Oh Baby, Baby!

The Lord has been gently nudging me over the last 3 years to do some volunteer work.  I wanted to do it, but really didn't know how to go about it.  I looked into it in GA and was going to volunteer for a christian organization that was similar to Goodwill, but quite honestly, I never got around to it.  Then the move happened and life was in such chaos, that I just didn't think that I could do it with everything else.  Well, the "nudging" never really stopped so one day I started looking online for something that I could do.  I found 2 organizations that interested me.  One is called, "Birthright of Columbia" and one is called, "Learning Ally".  The need for Birthright was for baby booties or office work.  I could do both, and would enjoy both.  The Learning Ally is books for the blind or dyslexic and since I love books this one really interested me.  I inquired about both. The Learning Ally would be making recordings of books. I would love to do this, but I will have to invest in a pair of headphones with a USB port before I can try it.  I didn't hear anything back from the first, but thought I better try out making a pair of booties before I give them away!  I used to crochet many years ago, but hadn't done it in a long while.  Conveniently, my crochet hooks were in a box that was accessible (still trying to find things from the move!) so I took them out and bought some yarn.  I am a big pinterest fan and loved all the beautiful booties I had seen there.  I found a few free patterns online and got busy.  Had a few mistakes, and I was a bit rusty, but just like riding a bike, it came back to me:>  I dropped my first attempts off  2 weeks ago and learned a little bit more about the needs of this organization.  The person I left a message for did return my call.  I will hopefully be able to learn a little bit more when I take my next batch in.

Pretty little slippers!

Booties!

First "collection":>

A Nifty Thrifty!

This is the completed desk area.  I  made the curtains
and the lamp was a redo as well.  The desk is an old english
pub table.  The 2 end leaves fit under the top and it can be
a square table. We purchased a cut piece of plexiglass
to protect the table's surface.  They will cut to size
at Lowe's if you ask nicely:>
 The geraniums are a new addition as of yesterday.
The arrival of cold weather prompted their move from the
front porch!

I have to say, I'm a bit discouraged about not having a nice Goodwill near my new house.  When we lived in GA, the Goodwill's were the best I have ever found.  They always had great things and the prices were very reasonable. If I were still there, when I needed a desk, I would just pop in and low and behold we could find something that would work.  Unfortunately, in SC this is not the case.  When we moved back here we needed a desk for the library/office.  I was unable to find one in the thrift stores so I ended up getting one at an antique store.  It looked great and I was excited, but when I got it home, it wasn't as big as I thought and didn't look right in the place I was going to put it. So, I thought I would try to sell it on Craig's list and start over.  The offers that came in were almost all scams so after giving it a month, I decided that the desk was here to stay.  I moved it to a different place and it looked pretty good there.  Then there was a new problem.  I was originally just going to use the wingback chairs that we already had for the desk.  They were not the right size and didn't look right.  So, off I go again to the thrift stores to look for a desk chair!  We do happen to have a thrift store that has an abundance of office chairs and most of them are only $5.  Em bought one earlier in the summer and did a great job fixing it up ( you can check out her blog to see it; you can find a link to it in my sidebar:>).  Mike has a real gift of finding things I just don't see, and once again he came through!  We had checked out all of the chairs and didn't find anything, and then Mike called me over to a back room and showed me a chair that was behind some other ones.  It was perfect and only $5.  We loaded it up and took it home.  In the midst of a garage redo (yes, my life is still in upheaval from moving; will it ever end?!)  we ripped it apart, repainted it, and recovered it.  I thought I would be able to use some of the fabric that I had from previous Goodwill trips, but none of them really seemed to fit the color scheme I was going for, so I found a lovely print at Hobby Lobby.  It cost more then I wanted to spend for it, but, hey sometimes you just have to splurge, right?!  It only cost about $12 so I think it was worth it.  I already had the paint on hand, so the chair cost about $17.00 when all was said and done. Now it's a lovely place for the two teacher's currently living here to work:>  Here's a few pics:

Before...

and after!

This and That

Unfortunately so much time has past since my last post, I don't even know where to begin to update all that has happened in the last few months!  When I last posted, I was painting the trim in the old "new" house.  All of the trim has been finally finished.  It looks nice, but oh my what a huge task it was!  Once the inside painting was finished the next chore to tackle was the garage.  What a job.  The  family that rented our home kept a dog in my garage.  I was unaware of the horrible odor that awaited us when we returned to the house.  It has taken me over 16 months to eliminate the odor, a great deal of time, effort, money, and headaches (literally and figuratively!)  We of course immediately cleaned the garage with every possible kind of cleaner you can imagine.  It helped, but the odor lingered on.  We then had the walls painted by a professional (supposedly, but it wasn't done very well) and we treated the floor to another epoxy coating.  We took off the rubber gasket to the garage door.  We used air fresheners (many different kinds!).  We replaced the moldy wall caused by a broken water heater. (replaced the water heater as well.) Removed the utility sink and had the pipes looked at as they appeared to be leaking, and removed the wood cabinet next to the utility sink that appeared to be rotted due to the leaky pipes.  All this was done in order to put the house on the market.  While the smell was better, I still was not satisfied, but since I was not going to live here, I decided I had done the best I could do.  Besides, the only one that was really bothered by the odor was me!  Well, when the decision was made to move back here, I immediately started to pray about how we could eliminate this odor (and the one under the kitchen sink, but that's a whole other story!).  God was either going to have to eliminate it for me, help me not to be bothered by it, or help us find a way to get rid of it.  Well, it did not miraculously disappear, I was still bothered by it, and the only option left was to somehow fix it.  Soooo, All the trim was sanded and painted, every possible surface was primed with a shellacked  (Zinser primer, supposed to block odors and stains), all the surfaces were repainted, the ceiling was repainted, and the floor was again painted with epoxy paint and a clear coat on top.  We put the clear coat on top this weekend and the major work has finally been completed.  It has been a long, discouraging, tearful, and exhausting ordeal but I believe...THE ODOR APPEARS TO BE GONE!!!!!!!!

New wall color and painted trim (floor hasn't been painted yet)

Painted floor with clear coat on top and on workbench