Color swatches

I'm a huge fan of Benjamin Moore's colors, so naturally I have all their fan decks.  Recently, I have moved up into an elite fan deck user.  I now have two humungous color swatch filled cases.

These large color swatches are amazing and I can't help but feel special when I get to whip them out in public.  It makes me feel official or something.

My favorite part, beyond the size, is that each color is removable.  I can take one from the deck to lay on fabric or look at in different lighting and then put it back.

Now to find somewhere to store them all….

Faux Bamboo Dresser

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  The weather here in Arizona has been AMAZING and called for lots of yard work.  It was much needed, except now I'm sporting a serious farmer's tan :(

My last project was for a designer here locally.  She went back and forth trying to decide if she should go bold with the color of this dresser meant for her entryway, or stick with classic and timeless.  Classic and timeless won out and and this dresser is just that.

Before…

After...

The color is Benjamin Moore's White Dove.

NBC Funky Junk Series and Benjamin Moore blog

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity of working with NBC on a 4 day morning series.  Attached is the interview from Day 4, below that are the links for the others.

{If you're viewing through an RSS feed, you may need to click thru to view the video}



NBC Series Day 1
NBC Series Day 2
NBC Series Day 3
NBC Series Day 4

Also, if you haven't read Benjamin Moore's blog Color Chats they've put up a great post on personal paint decks featuring the one I made here.

Modern stools

Before we moved into this house 2 years ago, I was torn between decorating styles.  Do I decorate traditionally or more modern?  I asked myself that time after time as we were picking out fixtures, flooring, cabinets, etc.  I went with the traditional route…until we moved in, and then I decided modern was more me.  At that point, it was too late to change anything existing, so we're stuck with half and half.

Our barstools are very traditional and I often find myself drooling over what I wish I would've picked.  Crate and Barrel has so many great styles to choose from right now.

Turner barstool

Vienna barstool

Felix barstool

Channel side chair

Lyle side chair

Afternoon delights

Today was such a beautiful day that the two little girls and I lounged out front with a bag of Cheetos  (our favorite) to wait for the big kids to get home from school.

I love lazy afternoons.  Especially the sunny ones. :)

Schedule funk

One of the hardest parts of "my job" right now is getting out to the garage to work.  My schedule (I say that loosely) depends on the weather.  During the summer I wake up before dawn to get my sanding and paiting done before our day gets started and when the garage is at its coolest.  Then as the weather turns cooler, I wait and go out during Charlotte's nap time (which, lucky for me, happens to still be a solid THREE hours) or after school so the kids can ride their bikes.

The down side to this schedule is that it means I get up and get dressed to run errands, clean the house and take care of appointments before lunch.  By the time nap time rolls around, my make up is usually on, I'm dressed in non-paint clothes and I can think of a dozen reasons why I don't want to head out and get dirty.

I fight with this every single day.  To go out to the garage, or not to go out to the garage….  Too often the later wins because I put it off and put it off and then it's dinner time.  Oh darn, it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Today I did happen to make it outside (kudos to me) but that means I've changed my clothes a total of four times.

It went like this:  got up, got dressed, lunches packed, #1 and #2 children off to school.  A quick straighten of the house, fold laundry, #3 child dressed and to preschool.  Back home, make-up on, hair uh…together, #4 child dressed, run a few errands just in time to get back to pick #3 up from preschool.  Lunch time, followed by a quick kitchen straighten, #4 child down for a nap, pull hair up, put on grubbies, head outside with #3 child to sand.  A couple hours later, I'm sufficiently dusty and it's time to pick up #1 and #2 children from school.  A snack, homework and another quick straighten of the kitchen.  Send the kids to the backyard so I can shower and get dressed…again.  It's too early to put my pjs on (darn), so I throw my everyday clothes back on with wet hair.  On to dinner, the last kitchen cleaning and the bedtime routine.  A quick change to my jammies and now I'm snuggled up with my laptop in bed to return emails, edit photos and write this blog post.

After reading this you're probably thinking what I've been thinking all day: I need a new schedule.  One that's more efficient and doesn't involve so many clothing changes.  I've debated back and forth as to how to best accomplish this.  Do I assign Monday, Wednesday and Friday to painting and such and Tuesday and Thursday to appointments and errands?  Three days I'd plan to spend all day in my grubbies and two days to get up and get dressed to run errands and head to appointments?  Or do I stick with what I've been doing and try to get out a little everyday and change my clothes too many times?  Or better yet, just embrace the fact that what I do means that I'll just be ghetto most days?

A darling french dresser

When my client first dropped off this dresser, I thought it looked just like the many other vintage, french dressers I've painted over the last year.  But as I sanded it down, smoothed out the imperfections and put the primer on, all the great details in the drawers came to life and I realized what a darling piece it really is!

When any furniture with drawers is dropped off, the main piece and the drawers are usually unloaded and carried into my garage separately.  I frequently find that I'm too lazy to put the drawers back in to take the before photo, just to have to take them back out to work on them.  I generally use the original photos that were send for the initial quote.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize the before photos of this one were from a craigslist posting and have since expired.  So, no ugly before shots this time.

The color is Benjamin Moore's Deep Silver in a satin finish and the original vintage hardware was sprayed a contrasting white.

Sad news...

I took this photo for the IT'S A GIRL post, instead it's going in the SAD NEWS post….

Last week we found out that our little girl had fluid building up around her lungs, so Zac and I met with a specialist bright and early Monday morning for a more extensive ultrasound.  We had no idea what we were in for.  When they told us a week earlier that the pleural effusion could be indicative of more serious issues, the thought of my baby not making it into this world was not one I had considered.  

Once you make it past the first trimester, things are supposed to be fine, right?  

The doctor started off the ultrasound with lots of positives.  Her heart looks great, her measurements are good.  Stomach…check.  Liver…check.

Then on to the other details... She has a club foot.  It was obvious from the ultrasound, we could easily see her foot didn't look right.  Then on to the next one.  That one is club too.

What does this mean?  Will she walk?  Will she have braces?  At that point, I thought that was it.  That was the bad news.  We can deal with physical therapy.  We can deal with physical handicaps.  But oh how sad I was for my little girl!  

Then they moved onto her little arms.  They weren't right, I could see that right away.  Now they were talking more severely.  "Her legs haven't moved in the last hour we've been watching her.  Neither have her arms beyond very small movements in one." 

Zac and I looking over at the doctor, not understanding what all this meant, were still thinking "special needs".  

Then the terms "severe hydrops"…"she has a syndrome"

Like Down's syndrome, you mean?

"No, Down's syndrome has a life expectancy.  What you're looking at is most likely Trisomy 18 (Edward's syndrome).  The mortality rate is 12 months in only 10 percent of babies, but with such extensive hydrops in combination with the Trisomy 18 and so early on..."  

Wait…you're telling us that our baby isn't going to live?

With a very soft, sad smile the doctor confirmed our fear.

Once all this set in, I kept thinking back to the thirty minutes before.  Oh how I wished I could be back where I was mourning the thought of our little girl having severe handicaps.  How terrible I was to be upset then.

The doctor's first question after all the information was laid out was to ask if we wanted to abort.  For our situation that didn't feel right.  I shook my head, no.

How long do we have?  "It could be next week or you could carry her full term.  We'll have more information next week after we watch her to see how quickly her hydrops is progressing."

So much to digest, so many tears.

Over the last two and a half days, I feel such comfort knowing that my little girl will move on to a better place; that she is too special for this earth.  I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to give her a little body and realize that so many don't have this special privilege. 

Tutorial: DIY Maternity Jeans

I'm not a fan of maternity jeans - I'm too cheap to buy jeans that can only be worn for a few months.  I usually try to get away with the rubber band around the button trick and a belly band.  With this being baby number five, my spare tire has gotten out of control a little sooner than I'd like and between that and my baby belly I've been stopping to pull up my ill-fitting pants constantly.

Finally, after reaching my "waste-band digging into my belly" limit, I sat down on the internet to order a pair of maternity jeans.  Boy are they expensive…the cute ones, anyway.  Plus, who knows if they're going to fit.  Ordering jeans online is quite a risk. 

This is where the DIY maternity jeans idea was born.

Let me start by saying I didn't prewash my fabric, I didn't plan, I didn't research and I didn't use heavy-duty thread, but they turned out great and cost under $30.

Supplies:  $10.50 Forever 21 stretchy skinny jeans

                 $16.99 Belly Band from Target
                 black thread

I started by cutting out the zipper and stitching the fly closed.  (My sewing machine isn't heavy-duty enough to handle sewing over a zipper).

After sewing the fly shut, cut around the front.  I cut lower in front to accommodate the belly.

If it's easier to visualize this way - this is the piece that was removed.

Put right sides together...

…and stitch along the seam of the belly band.

Flip them right-side out and try them on!

I ended up washing them after the fact and they did fine.  The combination of the stretch in the jeans and the lack of zipper make these feel like sweats.  I've now worn them three days in a row.   Shhh…don't tell.

This morning...

I headed over to the Channel 12 studio in Phoenix for the final taping of a news series airing a few days next week. 

It was quite exciting to be out…on my own…as a business woman.

But I have to admit, my mom mind kept wandering to the fact that I needed to get home, get the girls and get to Costco before Charlotte's nap time because the laundry has been piling up and I'm out of detergent!

One day, I'll figure out how to be comfortable with this other, newish side of my life that I love so much.

Salsa desk!

I guess it's about time I share a finished piece with you.  I know...it's been a looong time.  The other good news is that it's available in the shop. :)

Jilly from the blog Girls with Good Taste was looking to sell this beautiful, antique desk.  She sent me a picture and it took me all of five seconds to respond with an enthusiastic YES!  She even dropped it off at my house.  How's that for first-rate service?

The color is BM Salsa (from this post).  The white balance on my camera was having serious issues capturing this intense color correctly and it reads differently depending on the angle of my computer screen.  I'm hoping it's reading right on yours.

Of course I opted for a high gloss finish. :)

Don't you love the antique hardware?  I think this style is referred as batwing.

This last photo seems to be most indicative of the true color.  A deep, pinky, orangey, coral color.  How's that for technical.

Pricing and dimensions available in the shop.  Shipping is available within the US.