Home Free

While crafting I love to listen to music. It gets me in the mood and keeps me motivated. Today's musical selection is Home Free. If you haven't ever heard them you MUST check them out! They are a vocal band that just rocks my socks!!
The first song I ever heard from them was last year. I heard them sing Angels We Have Heard on High and was blown away! From there it just got better and better! I had intended to go see them in a town just 10 minutes from me but other obligations kept me from going. I was happy to give the tickets to a lovely couple who is taking good care of a friend who has cancer. They said that Tim Foust rattled the walls with his amazing voice!

They have their own Youtube channel and I just finished watching them sing with the Oak Ridge Boys. The guys did Elvira, a favorite from my younger days.

You can follow them on Facebook as well.
No matter what you do, check them out!

Ain't they cute??

Nails and Glue and Cabinets OH MY!

Blogging has been a bit lacking lately due to the fact that I am moving. The journey has been a long one but it has been fun too!
The in-laws were looking to downsize and I was looking to upsize so they bought a new house and I bought their house. It was a win-win situation. That was in May.
My mother-in-law chose a lovely house and declared that it just needed a couple of new windows and some new flooring. I was elated! I would be in a new house by the end of summer! How wrong I was. Here it is October and I am still not in the house! Why am I not moved you ask? Well because the couple of windows turned into a gut it and remodel it fiasco.

The one good thing that has come out of this is that my father-in-law and I have had some really great times to bond as we built cabinets.

My father in law says always wear safety glasses!

He is an expert cabinet maker (just ask me) and he has all the toys to prove it! I haven't cut, hammered, glued and nailed so much in my life! He says I am the son he always wanted...lol.

One of the things he introduced me to is the joy of using a Kreg Jig. This sucker helps you drill pocket holes without guessing! With that little blue chunk of joy we could crank out well built and amazingly strong cabinets. It was so easy to use and I got so good at it that I was the sole Kreg jigger!

Don't have enough hands to hold the stuff you are building? Need a nice FLAT clamp to help as you put screws into a joint? Look no further than the Kreg Face Clamps. When we were gluing and screwing together the frames this clamp was invaluable. Now you have to be a bit strong to use it because it does clamp tightly.

On the subject of glue and nails; I found that there is no such thing as too much glue or too many nails! I thought that just screwing or nailing was good enough to hold a cabinet together. Not so. It seems that the glue gives it that little something extra in the way of hold. Who knew?
The FIL likes Titebond brand.

All in all we built kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, a pantry and a laundry nook. There were many Texas hot summer days but in the end the results are spectacular! Pictures are below!

Kitchen cabinets pre-paint.

Kitchen cabinets post paint. The drawer fronts and doors are not milled yet. 

Pantry with drawers.

Bathroom vanity.

We aren't done yet but we are about 98% so I should be in by November! : )

Mason Jar Love

Whew! It has been quite a while since my last post but there is a good reason.....I got a new house! This isn't just any house it is a house with my very own workshop! I am in crafting heaven. My husband is concerned that I might never leave said workshop. He has sternly warned me that I cannot spend more than 50% of my time in the shop....little does he know...

The house itself is a French Country style masterpiece. I am in LOVE! There will be many many pictures and many many posts once I get everything settled so stay tuned!

Now, on to the good stuff!

With the changing weather my thoughts have begun to turn to the holidays. The new house has a fireplace! Yes, I did squee the first time I saw it and I continue to squee when I think of decorating that fireplace.

This year's theme will be Mason jars. I am determined to decorate with them and use them in my gifting. These timeless jars have always held a strange fascination for me so what better way to celebrate the first holidays in the new house??

First up - Halloween Ideas

Well, when one needs ideas for Mason jars the best place to go is to a site dedicated to crafting with them. I stumbled across Mason Jar Crafts Love and found a veritable plethora of ideas. The one that I will be trying first is the candy corn Mason jars pictured below. 

Image belongs to Mason Jar Craft Love. 

Next I went for the spooky jars. I found some great ideas over at Put It In A Jar. These spooky Halloween luminaries are a great idea for the mantle or the front porch.

Image belongs to Put It In A Jar.

If you have a Cricut (which I do!) you can cut out nifty little things to put on jars that have been painted or even left clear. When I get mine done I will update this post but for now let me share what the folks over at Your Homebased Mom did. These Halloween luminaries are very simple but very cute!

Image belongs to Your Homebased Mom.

Last but not least, if you are looking for inspiration always jot over to Pinterest for ideas just make sure that you let someone know you are going in because if you are like me they will need to send a rescue party for you because you are so far into the posts that you lose track of time!

Keyhole Gardens......WHO KNEW?

So it seems that they have these nifty things called Keyhole Gardens. From what I can tell they started in Africa as a way to grow food even in a drought.

Of course once I found out about them I immediately went to Pinterest to see what I could find and wow did I find a TON of stuff! It seems that you can use just about anything in these gardens as long as the items add to the soil.

Here are some suggestions for items to go into the garden:
grass clippings
wood ash
metal cans
cardboard
vegetable matter
cow manure

The layout is pretty simple. You line up whatever you want to use as a border in the shape of an upside down PacMan. You then put a mesh cylinder in the middle to hold your compost and water. As the water seeps down it leeches the nutrients from the compost and distributes it to your plants. It is an almost perfect system!
The one thing they suggested is to have the soil slope out from the mesh center so you would have adequate drainage.

There are a TON of different plans out there. You just have to find the one that is right for you!

Here is a side view of a garden. I found this one on Inspiration Green dot com.

I found a video that shows how they do it in Africa. Take a look!

I will be posting pictures when I get mine built! : )