The Corn is Knee High by the Fourth of July

Happy July everyone!  I haven't posted for a while so let's back up a bit... Missouri has had some crazy weather this Spring/Summer.  Thanks to everyone who sent text messages and called with concerns- luckily we are over 3 hours from Joplin.  My thoughts and prayers definitely go out to all those affected.  Rolla had some crazy skies the night of the storm:

My work with the Doctoral program started just as school ended so I'm getting used to life as a student again.  While classes didn't start until July- homework started May 10th.  The program is structured so that most of the reading is done before classes started- and read we did- over 800 pages in a month and a half.  Lucky for me- I read non-fiction most of the time anyway- so it was more an adjustment of scope rather than content.  Classes started last Tuesday and as soon as I finish this post, I'll be hitting the road for week two.  It is great to be back in the classroom, but it also feels like things have come full circle after putting so much energy into supporting college students in my job.  I am hoping to continue working on Friday's for the rest of the month.  This will help me keep up with projects and conserve some vacation time.

I refinished a dresser for Joe recently. We both kind of liked this piece "before", but we're certainly pleased with how it turned out "after":

The color is Better Homes and Garden "Seafoam" and I just rolled it on with a foam roller.  We also switched out the hardware and ta-dah-  Joe finally has a place for his socks!

Speaking of Joe- he has been worked pretty hard on the lawn this Spring. He actually did the majority of our landscaping in one day.  I was shocked to say the least when I came home to find all or our flower beds lined with boulders and some new mulched beds put in to cover up the old carport foundation.  We also planted some vegetables which haven't fared so well in the ground... my late Grandpa Julias would be sad to see our corn was NOT knee high by the fourth of July- too much shade!  However, our topsy turvy planters have proved to be more fruitful!  Here are some of the goods I'll be eating this week in class:

My parents made a trip down to visit last weekend.  We shot off fireworks and went on a float trip down the Huzzah River.  Here we are- having a good time!

Last, but not least- it's my baby girl's birthday today- she's 1!  To celebrate, Stella played outside in the backyard, ate a can of catfood, AND got to eat a little bit of birthday Twinkie!  Here she is- having a great day:

 

Carl was happy to help out with the Twinkie!

Katie's Pick: American Beauty Quick Cook Pasta

Holy Moly- it's May!  And I need to update this blog!  Well friends and family- today I come to you with a new series- Katie's Pick!  I plan to use this series to share a few of my favorite things!  If Oprah does it, why can't I?  Let's be clear though- you will not be winning anything.  Sorry.  I'm bad at mailing things in a timely fashion.  Bills and birthday cards taunt me for at least a week before they find their way to mailbox.  Anyway- I digress.  Here is my first favorite thing!

American Beauty's Quick Cook Pasta!

I'm a girl that loves having dinner parties!  At these parties two things normally happen:
1. I make something I had never tried to make before.
2. Our hyperactive smoke alarm goes off, albeit smoke.  It once went off when I was just boiling water.

Between the stress of not screwing up my  new recipes and our bleeping smoke alarm, a girl can only manage so much.  For this reason, I really and truly love American Beauty Quick Cook Pasta.  Why?  Because it cooks in 3 minutes.  Not 7.  Isn't that amazing?  Add some pesto or sundried tomato sauce and wow- what a fabulous side dish.

If you want to try it- here is a link to a coupon:  http://americanbeauty.newworldpasta.com/quickcook/ 
Random sidenote- have you seen Extreme Couponing on TLC?  If I had a coupon stockpile, it would totally include the quick cook pasta.  And cat treats.  And razors.  And Powerade Zero.  I am not sure I can commit to stockpiling anything else at this time.

More Cheap Tricks: Homemaker's Edition

We bought a house a few months ago and it has been SO much fun doing projects and making it our own!  One of the first things I knew I wanted to do was install a tin ceiling in the guest bedroom.  My favorite coffee shop back home in Minnesota had a purple tin ceiling that really made the joint.  Our house kind of reminds me of that place- antique/ artsy/ shabby chic.    So a tin ceiling was a must.  They are so pricey though... who can spend over a grand on a ceiling when there are cats to feed.  I decided on a faux technique I found on the internet.  Initially, when I ran this by Joe, he looked at me like this...

and said- that's a project.  You have fun with that.  Lucky for me, I've been known to seize fabulous opportunities when they slap me in the face. Early in the ayem one fine snow day- the fine fella got on board with my plan:)  Never underestimate the power of a captive audience- emphasis on captive- hehe:)  Here's what we did:

1. Selected a ceiling to tin.  Removed light fixture:

2..Purchased Allen and Roth Paintable Wallpaper, Pattern:  Ceiling Tile. 
3. Covered the floor in with plastic drop cloths and soaked the prepasted wallpaper using this thingy:

3.For the next four or so hours we stood on these contraptions with our arms above our heads sticking and smoothing the wallpaper sheets:

We started out using really big sheets.  But- these proved to be more trouble than they were worth.  We begin cutting smaller squares and putting them up faster.  Here we are in progress:

5.  Finally- we finished! 

6. Over the next few days- half of the paper fell down- oh dear! We bought a bottle of boarder paste, which is technically used for hanging wallpaper boarders as well as a few tubes of seam repair.  This stuff did the trick.  Nobody ever said wallpapering a ceiling would be easy- not even me. 
7. Next, I ordered some paint off of Ebay.  I used Roman's Paintable Wallpaper Coating in Silver.  They used to sell this stuff at Lowe's, but I believe the product itself has been discontinued.  Hence the reason I ordered it off of Ebay.  USPS- pay no attention to this blog post... is it legal to mail paint?  My guess would be not-so-much, but I'm not totally sure. I applied the paint using a medium texture roller.  I ran out of paint and had to order a second can off of Ebay.  Nobody ever said this project would be a quick one either! 
So- here we are- the final product:

Overall- this was a heckuva project!  I might do one more glaze over the top to bring out the detail... we'll see!  For now- I'm happy enough to leave it alone! 

Cheap Tricks: Runner's Edition

I'm getting ready to run my 3rd half marathon this Spring.  If you're a distance runner- I would love to hear about your crazy tricks!  Here are a few of mine...

1.  Nasal Decongestant:  When I lived in MN, I ran in cold weather quite often.  The cold often caused my nasal passage to get blocked.  On a few scary occasions, when I was miles from a water source, I ate some snow out of the ditch to clear my throat.  This works.  What works even better is two nasal decongestant tablets prior to a long run.  I recommend this for any long distance you plan to run in chilly weather.
2.  Peanuts, Popcorn:  These aren't just for baseball spectators.  Salty snacks the night before a long run will keep you hydrated the next day.  I picked this tip up from a lady I used to work with.  She, her husband, and her son have done dozens of marathons.  Anyone that has ever run a long distance knows the amount of sodium your body loses during a long run.  I can see it and brush it off my arms and my face.  If you think is loopy talk, you can read more about this here:  http://www.runtheplanet.com/trainingracing/nutrition/salt.asp
3.  Forgo the "out and back" route by using public transportation:  I have to admit, a lot of my running routes have been out and back type of patterns.  The trouble with these is the temptation to give up before you really get "out".  To avoid this "give up" option, make a plan to run somewhere and then take the bus home.  I find it easier to follow through when you're not constantly tempted to alter the route.  I have to caution you against using this trick without checking the weather though:  I got really cold and wet on one occasion.
4.Vasaline:  To avoid "skin burns" or discomfort due to friction:  Vasaline does the trick.  I put this on the inside of my arms above my elbows.
5. Tunes:  Music will keep you moving and make your run more fun.  It's funny when I think back to running with a personal CD player not too many years ago.  I had to replace the batteries every time I went to the gym.  God bless Steve Jobs and the IPod- it changed my life.  I get new music all the time and I'll listen to whatever I just bought on repeat until I start to hate it a little.  If you're looking for some good music, I recommend downloading Girl Talk "Feed the Animals" and "All Day" albums. These are free albums that are made up of all kinds of songs that are mixed together.  Think The Jackson 5., playing on top of a Black Eyed Peas song, with a guitar riff transition from the Grateful Dead.  It's a brilliant hodge podge and the best running music I have ever had. 
6. Training Plans:  Hal Higdon is where it's at.  Everyone I know that runs uses his training plans.  You can find Hal here:  http://www.halhigdon.com/
7.  Caffeine:  I hate running in the morning.  But, road races mostly take place during this time. When I drag myself out of bed for these, I drink something with caffeine + cereal.  I always end up going back to bed after races- which is annoying to me, but anyway...
8.   Running buddy:  I used to think I wasn't a chatty runner:  but it turns out, I am, as long as the other person is too.  I can't maintain a constant stream of talking.. but taking turns telling stories makes a run go by pretty quick.
9.  Roadblocks:  For non-Runners or Beginners:  I used to think I hated running... turns out I hate sprinting.  Some people confuse the two.  If you feel like you want to die while you're running, you need to take it down a notch and work your way up to something quicker.  For Beginners/Intermediate:  Never run less than 2 miles.  The first two miles is always the hardest.  You need to tough it out to mile 3.  At this point, enough time has passed that you body has both warmed up and muscles have naturally numbed themselves.  Enjoy the buzz.
10.  Mind- Body Connection: Your mind comes up with amazing thoughts and novel ideas while you're running.   When you're running, you have nothing better to do but to figure out your life.  Realizing this will make running your addition, but also your therapy.

Anyone else have a crazy running trick? 

Sweet December

Hello all!  I must say it's been a while!  Life has been pretty crazy for the past month or so! I had a birthday- 27th ride around the sun!  The same week we packed up our apartment and then I headed to a conference at the Lake of the Ozarks Wed-Fri.  I got back to town on Friday afternoon just in time to close on our new house!  The next day we moved (in the rain).  Thank you to Marty, Candice, Mike, and Tiffany- you guys were such a big help!  We dove right into unpacking and doing house projects.  I painted our bedroom that first night.  I was so excited- I was painting until 1 in the morning!  The next work week was crazy because the semester was wrapping up.  But we got more work done on the house each night.  We ordered pretty much all of our furniture on-line- so we came home almost every day to huge packages on the front porch. Between couches and Christmas cards- I feel as if the mail fairies have truly blessed us recently.  Next we headed down to South Carolina to spend Christmas with Joe's family.  We had a great time and we even got an unexpected white Christmas.  Now were back in Rolla and things are slowing down just a bit.  My family was planning to come down this past weekend, but they didn't make it due to the blizzards up North.  I'm sure something else will pan out for us soon though! Now for a list of everything we've accomplished so far and some pictures!

1.Painted the bedroom- Valspar "Bear Claw" (Terracotta Orange)
2.Put shelf paper in the antique bedroom furniture I refinished this past fall
3.Painted the basement Valspar  "Porcelain Shale" (Charcoal Gray)
4.Insulated the attic
5.Created electric outlets in the basement (so we could hang the tv on the wall without all the cords showing)
6.Installed a porch light- there wasn't one before- just naked light bulbs, hanging out
7.Installed a new kitchen faucet- our old one was was installed backwards and it drove us crazy. We figured if we were going to reinstall something, it might as well be something we liked.
8.Made, painted, installed custom shelving in the basement for all the stereo/video game stuff
9.Refinished a coffee table for the basement (we brought this back inside a LITTLE too soon- it has little kitty footprints on it now- opps.  I think it adds character.  But- maybe we'll fix it in the Spring)
10.Painted the living room Valspar Gourd.  The shade was a lot darker than I thought it would be. I was not happy. So- my smart husband asked the Google gods "how to lighten paint" and I ended up following their advice:)   More about that later.
11Textured the ceiling in the basement and painted it white.
12.Cleaned.  A lot. The last owners had 3 dogs, one of which shed a lot of black hair. All over the place.

I think that's it. A home is a lot of work!  But- we love working- ergo, so far, so wonderful!

Alrighty- what to do when you paint your walls and you're not happy... Here's my before shot. I wanted gold... it seems I made a stop over at orange juice...

My remedy involved a trip to Lowe's.  I am starting to feel like some sort of regular in that store- they're getting to know me there!  Anyway... I purchased a can of interior faux finish... same stuff I used for the bedroom set redo:

This time I had it tinted "Gypsy Gold".  This color is about 10 shades lighter that my base coat "Gourd".  I also got a special paint brush that is used for Tuscan faux finishing.  You can find these by all the faux finish pamphlets at Lowes. Next, I taped off all the trim just as if I was going to repaint the room.  Then, the fun part, painting random X's all over the walls, working side to side, overlapping as I went.   When each wall was complete, I went back and blended the X's with a wet flour sack dish towel.  The results...

Much better!  It was a good mistake to make because I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Alrighty- pictures of one other thing I don't think anyone has seen in our house...

There's a little workshop.  Which is great for this handy man...

I think he looks pretty happy:)

Got a blog? Get free cards!

Shutterfly is offering bloggers 50 free 5X7 greeting cards this Christmas.  Check out the offer here.  We used Shutterfly for our cards last year and I was really happy with how they turned out! In fact, they looked like this !

Here are a few new Christmas Card designs that I think are pretty cute:
Most Wonderful Time of the Year
It's a Wonderful Life
Oh Holy Night

Shutterfly also offers other cute personalized goods such as

• wall calendars 
• personalized mugs 
• valentines cards

Head on over to Shutterfly to check it all out!

Joe and I chose Shutterfly last year because I wanted a photo card and Joe wanted a card that would fold like the traditional style card. They offered us a happy compromise. I don't think we'll start doing a Christmas letter...yet! I look forward to writing one of those someday though! With all the ages of our children and what they have been up to- that will be so fun.

It's funny to think how much has changed since we sent our our last card! We both have new jobs, we found Stella, we've moved once, and now we're moving again into our first house!

Better After!

Since we just bought a house we are working on collecting some furniture.  Joe and I have spent the last 8-9 years living in furnished apartments and dorm rooms so all we have we really have is a  plethora of book shelves, a mattress, and a box spring.  We have a ways to go.  This is why, I decided to peruse, Rollanet!  It turns out our fellow Rollaonians have boycotted Craig's List... in favor of Rolla Net:.  I wish I would have realized this about a year ago... I have spent a fair amount of time searching Craig's List in vain for anything on sale within a hundred miles of Rolla. Go figure- I was recently clued in on Rolla's preferred on-line classifieds server, so on we go... I purchased the following bedroom set... there are 5 pieces total.  Apparently I didn't get a before picture of all the pieces...

Nice and sturdy- but just a little too 1985 for my taste!  Using the process described here:  Here's what I did to amend this...

Step One:  Remove the hardware:

Step 2:  Apply 2 coats of primer.  I used Kilz Odorless Spray Primer.  This dries in about one hour.

Step 3:  Apply 3 coats of paint.  I used Valspar Interior Exterior Gloss in Antique White.  This dries in about 20 minutes.

Step 3:  Using a paint brush, apply a thin coat of Valspar Interior Faux Finish.  This finish needs to be tinted when you buy it.   I had it tinted "New Black" at Lowe's.  The finish is painted on with a paint brush and then wiped off with a damp cloth.   This finish makes all the etching in this set pop out. 

Step 4:  I spray painted the hardware an oil rubbed bronze. Here's how it all panned out... I don't have an after picture of mirror that goes on top of the long dresser.  It's done... it's just currently crammed away in the townhouse! 

Whew!  I'm pretty happy with it!  However, I don't think I will ever feel the need to spray paint anything ever again...  If you're interested in trying this method I recommend a trip to this blog for more instructions and inspiration:  All Things Thrifty by Brooke.