Somewhat "After"

Remember when I posted here about what we were doing one Saturday??  Well I still haven't gotten pictures of the whole room put together.  We painted and then had family in town, then went out of town ourselves, then everyone got sick.  I have had tons of opportunities to take pictures, but then you would see the books and jackets on the back of the couch, all the toys that still haven't been put away, and all the junk piled on my table.  Lets be honest here, I am just too lazy to clean right now.  I will show you this pic of the top of my hutch.  I am trying to figure what I want up there.  All of these things are not up there right now, but I threw them up there to get a vision.  You can tell in this picture the color of the wall. 
If you see what I see, then you see a blue wall that looks like it belongs in a newborn baby boys room.  It actually is a little darker than the picture makes it out to be, but we would have liked a little darker.  When we went to Lowes to get the paint I was a little scared of making the room too dark.  So I found a color I really liked and then went a shade lighter, because in my experience paint drys darker in my house.  Well the first time I thought I made smart decision with paint, it actually wasn't so smart after all.  We only painted one wall for an accent wall thank goodness!

We still have more than half a gallon left.  It would be so nice if they would just give us another squirt of coloring in the can so we can repaint it!  Anyone know if they do things like that?  My guess is NO!  They are going to tell me to buy another gallon of paint. 

We are on spring break this week, so we don't have Jackson.  So maybe, just maybe I will get my house back in order.  Or maybe I will just be lazy because I only have one kid to chase after, better yet we may just go shopping!!  Have a great day!

Recap and good deals!

I have had several questions about painting the table and hutch.  I am just going to answer them on here because I can't find a link back to some of your pages.  So if you have don't have any questions feel free to  skip this section.  I did a posting on the furniture when I first started and you can check it out here.   We didn't like the engraving that the furniture so I filled it in with wood putty and then sanded it until it was flat. After that I started out by primering both pieces of furniture.  I found a primer at Lowes that doesn't required sanding.  It is Valspar Multi-Purpose Primer.  I then painted  the furniture several times with this until it was completly covered (probably 2 or 3 good coats).  I used sponge brushes and then sponge rollers for the flat parts.  They work best because there are less drips to deal with and it goes on smoother.

After letting the primer dry I started by painting it black. I chose a semi gloss as the finish.  I didn't want it to be too dull but not too shiny.   This took several coats as well.  We also used all sponge brushes and sponge rollers so we didn't have as many drips and brush marks.  Since we use the table A LOT we wanted to put something on the table to protect it so we didn't chip the paint or anything.  I have read that several people have used polyurathane to put on the table.  When we asked the lady at lowes she said she didn't know if it would strip the paint off or not because it was pressed wood.  She reccomended  Deft Clear Wood Finish, it is a Semi Gloss Brushing Lacquer.  I haven't heard anyone say that it stripped the paint but didn't want to take a chance at doing it all over again.

I then covered the chairs with a white vinymaterial I got at Joanns.  It really looks pretty close to white leather in my opinion.  It wasn't really that hard to cover.  I had never covered anything before so I looked at the way the material was put on before and just copied the corners.

Things I wish I had done or knew:
1.  We couldn't decide which finish to use so there was a few weeks in between painting and then gloss.  So the table got messed up a little from heat from plates. So decide what you are going to do and do it before using the table.
2. Don't rush.  I put paint on too thick on the chairs trying to not have to paint them again and in some spots it doesn't look as nice as I would like.
3.  I would have left the house after the gloss was put on  because it was a VERY strong smell.  We had to hibernate downstairs all afternoon.

I think that covers it for now.  If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.  If you leave an email I can answer you directly.
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Jason has been out of town this whole week.  Once again I will say it again....I give MAJOR props to all single moms or army wives that their husbands are stationed elsewhere.  It is totally crazy how much a toddler can wear a person down.  I know I do it all day everyday, but I at least get a break in the evenings of sharing duties.  I am totally worn out and I am totally ready for him to be home this evening.

Bailey and I went out to shopping last night just to get out of the house.  Wow there are LOTS of sales going on out there.  We went in Pier One and they had great deals going on.  If I didn't have Bailey with me I would have spent lots of money.  But considering its not the type of store to let a toddler run around in without breaking things I couldn't stay long.  Then we ventured over to Target.  If you haven't checked out their clearance stuff you need to get there NOW!!!  I bought Bailey a wooden highchair for her babydolls that was originally $20 for 4.97.  If you know someone that is into dinasours they had one there that was originally $200 on sale for $37.  Lots of good deals and they all weren't on just the toys.  There was clearance in every department.  Just thought I would share that because I have never seen sales as good as the two had going on.

I also have been doing a lot of thinking recently.  I am going to try and start eating healthier and try and get rid of my pepsi addiction.  So far I haven't had any caffiene since yesterday morning and oh boy is it hard.  I have had the worst headache since yesterday evening. I have taken tylenol twice and tried to sleep it off and its still here.  I tried to post last night but just looking at the computer screen last night made my headache worse. Don't be surprised if my next posting admits I am back to drinking it again!

As you can tell one dog loves to be outside (its like 41 degrees) it feels like spring time because I am so used to it being like 15 out.  The other one could care less she just wants to eat!!!!!!

Due to the lack of caffiene this posting has very random things in it.  Enjoy your weekend!!!

The house decorated

Welcome to our house.  Just wanted to show you the finish touches to the house for Christmas.  Hope you Enjoy!  I am linking this up to Nesting Place.  She is having a Christmas tour of homes.  Click on her link and check out her house and then all the other houses linked up to the party. 

Notice there aren't many decorations towards the bottom.  That would be because Miss Bailey throws the bulbs.

Walking up the stairs to the living room.

Our hutch.

I rearranged somethings after I took some of the pictures.  Don't mind the comb sitting there haha!  I never notice things like that until I put pictures on the computer and I am too lazy to retake and upload pictures. 

One of the end tables in the living room.

Hope you enjoyed.  It is very simple only because I don't like taking it all down in the end.

Sick and tired of cleaning

Well we had all intentions of cleaning all day Saturday and Sunday.  I was looking for an excuse to break it down to just one day because I hate cleaning, but so many things needed done.  Well remember this post where I said we never get sick.  It only got worse.  Friday night was horrible!!! Bailey was up from 1-4.  That night was the worst I felt through the whole week.  I was freezing, body aches, coughing, the whole works!  Well once we finally got B back down to sleep she ended up sleeping until 9 (never happened before).  So we decide to go to health plus because we can't take another sleepless night.  We got there and got some antibiotics and cough medicine and all kinds of stuff.  Well, we all know how it goes when you go to one of those places.  It takes forever and you wait and wait.  Then on top of that you have to go to the drugstore and wait on your medicine.  There went our day of cleaning on Saturday.  Because of course after all that we all had to take a nap once we got home.  That wasn't the excuse I was looking for to get out of cleaning!!!

So Sunday we got up and got right to cleaning.  We have so many closets downstairs that we stuff things in instead of putting them in the attic.  So we were trying to empty them out and put the stuff in the attic.  Baileys baby bathtub being one of them.  She sat in this thing and had a snack and drank her milk.  She thought it was the best thing ever.

I move on to cleaning the upstairs bathroom.  We keep the bathroom doors shut around here for obvious reasons pictured above.  We are having issues with her not listening to us at all when we tell her no.  Bailey was being so good that morning because she still wasn't feeling that well.  So I left her playing in the hallway with the bathroom door open while I walked to the kitchen to get something.  When I came back I saw this.

Yes this is a whole roll of toilet paper in the floor.  I swear I wasn't gone long enough for her to get the whole thing unrolled.

She made the mess so she had to clean it up.  We made her pick all of it up to put it in the trash bag.  Yeah thats right we made her clean up her own mess.  We taught her.  She will never do this again.  Well only because the doors are closed all the time.  So we taught her...until the next time the door is open and its fair game again.

Later that evening we went to my parents for thanksgiving  since we were out of town the week before.  It took a lot of begging to get the meal, they thought they got out of cooking.  They didn't cook because we weren't here.  They ate out instead.  So what else do they have to do than make turkey for us.  It was delicious but once again I forgot to bring  my camera!  What has gotten into me???  I can take pictures of toilet paper on floor but not of family gatherings with everyone!!  I promise to not ever do this again!!!

Bathroom decorations

The ladies over at Shanty2Chic are having revamp party.  I decided I would link up after I made these decorations for my bathroom.



My mom and I were out shopping one day and went into the dollar store.  I had just made these cute canvas pictures you can check out right here.  I saw these pictures and thought hmm I could do something similar with these. Not sure at the time but something!! Plus they were only a dollar so I bought six. We have lived in our house for way too long and haven't put any decorations in the bathroom downstairs.  I got the idea the other day from some scrapbook paper I really like!! 

So first I spray painted them all Rust-Oleum American Accent in Heirloom White with a Smooth Satin finish.

and painted these as well.( the letters are for mine and Jasons names)

My Bathroom is done in mostly blue.  There is a small stripe of green in my shower curtain and thought I would bring more of it out.  I found this scrapbook paper at JoAnn's Fabrics. I liked the design but didnt want the same thing on all photos.   So I cut each of the shapes out in the design I wanted.  (I forgot to take pictures of the actually cut outs sorry)

I modge podged the cut-outs the way I wanted them on the pictures.

On the other two I used some of this DecoArt Metallic Glaze.  I watered it down with some water because it comes off easier and doesn't turn out as dark or thick.

Painted it on and then wiped it off.

Added the green paper and the letters.

**Update I am also linking this up to

Santa came early!!

**Warning**This post could possibly be a lot of rambling so I am going to go ahead and apologize ahead of time for that.  These pictures are what my house looked like after returning home and the reasoning behind the lack of postings.  They don't even include the luggage and bags of shoes and bathroom things and all the other random things I packed.

(The laundry basket is full with toys that I am moving out to make room for the new.)
 It was a crazy/busy few days.  We went to visit Jason's family in PA and ran and ran to see everyone.  We also had a funeral we had to attend while we were there for his uncle.   On top of doing Thanksgiving with all sides of his family up there we also did Christmas with them.  Yahh for presents!!! I like to be at our own house for Christmas because we get to spend lots of family time with just the 3 of us.  So we usually do christmas a little early with them there.

(I have a dining room table there somewhere)
I wish I had all kinds of fun pictures to put up from our trip.  I didn't get the camera out of the car once.  Can you believe it??  Since I got this new camera I take pictures of everything.  I even took the smaller camera that takes short videos and we didn't get either out of the car. 

(Trish this picture is for you.  You told me the only thing that was missing was the tree.  It was there in the mess too!!  IT is now up and decorated!!  Pics coming later
)
Bailey had a blast the whole time.  She loved playing with so many different people.  Sometimes she would act shy at first but that only lasted a little bit.  Then she was running around and playing and laughing.  We didn't get back until Sunday evening and the whole 5 days we were gone she only took one nap.  She would take 10 minute naps here and there in between stops, but other than that nothing.  In case you don't know I am a firm believer in naps....LONG naps.  She naps every day and I work my schedule around that nap.

(These are just some of the toys she got)
We had no intentions of shopping on black friday but ended up Jason of all people wanted to go.  He just wanted to get out and do something or maybe I am making a shopper out of him after all.  We get up and and get ready after Bailey gets up and no we weren't one of you crazy people that were up and at the store at 4 in the morning or earlier! 

(She got this playpen for her babies.  Right now it is crammed full of anything and everything that fits)
Jason is showering and I am trying to get things ready to get in there after him plus get Baileys things together so he can get her ready.  I go to put my first contact in and I felt the worst pain I have ever felt.  My eye felt like it was going to melt out of my eye.  I immediatly take the contact back out.  I have no clue what the problem was.  I have put a contact in before and it bothered my eyes and I wait a bit and then try again and I am over it.  Not this time.  My eye bothered me all day.  I ended up having to wear my glasses for the day.  I was thinking well by this evening everything will be fine and I can wear contacts again.  WRONG! I am not one to go to the doctor for many things.  I may complain a lot and be very sick, but I don't go to the doctor.  I just don't like too!!  Well it got to be around 9:00 that night and it wasn't getting any better.  I honestly thought I was going to wake up and be blind in my right eye.  OK I know this story is getting way too long.  I end up going to the ER because it burnt so bad when I closed my eyes.   Well I didn't scratch it but they believe there was some type of bacteria on my contact on the case or there could have been something wrong with the solution.  They gave me antibiotic drops and told me to wait a couple days to wear contacts.  Needless to say I was not a very happy camper for a few days.  Note to any doctor that is going to be working close to a patients face....BRUSH YOUR TEETH!!  I had two different doctors looking in my eye and wow could they have used a good brushing!!!

Thanks to everyone for all the presents and letting us stay with you.  I am now taking donations for a place to store all these toys.

I'm back...almost

I am trying to get caught up with all blogs and stories from our trip while we were away.  Not only am I trying to catch up on here I am trying to get unpacked!  This is just the couch upstairs and after I had worked in the living room for an hour.  I am working on a more detail blog and try to get it up later today.  Did I mention we were doing Christmas this week while were there????

Boring shopping trip and fun table!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.   Once again Bailey and I went shopping on Saturday trying to get her some winter clothes and came home with nothing.  This is our situation **I CANT FIND ANYTHING TO FIT HER!!**  She is almost 18 months old and is still mostly in 12month clothing.  I have tons of 12 month pants that I have washed and washed trying to shrink but still too long.  Did I mention I am barely 5 foot!  I guess she inherited my shortness in a major way!  I absolutely love shopping, I could do it every single day.  But this is one time I am getting very frustrated and just want to quit.  She can't wear 9 months because they are too short so that doesn't work either.  I do not even know where to start on sewing anything together muchless hem some pants.  Even if I did that though the waist is still a little too big.  This isn't the first time I have complained about this and I am sure it won't be the last.

On to my evening project this evening.  I know I know....I am supposed to be working on my dining room table but I can't do that until Bailey goes to bed and I have been really tired recently to do that.  It will get done.  Jason tells me I have a touch of ADD when it comes to working on things because I always want to start a million projects at once.

 Anyhoo, I have found a major love for modge podge.  We had this random table that I painted awhile ago and it has sat in many spots in the house.

Bailey has moved it around herself and thrown it around a little.

So I decided I would make the table officially hers.

I took some scrapbook paper that had the alphabet on it.  I cut each square out and then replace them on here.  Now she has a table that matches al her girlie stuff and can use it as a learning area.

Nothing hard at all.  Just modge modged the letters on there and now she has a new tabletop!  Hope she enjoys it onces it dries.

We know that I can barely post anything without  at least one picture of shorty.  This is what I see when I come to get her from a nap one day.  She has learned to take her shirt off, but its the wrong way.  At least she knows to hand the paci over as soon as she wakes up.  One day soon we are going to take that away.

Brand new hutch...kinda

So last week I talked about the project I have been working on.  Well I have been painting my hutch and dining room table.   When we moved from VA back to WV we didn't have a table or chairs for our dining room.  While living in VA we had a small dining room that served no purpose but for the dog cage and storage.  It was a small apartment and just Jason and I living there.  We ate dinner on tv trays every single night......well the few nights I cooked.  So when we moved into a house that had a decent size dining room that was a wide open space to the living room we kind of had to have one.  Luckily my grandma had a dining room set that she wasn't using because she moved to a smaller house with an eat in kitchen.  It really isn't my style but hey it held my plate up to eat and all the other junk I could fit on there.  I said from day one I wanted to paint it.  (Move moved in here almost 2 years ago)  So poor Jason has listened to me complain everyday that I wanted to paint the table and hutch or buy a new one.  Well let me tell ya some paint is a lot cheaper than a new table.  So we painted it this past week and weekend and this week.....and probably this weekend :(.  Everyone doubted me telling me not to paint wood.  That is wasn't going to turn out.  Well if you know me very well....I paint everything black...so I dont know why they thought I wasn't going to get my hands on this.  Guess what....you all were wrong...I think it looks good!

I am kind of embarrassed to show this picture because I didnt realize how much stuff I crammed in this thing.  Everytime I didn't know where to put something I just threw it in there because I knew one day I would paint it and clean it out.  So please dont pay attention to what is in there if thats possible.

This is the bottom half.  We took the handles off and are getting news ones that go with black and more up to date.  There is also the design in the wood that I didnt care for so I took wood putty and covered it up so it is just smooth.

Here is the hutch primered.  We didn't sand it at all.  The primer that we bought lets you just primer to get rid of the shine and NO SANDING!! (the wood putty was still drying thats why its not white)

This is not the finished project, but you get the picture.  The doors are sitting on top because we haven't found hinges or knobs that we like yet.  I am not sure if I am keeping the same plates in there or not, but I threw things in there so you could see what I was going for. Their is also the door that goes on top and 3 pieces of glass that are missing.

As you can tell the design is gone on the bottom.

Here is the before of the whole room. PS we are getting a new picture for in the room also.

We started on the table.  Its still a bit wet so we are waiting for it to dry really good and then put a gloss on it.  Then of course the chairs have to be done.  Pardon the toys....

Next project...the chairs painted and recovered.