I did it.

I did it. I did it. I did it. And I got shocked doing it. Tom wanted a dimmer in the dining room. So I went to Home Depot and bought one. Came home and put it in. ALL BY MYSELF. Tom doesn't think it's all that big of a deal. But I do! Electrical. What's next? Plumbing, check. Tiling, check. Painting, check. Furniture, check. Decorating, check. I think I've got something here....who needs him, when I'm learning to do it all by myself!

So, Kristy S. asked what Butterfly projects I've been doing, so here are the pictures to show you all what I've done. It really helps me deal have fun with the kids when they wake up from naps.

This is just a cheapy stool from IKEA that I painted and distressed in blue. Love it. The boys push it all over the kitchen.

I recovered these stools in canvas. Love canvas!

This was brown. Just took the baskets out and lacquered it. Matches now.

That picture stinks. But I got the chair at Goodwill for $7. It was just wood brown and I used the same blue to paint it as I did the stool and this bench that used to be red mahogany. The pumpkins are from Wal-mart and they were a buck each and I just spray painted them Heirloom white, Oil Rubbed Bronze and some other shiny metallic, that I love.

Love this. Distressed both this and the stool above with the Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze.

This bench used to be brown with a pretty red fabric that I liked, but was so totally over (in my best Valley Girl impression).....I used the white paint from the laundry room cabinets, the glaze and canvas to recover. So cute.

I got the idea for these "pelmet" window decorations from here. I don't know what pelmet means, but I used old curtains from the kitchen that were too much fabric in there and foam core board, duct tape and gorilla glue. I think it cost all of $5 to make. I made one for the other window in our room too. Awesome.

These are cool. I got 5 mason jars at Goodwill for a buck a piece and the boys filled them with sand from the sandbox and we put tea lights in them. They will be perfect for Halloween. Hopefully it doesn't rain!

The bench was in our basement. It used to be black and crackle white. Whatever. It was a mishap. I spray painted it and now it's a bench in the laundry room. Waiting to get an old door and put some hooks on it to make a nice little mud room storage area. The mirror was $2.99 from Goodwill and I spray painted it. The frame was also $2.99 and I spray painted that in Heirloom white. I am going to put one of those vinyl wall sayings on the inside. Something clever....like...do your own laundry!

I did these curtains this afternoon. They used to drape in the middle of the window and I chopped them apart and used that Stitch Witchery stuff to make a loop and hung them back up. There is another window just like it on the other side of the room. This literally took me an hour to do. It was awesome and it makes a huge difference.

Here's my next project. Habitat for Humanity Restore. $28. I'm going to make it a big huge ottoman. I've already taken the top off, so now I need to find a fabric, paint the base and figure out how to do that cool button thing.....I'll post pics when I'm done!

Gus is 5 months!

It's hard to believe that this little guy is 5 months old already. He still continues to be THE MOST AMAZING baby EVER! He's just perfect. Except when he rolls over and can't be bothered to roll back over....then he screams. A LOT. And loudly. But other than that he's a perfectly happy content banana eating  5 month old. He figured out the cereal thing a few weeks ago and got bored with it, so we moved on to bananas. Loves them. Love him.

How cute is he?!!!

Then there's this little guy. His preschool put on a "Critty Party" (Critter Party) on Tuesday and they sang songs and marched around the rooms in their animal costumes. Porter wore the top to his old lion costume and was perfectly fine with it. In fact we first got him a dinosaur costume but it was killing me that we spent $30 on that costume PLUS $20 on his Transformers Halloween costume, so I convinced him to be the lion. I was so proud of him for being a good boy and not complaining or crying about the dinosaur costume. It was amazing to see him act grown up. I'm off point....critties....

Porter came out of the room at the head of the class and saw all the parents and kids watching him and he FREAKED out. He started making that - I'm-going-to-start-crying-if-you-don't-stop-looking-at-me face...It was horrible. He has never been one to have all the attention on him, in fact he gets really embarrassed. And he sure was then. It was so sad. I cried. I felt awful for him. I cried. Right there. After the class sang two songs, one about a squirrel, the other I don't remember because, I was crying, the teacher let him come over to me and he just held on to me and sobbed. It was so sad. I cried. Then Jack said, "Porter sad. Me sad for Porter." So cute. I cried. Did I mention that I cried. First it was that, oh, he's so cute being all sad, I was giggling, then the giggles turned into tears. I cried on the way home. No one wants their children to be sad, or embarrassed or scared. But, the teacher said he was great in class afterwards. Not a problem. And you know what - he wont stop singing that damn squirrel song....all day long - grey squirrel, grey squirrel shake your bushy tail, wrinkle up your little nose, put a nut between your toes, grey squirrel, grey squirrel shake your bushy tail....

I just noticed I sent him to school, at a church looking like we can't afford to buy him jeans, or even patch the holes. Seriously.....

Last weekend the boys carved pumpkins. I say that because I didn't do anything with them. It was a "man" project. They loved it. Jack's a hambone.

They are very scary....

Daily Drop Cap

How cool is that!

New finds

This blog is not becoming a home improvement blog, I promise...but, I just HAVE to share a few things. I have been a butterfly project fool lately and am totally loving it. I gave up my afternoon naps and am gettin' things done!
After discovering the Habitat Restore, I thought I would try the local Goodwill. Boy oh boy! I found the jackpot! So excited and I can't wait to go back.

Check this out. I have been watching this chair at Target for a long time, but was never going to spend $160 on it. NEVER. But, when we went to Goodwill today, it was like all the stars were aligned. I was walking in the furniture area and out of the back room comes a man with this chair. I mean, really. How absolutely perfect! I was nervous about the price, I saw some stuff that was there that was a little pricey, and this being a brand new chair, I mean tags and everything, I thought it would be up there, but it was only $24.99! I had to look twice. Really. $24.99. I tore that tag off as fast as I could and it was mine! The whole time I was walking around the store I thought someone was going to take it from under my nose. But it is mine and I took it home and it fits our front room perfectly. L-O-V-E it. I know, crazy to be obsessed with a chair - but seriously. I know it was just pure luck, but maybe, just maybe Mom had something to do with it.

Then. THEN. I found these two beauties. They were each $7. SEVEN DOLLARS. I couldn't believe it. Just wait until you see them!

Sadly I had already taken the ugly green seat out of the chair to recover it. I discovered spray laquer - LOVE IT. It goes on smooth and easily without dripping like other spray paints. It's amazing.



If you click on the pictures you can see a close up. Still need to find a shade for the ginormous lamp. There's the table we made. I think the legs are a little bright, so I am going to attempt to do a glaze on them to tone it down a little and make it a little weathered.

I also discovered Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint. Holy Cow do I love Home Depot. They have everything! The day after we moved into our house we put in a new sink and faucet in the kitchen. The faucet was Oil Rubbed Bronze and I think it looks great. So I found this spray paint and did a few things. The spray is really forgiving and very easy to use. This is what our garage looked like this afternoon:
I painted a mirror, vase, candle sticks, clock and some frames. Oh, and that big round mirror in the middle - I got that at the Salvation Army last week and painted it white at first. But then changed my mind. I'm loving it more now. Obsessed with ORB. I don't think so, but I do really like it!




































This is the last one, I promise. I love chalk boards. So I made one. With a tiny little help from Tom. But even he would say he did not do much. I even got to use a new tool before he did! Awesome.

That's it. I still really want to paint the kitchen. Black on the bottom. Antique white-ish on top. But I still have a no from Tom. Bummer. What is my next Butterfly project going to be? Ideas?

Starting to like our house.

I'm finally starting to like our house a little more every day. I've been getting rid of things, brightening things up, changing things around and we are slowly but surely getting to where it is developing a bit of character and it's not just a new house. I guess the huge blue paint stain in the boys' room gave it some character....

So, I've been reading all these blogs on painting furniture, cabinets, etc, just to change things up in your house that you don't like, http://www.theoldpaintedcottage.blogspot.com/ has some great ideas and so does http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/. Our house is nothing like either of these bloggers' homes, we have a lot less knick-knacky kind of stuff, mostly because it's just too hard to keep clean, move (we do that a lot) and the boys just want to play with it, and that's just annoying. So, I saw this table on The Old Painted Cottage that I liked, and thought maybe Tom and I could try to make something similar. Well, it turned out better than expected. We were going to bang up some new material from The Home Depot, but instead we went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and found all our materials for under $39 and Tom got to use a new tool that his dad gave him. It took us all weekend, but it looks fabulous and it was fun and I am just so amazed that we didn't argue about it at all!




Tom basically put the kabosh on painting the kitchen cabinets, but I did paint the laundry room ones, and I think it really brightens things up. They look great, although very time consuming!








Oh, almost forgot, the legs on the table were posts from a set of stairs so we kept the rounded tops after I sawed them off and I stained them. Then I painted and rubbed on stain over a 2x4 that I found in the basement and attached the top of the post. I haven't decided where to put it yet....



Next butterfly project is a headboard for our bed and a chalkboard in the kitchen. I'm definitely going back to the Habitat store!

Cabinets

I hate my kitchen cabinets. I know. Not very exciting. But, I really, really, really want to paint them. Tom is not for it, AT ALL. I've already painted the boys' rooms and the guest bedroom. Repainted the laundry room and the main floor bathroom. And repainted our bedroom and then repainted it again. I also painted our dining room chairs, black, several book cases, a dresser, the kids table in the basement, a rocking chair a nightstand and a chair that Margie gave me. I think they all look great! I really want to paint the dining room table too, but Tom has put his foot down, as it is his grandma's. Whatever, she re-stained it several times, so it lost its value years ago....but I'll move on. Our house is not that old. Maybe 2006. The family that lived here before us was the first family to live here. The cabinets are in great shape and they match the rest of the terribly boring out of style oak trim in the rest of the house. I would like to paint the trim too...but that's A LOT of work! So, here are the cabinets in our kitchen. I would like to paint them white. I've done a ton of research on the internet and I'm pretty sure I could successfully do it. I think I just need someone to say, "Hey, go for it. They will look great." What do you think? Paint them? Live with it? Here's my rationale, maybe that will help me justify it. We will probably be in this house for quite some time. In the time that we are here before we sell the house, the kitchen and everything in it will be outdated and need to be redone, so we will have to do it at some point. I might as well enjoy the crisp white cabinets while we are here, right? I mean, Tom has completely refused to let me get rid of the carpet because the boys would beat up anything new anyway...

Well, here are the current cabinets. When we first moved in, I put all the handles on. Love them. And would reuse them. I know that if I lived in an older home, I would totally do it, without even thinking about it, but for some reason in this fairly new home, I am terrified of making that commitment. Odd. I think I will start with the laundry room cabinets and see how it goes and if I even like it. Then I will CONVINCE Tom that the kitchen would look great that way.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Have I ever told you all how much I love my husband? Well I do. He is infuriating, but he makes me laugh on a daily basis and continues to put up with my obsessiveness, my butterfly complex (Tom named it that) and so on and so forth.

I love you baby. Happy Birthday. It's on Thursday. Porter wants me to make him a pumpkin pie...

Dousman Duathlon

Just wanted to post these of the Dousman Duathlon that was on September 20th. I had such a great time doing this. No pressure because it was my first one. I LOVED it. It was so much fun, although the transition from biking to running is so hard! Finished in 1:39.30. Only 9 minutes from 3rd place in my age group! Pretty good for a first timer! I think I got 13th out of 60 in my age group.

(Oh, and I passed that girl in the pink!)

Elegant Farmer

This weekend we went with our friends and neighbors The Clarks to an Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Farm. First of all and most importantly, they have THE BEST Apple Pie I have EVER had IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! Is that enough emphasis? It is sooooo good.

Although Elegant Farmer is really busy and quite hectic, it was fun to pick our own apples (never done that before) and to watch the kids play and chow down on apples. I got several great pictures of the kids. The first is Amelia, then Liliana. Followed by Jack and Porter.

4 months

Gus is 4 months old. When I look at him I just want to cry because he isn't an infant anymore. He's 13 pounds, 25 inches. Holy long.

He is still just a great easy baby. He's giggling tons and Porter loves to make him laugh. He's nearly mastered sitting in the bumbo and has rolled from back to front several times. Although, he does it when no one is watching, then he screams when he's on his belly and wants to roll back over!

Gus, the master, has even had some rice cereal. Here's a picture I took on his 4 month birthday. The day he also received 2 shots! Yuck. He was a trooper and barely cried.