DEF

Hello, it's Mr. and Mrs. here with our 3 latest alphabet dates.  Nothing too "flashy", but they are keeping us creative and intentional about ways to spend more quality time together. 

D~ We were actually able to have a date night without Little Miss a few Fridays ago in a part of town that we don't get to nearly enough.  We tried a new restaurant (for us) called Dickey's BBQ.  The service was quick, food was good, and they had really good fountain Diet Coke. :)  The Mrs. also had a gift card leftover from her bday to DSW so we stopped there.  She was able to find her first ever pair of shoes from that store. Shoe shopping is not something we often do together, but we had a great time.

cute, huh?

 

E~ We had a little help from the holidays for this one.  We dyed Easter eggs, and went on an Easter egg hunt.  Nothing too creative there, but it was Little Miss's first experience with both, so we had a blast!

 F~ Those of you that know us well, know that we both love football.  Thursday, April 26th, is the football draft, so we have some fun plans in store!  Of course we're going to watch it, but that seems a little boring, so Mr. has made a game that we're going to play throughout the evening....DRAFT-O.  Played basically like BINGO.....we each have to fill out our card with players that we think will get drafted first.  First person with a blackout, WINS!  The Mrs. has also taken some of our favorite football food, and found some new (*somewhat healthier) versions of them for us to munch on during the evening as well.  We're excited!

There you have it!  Up next, G, H, I.  We have heard from a few of you that have started doing this as well, and would love to hear how it's going!  And, as always, we would love any ideas for upcoming letters.  

 

If you're just joining us now, here's what we did for our ABC Dates.  Happy dating!

DIY Workbench

Hey everyone.  It's the Mr. here.  Sorry I haven't been here in a while, but I'm back with some tips on how to make a DIY workbench for your garage.  Our garage is not huge, so I needed a space where I could work, and also help to organize our garage space a little better.

Here's a before shot....notice all of the random things accumulating around my tool boxes!

1.  Find a top you want to use.  I found an old counter top from a kitchen, but you can pick up some High Density Particle Board (HDP) from your local hardware store.  Cut it to a size you want and put some 2X4 or 2X6's around the ends for a frame.  Glue the bottom of the boards, clamp them together with the bottom of the table, and screw the two together. Be sure to screw from the bottom up.  You don't want to cut a hole in your table top.










2.  Cut your legs to your desired height.  Take a 2X4 and screw it to another 2X2.  Do this four times, one for each leg.  This allows an easy fit into the frame on the bottom of the table.  If you want to add a shelf to your bench, screw another piece of 2X2 in the corner of each leg so the shelf can rest on it.  Number each leg and frame just in case you need to take it down. (more on this later).

 

3.  If adding a shelf, find a scrap piece of plywood, measure and cut it according to the inside of your frame on the bottom of the table.  Pre-drill the plywood because it can split easy.  Screw the plywood into another frame of 2X2s.  This can rest on the inside of the legs you made earlier.  Screw the sides of the legs into the frame of the shelf to pull it together. Screw the back frame into the studs of your garage wall for extra support.

4. Vice (optional).  Determine where you want the vice on the bench and mark the four holes with a pencil.  Drill a hole through the table big enough to fit a 3/4 inch bolt.  Screw the nut and bolt together with the Vice attached.  

 

 The finished product:  A nice-sized work bench for me to work on, and a more organized garage.

The shelf pictured above my bench (pic on the right) is the poor man's shelf that I blogged about before.