My "new" table

Not too long ago, I mentioned a new table that I purchased while on a fateful trip to Warrenton.  I haven't forgotten that I never posted a picture.  My mom's keen eye spotted this gem hiding the back of a tent out there.  It was a perfect match for my mother's larger drum table.  This table is special because it was my grandparents' table in their home in Waco and I assume prior to Waco.  So, for me to find a smaller version for my own living room was doubly special.

 

For those of you following, you know that I usually paint or refinish all pieces that come into my house.  You can breathe a sigh of relief.  Other than a coat of dark wax to protect it, I have no intentions of altering this table in any way, now.  In fifteen years, I might change my mind, but hey, that's then!

The lowdown on the lowboy

I was a lucky/blessed girl when I moved into my house because so many friends and family donated NICE pieces of furniture to me to help furnish my house. One of the pieces came into my house as a part of matching set for a bedroom, 2 side tables and a dresser. I already have a highboy dresser in my bedroom and don't need another, but I desperately needed storage in my living room. So, I plopped down the piece against my wall and left it there for almost a year now.

While the piece was nice and heavy, man is it HEAVY, it just wasn't my style. It took me a long time to realize that it wasn't the shape of the piece or the accents, it was the color. It was too something. So, after much perusing on Miss Mustard Seed, I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. As I mentioned this piece is super heavy, so I pulled the drawers out and put them on my super special custom painting station in my backyard. Jealous aren't you?!? After a good spray of primer and Heirloom White spray paint, I used 100 grit sandpaper to distress the edges and bring out the texture.

I then broke out my new favorite tool, toy, stuff??? Minwax Finishing Paste Wax in special dark. The finishing wax brought out the details in the furniture piece and added a soft darkening hue to the creamy paint. I was so excited about the new look that I put the drawers back in the piece, unmatching and all!

Last weekend I was able to cajole family into helping me haul the base of the lowboy outside to the carport. There I sanded and sanded and sanded to take off the old finish and reveal the wood beneath. I then hit the sides with more Heirloom White and prepped the top for staining. I chose the darkest stain I could find, since I wanted the biggest contrast between the top and base.

I have to say that I was super impressed with the results. The final look is FABULOUS and matches so well now in my living room. The texture and finish of the paint is so cool and I am so excited that it worked. The top however was another fail, but I cleverly photographed it so that it wasn't too noticeable. Eventually I will haul it back outside and redo the top, but until then, I'm going to enjoy the look it lends to my living room!

 
 

A place to rest

When sitting on my couch, your eyes are immediately drawn to the built-in shelves flanking the television. After I spent the hours refinishing them, priming them, and painting them, I placed a bunch of collectibles, books, antiques and new, and pictures up on them. While each seperate shelf looked okay in my book, altogether they looked busy and crowded. The visual weight was unbalanced and while not screamingly obvious, it nagged at me.


After much begging of one of my closest friends and a bribe of supper (which she didn't accept!) a very successful hour was spent rearranging and reweighting my shelves. Now when I sit down to watch TV, there are other places for your eye to rest and the entire room feels more balanced. SOOOOOO much better!

Slight detour...

Okay peeps. I promise I'll get back to my more traditional posts of crafting and DIY'ing, but today I'm off on a slight detour.

I love blogging. I would love to be privileged enough to quit my day job and blog full time. That being said, most days I honestly love my real job. I impact lives and that means a lot to me. I would just love to have all of the benefits of my "real job" without the stresses of my real job. I'm guessing that most everyone out there feels the same way. The problem comes where the real jobs wears me out so much that I either don't have time to blog or don't have time to do something to blog about. Hence, the few and far between posts. Sorry folks. I'm working on it and hope to have several short posts coming soon.

After all that, if anyone knows anyone who would love to pay me to create/DIY, have them email me!!!! Now, I have that off my chest, onto another detour.

In dealing with my fixer-upper, I have reached the awkward stage. You know, that stage where you're cleaning and you get down to the last basket full of stuff and you don't know what to do with it?? You need all of the things, but none of them have a place where they live. You end up putting all of the things back in the basket and store the basket because if nothing else at least you know where all of those things are...

My bedroom is completely finished, save flooring, which is true of the whole house.

Master Bath is done save caulking baseboards & installing crap moulding...

Hallway is finished save painting and installing trim on one frame, caulking baseboards & installing crap moulding...

Guestroom is close, except for caulking baseboards & installing crap moulding, replacement windows, & closing up the pink bath wall.

Office is close as well, except caulking baseboards & crap moulding.

The living room needs a paint job on the sideboard, frames next to the mirror, a side table at large chair, caulking baseboards & crap moulding and some minor decor tweaks.

The kitchen, now that's another story. It's a domino story that thankfully is about to start falling. If you recall, my bro & SIL bought their first house and moved around the beginning of October. Most everything that didn't fit in their house ended up as a garage sale item in my shed. How does this effect me and my kitchen??? In order to drywall my kitchen, we have to install all of the electrical first. In order to reach the walls to install the electrical, we have to get to them. (I know, silly detail, right??) The walls were until recently blocked by tools and supplies. Unfortunately they take up so much space that I can't just move them around the room while we work behind them. To be really efficient, all of the supplies should be moved to another spot, close and secure, like a shed. Hmmmm. (Are you seeing the issues with the shed? Now, please understand, that I offered my shed up for their storage. They were not imposing on me at all, it's just that the time finally came for it to be emptied.)

Thanks to a highly successful garage sale, my shed is now empty and ready to hold all of my various and sundry items, after we beef up the security out there a little more. Once the tools are secured, we can begin work on the pantry, (wait until you hear this doosie. the thought of it literally brought tears to my eyes...) and keep plugging away on the electrical. Until then, I'll have some smaller posts to keep you busy. Some will be new things and some will be things I've already done, but haven't shared yet. Until then, see ya!!!

The Finale to the 5 colors...

Warning: Wordy post! I have a lot to say. I've been in the house listening to the rain all day, getting things done, but no one to talk to, so you're getting it all!

Last week I posted this picture.


The premise seems simple enough right? Pick out a shade a green and paint my kitchen walls, at least the walls that aren't just studs... Ha! Once upon a time, I painted my bedroom a light shade of green. Eek!! It came out more Kermit than relaxing escape. I am bent and determined not to make that mistake again. Hence my demands. (in case you forgot from last time... I knew that I wanted a soft sage green that wasn't too babyish, wasn't too bright, wasn't too dark, too yellow, too blue or any of a million other criteria.)

After looking at the colors and making a snap decision, I had my choice. (Don't know how I pick colors so fast, but I always have. Somehow I just "know." Granted, that doesn't always work out so well for me (recall Kermit?) but it's how I roll. I liked all of the colors I picked, but killed Simply Sage immediately. My kitchen is DARK and I know it will be light and bright when I get the new lighting scheme in, but until then I didn't want the darkness of that color.

Ocean Foam had a fabulous color, but echoed too much of the Kermit color of my old bedroom. Silver Sage is one of the most popular furniture colors in blogdom. While I love it, it didn't have enough of a difference between the color and the cabinet color. By process of elimination, I was left with Vale Mist. I'm not sure how much eliminating I did, since that was my first choice anyway, but I at least validated it. :)

Off I went to Home Depot and ordered a gallon of the Vale Mist. If you recall, Vale Mist is originally a Benjamin Moore color, not Behr (Home Depot's paint brand) When I took my tiny (1"x2") chip back, the lady at HD asked me for the lid to the paint sample had purchased the night before. Oops. Finished the paint pot and threw the container away. I had the chip, what was the problem??? The issue? We had put some of the paint on the chip from the sample to prove the chip matched. That paint reflected the light wrong differently and would mess up the sample. What's a girl to do? Thankfully, I'm well known at Home Depot and Susan, yup, on a first name basis here, pulled up the queue from the night before and found my 4 color samples. By reading the combination of dyes, we were able to figure out which one was the un-named Vale Mist. After mixing up my color, Susan spot matched the new gallon of Vale Mist with my color chip. It looked great and off I went.

When I got home, I quickly put the paint up on the wall. The more I put up the paint color, the more upset and unhappy with the color. What the heck? When I put the color up on the wall next to my four sample colors, I discovered that it didn't match the original color. While it looked okay from a distance, it wasn't the same color. Granted, it wasn't a huge difference. Instead it was one that made you wonder if you're eyes were out of focus. Not huge, but I kept insisting that it was okay. (Basically I was trying to fool myself into liking it. Guess who wasn't fooled?)

After being mad and frustrated, Marc pulled the lid out of the trash to try and find out why I loved the color in the 1'x1' square by HATED it larger. He examined the lids, which show the color formulas. Instead of being multiples of each other, which would make sense since one was a cup and the other a gallon, we saw different dye notations. Grrrr.

After being talked back down to a rational plane, thanks Dad, I went back to Home Depot to talk with Susan. When I explained that we couldn't even make the formulas match, she realized that I wasn't more crazy than normal and something was up. With a close look, we figured out that the paint computer had tried to take the faster way out. Instead of using a combination of black and yellow, which also makes green, the computer put a shot of the blue colorant in. This changed the entire look completely and was making me batty.

After leaving with the correct color of green, I went back and completely repainted the entire surface that I had just painted a couple of hours ago. Now, I am MUCH, MUCH happier with the color. You would not believe the change in the wall and the overall look of the room with the simple difference of black and yellow versus blue.


I know it's hard to tell on a computer screen, but there is a difference in the colors going diagonally up middle of the picture.


It is so bright and happy now. I love being in it, as long as I'm facing the right way, but that's another post.

Quite a change, huh?

The other side...

In my last post, I shared the view of my new doorway from the living room to the dining room. For anyone playing along (nope, no prize, sorry.) you should know that there is another side to the story, ahem, wall. If you don't remember, the original dining room, viewed from the living room was covered in fabulous knotty pine paneling. Yum. Oh wait, not so much. Knocking a ginormous hole in the wall helped the dining room, as well as ripping out the paneling. (Wear jeans when doing this, I still have scars on my legs from it!) The real magic occurred last month when Marc & Sara went above and beyond the call of duty and installed drywall over 1/3 of the kitchen walls. (the other 2/3 has to have electrical and gas run first before drywall.) The entire room breathed a sigh of relief when it finally shed the last of the 60's and moved into the ??? oughts? No idea here! Thoughts? Once the drywall was up, the room started whispering that it still wasn't perfectly happy. It just wanted a little color, just a little. Hmmm...
I knew that I wanted a soft sage green that wasn't too babyish, wasn't too bright, wasn't too dark, too yellow, too blue or any of a million other criteria. Easy right? I first turned to blogdom and cruised looking for colors I liked. A popular shade seemed to be Silver Sage by Benjamin Moore. This lead me down to our local Ace Hardware (only place in town that carries BM paint) to pick up several color chips, including Silver Sage. I then headed to Home Depot and picked up several different color chips there. After leaving them around the house for a few days, (during which they toured the entire house via Zach ;) I tossed out several as being wrong. Once I settled on 4 colors, I went back to Home Depot and got two color samples of their colors, and color matched two Benjamin Moore colors. Back at home I put the four colors on the wall with my trim (and eventually cabinet color) in the middle. Thoughts on my colors? (Ignore the glossy sheen. Someone wasn't patient enough to wait until the second coat had dried completely. Whoops..) Quick note: All of the paint in my house is Behr paint carried by Home Depot. The Behr paint received the highest rating in durability and color fastness in tests performed by Consumer Reports. This fits great into my motto of do this once and do it right the first time! (picture cheesy grin on my face) Quicker note: All opinions on this blog are mine and I do not receive any money or compensation from anyone for my wonderous thoughts.

A Clear View

This post has been a long time coming, both in the actual amount of work and in the length of time it's taken me to post about them. Sorry folks, but life has this way of getting in the way. Anyway, I've digressed, I know, big surprise right? Back to the real point of this post, a clear view... When I originally purchased my house, the living room had two pocket doors leading to the hallway and kitchen/dining area. This didn't go with my idea of an open floor plan, so I knocked a small hole in the wall, small being a relative term.

After removing the pocket door and its mechanisms, my contractor framed out the opening to the farthest studs possible, based on the electrical and built-ins. Sorry for the poor pic, but you can get the general size idea.

After months of work and waiting, drywall, face boards, trim and painting with a tiny, tiny brush, we ended up with this:


Please notice the careful paint application near the built-ins. This was so NOT my contribution. I tend to be more the type to cut in the cut in's cut in, if you follow that. My painting skills leave a LOT to be desired. I volunteered my paint clothes to demo the Behr's paint colors for our local Home Depot. It amazes me that some people are able to paint without becoming covered from head to toe. How????

I must say that it makes all the difference in my living room. Having the opening finished gives a sense of closure to the room. Weird since there are still a ton of things that need to be done in there. Maybe it's because if you don't live here, the to-do for the room is no longer obvious. Yay!!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think...

Elphaba Takes A Seat...

I was lucky enough this summer to spend a long weekend in Florida with my mom visiting her brother, Brian and his wife, Judy. For those of you following along and playing the game, yes, that is my aunt and uncle. It was a GREAT weekend! My aunt is one of the two best shoppers I know. (The other best shopper I know is my other aunt, Gail. Gonga-deal is a legit word in my family.)

As soon as I could feel my tush again, 17 hours is a long time to sit folks as we drove cross country, we headed out to scour Ocala for deals. The first place we went was a local church thrift store. After looking around, checking all the deals and heading for the door, my gut told me stop, and look again. There in amongst the 60's & 70's gems was something very similar to this beauty.


However, you have to imagine it in blue gray velour because yours truly didn't take a "before" picture. Still to this day, I can't think of a good use of this fabric. Anyone?? Anyone? Nope, not hearing a thing. Now, while you're imagining it in velour, go grab a can of paint, spray paint, in bright green, the brighter the better. Step 2, spray the entire chair. Seriously, go spray. Done spraying? Now, check out the pics.


See, I'm not lying. Notice the original color where we popped off the front covers on the edges of the arms. And, yes, it was spray paint. The texture of the painted fabric was much, much rougher than the original color. Ouch. What I want to know is where in the world did it come into their mind that they should spray paint a chair??? Seriously?!? That's the first thing that comes into your mind when you see a blue chair and you want to change the color?!? Anywho...

Okay, I've digressed. Those of you who follow me know this isn't an odd thing. Back to the beginning. The title to this post is Elphaba Takes a Seat. Who is Elphaba you ask? She is witch that was born green and uncomfortable with herself. The exact opposite of her best friend, Glenda. You might have heard part of her story in the tale of The Wizard of Oz. You can learn more about her from her own story, Wicked. Because of my chair's green skin, Aunt Judy named my chair Elphaba and it stuck. It fits her somehow even though she is no longer green, hint, hint.

Now, back to my version of Wicked. Design Intervention is a pro at recovering and reupholstery and gave me the courage to try it on my own. I stopped by a supplier in Houston and picked up some tools that I couldn't have done without. Kuddos too, to the awesome gentleman who helped me. When I explained that I was trying this for the first time, he reassured me and told me that I would be a pro in no time. While he was lying through his teeth, I appreciate the lie more than he'll ever know.

After hours cruising blogland, (this helped tons!) and building up massive amounts of courage, Marc, my dad, & I tackled the chair. Yup, I literally mean tackled. We pulled almost 5,000 staples, not kidding here, and then I took the fabric pieces and used them as patterns to carefully cut the new fabric. Once the new pieces were cut out of the same fabric I used for the Pottery Barn magic, we began the arduous task of putting it back together again.


Notice the brown stuff in the bottom of the pic and in the next one? That's wool or cotton (unknown by me) felting that is put over the wood pieces and springs to add comfort to the chair. Because we disturbed it, we laid it back down and then covered it with a new layer of fluff. It was impossible to get the felting smooth again without the new stuff. We had to staple down the felting, the new fluff and then the fabric. I have no idea how many staples we actually used to put it back together, but I'm betting it was over 1,000. If for some reason you decide to tackle a chair like this, get a pneumatic stapler. There is NO other way to do it. None! (Granted, it also helps to have an awesome uncle who loans you an air compressor on a 2 year/2,000 mile basis!)


I will say that putting the chair back together was infinitely easier than taking it apart in the first place. Definitely more gratifying. Now that it is done, the difference in my living room is huge. The chair now "fits" the room, instead of sticking out like a green thumb.


While I know pride is a sin, I am so proud of myself for charging in head on, after researching, and getting this entire started and finished. A couple of posts ago, I mentioned a table that I had refinished. It's now feeling right at home besides Elphaba.

Remember when I mentioned that my aunts and the term "gonga-deal?" Care to guess how much this beauty was?

She was labeled $15.

Luckily they were having a half-price sale to move out furniture, so she was only $7.50. Yes, you read that right, seven dollars and fifty cents. How's that for a gonga-deal?

A Whole New Look

Last year as a combined Christmas and birthday present I received a large chair, ottoman, and couch from Leslie & family. They were blessed enough to be getting a new set and passed on their old one. Seeing as I was then sitting on a blow up swim float to watch TV, I was really, really grateful. While the basic structure of the furniture was in great condition and super comfortable, the fabric was a tired and wearing thin, literally, in places. (On a side note, after getting their new furniture, M4 and VJ, Leslie's kids tried to give me the new stuff and take back the old because the new stuff wasn't comfortable. I did say no.)

Now, onto the furniture. The couch is a classic denim, and the chair and ottoman were a fabulous striped pattern. In case you missed my subtle sarcasm, I'm not a blue and yellow girl and stripes aren't really my thing. Now, I'm not complaining here by a long stretch. The chair is very comfortable and fabric can always be changed! Besides, one look at the chair and I had already envisioned it in a lovely cream fabric.


So, I approached my step-mom, Sara, and asked her to complete the monumental task of making a slipcover out of a lighter weight cotton canvas. (I was able to trade almost 30 yards of fabric for an entire set of wedding flowers. WooHoo! The labor, not the flower cost.) Unfortunately the fabric wasn't thick enough to cover the stripes, so the entire thing had to be lined. And oh, yeah, did I mention that there wasn't a pattern?!? So, after innumerable hours of hard work, and a couple or three pin pricks, she was able to transform what is pictured above into the Pottery Barn special below!


I have to say, I am knock my socks off impressed! And just in case of a spill, the entire thing unzips and comes off to go in the washer. Again, did I mention I was impressed????

Christmastime is coming!

I would love to claim that I have been super productive today and have just now finished all of the projects I'm going to post about this weekend, but that would be a lie. Let's be honest here. I've spent most of my day picking after decorating for Christmas, finding my desk again and trying to sleep since I didn't last night (killer allergies had me coughing from 3-6 am! It could be worse, I could feel bad as well.) I do have big news about projects though. Yay!! No, I didn't finish all of these projects today or even this week, but I am super excited to share them with you. And without any further delay...

A couple of years ago, my brother and then future-sister in law went to Florida and picked up some furniture from my aunt and uncle. The table was one of the pieces that came back. It sat in my mother's house and then mine in this condition:


An okay table, but not really my taste. I know, I know, it's some type of wood and a girl should never paint it. Well, if painting real wood pains you, stop reading now and look away, people, look away!!!

After cruising the blogging world for a while, I realized that they were right. Paint is just paint and can usually easily and cheaply be changed. So, I bite the bullet and picked up a can of:Yup, that's right, Aqua paint! So, after a quick drying (love that feature) spray of paint, I realized that I wasn't that brave. So, I grabbed the "glaze" ie watered down brown paint from the living room and master and rubbed it all over the piece. Voila! Perfection, at least in my eyes. I love it now and am so glad that I braved it. Eventually I want to cut down a piece of mirror to replace the marble piece in the top. Don't worry rock hounds, I have another use for the marble. It's not going far!


In a post or two, I'll show you it's new home and neighbor. It's currently tied for my favorite place in my house.

As Promised...

As mentioned in my last post, here is my much more interesting, at least I think so, post.

When I purchased this house more than a year ago, many people thought I was crazy. Okay, maybe crazy is too simple a word. How about completely off my rocker and needed to be committed?? Yeah, that's closer to the truth. I can't say that I disagree with them, so I can't really complain.

On the surface I look like a typical girl, but never judge a book by its cover. Remodeling/tools/getting in over my head is in my blood. If you have my last name, tools are in your hand from birth on, generations back on both sides of the family. My father and his brothers rewired their home growing up every time their parents went out of town. I believe the story goes that G'ma drew the line after the speakers appeared in the bathroom. Not to worry, same story on mom's side. Is it any wonder that I managed to wrangle a new intern? Check him out organizing my wrenches after helping me install a cabinet door.



His favorite helping time is anything involving power tools. (I know you're shocked and amazed by this.) I'm seeing tools in his future...




Now, onto showing off my hard work. I know, not as interesting or nearly as cute as Z-Man, but I need some gratification too. ;)

Remember a couple of posts ago when I showed off my stripping skills? After hanging out precariously balanced in my kitchen for a while, one of the doors is completely refinished and the another is 1/3 of the way through. The painting process isn't hard, but it is annoying. Each side of the door requires 3 coats with sanding in between coats. Being patient enough to wait while the paint dries is where I fail miserably. (never would have guessed, huh?) I usually manage to repair my messes, but don't look too close at my finishes when you come over.



My house guests have been requesting a door for their bedroom for a while now. (I know, I know, I'm a bad hostess. Whoops.) So, trying to make amends, I painted the door and proudly waited for it to be hung. Recall that phrase "Pride goeth before a fall" or something like that? Yeah, during installation from the hallway I hear, "Either the door is 3 inches too narrow or the door jam is 3 inches too wide." Say what?? Sure enough in my haste, I painted the wrong door. Yeah, I know every door needs to be painted, but I was trying to do a good thing. I would just like it to go one record...

Anywho, the guest bedroom door is now on the pictured above, so hopefully it will be ready to be hung soon. Until then, I get to walk past my "new" linen closet door. It really makes that end of the hallway look much, much better.



While I had the paint out for the guestroom/closet door I FINALLY finished the built-in doors in the living room. Now that they are up, I really, really like the look. It gives your eye someplace to rest on the wall o'storage. (that's my Irish side coming out)


Like the sparkle? One of my favorite finishes ever has to be Mercury Glass. Old, new, silver, gold, copper, I love it all. To add to the shine of my accents on the shelves, I decided to indulge my fave again and used Anthropologie knobs again. I can't find anything I love as much for the price, so I'm sticking with a winner.


So, what do you think of my new Intern and our work? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Halloween Art

YES!!! My baby/right arm/computer is finally back!! It amazes me how many times a day I go to my computer, documents, pictures and music. One of the things I missed the most was all of my bookmarks and internet history. Having all of that stored for me really speeds up the most basic of chores.

Anywho, I know that means nothing to you and what you really want is for me to end the suspense of my Halloween art. On my window wall in my living room I have 4 fabric frames. While I love them, they don't really lend themselves to Halloween.


What to do??? After spotting a gorgeous metallic blue paper and some cute Cricut cuts on the Paper Doll Dress Up cart, I finagled:

(Can you figure out what I was watching?? Sorry for the crummy pictures. Trying to get one shot with no glares and a clear shot behind the glass is almost impossible!)

So what do you think?

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

When I sat on my new lovely couch, I discovered that I had a large hole on one wall. Now, not that kind of hole. My drywall was completely intact and painted. What was missing was any sort of decor. Apparently the hole so disturbed me that I didn't even take a single picture of it! Anyway, the hole was on the wall opposite the windows in the room, perfect for a mirror. Now, to find the perfect mirror. Thankfully I was able to spot one the exact right size at Burlington Coat Factory in San Antonio. The great part was the price, $25! Wahoo!


The only issue with the mirror was the finish. The odd coloring wasn't the exact look I was going for. I wanted something more broken in and welcoming.


Thankfully I had a ton of leftover paint from the various walls/furniture in my house. After a coat of Behr's Heavy Cream, I had this result.


While I was happier with this result, it still wasn't where I wanted it to be, so, back to the drawing board I went. After pouring a bit of water, okay a lot of water, into the empty can of Behr's Roasted Nuts. (It's the name of the paint, I promise!!) I did a fabulously sloppy job of rubbing the watered down paint all over the frame. After a quick rubdown I had a warm detailed look that perfectly matched my living room.


While the mirror looked great, it lacked the welcoming look I was craving. Off to the Cricut I headed. Out of white vinyl I cut a stencil for Welcome and the swirly-ma-bob (technical term!) using the Plantain Schoolbook cart. (I used the white vinyl because it was the color I had the most of and I didn't have the stencil stuff.)


After painstakingly applying it to the mirror and making certain it was centered, I protected the rest of the glass with magazine pages and sprayed on 3 light coats of glass frost. After letting the paint set up/cure I carefully, oh so carefully, peeled off the vinyl and tape and carefully cleaned the glass. Now, I didn't clean it as thoroughly as I wanted, but there is time for that later. What I ended up with was a great piece in my living room. Now it sends the right message to all of my guests. Feel free to stop by and check it out for yourself.