Before and After...{finally}

here are some before pictures of the table, chairs and bench...

(table without a leaf; it came with two additional leaves)

the chairs: the colored ones (4 total) were out on the side of the road of a neighbor's house, so they were free and the black metal ones (3 total) came from DI, $3 each.

these are the cushions before they were recovered...the turquoise stripe was a "first edition" of the seats...didn't like it, so went with some vinyl...

:DURING:

the chairs and table got spray primed with rustoleum gray primer...i spray primed the bench white (no pic) with kilz spray primer....i think spraying the primer on made that process go faster.


my painting helpers!

the table and bench were painted by hand. i wasn't confident enough in my spray painting skills to spray the table and i already had the paint for the bench from a previous project so that had to be brushed on. i used foam brushes to paint it on and for the black for the table i used Behr premixed gloss black paint. i ran out of painting by hand mojo and sprayed the chairs...it worked okay but then i had to go back and touch up a bit. i used minwax polycrylic in gloss to seal everything.

:and now the AFTER:

i am really pleased with how they turned out...we used them yesterday for the first time at avery/daddy's family birthday party and everyone could sit together at the table, it was great! yahoo! glad that project is done! (mostly: i have one chair that needs it seat recovered still...i ran out of vinyl on the last one!)

linking:

notes to self...

*post recipes for: mini cheesecakes and coconut cream pie

*post AFTER pictures of table/chairs! YES THEY ARE DONE!

*go to bed, it's 1:57am !!!!!!!!!!!!

happy birthday little lady!

today is avery's third birthday! the time has gone super fast! her start as an infant was a little rough...she was very grumpy for a while...she had reflux and was angry but then once she was close to a year she got super happy and snuggly:) we just love you to pieces little missus! you are a bright shiny light in our house! your passion and sense of fun are infectious and we love that you love babies and blake, and daddy and playing outside and making maps and art and anything you can draw with a pencil (it all looks like squiggles right now but that will change one day!) she got a little play kitchen...i think they love it! i also got her something to contain her "work." she always tells me how she's going to work and she is constantly carrying around a pad of paper and a pencil...and then leaving them all over the house in random places so i thought this might help to contain our "work" and to give her an "official"-ness to her work:)

daddy had a birthday!

kendall turned the big 2-9 on saturday! he celebrated by taking the two elder children on a church campout on friday and getting back around 2:30pm on saturday! what a brave guy:) little man and i stayed home, this was always the plan...baby in a tent? what about the crying and all the other tents? then what do i lean up against when i have to nurse the baby in the middle of the night cause we don't do nursing laying down...then what if we wake up the other kids in the tiny tent on the two blow up mattresses? needless to say i got a headache thinking of it not to mention blake in the car trying to get 2.5 hours away and home again in a day and half time period...so we stayed home...and we both were sick so it worked:)

happy birthday to kendall! he's a great guy, a great dad and he loves pie! i asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he said,"who says i have to have cake?" yep, a pie man through and through. coconut cream being the fav. this one was store bought...i'll be making one for the family birthday party which is next sunday; a combined party for kendall and the little lady. her birthday is this thursday...we are in that season!

happy boy after camping

dirty dirty feet kids!

on a health update:

we paid three doc. office co pays today:

blake: ear infection, nasty cough, fever, yuck!

avery: virus, but is running a fever and says her throat hurts. doc says virus for now...wait for it to turn into something if it is going to...awesome.

me: sinus infection (with a sore throat that kills, a cough that is ragged and if i sneeze i may die) (again! jackie i feel your pain!) and the doctor sent my antibiotics to who knows where...not where i told her and there's no after hours number to reach a doc...so cool!

ethan: says his throat hurts but mom thinks it was a ploy to get gatorade!

kendall: nothing yet...

again??????

how i get tired of typing it...but i am sick again! yuck! and blake has got something as well...lame. i need to finish my chairs and if i'm hacking up a lung and feel like i have knives in my throat...that's not going to happen in the over 100 degree weather!

yuck-o

peek...

update in pictures...

what we've been up to lately...minus the painting pictures (because those deserve their own post:))

we made cookies using our letter cookie cutters and i find it oddly satisfying to spell things with dough...

this picture was taken this past week...she is wearing long pjs and a JACKET! it's got to be over 90 in this picture...i couldn't get her to take the jacket off...but she did come in pretty soon after...

cute little man, feeding himself...my how the time flies..he's 9 months old now!

kendall revived the age old tradition of building chair/blanket tents with the kids this week. they loved it. avery is tickling ethan's toes in this picture.

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on a separate note:

i {heart} craigslist!

i do. i stalk craigslist when i need something...that is not a surprise (i got both the table and bench from CL) but we just had our first successful selling something on craigslist experience. the table and chairs that i am replacing needed a new home so i listed it today thinking if i got an email or two in the next week that would be great...about an hour after i listed it i got an email and about 3.5 hours after i listed it, it was gone! amazing...what else can i sell????

Dear Monsoon...

okay, let's just be up front and say...i LOVE you. love the rain. i do. i {heart} rain. i'm from washington state people. i like the way it smells, i like the clouds that accompany it. i like how a rain-washed world feels after the fact. i even like getting to use my windshield wipers. but, mr. monsoon, when you come on down with your big bad self and rain on my TABLE, BENCH and CHAIRS...then i have a problem with you. seriously. lay off a minute so i can get the darn things done and inside. kay? then we can continue our love relationship instead of our love/hate we got going on right now...okay? kisses...

love,
the woman with paint all over herself

(i actually had someone ask me last night at cub scouts..."sister w**, what are you painting?" just from seeing the back of my arm. apparently i've been not only painting the furniture, but my arm as well!)