Fuel Filter? What tha heck is a fuel filter?

Apparently it’s a pretty important piece of equipment for your car that should be changed every now and then. Oh really? Someone forgot to tell me that. Cars are not my thing. Other than washing my car, keeping the inside clean, and keeping her filled up with gas, I have never been responsible for things car related. Griff handles that. And before Griff, my Dad. Oh sure, my Dad taught me how to check my oil and how to change a tire. But fuel filters? Come on, give a girl a break. Since we’ve been married Griff has handled my car. He even changes my oil for me… in our driveway. {I love that he’s a mans-man!} Hey, I think it’s a pretty good trade. I cook and clean for him and he changes my oil. {Though I have to admit that Griff does laundry WAY better than me.}

So yesterday morning, bright and early at 6:15 I got into my car to leave for work. I turn the key and nope. She’s not crankin’ up. Maybe she had too many vodka’s on Sunday watchin’ some football and she just doesn’t want us to go to work. Oh wait, maybe that was me. But I digress. I try again. Nada. Still nothin’. I go back in the house to wake my sleeping husband. {Yes, I leave for work before he even gets up.} And let me tell you, he’s happy as a clam to get up and go outside where it’s cold, and dark, and oh, 6:20 in the morning. {Insert sarcastic face here.} So he tried to crank her up. Nope. Not happenin’. She’s having non of it. Awesome. What in the hell did I do to her anyway?

It was decided that I will take Griff to work in his truck, take his truck to my work, then pick him up from his work. Got that? I arrived at work an hour late but still in time for our Monday Morning Meeting, so all was not lost. Whew. Crisis averted. Well one crisis anyway.

Griff’s friend Mark works on cars as a side job and Mark sweetly agreed to come take a look at it. Griff and Mark also work together so they cut out a bit early to get started on my ride. When I arrived home yesterday I was a bit surprised to see my back seat ripped out and both Griff and Mark’s heads were hanging over the fuel tank. {I’m surprised they weren’t giggling like school girls with as much fumes they must have inhaled.} Apparently the fuel filter is located near the fuel tank. Duh. And most fuel tanks are located under the back seats. Riiiiiight. I knew that.

While Mark was working on changing the fuel filter Griff was working on changing my air filter. Just in case this filter decides she doesn’t want to work anymore either. This was done by ripping off my glove box and my center console. Poor girl, never saw these guys comin’.

While the boys were working on filters I took this opportunity to vacuum the heck out from under the seats. Apparently when you take your car to get detailed at the detail shop up the street they don’t feel it’s at all necessary to vacuum under your seats. This is what the boys found when they removed the back seat. Can you say GA-ROSS!!!! Dog hair galore! And a French fry. And a plastic pink ring. And gum wrappers. You get the idea.

The boys got the filters in and I got her all vacuumed up so she’s as good as new. Well maybe not, but at least she has clean filters and no more French fries.

New Entertainment Center!

OK, well maybe not new, new, but new to us anyway! I found this wonderful office cabinet at Goodwill for $30 right before we moved into our new house. Griff wasn’t too happy when I brought her home because that meant this beauty was just something else we needed to move. Whoops. Maybe I should have thought about that. Then he really wasn’t happy when he realized this sucker weighs a TON! Whoops… again.

So we moved. And there was cussing, and perhaps some name calling, and a promise that I wouldn’t bring any more furniture home unless some furniture left. Ugh. Fine. Insert bummed angry face here.

Then the cabinet sat in the garage for 4 months, {we’ve only been in this house since April}. I finally got motivated when Griff, sweetly of course, told me to get my arce in the garage and getta paintin’. To be honest I was tired of looking at it too, plus it was taking up a lot of room in his “Man Space”.

I began by sanding the whole desk. Which I loved because I got to use my electric sander. It took a while to sand down because there was like a ton of varnish on this sucker.

Then, because this lovely is SO heavy, I decided to put wheels on her to make her easier to move. Genius I am. The sides had these rubber thingies that I had to remove first. In doing so one of the sides broke so I had to use wood glue and a clamp to put it back together.

I purchased the wheels from Home Depot for like $7 a package. {Teeheehee, I said package.} I didn’t have to drill new holes for the wheels because the holes left from the rubber feet were the perfect size. Uh, bonus!

Once the wheels were on I started painting her black. I think I seriously need to look into PEBA, {Painting Everything Black Anonymous}. You can see here that this was used as office furniture because this drawer has those filling rails. Also, these drawer wouldn’t come out. Awesome. I had to paint the drawers while they were still attached. Sweet. Not.

Once she was painted all black and of course dried, I gave her like 7 coats of this stuff. Polycrylic. I know 7 coats sounds like a lot but this stuff dries fast so I didn’t have to wait long between coats. Awesome! I have used this stuff for years. Every time I’ve painted furniture I coated the furniture with this. It not only protects your furniture from scratches, it make the furniture shine like Mr. Clean’s melon!

Wanna see what it looks like all painted up and purty like? Voila!

BEEEEEEEE- UTIFUL!

Here she is with her doors open. This is where we put all the T.V. components and stereo equipment.

I’m so glad this project is done and she’s out of the garage. Yay!

RSVP to the Termite Party

I came home from work a couple of days ago to this. My man on the roof. Cuttin’ some tree branches.

Apparently if a branch is touching the house that is just an invite for termites. And I sure don’t remember sending them an invitation to any par-tay at our house.

So please termites, if your listening, please do not RSVP to our house party.

Halloween Costume Sneak Peak

It’s no secret that Griff and I L-O-V-E us some Halloween. We love coming up with unique and creative costumes and we usually make them or buy the components and put them together. We never buy a premade costume. That’s a no-no in our house. Wanna see what we are working on for this year? OK, here’s a little riddle.

What’s blue, yellow, and red all over?

Can you guess? A couple more weeks and you'll find out. Yay October! Bye!

October = Spooktober

It’s no secret that Griff and I LOVE Halloween! We even named a table at our wedding Halloween with the sub title reading {Our favorite holiday}.

Since this past Friday was October 1 I decided to spend the night decorating the fireplace mantel with a little spooktacular accessories. {OK, maybe not the whole night, but you get my drift}.

The mantle has been looking like this. With some fall decor here and there. Nothing too over the top.

So I decided to build upon what I already created and just add some spooky details. By the way, all of these decorations came from the Dollar Store. Some spider webbing, some spooky black crows, some small plastic skulls, and some Spanish moss.

I used some clear vases I already had and dumped the skulls in with some black branches that I saved from some of our wedding centerpieces. Then I wrapped some spider webbing around the branches, added some scary spiders and my spooky black crows. “Heeelllllo Mr. Crow.”

I then draped some more webbing over the picture above the fireplace and added some spiders for a creepy effect.

Tucked some more branches and Spanish moss here and there. And the wooden cat my Mom gave me. Thanks Mom!

Here is the mantle looking just spooky enough. I didn’t want it to be too cheap looking, {even though everything was free or came from the Dollar Store}.

I also took a Halloween witch Goodwill find, {for .99 cents}, and added it to the fall wreath already on our front door.

I also found these tea light tin pumpkins at Goodwill for $4.99. A little more than I would have liked to spend on them but I had the perfect spot for these scary beauties so I said what tha hell. I placed them in the window over our front door and come Halloween night I will place tea lights inside and light em’ up for a fun effect on the spookiest of nights. Muahahahahahah!

{Sorry for the craptastic photos. Maybe Santa will bring me a better camera this Christmas.}

On our living room end table I just added some candle sticks with pumpkins placed on top, my wooden Boo!, and some Dollar Store birds spray painted black.

And as a fall weather bonus we have all our windows open right now because it feels AMAZING outside! It’s getting cooler by the minute! I just checked the weather and too bad this cool feeling isn’t going to last. It’s supposed to be hot again this week. Ugh.

The Forgotten Ice.

Whoops. I might have forgotten about our truce when it came to the Bros Icing Bros game. My bad babe. I really did forget about the truce and I totally Iced him. But he took it like a man and drank it like a good boy.