Catch-up Monday: Loose Ends

Happy New Year!

I hope and pray that everyone had a blessed holiday.

I am still healing. I have been told that it could take a very long time to heal because I have deep tissue bruising. There are still some things that I just cannot do without a lot of pain, but there are tiny victories every day. We started visiting a local doctor and she is concerned that my left leg still has some significant swelling and has sent for my old records. In the meanwhile, she ordered the routine battery of yearly tests: You know the ones. For the most part, I am fine, but I have some bone density and triglyceride issues, and I am looking into holistic/natural treatment for both of those. My biggest concern now is that my left knee arbitrarily decides not to support me. I appreciate any and all prayers for my health concerns. I will let you know what I learn.

At the time of my last post, Ed was still working in Independence. He was driving about three hours a day, and the trip was rapidly taking a toll on him and his truck. He found a cooking job closer to home for minimum wage, and took it, while still looking for something else. A few weeks later he was hired at a place walking distance from the house. Awesome! Well, it was, anyway. He was fired a week later for being too slow...I could write for days about that, but I won't.

Well now what? First, we prayed, and then, for the first time in his life, Ed decided to file for unemployment. It was approved, and so here we are. Ed, of course, is still looking for work, but the Lord has graciously took our little bit and made it go farther than we ever thought possible.  Phillipians 4:19 says: "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus". In the last few months, He has proven to us, over and over again, that His word is true.

Anyway, now that I've brought you up to date on all that, I'll show you some of the things I've worked on over the last few months. Remember that road side dresser we found? Well, here it is in Kat's room.

She loves it! I splurged (when Ed was still working) and bought a gallon of latex paint in one of her favorite colors. I painted her bed frame, bookshelf, desk, and this dresser with it. I covered the drawer fronts with scrapbook paper and added the ribbon pulls. There were some tense moments putting the drawers back in, because the dresser sat in the garage for a few weeks. The garage was not as dry as we thought, and the drawers swelled. We managed to get all but one of them back in, and Ed is still working on it.

After two years, I finally finished Ed's beaded hat band. Unfortunately, the hat for which it was originally intended doesn't get worn much anymore. Here it is on his "church hat". 

Before Christmas, I pulled out some projects I started last year, but never finished. Here are snow man necklaces made from old keys Kyle collected when he was little. 

This snow man and angel came from pieces of wood fence that we got last year. Most of it wasn't good for more than fire wood, but I had Ed cut off a few end pieces.  The wings and subsequent angel came about because a board just snapped in half. I stapled the halves on to another board using my staple gun. Yes, I know, my painting leaves a little to be desired, but I had fun with it. Kat says the angel is "creepy".

That's all the news for now.
Connie

Catch Up Monday: January Thaw

Since I try to keep my weekend as a time for family and worship, I'll be using Monday to catch up with you. It will also be the place where I share random thoughts and ideas that pop into my head. My only problem may be remembering that thing I thought about on Saturday that I really wanted to share with you today.

After the last few weeks of colder than normal temperatures, we are experiencing some wonderful weather. Saturday the thermometer reached 60 degrees! Today the high is only supposed to reach into the forties, but even that is a blessing after days of single digit temperatures and sub-zero wind chills. Of course, this is January, and it is Missouri, so we will be back in the deep freeze eventually, but its nice not to have to be concerned about protecting water pipes for a few days.

Ed got his truck back Friday, but now it wont start. Looks like its either the battery or alternator. We both kind of feel that this is a spiritual attack and aren't letting it get to us. Things happen. The Lord will meet our needs, one way or the other. He always does.

We are starting a few new groups at church, and seeing the enthusiasm from both you and old is so exciting. I'll share more about that as we get into it.

I'm still working on getting the house back in order after Christmas. The way things have been going, I'll be thankful if all the Christmas things are put away before Easter! Katherine's room seems to stay a disaster, but as long as there aren't science experiments growing in there, I usually choose bigger battles, like homework, to fight. This weekend I did get the kitchen, bathroom, and our bedroom set to rights. This morning I baked some honey whole wheat bread. I'll share some more about that on Friday.

Now, I just have the living room and this room. Of course, this is where I've stuck everything from the other rooms. I really need to get a handle on it, because I have some projects I want to work on, and I need room to work. There is barely room for me and the laptop in here now.  Think 5x8 room, with papers, books, craft supplies, grocery bags, and plastic sheeting, piled on top of, and wedged under,two desks, and already full shelves. Then add four cats to the equation. Yeah, its that bad.

Anyway, I do have some interesting stuff planned for this week.

See ya tomorrow,

Connie

Repurposed Thursday: A Tree and A Vase

Welcome to Repurposed Thursday!

Repurposed Thursday is where I am going to share my repurposing projects. Some of them turned out great, and others...not so much. I still have a lot to learn, and need a whole lot more practice. There are a ton of blogs out there by people who are crazy good at this. Some day, I may be one of them, but for now...

The idea for this project started for me last fall. I've seen it elsewhere on the internet since then, but I hadn't when the idea first came to me.

We plant a garden every summer, and a big part of that is tomato plants. Tomatoes are vines, and to keep them in one place, they have to be staked to some kind of support. Enter tomato cages. They come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and price tags. My cages are the cheap type and I have had them for several years. Next year, I'm doing something different, and hopefully, that will involve more repurposing.

My cages are pretty much shot. When we cleaned out the garden last year, we set the cages off to the side of the driveway. One day, when we were going out to the car, I stopped to look at those cages. I was not going to throw them away, but what could I do with them? Then it hit me! I turned to Ed, pointing at the cages, and said, “Christmas trees!” He said his standard “Uh-huh. That's a good idea”, which translates to “Oh Lord, help me! She's at it again!”

The last few years, we've had a very small table-top tree, because that is really all we have room for. Katherine was already complaining about the “dinky” tree before we ever got it out of storage. She saw four-foot trees in Kmart, and said, “Those aren't too big! Could we get one of those, please!!!!” I said “no” of course, because I already had a better idea.

Here is the finished product. Since I (again) did not take before pictures, I took some as I was taking it apart so you can get an idea of how it went together.. Katherine loved it, and even Ed was impressed.
Oh, and it didn't cost me a dime. I used things I already had. Thinking ahead to next year though, and wondering if maybe I might be able to sell a few.

As I was taking the gold garland off the tree,  I remembered where it came from and I had to laugh. My dad used to own a business where he tore down old buildings. A lot of times, he would be told that if he found anything inside, it was his. He found all kinds of stuff. He was also very good at picking things up that other people threw out. Anyway, one year, probably about 1995, he came for a visit, and brought me a garbage bag full of gold garland. Yep, the same gold garland. There isn't much left, but I still use what there is!

Without the decorations. You can see the  frame around the bottom.

I used four wired garlands. The kind with the little wired "branches" comimg off them.

I used duct tape to hold the top together.  The cage is ready to go back outside.

The next project was done last fall. A lot of things came together at once, allowing me to create something that has spent the last few months displayed in our living room. As I've said before, Ed and I were married in September. A dear friend got me a beautiful bouquet of cream roses and other purple flowers. My sister told me that I could dry them upside down which I did. Several weeks later, I'm looking at the upside down bouquet hanging from a piece of twine, and thinking: “Now what?” I had no idea what to do with it.

Right around the same time, I discovered Angie's blog at Knick of Time. I wanna be like Angie when I grow up! Anyway, she was decorating with book pages. I didn't think I could bring myself to tear pages out of books, but what if they were already falling apart. I had some of those, and I already knew how to do decoupage. So I kind of started looking for things that I could maybe cover in book pages. I will say that I have since gone a little nuts,

As you know, I try not to throw anything away that I might be able to reuse. At least not until it starts taking over the house. I started drinking almond milk this last year, and my favorite kind comes in a really cool plastic bottle.

Plastic bottle + old book pages + mod podge + twine + dried wedding bouquet = awesome dried flowers in a rustic-looking  vase.  What do you think?

Yeah, its a little wrinkled. Like I said, I need practice.
See you tomorrow,
Connie