bush Blooms 3 Times

I was happy to buy one of my first rose bushes this year. Not an expensive one though. I didn't expect much this year, in fact I figured it wouldn't bloom until next year. I was very surprised that it bloomed three times. What a golden beauty!

Ruby Red Corn

We had a crazy garden this year. We bought Ruby Red corn and it was gorgeous. The stalks were reddish topped with red silks.
I should have planted yellow corn with it to make the corn sweeter, but I must say it was sweet and yummy without crossbreeding. For some reason we did get 1 yellow ear.

When it was cooked it lost it's red color. It was a fun colorful treat. We hung a few ears to dry and used stalks for decorations too.

For the Love of the Great Pumpkine

I was on a pumpkin kick this autumn and made treat bags to look like...

pumpkins <3

Pie, Pumpkin Pie

When you have sugar pumpkins you make  puree. When you have puree you make...

Pie <3

Sugar Pumpkins Galore

We grew a few pumkins and had a harvest of a little over 20. To say the least it has made a good amount of puree for pie.

 Picture courtesy of my daughter.

Vanity Chair Redo

This chair was picked up at a yard sale and was hunter green with a plastic brown seat cushion. Both the wooden seat base and the metal of the chair were in great shape which made this redo very easy.

For this project I used white spray paint, a piece of upolstry fabric, but any fabric would do because the chair is used lightly. I looked high and low for a good price on the cushion and ended up finding it at Wal-mart. I bought a package of 2 foam cushions, 15" x 17" x 1" for under $7. I've had the ribbon of beads so the make over cost was just for the foam cushion :)