Painted Nightstand: Made by Me Monday

We don't have night tables in our bedroom (or end tables in our living room for that matter). We are the type of folks who don't like alot of furniture, but enjoy the open space instead. I decided to look for complimenting, but not matching nightstands for the master bedroom a while back, but it took me a pretty long time to find something. I found the table below for $10 at Chartreuse & Co., a monthly area crafter flea market (also featured in Southern Living).

I stopped by our local hardware store to buy a sample size container of paint…but walked out with a better deal. The owner let me go through all the Benjamin Moore testers he has and take whatever I wanted for free. Apparently Benjamin Moore didn't use UV containers so the paints did not match the true color, so they were discontinued…a benefit to crafters like me!

These are the colors I narrowed it down to. I really thought I wanted a colorful table.

The color concept failed me. It looked horrible. I don't think the color was "bright" enough, it looked way too country for my liking. So, I painted it black and it looked perfect! I hated the blue so much that I didn't even get out the camera for a picture.

Laundry Room {Renovation}

You may know that back in 2009 my husband and I started building our first home together. The side door with laundry room, closet and door to a half-bath seemed to work great. That is until we moved in. The laundry room became cluttered. We were using our side door 95% of the time for the past two years since we didn't have a front walkway until October 2011 and walking from the driveway to the front porch meant muddy feet. So this cluttered "passageway"became our entryway.

The laundry room was the builder's color paint until December 2011. Why did we wait so long? Well, my husband is a wonderful painter, but he also has a job with long hours which gives him little time for hobbies and other fun stuff, nevermind painting. It was me too, I couldn't decide on the color. We finally painted our kitchen Cliveden Gray Morning by Valspar on March 28, 2011. This is significant because I went into labor on March 30th so the dining room remained white until December 2011. Once my husband painted the dining room, I decided to carry the color all the way into the laundry room since they all connect.

Since the wire shelf was removed to paint, we decided to purchase a basic cabinet from Lowe's for $99 to hide our detergent, cleaners, etc. Installing the cabinet and hiding these things away made an immediate difference. 

Then we started thinking about a drying rack since I am one of those people who hangs jeans, unmentionables (ahem) and sweaters to dry. In my searching for new design options, we came across this image on Pinterest and knew it was what we wanted to do. I started looking for the fold down drying racks, but didn't have much luck. What I did find was along the same lines from The Container Store. We purchased a fold-away drying rack and hung it above the dryer. 

I also found this quote on Pinterest but created it myself with my Silhouette Cameo.

I am very please with our "new" laundry room. Cheers to my husband!

Halloween Footprint Ghosts

This is one of my favorite projects and it was William's first real craft. Here he is with the finished product:

To kick-off our Halloween decor, I decided to make ghosts out of William's footprints. I saw a similar idea in a magazine a while ago, but I made some modifications and made it even easier.

Materials you need:
baby or child
wood
saw
paints: black, white, yellow
paintbrush
Sharpie
numerical stickers

I started off at Lowe's and purchased one piece of wood and cut it at home into a few different size pieces. (I did different sizes because I made these for William's grandparents too, but I used one footprint instead of two.) I also picked up a can of $1 black spray paint. I covered the basement floor in newspaper and gave each piece of wood two coats of spray paint on each side and all edges.

Then, I put William in his highchair and painted the bottom of his bare foot white and stamped it on the wood. Now, the first time I did this, I dipped his foot into the paint and then stood him up on the wood, but this resulted in a messy ghost that wasn't hardly recognizable as a footprint. By painting his foot, I had more control over the amount of paint used and could also spread out his toes if that makes any sense.

While the paint was drying, I added some additional details: a yellow full moon and the year 2011 in 3D white sparkle stickers so I didn't have to worry about neatly painting numbers. Then, I drew faces on each ghost with a Sharpie.

I love how this project came out and want to do it annually. Once William has a sibling, I can use one foot from each of them to have a big ghost and little ghost. One of the best parts is, since it is wood, I don't have to worry about it getting ripped in a box, paper fading, etc. I can just sit it anywhere in our house until Halloween!

Kitchen Update

What is the least expensive way to update a large space? Paint!! We moved into our home in November 2009, but haven't made painting a priority for a few reasons: (1) We have 1.5 acres of land that needs to be maintained, beautified, landscaped, etc (2) My husband prefers to do all the painting which is great since we don't have to pay anyone and he does a perfect job (honestly), but he also has a full-time job that had more than full-time hours (3) I hesitate when choosing colors.

The rooms we have painted are our master bedroom (January 2010), master bathroom (June 2010), nursery (November 2010) and now our kitchen/dining room (March 2011). I had three color blocks painted on the wall in our kitchen that I looked at for many weeks. I am very pleased that I went with the middle option and my husband surprised me by painting the kitchen while I was out one afternoon and finished it into the dining room until the gallon of paint ran out.

This is a before picture of our kitchen from Thanksgiving 2009 when my family was in town. All of the walls in our house came standard in this "bisque" color:

After:

Of course, once the kitchen was painted, we decided that we really do need a piece of furniture where the cat's bowls once were. We have a two-seater bar where we frequently eat and also our informal dining room so we haven't purchased a small kitchen table since I am picky about what I want. Well, our large kitchen seemed to get cluttered with mail, keys, etc. and we finally found a buffet-style unit that we liked for the kitchen so we bought it!

I purchased a small bamboo tray to collect our mail and also my husband's black leather valet for him to charge his cell phone, drop his wallet, etc. So far so good (and organized!).

Since our kitchen and dining room share one large wall, we carried the same color into the dining room.

Before:

After:

I love it and it feels so good to see color on the walls downstairs! And to think it all got done before our baby arrives and additional visitors. Next project for this area are curtains for the double windows in the dining room and panels for the sliding glass door.

P.S.: The color is more green than gray in person...sad it looks gray here!

Whatever Goes Wednesday

28 Weeks

It is only fitting that my first blog post of the New Year is about the biggest and best thing that is happening to us in 2011 - our precious little baby! Although we won't meet him/her until the end of March, there have been a few things we have done recently to prepare for their arrival.

The nursery is looking great! By the way, thanks to The Creative Mommas for the shout-out on their blog about their nursery! 

The room was cleared out, also by my wonderful husband, and painted on Thanksgiving! We went with Honey Beige from Olympic's Audubon Collection because it is warm and neutral, and I have loved seeing it on the wall the past two weeks. As a side note, it is nowhere near as orange as it looks on the computer screen. You don't think a Terp would allow his child's room to be orange do you?!

We spent some time assembling the crib the day after Thanksgiving and I love going in the nursery and just looking at it. Last week I purchased the mattress for the crib and a sheet so it looks for ready for baby now. How did I fit the mattress in the back of my small car? Read on to find out :)

The dresser came in a few weeks earlier than expected and some of the drawers already have goodies in them thanks to friends and family. We'll be using the top as a changing station once we get the changing pad and everything else that is involved.

My handy husband will be building a tall bookshelf for the nursery and we purchased the materials last week. Little Squirt already has more than a dozen books and that doesn't include our childhood books or many new ones. These were gifts from my mom, friends and a few classics from a sale.

There is also an antique family cradle in the nursery from my mother-in-law's family. There is a plaque at the headboard of the names and birthdates of babies who used the cradle, starting with my mother-in-law's older siblings more than 75 years ago. My mother-in-law, husband and his sister are also on the plaque. We aren't using it as an "everyday thing" because of safety, but you can be sure that I will take some photos in it. For the time being, our cat likes to use it as his bed when he isn't in mine.

To be honest, the only crafty thing I have done in for the nursery so far is sew some basic blankets. A few weeks ago I couldn't resist buying gender-specific nursery flannel when it was on sale for $1.29 per yard! What will I do with the boy blankets if we have a girl and the girl blankets if we have a boy? Give them to friends of course! This weekend I got busy sewing and now have four completed blankets and one nursing cover (the vibrant cotton fabric). My husband laughed about that because he said I'll really be drawing attention to myself...maybe I should buy something more simple?? I still need to buy clips and a ribbon to make the nursing cover more than a blanket, but all in due time.

The least exciting thing was my glucose test. I passed with a score of 86 which is well within the 65-139 range. Best part of this besides my body correctly processing sugars? No three hour test! I also went for a RhoGAM injection because I have a negative bloodtype and my husband has a positive bloodtype. It was "more work" than the glucose test but necessary for the health of me and baby.

On a much more exciting note, we bought a new car which we are jokingly referring to as the Squirt (baby's in-utero nickname) mobile. I met a deer on the road a few weeks ago and thankfully it ended much better for me than the deer. Most of you know I had a two-door Pontiac G5 that was a great car, but sadly had been hit a few times by distracted drivers and then hit a deer. So, we took advantage of what was left of the situation and decided to upgrade "my" vehicle now to a Chevy Equinox which is what I had been eyeing for some time.

I continue to feel pretty great most of the time, but the sleepiness has come back quickly, but still not as bad as the first trimester. My belly button still isn't totally out yet but it is funny to see that sometimes it moves when I laugh. We still have a very active baby and some of the kicks are more quick and spaced evenly. Maybe it is hiccups? The movement of the baby is changing and I feel tightening when I think he/she is moving their body around to get more comfortable. I can also feel protruding body parts which is entertaining. I can't identify them yet, but I'm sure I will be able to soon! Sleeping is rather uncomfortable since I lose feeling from my hips halfway down to my knee depending on which side I am lying on. Any tips for relief? This is a picture from new Years Eve and my shirt makes me feel larger then I am.

I go for my 28 week appointment this week right before our first baby shower (yeah!) and I hope the doctor tells me everything is right on track.

Bathroom Transformation Complete

I hate to admit it, but several weeks ago I painted our master bathroom. I am not ashamed to admit I painted the bathroom, I'm actually overjoyed that I did it, but the shame comes in the form of taking so long to put all the pieces back together. Of course the first part was selecting the color. Since the bathroom is connected to our bedroom, I opted for colors on the same paint card and went two and three shades darker. When you look at the samples below, I chose the darker color on the right.

I taped and painted everything between breakfast and dinner one Saturday in June. The problems started as I took off the painters tape. The paint on our ceilings and walls is flat builder's grade paint since we built a new home. Therefore, some of the ceiling paint came off with the tape which I did not expect. At this point I waited for my husband to come home and defended myself telling him that I did take the tape off in sections as soon as I finished taping.

The first thought was to paint the ceiling gray, but I like contrast too much so that wasn't an option after ten minutes. Then we started to prime the ceiling and repaint it which would also cover any "slips" of paint that got under the painter's tape onto the ceiling. This didn't help either. Finally, we applied painter's tape on the gray paint and the satin finish prevented any peeling. I touched up the edges along the ceiling and wa-la - problem solved! And then we went out of town several times and were still using the guest bathroom.

Well, this weekend I got out the white paint and touched up the baseboards and trim so all the lines are smooth and the bathroom now looks like an add for Behr paint (even though that isn't the brand I used). I am so relieved it is done and clean and everything is back where it should be!

I did intend to spruce up the basic mirrors, but since my plans for the mirrors will take a few days to shop for, create, dry and install, I opted to wait until the fall when we don't have as much landscaping work to do.

Where does my time go?

Last year I started to realyl feel like time was passing quickly - almost too quickly. Now I don't necessarily mean every day at work, but a week is over before I know it, which is great considering relaxing weekends, but alas, those two days off go by just as fast. It was my first wedding anniversary before I thought about how long it takes to thaw the top layer of wedding cake and Christmas almost before I recovered from Thanksgiving. Here we are, a few days into June, and I still am wondering what happened to my first five months of 2010.

I know for the past few weeks, and the next few weeks, I will not be in the office more than four days per week. At this rate I am going four, three, four, two, two.five, and then a full week only to have a three day week for the Fourth of July and then four, and four. The partial work-week trend continues through the summer months since my employers graciously offer a Summer Hours program where we can work extra time during the week and be off every other Friday.

My project for this weekend, one of the few we don't have planned out, is to paint our master bathroom. This may seem easy, but all the "architectural elements" I liked while designing the house and enjoy daily, will not be as fun to paint. I just hope I'm better at picking the color the first time around than I was with our bedroom!