Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the rain - we desperately need it and I totally understand it can't just rain when the store is closed, and I'm home sitting in front of the fireplace.  I get it, it has to rain now, today, yesterday, and oh-my-goodness, tomorrow too! 
Because of the rain, the store is a little quiet and it is a great opportunity to catch up on some chores.  The website needs updated pictures, I need to change some displays, make some more sample size jars of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, organize the bills, glance through some catalogs and magazines, get some inspiration from Pinterest, and eat some chocolate (of course!). 

Here's some of my latest inspiration from Pinterest:
Love this 3 crate storage coffee-table idea from the Tip Junkie.
I find lots of dresser 'bones' and never thought of filling with crates.  What a great organizing idea for your entryway or mud room from Faded Country blog.
Brilliant re-purposing of a buffet with plastic milk crates from bluevelvetchair.blogspot.com.
I love the chalkboard labels painted on these crates - fantastic sitting out, or in the pantry, office, bathroom....anywhere!  Thank you to Suzi's Farmhouse Finds.
Great way to show off your beautiful canned goods on the wall from 3.bp.blogspot.com
I absolutely adore these crates personalized, what a nice idea from mysweetandsaucy.com.  We have some great vintage farm wooden crates with 'Angel' on the sides....I'm inspired to create some new displays. 


Have Fun!

Love this blog and thought her latest Annie Sloan adventure was too good not to share!  Please read and enjoy and I'll be playing with crackles this Sunday so I'll have lots of fun new stuff to share at the store over the next few weeks.

The Empty Nest: ~Oh Annie Sloan....You crack me up~

I love vintage furniture, I love the versatility, the solidness, the great lines, but mostly I love painting vintage furniture and giving it a new life!  Here's a great example of multiple uses for your vintage longer dressers. 

Something like this is great for both a pedestal based or wall mounted TV/entertainment center:

Or, as a double sink vanity in a master bathroom:

I apologize for not giving credit to the original sources, I've held onto these pictures for so long I've forgotten.  So, let me make it clear, these are not my pics, these are 2 different pictures from people who worked very hard to create these looks.

Moving on, this is a great project with 2 dressers turned into a kitchen island (re-nest.com) and depending on your kitchen size you could do the same with a longer dresser:

I adore this project with a long dresser placed in the hallway (sundayinbed.tumbir.com):
Bringing the project back to Not Too Shabby, we have 2 great long dressers.  By removing the 2 center drawers, and sliders, you have a spot for your cable box and DVD player making a fantastic entertainment center:

The other dresser would be a wonderful sideboard, behind the sofa table, or entryway organizer:
So next time you're confronted with a lot of dressers (imgfav.com),
whip out your Annie Sloan Chalk Paints and get excited.  This is a great chance to inexpensively furnish your home in a truly unique way!
Bobbi

Got this great dresser, 1970's french Provencal style, with a double drawer on the bottom, original hardware, and just a couple of issues.
1)  the front had been banged and chipped with one pretty good chunk missing.
2) the laminate had been chipped off one of the back legs.

After using wood putty to re-build the missing chunk, I let it dry for about 2 hours before sanding it smooth and blending the corner all around.  I also sanded the back leg smooth so the missing laminate isn't as noticeable.

Then I pulled out the newest color from Annie Sloan Chalk Paint - Antoinette.  This is not your normal pink.  For those of you who know me, I don't do pink well but this color is different.  It's more of a shell pink and after waxing with the Annie Sloan clear and dark waxes, it 'deepens' and becomes a beautiful vintage pink.
I also rubbed off some of the paint along the top edge to expose the gold underneath.

Quite an improvement for this dresser, which is now ready for a little girl's room or guest room.

Sharing at French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Fridays.
French Country Cottage 

I have this blog entry from http://www.emmatree.com/2008/11/its-all-about-me-lately.html that I have bookmarked for a couple of years.  I re-read it often.  Recently I've been inspired by some other blogs to share some things about me that you may not know:

1. I think people are basically nice, selfish maybe, but basically nice.
2. I had horrible crooked teeth when I was growing up (braces in my 30's fixed that), almost 2 rows of teeth on the bottom they were so crooked.  In 5th grade I decided I would SMILE!  I mean smile at strangers, in the hallway between classes, everywhere.  I would just pretend my teeth were straight and white and that was it.  My belief in my great smile was so complete that when school pictures would come out, I was always shocked when I would be smiling away with horrific teeth!  I remember getting my senior portraits and the photographer asked me 'which side is your best side' and I said, they are both great!  Thank goodness he picked the angle.
3. I forgot I had freckles (refer to point #2).
4. I do not play well with others.  Really, I don't.
5. I love my friends, I'm the kind of friend that helps you move, picks you up when your car breaks down, watches your kids, and loans you money.  But here's the thing, my friends love me and they would do all those things for me.
6. I always try to do the right thing.
7. I get inspiration from everything. I'm always thinking about the store, furniture, painting, decorating, what to do next.  I LOVE IT! 
8. I'm a magazine hoarder.  I love all the pretty pictures, the stories, the pages.  I'm trying to transfer my love to pinterest to save space.
9. I am emotional.
10. I am a strong WOMAN (9 &10 are not mutually exclusive)
11. My parents are deaf. 
12. I am the oldest of 5 kids.
13. I sing in the shower & the garage (paint warehouse).
14. I LOVE my family.  Everyday I feel blessed by them.  They make me laugh, cry, stress me out, and inspire me.  I am so proud of them.
15. I think that family is not limited to your husband/wife/kids/pets.  I think family is whoever you want them to be, and that is why Tori. Sabra, and Gary are part of my family.
16. I am a terrible gift giver.  Honestly, I have no excuse.  I have great ideas before hand, great ideas to share, but usually get sidetracked and have to scramble at the last minute to pull it all together.  
17. I love color!
18. The walls in my house are gasp - WHITE!  Running the store is more than a full time job and I really have had no time to paint the walls.  I've picked colors, many times, but I can't seem to spend time on my own home.
19. I dream of being a painter, an amazing collage artist, or portrait painter.  I am so not talented in this way.  Seriously, I am a fantastic painter of furniture but ....not so good on the others.  So for now, I will enjoy my dream paintings.
20. I LOVE books, I love the written word.  I read it all, detective, mystery, romance, smut, young adult, science fiction, historical, sport, decorating, I like it all.
21. I miss my grandparents everyday!
22. I love movies!  I love suspending reality and just enjoying the movie.  I do not enjoy analyzing them and determining why the movie isn't realistic.  I just love movies.
23. I think that life is challenging, work is challenging, business is challenging, maintaining friendships are challenging.  I think it is work to make everything work.  If it ever reaches the state where it's not worth the work, then I'm done.
24. I ask questions, I think it's flattering to be asked questions, it shows interest.
25. I think we are all amazingly unique people.  Our lives, our loves, our dreams, all of it makes us unique.  I think this uniqueness deserves respect.  Our religion (or lack of), our politics, our choices, all of those things that make us who we are should be respected, and appreciated.  It takes all of us to make this amazing world.  Frankly, I would not want to live in a world made up of a bunch of Bobbis, that would be way too crazy!  I love the Pams, Cassidys, Sams, Toris, Kims, Tamis, Terris, Dianes, Davids, Roberts, Charlies of the world.

I share this because I think we pick our attitude, we make choices everyday to smile, visit, talk, help a stranger, it's all a choice. 

Bobbi

Well our second vegetable box arrived, and it had even more unknown vegetables including acorn squash, arugula, Swiss chard, and leeks.  All great vegetables, but none that I've ever cooked.  We reached out to friends again and got a fantastic recipe from Jennifer that utilizes left over turkey.  This turkey vegetable soup is so wonderfully delicious and filling, and only took about 1 hour of total cooking time.


Sweat:
2 C. each sliced carrots, diced onion, diced fennel bulb, and diced Swiss chard stems
2 T. minced garlic
4 t. dried Italian seasoning
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
2 T Olive Oil

Deglaze:
1/2 C. dry Marsala
2 T. chicken base (such as Better than Bullion)
12 C. low-sodium chicken broth

Add:
4 C chipped roasted turkey
3 C refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini (9 0z)
8 C chopped Swiss chard leaves, rinsed (1 bunch)
1 C red kidney beans

Stir In:
1 T fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan

Sweat carrot, onion, fennel, chard stems, garlic, Italian seasoning, pepper flakes, and nutmeg in oil in a large pot over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Deglaze pot with Marsala and simmer until nearly evaporated; stir in chicken base.  Add broth and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
Add turkey, tortellini, chard leaves, and beans; simmer, partially covered, until tortellini are cooked through, 8-10 minutes.
Stir in lemon juice and season with salt and black pepper.  Serve soup with grated Parmesan.

I served this soup for our Christmas Eve dinner (8 people) along with french bread & a light salad.   Everyone loved it!  I didn't have any left over turkey so I poached 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts in broth, let it cool, then chopped it all up.   This is a very hearty style soup with lots of vegetables so I also added 8 more cups of broth after serving out 8 bowls, and tossed in 3 more cups of tortellini it made great left overs.

Note - for those of you who like me haven't tried anything with Swiss chard, it is wonderful.  I can't really describe how it tastes, except it absorbs the taste around it and so tastes wonderful.  Cutting out the stems & then cutting up the leaves takes about as long as cutting up an onion.  Also, there are so many vegetables to cut up, it's fun to have everyone helping chop up veggies in the kitchen making this soup.

Often I feel like I am scrambling all over trying to finish up tasks on my list (there's a bazillion!) and so when it comes to dinner time, I fall back on some basics.  Well, lately the basics have been, well kind of basic.  So, as a family we decided to make some changes, and our first step towards this was to sign up for a bi-monthly vegetable box.  The challenge with the vegetable box is now we have to make something out of all the wonderful fresh vegetables that arrive bright and early Friday morning.

Our first box arrived with everything recognizable, except for a bunch of dark green leafy stuff that according to our sheet is 'Swiss Chard'.  Well, I've read about this stuff, but I've never eaten it, touched, or even imagined cooking it!  I sent out a quick 'Help' to my friend (and amazing chef) Kim and she responded quickly with the following delicious soup.  This was a great rustic Italian style soup that we ate up for dinner and then lunch the next day.  The whole family loved it and I hope you do too!