So after a whole summer of preparing to paint, we finally have a painted house!!!
Our friend Craig brought his sprayer over and helped out a ton.
It's crazy how much work goes into prepping and the painting portion lasts only a few hours.
Before:
Old/new:
The finished product:
We love it so much!
This makes our door look orange but it's definitley red.
I just wanted to show you guys our awesome exterior fixture:
(Our fancy new light up doorbell is awesome too but you can barely see it.)
While they were painting, the boys and I went to the zoo with Chris' mom.
Bennett decided that instead of stopping to look at each animal, he'd like to just run past them all.
This was our view the entire time:
Except that he stopped to sit on the animal statues:
and to watch the tractor bring sand into the elephant area:
(Buck wasn't too into it either)
Saturday afternoon we went to Bennett's friend Lucy's 3rd birthday party.
He had never seen one of these cars before and he thought that it was broken because it wouldn't go.
He kept getting out to push it then quickly hopped back in as if he were giving it a push start.
"This car doesn't work guys":
I also did a lot of cooking and baking this weekend!
I feel like I haven't baked in a long time, so it was nice to get back to it.
(I've tested a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes trying to find the perfect one, this the the one I always go back to.
I love to eat them frozen!)
I tried recreating Portobello's Beet Tartare:
(We agreed that I got pretty close! I made the whole thing in my vitamix...it was fun seeing what it could do. It's a vegan recipe but is so full of flavor. It's cashew cheese on the bottom with chopped beets mixed with a carrot aioli. It's incredibly filling, we both split this for a late dinner.)
I also made
this cashew pesto veggie pizza, which was also SO good:
(I don't think I'll ever make pesto with those expensive pine nuts again!)
and we made lots of smoothies with the vitamix.
Best purchase ever:
mmm smoothies:
Happy Wednesday Friends!
I can't believe it has been a year since we bought our house! When we bought it we knew that we would paint the interior right away. A couple of coats of
bright white paint went up everywhere soon after we moved in.
We also knew that we would convert the den space into a third bedroom
(back to the way it was originally). That
project was completed a couple of months before Buckley arrived
(though I have yet to show you the completed nursery).
The next project on our list is to paint the exterior. It sounds like a huge job, especially when you add in sanding down a majority of the house because the current paint is in such bad shape.
When we pictured what we wanted the house to look like, we both agreed that we wanted a dark house with a bright door. We wanted to take our mid century ranch back to its roots, and the time has finally come!
These houses were ones that we used for inspiration when we picked our house colors:
house pictures found via google
These are the colors we chose:
We also ordered
this doorlite kit to go into our new bright red door.
When it's all finished it will look like this:
We have already painted the red on the Dutch door in the back to get a feel for how it will look, and when we have the top open it gives us a pop of red in the house:
(I kind of love it)
I can't wait to see it all come together!
Our homeowners association makes you ask all of your neighbors if they approve and then the HOA has to approve it. I really hope we have no hang-ups and that we can stick with our original colors!
Bennett went to the dentist for the first time last week.
This was the coolest dentist office I've ever seen and everyone was so nice which helped a lot.
In the waiting room, I was happy to see that he chose low tech over high tech toys:
I was also happy to find this in the mail:
(it's going to save us $120 on our new/fancy/crazy expensive double stroller!)
I was reading Bennett a book when he said "I'll be right back",
then he ran into his room and came out like this:
(then he proceded to clean his ears and every time he would look at the q tip he'd say "eww"...haha)
Thursday was a random snow day.
We got about 3 or 4 inches!
Scout was jealous that he couldn't go play in it:
(his breed is a "Snowshoe" so it's in his blood right?)
then we warmed up with some mac 'n cheese:
(organic Annie's topped with ketchup of course)
in the afternoon I made
these dark chocolate toffee cookies with sea salt:
(I normally like fluffy, soft cookies and these were more on the flat, chewy side but were still really good...
I've never met a cookie I didn't like!)
for dinner I made
these quinoa veggie mexi bowls:
(super good, though I just used what I had)
B drew a picture of a boat:
(clearly.)
spotted dragon fruit while we were out grocery shopping on Friday:
(how pretty are they?)
B got his strawberry milk when we were done for being a great little shopper:
(bribery works people!)
this conversation took place:
For date night Chris and I went to see Hunger Games just to see what all the hype was about. Neither of us knew anything about the books other than people were crazy for them. Apparently it's a "teen flick" and it had just opened the night before. We were lucky to even get tickets. I'll say that it wasn't a bad movie, but a very strange plot for kids to be getting so excited over (killing eachother? really?).
Am I missing something?
Sunday, Chris played at church and we also started taking down some doors to
paint them and put on the new hardware:
(B's fort = makeshift sawhorse)
B and I went over to play with Lauren and Fern.
He pretty much loves her:
Our little playdate ended with some delicious froyo at
Yogurtland:
and B played keys at church Sunday night:
(no big deal)
and here is a little nursery progress:
(I just kind of threw this together, but I like it!)
and that is your weekend in review on a monday.
Hooray!
(I'm off to do a little painting and some walking to get this little man to stay head down darnit!)
I'm sure you guys have seen hundreds of household tips and tricks floating around Pinterest, but it's hard to tell which ones will actually work.
I wanted to share with you guys the ones I have tried and loved!
using Bar Keeper's Friend to remove grey scratch marks on white dishes:
So I didn't have this problem with my dishes, but my white porcelain sink had it's fair share of scratches from pots/pans/cookie sheets. It also had a lot of staining due to Mr. Barista's grounds and other various foods (who knew cucumber peels stained so much).
You're probably just picturing a disgustingly dirty sink...trust me, I cleaned it but nothing ever got it to actually look clean.
That is until I tried this little trick.
Run (don't walk) to the nearest store to grab some of this magical powder.
It will change your life!
using rubbing alcohol to fix a broken compact:
I've had a giant bronzing powder that got dropped somehow and it still had a ton left so I felt bad throwing it away. I would make a huge mess each time I used it, so when I came across this little tip I had to try it.It's super messy and I had to use more than "a few drops" of rubbing alcohol to get it to the correct paste-like consistency, but it totally worked! *
I was skeptical that the rubbing alchohol would dry enough to be unnoticable, but I just left it open overnight which seemed to help dry it out completely. Also, since you're using rubbing alcohol, it kills all of the germs on your fingers that you'd otherwise be introducing into the makeup. I'd still be sure to make sure your hands are pretty clean before starting though!
* a suggestion I saw after I fixed, mine was to lay a wet paper towel over the top to help you shape it easier and more smoothly would have been really helpful!
getting rid of excess cooking grease:
(I can't find the original source of this tip or for the picture)
Instead of searching for a can to pour your leftover grease into, just grab some foil and line a bowl with it. Pour your grease into it, and once it has hardened just roll it up into a ball and throw it in the garbage.
I think this may be my favorite little trick I've found because it's so darn simple and easy!
diffusing a harsh camera flash with a piece of white paper:
This guy is a professional photographer and uses a business card with some slits cut into it when he's in a pinch. I've used this when I'm trying to take a picture inside and the light isn't quite right with or without a flash. I don't bother measuring out the correct size or making slits. Any small piece of white paper will do, just hold it about an inch in front of the flash!
using a rubber band to get excess paint off of your paintbrush:
I tried this one out yesterday when I was painting the trim in the nursery and it worked like a charm. A giant rubber band is needed for a normal sized paint can and be careful not to flick paint everywhere when you are taking the rubber band off!
using marshmallows to keep your brown sugar moist:
Ok I lied, I like this simple tip just as much as the foil one because once again it's so easy!
We've had the same marshmallows in our brown sugar container for about 9 months and they have kept it at a perfect moisure level. Our marshmallows were a little dried out when I first put them in there but they totally moistened up and are happy to keep the brown sugar moist in return.
A true symbiotic relationship!
freezing chopped green onions in a water bottle:
It always seems like my green onions go bad before I have a chance to use them, or I don't need the whole bunch and the unused portion goes to waste. Not anymore! I just made sure that I had a clean water bottle and I chopped up the onions when they were still super fresh. Now I can pour out as much/little as my recipe calls for and I just grab a new bunch at the store when I'm out. Super simple!
Have you guys tried any tips or tricks you've found on Pinterest?
Please share!
PS: I got fed up with the annoying/hard to navigate new blogger interface, and went back to the old one.
Does anyone else find the new "improved" one way more difficult to use?
Thursday, Bennett and I had a little playdate with
Lauren and Fern,
Kira and Pearl and
Bonnie and Josiah. B is always the oldest and I think he gets pretty bored of just looking at babies laying there...it's probably a good thing for him to get used to though!
Pearl and B:
(after he serenaded her)
We spent friday playing out on a couples' beautiful property from church.
The weather couldn't have been more perfect!
Some baby goats were born about an hour before we got there.
They were super cute and bigger than you'd expect a newborn goat to be.
B kept calling them puppies.
Bennett finally got to ride on a pow-pow-powerwheel!
Our neighbors have one and he's been totally jealous of them.
Too bad the one he finally got to drive was pink and purple:
(and the battery was dead, so he really just got to "drive " it)
B also got to ride on a "tractor":
(he's such a city boy)
He loved the 2 week old puppies:
Saturday Bennett wanted to wear a party hat for most of the morning:
and while Chris and his brother worked on the nursery,
B and I hung out with my mom:
I made sure to leave the guys with cookies hoping it would motivate them to work efficiently:
I'd say my cookie motivation technique worked pretty well!
We now have a wall!
Chris finished painting last night and the nursery should be ready to be decorated by the end of next weekend!!! We still need to install and paint the trim, install and paint the door and closet, and Chris' dad is going to build some new shelving for the closet.
We are so close!
B and I are off to the library today...I'm so glad this boy loves books!
We usually check out 30 at a time and I give him 15 once we get home and we switch them out for the "new" 15 when he gets bored with the first ones (usually after a week or so).
He will literally sit and read each one cover to cover after we bring them home, which means a little downtime for me...totally a win/win!
Happy Tuesday Friends!
