Stained dining table

  

Before (oak table from Craig’s list)

  
After (stained with general finishes gel stain in java)

  
Chairs spray painted using 3 steps

1) primer

2) spray paint

3) clear coat

My first “really big” project

We had a round glass table in our kitchen which is not very kid-friendly. I was looking for a slightly bigger table where the kids would have more room to spread things out but also something durable. I found an oval oak table on Craig’s list and decided to stain it. Here are a few pictures. It seemed like a daunting task but I just got some ideas from Pinterest. People recommend General Finishes gel stain which I ordered from Amazon. I will post more pics later with the chairs as well. I didn’t have the energy to stain the chairs because they are farmhouse style chairs and I thought working around the spindles would just be too much.  The chairs just got spray painted white.

Resolve carpet cleaner to clean grout

I have been wanting to clean the grout between our kitchen tiles for the longest time. I saw some concoctions on Pinterest using baking soda and vinegar, some using hydrogen peroxide and some using ammonia!  Yuck!  I would prefer not to use ammonia just because of the smell. As you can imagine it seemed quite a tedious process so it’s no surprise I kept putting it off.  Then I saw a pin using Resolve carpet cleaner. I decided to give it a try and it really worked. Just spray, wait 5 minutes and scrub with a brush. Wipe away with a cloth right after brushing. Although it would be nice to try the more natural approach using the baking soda but this is good if you want a quick remedy!

Garage sale glider makeover

You know those beige corduroy covered cushions a lot of gliders have? Well I forgot to take a before picture but I got this glider from a garage sale and yes it had beige corduroy cushions. They were not too bad but a little beat up. I just picked up this scrap of material for another project but I used it for the glider instead. It’s not my favorite print but it will do for now.

Oh and I almost forgot the most important part…they’re no sew cushion covers. I just used “Fabric Fuse”!  You can get it at any fabric store.

Copycat KFC Recipe

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken or chicken legs and thighs

1-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1-1 1/2 tsp salt

1-1 1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder 

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or red chili flakes

1 tsp oregano

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

oil for frying

1) Mix all dry ingredients

2) Mix egg and milk and whisk

3) Dip chicken pieces in egg

4) Dip in seasoning and coat all around. Shake off excess

5) Fry chicken in oil

6) bake in 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes

Flylady’s Rubba Scrubba

We recently went to a farm for a picnic and of course…it started raining!  We still enjoyed ourselves but things got a little muddy. The inside of the car was a mess! I was dreading having to clean everything. Today was a sunny day so I thought I would just hose the shoes down on the driveway but it didn’t really work too well. There was still mud and grass stuck to the bottoms of the shoes. I used my hands a little bit but that was kind of gross!  I tried a rag which just seemed to smear everything around. Then I remembered I had this rubba scrubba brush that I ordered from http://www.flylady.net

I scrubbed the shoes under running water and it was great because the rubba scrubba is gentle enough that I wasn’t worried about ruining the shoes and it did the job of getting the mud off. I would recommend having one (or 2 or 3 even) around the house. I think there are endless uses for it. 

 

DIY mail sorter

Use foam board (I got mine at Walmart near the craft items), fabric scraps and a glue gun

DIY Glitter Vases

I bought these clear glass vases from Dollar Tree and painted them using Martha Stewart Multi-surface glitter paint. It took several coats to get it opaque but I’m happy with the results. I’d like to try using the acrylic paints (without glitter) using some bright spring colors!

Not a bad deal…$1 for the vase and one bottle of paint costs about $2 on sale.

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My never-ending laundry pile just keeps getting bigger!