Tacky Chair No More!

So... my desk was lonely, it needed a chair.  And I needed my husband to quit dragging a chair from our dining room table over to the desk and leaving 4 little lines on my floor that multiply every time he does it.

I found this at a little junk/antique store in Tyler and decided that since it was sturdy, had fairly clean lines, I didn't have to make a seat for it and it was only $30, it was a winner! :)

I was going for more of a mustard yellow, but due to the limited selection at our Hobby Lobby and my lack of patience to make another stop, Rustoleum's Summer Squash was what I finally settled with. After it dried I realized just how pale it was and got a little discouraged. I wanted to antique it anyway so I just crossed my fingers that a little stain would darken it enough. And I LOVE the end result!!! 

I recovered the seat in Brown burlap, it could have been tighter, but it will work until I decide I want something different. :)


 

 I'm happy, the husband is happy because it's not "too girly"... it's a good day in Quick Fix Mama's house!

Now... where is fall?! I'm soooo ready to decorate for fall!

Linking up to:

Debbie's Newbie Party

Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got party

Tatertots & Jello's Weekend WrapUp party

Sunday Showcase



Pedestal Table FAIL!

 A "mama's corner" was a total afterthought with this house... but once I decided that I wanted a little space of my own, I was obsessed! I had to find a way to make it work! Before the house was even finished I had bought a chair (at Marshalls for $150!!) and started working on a side table all while having NO IDEA where I would have room for them! lol 

The idea for this little beauty/disaster came from a link I saw on facebook during my hiatus from blogging. I can't remember who linked it, but immediately decided to give it a shot. The total cost for her project was only $5.50! If only I were so lucky! I need to get better at doing things the cheap way...

My lamp was found at a thrift store... and BOY were they proud of this ugly thing!!! $10!! Sadly all of my "before" and "in the process" pictures were lost when I got a new phone. (yet another reason I need to find that darn camera charger!)

 I primed the lamp base and spray painted it with Krylon's Almond color. The ever opinionated husband of mine chimed in and said "It's too short!" So I found an unfinished wood plate at Hob Lob and Gorilla Glued it to the bottom of the lamp to give it more height and a more sturdy base. Trouble with that was it bubbled out and dried all foamy and ugly. I took a kitchen knife (made a mental note to buy an xacto knife) and trimmed off the foamy stuff.

 Next I found this lovely piece for the top. It was at Hob Lob in the garden decor section... I got it for 50% off which I was happy about (until I went in last week and found it 80% off, darn the luck!) It was tough to glue on with all the holes in the top so I feel like it's just barely hanging on.

This piece led to adding the antiquing paint to the base to make it match, which NATURALLY accented the spots where I trimmed off the ugly foam! I was ready to pull my hair out at this point... I finally decided to cover that disaster by hot gluing some hemp string I had on hand around the base.

I added the glass to keep things from falling through the holes, I know it would look better if I had a piece cut to fit, but 1. I was OVER spending money on this project and 2. the topper was bowing in the middle and the glass doesn't fit flat on it. I even tried getting the hubby to stand on it and the sucker still wouldn't cave back in!

 

It's a pretty little thing but man was it a pain in the butt! And it's not exactly sturdy enough to have a 2 year old around it. I hold my breath every time he walks near it, afraid he will knock the wobbly glass off and cut himself. I'm going to add some E6000 glue to the top today to see if that strengthens the hold any, if not...I will be on the hunt for a new table to put there. :)

UPDATE: The additional glue helped to make it a little more sturdy and while I was at it, I glued the glass to the iron piece. Hopefully this will ease my mind until I find a new project for that space. :)

Linking up to:

TDC's Before & After Party

debbiedoos newbie party

Sunday Showcase

TT&J's Weekend Wrapup Party

Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got Party

Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin It party

Adding color... on the cheap :)

So... we knew when building this house that it would not be our "forever home", and for that reason I went very neutral with my paint choices. I'm happy with that decision... I'm a pretty "neutral" type of gal anyway, but now I am realizing that all of my dark brown accents I had from the other house are pretty boing in a neutral room. 

BRING ON THE COLOR!!!

But cheaply, because (due to the mess the first crappy contractor left us with) finishing this house drained the savings account.

I saw this cute little 4th of July project on tatertots & jello's facebook page using scrapbook paper and decided to do something simmilar that could stay up until I get sick of it. :)

Jamielyn did a great job at explaining how to do it, so you can check out her tutorial. All I did differently was decide that my dollar tree stapler was junk and toss that step after 2 failed attempts. Once I got all of my little flowers put together I hot glued them to a pretty iorn piece I found at Hob Lob for 50% off.

 Please don't judge... The desk is a work in progress. lol

Sorry about the crappy lighting... the camera charger got lost in the move. Hopefully it shows up soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:
I'm Lovin It with Tidy Mom
Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrap-up Party
Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got Party
Debbie's Newbie Party

Back in the swing of things!

Wow it's been a while! I have missed blogging and crafting, but we had a huge family crisis and once I took time off to be with my family it was hard to get back into the swing of things. I am very happy to say that our crisis had a happy ending and our family got the extreme honor of seeing God work a miracle on my sweet brother.

We have finally finished building our house, and with that my inspiration has returned! I am so excited about being back into my crafting mode!

After seeing the adorable wreath that Jen over at Tatertots And Jello made I decided to make something similar. :)

I had a straw wreath that I had purchased at a thrift store for $0.50 that had been just sitting in a drawer waiting for me to find the motivation again. I really should have wrapped it in plain red ribbon first, but... living up to my nickname... I was too lazy and in too much of a hurry, which caused me to need 3 packages of eyelash yarn when I probably could have gotten away with maybe 1 or 2.  Add ribbon, hot glue, scrapbook paper, rusty stars I had lying around and a toilet paper tube and you have my last minute 4th of July wreath :)

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! We are having about 50 people over for a fish fry to celebrate FINALLY completing the house. I'm tying not to focus too much on the fact that there is still more decorating to be done... but I just might end up with hives lol.

Linking up to these parties:
TT&J's Weekend Wrap Up Party
Not Just A Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got Party

Mickey Mouse Party!

Between the birthday party, getting things ready for the new house and our Internet being on the fritz I've been MIA from Blogland for almost a month! I've had some severe withdraws!

Now on the the party crafts!
I made the Mickey mouse head for the cake topper out of Styrofoam balls, toothpicks and a wooden skewer I snatched off my husbands plate at Chili's when he ordered their "big mouth burgers" lol. I used card stock, mod podge and toothpicks for the kiddo's name on his cake.
For the kiddo's party we served cake, Cheetos, goldfish, cheddar "quakes", gogurt, fruit snacks, cookies and 3 flavors of applesauce. I forgot about snacks for the adults in attendance when I was shopping. lol

I mod-podged mouse heads and a #2 on white lunch sacks for the favor bags. I made Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears using this wonderful tutorial. They were displayed in a flower pot that I painted red and black. The mouse ears were a bigger hit with the adults than the kids, as you can tell by the picture of my mom and aunt below...

I used small floral foam ring to make the centerpiece for the gift table (which i am kicking myself for forgetting to take a picture of). The inspiration came from this adorable wreath.

I used a knife to trim the squared off edges before pinning the balloons in, because I wanted a rounded look for the balloon ring.

I placed another mickey mouse head made of Styrofoam balls in the center of the ring and then placed the two on top of another black and red painted flower pot. I learned what effect impatience and spray paint has on Styrofoam during this project... another instance of my Quick Fix Mama tendencies end up coming back to bite me. I bought new ones and started over and gave the bigger ball another coat of black paint, promise! I just forgot to take pictures of the finished product.
We rented a bounce house and had lots of fun toddler friendly toys... even the adults had a blast!

Mother Nature has a huge vendetta against Quick Fix Husband and I. The kiddo's party was supposed to have been at the new house, on the new deck, but of course it got cold and rained the night before the party and off and on during the day of the party. Thank goodness we were able to find a back up venue... warm, dry and FREE! Can't beat that!

Linked to:
show me what ya got #15

How we spent our weekend

We tackled our first DIY project on the new house this weekend! To save money on contractor costs we built the railing for our deck ourselves. Plus I wanted it toddler proofed before Quick Fix Son's birthday party in two weeks.

Day 1 we had alot of help so I did more child entertaining, spray painting patio furniture and supervising :) While Quick Fix Husband, Father in Law, Daddy and Brother started the project.

They put 2x4s horizontally on the top and bottom, then every third of the way across each section they put one vertically. And I wanted it to be Westie-proofed as well, because as with most terriers... they think they are invincible, so I didn't want a vet bill because one jumped off the (very high) deck. So we came up with the idea of lining it with chicken wire. Redneck? or Rustic?? lol
They stretched the chicken wire tightly and stapled it into place, then mirrored the 2x4 pattern on top of the wire so that it was sandwiched between the boards. They got a little more than halfway done on Day 1.

Day 2 we had a little less help, so I got to get my hands dirty! :)

It was my first time using power tools and I believe I'm hooked!!! I got to use the nail gun and the saw. (Note the nervous onlookers LOL)

We used 1x6s to top off the railing and it gave me a nice wide shelf to set plants and whatever else on. I really love the finished product.

I bought cushions for the loveseat today. Can't wait to take them out there tomorrow to see if they will match :)

 QF Husband and I plan to spend every evening in those two chairs relaxing and watching the kiddo ride his tricycle up and down the deck :)

I'll talk more about the furniture later, since they were projects in themselves. :)
Thanks for reading!

Linked up to: show me what ya got party

                     sunday-showcase

                     debbie's newbie party

Weight Watchers Cheesecake!

Yep, you read that right... Diet Cheesecake and even better... it's got CHOCOLATE in it!!!

So, I'm 5 weeks into my Weight Watchers journey. I managed to loose my baby weight on my own but now I'm working on the "marriage weight". It's a never ending cycle, isn't it?

Anyway, when I saw people posting recipes I thought it might be fun to post Weight Watcher recipes that I have tried and can vouch that they really are good. Don't worry, I won't share the yucky ones... I try at least 1 new WW recipe a week and so far this is the only one I like enough to share.
Oh and if anyone knows of anyone else sharing WW recipes please let me know who they are! I would love to try theirs and make sure I don't post something that they have. Ok... onward!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Ingredients:
-10 oreos crushed (Quick fix mama used an oreo pie crust, cause she didn't wanna have to crush the oreos lol)
-8oz fat free cream cheese (in the box)
-8oz light cream cheese (in the tub)
-1 cup of sugar (see we are allowed to have the good stuff!)
-2 tbsp all purpose flour
-1 cup cottage cheese
-2 tsp almond extract
-6 large egg whites
-3/4 cup MINI choc. chips

Instructions:
-Preheat oven to 325 degrees
-lightly coat spring form pan with cooking spray and spread cookie crumbs lightly over bottom of pan
-Using an electric mixer mix together cream cheeses until well blended then add sugar and flower and mix again.
-in a food processor or blender puree cottage cheese until smooth. Add cottage cheese and almond extract to cream cheese mixture and mix again.
-Add egg whites and mix once more.
-Stir in 1/2 cup of choc. chips.
-Pour into spring form pan and sprinkle remaining chips on top.
-Bake until cheesecake puffs and center is almost set. About 60 minutes.
-Let cool completely and then run knife around edges to loosen and release pan sides. Cover and chill overnight. Cut into 12 slices. 1 slice =6 points

I can really taste the almond extract which seems a little odd for cheesecake, but it doesn't taste like diet food so I could care less at this point! :)

Ok, so the reason mine doesn't look like theirs --- Piggy Piggy decided that she didn't want MINI chips, she wanted the BIG (normal sized) ones! I mean really, you don't come between a girl and her chocolate. Well, once I stirred in the chips I realized I was only hurting myself. There would have been chocolate in every bite if I had gone with the minis. So I skipped putting the chips on top because I figured I was being bad enough with the big chips. My suggestion is to stick with the minis, I know I will next time!

Enjoy! And thanks for reading.

Photo credit: weightwatchers.com

Linked up to: tatertots and jello weekend-wrap-up-party
                     Sunday Showcase Party
                     newbie party at Debbie's