Building Stuff! and Cooking With Cereal!

The Mister and I were strolling through an antique store over two years ago and the potential findings were pretty bleak. The pickings had already been picked - and we were finding nothing. We were towards the end of the huge store when  I looked up towards the ceiling - and what did I see?

A big ole Paragon Tree Pak from back in the day - complete with tree topper and ornament hooks! You should have seen the store's lights bouncing off of those ornaments! Glory day!  I started squeal-speaking in the sort of incoherent gasping gibberish that is only reserved for the "oh my god, I have never seen this in my life!" kind of finds. Mister Kitsch had kept walking but after hearing the ruckus, stepped back (probably in deep trepidation) to see what I was making such a fuss over.

The sad part was that it was just after Christmas and I was dead broke - and this thing was remarkably out of my usual price range for "fun" items.  I don't remember exactly what all ensued but I do recall making all sorts of deals with the Mister about how I'd pay our bank account back if he'd let me get it. A few minutes later, a store clerk was climbing up high into the rafters and bringing it down. I remember hiding my face with my hands as she did, completely terrified that those ornaments were going to spring out of their packaging, straight to their deaths on the concrete floor.

Luckily, the whole shebang came down and out of the store intact. But that was two years ago. Since then, it's been hidden away in a closet. We finally got off of our duffs a couple of weekends ago and started the process towards getting it on display. We figured that a glass shadowbox would be the best option and off we went! Well, off the Mister went! I don't claim to be able to cut a straight line with anything so it was he who used the power tools.

 Luckily, the place where he works has a complete shop so we were able to go there and use all of the equipment.  I went with him to cheer him on and to oversee the process (which I'm quite good at).

Here he is cutting the notches for the glass to sit into in the frame. 

Note: Knowing what a worry-wart I am, can you even imagine having to be in a wood shop with me?
Here you can see how the ornaments are in their box. They were snug in their original packaging so we just left them there and put that inside of the frame. One of the ornaments was missing when we bought the set but luckily, I had a matching ornament in my own Christmas stash to fill in that spot. 

Here is the Mister many steps later.
The box has been completed and he is now measuring things up for the glass.

Pickle Party!

While he was slaving away, I made this intro board in case we ever decided to give him his own feature on Ranch Dressing.

...which he says will never happen because he hates when I show him on the internet.

Obviously. 

Here he is incognito staining the frame.
After lots of slaving away on his part (and agreeing that things were going great on mine), the shadow box was finished this week. We decided to hang it in the dining room where the sun can bounce off of the ornaments for a little razzle-dazzle. 

I think it's pretty cool and it's fun to finally be able to see the ornaments instead of just shoving their box out of the way whenever I went to excavate something out of my closet. It does clash a little with my china cabinet contents which are still in their Fall theme from October - um, yeah....boy, am I behind! But if you think about it, I'm now actually a little ahead since Christmas is represented there too! 

Have you built anything lately? If so, do tell! Are you nuts for the power tools? Any seasonal projects that you've been putting off so long that holidays have merged into a great big blur? Do tell about those too! 
Oh! And on a pleased-as-party-punch note, Brian at Caker Cooking is featuring a recipe that I submitted today. I'm not going to give away the details but I can tell you that it came from this intriguing cookbook - and seriously, what's better than love and cereal? 


Click here to go see. Brian always tickles me to death with his writing and let me tell you - he comes up with some great recipes! February is reader submission month at Caker Cooking so color me intrigued by what's about to ensue....
Until next time, x's and o's, Eartha