Sunday, April 17, 2011

Furniture Painting

The girls have needed some additional drawers in their bedroom for quite a while. We'd sort of looked around for inexpensive furniture, but weren't finding anything that inexpensive that didn't look really cheap. So, we considered waiting for yard sale season.

Then, I remembered that my dad still had the old furniture that was mine....and before that, it was Dee's. A dresser, chest and desk with hutch. I wonder what year it was bought in?

Well....here is the dresser before doing any painting.


And, here is the finished product.


Well, it's really almost finished. One of the drawer pulls was broken and we're going to take one from the desk (unpainted so far...and won't be in the same room). I still need to go get the pull from Dad and paint it.

And, here is the chest that goes with the set.



I was planning to buy new drawer pulls, but finding them in the right size (2.5 inches) is really difficult. When I could find the size, there wasn't much to choose from.

It turned out pretty well, but it took a lot of time. In fact, everything else in the house suffered since I was spending my time painting it.

I had first gotten a paint sample from Lowe's and used it on the dresser. I went back and bought a quart so we'd have enough for the other pieces. Much to my dismay, Lowe's messed up. The quart didn't match the sample. The same color was written on the can, so I know I pointed to the right color....but somehow they messed it up. So, I ended up having to put an additional 2 coats (of the "new" stuff) on the dresser. Annoying!

The girls are thrilled to have a mirror in their room now. :)

Monday, April 11, 2011

Weekend Update

I haven't done one of these in a long time, huh? Sorry ya'll. No excuses.

I honestly can't even remember what we did on Friday. Oh - nothing! :) I was exhausted and went to sleep at 9:30 - soon after the kids did.

Saturday, I left the house with the kids before 9:00 to head out for a stop at Starbucks and take the girls for haircuts. Lacey had been begging to get hers cut shorter (shoulder length) for a couple of weeks. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that her BFF, Mallory, has shoulder length hair. And, anything that big sister does, Leah wants to do, too. I told them that it had to be enough to donate, or they'd have to grow it some more. (I just don't see the point in cutting so much hair off if it's going to be wasted.)

Locks of Love requires 10 inches, but Pantene has a donation program that only requires 8 inches. And, both girls had enough for Pantene.


They love it and I do, too!!! So cute. Lacey's looks good when it dries naturally, too, but she wants it straight. Luckily, since it's so much shorter, it doesn't really take much time to do it that way.

After we left the hair place, we stopped at a dance store to buy their new tap shoes for the recital. It's not until June, but pictures are in May and both girls say their shoes are too tight. We had no luck with shoes. They didn't have either shoe size in the right color. Ugh. I spent some time yesterday checking around online, but didn't have much luck with that, either. I might have to see about having the store order them.

Then, we headed to Toys R Us to buy a birthday gift for a friend of Leah's, who was having a party on Sunday. Bought more than just for the birthday girl, though. I'd promised them if they could be good with all of our errands, they could have something small.

From there, we headed to Bowie for swim lessons. This was the 2nd week for the girls this season. It's a different teacher than they had last year, but they are doing great with her, too. Both girls swam on their backs for a bit this week. :) We're driving them about an hour because last year, I couldn't find anything local for private or semi-private and Lacey hadn't done well in group swim before. Right after I had signed them up for this 6 week session, I found out about a new place - much closer to home - that does semi-private and private lessons, too. I need to check on it since a 20 minute drive is much better than an hour.

On Saturday, while we were running our errands, Butch went to our tax accountant to have the taxes done. Nothing like the last minute. We don't normally do it this late.

Saturday night, we went to eat at The Green Turtle. (Sweet Potato Fries....yummy!) Then, a quick stop at Target for a couple of things before heading home.

Sunday was Payton's party, so the girls and I left at 10:15 or so. We stopped by Kristin's new place (she moved back from Fairfax recently) to drop off some Fiesta party supplies for a party she's planning for a friend. (I saved them from Butch's 40th birthday party....8 years ago.....I just thought it was stupid to toss them all.)

Payton's party was a princess tea party at a tea room. I've been there several times and the only time the service has been really good is when it's before noon. Otherwise, it's slooowww. And, it was slow yesterday. But, it was a super cute party. :) And, the food was good.

Butch spent the entire day doing yard work. The entire day. The crepe myrtle is now pruned. They grow so crazy that I'm always scared to do it. But, it needed it badly.

The girls went across the street to play with neighbor kids later in the afternoon. Lacey wanted to walk with them to the gazebo in our neighborhood....which is about 1/2 mile from our house. That part didn't bug me too much, but the gazebo is right at the main road. It's really hard to balance letting your kids grow up and have some independence with keeping them safe....yet not being over protective. I decided Lacey could go because one of the neighbor kids is very dependable and she's about 11 or so. I knew Brit would take care of her. It ended up not being an issue since they decided not to walk. Lacey & Leah went to our other neighbors house for a little bit instead. :)

And, then.........the weekend was over. Much too quickly. I was packing lunches and getting clothes ready for today MUCH TOO SOON!!!