Dday

Today i took Dday and Partners in Crime (the twins) to the park.  Dday gets his name as you can guess from being in ultimate destruction mode, at all times.  Grandpa calls the grand kids "little terrorist," this too accuracy describes my daily plight.  Today that two {three days away from three years} year-old decided to plop his sandals {almost brand new mind you} into the pond while feeding ducks.  Dday!!! Argh.  I realize looking back on it now, that this was quite the science experiment for him.  It began with squishing his little toes into the only five-square inch area of mud around in the grass, followed by "Mommy i need my shoes off! Me replying "there's yucky duck poo all over Dday, you gotta wear your shoes" and cleaning them off with a water bottle cleaning that was not satisfactory for this two year-old. Followed by the first shoe...plop...in the duck poop invested water!  It was quite a surprise to him that that darn shoe would float.  And of course I said "Dalt, please take off your other shoe and give it to momma."  I should have known better, but remember I'm new to this TERRIBLE Threes Things {terrible twos are a lie}! The experiment of throwing-there she floats-was way too entertaining.  Dday threw shoe two into the water.  Time for the crime-- uh-oh {timeout} spot had to be improvised right there on that park tree.  Oh Dday, the asylum is calling my name.  I love you and will never understand how someone learned to push my buttons the way you do. The {brand new} shoes are gone, he has an arm that one.  He threw just far enough where even the best fisherman couldn't catch those things without a fishing pole! To say the least I was not willing to lay my belly on that duck poo invested cement and scoop those things out. Bon Voyage little blue sandals!

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Faux painting looks great when done, but its a lot of work, and more expensive than painting a solid color Wall.  its a two step process and requires one and a half times as much paint, plus glaze.  Having said that its definalty worth the little extra cost and work to me. I didnt faux super heavy on my wall, i like it a little more blended, but to get a more exaggerated faux look than i did you just apply a second coat, or heavier coat of glaze once you are at that step.  Here is how you faux paint. First use paint tape to tape off the area you are painting.  next you apply your base coat-this is the darker color of the two colors you are using. roll it on like you would normally paint a wall, covering all the wall and corners in an even coat.  Let that completely dry.  Then take your faux layer paint and mix it with a faux glaze.  I like the Behr brand that comes in a quart.  Mix your faux paint color and glaze in 1 to 4 parts mixture, 1 part glaze, 4 parts paint.  I usually take 1/4c and do 1/4c glaze and 1c paint to make life easy :). Then apply it in about a 12x12 area at a time with a paint brush going in different directions to get a faux look and immediately rub off/pat areas with paper towels to get that faux look you desire before moving on to another 12x12 area.  If you wait too long to rub off the paint begins to dry and is hard to rub off.  This is where i stopped with my faux, but if you want a heavier faux look wait for your first coat to completely dry, then go over the area again using the same technique to get a heavier faux look.  The colors i used here were Behr brand, Saddle brown base and Chocolate faux.  A tip for choosing colors to faux with is to choose your base color that you like and the top code 1-3 shades lighter for a pretty contrast.

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When we looked at our house, it was something most people thought "oh, nice house, nice lot, but TONS of work." The ironic thing is one of my good friends said she walked through the house too when it was on the market and they loved the house--but thought it was a lot of work and didn't think twice about it. Well Scott and i were up for the challenge and on a hunt for a forever house with a good price tag, and shockingly enough one that was a fixer-uper! Yes, we are certifiably crazy, especially considering i was pregnant with twins at the time we were looking for a fixer-uper!  The house was bank owned--enough said foreclosures are always trashed.  Well, i loved the huge kitchen with tons of cabinetry and storage and stand up/sit in breakfast bar, loved the island, and the granite counters...but i HATED the cabinets.  Not my style.  So i decided to refinish them.  Everyone always asks me how i did it, so here we go, you score with a tutorial!  I wanted to go with an old world antique look, and wanted two-toned cabinets.  I still love the black and white combo but i may surprise myself and go all white before long, but needless to say i do love the way they turned out.  So to tell you how i did it.  I did a prime, paint, seal method.  My cabinets were in good shape, there wasn't any areas that needed smoothing out so instead of using an electric sander, i used liquid sander which took me only 45 min to wipe down all of my cabinets compared to several hours of electric or hand sanding.  I bought it at Home Depot its "Klean strip" brand and called liquid sander deglosser.  Its in the paint supply section.  I think one bottle was $18 and i have used it for several projects including my kitchen table redo {of course ill share that project too}.  You just rub it on your cabinets with an old rag for a few seconds all around to get the glossy finish off.  I used a high density foam roller to paint the cabinets, it would be much easier and quicker if you had a paint sprayer, but at the time i didn't have one {sigh i do now, would've made life easier} these are small rollers and are great for painting furniture too! So, i taped off my cabinets to protect the walls from paint, and started painting. I used a foam brush in hard to reach areas, and did about 2 coats of black on the upper half of my kitchen, and 3 coats of white on the bottom half.  I wanted the oak color to show through in some of the black spots for an old world look so did less coats of black.  With the black cabinets i just used a fine grain sheet of sand paper and hand sanded to distress along the edges and grooves only.  For the white cabinets i tried a few techniques until i got the look i was going for-first i tried a glaze and brown paint mixture-hated it, then i went with glaze and black paint mixture-hated that too.  I ended up taking a small art paintbrush and brown color of paint and hand painted to distress the edges how I wanted them.  I personally loved the all white clean look  before distressing on the white portion of my cabinets, but...I saw my two year old rub his Cheeto covered hands on those white cabinets and realized my sanity would not last if i kept them pure white.  I was so glad i distressed them after having done it a few months later I was wiping down my cabinets and realized there was lot of peanut butter smeared on my island which i didn't even notice because of the distressing.  WIN!! Anyway back on task.  After i painted the cabinets I sealed them again using foam roller/brush combo-only one coat with a water based polycrylic semi-gloss finish to ensure the cabinets wouldn't chip.  I did them 5 months ago and no chipping still.  This was such an easy method and realistic for me to do SLOWLY over time, thank goodness for a patient hubs who put up with multi-colored cabinets for a while before I finally finished!  The colors i used if you like this look were cottage white from Dunn Edwards, and premixed black Valspar paint from Home depot. Use exterior grade paint on cabinets and doors, it adheres better and doesn't fade.  If you want a mahogany look stain you will have to use an electric sander to sand the cabinets, then take a rag with your color stain and rub on evenly until you get the look you want, and of course seal after with polycrylic.  I'm still on the hunt for the perfect hardware, and have yet to find it...if you have any suggestions let me know!

paintable wall paper-DIY backsplash

Before installing backsplash

During installation-cut around outlets

up close of the pattern

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I have slowly been remodeling my kitchen myself.  once i finish ill do an entire kitchen reveal, but for now you can just see bits and pieces.  First Ill share my backslash, it looks beautiful and the best part is it only cost me $25.00...and i had supplies to spare. I used a paintable wallpaper that looks and feels like ceiling tiles, everyone always says they thought they were ceiling tiles {before i tell them the truth}.  So lets begin with supplies.  I bought the paintable wallpaper at Lowe's in the blinds and wallpaper section for $18.00 {it comes in a white color, ready to paint}.  I used copper valspar brand paint that is premixed at Home Depot, Lowe's may carry it too I'm not sure.  This wall paper is prepasted so no need to buy paste, just buy a wallpaper squeegy-theyre $.99 and razor blade if you dont have one, and you're ready to go.  I read the instructions that came with the wallpaper, and consulted good old Pinterest for wallpaper hanging techniques since this was my first wallpaper attempt.  Follow your directions for hanging, but i basically measured out the area i was going to hang, grabbed a tape measure, scissors, and ruler/lever combo to draw straight lines for cutting and trimmed the paper down to fit the area i was hanging it in.  Next i decided to save a little money and not buy a water dipping tray at Lowe's and instead just wet the wallpaper in my bathtub for a few seconds, then carried it carefully so i wouldn't rip the edges to my kitchen counter where I folded the glue sides together and let it set for 5 min.  Next I hung it on my wall space i had measured out, then hung it on my wall smoothing as i went to ensure there were no bubbles.  Wallpaper is very forgiving, you don't have to hang it in the exact right spot when you first place it on the wall, it gives you some room for error and slides easily while its wet and not smoothed in place, once you have it in the right spot, begin smoothing it down for air bubbles.  The trick is to line the pattern up correctly so there are no errors in your pattern.  Last i used a small razor blade to trim the edges where they met my granite counter and to cut around outlet spaces.  The directions say to wait for it to dry, but i did this when it was still wet.  I found the paper didn't tear this way, and wallpaper residue didn't stick to drywall in places you don't want it to.  Last wipe down the area with a wet rag to remove excess glue and let it dry.  When its all hung i waited to paint for 5 hours--being impatient like i am i didn't wait the 24 hrs the direction said to let the wallpaper cure-i could tell it was dry only 5 hrs after.  Copper paint is an oil base so its super fumy compared to most paint and sticks to ALL surfaces so be sure to wipe it off your counters right away if you accidentally spill instead of wait til your finished to try and chip it off like i normally do-lesson learned, no need to fret it will come off counter surfaces with goof off if needed ;).  Here is how mine turned out.  I still want to add a little trim on the edges just to finish it off and add a little something more, and plan on putting some on my ceiling in spaces I will share those projects when completed ;)  I had so much left over that i placed some in wainscoting I installed on my breakfast bar--ill share the wainscoting tutorial in a later post!

Hall Signs

When I walk down my hall, my neurotic brain is calmed by organization.  My hall is such a small area where 4 bedrooms and 1 bath all have an entry {/exit} within 55 feet of each other, yes i counted...lots of doors in a tiny space right (^ doors to be exact my bedroom has french doors)?  So if you can picture every bedroom but two are cramped into a small space, my home being the perfection of a maze-like-remodeled Arizona home.  If you have ever been or lived in a n old Gilbert farm community home you know what i mead.  This is a home that has been remolded more than once by someone at leaset 3 different families.  Very interesting how each family has a different style so there can be a Ranch-style remodel, French Country remodel, and Spanish remodel all stuffed in a large envelope addressed to yours truly--wow right, but that's a topic for another day.  Let make this clear, i am not complaining i have a lovely home with plenty of square footage but the planning of the add on with 6 doors exiting in one pathway can make a sane lady precarious!  I had to do something to enjoy this space more, as i walk through it several times a day for everything under the sun, i.e. 3 times to lay down little ones for naps, more than 3 times to change diapers, help Dday go potty (my 2 yr old, why Dday? keep reading you will see!), struggle diligently to get Dday dressed...daily, hastily but meticulously pull my hair up in the cute {rushed mom day} knot bun...you get the idea!  So when i saw another blogger post a similar idea like this a few years back when met with my hallway challenge a light bulb came on, like a ray of sunshine from heaven, "Laaaa" and i remembered what she did and had to take my own spin on things.  I wish i could give credit to the original idea, my efforts to blog surf and find hers to show you proved unsuccessful.  I can tell you I made mine a little different than she did-but pretty close.  So here's an easy DIY project for even the beginner crafter!

Supplies: I bought the oval wood plaques and metal brackets at Hobby Lobby.  Used folk art brand "warm white" paint, a chocolate brown and black paints for distressing.  You will also need sand paper, 1 craft hook per sign (hobby lobby), ribbon of choice, and a foam or paint brush.

cost: appx $5/per sign) The metal brackets are half off for $3.99 each when metal wares go on sale!  The wood plaques were $1.99 each reg price (go on sale with wood). 

First, I sanded the plaques lightly by hand and painted them using acrylic Folk Art brand Warm White color and distressed the edges with black and a chocolate brown acrylic color.  Then I sanded the edges for a little more distressing.  Next I created the words I wanted with my vinyl machine using Script MT bold font in black, and placed them right in the middle of the plaque.  (email me for vinyl price quote: hastings.katie@gmail.com). Then, I screwed a craft hook on the center of the signs for hanging.  Last, I centered the metal brackets over my doors and screwed them in, hanging the plaque using ribbon threaded threw the brackets and the craft hook.

The signs I made read: Laundry, Mr & Mrs, my kids names: Dalton, Dax & Dawson, Guest (my guest room), Bath, Closet, Play (play room) and Office.