the pink

late spring 2005 easy and i anxiously learned that we were having a little girl. our first. we were living in green bay. we went to target and bought a little blue dress for her as we refused to let pink take over our lives.

no pink.
nope.
nada.

i told my mom - no pink.

for the most part i think that my wishes were respected, but you know what? the beast is just too dang big. and it creeps in.

bam. bam. bam.

three girls.

and we are swimming in bright, fluffy, bubblegum pink.

and i'm totally okay with it.

last week the bedding for my big girls' room finally came. you can only imagine how the estrogen in the house peaked as we girls ripped open the box and ooood and awed over the lovely pattern.

the added bonus?

pink.

bedding: here
paint: here
beds: here (bought from a 75 year old lady. her dad bought them new for her and her brother when she was 5 years old)


inspiration: here

the perfect shade of blue

i wanted open shelving.

had to have it.

i needed my kitchen to breath. i wanted it to come alive, but most of all...i wanted to want to be in there.

yes open shelving! that is the answer!

that and more paint.

oh, and i wanted blue.

and beach blue it was - actually blue lagoon to be specific. and i sent easy for it.

the whole time i was painting though i was questioning. and justifying. and trying to love it.

e and i just sat there looking at it - and we liked it, but something was odd about it.

just not. quite. right.

then it dawned on me while a friend and i were sitting there staring at it again.

it was 113 degrees outside and i wanted to be at the beach in a little bungalow, but lib is not a bungalow and the color (although i was madly in love with it) didn't belong in this house.

it just didn't fit.

so i tore down the shelves.


and started over again.

and this time from the moment i slapped that paint on it was perfect.

it was calming.

and soft.

it reminds me of the summer monsoon skies that frequent the valley every july and august. the skies that give us desert dwellers a little hope in the middle of our own hot hell.

it's perfect.



*ps...do you see my hardware?? :)

a happy day

i love this girl.

her zest for life and her contagious laughter make every day of mine better and brighter.

i also love that she is 3 because as she would say, "three is big."

she is a fan of:

mac and cheese
cuddles at nigh-night
playing with blondes
being the mom
wearing "lake-up"
talking about how big she is
wearing dresses

and

invading others personal space


i'm a fan of the mini birthday cake, simply wrapped gifts, and family parties.

thank you MaeMAe for making our lives so exciting.

piece by piece

did you know that getting new carpet is like christmas?

it is.

it might almost be even better.

especially if your old carpet smells like dog urine.

which ours totally did.

rumor has it (from Jorge our neighbor) that the last tenant's dog was living in here for weeks after the eviction.

alone. solo. seul.

however you say it.

i say, "blech!"

so we decided to scrub the sub-floor - to ensure the smell would be gone. out.

so far, so good.

ah. new carpet smells like a new house.

which is what this is turning out to be.

little by little.

piece by piece.

one. two. THREE.

Happy Birthday Miss Mae!

Off With Her Hair!

This girls surprises me.

And she amazes me with her compassion and character.

I talked to her months ago about donating her hair (maybe after a ferocious detangling fit).

Since then she (and I) have been patiently waiting for it to be long enough. At the beginning of the summer we measured and her pony was barely 10 inches.

More time.

Two days ago we measured again after she literally asked everyday for a week.

11 inches.

And with temps hitting 115ish and humidity on the rise we decided to go for it.

She is adjusting and hasn't complained once. Actually, I catch her glancing in the mirror often and shaking it around wildly.

I think she likes it.

And so do I.

On Painting My Ugly Oak Cabinets

(inspiration via crap i can't find the url. sorry!)

When we purchased Lib 2 months ago we knew that the cabinets needed to go.

But we are also on a budget here and taking things slow - the last thing we could afford to do was spring for fancy new cabinets.

I have been dreaming of a white kitchen though and I couldn't just get it out of my head. So what do I do?

I call my mom.

Painting My Ugly Oak Cabinets

Step 1. Call my mother

Step 2. Bring her here

Step 3. Remove and de-gunk nasty oak cabinets. We had to use some Goo-gone on these suckers because they were B.A.D. Be sure to number your cabinets with some painters tape before you remove them. This saves a lot of headache when it's time to get them back up in the right places.

Step 4. Sand. Sand. Sand. I hate to sand! You don't have to sand the finish completely off, but just get the sheen off so that the paint will stick. Just enough to rough em up a bit.

Step 5. Wipe clean with a slightly damp cloth.

Step 6. Soak and scrub hardware. I had intentions on spray-painting the hinges, but decided not to because the hinge would scrap the paint off so we just kept the antique brass. I'm sooo glad we did (see knobs below).

Step 7. Caulk any gaps where the paneling might be separating and fill in hardware holes with putty (so the screws have something to grab when going back in).

Step 8. We are finally ready to PAINT! ps. do yourself a favor and get a really nice brush :) We started out brushing them, then used the Wagner sprayer that Easy got at a garage sale - which was awesome, but at the same time opened up a whole lot more frustration. In the end we sprayed the fronts and rolled/brushed both the backs and the frame (skeleton as I like to call it). You will want to do 2 coats.

A word about paint:

I was told that the more matte the paint is for cabinets the more professional it will look. Keeping that in mind, we all know that the glossier it is the easier it will be to keep clean. In the end we decided on a satin finish interior/exterior latex paint. We also added Floetrol to allow the paint to glide on easier.

Step 9. Let it dry overnight before trying to hang.

Step 10. Attach hinges and hang. My favorite part!!

Step 11. Some crown molding for a little extra zing + some quarter round on the baseboards. My dad attached both with finishing nails.

Step 12. Now that everything is together go back and retouch them. Keep a little paint handy for this in the future too.


Step 13. Hardware and I lied to you...This is my favorite part.

I'm still waiting on my cup pulls for the drawers and we are working on some open-shelving that will replace one of the cabinets.

Can't wait to show the finished project, but we have to hurry - only 2.5 more weeks before Block IV.



Aghhh!!!!!

i LOVE my parents!

they are amazing.

evidence:

(one of many)

(still working on this one)

(my fave!)


(oak...blech!)


(white...ahhhhh!)

up next: cabinet painting 101

Unconventional Patriotism

After spending a week in Nevada I stole-away my parents back to AZ with me for 5 awesome interrupted days.

They didn't protest too much.

We arrived at 5am after driving all night long, slept a few hours, and then got right to work after downing my specialty pick-me-up smoothies.

Showing off their staches

It only makes since that my dad (a builder) and my mom (a painter) were my first choices to help us patch up our new home. They were amazing. They complained only a little during my slave-driving techniques and my dad even consented to using a Hello Kitty pencil for his measurements. Easy also got to see first hand where I get my drive from - as every night around 8pm my mom and I would catch a second wind while he and my dad killed over on the couch.

Before I went to college our house was under construction for 10 years. I forgot how incredibly messy, dusty, and dangerous it can be (especially with having little ones around).

Not to mention how it can ruin a pedicure...

So, this is how we spent the 4th of July. We sanded, nailed, caulked, painted, patched and finally crashed.

I don't know about you, but it sounds pretty patriotic to me.


more to come...