Kate's Birthday

We celebrated Kate's 9th birthday last week, as Chris was saying, she is 1/2 way to graduating from high school! How did she grow up so fast?

home-made "red velvet" cupcakes - with strawberry cream cheese icing

pink lemonade

the little "goody bags" for her friends - a bow, some lotion and M&Ms

azaleas from our yard

fun with friends

If you watch the video you'll see our little dog Molly, she really wants a cupcake too!

Bluebonnets

Love Sunday drives with my family and Texas in the spring-time!

Furniture makeovers

Here is what my desk looked like a couple of years ago when I persuaded my husband to help me bring it home - one of our neighbors had it out by the curbside.  I liked the style and size, and that it had some storage.  It did have some damage - I had to use wood glue to repair the drawers some, and there was some veneer chipped off - to solve this I used a stain pen to cover these imperfections.

In this post when I mentioned I was going to paint the desk white and leave the top wood stain.

So here is how the desk looked up until yesterday:

Then yesterday I found a great table on my local online yard sale website for $15 - it folds down on the sides if I ever wanted to use it as a 'side' table or in another room.

I was not a fan of the light wood color / stain and the top was not in great condition so a quick clean and then fast forward to semi gloss white paint.  While I was painting the table, I thought why not just paint the desk too (I taped off around the top edge to preserve the wood stained top).

Here are some 'in progress' pictures:

And the after pictures,

desk:

(I also lightly brushed some paint on the hardware so it would look like it matched even though it is all 'mix-matched'.)

And the table (with my Goodwill chairs I made-over a couple of weeks ago)

I love the look of this white furniture against the dark hardwood floors.

And best of all;

the desk = free

the chairs = $5.99 each

the table $15

Linking to Transformation Thursday at Shabby Chic Cottage

and Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Another gray room, and a chalkboard wall

My next spring break project was painting Thomas' room. It was also a beige color before. There are some pictures of his room here from when I painted his bed.

Sorry these pictures below are not very good, I had to use the flash - it is a gray day outside and there is only one window in his room.

The color is Benjamin Moore "Stonington Gray" - but I had it mixed in the Ace Hardware brand - because I did not want to spend $44 on a gallon of paint!

The bookshelf I also painted the wall color - have to add his books and toys back in to his room today - it is still plain at the moment.

The chalkboard I was not at all precise about - I just taped up a space the size I wanted, painted first with primer, and then followed by 2 coats of the chalkboard paint.  Then last night I rubbed on the chalk and wiped it off with the duster. 

If you want a great tutorial for doing chalkboard walls - make sure to visit Janell at Isabella and Max Rooms - she is a professional at this - she is redecorating her son's room and has a giant chalkboard stripe around the room - it looks amazing I just do not have the skill or patience to replicate that.

I only have this one 'progress' shot of the chalkboard wall - just with the coat of primer.  When I took the tape off when the black paint was dry, then I taped again to fill in the frame with the wall color (this picture below is the old wall color).

The lines are not perfect, at some point I may add molding to frame it out.

White paint - day one of painting spring break

I am off work this week - spring break for me and the kids. Saturday the painting began - Kate's room got a fresh coat of white paint (antique white from Lowes). Before it was a beige color - see before pictures here.

More painting to come this week - Thomas' room, maybe the hallway and the kids' bathroom too.

Springtime and rodeo

Last weekend was a busy one starting with "cowboy day" for Thomas at school.
Saturday morning I had a CPR class, then softball game with Kate, then she came to spring carnival at my school.

Sunday was a day of fun at the Houston livestock show and rodeo.  This is the first time the kids have been to the rodeo and a concert - and this was Kate's choice - Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers.

These first pictures make it look like we were the only ones out there that day, but it was very crowded, 70 something thousand at that concert.  I left with my ears ringing - not so much from the loud music, but from little "tween" girls SCREAMING.  But, Kate did have a great time.  Chris ended up taking Thomas out, it was too loud for him.  Kate is an animal lover and was not too happy about the calf roping and some of the "rodeo" part of it.  We all got a laugh out of the "mutton bustin'" - 5 and 6 year old kids come out riding a sheep.

 

All rodeo-ed out!

And if you want to see "mutton bustin'" for yourself, check out THIS link