Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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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black color |
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white color after |
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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 |
after |
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
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.
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