Friends.

So last night I am getting ready for bed and my dad sends me a text.  He is getting used to his new iPhone so I couldn't really make out what it said.  But right the text I couldn't understand, he sent me this picture:

And then I realized it said "I am on the Friends set."

Of course I started FLIPPING OUT.  If you know me at all you know that my obsession with "Friends" runs quite deep... I have watched every episode on TV a gazillion times and I can't even count how many times I've gone through the 10 seasons on DVD.  D$ and I don't even have cable in our bed room because every night before we go to sleep we watch at least 2 episodes on DVD.  I know I sound like a freak.. But I'm not I just love the show and all the characters, especially Monica!  Here are the rest of the pics.

Dukes of Hazard

Gran Torino

Harry Potter

My dad is in California receiving an award this week and went on a tour of Warner Brother's Studio.  So D$ and I decided last night that we were going to go in the fall for our 1 year anniversary. HOLLA!

Change.

I love my pretty table cloth and yellow place mats but I wanted to change it up.  Couldn't figure out how without just taking it off and using different place mats.  Well when some ketchup made it on the table cloth last night, I knew I had to do it!

So my lovely friend Allie gave me these wonderful, thick, pretty place mats for one of my showers.  Perfect for spring and summer!  I like the geometric pattern with my vintage vases with my few flowers that were left living.  Clean and crisp.

If you don't know me, I am a fan of The Food Network.  I love Ina Garten on Barefoot Contessa.  Well the other day she made these incredible looking cookies.  She said she has always searched for making the BEST oatmeal raisin cookies.  I got the recipe online here.  I made them yesterday to give to some of our family!  They make a ton and they are delicious!

Research.

I finally found some shelves that look similar to mine.  I have been looking since I got the shelf.  They are really fun!

Interesting huh?  I'm glad I spent the time to get back to the wood!

Success! Beginning to End.

On the book stand/shelf.  PRAISE. It's done, over, and I love it.

If you have been following this is the bookshelf that I wanted to strip and re-stain.  This color just doesn't really compliment the retro style of this piece of furniture!

Before:

I thought that the paint would be fairly fresh considering the section of the antique store I found it in.  Everything was shabby chic and painted this blue or white, so I assumed it would be somewhat easy to remove.  Well I was SO WRONG.  I started using my power sander thinking it would take about an hour to just sand all the paint off.  Well I was SO WRONG.  I ended up going to the hardware store and got some STRONG paint stripper.  So total time of sanding and stripping = 10 hours.  I also burned several inches of my skin due to the harsh chemicals.

This is when I gave up:

So D-Money found a place in the phone book that stripped furniture. (Because he was probably tired of hearing me fret about trying to get the paint off!)  Bare Woods in Cahaba Heights across the street from Miss Myra's Bar-B-Q and Flip Flops and What Nots.  They were SO kind and helpful.  When they called me to let me know it was ready they said they understood why I gave up.  That it gave them a hard time too!  So it made me feel so much better that I didn't spend much more time sanding and stripping.  You see, it would have been pretty dang easy if I could have removed any of the shelves so that I could work on each piece individually.  WELL, every piece is fixed.  It cost only $5 less to have it professionally stripped as the piece of furniture cost... I should have just gone their in the first place.  Glad to know it is there!

After I picked up from Bare Woods:

Good job guys. 98% gone.

I wanted this shelf to match my retro credenza and night stand so I chose an "American Walnut" stain.  It really worked well.  I put 3 coats of stain on and 2 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane. 

End product:

Funny because that is the best picture I have of it finished and it is in the garage and I still have painters tape on the feet.

I'm pretty pleased if I can say so myself.  I didn't think I could get through it a week ago.   Hope you enjoyed the journey, I will just enjoy the outcome!!

Sweeties.

Book stand update:  All I have to say is that I better love this thing...  After I bought all the things to strip and sand the shelf, I had to get it professionally stripped/dipped after I spent about 10 hours trying to do it myself.  That cost $45.  I picked it up yesterday and they did a pretty good job.  Got probably 98% of the paint off.  I went to Home Depot and bought some American Walnut stain, spent 3 hours staining yesterday.  Polyurethaned it once last night, I'll put another coat on this morning and I can bring it inside Saturday! YAY.  It's a little darker than I wanted but I kept going over it and over it because there were some weird spots...

ANYWAY some sweets for the weekend whether you are look for a dessert or a breakfast extra!

Peach Honey Spread

In a bowl,
Add 1 sliced peach
2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mash with a form until the mixture is the consistency of chunky applesauce.  Serve as a topping for pancakes or French toast, or serve it over roast chicken or pork. YUM

Frozen Ice Cream Dessert

1 pound packaged oreo cookies
1/2 Cup melted butter

Mix and put in bottom of 9 x 13 inch dish and chill.

Filling:
1 large can of carnation milk
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup butter
2 squares melted semi-sweet chocolate

Put ingredients in sauce pan, cook and boil 10-15 minutes until thick (watch the mixture, so it doesn't burn)

Put 1/2 gallon softened ice cream on the crumbs in dish and freeze.  Put cooled chocolate mixture over ice cream.  When frozen put 2 cups whipped cream over top and sprinkle with chocolate or nuts!

Hope everyone has a sweet, wonderful, safe weekend!

Good buy and some pretties.

I really needed some rugs for inside by all 3 doors that lead outside.  I knew I needed ones with rubber backing and for the rug to be rough enough to brush shoes off.  I checked out Old Time Pottery because since I needed to somewhat buy in bulk and they have such cheap prices.  I'm GLAD I did!  I have never seen an indoor, outdoor, and bathroom rug selection in my life quite like theirs!  They had some great ones and of course some tacky, cheap looking ones.  I  bought 3 bound, mountain grass, rubber backed rugs for $11.99 a piece!  I was thrilled.  They had different colored boarders as well like black, red, taupe, and brown like mine.

I saw D-Money's aunt today and she asked if I wanted some butter beans from their veggie garden.  Of course I did and while I was there she asked if I wanted any of her flowers from their front yard!  Like I didn't already have enough around the house, now I have more beautiful flowers!

Lovely, pink Azeleas.

And my all time favorite... Hydrangeas!  Lucky me, she told me if I ever wanted more to come over and clip them, no call needed!

My book stand is ready to be picked up!  The guy said he completely knew why I gave up.  Said it was a lot of work to get the paint off.  I am picking it up this afternoon and plan on starting to stain it this afternoon or tomorrow.  I'll post pics next week, I hope I'm done by then!

3. Random's

1.  Drew came home from lunch and surprised me with 3 of my favorite things.  A HUGE bouquet of flowers (see below, there were so many, they are all over the house!) my favorite bottle of wine; and my guilty pleasure, peanut butter m & m's.

On my dresser, had so many flowers I had to get creative and just used a water glass.

I love putting flowers in my green tea pot!

Dining table centerpiece.

2. Just discovered 4 YUMMY flavors of Yoplait light.  Not the BIGGEST fan of yogurt because it seems sour.  But these are sweet and lo cal!

Raspberry Cheesecake

Red Velvet Cake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Strawberry Shortcake

Random, but I like to share info!

3.  I have been spring cleaning... Organizing, cleaning, everything!  So I thought, why not clean the front porch..  BIG mistake.  I was getting pollen EVERYWHERE.  Couldn't stop coughing.  I tried blowing off the window ledges, used windex on the table, dusted off everything I could until I had to come inside. Everything looks smeared.  Had to change my clothes.  DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO CLEAN POLLEN OFF OUTSIDE!?  Should I just wait?  But how long?  Let me know, please!