Best Cat Litter Ever!

Kind of a crazy topic but I am  so excited over this. We recently were given a box of cat litter that someone no longer needed. Not my usual brand but I don't think my cats are picky. It's from Petco and it is called Ever Clean. It comes in a blue box. What is special about it? It is scented with lavender. I LOVE IT! I must say the cats do too. The box I tested it in was the most used. It's kind of expensive $20.99 so I decided to mix it with Tidy Cat. It sure makes smelling lavender more appealing than the alternative. I highly recommend it for anyone who gets to clean cat boxes every day like me.

Yesterday, we ripped carpet out of another bedroom in preparation for doing more wood flooring. Unfortunately, we found an area where the builder put in a smaller board in the sub floor than the rest of the area. My husband patched that with some goop from Lowe's. After it sets, we can get going on the next room.

I have realized that I am trying to cram too many activities and chores into 2 fast days. The weekends just fly by for me. I still need my "me" time.

I can't believe it is only 2 more weeks until I go visit my sister and get some rest and relaxation. Oh...did I say rest? That isn't true! Last visit, I remember we were sitting in her spa at 3am. We averaged about 4 hrs. of sleep per night. Regardless, we have such fun. Can't wait!

OH MY!

If you haven't ever tried MOCHI, you must. Available at Trader Joe's. Comes in Strawberry, Mango, Green Tea and Chocolate  (at my local store). They are 105 calories each. Believe it or not, it is ICE CREAM. I gave one to my husband and he said he thought it was like a marshmallow with ice cream in it. My daughter-in-law, Kristin, turned me on to these. Try them. They are so yummy and you eat it with your fingers!

Thank You!

I just want to thank a few of you sweet girls for your kind comments. My sweet sister, Donna, my Mom, Lynn, my niece, Holly Lynn, dianne, Melanie, Theresa and Ginny. I really appreciate the encouragement and support.
There's lots more to come....working on a video and more projects. Stay tuned.

Happy Labor Day

Made a run to the thrift store today for their 50% off sale. Couldn't believe all the people lined up outside! Didn't find anything too thrilling there. Went to Goodwill and found a few goodies. This is an OTT Lite. It actually works and I found it for $4.50. I have one on my craft table and LOVE it.

The other fun thing I found was a Stone & Co. purse. Perfect condition and really soft black leather.

It was $6.50.

The last time my sister was here, we went to the thrift store and I found a couple of shirts for my hubby. They were in perfect condition and were only $3.50 ea. As you can see by the label, they were Tommy Bahama!

I can't believe how fast these past 3 days have flown by! I do feel that I got a lot accomplished!

Back to work tomorrow.

Laying A Laminate Floor (In A Weekend)

OK....so here is what it looked like under the carpet. Sub-floor was LOADED with nails and staples. We had to pound in the nails that were sticking up and pull out every staple. I swear there were 100's! Next came cleaning the wood so it didn't have any specs of any residue on it. Once we did that, we covered the entire floor with plastic. (Not required but felt a need to do it.)

Surprisingly enough...the prep for the floor was much harder than laying it. Here we are, just started into it. My husband made the cuts with his power saw.

The flooring that we bought had the "pad" attached to the back of it. Therefore, all we needed to do was snap the pieces together. You have to leave approx. 1/4" at the wall edge so it doesn't buckle. Small spacers were placed around the edge of the room. They call this "floating a floor" because it is NOT glued down or attached to the sub-floor in any way.
There were times when I had to run downstairs and watch a YOUTUBE video so we would know what to do next. Figuring out how to measure to cut the end pieces was tricky.

After a good majority of the day spent, laying the floor, measuring and cutting. It's DONE! We only took a break for lunch. Off we went to Lowe's to get new molding since the stuff we took off gets ruined when you remove it. I wanted a little bit larger molding anyway. We bought 4" white vinyl. I prefer the look of white next to the floor instead of trying to match the wood color. I like the white accents in the room.
Thanks to my hubby for all his hard work!

   Yeah! One room down, one to go. We also plan to do the hall and bathroom. Kind of ambitious but we aren't in any rush. We will just take our time.
This room is 10 1/2 x 10 1/2. The flooring and supplies cost about $200. 2 Days of labor. This was our first attempt at doing anything like this and I am really happy with the way it came out.
 It was a lot of work but well worth the results.
Looking forward to going to get a yogurt at Yogurtland and kicking back.
I am so glad to have tomorrow off so I can do something a bit more fun! Happy Labor Day!                                                                                                                              

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I must be crazy! My husband and I ripped out the carpet, pad, tack strip and baseboards. Does anybody out there know that they staple the pad to the sub-floor? Not only did we have various nails but it seemed like 100's of staples that we had to hand pull (with pliers) out of the sub-floor. We are down to the bare wood. Lots of uneven nail heads to pound in. We are both sweating like crazy. When we purchased the wood flooring at Sam's Club, a young girl came up to me and said, "My Dad wants to know if you need an installer". I thanked her and told her we were doing it ourselves. WHAT WAS I THINKING? I should have taken his number. This is not a simple task so far. I will take a few pics tomorrow of the before. Better get on YouTube and see if I can watch an installation video.

Saturday Deals, Cats & Stuff

Today I decided I want to tear out our carpet upstairs and lay wood floor. I moved all the furniture out of the first room and ripped out the carpet. I just need to tear out the tack strips and baseboards next. I will show pics later. It's too hot to do anymore so I am taking a break until it cools off.

I went to a couple of thrift stores and got a few good deals I thought I would share. This is a Brighton coin purse in perfect condition for $1. Next is a travel purse that goes across your body. Brand new, warranty still inside. Had checked these out and they were $40 new. Found it for $7.

Here is a cool mirror that I got for $8. The shelf is a bit loose so I will have to use my wood glue on it.

Last week when my husband got to work, he found a perfectly good cat "tree", a new litter box and a brand new box of Ever Fresh Lavender Scent kitty litter. (We found out later that an elderly woman's elderly cat passed away and she didn't want any reminders left around. Very sad.

One of my cats, Roxy, has decided it is HER tree. She has been living on the top shelf.

She also was quite fond of this little foot stool I found. It opens up for storage inside and is in excellent condition.

Had to show you one of our Beastie Boys taking a siesta on the back of the couch. He is such a great cat!

If there ever was a perfect cat, it is him! I trim the cats nails pretty regularly and he is the only one who sits there with his paw out like he is in a manicure chair and allows me to trim them. The others hate it.

 Here is my sweet boy.