Happy New Year

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. 

Benjamin Franklin

Dutch Boy Paint Review

A few weeks ago, Dutch Boy Paint 

was kind enough to send me a fan deck of all their paint colors. I chose the color and finish I wanted, and they sent me two gallons of satin wall paint. The color I chose is called "Spectacular".

(It's tough to get a picture that shows the color accurately, but it's a very soft blue gray. My son said it might as well be white since it's such a light color. But that was on purpose. We don't get a lot of natural light since we added the porch on the front of our house. The rest of the house has all northern exposure.)

First of all, I LOVE the container it comes in!  

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It has a pour spout, the lid screws on tight. Since it's all plastic, the lid won't rust, either.

It's also nice paint! One reason I usually don't paint in the winter is because of the smell. It's too cold to open the windows to air things out. But this paint has very little odor, so we didn't need to air anything out. I can't smell any paint at all and I only painted yesterday. 

This paint is formulated to eliminate household odors, but I haven't really tested that out. Maybe I'll cook some fish later and let you know. I just know that the paint itself doesn't have much of an odor.

It rolled on smoothly, but did take two coats. That might be my fault more than the paint. When we first painted this wall about 4 years ago, we had two days to get it done before our oldest daughter's wedding. So we threw on one coat of primer (and it wasn't very good primer) and one coat of paint. We didn't have time to do more.

So I think if we'd done a better job with the primer the first time, I could have just done one coat of Dutch Boy Paint and it would have been OK. 

So overall, my opinion is this. If you want a low odor paint with good coverage and a bazillion color choices, this is your paint!

Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer~Although Dutch Boy did provide the paint free of charge, all the opinions are mine. 

2011, Part 2

Here are the last 6 months of 2011.

July

August

September

October

November

December

And that's it!

2011

  As I was looking through my archives for this past year, I decided to put together my favorites from 2011.

 January 

February

March

April

May

And because June was SO busy, I chose more than one.

       1                  2                  3

                     4                  5                  6

But this little baby was by far the best thing about June! And if we're very lucky, she'll be bringing her parents by for a visit tonight. 

Thanks for reading! 

De-Christmasing

How was your Christmas? Mine was amazing.

Seriously the best day.

I got an awesome tripod, 

(just like this one only black)

so you might not have to put up with wobbly photos anymore! 

But as great as the gifts were, they were secondary to spending a wonderful day with my family. 

Now all that's left is the annual 

de-Christmasing.

When do you do that? Do you just do it whenever you get around to it, or do you do it on a specific day?

Thanks for reading!

Christmas City, USA

This is my town. We're all so proud. 

I had planned to keep blogging all week, but I can see that's just not going to work out. 

So I'm taking a week off. 

I still have so much to do before Christmas!

Merry ChristmaS!

Summer Sausage

I used to love Hickory Farm's summer sausage. Then I found a recipe in a church cookbook 

(the very best kind of cookbook, in my opinion.)

and realized that there's something better. I make this at Christmas time; I like to give this to friends and family who don't like sweets.

This is what you'll need.

I'd never heard of Tender Quick before this recipe. I found it on the same shelf in the grocery store as the  table salt. 

These ingredients

 plus garlic salt. 
(no, that's not my garlic salt. I used all mine and threw the shaker away before I remembered to get a picture. I mean, I love you guys, but I'm not digging the garbage for you! There are limits!)

And of course, hamburger.

It's really pretty simple. It turned out on the first try.

Summer Sausage

2 Tbsp. Morton's Tender-Quick

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp onion salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp. liquid smoke

2 lbs. ground meat (You can use ground game meat, and I don't know why ground turkey wouldn't work, too. I've never tried it, though, so I can' guarantee how that will work out)

Mix all the ingredients well. Divide into 3 equal parts (I divide it into two parts). Roll into a log and cover with aluminum foil. (Think tightly wrapped Tootsie roll.)

Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Poke holes

right through the aluminum foil and place the sausage, hole side down, on a roaster pan.

Bake at 350F for 1 1/2 hours.

Refrigerate before serving. 

I like to remove the foil right after baking and roll it into new foil after it cools a little. 

It's really good with sharp Cheddar cheese.

Also, I changed things up a little with the 

white chocolate popcorn.

Add red and green M&M's instead of peanuts. I mean, really! Who wouldn't rather have an M&M than a peanut? Just add a little salt to the melted chocolate. 4 or 5 dashes ought to do it. 

Thanks for reading!

I'm Not Home

I'm guest blogging for the fabulous Cassie today at

 

Stop by and say hi

Endless Possibilities

See what I found?

Yes!! The possibilities are endless....

From this wonderful blog

source

Endless, I tell you!

The only thing I absolutely won't do, is leave it the same color.

That might possibly be the most hideous shade of brown ever made.

I'm so excited!

Are You Up For A Game?

It's called "What would you do with this?".

I found a new junk place, and these were outside. I have no idea what they are, but I thought they were kind of cool. I just don't have a clue what I'd do with it if I did buy one. Or three.

So.

What would you do with a 12 foot long wire tube-like thing?

Also, I'd like to thank Knock-off Decor for featuring my tripod lamps! Being featured NEVER gets old!

And The Winner Is...

 #23,

who said

23. Anonymous said...

I liked Shabby Apple on Facebook even though I love Shabby Apple. Coincidentally I <3 this dress!

Merry Christmas :)

scrabble_nerd77@rocketmail.com

Please email me with your size and mailing address!

Last Chance

To enter the Shabby Apple giveaway.

The winner will be announced tomorrow!

(tutorial for origami stars)

Have a great weekend!

I Know You've Seen Them Before

But you haven't seen mine!

(my jewelry organizer, I mean.)

This is where I've been keeping my jewelry. I've had that jewelry box since I was about 7.

Yup. It's all an embarrassing mess. Is it any wonder that I just don't accessorize much? 

So I took an old frame 

and spray painted it white.

Then I took

some sheet metal that was left over from our last project, and

the very last scraps of tongue and groove planks. Also painted white. I used

these glass knobs from my friend Dagmar. She gave me 8 of them, for no other reason than she's one of the nicest people on the planet.

They're old, they have some paint on them; some are chipped. In short, they're absolute perfection! (thank you, Dagmar!)

I just glued the planks in using

my trusty and well used glue gun. I made sure the groove side went up

so that the sheet metal would fit into the groove. That solved the "how do I trim it out so it looks finished" dilemma. 

 Then I screwed the knobs into place.
So I had a place to hang necklaces, bracelets and earrings that have hooks. But what about things that won't hang?

Yes. That is a soap dish. It is a tad vintage, crooked and rusty.

But it works!

 To hang my organizer, I just used another knob and a long drywall screw. I found the middle of the sheet metal, and drilled it all into place. It gives me one more place to hang things.

 There's NO wobble on this thing! It's staying put.

The earrings stay put. In pairs, even.

 The bracelets and necklaces stay put. They're easy to find and easy to put away.

And, I have room for more!

Thanks for reading!


Don't forget to enter my giveway!