Bathroom Cabinets

So I have wanted to paint the cabinets

in our kitchen for some time

but I have never painted cabinets

and I'm kind of worried how they would turn out

cuz it's kind of a permanent

like as in if I screw this up I'm in T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

So I decided to attempt a practice run first

we are in the midst of re-decorating our bathroom

and I figured that would be a great place to evaluate

my cabinet painting abilities

Here is what I started with
(well actually this is the girl's bathroom cabinet
but ours is the exact same but apparently I didn't have
a picture on file like I thought I did)

This bathroom is gonna get a makeover soon too :)

Oh and I may have failed to mention

that I am somewhat lazy

and like re-decorating projects that involve

instant gratification - which is probably not the best thing
when painting cabinets

So I opted for Behr paint in primer in one

in Coastal Fog (LOVE this color)

I quickly sanded down the cabinets

cleaned them up

and applied 2 coats of paint

I only applied 2 coats because I knew I wanted to distress them

yes I am totally weird like that and don't like things that

look too new

After sanding them down with sand paper

I sanded them with steel wool

which created a kind of grey glazing effect

without the mess of glaze, paint or stain

And now I have "brand new" cabinets

and it only cost me $6 for the 2 sample sizes

of behr paint

Ohh I saw this idea on Pinterest and just had to try it

I attached the magazine file with some of those

3M command picture hanging strips

& it worked awesome!

Now at least the hairdryer, flatiron & curling iron

are organized...still gotta work on the rest :)

Oh and I wanted something different for our mirror

here's a sneak peak of what we are thinking...



Halloween & A Late Birthday Present

So the pirate made a re-appearance this year

at Lilly's request

there was more "Argghhs" and just a few

"give me some candy" followed quickly by a "please"

what a nice polite little pirate

The pirates sidekick this year

was the ferocious purple dragon

who's "Roar" was more cute than scary

but the biggest hit was the tail wagging

that she did at every house we went to

And I finally finished Scott's birthday present from the girls

I saw the idea on Lil Blue Boo

I LOVE her blog by the way

this is one very talented women!!

Anyway the leather bracelet finally arrived after being on back order

which of course I didn't notice until after I placed my order - doh!

I had Lilly help me out with writing "Daddy" in crayon

and we both worked on the heart

Once that once done I just used an exacto knife

to carve out the letters very carefully

I was worried it wasn't going to turn out very well

as I did not perform the neatest surgery on those letters

but after I applied the stain I loved the extra character

my little nicks provided

And the best part was Scott's face when he saw it :).

Nolee

Well Nolee was sick yesterday

(cold, congestion & possible ear infection)

so I got to spend the day

snuggling & soothing

I even got to experience

her falling asleep in my arms

while I rocked

in a quiet house

Which is something

I haven't done in so long

it was so nice

and I tried to ingrain that moment

in my brain as I realize those moments

will be so few & far between with her getting bigger :(.

On another note

Nolee's vocabulary is expanding

in leaps & bounds lately

and it is so funny to see more of her personality

coming out in actual words

She has taken to singing

and breaks out in song all the time

her favorites are

"Tinkle Tinkle" (i.e. Twinkle Twinkle)

"Hoppy Birthday"

& "Bus" (i.e. Wheels on the Bus)

She will now tell us "Second"

when we ask her to come here

so she can finish up whatever she is working on

And my new favorite

"Shhhh mouse sleeping"

...we told her the other day

we were going to try to be as

quiet as a mouse...:)

She also uses "hi" at the most random times
like when she knows she is doing something wrong
and gets caught
she will look up you with her I know I'm so cute face
and say "Hi!"
like when you find her in your bathroom
in your drawer
with your chapstick....
all over her face

She is also becoming afraid of different things

she is afraid of the dark

"funder" (thunder)

& all the scary masks we saw on Halloween

If she sees any of these she will

immediately become a spider monkey

and attach to you and close her eyes

She also has taken to crawling in our bed at night

when she gets scared

so now I awaken to two sets of feet in my face

and smile



Elmo LIVE!

So a mom

of one of the gal's I work with

was nice enough to give us

Elmo LIVE tickets she had won online

So Saturday we packed

the girls up and headed

off to their 1st "concert"

They were SO excited

and Nolee kept asking when

"Melmo" was coming out

We had great seats

although the girls were too excited

to actually sit :)

We had a perfect view of the stage

I wish we could have gotten a video

of Nolee dancing - too cute

Thanks Wanda - they LOVED it!!!



Photo Blocks

So for Scott's birthday this year

I tried to think of something

that was creative & fun

I remembered him saying that

he didn't have any updated pictures

of our family on his desk

And since we had just

did our awesome sessions

with Carrie House

my wheels immediately started turning

So I looked at what we had

around the house

and came up with the idea

for some photo blocks

I cut my 4 x4 into blocks

using Scott's table saw

and I may have scared years off of both our lives

When cutting my last block my 4x4 was down to about 7 inches long

and I may have been being a scaredy pants

and not holding onto it tightly enough

only because my fingers were fricking close to the actual blade!

Well I still have all my fingers

but a portion of the 4x4 flew off the table saw

and hit the wall with some pretty good force

which I'm extremely thankful it hit the wall

and not me

This brought Scott running out to the garage

I think he was expecting blood

He offered to do the last cut for me

which I gladly accepted

So after my near death experience

I gathered my blocks & the rest of my supplies

I painted all the blocks white

and then attempted the mod podge transfer

I have been seeing all over pinterest

I printed my photos off on a laser printer

brushed a layer of mod podge on my block

and placed the photo on there

ink side down

After they had dried I sprayed them lightly with water

and gently (gently is key here) started to rub the paper off

with my fingers

I found that if I let them dry for just a couple of hours

this worked best

if I let them go for longer

it was harder to get the paper off

Here is what the pictures looked like

This is a good example where I wasn't so gentle

but I liked the worn look so it was okay

I then added another layer of mod podge

on top to protect the pictures

and it made it shiny :)

I also added some letters to the blocks

so they spell out a few different letters

and I figured Scott's students would get a kick

out of playing with them

I roughed up the edges & added

some paint to give them a antiquey look

...and then of course forgot to take more pictures :)

I really like how these turned out

and how simple (and cheap!) this was

I'm already thinking of more

mod podge transfer ideas to try out :)



Gymnastics

So we signed Lilly up for gymnastics

this semester

She is learning how to do somersaults

jump on the trampoline

and walk on the balance beam

The balance beam has been a love/hate relationship so far

some days she loves it

and some days she hates it so much she cries if she has to do it

So being the loving father he is

Scott took her and practiced the "beam" after school

he put the weight bench up on two large boxes

and had her practice walking across

& jumping down

I got to see the proof on his phone camera

The next time at gymnastics she rocked that beam

she may still have needed to hold her coaches hand

but there were no tears, only smiles

and she was so proud of herself

If she gets nothing else out of this experience

I hope she realizes what a great father she has

who will always be there for her

to help her conquer her fears

Here's some pics from parent night

This one so wanted to join in on the fun

and had a great time playing & jumping

on the mats 



The Little Things

This morning we woke up

to sounds of giggles on the baby monitor

in Lilly's room

and yes I realize she is 4 years old

& right down the hall

but ever since she had her seizures

the monitor has stayed in her room

...she will probably be a teenager

before we remove it :).

So Scott went to check it out

and found Nolee

in Lilly's room

in Lilly's bed

sitting on Lilly

When Scott asked her what she was doing

she said

"Jus looking"

& started giggling again

And that is how I found them all

this morning at 6:15 am

in Lilly's room

in the dark

all three laughing

and my first thought was

that I have the most wonderfully blessed life ever :).