Jackson Square Yellow

So I promised a sneak peak:

The table originally was an oak?  table with stickers stuck to the top and the varnish in need of some love... well that started the stripping process ... yuck to say the least... then is was sanding and sanding...

And then that is where I stopped for I want to say almost a year+.... and then a baby and a kitty showed up and my time for projects slightly evaporated...

And then there was the decision on what the hell we were actually going to do with our house.  the living rooms opens right up to the kitchen and would have a direct view of the dinner table... so my table color really was dependent on what we were going to do in the living room.  With the help of Pinterest (you can follow my indecision Here)  I have a plan.

Navy Blue walls in the living room with bold white trim... and a gallery wall above the piano ... and then a Jackson Yellow dinner table that livings in a gray kitchen!

And now on to the referb of the dinning table!

 

My lovely Spackle job... there was a huge gash and then there wasn't!!!   

Primed - many many times to insure no sneaky oil stains can sneak through - and then sanded - and then primed again - and sanded  - and one more time for good measure.

Her legs - this is what caught my eye on Craigslist!!! They are different and I just knew they would look great dressed up in a bold color!  But I am not sure if B trusted me when we first picked it up...

 Another shot - just so you truly understand the awesomeness this table is about to become.  They also got a lot of primer and sanding - I am going to give Karate Kid a run for his money... I got the wax on wax off thing down to a science... Want to sneak up on me bad scary man- I don't think so - I got mad sanding skills you don't want to mess with!!! (Yes I just played this out in my head - and I am planning to sell it as a screen play as we speak).

INTRODUCING JACKSON SQUARE YELLOW (said in the Oprah voice)

I believe this is after probably the 3rd coat of paint - and many many sandings.  I want this sucker smooth and gorgeous!  And yes, that is my Christmas tablecloth... oops.  

And here are the legs once again, told you they would pop.  Bryan is feelin' them now....

And here is Thomas the man cat - checking out the process.  He gave me the headbutt approval (he is a headbutt lover - never quite got the lovable rub thing down - that is what you get with a stray -unique ways to show affection).

Now the next step is polyurethane ... so Google here I come ... I have never done it in my life!!!! And I really really don't want to mess up the hard work I have already done...

Tips? Tricks? Send them my way!

I am Who I am

I have a hard time with comparing myself to others.  Surprise.  I am not as confident as people may think, and I get jealous quite a bit... and the occasional "why her and not me" tend to slip into my mind and sometimes when I have a moment of verbal vomit.

It isn't pretty.  It isn't helpful.  Bah.  That is how I feel about it.

But in all honesty, it is a problem.

I am pretty awesome, in most cases.  I have my moments of true bitchiness - and when I do I am really really good at it.  But I do have awesome parts of me.

So why can't I just accept that... why do I have to take it to that level and throw all my focus on something I can't control?  It takes so much energy, so much work and so much time to worry about it, when I can take that time a focus on what I can control, what I can do, what I can make better...

I am 28 and still need advice like a 5 year old... gah ... and I thought I had matured?!?!?!

So now, coming to this realization... I am going to try and be better, and focus on me, and be happy being who I am.  I don't promise any spectacular turnarounds but even if I can shake off a tiny bit of this ugliness maybe my life will get a little prettier ...

Speaking of prettier....

I have almost finished a project!!! Gasp.  I know.

Could it be?!!?!! (I bet I am freaking you out right now - reading your mind and all)...

YES!!!!  The dinner table aka. kitchen table aka. the project I started almost 2 years ago!!!

It has 3 coats of primer on it covered by two coats of "Jackson Yellow" and is now drying in my disaster of a basement as we speak.  Tomorrow will come another sand down, and probably one more coat of Jackson Yellow ... and we shall see when I get brave enough to polyurethane it so it can last a 3 year old and a 6 month old!!!

Almost done and once done there will be pictures galore!!!  I am so excited.

Bryan wasn't feeling the yellow at first, but he wasn't really feeling any of the pain chips I brought home (i love paint chips like an addict)... but now he is starting to feel it... starting to jive with the color and I almost want to say he is excited for it!!!!

I do believe Jackson Yellow is brightening up my life!

Hope to post some pictures soon! G-night!

The Ghost Returns

So, today has been a really productive day.  Tonight not so much.

Yesterday, I made a trip to Menards to grab some primer ... some more wire and screws to finish Eli's name in his room and obviously some gummy worms - cause that is what Emily always gets when we go and it was just us two and our lovely car/cart contraption that some genius thought that moms would love to drive around with their kids screaming about going the wrong way... and hitting every corner since they are so easily maneuvered....wow that turned into a mini rant...

But back to yesterday... I started to prime the kitchen table that has been mocking me for almost two years!!! YES!!!

So after a few coats of primer and a lot of sanding ... this morning I woke up to a sick husband.  Boo for getting things done around here... but some how I got in some more sanding and one last coat of primer.... and a coat of primer on my cabinet doors that I took down about 6 & 1/2 months ago...

And yes,  I fell into a black hole that sucked all my desire and will to do projects in timely manner away...

So after that, being the loving wife I am, I ran to target to get Sprite, the lovely pink stuff, and contact solution.... and somewhere between entering the door and walking to the bedroom to give my dying husband some much needed loving, I lost his keys.

I normally put them on the hook by the door, or right by the oven,  or on the piano, or on the dresser in the bedroom... there might be a few more spots I normally leave the keys.... but I checked them ALLL.  Bryan checked them all.

We checked the freezer.
We checked Emily's room.
We checked the bathroom.
We checked the basement.
We checked the toy box.
We checked everywhere.

And then I cleaned as well - thinking they would show up.

And then I did the list again.

No dice.

This is where I think my ghost is back.  Yesterday, I heard one of Eli's nose toys go off that is only set of it someone hits it.  No one was near it. (This is my justification that losing the keys was not truly my fault- so just go with  it).  I think the ghost is F'ing with my mind.... and trying to get me into trouble.

Bryan is not buying it.

Not at all.  He is so frustrated with me right now that he took my keys and off-roaded it all over our yard to get past his car that was parked right behind mine. To get dinner from Taco Bell, but really I think he was trying to get away from me and my ghost excuse.


Soooo. As i sit here not looking for the keys anymore and going insane from watching Cat in the Hat for the 15th time today... I am secretly hating my ghost.. cause if I said that out loud who knows if my funny, practical- joke playing ghost will turn into something from Paranormal Activity...

Any suggestions on where said ghost might have put the keys?

Update: That sneaky f'n ghost found it funny to hide the keys in my coat pocket so when I draped it over the end of the bed, the keys would magically fall into Bryan's work boots..... which we would find after many angry eyes, giving up, searching the whole house for the 5th time, giving up yet again, and then finally appearing "magically" after scanning my new Do it Yourself Magazine.

I still blame the ghost.  Bryan does not. But I still got a hug out of it ;) mostly out of relief - not love. 

We need to shake this off Stat!!

Oh wow I am glum.

Maybe it is work stress, maybe home life stress... maybe it is the fact that my daughter is clever enough to stack boxes to get to the freezer to get her "freezies".  But I am about done.  I have hit my limit and would like to lock myself in a bathroom with no kids, no husband, no phone or laptop with a bottle of Riesling and forget the world for a bit... or for a long while.

It honestly doesn't feel like the Holidays to me right now (the day before Christmas Eve) and I sometimes wonder if I feel this way, how many others in not such a good spot must feel?  And I have to get over it fast.  But these glums have got to go!

Bryan and I have started our New Year's Resolution a bit early this year out of necessity.  We are trying to be fiscally responsible so that we can start to afford some of our dreams.... and I am going to tell you it is not fun.  Not at all.  But it is doable and we have to, if we want to reach our goals in a timely manner.

This means I have to start cooking (turns out making your own meals can be cheaper than eating out every night - go figure!).  I have mastered the rice cooker... and found some fabulous brow rice that is very very similar to P F Chang's brown rice... now I have got to think of things to go with it - - - That I have the patience to cook and can actually cook.

That is the thing, I hate every part of cooking minus the eating part.  Prep- takes too long, I like my food now... thank you very much.  Cleaning - I really don't need another thing to clean when I have a 3 year old and a 6 month old.  Soooo that leaves me with very little options...

But I am slightly willing to change.  And I think if I can start cooking a bit - I can start managing my weight a little more since I know what is going into my body and there will be a lot less fries making their way in!

Gah - now off to fight these blues - and to fight some more laundry.

And I am Over Christmas a Few Days Too Early

Since finding my new best friend Pinterest, I have been collecting and collecting ideas for my living room/kitchen since they flow into one another.

And today I have hit the moment where I am sure of what I want to do.  And am so ready for a change for the better.  And if you know me,  I have a tendency to be impatient and jump to the next thing as soon as I have a semi firm idea...

If it wouldn't make my husband super mad, and Emily cry a thousand tears ... I would pack up all the Christmas decor and head to the local Home Depo's paint department. 

So this is what I have decided:

(if you have not stumbled on to this site it is a must!)

I love the blue for the living room, with bold white trim to go with my newish white painted fireplace...

Insert two built in bookshelves next to the fireplace (most likely going to be made from Ikea's Billy bookshelves with some extra trim)...

Then imagine a new couch that looks something like this:

and a pair of these on either side of our piano painted yellow since Bryan has vetoed the yellow piano idea multiple times:

 With a tufted coffee table/ottoman like this:

but with swivel wheels like this instead of legs:

And then if we reference the paint colors above we would go with soft grays in the kitchen with a green kitchen table and pink flowers on top! Something like this minus the unpainted area:

Did I mention that the kitchen table is still haunting me?  Yes, I made the request that my lovely husband bring it in from our clean garage (but super cold) into our newly cleaned (and warmer) basement so I can finish it up... and I am going to conquer it once and for all!!!!

So yes... I just have to decide on a stencil design for the kitchen and then we will start (meaning I will start) this massive paint project.  I am excited to finally have a decision made!!!

 I know this one has been used many of  times right now - so maybe not this one but something along this line ;)

Wish me luck!

3 going on 16

So we survived.  Yes it was birthday weekend this past weekend.  Miss Emily turned 3.  My goodness.

And in all honesty she is everything I would want her to be.  Cute, and cute enough to have her dad worried about the little boys that soon shall be knocking at our door.  Sassy like her mom, enough to drive her daddy nuts but make him laugh at the same time.  Lovable even through her sass, so that her dad and any other lucky person who meets her, knows that they are in fact lucky to meet her.  Smart as a whip,  I will take credit for that as well... but I think it might be a shared quality of both Bryan and I.  And she has a great sense of style.

I love her, I do.

So for her birthday we continued the tradition of streamers and balloons outside of the birthday girl's door (something that my mom did for my sister and I till we finally moved out of the house- and if we are lucky, and she is visiting during a birthday we still get decorations to this day).

I may have gotten a little crazy with the balloons, but I felt like this was going to be the first real birthday she was going to remember, and I had to make a good memory for her.

So I told her, that she had to sleep in her big girl bed all night or the birthday girl surprises weren't going to come.  So at 7 am I hear a knock at her door. And then ....

"MOM...Open Door!  It's WAKE UP TIME!"

And then out she came to a sea of pink, bright pink, white and purple.  She loved it.  Ran up and down the hall exclaiming that it was "Gorgeous!"

I was super proud.  And in that moment Bryan didn't totally hate me for making him blow up at least 75 balloons... How could you when you daughter feels that special because of what you did.

So then after a few episodes of Wonder Pets (sigh I just don't understand why they make the duck talk with a lisp- but anywho)  it was bath time and my smart as a whip daughter figured out how to dye her bath water pink.  Turns out if you add pink streamers you water will magically turn pink.  That was a fun surprise.

And then we were off to the family birthday dinner at the local Mexican restaurant (because she is a Vargas ya know!) ... and after mom and dad had a margarita and Emily got her share of attention .... it was time for the sombrero...

And a little whip cream on the nose!  We were so afraid that she wouldn't find it amusing (it didn't go over so well last year) but she absolutely loved it.  I am pretty sure she just loved the attention to be honest.

 So yes, the birthday was a success, she got her first Barbie from her Uncle Ryan and Aunt Andrea (I am pretty sure mostly from Andrea since I don't see Ryan running up and down the Barbie isle picking out a cute but not overly sexy Barbie with clothing and accessories to match... sorry Ryan I just don't think that is in your skill set).  She also got a princess doll house/castle and a Dora the Explorer tent that is now taking up most of the living room...

And on top of that she is getting a Children's Museum pass!  We are going to have some fun there...

However, I may have made a mistake.... Emily is really into stickers and such right now so I bought her boxes and boxes of the foam stickers plus a few sticky rhinestones... and this is what I got:

  Why yes that is a be-dazzled piano.... Bryan is not pleased.... However, it was on his watch that the piano was be-dazzled....so I am not taking full blame on this one.

Now onto the Holidays!!!

Naked Stage Over?

Nope.  Not in the dead of winter either... Bryan is concerned that his daughter is traveling down a dangerous naked road....

And he is coming home again to a naked little girl.  Parenting gold star goes to me tonight!

I am secretly smiling right now.