$12 Floor Candlesticks

I love me some floor candlesticks.

I do not love the price though. I mean $149 is quite steep.

Mr. Genius wouldn't go for no preschool in order for us to buy a candlestick.

Something about wanting his son to know his alphabet or something.

Whatever.

I had to figure out another way to get candlesticks to match those I got a loooooong time ago.

So I bought these things.

They are called newel posts. They go at the end of the staircase. I got the ones for outdoor.

See the bottom, how it would fit to the stairs.

They come in cedar and pressure treated pine.


I chose the pressure treated pine due to it being cheaper. Only $10 each, baby!

First I got Mr. Genius to cut off the top and bottom.

He won't let me use the power tools due to my clumsyness. I don't know what he is talking about I only tripped over my own feet twice yesterday. Geez.

But he made this.

I am going to think of something for the topper later.

Then I got the fence post toppers, they were $2. The ones with the flat top.

Then I got it ready to glue to the bottom of the post. I did use some modeling clay my boys have to level it out a little bit.

The leveling was a little hard on the shorter one.

Once the first one was glued and I was anxious to see how it will look next to the mantel.

I think the sock inside the fireplace screen just gives it that extra touch, don't you?

Then I took them outside and spray painted them.

Tada!

Here they are with my mantel!

And some close ups.

 So what do you think?! Pretty good for $12 a candle stick, huh!

Where there is a Will there is a Way giveaway

To learn about how to get your own will down for $25 go to my giveaway page.

HERE

Just what I needed

On Tuesday was a day of mixed emotions, I went to apply for my passport.

Usually people would be pretty excited to go out of the country.

For me it isn't that I am not excited, but I know it will be an emotional trip.

I know that I have some new readers here so some may not know that on December 2nd my dad had a massive heart attack and with one breath he was hear on earth and then the next he was in heaven with our Lord and Savior.

You can read a little about it here and here.

My dad was most definitely a spiritual leader. He loved people. I mean really loved everyone he met. He has such a heart to share the Lord's love with everyone he met.

Because of this passion that was so evident in his life, at the time of his death his church was in the works with building a school in the Dominican Republic in an area called La Represa. They had already built one building but they quickly outgrew it and needed another one.

This new building will be dedicated to my dad.

Isn't that just a blessing?

The building should be finished in July. I will definitely be there for the dedication.

My mom, my two brothers, and I will be going. No kids. I think one of dad's sisters maybe going too.

Which I am kind of sad about that part. Wild Man is really the only one that would remember the trip out of all the grandkids. But I would love to show them what poverty really looks like. I want him to know how blessed he is to have what he has. I hope one day to take them back there.

All our spouses will be staying with the kids.

So knowing where this passport will take me, just made me sad.

Then the next day I got an email from Kristin at A Betty Crocker wannabe who gave me an award.

Then today I got another award from Kenzie @ 9 o'clock dance of joy!

Thanks girls! It just made my day a little brighter.

Then I want to thank all of you readers too!

Before dad passed I had all these ideas in my head of what I wanted to do with the house but didn't have the guts to start any of them.


But when he passed I needed an outlet. So I started decorating.


I put it on my blog to show all from friends back home in TN what I was up to.
Then less then 2 months ago I switched from my personal blog to this one. I went from 1 follower to now just under 200!

What an ego boost!

Aw, shucks. I guess some people really like me!

Thanks you guys!

By the way, I am working on two more projects that I can't wait to show you. Cuz I can't just do one thing at a time. That would be too normal.

And tomorrow I will be starting another giveaway!

So again, I just want to say thanks to everyone that reads my blogs and leaves me the sweetest comments!

You all help me get through this season in my life. 

Winner!!

To find out the winner go to my giveaway page.

HERE

All hot and bothered

Just in case there is anyone else out there that thought is would be a great idea to buy the bag of jalapenos at Aldi's this weekend, because they were on clearance for 99 cents.

Someone might think that buying a bag of peppers while on clearance is a great way to stretch your dollar.

But now I would say that is hazardous to your health.

Don't believe me?

Well this is what happened to me over a 12 hour period.

I cut up the bag of peppers put them in individual bags and stuck them in the freezer.

One would think that washing your hands twice really good would help to get the spicy part of the peppers off of your hands.

But I would beg to differ.

An hour after washing my hands I scratched my eye.

And HOLY FIREBALLS, BATMAN!!

My eye felt like I had little men with blow torches on my eyelids!

I had no idea what to do.

I put water on it.

The burning just got worse.

So Mr. Genius, being the genius he is googled "jalapeno in eye".

Seriously, what did people do before Google??

Just in case anyone else is in my little perdicament I will share with you what you would do in this situation.

Get a shot glass full of milk and place it on your eye.

Since we do not live in a frat house, we do not have any shot glasses.

So the boys little medicine cup worked instead.

It took about 10 minutes for the burning to stop, but it did finally subside.

THANK YOU JESUS!

I washed my hands again and again and again and then made very sure I didn't get my hands anywhere near my eyes.

Apparently in the middle of the night I have no control over my hands, I woke up to burning eye balls.

I blindly walked down to the fridge.

Just incase anyone else is in my situation, and you accendently grab the almond milk.

No worries. It works too.

Ahhh. Relief again.

So I again washed my hands, dug under my nails, washed my elbows.

Hey, at this point I was desperate.

Finally I went back to sleep, tying my hands down.

Then came time to take a shower.

And you guess it. I got my eyes burning again.

I took my shower completely with my eyes closed.

I think that by this time, my body was immuned  to the burning.

By the time I got out of the shower, I was fine.

Apparently the shower got rid off the rest of the jalapeno juices.

-----

Holy Moly peeps! I think those were the stongest jalapenos ever to grow on this earth!

Have any of you had this happen to you?

I am definitely going to think twice before buying a hot pepper now.

Teacher's pet

Ok, so I really debated over not posting this, but then I had to remind myself that kids art isn't meant to be perfect. That's what makes kids, kids. Right?

While I worked at a mother's day out program we made these cute pots with the kids finger prints on it to give to the mom's for mother's day. They always turned out so cute, but they were two year olds so essentially we were really doing the project for them, by dipping their hands in the paint and then pressing their finger on the pot.

Unfortunately Wild Man is four going on teenage rebellion years, not a two year old.

I should have remembered that when I started this.


Here is what we started with.

Wild Man was so excited to make this for his teacher.

So really I just got a clay pot and paint that I had on hand.

I did the next part after I put Wild Man to sleep.

I made the grass with the slick paint. It makes the paint stick out a little bit like blades of grass.

The next morning while we were still in our pjs I tried to make my own colors with the paint I had on hand. So I started mixing colors.

Wild Man thought that was the best thing since squirt cheese and crackers, he declared himself the offical paint mixer.

He was oh so kind to laugh at my jokes with a nice fake laugh.

Then came the part when I realized I may have gone a little over my head.

Wild Man wanted to put his finger prints where he wanted to put his finger prints. There was little to no discussion to change his mind. Oh I am so not looking forward to when he is 15.

When his fingers were full of paint I began to have visions of Wild man...well running wild around the house with paint all over his hands so I therefore did not get any pictures of this process.

Please forgive me.

But I did get the finished product.

I went over the finger prints with a sharpie to make the spider, bee, and butterfly. Wild Man put little finger prints on the cup thingy that the pot sits in (can you tell that my thumb is brown) to make ants crawling on the bottom. They look more like a smudge then an ant. But it was a cute idea.

I plan on putting some flowers in the pot when we give it to the teacher. But since I can't keep anything alive that grows out of the ground, I will do that the day I give her the gift. Maybe then it may have a chance to stay alive.

I am posting to these parties.

Do you have a Swagger Wagon?

I just saw this video and it totally cracked me up.



Happy Mother's Day!