frosted glass, a DIY

I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about a few things at my house, so I decided to get busy and do some DIY projects today. I haven’t been motivated in forever to do these little things until I read a new blog, Shanty 2 Chic, and boy have I ever been inspired!

When we redid our kitchen a few years ago, the contractor told me that I just had to have some cabinet doors with glass in them, so I could put pretty things behind it. Well, that is all fine and good, but over the years, I’ve realized I needed that area for storage more than for pretty things. And looking through that glass has been quite an eyesore for a while now. See…

All the pretty stuff had been moved out of the way in favor of practical things. Well I certainly don’t mind practicality,but it bothered me every time I looked through the glass of that one cabinet. (there is glass on the other side as well as this cabinet hangs over the bar peninsula area)

I knew I wanted to change things, but couldn’t decide exactly how. I thought about lining the glass with fabric leftover from when I made the curtains, but then I couldn’t decide the easiest best way to go about that. Velcro? no. Mounting it onto foam core and wedging it in place? no. Nothing sounded easy or practical enough for me. And also the fabrics are pretty dark and I didn’t want to make those doors seem dark and heavy.

I was stuck.

Until I went to Home Depot and Lowes and Walmart this morning in search of some spray paint for a couple more projects. That’s when I found IT.

So I bought some! In the garage I had some old entertainment center doors from a hundred years ago, so I practiced on one of those to see if I could do it to my satisfaction. And thankfully, YES I CAN! Here is the practice door.

I forgot to take pics of the door with painters tape and sale flyers around the edges to protect the wood. But it worked great! It looks better in person than it does in this photo. So, since I figured I could do it without totally messing up my nice cabinet doors or the glass, I had hubby take down both the cabinet doors and I got busy prepping them.

I didn’t want to take the doors out until they were ready to spray. I needed to get the edges protected and then clean the glass very well. So I did all of this on the kitchen table with a thick throw under the door, to protect the door and the table. It also slid around easily while I was working on it. Bonus!

Here is one of them drying (on the recycle bin) after I took the sale flyers and paint tape off. We don’t even get the paper, so I had to rummage through the mail today to find something to cover the wood with. (I think it’s a bit funny that I used Lowe’s sale flyers but bought my spray stuff at Home Depot! LOL)

Here it is all finished! The glass isn’t completely obscured, but you can’t read the labels either. And light can still travel through, which was important to me. I think it turned out great. And it was pretty easy too. Even *I* could do it!

**small note** This product doesn't etch the glass. It just adds a frosted film to the glass. I can use the proper solvent and restore it's original look.

don’t just sing it

Sometimes I think about verses that sound beautiful… I might even sing a song with that verse in it…and yet sometimes I don’t stop and think much about what the words mean.

I read a post about this verse today and it got me to thinking.

Ps 24:3-4.  Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
         And who may stand in His holy place?
⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
         Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood…”

One of the points about this post was the idea that we like the idea of confession and repentance more than the practice of confession and repentance.  And it hit me like a ton of bricks just how true that is.

I know He wants to forgive… and that He is forgiving… but very often I don’t do anything about it.  I’ll think about my sin and think that is enough.  Or be sorry for my sin and not confess it.  Or even pray around the sin and still not confess it.  Many times around this point I feel better because I feel like I’ve acknowledged the offense in my own heart and yet I haven’t truly confessed it.  And there are so many ways I am a repeat offender…and I still don’t stop and realize I didn’t “just make a mistake” or something.  I sinned. 

It’s hard to confess sin, even to someone close to me, even when I know they’re going to give me a hug and tell me they love me anyway.  But sometimes it’s also hard to confess things to God. Why?  After all, He’s going to do more than hug me and tell me it’s ok (which hello, sin isn’t ‘ok’ anyway). He is going to forgive my sin. I think that’s something I can get a little umm.. casual about.  The fact that I need actual forgiveness.  But the difficult thing is… the more I need forgiveness, the more my flesh tells me I’m ok.  And that darkens my heart to the life that God wants to be in me.  And hardens me to His calling out and wooing to bring me back to Himself.  

But in those times, I just can’t see it (sometimes).  Or I can’t see Him, would be more accurate. Why??? Because my heart is not pure! 

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

I feel like I’ve been flipping and flopping around for a little while and neglecting a fundamental and yet all important aspect of my walk with Him… confession. 

It’s beautiful to sing it and let it’s words flow through my mind, but more difficult to pray it and let it break my heart and change me and be the death of me, so to speak.  But it’s so good when it does.

some of you have asked

I made a small scrapbook a few years ago. I had the empty book on hand and stumbled upon some pics of the little mister in happy, healthier days. I think I had gotten these pics ready for something for church… Toddler of the Week maybe. But anyway, they already had borders on them and were screaming to be placed somewhere, so I made a little book. And since some of you have asked to see pics of him, here are a few of them. And yes, I’m lame so I just took the pages out of the protective sleeves and took pics of them, since I have no idea how to do the scan thing start to finish without help. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes.. the pics!

Here he is a just a few days old. (this pic has always done weird things to his coloring, but it’s so peaceful and sweet. one of my all time faves)

Showing he can sleep just about anywhere… but of course, that phase is short lived. Look at those chubby cheeks… well those chubby everything!

At the park as a toddler. We had a great park that had plenty of room for moms and dads to climb and walk along with their little ones. Both kids loved it there when they were small!

Smiling on the couch in sister’s hot pink sunglasses. What a mouth full of teeth he seemed to have overnight!

Cute as… a button of course! We got him this little chewy thing one weekend on a trip and he clearly loved it! Kinda reminded us of a dog toy, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. LOL

Chowing on some birthday cake. YUM! I’m thinking that was his first birthday.

Another birthday… dad holding his hands so he didn’t touch the candles! When we’d tell him to ‘blow’, he would put his lower lip out and end up blowing right up his nose! Not so great for blowing out candles!

I love this picture! I can see his pretty face and his chubby little legs and feet. He didn’t like to go barefooted, so I don’t have many pics of his feet. So cute!

Playing outside with big sister, Boo the summer before he got sick.

Oh how I wish we had of been ‘digital’ during those years!

stating the obvious

I was sitting on the floor in the living room the other day,  watching the cat.  She wasn’t doing much, so I thought she might like to play.  I had just vacuumed and all her toys were gathered and dumped on top of the hearth… which I just so happened to be leaning on. How convenient! So I thought I’d toss her a few pompoms to see if she might like to play. 

I’m thinkin’ maybe she ain’t in the mood! 

Oh…she’s getting up.. maybe she’s going to play a little now.

Nope. It’s not looking good.

Random Dozen # 5

So here are this week’s Random  Dozen questions from Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee. I did it week before last, but skipped last week.  I’d say it was a combination of being too busy to sit and blog and not having a clue how to answer most of the questions. But for the sake of me not sounding lame, let’s just stick with the busy thing, k?

 

 

1. On an average, how often do you splurge and buy something for yourself?  It depends. If you mean big stuff… I have to think about it forever and then fiiinally one or both of us will take the plunge. I want to have a ring made from one I found, but cha-ching, so it will probably be a while on that.  But there are little things, like buy a book on clearance or something that I’ll do just for funzies.

2. What is the last creative project you began/finished?  I made myself a skirt the other day.

3. OK, Goldie Locks, do you consider your house too big, too little or juuuust right? We live in a pretty small house, so never too big.  Most of the time I think it is just right, but when it comes to storage, very often, I think it is too small!

4. What is your favorite outdoor chore? Coming in the house.  I’m not a very outdoor’y kinda girl.

5. If you knew that cigarette smoking was not bad for your health but would be a weight loss tool, would you use it? Why or why not? No. Because it smells and makes you have bad breath.  (don’t mean to offend… just callin’ it like I see it) Having asthma wouldn’t help that situation either.

6. On a road trip, would you rather drive or ride? I like to ride. In all the years we’ve been married, I have never taken a turn.  I love to talk and watch and sleep and play wireless network Nintendo DS with the kid in the back seat. : )  Also hubs gets motion sick if he’s not behind the wheel.  That’s my excuse and I”m stickin’ with it! : )

7. What do you consider a trivial pursuit?  Hmm, I dunno what you mean by that, really.

8. This weekend, we downloaded the movie "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Within 5 minutes, I was bored and annoyed, but I kept watching 5-10 minutes at a time hoping it would get better between small chores. I finally gave up and Jorge watched it alone, and then regretted wasting that time because he disliked it intensely, too. So ... how long do you watch a movie or read a book before giving up on it? It depends. If the movie/show is violent or gross or otherwise ‘nasty’, I’m a goner pretty quick.  I’m pretty choosey about books anyway and don’t read that many, so I usually stick with whatever I’ve picked out to read. But I can’t say that I read for just pleasure anyway.. there has to be a purpose in what I”m reading, so that is also a reason I will stick it out.

 
9. Is there a song that you really love but are embarrassed to admit because it's not cool or it's racy or because it's by Hall and Oates?  Crud, I don’t even know who Hall and Oates are! But I like a bunch of old John Denver stuff.  So! To answer your question, no. 

10. On a scale of 1-10 (10 = extremely) how spontaneous are you?  5

11. Are you a food and/or beverage snob? YES.  I will only drink bottled water. We get RO (reverse osmosis) water from ‘the water store’ in town and I have 3 five gallon jugs to fill every time I go.  To me, tap water tastes like dirt. Literally. And I can’t stand those little pitcher filter thingies either… I can taste that charcoal flavor and it just isn’t pleasant!

12. Who/What are you trying to control in your life? My mouth! LOL Which includes what I say and what I eat.

To see how random others are being or to play along click the links at the top of this post. Happy Random-ness to you all! : )

Buzz Lifeyear

We’ve been seeing the ads for Toy Story One AND Two in 3D. We loved TS 1. So much so that we bought it when it came out on video… not dvd….yes girls, that was back in the olden days. And when TS 2 came out, we took one or both of the kids to see it. I can’t even remember at this point. I want to say it was both, but he would have been pretty young at that point.

But whether he saw it at the theater or not, he would become very very familiar with it! It was one of the movies they played constantly on hospital tv. Over and over. Did I mention it played a lot?!

We have many stories about watching this movie. My hubby reminded me of one of them last night. One weekend we were inpatient for chemo and I had gone home for something and they brought him some lunch. It was spaghetti. And he ate it all. That is the only meal he EVER ate at the hospital. And he did it while he watched TS 2.

Another time we were in clinic and it was playing. I was watching this sweet, beautiful, vibrant, teenaged young lady and her mother watching the movie together. It came to the line that says something like “we know who you are, Wooooood-EEEEE” and the mother and daughter were lip syncing that line to each other and giggling. I giggled at/with them and we chatted a bit about watching the movie all. the. time. at the hospital. (This amazing girl lost her battle too. I found out about it on the news and it broke my heart into a million little pieces. I hardly knew them.. just their faces… but that’s just it.. I couldn’t forget her mom’s face.)

And strangely enough, we also chose to watch the movie at home…even when no one was twisting our arm. We just liked it! And Bub especially loved watching it at home because he liked to act out the Buzz Lightyear intro thing near the start of the movie. We tried to get it on video, but were never able to capture it. He would do these little runs up and down the hall and these little body rolls and it was just hilarious! And what made it even funnier was that he called him Buzz LIFEYEAR instead of Lightyear. Cracked us up… in that cute little toddler/preschooler way. I so wish we had that on video now.

To infinity eternity and beyond, sweet boy.

don’t save the date

I’ve been out and about today and goodness gracious! People are in a fowl mood everywhere. I guess I didn’t get the memo that it was National I’m mad as heck and I’m not gonna take it any more Day. Wowwy!

I went out with the hubby to get a flu shot and another lady in line was raking the pharmacy tech over the coals because something had been overlooked. She was NOT happy and she went on and on and on.. while we waited and waited and waited.

And then I went to the grocery store and a man in there was fussing out a young man working there about some sort of pricing issue he was having on a CLEARANCE table and demanding to see the manager and going on and on. Pu-leeeze!

There is just so much stress in the world right now. So many are jobless or feel the threat of joblessness looming. People are trying to live on less. People are worried about this H1N1 flu that’s beginning to run rampant. There is just a lot goin’ on.

I have been feeling the stress myself, especially regarding this flu stuff. I’ve read every report about it and have been mentally counting down the days until hopefully the vaccine becomes available. And those with asthma, like moi, have been pushed a tad further down the list.

A part of me just wants to stock up the freezer, roll up the sidewalks and not go anywhere until I/we can get vaccinated. Home school wouldn’t be so bad, would it? I don’t think we’d become stir crazy after a day or two month and a half, would we? We could just think like a snow day for about six weeks. Sounds pretty unappealing, huh?!

I dunno though. I still might cut back to just one grocery store visit per week instead of the two or more I do right now. And since I’m not much of a ‘shopper’, cutting out that sort of thing isn’t that hard. Hmmm maybe I could survive a time of being ‘out’ less. What about you?

**Guess I should add here that YES, I am quite the hand sanitizer girl. A squirt here, a squirt there, everywhere a squirt squirt!