State of the Knobs, Mirror, & Hinges

Remember last year when I knocked off some Anthropologie knobs from some plain ones I found at ReStore?

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Well, I’m happy to inform you that they’re still looking fantastic. 
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The two on the left are the ones that are used the most as they are on the cabinet that holds the laundry paraphernalia.  There is nary a scratch or place of wear and tear to be seen.  The point?  Spray painting/painting metal knobs to create your own knobs of art works and works well not to mention is p to the erfect for those who can’t afford to spend $14 a knob!

Here are a few I’m crushing on that are great inspiration for some DIY knobs:
anthroknobs
[from Anthropologie > 1  |  2  |  3  |  4  ]

pbknobs
[from Pottery Barn > 1  |  2  |  3  ]

Also in the laundry room, you might recall this mirror that I found for a few bucks at Dirt Cheap (though it’s original home was Target) and adorned with toothpicks stuck on with regular old craft glue.  It’s also doing great.  No broken or missing toothpicks. 
toothpickedmirror

Not sharing the same happy fate as the mirror and knobs are the laundry room cabinet hinges I spray painted shortly after we moved in.
afterlight (3) 
The paint has worn off where the hinge swivels and metal meets metal.  Probably could’ve guessed that one before I painted them but c’est la vie.  In the grand scheme I have grand plans to move those cabinets around a little and maybe add some decorative trim so if we ever get that far, the best solution will probably be to just replace the hinges with new nickel ones.  Nickel spray paint is basically a sparkling silver anyway…not really what nickel looks like.


Stay tuned for more updates on how our projects are holding up!  They’re all a part of a ‘State of the…’ series that I started back with this post on the painted rug in the kitchen and all to let you in on how projects around here really stand the test of time.  :)

Vacay

Hello from sunny Myrtle Beach!  We are basking in the sun and snug and secure in relaxation station, not moving from our spot until the weeks end.  See here:
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We’re here with Anthony’s entire family and loving it.  We’ll be sure to keep Instagram stocked with glimpses into the fun until we meet and cross the overgram line so check there if you want to live vicariously through us; we don’t mind.  Don’t mind at all.  :)

So, while the blogger’s away, the readers will play.  Does that make sense?  No?  Okay then, well maybe these will:

Our trip here was an 11 hour one.  Read:  a tortuous long one when you are traveling with wee kids.  So, getting them to sleep as much as we could while we plugged away at the miles was optimum.  Great except that sleeping in the car for the girls meant hanging heads meant sore necks meant no sleeping so I did a bunch of research on neck pillows before we left and we settled on these Summer Infant Cradlers.   They were awesome and have our stamp of approval.  We recommend them for any fam bams traveling the weary roads with sleeping babies.  (Link is an affiliate link which means that if you decided to purchase via the link, we’ll get a few cents.  This is not a ad and we paid for the pillows with our own cash money.)
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I was browsing swimsuits on J. Crew dot com last week and the detail-oriented-ness in me caught a discrepancy in the ‘thigh gap’ of these two models…only I’m 99% positive that it’s actually the same model whose gap has been subject to a little digital altering.
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[photo from jcrew.com]
The question I have to ask all these companies getting caught up in photoshopping perfectly normal bodies is “why”?  Seriously.  Epecially you J. Crew.  Your clothes hold a high level of esteem in the quality department and your pictures should too.


My sister introduced me to Oana Befort and the free calendar wallpaper she generously supplies every month to those looking for form and function via their mobile/computer device.  Get one for yourself and have the prettiest list of days at the click of a button.


Have an old, plain basket or two?  Freshen them up in a few minutes with a little bit of ribbon just like Deme did.  You can never ever ever ever go wrong with baskets for storage plus stripes.  Never.
ribbon book basket 028


Do you have a George Foreman grill?  If not, skip ahead.  If you do then you know how amazing they are when it comes to grilling up something quick and easy-like but how much of a real pain in the arse they are to clean afterwards.  It almost takes all the quick and easy out of the whole process.  Well, it’ll be news to your ears then that Kelly and David figured out how to clean these things without the sure-to-follow frustration.

.           .           .

And that’s all I’ve got this week.  I’ll be back next week, all nice and tan with those sporadic white spots all over my extremities from holding babies covered in 3854 spf.  You ‘rents know the ones.  :)

No Slip, No Slide

Let’s talk about new-parentisms.  You know the ones.  You have your first baby (or babies) and high-alert kicks in.  You use baby detergent and only baby detergent on anything baby touches/wears/smells/spits up on.  You check and recheck car seat installation and then you don’t even leave the house anyway because you never know what might happen if you do…bad things.  You don’t let anybody come within a five foot radius of the kid because germs are now your worst enemy.  A request to hold the kid?  Your worst death stare is doled out.  You cry along with baby when baby gets shots.  You get a security system on your house in your safe neighborhood or you up the ante on the one you already have.  Clothing baby with new clothes that haven’t yet hit the washer?  Ha!  Get real.  That’s right.  You know exactly what I’m talking about.  One of the weird isms we had to take care of before the twins were born was the comfort factor of our living room rug.  It was a low-pile rug which also translates to pretty hard and more for aesthetic purposes than cloud-like comfort for footsies.  Definitely not cushy enough to lay our soon-to-be bundles of joy on it.  So, the hunt for a rug pad was on.  It needed to be fairly cheap and add a little padding.  Cutting to the chase, we ended up finding a good enough one on super clearance at Kohl’s.  On clearance meaning we paid $30 for it.  afterlight (1)[In case you needed a visual.]
It was one of those cut-to-size ones that I ended up having to trim a few inches off.  Under the rug it went and lay baby after baby we did.  End of story. 

But not really.  A few weeks ago, Rug Pad USA asked me if I’d want to try out one of their rug pads in return for writing a review on it.  Funny timing too because my mom was here the week before and was constantly telling me how I really should do something/get something to make our kitchen rug stay in place.  The girls are constantly beating it with their wheeled toys and other toddler paraphernalia and it usually just ends up all bunched up by the baby gate.  So, naturally, I asked Rug Pad USA if they’d send me one for that rug.  They happily took the measurements (because you can get whatever size you want!) and I had the pad under the rug in a week.
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They sent me their Premium-Lock pad and it is awesome.  Seriously.  I didn’t even know rug pads like this existed!  Our other rug pad is screaming in jealousy and I’m screaming at our old rug pad for not telling me there were better to be had.
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Not that I really minded the flat-woven texture and zero cush of the kitchen rug in the first place, but adding this rug pad made having a rug over tile so much more gratifying.  It’s so comfortable that I’m guilty of picking the rug up and moving it the few inches closer to the sink when I do dishes because it gives rest to the weary feet.  With that in mind, did you see Mandi’s (from Vintage Revivals) latest DIY, no sew floor cloth?  Freaking amazing!  It’d be a perfect idea to pair with a Rug Pad USA rug pad anywhere in your house, especially that pleasant sink area where dishes pile up.  Get rid of those ugly rubber floor mats and whip up your own rug comfortized (so not a word) with one of these rug pads!  You can have form and function and THAT is a beautiful thing!  :)IMG_4619
Coming full circle though, I didn’t even think about laying Sebastian down on our kitchen rug whilst I did my domestic duties, but with our new pad, now he’s down there at least once a day.IMG_4656
And the girls?  Well, they’re still movin’ but our rug ain’t movin’ with them anymore.
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A few other things we love about this rug pad (and btw, Rug Pad USA didn’t ask me to say any of these):
-It has a rubber backing so if I ever decided to move our kitchen rug to a carpeted area, all we have to do is flip the pad over so that the rubber side is touching the bottom of the rug and bada-bing.  No bunching on carpet.
-It’s made from 100% recycled products.  We’re big fans of conservation and recycling/repurposing so the fact that Rug Pad USA is lessening the fill in our landfills is A-o-k with us!
-You can get whatever size rug pad you want!  Have an odd-sized rug like ours?  Our kitchen rug is 71 x 32 inches and Rug Pad USA cut the pad to fit perfectly.
-Going along with the previous point, you don’t have to worry about buying a rug pad and messing up trimming it to fit.  Give them your measurements then buy it, get it, lay it.  That’s it.
-They cut pads for any shape rug – round, rectangle, oval, runners, and square!  My dream rug for our living room usually is a round one in my head and there is no way I would attempt cutting a round rug pad for it myself.  Enter Rug Pads USA and I don’t have to.
-And random but, it doesn’t smell like chemicals.  I remember taking the rug pad we purchased at Kohl’s out of its package and how it had a strong, chemically smell to it.  I pulled this one out of it’s packaging and it smelled like oatmeal.  No joke.

All in all, I really love the rug pad.  I have nothing bad to say about it.  Head over to Rug Pad USA and check out the different kinds of pads they have.  There are pads for every budget and rug in any size and shape you want.  P.S.  Rug Pads USA is offering a 15% discount to all of our awesome readers whose rugs are in the market for a life partner.  Just use code pr15off at checkout!

When Rug Pad USA contacted me about the review, they said it best when they said “it’s not the most glamorous thing to write about” but let me tell you, my feet think otherwise…and our babies bottoms, backs, bellies, etc…
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Have a great week!

My How They’ve Grown

The girls turned two this past Wednesday and it’s caused a lot of happiness, anxiety, sadness, and confusion to swirl around inside.  We’re not sure where the past two years went even though sometimes it seems like they’ve been the longest of our lives.  I guess that’s where the confusion comes in.  Anyway, there’ll be a whole ‘nother post unpacking all those emotions and some birthday fun but for now I thought it’d be fun to take a little jog down Memory Ave. with a month-by-month pictorial.  I was going to put together the sweetest little slideshow but I’ve currently got a whining babe on my lap, drool all over my leg, and one hand to work with so, yeah, no slideshow.  So, through the (two) years we go: 

Birthday
1 day

One Week
1 wk

Two Weeks
2 wk

Three Weeks
3 wk


One Month
4 wk


Two Months
2 mo

Three Months
3 mo

Four Months
4 mo

Five Months
5 mo fr


Six Months
6 mo


Seven Months
7 mo


Eight Months
8 mo


Nine Months
9 mo


Ten Months
10 mo


Eleven Months
11 mo


One Year Old
12 mo


Thirteen Months
13 mo


Fourteen Months
14 mo


Fifteen Months
15 mo


Sixteen Months
16 mo


Seventeen Months
17 mo


Eighteen Months
18 mo


Nineteen Months
19 mo


Twenty Months
20 mo


Twenty-One Months
21 mo


Twenty-Two Months
22 mo


Twenty-Three Months
23 mo

Two Years Old
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Anyway,
I’m off to cry buckets over the fact that they’re two and off to college soon and rejoice in the fact that we’re over the spoon and breastfeeding, mid and late-night wake up calls, immobility, and zero communication.