I Will Return

This is a field of sugar beets.

These are sugar beets. Not real pretty once they're out of the ground. But when they're processed, you get this.

Lots of sugar.  

(you wouldn't believe how bad the the smell is from processing.)

This is a scale house. 

When the sugar beets are harvested, trucks bring them to a beet dump. Their trucks are weighed when they're full and then again when they're empty.

That little shack is where my behind will be parked for the next 4-5 weeks. 

 I weigh the trucks. 

The hours are insane very long, so I don't know how much I'll be posting or visiting other blogs. I start tomorrow, and I wanted to explain why I'll be so scarce.

I did have several posts just waiting for this, but I wasn't well for a few weeks and I ended up using them all.

I still hope to be able to post a few times a week until it gets really crazy.


This is how I fund my adventures in DIY.

The Truth, The Whole Truth

and mostly the truth.

Thanks everyone for playing along!

Here's the straight scoop.

#1~This one is mostly true. I was a magician's assistant. One time. His wife usually had that honor, but she was pregnant and didn't really feel up to it, so I told him I'd fill in. And the dove did poop in my hair when we were onstage. 

 (They look like such nice clean birds. Are they just prettier pigeons?)

#2~I have never entered a pie in the county fair~frozen or otherwise. 

#3~I have never posed for an artist~nude or clothed. (there still aren't any PG rated photos for that!)

#4~I don't have a tattoo. But if I did, that's the one I'd get.

source

#5~I am afraid of heights. I did climb up to my friend's brother's treehouse, and I did freeze on the way down. But no one called the fire department. My friend got her brother to come talk me down. He was so cute I'd probably have jumped down if he'd asked me to.

 (he was at least this cute.)

#6~This one is true. When I was in high school, a group of us went on a snowmobiling trip. My brother's snow mobile had lots of power, and mine was just a wimpy thing. I had a friend on the back of mine with me, and all we could do is putt-putt along. My brother promised he'd trade us when we stopped for lunch, but when we stopped, he reneged. I was mad, and another friend told me he'd hot wire my brother's machine for us if we wanted. (The funny thing is, this was a church trip. I still don't know how he acquired that particular skill.)I was so mad I didn't even think twice about it. My friend and I took off on my brother's machine, took a wrong turn and ran out of gas in a meadow. With one buffalo who made us really nervous. Another group found us and towed us into the ranger station. The ranger was really nice until he realized the snow mobile was hot wired. He wouldn't let us leave until an adult came to get us. 

 source

 

So there you have it!

I'm passing this award on to

Gina@3 Ring Cottage
She just re-did her sun room and it is awesome! Check out her dining room, too.


Diana@NanaDiana Take a Break
Food,decor,family fun and a giveaway~check her out!


Ann@The Boston Lady
Some decorating, travel, and of course, some Boston Terriers! 


Yanet@3sunkissedboys 
Photography, decorating, DIY and some of the most adorable boys!


Katie@the Copper Coconut
She's new, and she's got some skills!

Chairs in Pairs

I've told you before how I have a thing about 

#3's.

But as I was looking around my house today, I also realized I have a thing about pairs.

Pairs of chairs.

 These chairs are in our dining room.

I keep them next to the small chest in case we need some extra seats. They belonged to my husband's grandmother.

These chairs are in our TV room. No one is allowed to sit in these chairs~they're too wobbly and I haven't glued them yet. They're here just to look cute.

These chairs are in our living room. They're also for extra seating.

These chairs are also in our living room. 

They're super comfortable.

I got them from Nantuckit Furniture Company.

(great company~I'll definitely buy from them again.)

These chairs are on our patio.

(wouldn't primer have been such an excellent idea?)

What is it about putting chairs in pairs?

Fact or Fiction?

Maria from the fun blog
Bubblegum and Duct Tape

has given me this

award!

Thank you, Maria!

This is such a fun award~I have to tell you five things about myself that are outright lies, and one true thing. You try to guess which one is true. I'll let you know  Wednesday, when I'll also pass this along to 6 other bloggers. 

Let the "stories" begin!

1~I used to be a magician's assistant. It was fun, but the dove the magician used for some of his tricks would poop in my hair when we were onstage, so I quit. 

                    Source 

2~Every year I enter an apple pie in the county fair, and I always win the Judges Choice ribbon. What they don't know is this~it's a frozen Marie Callendar's pie that I just put in one of my own pretty pie plates and bake. (hey, if they can't tell the difference, they shouldn't be judging!) This year I couldn't find even one frozen pie without any cracks in the crust, so I didn't enter. 

source

3~When I quit my job as a magicians assistant, I got a short term job (short term because it was the most boring job on the planet!) modeling for an artist. Several of the paintings were nudes, and I've had people tell me that some of them are hanging in more than a few places in Idaho and Montana. I wish I could buy them all~it's a little embarrassing now that I have kids to know that there are nude paintings of me out there. I also wish I'd thought of that way back then.(sorry, there are no PG rated pictures of that!)

4~I have a tattoo directly under my sternum. (I had it done there because it was the one place I could think of that is not likely to sag much, plus, it's not out there for the whole world to see. I got it for me, not the whole world.) It's a tattoo of something I found on an antique map, similar to this but more colorful. I call it "my moral compass".

5~I am deathly afraid of heights. Something I didn't know until I was 11 years old. One of my friends talked me into spending the night in her brother's tree house. It was no ordinary tree house. It sat near the top of a huge cottonwood tree. Not wanting to look like a coward in front of her brother, I said "sure!". It was a lot of fun until I had to climb back down the next morning. Then it was awful. I froze. There I was, 30 feet in the air clinging to some railroad spikes that had been pounded into the tree for a ladder, and I couldn't move. Not a muscle. My friend's mom called the fire department to come get me down. 

 source

6~I was once detained for hot wiring a snowmobile in West Yellowstone. It was my brother's and he wouldn't give me the keys, so I just took it. I ran out of gas somewhere near Mammoth Falls and it was just me and buffalo until some other snow mobiler's found me and took me to a ranger station. 

So which one is true? Is it just one, or could it be all of them?

 

I Apologize

I had written a post that was so much fun for me to write that I didn't stop to consider that it might not be very fun for some of you to read. 

I deleted it. 

I'll rewrite it and post it on Monday.

I hope you understand. 

On to other news items.

I entered my key rack

Here 

In the DIY Monthly Project party and
I WON!

I'm so excited!

Side Table

 I decided to keep the glaze and just re-do part of the side table.

Here it is!

I don't have any really good before pictures.

I realized once I started that I needed to take some "befores", so I cheated.
(these pictures are actually the twin to this side table. They were equally beat up.)

It was really beat up.

All over.

Scratches, gouges, scrapes...

and since I don't restore~I re-vamp, I decided it needed some paint. I used Krylon spray paint in Ivory. With all the nooks and crannies and my impatient nature, spray paint was perfect for this project. I loved it until...

  I added some glaze. That was when this went from ivory to almond so fast I felt my hair blow back.

I'm still not completely sold on it.

I like it, but it isn't what I really had pictured in my head. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Maybe surprises are where it's at?

I have another one, and when I paint it I might do this one lighter on the bottom.

I do absolutely love how the top turned out. I sanded it to the bare wood and then stained it with some walnut stain. I put three coats of satin poly on it. 

This is where it will stay until I paint the other one. Maybe it will grow on me and I'll paint the other one like this one~who knows? I am starting to like it more and more.

Thanks for reading!

I'm back~and I feel like a new woman!

We had a wonderful time~in between my husband's meetings.

The stayed in a hotel where one of our daughter's friends works, and she upgraded us to a suite with a jacuzzi! 

(Thanks, Jill!)

I got to go to several new (to me) antique stores and thrift stores, and found one place that was so fun it made me wish I had thought to bring a camera with me. It was a barn PACKED with junk! I could have spent a few hours there, easily.

I didn't buy a lot,

but I did find a few things.

I found these jars for $5 each, which is cheap for Idaho. I'm going to make more soap dispensers. I thought the quart jar was a shape I hadn't seen before.

I hope to go back next time and get some of the 2 quart bottles. The lids on some of the jars looked brand new. 

I was excited to find these salt and pepper shakers. I've been looking for some larger ones to keep on the stove.

(Apparently, the theme for this trip was glass.)

Do you know what today is?

The first day of Fall!

(first 4 photos found here)

So,

 Happy

Fall

to 

 

source

 you all!

Thanks for reading!

Glaze~Is It Gross Or Good?

I worked hard on a makeover this weekend.

Everything was going really well.

Until I put the glaze on it.

I've never worked with glaze before.

I don't think I like it.
Some of it just looks gross and dirty.
I don't know if I'll re-do the whole thing, or just the part that bugs me the most. 
I like this part, though. I went over it again after I took this picture and I really like this part.

I'll be AWOL tomorrow. My husband and I are going for an overnighter out of town. 

I'll see you Wednesday!

Best Dollar Store Find EVER!

That could be an exaggeration.

But it's still pretty good.

I found this little tripod

at Dollar Tree

and it really works!

The top swivels up and down and back and forth, you can adjust the height just a little bit.

Yeah, it's kinda cheap. 

But it was also just a dollar. If it breaks, I'll spend a dollar and get another one. 

Have a fabulous weekend!

My Bedroom

Someone asked if I would mind showing you my bedroom. What the heck~it gave me the push I needed to clean it.

(should I be admitting that on the internet?)

 This is not a large room, and it's hard to get wide shots because there's no place to stand, and I don't have a wide angle lens.

But this is what you see when you first walk in.

We got this bed before I'd really figured out what I wanted. I like it, but it's a little orange for my taste. I hope I'll have a compressor and paint sprayer by next year, and then I plan to paint it.

I love the bedding, though.

I got the matelasse bedspread from Tuesday Morning.

I love the paisley pattern.

The quilt at the end of the bed and the matching pillow shams are from TJMaxx.

I was really worried about the bed looking too girly until my husband said "I like pretty things, too, you know."

I haven't worried about anything being too girly since then.

This heart shaped pillow is one I made.

It was the ring pillow for our wedding.

I got the other pillow at Walmart.

This is at the foot of our bed.

And this dresser is directly across from it.

I'd love to paint it, too.

This is my nightstand. 

It used to be a music cabinet.

The frame around this mirror used to be brown. The glass is really wavy, so I think it's old. I inherited it. The clock is from Walmart, and the lamp is from an antique store. I didn't pay a lot for it.

My husband's nightstand it just an old side table that I'd like to paint, and it's pretty beat up, so you don't get to see it. Plus, his side of the bed, umm...not up to having it's picture taken today.

But it has some cool details. I'm anxious to get it painted.

The three black framed photos are some I took in college. Two of them are just sitting in some bracket thingies that I'm pretty sure are for plates.

 These plates hang on the left wall between two windows. I think I bought them at Tuesday Morning, too.

The wall on the right is all white bead board, and pretty boring.

The closet doorway is on that wall.

I got really tired of the bedroom door and the closet door banging into each other all the time, so we took the door off and I hung these curtains. They're from Target, and they're matelasse from 

the Shabby Chic line. 

The bathroom door is to the left of that, but it's kind of boring, so no picture. I have plans for something kind of cool between the doors, but that's for another post.

I put these starfish above both doors, just for fun.

There's a full length mirror between the two doors for now, but it was impossible to get a photo without me in it, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

And last but not least,

Our country chic chandelier.

I got it from Ebay, and painted it white.

And that's our bedroom!

P.S. The paint color is called "Good Times". It's an Ace brand color.