Pinterest Projects Weeks 9 & 10 - Repainting Outdoor Fixtures and Lemon Ice Cream

I have been quite the busy bee in the last 2 weeks, which is why I have not had a chance to blog, but I am making up for it by posting 2 weeks in one. But I can guarantee that I have not been nearly as busy as one of my BFF's, Julie, who just gave birth to 3 beautiful boys on Monday! Everyone is doing well ~ please keep them in your thoughts and prayers that everyone stays well. I cannot wait to get up to NY so that I can give those boys and their mommy a big giant SQUEEZE!!!!! Yay!

As for work, I worked another shift as charge nurse. Let's just say we had 6 admissions and everyone stayed in one piece by the time I was done. The nurse that was doing my orientation said that everyone thinks that I am too nice to be charge nurse. I am one tough cookie, though, who has been thru a whole lot more than most and I am still here with a smile on my face. I figure that you have to be a tough cookie in order to have a husband with CF. Years ago, I did not have the best coping skills, but with time, I have learned what works and what doesn't. People forget that I am from NY and I can unleash a beast when necessary :-).

On to our DIY projects! I love our house. The style of our house has always been my dream house, but I think I might have had some blinders on when we decided that it was perfect. The people that lived here before us really did not care about keeping things modern. Slowly but surely, we have been making this a little bit better. We were starting from square one. The kitchen still have the original cabinets and appliances. Sam and I were just thinking about redoing the kitchen, but everything works and it really is not that bad. Instead, we decided to do a bunch of small things instead of just one large thing. This past weekend, we tore out the vanity in the half bath downstairs, put in new tile where the vanity was, and we will be installing the new vanity at some point this week. That will be a later post!

One of the things that irked me so much about the front of our house was the gold lites outside the front door and the faded brown screen door. Enter me and a can of spray paint! All it took was a few new screws to replace the rusty ones in the screen door and a can of Satin Black Rustoleum spray paint. I have decided that spray paint is my new best friend. The blog that I used for the instructions was this little charmer! I did run into an issue when painting the lites. I did not have the time or the patience to to take it apart or remove the glass, or cover the surrounding areas of the house with newspaper. So what did I do? I sprayed the paint in a plastic container and painted the lites with a sponge brush. It did not take very long at all. The most difficult part was coaxing myself to climb up past the third step on the ladder. I clung on for dear life and painted away! Next up was the lite post that sits in our lawn. It was faded and sad looking. This one was easier to do because I was able to spray that. The cost of this project was simply the $6.99 for the can of spray pain as opposed to the cost of 2 new lites and a new lite post!

The following week, I painted the screen door. Just remember to detach it from the little pressure bar thingy - something I forgot to do. After removing all of the other screws, I remembered to detach that and let's just say that after a large crash, I was lucky that the glass panes didn't break! I was able to spray this one because I did take the time to cover the glass with newspaper and tape. While I did get a little bit of paint here and there, I used the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and it took the paint off the glass very easily! The latches got a new coat of paint, too! It looks like a whole new door for just the cost of a can of spray paint and screws. All together, it cost me <$9!

Take a look at the before and after photos below!

Old Rusty Gold Lite...Blah! Newly Painted Black Lite.....Oooh-Ahhhh!



Here are the new lites with the old door.

Old lite post......Ugh! New lite post.......Tada!!!!

Old door.......Sheesh! New door.....Hooray!

This is what happens when you don't wear gloves. It washes off relatively easily, but it stayed around my cuticles for about a week despite massive scrubbing!

My next project was not from Pinterest. It was a recipe that I received from the mother of one of my patients. And boy was it tasty! It is a Lemon Icebox Pie Ice Cream. There was only one thing that I changed. The recipe called for graham crackers, but I used shortbread. The recipe is from Southern Living, but I found it here on this website so I did not have to retype it. I made it with the fantastic new Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment that my mother in law sent me as a surprise. This is definitely going to come in handy!

Yummy, delish ice cream!!!

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the first days of summer! Please don't forget to "Like" PhoebeLu's page on Facebook. I will be doing more projects that will be for sale in the next few weeks. 15% of the profits go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Big hugs to all!

“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.” ~Don Kardong

“...stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. ” ~Robert J. Hastings

“If I could lick the sunset, I’ll bet it would taste like Neapolitan ice cream. 
” ~ Jarod Kintz



Pinterest Project: Week 8 - Heavenly Squished Potatoes and Imitation PB Mirrors

So I am behind.  I am very behind.  That is because I have been doing so many things around the house that I am too tired to blog about it.  I am definitely going to try a little bit better to be on time with my blogs.  Many changes have been done to the house, small changes, but time consuming changes.  In order to avoid this being the longest post known to man kind, I am going to write about the two things that apply most directly to my Pinterest Project, and in future posts, I will write about the other changes. 

Before the Pinterest Project, I am going to just chat a little bit about what has been going on in this crazy head of mine.  It seems as though there is something in the water that is causing everyone to be pregnant.  I can truly, genuinely and honestly say that I am happy for all of my pregnant friends.  Some have been struggling to get there and others just happened to "stumble" there.  I am not sure if I am just more aware of it, but it seems like everyone either has a child or is carrying one via uterus.  Right now, I am at a point where I am very confused.  I am not sure what I want.  Adopting a baby seems like a great thing to do and I am sure that I am going to want that soon, but right now, I am not sure how I feel about us being parents at this current time.  I'm not sure if it is because I am afraid that we won't be able to adopt so it is just easier for me to pretend I don't want one right now.  It still doesn't mean that not having a baby doesn't hurt any less and that our infertility doesn't bother me any more.  Mother's Day was a hard one for me this year.  I had to work and of course that is the famous day when everyone asks if you are a mother.  Well, one of our respiratory therapists asked me and I told her that I was the mother to 8 furry legs and 2 wet noses.  Another employee, who knew my situation, quickly cut in and said that dogs didn't count so no, I was not a mother.  Well, thanks for adding salt to that wound.  Way to be sensitive!  Also what happens a lot of times is every time I feel sick, people always say, "Maybe you're pregnant."  When I tell them it is impossible, they say stranger things have happened or Miracles happen!  Yes, miracles do happen, but I am also not delusional and I also am a firm believer in science.  Trust me people.  If it happened, I would have a whole lot of explaining to do and one very angry husband.  I try to turn our infertility into a positive - we can go out whenever we want to!  We can sleep thru the nite!  I won't have a stomach down to my knees or droopy boobies!  We don't have to worry about day care or babysitters!  We don't have to worry about raising a child in this crazy world!  I know, I know.  We also don't get all of the joys that come with having children.  But humor me here, people.  The whole point is to try to make me feel better.

One other factor that is making it difficult has been work lately.  Right now, we seem to have an increase in child abuse/abandoned children.  It has been really hard seeing these beautiful children who come to use malnourished, scared, lonely.  The scars on their exterior are not nearly as bad as the scars on their interior.  I can only hope that while they were in the hospital with us, our staff was able to leave a positive impression on them.  Seeing these children being treated worse than anybody should be treated is heartbreaking.  Knowing that the people who did this to them are never going to be treated that way even when they are serving their time in prison is very unsettling. 

Now for my 2 Pinterest Projects!  The recipe I tried were squished potatoes.  They were yummy!  This recipe was from a pin on Pinterest, but apparently the pin leads to spam, so I made up my own recipe to go with the photo.  I took some small red potatoes, boiled them for a few minutes until they were fork tender.  Now comes the fun part.  I used Reynold's non-stick foil on a baking sheet, spaced them out evenly, and had a spiffy time squishing them with a glass.  Don't squish too much otherwise they will sort of fall apart.  Just a lite squish to open them up some.  I added a pat of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to each one and then gave them a little spritz with some Crisco butter cooking spray.  They were seasoned with a bit of garlic powder, some parsley and then topped off with some coarse sea salt.  I popped those bad boys in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes until they are nice and brown and crispy.  These made a lovely side with our filet mignon and sauteed spinach. 

Next up was the really cute mirror idea that I got from this fabulous blog here!  Apparently, Pottery Barn has a mirror that is similar to this and I imagine it cost a whole lot more than my new mirror.  Because my new mirror cost.......drum roll please!  TEN BUCKS!!!!  The only things that I had to purchase were the 9 mirrors from the dollar store as well as the foam board from the dollar store.  I already had the duct tape, but they do sell that at the dollar store if you need it.  I also had some ribbon and that is what I am using to hang it.  When I taped the mirrors together, I made sure that the hangers were facing the same way.  I tied the ribbon onto the hangers and, when I get around to it, I will hang it above the mantle.  This whole project took about 12 minutes.  The only reason it took that long was because the dogs were very interested and kept attempting to walk on the mirrors.  Best of all, Sam really likes it!

 I am not really sure why the photo is so crooked.  Perhaps because I took it with my iPhone! 

Hoping that everyone is doing well!  Have a great rest of the week!  Hugs!

"Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them." ~ Lady Bird Johnson

""Hugs can do great amounts of good, especially for children." ~ Princess Diana