Silent Auction Deals

Doug and I go to a lot of silent auctions.

 

A lot.

 

Tonight we went to one.

Here we are in our "informal" silent auction attire!

If you have never been to a silent auction, well, it's an interesting thing. Some silent auctions are built around a dinner/dance and a live auction. Some silent auctions are put with benefit performances or athletic games. And some silent auctions, like tonight's was just a silent auction for an organization with appetizers served.

In case you wondered, we go to a ton of these events because we are important people involved in a lot of organizations around town and Doug is a business owner. In fact, we had been at tonight's event maybe 10 minutes and I was putting a bite of chip in my mouth when my name came up and the presenter asked why I wasn't putting my name down for things!! I announced that I was just waiting to drive up bids!  eek.

So, that's what I did. Or actually, I just bought tonight.

Silent auctions are really a strange thing. At some auctions everything goes for a premium and you are expected to pay more than retail for an item. But some, like tonight's, deals can be found!

Here are a couple of tonight's purchases.

1. An antique quilt. It's around the size of a full or double. I'm hoping that it will wash up nicely and be perfect to decorate around in Lexi's room! It's really a great quilt. It's pink and green and the white isn't really white, it's a navy pin stripe that works great with it. I purchased it for less than 1/2 the price that I would get it at an antique mall.

 

2. The rooster candlestick. Yep, it's a little strange, but I love it!

 



Isn't it a great piece!! Don't look at the other things on the mantle, I just left them up there so that you could see the scale of the rooster to the wall!

And that's a couple of tonight's items! I can't show you the rest as a couple of the items have been purchased for my sister and her baby shower isn't until Saturday morning but in addition to the above items and the items for my sister, we bought a couple of gift certificates, a necklace and earring set, a wall decoration and a basket full of kitchen items!! No wonder they love us at silent auctions!

Did you notice the change? ... Do you notice change?

Do you notice change?

Do you notice new and different immediately or does it have to be pointed out to you?

I ask for a reason...

First for some fun... Did you notice my header change? It had been a while so I decided that it was time for a new header!! If you didn't notice, scroll back up and take a peak!

Second, I ask because I'm pretty observant and notice lots of details. I pick up on new hairstyles, lost pounds, new clothes and accessories, new seating arrangements, the trash can in a new place.... and on and on. It's the visual part of me I realize. That's why I was so good at the Memory Game as a child!!

And why I love putting puzzles together (as long as all of the pieces have a "home".. every piece placed on trays organized by color and picture..)

But I digress.

The reason I ask, is because I am having a hard time processing and remembering the "new" me. As one of my friends said, I need to reframe my mind.

It really is sad, but when I think of myself and look in the mirror, I still see an overweight mom who needs to lose 40 pounds and is out of shape. The other day I caught a glimpse of my legs in a window as I was going in the store and didn't realize they were mine until I got to the door and the rest of me was in the picture! Crazy!!

So to help me reframe my mind... I've gotten rid of all of my too big clothes. I gave the last of the shirts away last night. I think seeing myself in the same shirts was reinforcing in my mind that I still needed to lose the weight. I need to get a new visual picture embedded into my brain.

Part of this reframing is also in the way I view my "athleticism." I have never been an athlete. I now realize that I never really had a chance. As a junior-high student having never played youth league basketball, I was made to feel like I was inferior and not worth the effort by the coaches. I can't imagine that I would have been any good, but man, I was worth speaking too!

The problem was that my family moved to the small town where all kids played ball from before they could speak so everyone knew the fundamentals and the rules by 1st grade. I however, knew nothing. Therefore I was nothing. From that point on, my mental picture of ability to be any kind of athlete was as a failure. This was only reinforced when we started track. I was slow but had all kinds of endurance. I was assigned the mile in 7th grade and I think the 2 mile in 8th grade.??? But even then, I wasn't worth Coach Black's time.

Now here we are 25 years later and I am trying to reframe my mind. I am an athlete. By God, I ran 15 miles on Saturday, 9.5 today and will run 17 more this Saturday. But when I look in the mirror.. well you know...

That's why I'm trying to notice the changes in me. It's not easy to reframe what has been set for so long, but I am trying.

The REVEAL!! A Refinished Bathroom makes all the difference.

I'm thinking that I just did a $10k upgrade on our house this weekend.

Really.

It made THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE!!

I was planning on getting a new shower curtain and a rug, but we had a request to have the house
shown this morning and there was NO WAY I was going to say no to that!

So here it is!!

Yes, this is the same bathroom!!

Let's revisit.

A side by side comparison.

It's incredible! You don't even see it as the same bathroom!!

Now I just PRAY that the people who look at the house today appreciate my hard work and can look past the stink of the epoxy! But to make me feel good... let's take one more look at the finished bathroom!

Whatever it takes to give an old bathroom a new life.

Whatever it takes to give an old, outdated bathroom new life... or it could be called...

 

Whatever it takes (okay within reason..) to get this dadgum house to sell!!

 

This week, our realtor suggested that we really consider painting the bathroom.

 

I've thought about it at least a jillion times over the last 8 years. But, to do it, you have to have a couple of days for the labor and then the smell is sooooo soooo bad, you have to be out of the house for I would guess a week!! And you have to be able to let the stuff cure.

 

So, since we no longer live in the house...today was d-day.

 

Consider this to be tutorial should you ever want to take on a project like this.

 

1. clean. This isn't a quick clean, this is a full out, scrubbing every inch clean.  Get your comet and a scouring pad and scrub every surface that you are planning to paint. Rinse. Clean with lime-a-way. Rinse. Dry.

 

2. Using 400 grit sandpaper, go over every surface.

 

3. Wipe everything off.

 

4. Get a tack cloth and wipe down all of the surfaces. This gets rid of all of the last of the residue. It also leaves your hand nice and sticky. great.

 

5. This brings you to this step... see the pictures below. a completely clean ugly bathroom.

 



This took an hour.

At this point, I highly suggest deciding that your bathroom doesn't really look that bad and that if you only got new bath towels, everything would be much better.

If that doesn't work. Prepare the epoxy.

Note... once you have activated your base you have a six hour window in which to use the quart. It's just a quart, but my is it an expensive quart, so you don't want to waste it!!

 

6. Using your brand new 1 1/2 or 2 inch tapered paint brush (don't buy the cheapest one, but don't spend much either!) start painting the grout lines. Don't forget to "feather" your lines a couple of seconds after you paint them.. you don't want heavy paint edges that you have to try to cover later!

 

7. Take a break. Actually it's gonna stink so bad that you will know when 5 minutes are up because you will be light headed or dizzy or something... the instructions say paint for 5 minutes and then go outside for fresh air for 5 minutes. THEY ARE NOT KIDDING!! I actually used my timer on my phone and set it for 5 minutes. Painting this way takes FOREVER. But better to be safe than woozy!

 

8. After a couple of hours of painting the grout lines, go back and using either a little foam roller or your brush, fill in the tiles. I liked the foam roller, but the paint is thin... so it drips. bummer. However, in the end, I used the brush more, because I liked painting a little heavier with the brush.

 

9. Paint the tub.

 

10. Paint the sink.

 

11. Close your can of paint. Put your paint brush in a ziploc bag. zip it up and put it in the refrigerator. (okay, I don't know that I would do this if the fridge had food in it. Yeah, I would, but I'd double bag the ziploc..) Now, go away from the house. Like at least a block away.  Sidenote: When I pulled up into the driveway I could smell the epoxy!!

 

12. After at least an hour, come back and start everything again.

 

After more than 6 hours of painting, I used every drop of the quart of paint. I have 2 coats on a lot of the tile, and 1 coat on some. Tomorrow morning, I'll start again. ugh.

 

But for now, I'll leave you with the in progress pictures!!

 

Yeah. It's worth it. Dadgum. I sure wish I could have done this 8 years ago!

(oh.. and on the off chance you were not feeling sorry or at least a little sympathetic towards me for having to spend a GORGEOUS Saturday locked in the bathroom smelling epoxy fumes... I did this after getting up at 4:30am and running 15 miles.) 

I'd like a rockstar sticker now.

Thanks.

Good News and Bad News

Good news is that I got clearance to run all the miles I want. Apparently my heart really likes running. Good thing, so do I!

Bad news is that there were some abnormal findings and so I get to go see a Cardiologist.

That was one specialist that we didn't on our "go to" list.

I talked to my sister Libby, the cardiac critical care nurse, and asked her about my results. She said to see the doctor and knows the doctor that comes here to the 'ville and recommends him. That makes me feel good.

So, yes, I'll keep you all posted.