Project 52: Week Twenty

Pinterest.

That's where I first saw this idea.

It was near the beginning of my pinterest days, where I spent too much time scrolling through things that others had pinned, and repinning them without even seeing if the link worked.

Fortunately for me, the link DID work, and so did the idea!

6 months ago, we got a wood stove. The bearing on the fan motor went out within days, and my husband dragged the stove out of the fireplace and onto the carpet for repairs.  His work resulted in THIS.

My wonderful mother scrubbed at these stains with ALL SORTS of cleaners, but with little effect.  Every day, I walk into this room and contemplate when I'm going to be able to replace this carpet, or find the perfect rug to cover it.

Until this week, when I remembered that pin I pinned, where the blogger said she cleaned her grease stained carpet with common household stuff...

A little vinegar, Dawn dishwashing liquid, and some water, and a small amount of scrubbing got me THIS.

Is it perfect? No.

Is it a million times better? Definitely!

Thank you blogosphere! ...and Pinterest, of course.

Project 52: Week Nineteen

We moved into our home almost a year ago, but it didn't take us that long to realize something peculiar about the house.  The only doors that had working locks were the exterior doors.  NONE of the interior doors locked...not bathrooms, not bedrooms...and some of those doors didn't even latch all the way.

We got used to it pretty fast, but our kids sometimes barged in and surprised people who were visiting...and we decided that we needed to fix that.

We bought enough knobs to at least do the bathroom doors...that was 8 months ago...

I finally decided I needed to take care of it. Out came the wood chisels, and I got to work!

Old latch removed.

Door chiseled and ready for the new latch.

New handle installed!

Now you may all visit, because you don't have to be afraid of the girls barging in while you're in the shower!

On a side note, I'm not sure I'd ever even HELD a wood chisel before this project...

Project 52: Week Eighteen

I LOVE popcorn.  I could eat it EVERY day. I love cheesy popcorn, chocolate covered popcorn, caramel popcorn, jello popcorn, marshmallow popcorn, butter popcorn, extra extra butter popcorn with more butter poured on top...all the popcorns except BURNT popcorn. But then again, I don't know anyone who likes burnt popcorn.

Unfortunately, I am EXTREMELY reliant on microwave popcorn. And I ALWAYS get PopWeaver because it's the best deal.  And Wal-Mart is the only place that sells it at the price I like.  So if Wal-Mart ever stops selling it at that amazing price, I'm doomed.

Or I was doomed until Friday night, when I learned to make popcorn on the stove!

No I'm not going to give you a recipe.  Check out Our Best Bites. They've got several delicious recipes. We tried a recipe for kettle corn, which was DELICIOUS. And we also tried a cheddar popcorn recipe that was a big time fail.  Mostly because I actually followed the recipe instead of thinking about how it didn't even make sense to do what the recipe said.

Ah well. It was fun eating it and sometimes grabbing a gross crusty cheese powder chunk instead of a popcorn piece, and then eating it because I was too busy trying to conquer the world with a pair of dice.  

I was about to type that I'll probably try the cheddar one again and that I'd let you all know how it goes. Except for then, I realized that I probably won't tell you, unless you ask me in person. So, yeah.

The End.

Project 52: Week Seventeen

TEN years ago, I was just finishing up my freshman year in college.  

I was also saying goodbye to the almost constant pain in my wrists resulting from the hours of practicing for the organ class I was taking.  (Which I got an A in, by the way...ha.)

Since then, I've had the calling to play the organ each Sunday in several of our wards (church congregations) but haven't done much with the organ besides that.  Most of the time, I ignore the pedals entirely, and just stretch my fingers to play everything on the keyboards up top.  And because everyone is singing, most people don't even notice if you mess up, unless it's a huge mistake.

This week, however, I was asked to play for a WEDDING.  

No singing congregation.

Just ME...and the folks walking down the aisle.

And everybody listening in that moment that was supposed to be perfect.

It was really tempting to say NO.  There was another woman who would most likely be able to step in and play for the wedding.  

I said YES.

Except for the few mistakes I made after everyone had already left the chapel, I did GREAT!  

No pictures this week, unless someone miraculously decides to send me some, which I doubt, since I didn't actually know the couple well at all.

And now that this is under my belt, well...at least I now know I can!

Project 52: Week Sixteen

It's spring time here in PA, and I've been anxious for weeks to get going on our garden.  We borrowed a rototiller from a friend, and then it rained...and rained...and rained...

Finally, it stopped raining, and the ground dried out enough for us to till the garden, but my dear husband was BUSY.  There was NO time for him to do the garden, and the forecast was threatening MORE rain.

So, I called the rototiller help hotline (aka: my DAD), and he walked me through starting and using the rototiller.

Here's my handiwork!

I even planted a lot of our seeds!  NO, that is not them strewn all over the ground...just the beautiful cherry blossom petals from our trees.

Now I never need fear rototilling the garden by myself again!

Other new things this week: I started violin lessons, learned how to use an epi-pen, and made fried chicken that almost killed me. LITERALLY.

Project 52: Week Fifteen

TWO new things this week.

I actually do multiple new things almost every week, but this week, I couldn't decide which to post about.

Both of them are going to be a lot of work, but I'm excited about them.

First, I started some tomato seeds and bell pepper seeds indoors.

I've planted tomatoes and bell peppers before, but because I started them outside, in JUNE, the bulk of my produce came on as we were moving to our new house...so I started a little earlier this year. 

Second, I started Spanish lessons.

Self-taught, of course, but to hold myself accountable, I must call my sister, Tiffy, every week and have a conversation with her in Spanish.  This is actually making BOTH of us accountable, because she is studying Spanish too, and needs the practice almost as much as I do!

My textbook is really old, and I often have to ask my husband if certain vocabulary is still in use, but the basics are still the same!

Project 52: Week Fourteen

Wow...pretty sure I haven't consistently kept a New Years goal for this long EVER.  Pretty sweet.

So, it's cake again.

This time it's not for me.  It's for a cake auction at church, the help the youth earn money for their summer camps and youth conferences. We're not even going to be there, but I figure that someday, it will be MY girls trying to raise money, and in that day, I'll be wishing someone would sign up to help, so, yeah...

Anyway...there are people at church who do AMAZINGLY beautiful cakes with fondant and frosting flowers and swirls, and I already know I have issues when it comes to cake decorating.

So I kept it simple.

SIX layers of chocolate cake.
Filled with caramel cream cheese frosting.
Caramel and chocolate frosting decking the outside in the ever popular OMBRE.

Okay, not simple, and totally out of my league when it comes to cakes, but hey! this year is about trying new things!

It's a good thing I did a practice cake first, so I could make all the mistakes I didn't want to make on the REAL cake.

8 layers of rich cakey goodness

Mix up WAY too much frosting because I didn't follow a recipe

Fill the layers with the frosting that was a little runny because I figured it wouldn't matter on the inside

Make pretty ombre layers while trying to hold the cake up as the layers slide off each other

Everything started to collapse pretty quickly, but it sure looked yummy!

And for your viewing pleasure, the REAL DEAL...which only ended up being 3 layers so the amount of frosting wasn't so overwhelming, and also didn't slide all over the place once it was finished.

All smoothed out - 

SUCCESS!

I hope that whoever bought it enjoyed the caramel chocolate creaminess as much as I would have...