The Little Pie Safe that Could

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I have been on the hunt for a little armoire or chest for extra storage in our bedroom.  I seem to have acquired an awful lot of clothes and things were getting a little tight in my closet.

 On Saturday, I found the PERFECT little pie safe.  Perfect size, condition, and just cute as a bug.  David was so nice to stop on his way back from Arkansas and load it up for me AND carry it upstairs.  The only thing that I didn't love (come on, you knew there would be something!) was that it was shabby chic white.  It was adorable that way, but didn't look quite right with the darker colors in our house.  I love black furniture, and already had some Martha Stewart chalk paint in beetle black, so I took the plunge and painted.  Once I had one side done, I was sure I'd make a huge mistake.  The flat black looked just awful.  But I was already committed, so I pressed on.  I let the paint dry overnight, then started distressing it with sandpaper Sunday morning.  I started to like it better.

 The picture above shows one side distressed and the other side just as it was after painting.  Deciding that I'd spent enough on this project already, I tried to use Briwax that I already had to wax it.  I tested in a small spot, and was glad that I did as that was removing the paint.  Yikes!  Back to Michael's to get the Martha Stewart clear wax that is meant to go with the chalk paint.

 That was $6 well spent.  The door on the left has been waxed, and the one on the right hasn't.  It just added a nice rich luster (without being shiny) and made it look more finished.

 Here's the finished product.  I love it more than anyone should love a piece of furniture, and am very happy with how it turned out.

 This is a close up of my favorite part.  See the little keyhole?  The distressing really brought that out.  I couldn't decide on new knobs, so I just went with plain wooden ones.  I waxed them with a brown wax, then painted the chalk paint on top before sanding to give them a worn look.  They're the least expensive knobs I've ever purchased, and just might be my favorites!

 My quest to free up closet space is complete!  I could have painted the inside, but it was clean and smelled nice like the store it came from.  Also, by the time I painted, sanded, and waxed, I was all out of energy. ;)

Happy Birthday!

In January, we were invited to David's aunt's 90th birthday party.  She is a lifelong baseball fan, and especially the Cardinals.  Her party was at the triple A ball field in Oklahoma City.  No baseball going on in January, but the club house had a great view of the quiet field.

 David's dad is on the far left, and Jo - the birthday girl - is on the far right.

 The baseball theme was perfect for this fan!

It was a fun party, and we followed it up with fried chicken at the famous Eichsen's Chicken in Okarchee, OK.

Snow Search

Hopefully all this snow is a distant memory now, but February turned out to be a snowy month!

 Riley doesn't mind a bit.  When I went out with him, he started searching for something under the snow.

 His tail was wagging just as fast as it could as he dug around in the snow.

 Pretty soon he popped up and had found the ball he'd been searching for.

I like one good snow a winter, but I'm not sad to put this winter behind us!

St. Patrick's Parade 2015

Since before I met David, he has been a devoted fan of the St. Patrick's Day parade.  It's been quite a while since he and Todd had the old firetruck in the parade, but we never miss a chance to be spectators, no matter the weather.

 I hope that our friends' kids will have fond memories of these parade days!

 Emily even got to ride a pony for a little while in the parade when a church friend spotted her.

 Best dressed St. Pat's family!

 The remote controlled scale models (which I fondly refer to as David and Todd's toy cars) were a bit hit with boys both big and small.  Colby had a pretty big grin when the controls were turned over to him!

 Derek discovered the "selfie stick" which made for a lot of pictures taken from this angle! ;)

I always enjoy this day and think of it as the beginning of spring...even though it rarely feels very spring-like. :)

Come In and Sit a Spell

Progress on the Year of the House is coming along nicely.  The gutters have been cleaned and the siding has been power washed.  The 3 dead/dying trees have been removed, stumps ground, and new trees planted - the Fremont Garden blog has more on that.

 Since last summer, we've been looking for the "just right" leather furniture to replace our couch and a chair.  I'm beyond picky, and we just never found quite what we wanted.

 Last Saturday, we just had a couple of hours to kill, so we dropped by one of the furniture stores we'd looked at before.  We wandered through the showroom, not finding much of interest.

 Then we walked through the clearance center.  I firmly believe that there is more really ugly furniture in the world than attractive furniture.  But then, there it was...

 The floor model of a set we'd looked at last summer.  Full-grain leather - the most likely to survive life with a dog.  It was not pristine, but I was okay with that since we planned to live on it not just look at it.  We came home to measure and picture what it might look like, then headed back the next day to load it up.  Thank you to Todd for helping get it moved into the house!

 We're doing our best to protect it from the critters, and so far so good.  It seems to be pretty tough and easy to clean.  A nice bonus is that the house smells like leather every time we walk in!

Outlaw Country Legend

Last fall, Willie Nelson was scheduled to play in our town but had to cancel due to illness.  I was glad - not that Willie was ill, but that the concert was rescheduled.  We couldn't make the fall concert, but we could for the spring concert! 

 I last saw him in concert 10+ years ago and was glad to see him again.  Who knows...he may still be performing in 10 more years when he'll be about 92.

The people watching was almost as good as the concert itself!  There's quite a variety of people who enjoy his music!

Spring in the Woods

Saturday we enjoyed the cool spring day with a drive in the woods with a couple of other folks.  

The recent rains meant there was plenty of water for Riley to explore - dripping off rocks and standing in pools.

One of the people with us knew the area well and showed us some neat things like this cave.

Riley took every chance he got to get his feet in the water.

Some people saw this old oil pan as a good target, but if it was just a little deeper, I thought it would make a neat planter. ;)

There were lots of little bits of wildflower color in the woods.

It was a cool but beautiful day to get out and explore!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

 It's time to get caught back up on the blog!  Stay tuned for new posts here and on the Fremont Garden blog as well.