Chippy Dippy Bars

One of my family favorites. My mom made them all the time when I was growing up. She still makes them when we come to town or brings them when she comes to visit. Mom's 'homesick go-to'. Alex made them for a school project once. Hilarious!

Anyway...here's the recipie:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 (14-ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
• 1 cup (6 ounces) butterscotch-flavored chips
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut (this is optional for me, although certain people I have made these for insist on them)

DIRECTIONS

• 1
  Preheat oven to 350° (325° for glass baking pan). In small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and butter; mix well. Press crumb mixture firmly on bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan.
• 2
  Pour sweet condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with remaining ingredients.
• 3
  Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Chill if desired. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store leftovers covered at room temperature.

FAIL

Yup. That about sums today up. Is it too late to add yesterday to that as well?

The chair. Fail, again. I was thisclose to having it done. I decided to sew my favorite tapestry print to a rich plum for the cushion. (The tapestry is the same fabric in the photo, just a different cut) The sizes didn't quite match up right, but I thought "I can make it work." As I laid the fabric over the batting, I knelt on the seat. SNAP! The MDF broke loose from the bottom! Awww...snap!

Not feeling immediate failure, I quickly warmed up the puter and googled to find an answer. Nothing. Nothing matches the style of chair. Nothing matches the 'center hole' that has caused me such trauma. Since the original seat was batting over webbing, I headed to Joann's. Nothing like someone at a craft store telling you to HIRE SOMEONE! Argh! I bought the webbing anyway.

Arriving home, I started on the webbing. Quite ticked now since my day was mostly gone and all I had done was work on The Stupid Chair. (I have re-named it to a more formal-and accurate-name) The webbing was a bit of a joke in itself. Too wide, I folded one part over. Now there's a lumpy spot. I'll probably just pad it a bit more (or less) in that spot.

The day was now gone. Fail.

Today started great! I awoke before anyone else and started getting to my laundry as well as re-organizing my bathroom. *I may have neglected to mention, I quit my job Friday. I am returning to my old job...on night shift. And in the transition, I am picking up a few extra shifts before I officially start.* Then. It happened. Like it does every 6-9 weeks. My sink was clogged. So under the sink I go. I remove the piviot rod. Crap! Now I can't get the stopper out! I slide it back in only enough to remove the stopper. Flashlight? Check. Straightened hanger? Check. No hair! ARGH! Back under the sink. I loosed the P-trap and remove it. Oh...there it is! Well not all of it. I had to remove the main drain pipe. Another clump. Dang...Imma need some Rogain!! All cleared, I reassemble the P-trap and drain pipes...well, after several attempts. 

Happy with my 'job well done', I start cleaning the counter. A good 15 minutes later, my daughter says "You know that's leaking, right?". What?!? No! I did not know that! Back under the sink. I disassemble and re-assemble the pipes again. Ta-Da! Onward. Only this time I tested it first. DANGIT! STILL LEAKING! I promptly initiated 'pissed woman tantrum', throwing everything I had pulled out from under the sink and organized on the floor back under the sink. Screaming the whole time, of course. I decided it was important to take it out on my daughter (who was the one who pointed out the leak, after all). My son came in to her defense. Nevermind. I'm done.

Thirty minutes and 3,000 tears later, my daughter and I forged on in my bathroom. We completely re-organized the cabinet under that sink, my three 'main' drawers and the counter top. Now supply shopping was in order.

Off to the store on Super Bowl Sunday. Yippee! Almost no one on the roads. Nearly empty stores. Shopping went quicker than average but still slower than I would have liked. It was 7:00 pm before we got home. 

I still have 16 pants to iron and 14 shirts. A shower. Drying my hair. Cleaning off my bed. Organizing my scrap stuff. And I'm spent. Fail.

The Chair

I have been struggling with this stupid chair for over a year and a half. I've had it since mid 2005. I bought it on eBay with a vanity when I was 'pre-decorating' my new room. Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of the original. But it was in need of re-upholstering from the start. Then...my daughter sat on it and the webbing disintegrated. She's not a super big girl, the webbing was just that old!                 
                                  
I started with figuring out how to re-do the webbing. Yeah. Not my strong suit. But I forged ahead. I cut my fabric. Padded the hole (now with make-shift webbing). Attached the fabric. It wasn't big enough to cover all the previous 'brad holes'. So I got some ribbon to match my fabric. Duh. ROUND HOLE. I was not going to miter the darn ribbon!  

This was my SECOND result...notice the 'brad holes'???
Now, how to cover those...

I headed to JoAnn's to select something else. The associate was not very helpful, pretty much telling me I needed to totally re-do the whole chair! Not. So I bought more fabric for a do-over.

I took the webbing off and re-examined my options. After finding a round piece of wood at Goodwill, I thought: "I'll just nail that onto the underside and pad it!". The piece wouldn't fit. I tried sanding it down. Fail. I ended up buying a piece of MDF and using my sawsall. Well...my son actually used it :)   I secured it to the underside of the hole. 

Now I was back to the edging of the fabric. Ugh. Back to JoAnn's. More fabric. Back to the drawing board.

Today's project: FINISHING THE CHAIR! (wish me luck)

The "RE"

I LOVE working the weekend! It means I have the next three days off. Which then, of course, means I have a busy three days ahead of me. At least in theory.

Alas, this begins a 'new me'. See, I *used to* spend my 'first day off' lounging...catching up much needed rest for this weary old body. Most of the time it was initiated by my knee. The weather. A VERY long weekend at work. A great episode of SVU. The clock.

I have a great list of things to be accomplished that I absolutely MUST get to. No more distractions (organizing my thoughts by way of this blog doesn't count as a distraction, does it???)

1. Organize the store room
2. Organize the bonus room
3. Organize items to get rid of (sell/donate)
4. Re-organize (again) my closet (add to #3)
5. Re-hang the dining room curtains
6. Install peep hole
7. Re-organize the 'Harry Potter' closet
8. Re-organize kitchen cabinets/drawers
9. Re-organize pantry
10. Re-organize the laundry room (perhaps a total re-do)
11. Paint the family room/closet/stairs/hall/little bath
12. Re-organize my room/bathroom/closet
13. Paint my room/bathroom/closet
14. Re-organize garage
15. Re-do landscape
16. Organize photos
17. Begin scrapbooks
18. Study

Wow. I am seeing a lot of "RE-organizing" on that list! How did we get there? How do we not go there again? That is why I am blogging this. I can't believe I am the only one in 'that place'. So I shall begin.

I am starting with socks. I hate socks. I mostly stopped wearing them because of the whole sorty-matchy thing. I guess I am just obsessive with it. I match the amount of wear. My feet are sensitive. I don't like 'feels' on my feet.

Now...do I post 'before & after' photos? Hmmmm.....

As I walk around unsure of my current or future direction, I am yet, ever, still, reminded of my 'former life' and all it was filled with. Someday, I must move from that place. Today though, I am sitting in it while planning my next move out of it and came across one of my poems. A gentle nudge to my inner self telling me I am 'still there'.



Gone

I have grown weary
Of the things I am hearing
I know tomorrow is another day
But I just want it to go away
And how do you know I just need time
Or that I care if the sun ever shines

He was mine for far too little
His love was far too big
My heart is much too brittle
There’s no where left to dig
To find the strength to carry on
To hold it together when you’re gone


You’re so strong they keep telling me
With my head in my hands I just weep
This too shall pass I've heard before
Would you say it again if it were yours
I’m so sorry, how did he go
They ask as if they want to know
I begin the story
Much too boring


His smile was the light I needed
His laugh the strength to stand
My heart is now depleted
I don’t know who I am
There is no strength to carry on
There is no together when you’re gone


He was sick for so long
Sicker still by the day
We had to have known
He was going away
No way to know when you stop feeling
No way to go on when you’re still healing

I don’t want to talk
I don’t want to cry
I don’t want to be alone
Or keep it inside
I don’t want to be here anymore
Don’t want to be anywhere when you’re

Gone