The Before and After (mini) Refinishing

Hi, here is the cabinet in the guest bathroom.  There was wear to the finish mainly where the previous owners let water go down the front and then where you'd grab the doors to open them at the top.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

AFTER WITH FLASH TO SHOW THE SHINE!

In the worst part, where there was some raised grain from water damage, it didn't fix that like sanding and a full refinishing would have done but rather this product helped to blend those places in with the other wood and it really created a nice shine.  I put 2 coats on it for more protection.  Best thing is that it was really easy...clean 'em...let 'em dry...use fine steel wool on the worst place to get any flaking finish off and then shake the bottle, open it and apply some to a cloth and wipe it on the surface.
I think they turned out nice, what do you think?

Front Garden is DONE!

Here's some before and after pics of the front garden.  This one is from Spring 2004:
















Like my weeds?  This one is from Spring 2006:

Yeah, these are the plants that will finally be put into the soil.  This pic below is a couple months ago after the cement was put in to support the moving gates.

This is after the soil amendment has been added, the soil turned over and almost ready to put in the permanent plants:

TA DA!

We have succulents, many different Geranium plants, 2 rose bushes, an Hibiscus bush, several Lily of the Nile (purple flowers that you see) and I threw some California Poppy and Alyssum seed (little white flowered low growing plant) that will come up when it's ready!  These are all plants that conserve water when they are established which is important for our lack of rain fall we have here.

My first attempt at a panoramic picture taken in 3 photos and then stitched together using the software that came with my camera.  I should have taken it aimed more at the sky than at the ground.  Cool tool none the less!  If you click on the pic is should take you to a full page picture.

Now, if there was a magic way to get rid of the cracks in the driveway cement!  Bye for now!

So far so good...

Hi,
An update on my refinishing project.  All went well and I took before pics but it's been overcast in the mornings to take the after pics and I haven't been home until dark being busy with work.  So, I plan on taking some after pics tomorrow.  I finished the smallest bathroom cabinet.  In the areas where there was missing finish and color it will need to have a second coat.  They're all shiny now and look sooo much better!  It was so easy, too.  I promise, pics in next post.

The front garden is now OFFICIALLY DONE except for occasional weeding and daily watering until the roots are established.  I took pics but they didn't come out good so I'm taking more tomorrow of them as well.

I also want to apologize if  you saw some ads on my blog.  I use Firefox as my browser (love it) instead of Explorer and there is an add-on that blocks all ads (looooovve it especially on sites that have a ton of ads that slow down page loading).  Well, I went to add a couple of new gadgets and they weren't working right so I disabled the ad blocker and noticed that I had some google ads appearing on a couple of gadgets I already had.  Then I went to find out how they got there because I never signed up for "monetizing my blog".  Talk about a maze from hell on "blogger help" trying to figure out that so instead, I just deleted those gadgets.  I'll research that later.

If you have a Trader Joe's near you this is my latest fav from there.  If you like blue cheese dressing and pecans you'll like this:

Here are some pics of my darling niece's dance recital:

She was in 8 dances and these are just pics of 4.  She did so well, she's such a beautiful dancer!

I'll end off with how amazing mother nature is.  Look at the Lobelia flowers growing out of the cracked pot.  Yes, I need to repot this vine plant.  I'll get to it one of these days....

Now I'm off to the weekend, bye for now!

Woo Hoo! It's a 3 day weekend

Hi, I getta have 3 days off (of course I don't get paid) but there is so much to do STILL to get the house ready to list so more gardening for me and this:

It's a wood finish restorer from a company I found out about 7 years ago and now it's time to try it out!  UPS just delivered it right now to my shop, YAY!!!!!!

There is no removing the doors off the hinges, sanding or stripping involved.  Where finish is missing use super fine steel wool and apply 2 coats.

Would I rather be going to my sis' BBQ and taking in the movie "Knight and Day", yes.  BUT, this has got to get done, the sooner the better!  AND it's a treat not to have to drive anywhere.

I got 2 bottles of the medium color for the kitchen and the 2 bathroom cabinets and one dark color bottle for one of the bathrooms and some of the baseboards in the livingroom.  Where the sun has bleached the kitchen cabinets in the eating area I may use the dark color instead of the medium to tone down the orange-ishness.  I got their wood cleaner, too as I didn't want any chance of it not working correctly and you know how kitchens can be, even if you clean it there is small grease particles that get in the air and go all over so cleaning wood is the other project this weekend.  I'll post some before, during and after of this project.  Now, I know that I won't finish the whole job but I'll have 3 sweet days of work time.  Ya, it's not much of a holiday of relaxing for me but I gotta get this house done since we packed up so many things already a year ago and I just want to get moved and settled in somewhere new.  I miss all my crafty stuff.  I will letcha know how this stuff works in case you have any wood items that could use some sprucing up!

I got some new rubber gloves and two 6-packs of flowers for the shady part of the garden; impatiens and begonias from OSH last night.  There were quite a few people there shopping and standing in the checkout line so I'm not the only crazy weekend cabinet/garden makeover warrior here.

Impatiens

Tonight I'm going to the grocery store and only buying ready to eat food because this gal is not cookin' anything.

I will fit in some crochet time since I decided to keep part of the top instead of frogging it all.  I'm saving the band part and making a scarf with it and then the rest of the yarn will be for a summer hat, which I haven't decided on the one I want to make yet but I'm getting closer.

I'm adding 3 tiny grannies to each side and then do hdc stitches the rest of the way to make it long enough to be called a scarf.  My work won't be all wasted and I could use a soft scarf on some fall or spring mornings.

I sure do hope that you get some time off this weekend and do whatcha want.  Let's celebrate and be grateful for what FREEDOMS we have left here in America.

Before I Frog...

Hi, here's a pic of my Sea Breeze top before I take it apart.  It was not fitting right so I am gonna make summer hats out of the yarn instead.  But, first off I didn't use the recommended yarn and second when I got home from purchasing the yarn there was a pattern included on the overwrap for washcloths and all of a sudden I had this feeling of horror that I would be wearing a washcloth for Gods' sake so...I kept at it anyway and then after I tried it on, decided it wasn't really flattering on me so before I spent more time on it and then not liking it... well, it's gonna be made into 1-3 hats as many as will use up the yarn and may be use this pattern without all the flowers:

or this one:

or this one with a small flower:

How do you think I got the idea for turning it into a hat?

This is the bodice of the Sea Breeze top but looks more like a hat for someone's huge friggin head!!  Go ahead, LOL!!!!  Supposed to look like this when it was done:

I know I have much to learn about crocheting.  I'm doing my best not to get discouraged!  I have had success with hats so I'm going there.
Bye for now...

I Love Heart Berries

The friendly neighborhood Fruit Man came by the shop today and wondered if I needed any strawberries.  Amazing how he remembers that I'll buy those from him in June and to have him come today when I was thinking about getting some tomorrow!  Psychic or a good salesperson?? 

Anyway, I have been deciding since I don't fit in many of my summer pants that I need to cut down on calories or exercise more.  I've never had to really count calories or do major dieting but as the years go by I keep gaining a little here and there.  Usually what I would do is if a fav pair of pants got a bit snug we'll I'd just cut out some carbs and that seemed to work until now.  Soooo, I decide to do a little counting and pay more attention to the amount I'm eating and not eating late, like past 7:30ish.  Then what did I come home from the store with last Sat?  Whipping cream instead of half in half for my coffee...darn the carton sure looks the same.  Just what I needed.  I was already considering using milk instead sooo... I decided to get some berries and make a shortcake this Sunday to use the whipcream up and share the LOVE and the FAT with hubby and son. 

So that's what I'll be doing along with more gardening.  Which reminds me I need to go and get some topsoil because I'm getting close to finishing up the new garden.  So off to OSH I'm going now.  I just love that they have the drive-thru and they put the heavy stuff in your car for you.  Happy weekend to you!

First Day of Summer!

What a pretty day it has been.  Just the perfect temperature and the right amount of sun!  I know I haven't posted in awhile, it's just that I've been so busy trying to get the plants in the garden before it is so darn scorching hot that it burns them before they get rooted.  Often, I'd stay after work a bit and write a post or get the next post ready to put up but I have been leaving right at 5:30 so I'd get home and work outside until I just couldn't see any longer.  At the same time my poor shop is getting all back logged as I haven't been staying on top of things and my back room, although not perfectly organized... well today, I couldn't walk in there to put away some new picture boxes that I got on Saturday so I stayed after today to tidy up a bit.  I found some bottles of Trader Joes's Orange Cream Soda that I forgot I had back there on the shelf so...cleaning up does have a perk or two!

I decided to frog my Sea Breeze top that I've been making out of Lily cotton.  I made the top band too long so I frogged it a bit and then I added several rows to the bottom and then I tried it on over the weekend and I thought that it wasn't going to be flattering to my shape so why continue with it if I'll never wear it????  It was heavy in my opinion for a summer top and I read that 100% cotton yarn can get to stretching so I'm going to make a couple of summer hats out of the yarn instead.  The pattern called for a part cotton and part acrylic yarn and I didn't like the sound of synthetics for the hot summer but then I chose the cotton and it doesn't seem right either, hmmm.  Since I'm new to crochet, I still have many things to learn!!

I'll have some pics put up soon of my niece's dance recital and some of my front garden.  Enjoy today's Summer Solstice our longest daylight of the year.  I'm gonna go home now and search my patterns for summer hats.  Have a lovely evening!