Tricycle transformation

I hinted at this project weeks ago and that is exactly how long it has taken me to finish. Starting and stopping a project will get on your last nerve. Trust me.

I always love to see all the great ideas on Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage. I have bookmarked a ton of projects I want to try myself. I always wished I could join all the great posts on there with my own project.

When I saw this broke down tricycle sitting by my neighbor's trash can my first thought was "Here I come Transformation Thursday!!!! Woohoo!!!! Here's my chance to shine!"

Now, I'm just kidding. I really thought it would be a great tricycle for Bean. Really. I did. Well, I eventually got around to that thought.

This is the tricycle after Hubz took it all apart.  I forgot to take a picture before he got to it.

It was nasty.  I actually had to clean it up before I could work my magic.  Can you believe that?

I started off by spray painting the seat, bucket and some little do-dads that do something.  I dunno.

Not only did I spray the important parts but I also sprayed everything else, too.  I had to make sure I covered all my bases.  Later on Hubz came over and dropped this pearl of wisdom on me..."why don't you use smaller strokes instead of one big old blast of paint?"  Why didn't you think to tell me this sooner?  Men.

I used Krylon paint for plastics.  I'm not sure I'm a fan.  It did not adhere that well to the seat. I needed to try and spray on a clearcoat but I only had Miniwax for wood.  So I'm afraid all the paint on the seat will chip off but we'll see.

This is the frame.  It wasn't in too bad of shape.  I sprayed the handlebars with some hammered silver spray and the frame with some more Krylon paint.

Now here is where you can definitely tell me from that of a seasoned professional.

That's right.  I spray painted myself.  I wasn't paying attention to where the thingie was pointing and "bam".  Looked like a third degree burn. 

The frame was coming along nicely.

Here's a tip for you - never listen to your husband when he tells you that really old masking tape will work just as well as some brand new painter's tape because he doesn't want to have to go back to the store.

That's just not attractive.

So here is the finished product.  Bean was thinking of doing some decorating herself with her stickers.  I threatened her college fund if she touched it before I took these pictures.  

Bean seems to really like it.  Pardon the bed head.

I think it turned out okay for my first attempt at spray painting and being part of Transformation Thursday.  Hopefully, I'll find some more crap to spray and I can join in again.  I mean...stay tuned for my next exciting project!!!

I'm special and I have an award to prove it!

While checking my email this morning, I received a message from a fellow blogger, Adriana PK from The Busy Pepper Mill. In her message, Adriana said she had included me in an Honest Scrap Award post. Isn't that sweet? I love to hear from fellow bloggers and this was such a nice way to start the day. I knew I had a very hard day ahead of me with having to post on here that my husband was right about something so to get an award for someone liking my blog made writing that God awful post bearable. Thank you, Adriana!!!!!

Now as to the business of the award - I must tell you 10 random things about myself. It would be easier to tell you 10 random things about Bean but that's not the deal so here goes.

1. I can beat Hubz at air hockey almost every time.
2. My favorite color is pink. (What? You already knew that? Okay, okay.)
3. I watched a taped episode of Destination Truth last night that creeped me out so badly that I had to turn it off half way through and then sleep with a night light on.
4. I hate coconut. Love the smell, hate the texture.
5. I can generally pick up just about anything on the computer with relative ease except for Photoshop and HTML.  I don't understand why these have been so hard for me to figure out.
6. I used to be a travel agent way back when.
7. We have too much debt. This is something I've thought of sharing here but have been reluctant to discuss but it's true.
8. I used to absolutely hate, hate, hate my middle name and would not allow anyone to utter it around me except for my Uncle Jimmy. He's the only one that got a pass. But now I like it. I might even say I really like it.
9. There are countless things in a week that come up that I wished I could ask my mom about. She passed away in 1997 but I have a long list of things to talk about when I see her next. LOL
10. With all the hoopla over 2012, I've decided not to shop for Christmas presents until after 12-21-12. Why bother racking up more bills if I don't have to?

There. There's all the junk info I could think of this morning. Now, I have to take care of the second part of the award. I have to send this award onto 10 blogs that I really love to read or have made a difference to me. It's hard to narrow it down because honestly, I love all the blogs I visit and have learned so much from so many in Bloggyland. I hope maybe you'll find someone new to learn from, too.

1. I Am Mommy - especially after the week she's had with the pancakes and the exploding oven.
2. April Showers - She designed what you see here. If you like it, she's the reason. If you don't like it, she's the reason.  ;)
3. Tracy's Food for Thought - Tracy is my oldest friend. No, not "old" like that. I have been friends with her since first grade. She has seen me through all my bad hair and still loves me. She is trying to get her recipe blog off the ground and I'm trying to get her to just make the food for me and deliver it.
4. The Mighty M Family - I love to see the photos of her children. They always make me smile. She was one of the first people to regularly leave me comments. She validated me. Awwww.
5. Haas Family Blessings - I met Holly on Cafe Mom. She has a daughter the same age as Bean and we've followed each other's lives over the internet for the past 2 years. Holly is preggo again. Yay! She's one of those "annoying" girls that actually loses weight in pregnancy. LOL She is very tiny and I am a big, fat hater. I still have baby weight left from Bean. Holly, I'll send it to you, okay? Please, let me.
6. Heydorca's Blog - She will probably, most likely, kill me for sending this award her way. But I have to say that she inspires me. Well, not physically cause I haven't gotten off the couch, but emotionally, I'm super inspired. Susan is on a quest to get in shape by her 50th birthday. She has taken us along the way and I get tired just reading her posts of her workouts. She is doing the work and she will reach her goal. I just know it.
7. This Belle Rocks! - I swear I believe that Ms. Belle and I were separated at birth. We like the same books, men, most music. It always makes me laugh when she posts something she is reading and watching because it's usually the same thing I'm doing, too.
8. Beneath My Heart - Traci writes these posts called Wednesdays with Wanda. Wanda was her mother and to me, these posts are love letters to her mom. They touch me every time I read them and have inspired me to maybe one day share more about my mom with you all. There is no greater gift in a girl's life than to have a wonderful, loving mother. That's my opinion anyways. I know not everyone has a kind mother but Traci did and she shares her with us all the time.
9. Just Simply Cook - Another recipe blog that I love. She has recipes for homemade Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a S'Mores cake. A S'Mores cake, people! 'Nuff said.
10. The Funkie Junkie - I shared with you last week finding Linda's blog and sending her an email asking how she made some of her beautiful creations. Because she was so very nice to me in her reply, and because she makes the cards I wish I made, I'm sending her this little award, too. Thanks for sharing your time and ideas with me.

Thanks again to Adriana.

Enjoy and remember to try to inspire others.

When Moms Attack.

I came across this post from I Am Mommy.  She previously posted a very cute recipe for Rainbow Pancakes.





 *Picture property of I Am Mommy.


After sharing that recipe, she received a lot of positive feedback.  But with the good came the bad.  People opposed to serving children foods with added food coloring decided to share their opinions with I Am Mommy.  And they weren't very nice.  Actually, a lot of them were downright dirty and nasty in their comments.

This led I Am Mommy to pose the question of 'are bloggers fair game'?  Are you afraid of hearing people's negative comments on the things you share?  Does it change what you write? 

I have had these fears in the past.  I believe that as a blogger, if you want to gain an audience to read your thoughts on whatever is going on in your little corner of the world, you should be honest with your readers.  But I will admit there have been a few times in the past that I've written something and thought "should I share that" or "maybe I'll leave that part out".

I just knew after writing this post about an incident involving my daughter and my handgun that I was going to be roasted alive and that the readers I did have were going to stop reading.  I honestly believed that.  But I wanted to share what had happened so that if any other person out there learned something from my mistakes, it would make the situation a positive one.  (Thank God nothing horrible happened but I'm sure you understand all the "what ifs" that went through my mind that day.)

My readers didn't toss me away.  In fact, I received so many positive comments that I knew I did the right thing by sharing.  Maybe the person that learned the most from that situation was me, not only in being more careful with my purse and my child, but also in giving my readers more credit than I had before.

And yes, I am still living in my virgin blogverse where no one has told me I'm a horrible mother or that I shouldn't procreate like they told I Am Mommy.  If I keep writing and sharing I know my time will come.  So should I stop writing and sharing my little corner?  I don't think so.  And I don't think I Am Mommy should take all those horrible comments to heart.  She could look at it like this - while all those commenters were being so sanctimonious about not giving their kids food coloring, they also weren't teaching their children that it's okay to be different, to have different opinions and to like different things.  They didn't teach "love thy neighbor" when they took the time to knock her parenting skills.  No lessons on patience or love.  The lessons taught by their actions were not anything to be proud or sanctimonious over.  They definitely did not lead by example.

Maybe that is the lesson we all should take from this.  Now, I feel like making some pancakes. 

Pinkie's Picks - The Crafty Ones

Recently I shared some links to other sites in the blogosphere that I found helpful or have inspired me to be creative. I really liked doing that post and decided that I would incorporate a new feature here called Pinkie's Picks. Listen, I know that's not that original but even that took me a good few minutes to come up with. Anyways, it's not about the name, it's about the sharing. And I'm nothing if not a sharer. (Hush, Hubz.)

This week I thought I'd pass along some links to some crafty and creative blogs that have inspired me to create or at least think about creating something. I'm nothing if not ambitious. (Hush, Hubz.) So here we go and I hope you can find something that makes you feel crafty, too.

I made my own Easter egg wreath after reading this post on This is My Life.

Here's my wreath. I know it's not as pretty as Cindi's from This is My Life but I think it's cute.

When did I have the idea that I could make one of these wreaths?
About three weeks before Easter.

When did I actually sit down and make my wreath?
The night before Easter.

Is said wreath still hanging up in my house?
Why, yes, it is! But at least it's on the inside of the front door and not outside where all my neighbors can see how lazy and unorganized I am. Hey. I burned my danged fingers many, many times - okay, three, I burned them three times - so I think I should get a little bit of mileage out of my pain and suffering. Ummkay?

I haven't signed up for any of these courses at My Creative Classroom yet but I am planning on doing some of the stamping techniques and the paper crafts classes.  I'd love to have a Big Shot or a Cricut and if I ever get one, I'm definitely gonna sign up for some of their die-cut machine classes.  They have free classes, too.  I'm nothing if not frugal.  (Hubz!  Stop snickering!)

One of my favorite blogs to peruse is The Beehive Cottage.  I love how she decorates and creates.  She has a tutorial on making your own pink laundry detergent that I'm going to try soon.  (Yep.  Pink.)  I have tried to make my own before but here's a tip to anyone that is thinking of trying it:  when the recipe says finely grated, it really means finely grated.  Just grated is just gonna cake up on your clothes and then you're gonna have to pull out the store-bought stuff to clean up your mess.  I'm just sayin'.

MaryJane also has her own vintage trailer that I want to steal.  After I read about her trailer, I texted Hubz and told him to start the search.  For some reason, he just laughed at me.  I don't think he realizes how much I want my very own playhouse, or playtrailer, I guess.

I think I've mentioned that I've started card making and I am absolutely in love with learning how to do everything.  I found The Funkie Junkie one day and I love all of her cards.  I sent her an email after reading one of her posts.  I asked how she did something and I figured I'd never hear from her.  She sent me a detailed email that same afternoon and shared some great ideas with me.  She didn't think my questions were dumb and I really enjoyed chatting with her.  I hope to one day be as creative in my card making as she is.  A girl can hope, can't she?

Alison from House of Hepworth's has shown me that it is okay to spray paint just about anything.  I have an upcoming post about redoing a tricycle for Bean that will show everyone that the old "you can spray paint just about anything" rule doesn't always apply.  Or at least it doesn't when the sprayer isn't smarter than the spray can.  Stay tuned.  You'll see.

I just found this blog, Happy Little Art, last week.  I have my grandmother's and my mother's sewing machines in storage. I've wanted to get a new machine to teach myself how to sew.  Most people tell me I should use one of the ones I already have.  But if I were to break my Granny's or my Mom's machines, I would hate it.  Maybe I should try, though.  This post makes me want to get started now.

Hopefully something here inspires you.  If you haven't been inspired to do your own creating, then maybe I've at least inspired you to come back soon to see how I have messed up my own craft projects.  I'm nothing if not...oh, nevermind.

Wordless Wednesday - Little Driver

*P.S. I've been feeling under the weather again. Hubz brought home some rare tropical virus from Alabama and I was lucky enough to catch it. I'll be back tomorrow with better content (hopefully). Take care all!

Well, that'll teach her!

I previously posted that Bean is definitely in the Terrible Twos.  Our house looks like a Toys R Us exploded.  There are bits and pieces of toys all over the house.  Go ahead, rat me out to Martha Stewart.  I don't care!

But as I was saying, there are toys all over the place.  And Bean loves to rearrange and relocate them all the time.  Tuesday night I was in the kitchen starting dinner and Bean comes busting in with her little wagon full of toddler loot.  She proceeds to dump it all in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Well this was not conducive to my menu preparation and I asked her to move it.  I asked her several times.  I was ignored several times.

I finally told her if she didn't pick them up I was gonna put them all in a trash bag and throw them away since she didn't care about them.  She just smiled at me.  So I followed through and bagged all those toys up, marched her to the front door with me, opened the door and tossed the bag out onto the front porch.  I stood her in the corner and told her that the trash man would pick up her toys and take them away because she didn't want to help Mommy by keeping them picked up.

I was actually pretty proud of myself for the follow through and for not giving in.  That is until I opened the door the next morning when we were leaving to go to Giggles' house.  I had completely forgotten about putting the bag out there and never moved them after she went to sleep.  Bean saw the bag and said "Mommy!  My toys came back!"

Ummhmm, they did, didn't they?

I really showed her, didn't I?

Wordless Wednesday - Too cool

First-time parker, long-time player.

Saturday morning Hubz and I took Bean to a local park that I had been hearing about for a few months. I honestly couldn't figure out how to get there by myself. Me and maps don't mix. Me and GPS are just now starting to like each other. So...I needed a man to help me out. Hubz was the best I could find.

This was Bean's first trip to a real park. We usually go to this smaller one near our house but it only has swings and a couple of slides. This new park has trails, a few different playgrounds, picnic tables, all that jazz. We were uptown, baby!

At first Bean was a little shy and hesitant to play. She stared at the other kids and smiled but thought the other grown-ups were complete aliens or something. Frankly, I thought the same thing about a couple of them, too, but what the hey!

Here's Bean trying out some of the slides. She kept putting her feet down and braking her slide. All that kept going through my mind was "whiplash anyone?"

Then she wanted to try out the monkey bars.  Isn't it funny how everything and anything can turn into a song for a toddler?  She started singing "monkey bars, monkey bars, monkey bars" over and over.  She should be on Glee.

I can't get over how long her hair has grown!

She also liked climbing under the big playset.  There was a big spinning tic tac toe game, a car with wheels that spun around and some windows to play peek-a-boo.  Mommy liked this area too simply because it was the coolest spot on the playground.  The other kids tried to get me to move out of the way but I just kept pushing them down.  I kid.  I kid.  Except for that one...

Pretty much the look on Bean's face in this next picture shows you how much she enjoyed the new park.

I think we'll be returning soon.  The Beanster said so.

I'm not generally a drinker.

I'm not generally a drinker. I'm not. I'm really not.

But this weekend had me ready to run to the nearest fully stocked bar I could find. We have officially hit the Terrible Twos. I hate the Terrible Twos.

Bean's favorite phrase must be "No Mommy" because she never tires of saying it. And all that crap about "use your words" or "use your inside voice" means nothing to her.

She has no clue how close she came to getting listed on Craigslist.

Hoppin' down the Bloggy Trail.

I love to read posts where the writer shares blog posts of others that they have found interesting or helpful. A great example of this can be found on The Mother Load. I think these posts of Amy's are some of my favorites that she does.  I thought I'd be very un-original and steal borrow Amy's idea and share some great tips or projects that I've found in the blogosphere.  I hope you enjoy.

Clean your dishwasher with KoolAid.  Great, another thing I have to clean.

I still have a whole bag full of empty formula cans that I could use to make this ABC game for Bean.  I'd like to really emphasize the "could" part of that sentence.

I want an Easy Bake oven so that I can have one of these Easy Bake Oven Cookbooks.  I mean BEAN wants an Easy Bake oven.  Bean.  Not me.  No, not me.

I really want a terrarium.  If I were going to make one, I'd use this tutorial.  But I wished Hubz would use it instead and make me one.  It's not like he does anything else, you know.

I think the Pioneer Woman should be investigated to make sure she's really human.  I mean nobody but her, Martha Stewart and maybe June Cleaver could come up with this idea for these really cute flower pot desserts.  I pray to God y'all know who June Cleaver is.  I overheard a youngster say the other day "Who's Carol Brady?"  What?  Get off my planet.

I actually made some of this homemade hair detangler the other day.  It works pretty good...when you remember to spray it on...

I love this recipe for blueberry muffins made from baking mix.  Well, duh!  How else do you make muffins?!?  Oh yeah!  There are people out there that *gasp* BAKE FROM SCRATCH.  Egads!

I grew up on a farm.  Yes, it's true.  We had horses, pigs, cows, a turkey once, and some devil-possessed chickens, too.  Every summer, and I am not exaggerating here, I would spend my summer vacation shucking corn, shelling beans, snapping peas.  I HATED IT.  I would tell my Granny that when I grew up I would never, ever plant a garden.  I told her there was a reason God invented the grocery store and it was to save me from all that work.  Now, I am trying to convince Hubz to help me do some Square Foot Gardening.  My Granny is probably looking down laughing and saying "I told you so." 

Wordless Wednesday - Boatin'

We got a visit from the Easter Bunny!

The Easter Bunny made a stop by our house this weekend and he didn't even wipe his feet before he came in our house.

Bean didn't seem to care, though.  She went right to her basket and started surveying her loot.

Later on, it was time to go to Giggles' for the Egg Hunt.  Bean already knows how to accessorize!

Easter Memories

I am usually forgetful. I have great plans but I don't always remember them all. Last Easter fell victim to my forgetfulness. I forgot to take our camera to the in-laws so I could capture pictures of Bean's first real egg hunt. She was only 3 months old at the official first hunt so this was the first time she got to run around and find the beautiful colored surprises. And I forgot the camera to document it all.

Thank God for my cousin Krispy Kreme. If she hadn't been prepared and she usually is way more prepared than I am, I wouldn't have any pictures of that fun day. Thanks "Krippy Kreme"!!!!

So to get us all geared up for this weekend's Egg Hunt, here are some pictures of last year's event. I loved strolling down this memory lane and I hope you all will enjoy the walk, too.

I wish a very Happy Easter to all those that celebrate it.  Hoppy!  Hoppy!