Quick Fix Mama

Tacky Chair No More!

2011-08-24T19:03:00.003-05:00

So... my desk was lonely, it needed a chair. And I needed my husband to quit dragging a chair from our dining room table over to the desk and leaving 4 little lines on my floor that multiply every time he does it.

I found this at a little junk/antique store in Tyler and decided that since it was sturdy, had fairly clean lines, I didn't have to make a seat for it and it was only $30, it was a winner! :)

I was going for more of a mustard yellow, but due to the limited selection at our Hobby Lobby and my lack of patience to make another stop, Rustoleum's Summer Squash was what I finally settled with. After it dried I realized just how pale it was and got a little discouraged. I wanted to antique it anyway so I just crossed my fingers that a little stain would darken it enough. And I LOVE the end result!!!

I recovered the seat in Brown burlap, it could have been tighter, but it will work until I decide I want something different. :)

I'm happy, the husband is happy because it's not "too girly"... it's a good day in Quick Fix Mama's house!

Now... where is fall?! I'm soooo ready to decorate for fall!

Linking up to:

Debbie's Newbie Party

Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got party

Tatertots & Jello's Weekend WrapUp party

Sunday Showcase

Pedestal Table FAIL!

2011-07-18T10:18:00.007-05:00

A "mama's corner" was a total afterthought with this house... but once I decided that I wanted a little space of my own, I was obsessed! I had to find a way to make it work! Before the house was even finished I had bought a chair (at Marshalls for $150!!) and started working on a side table all while having NO IDEA where I would have room for them! lol

The idea for this little beauty/disaster came from a link I saw on facebook during my hiatus from blogging. I can't remember who linked it, but immediately decided to give it a shot. The total cost for her project was only $5.50! If only I were so lucky! I need to get better at doing things the cheap way...

My lamp was found at a thrift store... and BOY were they proud of this ugly thing!!! $10!! Sadly all of my "before" and "in the process" pictures were lost when I got a new phone. (yet another reason I need to find that darn camera charger!)

I primed the lamp base and spray painted it with Krylon's Almond color. The ever opinionated husband of mine chimed in and said "It's too short!" So I found an unfinished wood plate at Hob Lob and Gorilla Glued it to the bottom of the lamp to give it more height and a more sturdy base. Trouble with that was it bubbled out and dried all foamy and ugly. I took a kitchen knife (made a mental note to buy an xacto knife) and trimmed off the foamy stuff.

Next I found this lovely piece for the top. It was at Hob Lob in the garden decor section... I got it for 50% off which I was happy about (until I went in last week and found it 80% off, darn the luck!) It was tough to glue on with all the holes in the top so I feel like it's just barely hanging on.

This piece led to adding the antiquing paint to the base to make it match, which NATURALLY accented the spots where I trimmed off the ugly foam! I was ready to pull my hair out at this point... I finally decided to cover that disaster by hot gluing some hemp string I had on hand around the base.

I added the glass to keep things from falling through the holes, I know it would look better if I had a piece cut to fit, but 1. I was OVER spending money on this project and 2. the topper was bowing in the middle and the glass doesn't fit flat on it. I even tried getting the hubby to stand on it and the sucker still wouldn't cave back in!

It's a pretty little thing but man was it a pain in the butt! And it's not exactly sturdy enough to have a 2 year old around it. I hold my breath every time he walks near it, afraid he will knock the wobbly glass off and cut himself. I'm going to add some E6000 glue to the top today to see if that strengthens the hold any, if not...I will be on the hunt for a new table to put there. :)

UPDATE: The additional glue helped to make it a little more sturdy and while I was at it, I glued the glass to the iron piece. Hopefully this will ease my mind until I find a new project for that space. :)

Linking up to:

TDC's Before & After Party

debbiedoos newbie party

Sunday Showcase

TT&J's Weekend Wrapup Party

Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got Party

Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin It party

Adding color... on the cheap :)

2011-07-07T21:33:00.003-05:00

So... we knew when building this house that it would not be our "forever home", and for that reason I went very neutral with my paint choices. I'm happy with that decision... I'm a pretty "neutral" type of gal anyway, but now I am realizing that all of my dark brown accents I had from the other house are pretty boing in a neutral room.

BRING ON THE COLOR!!!

But cheaply, because (due to the mess the first crappy contractor left us with) finishing this house drained the savings account.

I saw this cute little 4th of July project on tatertots & jello's facebook page using scrapbook paper and decided to do something simmilar that could stay up until I get sick of it. :)

Jamielyn did a great job at explaining how to do it, so you can check out her tutorial. All I did differently was decide that my dollar tree stapler was junk and toss that step after 2 failed attempts. Once I got all of my little flowers put together I hot glued them to a pretty iorn piece I found at Hob Lob for 50% off.

Please don't judge... The desk is a work in progress. lol

Sorry about the crappy lighting... the camera charger got lost in the move. Hopefully it shows up soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:
I'm Lovin It with Tidy Mom
Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrap-up Party
Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got Party
Debbie's Newbie Party

Back in the swing of things!

2011-07-01T22:43:00.002-05:00

Wow it's been a while! I have missed blogging and crafting, but we had a huge family crisis and once I took time off to be with my family it was hard to get back into the swing of things. I am very happy to say that our crisis had a happy ending and our family got the extreme honor of seeing God work a miracle on my sweet brother.

We have finally finished building our house, and with that my inspiration has returned! I am so excited about being back into my crafting mode!

After seeing the adorable wreath that Jen over at Tatertots And Jello made I decided to make something similar. :)

I had a straw wreath that I had purchased at a thrift store for $0.50 that had been just sitting in a drawer waiting for me to find the motivation again. I really should have wrapped it in plain red ribbon first, but... living up to my nickname... I was too lazy and in too much of a hurry, which caused me to need 3 packages of eyelash yarn when I probably could have gotten away with maybe 1 or 2. Add ribbon, hot glue, scrapbook paper, rusty stars I had lying around and a toilet paper tube and you have my last minute 4th of July wreath :)

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! We are having about 50 people over for a fish fry to celebrate FINALLY completing the house. I'm tying not to focus too much on the fact that there is still more decorating to be done... but I just might end up with hives lol.

Linking up to these parties:
TT&J's Weekend Wrap Up Party
Not Just A Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got Party

Mickey Mouse Party!

2011-03-15T21:13:00.001-05:00

Between the birthday party, getting things ready for the new house and our Internet being on the fritz I've been MIA from Blogland for almost a month! I've had some severe withdraws!

Now on the the party crafts!
I made the Mickey mouse head for the cake topper out of Styrofoam balls, toothpicks and a wooden skewer I snatched off my husbands plate at Chili's when he ordered their "big mouth burgers" lol. I used card stock, mod podge and toothpicks for the kiddo's name on his cake.
For the kiddo's party we served cake, Cheetos, goldfish, cheddar "quakes", gogurt, fruit snacks, cookies and 3 flavors of applesauce. I forgot about snacks for the adults in attendance when I was shopping. lol

I mod-podged mouse heads and a #2 on white lunch sacks for the favor bags. I made Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears using this wonderful tutorial. They were displayed in a flower pot that I painted red and black. The mouse ears were a bigger hit with the adults than the kids, as you can tell by the picture of my mom and aunt below...

I used small floral foam ring to make the centerpiece for the gift table (which i am kicking myself for forgetting to take a picture of). The inspiration came from this adorable wreath.

I used a knife to trim the squared off edges before pinning the balloons in, because I wanted a rounded look for the balloon ring.

I placed another mickey mouse head made of Styrofoam balls in the center of the ring and then placed the two on top of another black and red painted flower pot. I learned what effect impatience and spray paint has on Styrofoam during this project... another instance of my Quick Fix Mama tendencies end up coming back to bite me. I bought new ones and started over and gave the bigger ball another coat of black paint, promise! I just forgot to take pictures of the finished product.
We rented a bounce house and had lots of fun toddler friendly toys... even the adults had a blast!

Mother Nature has a huge vendetta against Quick Fix Husband and I. The kiddo's party was supposed to have been at the new house, on the new deck, but of course it got cold and rained the night before the party and off and on during the day of the party. Thank goodness we were able to find a back up venue... warm, dry and FREE! Can't beat that!

Linked to:
show me what ya got #15

How we spent our weekend

2011-02-21T20:31:00.003-06:00

We tackled our first DIY project on the new house this weekend! To save money on contractor costs we built the railing for our deck ourselves. Plus I wanted it toddler proofed before Quick Fix Son's birthday party in two weeks.

Day 1 we had alot of help so I did more child entertaining, spray painting patio furniture and supervising :) While Quick Fix Husband, Father in Law, Daddy and Brother started the project.

They put 2x4s horizontally on the top and bottom, then every third of the way across each section they put one vertically. And I wanted it to be Westie-proofed as well, because as with most terriers... they think they are invincible, so I didn't want a vet bill because one jumped off the (very high) deck. So we came up with the idea of lining it with chicken wire. Redneck? or Rustic?? lol
They stretched the chicken wire tightly and stapled it into place, then mirrored the 2x4 pattern on top of the wire so that it was sandwiched between the boards. They got a little more than halfway done on Day 1.

Day 2 we had a little less help, so I got to get my hands dirty! :)

It was my first time using power tools and I believe I'm hooked!!! I got to use the nail gun and the saw. (Note the nervous onlookers LOL)

We used 1x6s to top off the railing and it gave me a nice wide shelf to set plants and whatever else on. I really love the finished product.

I bought cushions for the loveseat today. Can't wait to take them out there tomorrow to see if they will match :)

QF Husband and I plan to spend every evening in those two chairs relaxing and watching the kiddo ride his tricycle up and down the deck :)

I'll talk more about the furniture later, since they were projects in themselves. :)
Thanks for reading!

Linked up to: show me what ya got party

sunday-showcase

debbie's newbie party

Weight Watchers Cheesecake!

2011-02-15T23:20:00.003-06:00

Yep, you read that right... Diet Cheesecake and even better... it's got CHOCOLATE in it!!!

So, I'm 5 weeks into my Weight Watchers journey. I managed to loose my baby weight on my own but now I'm working on the "marriage weight". It's a never ending cycle, isn't it?

Anyway, when I saw people posting recipes I thought it might be fun to post Weight Watcher recipes that I have tried and can vouch that they really are good. Don't worry, I won't share the yucky ones... I try at least 1 new WW recipe a week and so far this is the only one I like enough to share.
Oh and if anyone knows of anyone else sharing WW recipes please let me know who they are! I would love to try theirs and make sure I don't post something that they have. Ok... onward!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Ingredients:
-10 oreos crushed (Quick fix mama used an oreo pie crust, cause she didn't wanna have to crush the oreos lol)
-8oz fat free cream cheese (in the box)
-8oz light cream cheese (in the tub)
-1 cup of sugar (see we are allowed to have the good stuff!)
-2 tbsp all purpose flour
-1 cup cottage cheese
-2 tsp almond extract
-6 large egg whites
-3/4 cup MINI choc. chips

Instructions:
-Preheat oven to 325 degrees
-lightly coat spring form pan with cooking spray and spread cookie crumbs lightly over bottom of pan
-Using an electric mixer mix together cream cheeses until well blended then add sugar and flower and mix again.
-in a food processor or blender puree cottage cheese until smooth. Add cottage cheese and almond extract to cream cheese mixture and mix again.
-Add egg whites and mix once more.
-Stir in 1/2 cup of choc. chips.
-Pour into spring form pan and sprinkle remaining chips on top.
-Bake until cheesecake puffs and center is almost set. About 60 minutes.
-Let cool completely and then run knife around edges to loosen and release pan sides. Cover and chill overnight. Cut into 12 slices. 1 slice =6 points

I can really taste the almond extract which seems a little odd for cheesecake, but it doesn't taste like diet food so I could care less at this point! :)

Ok, so the reason mine doesn't look like theirs --- Piggy Piggy decided that she didn't want MINI chips, she wanted the BIG (normal sized) ones! I mean really, you don't come between a girl and her chocolate. Well, once I stirred in the chips I realized I was only hurting myself. There would have been chocolate in every bite if I had gone with the minis. So I skipped putting the chips on top because I figured I was being bad enough with the big chips. My suggestion is to stick with the minis, I know I will next time!

Enjoy! And thanks for reading.

Photo credit: weightwatchers.com

Linked up to: tatertots and jello weekend-wrap-up-party
Sunday Showcase Party
newbie party at Debbie's

FREE 5 minute Tassels

2011-02-12T00:07:00.005-06:00

I have been accumulating corks for a while now thinking "I can totally do something cute with those one day" plus I just love how they look in an apothecary jar in my kitchen. :) Anyway, I was shopping the other day in one of those cute little, unique to your own town type stores and saw these adorable tassels made from book pages and a champagne or sparkling wine cork... ya know the mushroom looking ones that go "POP!!" when you open it. I fell in LOVE, was totally going to buy two until I saw the $20 price tag!! I decided then and there I could make my own. (My apologies to the store owner, but honestly... you were asking for it with a $20 price tag) So here is a list of my materials...

Scissors

floral wire (that I spray painted black)

champagne cork

5 pages of an old yellowed book

Jute or Hemp string

Screw in eye hooks (or whatever the technical term for those are)

and your trusty hot glue gun

I cut the pages in half and trimmed off the bottom (or top depending on what half you are using) and one side of the page. I hot glued the pages together in the top corner of the pages on the side that I did not cut the white margins off of. Then I cut little strips, no exact science... just snip snip... maybe 1/4th of an inch wide, leaving it still intact at the top. Next hot glue the pages to the cork where the bottom part meets the top. Don't pull too hard when gluing in place or you'll get to start all over like I did.... such a dummy.

Then I wrapped the floral wire tightly around the pages and added a dab of hot glue at the ends to hold it in place. Screw in the hook and tie the sting to the loop. And you are done! QF husband even liked them... i was in shock!

Thanks for reading!

Linked up to: Tatortots and Jello's weekend wrap up party
                     Sunday Showcase Party
                     debbiedoos newbie party
                     NJAH's "show me what ya got" party

Goodwill Frame

2011-02-07T23:39:00.002-06:00

I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of this UGLY Goodwill frame before I started painting. It was soo ugly I was in a hurry to cover up the dingy ugly stain that was on the wood. I got the frame for $2 at Goodwill, the background is scrapbook paper from Hob Lob and the lettering was also picked up somewhere in Hob Lob, I think the scrapbook section as well.

FYI: it was impossible to get a pretty hand print out of my (almost) 2 year old. We practiced several times before taking the plunge on the scrapbook paper. Looking back, it wasn't very smart of me to only get 1 sheet, but we managed.

This was my first attempt at antiquing and I'm fairly pleased. It could definitely be improved but I was very nervous, so it could have been worse.

Thanks for reading!

This post has been linked to: NJAH's "Show me what ya got" party

tatertots and jello weekend wrap up party

Junk Store Table

2011-02-03T08:58:00.003-06:00

I have been obsessed with having a "cozy feeling" porch and deck since seeing them almost completed on the new house. Consequently, I have been on a mission for the last year to find the perfect patio furniture (at a low price) to take up the massive amount of outdoor living space that we have. Yes, our house is taking THAT LONG to be built... more on that story some other time. Anywho... I was out "junkin" with my mom when I stumbled upon this ugly thing... Black and rusty. ICK! But I liked its shape...

Upon talking to the owner of the store I learned that it had 3 matching chairs.

He decided that he was desperate for space and told me that I could have the table and 3 chairs for $60! AND he would throw in the glass top for free if I would promise to have it gone within the week!! :) SCORE!

When I got it home I realized that one of the chairs was damaged, so I am only using 2 at the moment.

I got new grippy things for the glass, and three cans of ORB spray paint with a gift card at Lowes and went to work.

It's hard to tell the difference in the pictues but the new paint job made a WORLD of difference. I moved it to our temporary front porch and added cushions that I bought at TJ Maxx and a flower pot from Ross, both purchased last summer. The flower pot needs flowers but I'm having trouble deciding what I want to put in it right now. Here's the finished product....

Linked up to: Sunday Showcase Party

Weekend Wrap Up Party

TDC's Before and After Party

Copycat Wreath

2011-01-31T15:03:00.005-06:00

Around Christmas while drooling over all the beautiful things posted on the MANY linky parties, I saw a gorgeous wreath made by Myra over at My Blessed Life. I immediately decided I must make one for myself.... Too bad my ADD kicks into overdrive when crafting. What could have probably been done in one afternoon by a normal crafter took me THREE WEEKS! That's right, you read it correctly the first time. Little by little I pieced this sucker together and am in love with the final product. Myra gave a wonderful tutorial, so I will skip the details and just let you know the areas that I lived up to my wonderful nickname :)

For the base Myra used a foam board that she cut into a wreath form which is probably a more cost effective way to do it, but finding objects the right size to trace just seemed like too much trouble to me. So I ran off to Hob Lob and picked up the biggest grapevine wreath I could find.

The above picture was taken when I realized I was down to 2 pine cones and 2 just wasn't enough... I was determined to finish the wreath right then, but it was a very damp evening and all of the pine cones in the yard were closed up tight. After googling how to dry them I found that you could put them in the oven for 30 minutes or in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time, but was warned that they catch fire easily... of course, 30 minutes was too long for Quick Fix Mama to wait, so microwave it is! I was RELENTLESSLY ridiculed by QF Husband for making the entire house smell like a camp fire. (I didn't start a fire, but it did start smoking LOL)

Once finished I decided it was too big and needed something to take up space in the middle. So I took floral wire and wrote out Love with it... interestingly enough, my awful handwriting still exists when I'm not even writing.

Then I wrapped it with some Jute that I had laying around. It took wrapping it three times to cover 98% of the wire. I learned that it is best to keep twisting the same direction the whole time and to keep the twists the same distance apart throughout. It would have made for a much cleaner look.

TaDa! The final product... 3 weeks in the making

Thanks for the great tutorial, Myra!

Sorry about the picture quality... I'm still learning about the settings and the lighting in our rent house doesn't help much. I'm off to read up on pitcure taking tips. Have a great day!

Linked up to NJAH's weekly party

Sunday Showcase Party

My First Blogland Craft!

2011-01-28T18:27:00.002-06:00

I have done a few little projects and crafty things since starting my blog, but I wanted to save my first one that I posted for something I didn't blatantly copy. Now, by no means am I saying that this is an original idea... I just don't recall seeing it and thinking to myself "I'm soooo doing that!!"

I wanted it to be Valentiney (hmm pretty sure that's not a word, but just go with it) but I think it will be really pretty at Christmas too...

Here's what I used...

I bought small bunches of silk roses at the dollar store for $3 a bunch... I ended up using 6. I got the wreath form at Goodwill for $0.59. A floral wreath would have been sooo much easier, but 59 cents is 59 cents!! :)

Wire cutters were needed to snip the flowers off short so there wouldn't be so much to stab into the wreath. Here's where "Quick Fix Mama" shines through... I thought it would be quicker and easier to just shove the flowers into the wreath instead of hot gluing. Well, naturally they started falling out! So each flower got secured with hot glue from there on out. Little did I know, I'd be adding these to the supply list.....

I gave myself a WHOPPER of a burn on my forearm while doing this. Not sure how but I did a really good job at it! lol

I want to hang it with some ribbon, but totally forgot to pick some up when I was in Hob Lob today.... between Quick Fix Son and Quick Fix Husband I was lucky that I got out of there having only forgotten 1 thing! So, here's the finished product (until I get ribbon that is...) :)

Also linked up to NJAH's weekly party

A little background info...

2011-01-03T13:57:00.000-06:00

I will try to make this short and sweet.... I'm not the best housekeeper in the world. I have improved since getting married 3 years ago, but I still have my lazy days. Those lazy days, as enjoyable as they are at the time, have a way of coming back to bite me in the rear! For example, if someone decides to swing by for a visit with little to no notice, I go into panic mode. Running around "straightening" as I like to call it... but in actuality I am just hiding the things that are lying around making my house look cluttered or dirty. lol When my husband caught on to this he began saying "Hey quick fix mama... where did you put the....." because he never could find whatever it was he was looking for since I had stashed it out of sight, not taking the time to put it in its proper place. Unfortunately, as much as I try to improve my house keeping skills I still manage to occasionally live up to that nickname.
We are currently building a house and I have gotten massive amounts of inspiration from the ladies in blogland. I have mainly decided to start a blog so that I can keep up with and comment on all of the wonderful blogs that I find. Plus, I would love to have a sounding board for house ideas and figuring out my decorating style.
We'll see how this goes... :)