About that tutorial....

OK- the first chair is done- I have the most of the pictures and steps- it's coming!

OT, I realised, after my big plan of moving to a place where we have the space that we need, that just because I planned it doesn't mean the Lord is going to hop down and make it happen. It is SO hard to live in the in between place. I KNOW the Lord has something just right for us, and I know He wants me to continue praying about it, but His timing is still that: His. What do I do RIGHT NOW??
I make what I have work for me. Pretty much all of my furniture is ugly and I haven't done anything about it because I had this vision of saving for "new house" furniture and just living with this nasty stuff. I didn't want to paint or continue remodelling this house because it was never 'mine'.
Well, its still not mine. and it's still not perfect. And my furniture is still ugly. But that doesn't mean I can't do anything about it. Right? Right.

We have some space issues. We have three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen and large front and rear entranceways. We have a new baby coming along, Ron desperately needs an office with a door he can close on all the noise, and we both really want to keep a guest bed available. We both want people to feel welcome and like they have a spot to land in our home. I would also like a place of my own to pay bills, have a desk etc.

So what to do? Our rooms will have to work double and triple duty. And I am figuring out how to do it!
#1 Our guest bedroom is nice, but only serves that one function. When we don't have guests, the room is unused. My library is in the beautiful front entry way with a loveseat for all my reading and eating bon bons. Lets combine! Here is the library:


This is the guest bedroom in process- I forgot to take a pic before moving the bed. But what the heck? All my readers have stayed here and know the orig layout- bed centered on back wall.
I had to avoid a baseboard heater (I hate those things- so much wasted wall space!) So I rotated the bed to leave a foot or two at the foot of the bed so we don't have any pesky household fires.


That left me with space for two bookshelves on the east wall and one on the west wall. I took out all the books, doing a necessary purge during that process, and got two bookshelves moved in when the third basically fell apart while I was moving it. Remember how I said all my furniture is ugly? Most of it is junky too.
But after the purge, I found I could creatively squeeze all my books into two shelves. SCORE!
Here is the after- two bookshelves tucked neatly beside the bed. Sorry that the pics have such gross lighting. If I waited until I had nice natural light I would forget to take them and have only half a post to share! So the room looks much cozier and cleaner than what these portray:)



I have a plan for this closet (below)- Based on internet pics everywhere, this is going to be my office cubby. See how easy that was? Triple duty. And when we have guests, neither of the other two functions are necessary for the running of the household, so the room can just be a guest bedroom again
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I will post pictures and layouts of what we are going to do with the now almost empty library and our soon to be incredible laundry room and back entrance. I think we've come up with some great ideas to maximize every room's usability!

I'm not sure how these pictures will all look since I am still figuring blogger out. Here's hoping they are all nice and clear and not pixelated!

Can you give your baby shaken baby syndrome in utero?

I went sledding with Cowboy and the boys today. There is long sloping hill that is actually the start of someone's driveway just a block away. We have had the nastiest weather- rutted ice under sandy snow. It's good for nothing but making me depressed and sledding, since the sleds really get going on the ice. Chubzie and I were sledding together on the 'bunny' sled and Cowboy and LB were on the "hellbent for leather" sled. It was so fun! We'd get going from the top of the hill, swoop by a mini pasture and get the horses in it all riled up, and then try and miss the cattle gaurd on the bottom. The dogs would chase us all the way down, even over the heavy ruts, which gave baby the shakes. We didn't last that long because it was so cold, but it was great to get outside and breathe some fresh air.

The chair remodel is just a whisker away from being done- I am really happy with how they are turning out. Pictures and tutorial on its way, having endless camera problems.

So here's the super yum recipe I promised:

Faith's fake chicken schnitzel

This recipe was an experiment that happened to turn out great. Under no circumstance should it be confused with real German schnitzel, which is a spiritual experience, but this will do in a pinch. The other thing I experimented with was PANKO bread crumbs- the darling of all food blogs in 2010. I have to say they stood up to the hype- i really liked them. So without further ado:

Take 4 chicken breasts and slice them through the width, so you have 2 thin filets from each breast. Pound them lightly just to even up the thickness. Mine were about 1/2 in thick.
Set up a breading station: bowl of beaten eggs (about2-3) a plate with flour (abt 1/2 c) and a plate with an even layer of Panko Breadcrumbs.
Pour oil into a skillet until about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep and heat. When hot, begin.
Blot the chicken fillets with paper towel to remove excess moisture, then dip in egg mix, and coat in flour. Dip in egg mix again and shake a bit to get excess egg mixture off, then coat both sides in PANKO breadcrumbs. Put immediately into hot oil. Fill your pan, but don't overcrowd the chicken. Allow it to form a nice brown crust before turning over to cook other side.
Serve immediately with a crisp salad and hunk of bread, or mashed potatoes and sour kraut. The chicken stays juicy and has this crust that is crisp and delicious.

I got "Chutes and Ladders" from the second hand store to play with LB and I have to say the whole 'game' procedure was fairly boring for him, but he LOVED seeing the poor choice outcome vs. good choice outcome. He gets this pendantic tone as he says "that was a Poooooooor choice." Pretty cute.

Mice Wars......

Recently we helped some of our dearest friends move into their new rental house. The house had mice and my girlfriend was freaking out about rodents in her house. We were all joking around about how gross it was and how much bleach she was using to clean things with.
WELL- I came home smiling to myself about her reaction until I went into my art 'shed'. There, behind our extra fridge, was the unmistakeable signs of a mouse. Poop. Apparently, by the sheer amount of crap I had to vacuum up, mice cannot make any movements or decisions without "lightening their load." SICK SICK SICK!!!
I haven't really used my shed this winter- its been cold and it takes a long time to heat up. But I was making cute little baby quilts and wanted my batting. Right next to my batting was my economy size pillow filler. Think about it. A giant fluffy womb for mice babies. I saw the entrance hole. I saw the trail of pellets. I shuddered, then shuddered again. Thinking quickly, I got the dogs and dragged the bag outside. All it took was a couple shakes of the bag and mice shot out the opening, running full bore. My dogs are Schnauzers, bred to take care of rodents on the farm, and I could not believe how their instincts kicked it at the first sight of a running mouse.
Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch. No more mice. It was gross and kind of fun at the same time. I was just thankful I would not have to deal with little corpses squished in traps. Ron is the "Reuse and Reload" kind of person in regards to mouse traps. I am the "Shudder, gag, and scream for Ron" kind of person in regards to mouse traps.
The absolute worst was finding more nests, built right on top of their toilets, in my leather box. I had to throw out a bunch of leather and gingerly shake and clean the stuff I wanted to keep.
I hate mice.

Where's the bleach?

I'm starting with.....

So I have a backlog of posts that is reaching epic proportions. So much news! I think this is my m.o.: I post about 5 times in one day and then dissapear for about 5 months. Well I'm back with the latest and greatest events!
1. Baby number three is another boy! Whaaaat???? Yes, apparently The Cowboy and I are really adept at making boys. I was a teensy bit dissapointed at not having a girl (since this will definitely be our last) but once I saw his darling little lips in the ultrasound I fell for the little potatoe. So we are primed and ready! I had the BEST purge of baby things and am stripped down to the necessaries- can't wait! I finally went through ALL the clothes and threw away ANYTHING that was stained or ripped. What was I holding on to it for?? Because I had sweet memories of my other babies in that darling onesie, although the onesie didn't look so darling any more with puke stains all down the front and poop stains all up the back. Seriously. I won't ever need that onesie that desperately. So I'm ready.
I was hoping to have Chubzie potty trained by the time this baby got here, but it is just NOT happening. I'm going to wait til warmer weather and try again. He just was not getting it and I don't feel like pushing the issue.
The cookbook is coming along slowly. My house has such poor lighting that all the pictures are orange and i have to doctor them in GIMP before I can put them in the cookbook, but I am actually surprising myself with progress!
I'm making Denver omelets and hashbrowns and fruit salad tonight. I think the boys are eating the filling out of the pan as I type, so I'm going to leave you with a link to a gal's site whose creativity is just astounding. There is so much fun going on at:

http://justsomethingimade.com/

Next up: a great recipe, the full length tutorial of a complete chair redo, and the battle of the mice. It's going to be awesome, folks.