I've got an idea...

I've got an idea that involves a few of these bad boys.

We'll see how it goes. 

I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and Momma got a new camera. 

Holla!!!

So no more bad pictures! 

Yea :D

Giraffe Gets a Bath

We've had a sick kiddo at our house the past few days.  A nasty, nasty cold. 
We had to put potty training on hold because of it too :(

Her boo, Giraffe, got the brunt of it.  Snot, slobber, the whole mess.  Giraffe needed a bath.  BAD.  If you read this older post you already know that she has found our back-up Giraffe that is supposed to help us in situations like this.  Well now that she knows she has two, she knows when one is missing.  Izzy - "Braff?!  Where's Braff?!" (she hasn't figured out the "gir" part).  She didn't actually see me toss him in the wash, but she knows something isn't right.  Me - "Giraffe needed a bath honey."  Panic sets in.  I took her into the laundry room so she could see him in the dryer and know where he is.  She stood there watching him for the longest time.  She'll be a loyal friend for sure :)  Oh, and note she's holding onto her back-up Giraffe.

Kitchen Makeover - I love you paint!!!

When we first moved into our house, scratch that, when we first looked at buying our house I said, "The kitchen MUST be painted white asap!".  The cabinets were in great shape, I just couldn't stand the color.  When you walked in it was like you were being swallowed by oak.  Oak cabinets, oak island, oak floors, oak trim and doors, and the walls were even faux painted and looked like oak. Oh, and the walls, were painted over two types of wall paper.  Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!  It was sooo dark in there.  Before I took on the huge project of sanding and painting the cabinets I decided to sand and paint the island black.  You know, so I could get a little practice under my belt, but mostly to break up some of that STINKING OAK! 

So here is the before picture.  I apologize for the bad picture, I'm pretty sure it was taken with my phone.  You can see the island is already painted black.

And now the after!

Ahhhhh.... so much better!

I didn't sand all the way down to bare wood, just enough to scuff up the poly so the primer would stick.  But still, there was A LOT of sanding involved.  You sand, sand, and sand some more.  But it is worth it!  We saved A LOT of money doing this project by ourselves myself :)  I can't remember the exact cost.  We bought 1 gallon of primer, and 2 gallons of paint from Sherwin-Williams when they were having a paint sale.  We used Sherwin-Williams' Alabaster White in semi-gloss.  The island is just a quart of plain'ol black paint from Lowes' premixed stuff in semi-gloss. 

We saved even more by reusing some of the hardware.  I removed the cabinet handles and craigslisted them (used that money to pay for the new cup pulls for the drawers).  I filled in one of the holes where the cabinet handle was, and replaced them with the old knobs from the drawers.  I then scoured the internet for pretty, but cheap, cup pulls for the drawers.

Before hanging the painted cabinets I started to worry the exposed hinges wouldn't look so great.  So, we sprung a little extra for hidden hinges.  So worth it!  They really make the cabinets look great!  And, they feel so much more sturdy.  We bought the hinges from Home Depot in packages of 10 for about $18. 

 I now love my kitchen.  Thank you paint!

Here's another look at the transformation (I love side-by-sides).

And here's a little dirty secret.

I re-did the kitchen just under a year ago, but never put up any pictures because it was NEVER clean enough for pics.  But today I just figured what the heck, I'll just moved my pile of junk around from place to place and snap some quickies.

Here's my dirty secret, my pile that never seems to get picked up!

See her over there on the buffet?  Nice huh? 

And now for a close up of my, well, crap.

Yep, just keeping it real ;)

Flea Market Chandelier

I found this great chandelier at the flea market a couple of months back.

I loved her curves and I even loved her aged, chippy, gold color.  I've been wanting to put a candelabra over our bathtub for a while and thought she would be perfection.

First, I pulled out the plastic covers and unscrewed the thing-a-mabobs.

Then, clipped off the exposed wiring.  Both on the arms and the top.

Gave her a good bath because she was NASTY.  See what I mean?

And sprayed her with primer and black paint.

She was ok, but not great.  So I took some pewter glaze and slapped it all over with a chip brush.  I was hoping for a much lighter color, but she has grown on me.  I put in some taper candles, hung her up with rope (cause I'm cheap thrifty like that), and sewed a sleeve with some left over white twill to cover the rope. 

Here she is in her new home!

After I hung her up I was so excited to show my hubby.  The first thing he said when he saw it?  "I really like it, but it's hanging right over where your head would be."  Blasted!!!  I didn't think about that.  The other night when I was taking a bath I kept looking up thinking, "Please don't fall on me, please don't fall on me!"  Oh well, at least it looks pretty ;)

 

 





Mugshot

Mike and I had been going through our pictures the other day and started busting up when we saw a couple of Ruff.  They totally looked like mugshot photos!  So, today I came across them again and couldn't help myself. 

Known offenses: pantie stealing, sock stealing, & drive-by food snatching

I clearly have too much time on my hands today.

BIG NEWS!!!

We have a VERY big announcement to make! 



Izzy just used the Big Girl Potty!!!!!!!  Woo Hoo!!!!!

Ok, that's not a picture of Izzy.  But, it totally is a picture of me as a little girl.  Hahahaha!!!  I think the best part is that I'm reading the funnies :D

Today wasn't suppost to be the first day of potty training, tomorrow was going to be the big day.  But, we had just gotten home from having lunch with friends so I thought I would just sit her up there and see what happened.  Not five minutes later... SCORE!

I know I'm getting ahead of myself for getting really excited this early, but it makes me ubber hopeful for how things will go tomorrow.

Here's to no more diapers!

Wish me luck ;)

Papa's Farm

Last weekend we took a little day trip out to Papa Westerman's farm.  Most of his momma cows have had their babies so we wanted to get out and see them before the babies got too big, and also to see Izzy's horse Peanut.  I had grand plans to get a bunch of great pictures.  I dressed Izzy up in her cow+girl shirt and planned on getting some super cute pictures of her with her horse, some pictures of the baby cows with their mommies, and maybe even some of me riding Peanut. 

Ummm, yeah... didn't happen.

It was SOOOOOO cold out that day.  We're talking I'm probably a bad Mommy for having my child outside without full snow gear on kind of cold.  That being said, we didn't hang out outside very long.  While we were outside the mommies and their babies weren't interested in saying hi, and Peanut (who I thought was my buddy) had no interest in coming around for pictures.  By the time he did show up, I had already packed Izzy and the camera up.  Humph.

Izzy did make buddies with Papa's dog Red that day.  That was even after he charged into her to give her a welcome "hug".  The rest of the time we were there Izzy kept yelling, "Whoa, Red!", trying to imitate her Papa.

Next time we go out to the farm I'm coming back with better pictures :) 

I guar-ron-tee it!