Kristi's Armoire

My sister Kristi got this armoire for free. The back was damaged (they had a TV in there), it was painted white, and the paint job was cracked. It needed a little work. Because I knew we would need to take off the back and re-attach it, we loaded it into my truck and brought it to my house. I didn't want to try to load up tools and go to Kristi's house just to realize I was missing something.

The before:

We took the top board off. Kristi thought the bottom part was salvageable.

Joseph was a wonderful help and did part of the cutting.

But once the painting started he scrammed.

Before we painted, we bought calk for all the little areas where the previous paint had cracked. When I got my kitchen cabinets painted, the inside where two pieces of wood meets was all calked and I know why now.

The hinges were loose because the holes were too big, and the doors were dragging a bit. So we used toothpicks and wood glue to fill the holes.

We spray painted the hardware black, using spray paint I already had.

When we went to Lowe's to get the backboard, Kristi got the idea of using pegboard. She is planning to hang knobs or something, and then she can hang jewelry back there. Plus it was $10 for the board, cheaper than regular backing.

At this point it went back to Kristi's house, where she continued painting by herself. After a couple weeks, it was ready for the hinges to be re-drilled and attached. J was super helpful with this part, and it looks fabulous.

At first we were pretty excited that this was a $15 project for the backboard, calk, and inside catch (to keep the doors closed). My Mom had given Kristi her chalk paint. But Kristi had to buy extra paint and wax, so it drove it up to about $70. Overall, I think we both thought it was a pretty good deal.

Birthday Weekend

I took Thursday and Friday off, and I don't work weekends, so I had a glorious four day weekend for my birthday crammed full of adventures.

My sister Kristi got this armoire for free but it needed to be painted and the back piece needed to be repaired. I didn't have anything planned for Thursday so we worked on that. It's not done yet, so there may be a separate blog post, but I am always surprised at how much longer the projects take than I anticipate.

We took a break to go get some pretzels from the mall and I found this:

Friday I told J's sister Carissa I would take photos of her, so we met up that morning.

Then I had lunch plans with my family. And we didn't take a photo. But my sister Kristi decorated my present with these cool flowers and my favorite reese's peanut butter cups.

One of my gifts was a mermaid tale blanket.

Another present was a new handmade blanket from my Mom since my old one was wearing out. It is Tiny approved.

Friday night I went to dinner with my sister Shanna and her family. I actually remembered to get a photo with my sister.

My sister Danielle has a birthday four days after mine, and not only has she beat cancer, but she turned 30. Kristi found this place called Pinspiration where you make Pinterest-inspired projects and I booked a room.

Kristi brought balloons for Danielle. Her son Jett (held here by Breezy) was really excited and said, "What you got for me?"

There was a group shot but I need to figure out who took it and ask for it.

After the party, Kristi came over to work on the project some more.

Then Abby and I met up for dinner, a make-over, and...

....dancing.

It's funny because I've been out two-stepping a couple times and there are two kinds of guys there. There are guys who know how to two-step and will dance with different girls, and then there are the guys who are there to hit on girls. I have learned from experience that you can't just walk up to a guy and ask if he knows how to two-step, because you end up with the second kind who wants to buy you a drink and won't leave you alone. So to find the first kind, you must watch and see who has the two-stepping skills and then approach.

I texted my sister Breezy since we were near her house and she met up with us. I don't think we took a photo together, which I am bummed about, but we had a lot of fun. Abby was nervous at first and wasn't having any fun, but once we found some guys to dance with, she really enjoyed herself. It was Abby's first time two stepping and she was really good. And Breezy goes all the time so she knew the drill. She told us the secret is that you have to wear cowboy boots otherwise guys think you don't know what you're doing. So Abby and I need to go shoe shopping.

After Breezy left, Abby and I did get hit on. It was funny, because the guy who had cornered me was asking a bunch of questions about where I worked and lived, and I was trying to work in the fact that I had a husband but it was awkward. He asked how old I was and I told him 32. He said no I wasn't. I said yes I am. He told me to guess how old he is. I didn't have a clue, I'm bad at that game. He was 22. He then proceeded to ask what we were doing the following day. I told him we would probably be hanging out with our husbands. I went home and told J it was a nice compliment. 

J had a Wordpress Conference that he was at Friday and Saturday, which is why he's missing from the activities. Sunday he asked if I wanted to go with him. I was missing him at that point so I said sure. We ended up going out to lunch with a group of people, to include a cool girl from Austin that we had met at Spain last year during the Wordpress Conference there. After lunch and the conference, we went to my parents' house for the traditional Sunday night dinner.

It was a good birthday weekend, but I should have scheduled myself some time to just relax and do nothing.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

J, I love you because...

...you dance with me. Slow dances. Fast silly dances with a lot of hip shaking. I love that you aren't afraid to be silly with me.

...you take care of me. You ask if I need anything. You make sure I have water when I'm camped out watching TV. You make delicious dinners. You make me cookie dough even though you grumble about it.

...you can tell when something is important to me. Even if it's something you were against at first, you would support it if I had my heart set.

...you don't get mad when I'm grumpy. You laugh at me, which helps shake me from my mood. You shake your head and you make that face that tells me I am amusing you.

...you love the little fur children and worry about them like I do.

...you are such a hard worker. I am proud of how you taught yourself to code and how to build websites. How you continue to learn and don't give up.

...you ask me out on dates.

...you tell me you appreciate me.

...you don't judge me. I can tell you anything. I can tell you the deepest darkest secret and you always make me feel like you understand.

...you can read my mind. Or rather, my face. I love when you ask me a question and only have to look at my face and already have the answer.

...you laugh at my stupid Nacho Libre joke. Every time.

...when you hurt my feelings you apologize sincerely. You don't try to argue with me, you don't tell me I'm wrong, and you don't invalidate my feelings.

...you are easy to live with. You are very considerate and respect me. When I want something cleaned, you help. When I want to do a house project, you help.

...when I take you to parties where you don't know anyone you go and make friends.

...when we pick up Talon you talk to him about games and Pokemon.

...you are respectful and check with me before doing things like rearranging the office even though the office is your domain.

...when I jokingly asked for a bedtime story you made up the best story about frogs on the spot. And have continued to make up awesome frog stories.

...that one time when I just smiled at you, and you said, "You did something nice and I need to appreciate you." And you were exactly right and could tell that from my FACE.

...you make my heart happy.

I can't believe I have loved you for over a decade. Happy ten year anniversary my Heart.

Gallery Wall and Other Art

I have been wanting to do a "galley wall" and just do more to decorate my walls for awhile now. My sister Kristi, who should be an interior designer, graciously offered to help.

Here is one wall's "before."

I had purchased two signs at a discount, knowing I wanted to do something different with them and just use the boards instead of starting from scratch.

The first one:

We turned this sign into a hook for the dog leashes. Kristi came up with the fabulous idea of putting each dog's paw print for the respective leash.

Joseph helped, against his will.

We found, through trial and error, and it is better to brush the paint onto the dog's foot. You can see for the two paw prints for Tiny which one we pushed her paw into the paint and which one was painted on (we painted on Osa's but it's smudged because that dog has hair everywhere). After that piece of the project was complete, I needed to secure the hooks.

I used screws with bolts so I could secure them tightly and not have them move around.

We ended up removing the harnesses since it looked cluttered, but I'm happy with the end result.

The second sign:

I asked Kristi what we should do about this board. I was worried it was too long. She painted it.

Kristi is a perfectionist. I always find it amusing. I took this photo and was typing a Snapchat and Kristi said, "Are you writing, 'Painting freehand is stressing this perfectionist out?'" It was super creepy because that was exactly right.

Look at that glint in her eye. She's reading your mind right now.

I had to remove and re-add the hardware so that it hung vertically instead of horizontally. I originally wanted it on the gallery wall but I loved where Kristi put it even more.

For the final piece, I unscrewed the wall art from the  back:

I didn't think we could hang it on my gallery wall because that wall is white. Kristi came up with another fabulous idea of adding ribbon to the edges.

And we hung it next to my sea painting, which is on a grey wall.

The "leftover" pieces really came in handy. I'm using the back piece to clothespin coupons and such in the office (I had the tiny clothespins leftover from that baby shower game where you can't say certain words or you steal the clothespin):

Do you remember my hearts (blog here)? I re-used the attachments holding the wall art onto the mesh:

And after a few different suggestions and tweaks...

My gallery wall is complete.

I couldn't have done it without Kristi! I am really happy with it. I may add a few more framed photos, but I think it looks fine how it is too.