Friends From Far Away

 

We are blessed with many wonderful friendships.  Some of our friends live close to us, and others live farther afield.

  These dear friends came all the way from Utah last week, and we were grateful to spend a whole day with them while they were in town.

These are only some of the pictures which show snippets of our time together.  The fun and good conversation, the love and affection we share for each other are a blessing to every one us Orrs!

Enjoy!

 

Kate organized a couple of dances with the younger girls, and not only did she do their hair and makeup and costuming, she also helped them create “stage” names.

       

Even the boys watched the show, and seemed to agree with us that it was adorable.

          But of course parents are usually the best audience.

 

The moms and kids had lunch together, and then later the dads joined us all for dinner.

 

After dinner, we spent some time outside…

Watching the kids on the zip line…

 

     

 

 

 

        

 

And some of the adults too..

 

 

And Luke set up a dirt bike trail/run for the boys, where they spent a great deal of their time throughout the whole day.

 

                      

 

It was so much fun.  A day we will all remember.

 

  

Hurry Back Friends!!!!  We love you!!

An Old Sink Gets A New Life

 

The week before Luke’s Open House, I finally found an old wall mount sink that looked perfect for the mudroom.  And it was a terrific buy for $25!  The picture of it on CL made it look pretty good, as though maybe just a little cleaning up would be necessary.

But when Glenn arrived home with the sink in the back of his truck, one glance told me the picture must have been exceptionally good, because the sink looked exceptionally bad.  In fact, I wondered if it was worth 25 dollars.

 

Why, oh why, didn’t I take a before shot?!

I think I was in a hurry to make it look better than it did, so Glenn wouldn’t begin to reconsider the investment of time and money I have been putting into CL!

It took a serious amount of work to clean the rust off of it.  I tried leaving a rag soaked in vinegar on the rustiest spots for a while, but if it did anything, I couldn’t tell.  It was Barkeeper’s Friend that eventually made the difference.  We also poured several cups of muriatic acid into the overflow drain to try to get all of the rust and corrosion out of it.  We were mostly successful with that. 

And then I used a 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and began sanding all the flaking old paint, which was peeling off about 1/3 of the sink. Let me say, this took quite a while.

After sanding, I used a spray primer and then sanded again.  Then I primed again.  And sanded again.  Do you see a pattern? 

Finally it was good enough for me. 

Glenn had purchased a special tile and tub epoxy kit by Rustoleum, made especially for porcelain tubs and sinks.  It had an activator and a base which I mixed together, and was extremely pungent, so I applied it outside.  It was like nothing I’ve used before.  It was thick, and I couldn’t do any touch up as I went along.  I painted with a small brush, in one direction all around the sink.  After letting the first coat dry, I did a second and that was it.

The result?  Oh my goodness!  I couldn’t believe how much better the sink looked!  That stuff was just amazing.  It made the sink look new.  Here, see for yourself..

 

 

It really is that shiny, too.  Dry!

We had to let the paint cure for 3 days before it could get wet.  And for several days, whenever I walked by it, I could smell a faint “paint” smell from the epoxy.

But we love it! 

A little shelf with an old mirror, and some other cute little accessories will look very nice around it someday. 

But for now she’s doing her job cleaning little hands, and not so little hands, many, many times a day.

 

Have a great weekend!

Recycled Bags = Porch Pillow

 

A few weeks ago, I read about using recyclable grocery bags as pillow forms.  I thought this was incredibly creative!  Not to mention affordable.  The blogger who demonstrated this was Diane at inmyownstyle.com.  She has some really fun and inspiring ideas and I love looking through her project files.

I especially loved the pillow idea because I have tons of plastic bags, and lots of scrap fabric to make pillows.  It took about 60 bags or so, rolled up and squished into one regular size plastic bag.  I taped the bag closed once I had it stuffed as full as I wanted it.  Then I just cut my fabric.  I made one pillow about 12inches by 15, using an envelope style cover so I can easily take the bag out if I need to wash the cover.

The fabric is a cheerful floral print by Heather Bailey.  I love her vintage style prints.

The other fabric was a smaller, rectangular piece of Heather Bailey.  It was all I had of this print, but I love it and really wanted to use it for my other pillow.  So I just shaped the bags to fit the fabric piece. To make it work, I decided to leave one end open and use some ribbon for ties.  But this meant the inside would be visible on that end, so I made another little envelope style cover for the bags first, and then the outer slip.  I had some cute pink and white polka dot that I liked with the green floral print.

 

 

 

Although the pillows look like regular pillows, you can hear a little crackling kind of sound when you squeeze them.  Like the sound of about 60 plastic bags squished together.   

But I noticed that the tighter I squished the bags into their main bag, the less I could hear it. 

 

All the same, no one has suspected what they were made of, or probably even cared what they were made of, unless I’ve pointed it out.

Which of course I have done, with my family and close friends!  But you all won’t tell, will you?! 

 

Now go make one yourself!