half a project, DOWN!

So, the end of August, I bought this beauty, off of craigslist for $40. 

Actually, it was $40 for TWO nightstands, a head board, armoire, and two mirrors. SCORE. 

...or so I thought.

In hindsight, I probably would not have gotten them if I knew how much work I'd have to put in them.

They were border-line,  rotten. 

G.R.O.S.S.-rotten.

I washed them with bleach first, took off the backs and sanded like crazy!

The side veneers were warping, so I hacked them off.

Then I replaced the veneer with beadboard.

To make a more uniform look, I put beadboard in the center of the drawer faces.

Then I primed and painted them, inside and out.

 (about 6 coats total)

I stained the top, and put several polyurethane coats over the entire thing.

Spray painted the original handles in rubbed bronze...

...and thought I was done.

(please excuse the clutter on top)

But...I just didn't like how old-fashioned it looked. 

So, I ordered some bun-feet off e-bay. 

They came in a beautiful mahogany, but that didn't look right, so I painted them.

And now,

 I am happy. 

And just because this has been a long post, (and a long project) 

here is a reminder of

 the before:

and after:

And now...on to the armoire....

oh, heaven help me...

Another pumpkin masterpiece...

Before we do this year's reveal...


let's review...

October 2008

the Election year:

October 2009

My personal favorite....

the Brinly pumpkin!

And now...

for Dan's 2010 entry...

Dr. Mike Shannon!

(the man who owns the dental practice Dan works at)

A lot of you ask how he does it, which is why I present the Dan's-pumpkin-carving-DIY-tutorial:

So, he takes a regular ol' photo....

Turns it black and white

plays around with the exposure...and stuff..

Tapes it to a choice-picked-pumpkin...

Don't forget the tools! 

Dental tools are quite useful for more things than just teeth!

And....

Wah lah!

Mr. Shannon is a pumpkin! :)

It's times like these that I ache for a "nice" camera to show you how awesome this thing really looks.

They have a carving contest at work. Unfortunately, Dan's pumpkins don't look very good in the light...

but they are magical at night! 

I'm so proud...can you tell?!

overheard...in the car....

We were driving somewhere, and Brinly was acting silly with Michael.

Then Michael says: "Mom, Brinly would be much cuter as a puppy."

um, okay.

She would definitely be cute as a puppy too, but I'm not sure about the MUCH more. :)

Poor kid really wants a dog...

I knew it was coming....

Seems like there have been a lot of posts lately of kids cutting their own hair or their friends/siblings hair.

I was so grateful my kids hadn't tried it yet.

Until...

I swept my floor this morning.

Found this clump of beautiful blonde hair, that could only belong to one person.

Luckily, it doesn't show. I had to really search to try to figure out where it came from. 

I'm hoping I can still put it in piggies. 

(you can see one of them in the pic above. So stinkin cute!)

You should have seen her Sunday.

 P.R.E.C.I.O.U.S.

(will try to duplicate the look and take a picture. Subject below also hid my camera for a week...until I almost went crazy and finally found it...stashed behind a toy bin)

The culprit?

Yup. You guessed it. 

At least he was honest about it when I asked him if he had done it.

Sigh...

Brinly update

It is way past due for an update on this cutie!

Brinly is now almost 16 months! I don't know if I'm in denial about her getting older, but I swear she is catching on to things faster than her older siblings.  Here are some things about her:

1) She LOVES chairs. She is always trying to sit in them. One sunday we were walking the halls, and there were two little chairs out. She was perfectly content climbing on and off of them for the remainder of the hour.

 

2) She can fold her arms when we tell her too. (We TOTALLY did not teach this one. I just noticed one night  when we were about to bless our food, that she was folding her arms too! I took the opportunity to teach my kids about how their examples are affecting her. SCORE!)

3) When she sees a tissue, or a roll of toilet paper, she'll take a little piece, put it by her nose, and blow. It is seriously the cutest thing. EVER. I've GOT to get it on camera before she grows out of it.

4) She can say: Mama, Dadda, MOM! DAD! (all four are very different words to her.) Nigh Nigh (for Night), SHHHH for Shoes/Socks.

5) She also will point to the side of her nose, under her eye, and say "Nose!"

6) She does not really care for Pears, but really likes peaches and LOVES mandarin oranges

7) She can out eat her siblings. 

8) Her mullet is long enough for pigtails! But the top is still looking like a comb-over. :)

9) She has the large Hadfield feet and the long Perry toes. Perfect for nibbling.

10) She has this look that will get her anything she wants. Heaven help me...

11) She wants to grow up and be like her brother and sister.  She follows them around and tries to do the things that they do. I sat her down and told her there is NO RUSH. But, she's not listening to me...

Puyallup Fair

Are you still trying to figure out how to pronounce that? Or is it just me.

When I see it, I think Pooey Allup fair. But, it's PEW Allup. Silly, I know.

Anyway, we went up to see Dan's parents this weekend, and go to the P. Fair. (There, we'll just make it easier on everyone.)

When we lived in Portland, we saw them almost every month! I didn't realize how long it's been since we've been to their home. Too long. It was so nice to be back.

The weather was a little cool in the morning, but warmed up beautifully. They always enjoy helping Grandpa feed the fish. 

Grandma always has cool leftovers from her job as  a 2nd grade teacher.  This time, they made puppets and a puppet stage.

 

I love this picture of Michael...talk about an evil eye...

The P. Fair's theme this year was...

 "Free your Glee".

....

(crickets)

....

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 

I know....it must have been a late night, close to the theme deadline...to have to settle on that one. 

Anyway, even more disapointing then the theme, was the expense. The rides were CRAZY expensive, so we had to limit the kid's to about 4 or  5 each. 

 

Michael chose the "race cars"...

Chelsea wanted the spinning bears. They had that thing spinning like crazy, before the ride even started!

The flying swings...

And of course, the Ferris Wheel.

They weren't quite big enough to go alone, so Dan splurged and went with them. 

He offered to let me go, but I don't do well on things that go in circles.

Luckily, they did have some free things..

like cool face painting...(spray paint)

Notice Michael's mouth? We caught him looking at his reflection and he kept making these funny faces with his mouth to try to see his cool spider web.

We only had 10 tickets left, not quite enough for both kids to go on another ride, so we let them pick one  "game to play"

Michael chose the strong man hammer thingy. 

You should have seen his face when they handed him his prize:

I think he finally "Freed his Glee". (snicker...)

He was one happy kid. I, personally, was relieved that he won something. We purposely tried to pick something that you could "win every time". 

Phew.

Next up, Chelsea:

Yes, another "win every time" game. Pick a duck, and win a Small, Medium, Large, or Jumbo prize.

She won a LARGE! WAHOO!!

My personal highlight of the day:

Just warms a mom's heart....

I wish we had a picture with mom and dad. We had a great day!