Thanksgiving

I hope all of you had a great Turkey Day! We actually had Thanksgiving times two - first on Thanksgiving with Paul's family and then on Friday at our house with my side of the family.

Since we knew everyone was coming over, we decided we had to finish painting our dining room/front living room last weekend. We had painted half so we could do the At West End photoshoot this summer, but we never got around to finishing the space. Here's the baby blue that it was before.

So, after a little rearranging, the painting was done. We picked up a couple of tools at Sherwin Williams that made painting these walls go by so much faster. I think we finished the whole thing in an hour.

Before

After

Here's the front view. I had envisioned doing stripes on this wall behind the piano and have the paint to do it, but chickened out at the last minute. I think we're still going to do it, but I was too tired to think about doing it then!

 We've also had to undertake some major operations on our yard. There are leaves everywhere! Luckily we have this vacuum system that sucks up leaves, mulches them and puts them right in the trash can. I feel like I've gotten very personal with this thing lately!

We're making progress on our bedroom. I scored new lamps for us from Target for $12 each a few weeks ago that I really like and thanks to MyPoints, we got a new quilt for next to nothing with a gift card I cashed my points out for. Next up, painting the walls. We've got the paint and will probably do this over Christmas break.

 We had Thanksgiving at our house Friday and there was so much food!

I love seeing our house full of people.

We even got a little play time outside. Brody loved a little ball that our nephews found in the yard the other day when they were over.

By the end of the night, we were pretty pooped. Even the cat had a long day. 

Projects: Mid-Century Dresser Touch Up

I live for moments when I can walk into a thrift store and see something so perfect that needs to come home with me. This dresser is one of those things. 

Paul wasn't so sure. We walked away from it. Looped back. I pulled the drawers in and out. I looked some more. "If it makes you happy, for $50, just get it," he said. Next thing you know, we're stuffing it in the car.

 To be fair, it'd seen better days.

But, armed with a stain pen and Old English, this dresser looked like new. For one, the wood had faded a good bit and really just needed some moisture. Below, I had put Old English on the top drawer, but not the bottom. It's subtle in photos, but it made all the difference.

Here she looks after twenty minutes of elbow grease. So pretty.

This weekend I finally went through my clothes in my old dresser and sorted things into the new piece - added bonus, these drawers are actually larger and more solid than the old one.

Here's to the next project!

Projects: Refresh Floor Registers

Even before we moved it, the floor registers in our house were a sore subject. After measuring them, we also realized all of them were a real weird size if we wanted to replace them. One of our friends said, "Why don't you just spray paint them?" If it were a snake, it would have bitten us. Why didn't we think of that?

So, armed with some bronze Rustoleum, we set out to tackle some floor registers in our back living room.

First, Paul dusted them off with a hand broom and then sanded them down with a block of sand paper.

Then, over to my station to be spray painted.

After a little drying time, they were back in place and oh-so-much better looking. One of the easiest changes that really makes a room seem that much more polished!

On to the next project!

How is it November?

Woof! These past few weeks have been so packed with so many wonderful things. I have so many house projects to tell you about, but I'll keep this about some of the other fun things going on. Most importantly, my sister is married and my best friend is engaged!

 Here's a photo of some of the flowers after I arranged them for Sital's engagement. Her sister, fiancé and I were in cahoots together to make it all work. We had about 10 minutes to set up her whole apartment before they came back for the proposal!

 In the end, it worked out great and even the dogs got to be in on it.

 We are so happy to for them!

It was also the wrap-up weekend for wedding projects. KT wasn't so sure about the yarn not being for her!

Sital came over and we worked on this chalkboard art for MG. It turned out great!

Here's mom working on fishing lure boutineers.

I still can't believe it's already happened. So excited for them!

All the siblings all together.