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Picnics & Old Lace

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Clean them scummy pots and pans

QUICK CHEAP TRICK

Now you see it

Now you don't

This is why... I took a used piece of foil rolled it into a ball and scrubbed the pot. Takes off the hardest pieces of noodles the gross baked on material and it just rubs off. I didnt use that much elbow grease. Reuse foil for the tough stuff!

 I know what you are thinking."Super amazing photo".

take an old lawn chair to exciting places!

So I am so behind with this blog. Sorry about that! I have been so busy doing the projects and honestly I haven't finished half of them. We have been busy with other things... like looking at houses. Yes that is right, this once over the head in debt girl, is 1000 dollars away from being completely out of debt! Yay! You can be to! Learn some tips here http://pennypinchingsisters.blogspot.com/2011/12/get-out-of-debt-fast.html

Moving on! So this quick project I did recently...

AFTER

BEFORE

This is the BEFORE and honestly of the 3 chairs I had, this looked the nicest. By the time I remembered to take pictures I had already painted the other two chairs, so imagine worse then this.






The problem with the chairs... I got them free from a friend. There was only 3 and she left them outside for years and they became porous and grungy looking. I tried spray paint. It let me down though... apparently the chairs where so thirsty they drank the color up. So I took paint I had from other projects and miss tints to make a happy looking chair. yay good old latex paint!

The three chairs I painted

This is why I paint in the grass... I spill

Loving this blue colorlu!

Could use some lemonade about now!

I will confess they scratched a weee bit
when  I took them apart.   

My cute little kitty princess loves the chair  

chalkboard table top

SUPPLIES needed:

2 tbs. NON-SANDED GROUT I got mine at Lowes the smallest size was 1 lb. less then $5 and I have lots left. Maybe the lower half of the walls will be the next project!

1 cup PAINT I used acrylic the large 8oz bottle equals 1 cup (next time I may try latex paint from a cheap miss-tint I will show you why later...) get creative and use any color your little heart desires!

1 resealable CONTAINER with lid 

1 awesome BRUSH! I might try  a foam brush next time so I don't have brush lines

Carefully MIX until smooth as you can! My brother always said glitter was the herpes of crafts... I found its partner in crime... black paint! It gets everywhere! I recommend doing this outside in something you don't care to ruin! 

Note to self... if you have little hands around.... Don't leave supplies unattended!

SCRUB table of surface you are painting.

Say HELLO to my LITTLE FRIEND! You can use regular sanding sheet if you don't have one of these. Apparently my husband loves me and used his SEARS card on buying this for us... I'm  in LOVE! With my husband to! He is a great hubby!

Use rag to get the DUST off.

Start to PAINT her! YAY!

I did 2 COATS let it dry in between.

Note to self... If you have a group of pre-teens come over tell them not to take the backs of there eraser less pencils  and  scratch the table.  

Good thing you thought ahead and kept leftovers in sealed container. Easy to do touch up. Just wish I used durable paint, like the miss-tints at my brother's work. He could have added more color to the pre-tinted paint for me for a perfect match for the same price of the acrylic. 

Take CHALK to the table! WOW! THIS IS FUN! Use a wet black rag to clean. Note to self paint can  bleed if wet... again I am regretting acrylic paint.

Love my table now! looks like a school class!

Kinda rustic look

Messages to family in the morning YAY!

Exercise! YAY! Netflix! YAY!

Earlier my sister wrote a post on exercise and it is great you should read that! I just wanted to add an idea I came across recently. We have had netflix for a while now, I love it, but I do so even more now! We usually use it to watch a movie here or there or run sesame street as back ground noise for my daughter. The other day I decided to start exercising again. One of those things I slack at around Christmas and gain 10 pounds. The jeans are getting tight and I can't bare to move up a size, unlike my sister I don't have motivation to exercise. Looking at my  exercise DVD collection covered with dust, I realized both of them didn't sound enticing. I sat on the couch and thought, "maybe I will give this one more shot and search on netflix". I was kinda hoping there wouldn't be one, so I could watch a movie on  my instaque.  Low and behold, I found several workout videos. Mostly, I was more surprised at my reaction.It seemed fun to do a new workout. With a huge selection from yoga to boot camp military style... I had a chance to find something I would enjoy. I randomly selected a dance workout and though I have sweat harder, it was really fun! My daughter danced beside me and toward the end they did a short ab workout that gave me a burn. It was kinda addicting so I tried another workout, tougher, but I enjoyed it! While I watched the Biggest Loser last night I didn't feel guilty like I normally do! So if you have an excuse like I used, that you don't have money for a gym, or that you don't have work out videos... netflix has them. It costs us less then ten dollars a month to have all the movies and now gym we need! YAY!

Why Eat Out? Easy Cakes for Breakfast!

My husband and I are almost ready to buy a house! yay! We are finally about there, but with a few things left on the list we are squeezing our pennies. It is a great feeling when you are almost reaching a goal you have set a long time ago, but when pinching pennies you have to find a way to have fun! We have been trying to eat in for all our meals lately and breakfast is no exception.My daughter would have scrambled eggs for every meal if I would let her. So sick of eggs and cereal, I have been making waffles and pancakes. She is two and thinks that since it says cakes at the end of the word they are cakes. So she tells me she wants "cakes" for breakfast. I was thinking, "yum cake for breakfast".  So I started tweaking my recipe for my plain Jane pancakes to... why do you need IHOP breakfast cakes!

PLAIN JANE CAKES
1 cup flour
1 tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
blend together, spray cooking skillet or waffle maker with oil, and cook on med heat to desired golden color.

BANANA CAKES
add
mashed ripe banana

and cinnamon  to batter
top with Carmel sauce (i just use a little from my banana split stash)
syrup
and whip topping






BANANA SPLIT CAKES
add
mashed banana to the batter

top with
desired banana split topping
such as
strawberry sauce, jam or fresh
pineapples
whip topping
Carmel
chocolate
nuts
bananas
whip topping

CHOCOLATE CAKES

add
couple tablespoons coco powder (to desired taste)
chocolate chips to batter
top with
chocolate syrup and mini chocolate chips and raspberries yum!

RED VELVET CAKES
add
red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla flavoring to batter
top with cream cheese frosting
nuts optional

CARROT CAKES
add
1 cup thinly shredded carrots
cinnamon to batter
top with
cream cheese frosting