Solo in Seattle – Best Laid Plans….

~ alabamaginger ~ 3 Comments

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Everett, Washington (about 40 miles north of Seattle) for a work conference. I’m not an experienced traveler by any means and I’d NEVER traveled alone before. What exactly does one do all the way across the country slap by themselves? Can a woman eat at a nice restaurant alone without looking like an escort waiting for her next client (hub’s words, not mine)? Should I just plan on 4 nights of room service and watching hotel television? McDonald’s value meals in my rental car?! Continue reading →

Liebster Award! (or…Q&A with Jess)

~ alabamaginger ~ 1 Comment

liebster-awardIt’s still strange to me that anyone actually reads my stuff, but I need to give a big thank you to fitness9555 for nominating me for the Liebster Award! Apparently this is an award to recognize and get to know new bloggers, so thanks for reading and I’m so glad you enjoy my posts! If you get a chance, check out her fitness and health blog. (She’s much more consistent with her posting!)

SO – since I’ve been nominated for the award, I am supposed to have 11 questions to answer, 11 bloggers to nominate, and 11 questions of my own to write. It’s one of those, do it and pass it on type deals. Gotta be honest real quick-like though. I’m terrible about taking the time to write regularly and even worse about finding new blogs to read so I’m choosing to flake out on this assignment and just answer the questions I was given. Let’s begin! Continue reading →

Bama to Seattle: My First Attempt at Traveling Alone

~ alabamaginger ~ 6 Comments

How I made it to 29+ without ever having to travel by myself is a good question. But there I was, signed up for a work conference located about as far away from Alabama as you can get in the continental US: Everett, Washington, roughly 40 minutes north of Seattle. After briefly considering taking the hubs along, we decided that it was time for me to put on my big girl panties and figure out how to travel on my own (that and..you know, asking the parents to watch the kiddos again, cost of the extra airfare, etc.). Continue reading →

Muscles or Mtn Dew?

~ alabamaginger ~ 8 Comments

Let me start off by saying that I realize I am not morbidly obese. Some girls would starve themselves before they let their gut look like mine but others are probably calling me “that skinny bitch” (sorry mom, language, I know). This is not a post about how our bodies compare with each other or “the norm”. It’s more about those times when we get unhappy with the way we look and the difficulties of doing anything about it. Just wanted to clear that up. Continue reading →

When You’re Too Cheap for Custom Curtains

~ alabamaginger ~ 3 Comments

I’ve gotta be honest. Curtains are one of those things that aren’t a huge priority in our house. In fact, we probably went 2 or 3 years before buying the first set for our current home. And to this day, only one of the bedrooms has them up and they happen to be cheap target ones that are a solid foot off the ground (it’s a kid’s room, cut me some slack). It’s not that I don’t like curtains. I do. And I’m well aware of how well they finish off a room. But here are some of my issues with them: Continue reading →

1920’s Dining Room Table – Part 3: Finishing Fails

~ alabamaginger ~ 3 Comments

Ever get to a certain point in a project that you love just to have something happen that pulls the motivation right out from under you? I’m an accountant. I like to follow rules. In regards to projects, I like to do some research, map out a plan, follow the plan, and get the intended results. Let’s chalk it up to being new to this Refinishing World, but I’m quickly learning that reading a How-To article on chalk paint, distressing, glazing, waxing, you name it, is about like reading a book on parenting. Both contain some good tips and basic information, but it really all comes down to the uniqueness of the child (in this case 100 year old dining set).

I debated breaking this into two parts because there was so much work involved, but to be honest, I’d like to move past this phase in my learning curve as quickly as possible. So one post it is. Continue reading →

Diary of a Slope Struggler (aka: The Gingers Attempt to Ski)

~ alabamaginger ~ 1 Comment

Eight days, no kids, beautiful snow-covered Colorado mountains. Best.Vacation.Ever. Those were the thoughts running through our minds as we coordinated child care, made reservations and booked our flights, anyway. How hard could the skiing part actually be? I’d already dug through hundreds of websites instructing me on how to layer my clothes, how to go faster, turn, stop, etc. I even watched a video on how to properly get up after a fall (although I assumed I wouldn’t need it because professionals don’t fall. And really, wouldn’t you just….stand up? Might not have paid enough attention to that one….) So between September when we started planning the trip and late January when we finally went, we’d hyped ourselves up for the most blissful, relaxing, memory-making eight days of our lives. You know how it goes….best laid plans and all… Continue reading →

1920’s Dining Room Table – Part 2

~ alabamaginger ~ 1 Comment

Greetings! What do you do when you’ve hand sanded so long that your arm feels like jello and the thought of lifting a paint brush makes you want to cry?? You deconstruct the chair seats!!

fabric

This was supposed to be my take-it-easy day, but THE NAILS y’all (scroll down for a pic of these tiny boogers…). Honestly though, this was by far my favorite part of the process yet. I could tell there were several layers of fabric to be removed, but I totally got sucked into the history of it all. When did the table go through each transformation? Is this really blue leather?? And WHAT THE MESS IS THIS SEAT CUSION MADE FROM?!?

So let’s begin, shall we? Continue reading →