That’s a Wrap

Today I just want you to tap into your memory store and think back to the year 2016…back to the post in which I introduced this new and improved dresser:

You can get all the details on its new paint job if you click here but if you want to go inside, keep reading.  I decided that adding some glam in the form of a gold dip wasn’t enough so I took it one step further and lined all of the drawers with some gold dotted wrapping paper by Sugar Paper that I found at Target for $6.  (PS, I found it in the Christmas section but I’m hoping it wasn’t just part of a Christmas collection so that anyone who wants to follow suit can go grab some!)


I’ll tell you all about it, the good and the bad, but first, let me tell you how hard Sugar Paper made this decision for me.  Their papers are gorgeous!   
 
I choose a gold dot because I thought it would appeal to more buyers since I was going to sell the dresser but, if it were my own dresser, I probably would’ve went with the black and gold feathers on the gray backgroud (which, btw, would look amazing in Grace’s dresser) and if I we were keeping the dresser for the girls, I would’ve went with the colorful striped paper on the right.  So fun you guys!  <3

But there will always be more dresser drawers to line I’m sure, so let’s move on to the how on the current ones.

Measuring

Before you line your drawers with whatever paper you’ve got, you’ll have to measure each drawer to figure out how much paper you’ll need.  Stating the obvious, I know.  You can grab the old ruler or tape measure and write down measurements or you can do it the easy way.  :)

The easy way consists of grabbing a few sheets of computer paper, scrap paper, and/or used coloring book paper and laying it all out inside the drawer so that it overlaps, thereby making a template.

Making sure the paper is covering every square inch of the bottom of the drawer, tape it all together along the seams.
If you have any drawers that are the same size, just make sure the template you just made fits inside all of them.  (I made this template inside the top drawer and hooray, it fit inside the next two drawers down too!) Chances are, it will fit just fine.  On the rare occasion that the drawers are a smidge different, just make another template.

So easy, right?

Next, place your template on the wrapping paper, trace, and cut it out.  (Note:  Turn your template upside down and trace it on the underside of the paper so that there are no pencil/marker marks on the top of the paper that might be seen.)
(It helps to place something semi-heavy on top of your template as you trace to keep it from shifting, hence the ink cartridge package.)

Template (if necessary for different-sized drawers), trace, cut and repeat until you have all of the pieces of paper needed.

Papering

As far as adhering the paper to your drawer, there are a few ways to do it.  For a more temporary lining, you can just use double-sided tape at six-or-so inch intervals around the perimeter of the drawer to stick it down.  Then simply pull it up when you want a change.  For a more durable lining, I used some satin modge podge I nabbed on clearance.  Nevermind the sponge brush though.  I took this picture before I started which was also before I realized how much I hate sponge brushes.  Just grab a small paintbrush instead.

Ok, here’s where things got a little dicey for me.  I’m just telling you so you know what NOT to do. 

DON’T brush the modge podge onto the entire bottom of the drawer and then proceed to lay down your template. 

It doesn’t matter how much painstaking effort you exert to lay out the paper so that there are no air bubbles and wrinkles, they will probably come.  Think they’ll disappear once everything dries?  Nope, think again.  And then hold back tears as you rip out and waste a beautiful piece of fairly expensive wrapping paper.

So maybe that’s a little dramatic but I can assure you, the frustration was real.

Now, let’s skip over to the greener grass.  Here’s what you SHOULD DO.

Before you even think about laying the paper into the drawer, grab some clear acrylic or laquer spray and spray the back of each piece of paper.  This will form a nice barrier between the modge podge and paper; the modge podge won’t saturate the paper causing it to get all soggy and wrinkly.
(Random note:  I used this Krylon clear acrylic I had on hand and look how *not*clear it sprayed!  It’s a couple of years old so maybe it yellows over time when kept in the can but I guess I was just glad I wasn’t using it to spray something I wanted a clear coat on!  I didn’t have much left in this can so I also used some clear spray laquer and that was still clear despite being a couple of years old too.  Moral of the story, buy the laquer instead of the acrylic.)

I sprayed all of my pieces of paper one-by-one and then set them out flat to dry.  Once they were all dry, I went back to lining the drawers.

First, I laid the piece of paper in the bottom of the drawer so that it was exactly where it needed it to be.  Then, to hold it in place, I grabbed the kids’ pencil box (because it was the closest thing) and set it on one half of the paper to hold the whole piece in place. 
Next, I folded one half of the paper over so that I could brush modge podge onto one half of the drawer bottom.
And then I slowly folded/rolled the paper back down over the modge podge from the middle to the far edge.  It helped to grab a washcloth and rub it as I went.

See?  No wrinkles!

Once that side was done, I moved the pencil box to the other side and repeated.

I wish I hand one more hand to catch a video of how I did this but with the washcloth, I just rubbed up and down across the paper as I was laying it down.


I let all of the papered drawers dry overnight and the next day, I went in and brushed a thin layer of modge podge over the top of each piece.  I was a little nervous that this would take away the shine of the gold so I held my breath but phew!…once the modge podge dried, the paper looked just like it did pre-modge podge.

I LOVE the added beauty the lined drawers bring to the dresser!
It was definitely worth the extra steps to use this paper.  It’s the perfect compliment to the dresser’s paint job!  If you’re not in the mood to deal with paper to line drawers, check out this post on how to line drawers with fabric!

Also, you might remember that behind the doors on each side of the dresser, there are a couple of shelves that I set storage baskets on.

I made paper templates and cut out wrapping paper to line the shelves with but then I decided against papering them.  I was too afraid that, when sliding in the baskets, the paper at the front edge of the shelf might catch on the basket being slid and rip. 

But then I had those rectangles of paper laying around.  I could’ve saved them to wrap small presents but instead I stuck one inside our to-do list frame…

…and the three others went into the three frames hanging in the living room, specifically because I thought they’d be pretty behind the wreaths I hung on each for Christmas.

Which brings me to a tangent…Christmas decor.  The weeks leading up to Christmas were super busy here so not much seasonal decorating happened here.  :(

The plans I had to make Gianna a stocking never happened.
And thankfully she’s too young to care this year anyway. 

The rest of the decor was quick and simple.

I had a hankering to hang wreaths on the picture frames mentioned above so I grabbed some faux garland from the dollar store, unwrapped it to ruffle it up a little, and then wrapped it back up into a wreath shape.

Then I grabbed some red glittery ribbon I also got at the dollar store and hung those wreaths.
I also used some of the leftover strips of paper to disguise this almost-empty candle as a vase:

I’ve still got a small piece left and I’m thinking I might wrap a book with it.  It’s really hard to toss pretty pieces of leftover paper, ya know?  Haha! 

Anyway, that’s my drawer plus wrapping paper experience.  Have you ever lined anything with wrapping paper or any other paper?  If so, how’d you come out in the wrinkle department?  Maybe it was just me or maybe you had the same problem.  And maybe you’ve never lined any drawers but are now eyeing all the dresser in the house.  I know I am.  ;) 

Happy New Year folks!  I hope it’s been a good one so far!

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Merry Christmas!

Before I begin to pratter - Merry, Merry Christmas to you!!!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas day filled with lots of family/friends, love, and Jesus!

Now then - We found ourselves at M & A Studios a few weeks ago for a family photo, finally, finally using a gift certificate we were generously given in Christmas of 2012.  (I know, our punctuality game is strong with a capital S.)  The certificate was for a studio session and some prints of the product after and, I’ll be honest, I prepared myself for the worst.  When I think of in-studio photography sessions, my mind brings me back to 1990…  …when sponge-painted backgrounds married with my mom’s infatuation with hair spray plus lotsa back-combing were a thing of desire.  I’ll let you guess which electric shock victim was me.  And then let’s all take a moment of silence to thank the Lord that that madness is passed us.

Back to our session though, I was very pleasantly surprised when the photographer worked his magic and kept 1990 in the twentieth century.
As you can tell, I even added a few flakes and glitter here and there and sequentially had our Christmas cards printed and sent out.  So, consider yourself a virtual recipient!  If stamps weren’t killer when it comes to snail mail these days, I’d have sent out a hundred more to you, and you, and you too!

More importantly though…

Happy second day of Christmas!  We are fighting colds and fevers after a wonderful Christmas Day which is all so fun but leaves me wishing for the turtle doves instead.  I hope you are all faring much better and enjoying this wonderful season.

Thanks be to God for sending His Son to save us from ourselves!  The Christ is born!  Hallelujah!   

Gold-Dipped Dresser

Holy moly!  I’m about to type up what was a whole month of work – an hour here, two seconds there, half hour here – in one post.  I’m not sure if it feels like I’m cheating or just not giving this project justice but either way…

Remember this dresser?
Well, that’s how it looked when we first got it.

Set inside the twins’ nursery, I gave it a two-toned look and some new, spray-painted hardware:
And now, I look back on that two-tone decision and I think “what the heck was I thinking?”  The french provencial style of the dresser married to a more modern, two-tone look probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had.  I mean, it didn’t look awful but it definitely wasn’t as pretty as I thought it was at the time.  It’s funny how your perceptions change, isn’t it?

Well anyway, it doesn’t look like that anymore.  I spent the last month turning it into this:
I was inspired by a picture of this gold-dipped dresser I saw on Pinterest (pin’s link is broken) months ago and vowed to dip this one someday and that someday, or should I say somedayS, finally came around.

The Baby Excuse

Oh my sweet readers, I promise I have not been avoiding you!  A three week break was not in the plans!  Haha!  The past three weeks have been abnormally busy over here!  Not that a single one of you noticed…and I don’t blame you because there is life outside of reading blogs!  We’ve been trying to finish half-done projects, clean the house, and keep kids alive and thriving and Anthony has been uber busy wrapping up this semester of grad work.  He finished writing his final paper last night so he’s done for a month and just him being finished with school work (especially with the hours and hours he’s put in this past week) feels akin to getting him home from a month-long trip!  We were laughing this morning about how maybe we could watch a movie tonight because we’ll have nothing to do!  :D  And maybe we can start planning our little kitchen wall removal project or finally get that little wall out of the kids bathroom and tile the floors.  Or maybe we’ll bawk all these big plans we’ve got and then just end up lounging around.  OR, we could finally get our Christmas tree up!  That might be a top priority considering the season.  ;)

Anyway, freedom is marvelous.  Well, semi-freedom.  The one thing that’s been majorly holding me back from blogging during the past three weeks is this little something:Yes darling, you.  The one who has been keeping my beauty sleep nice and segmented thoughout each and every night.  The little reason why my brain and every thought, written and spoken, seems to be so discombobulated that I regret it coming out.  Seriously, I read posts from the past few months and I wish I had time to back and re-edit, rewrite, or just toss out.  ;)   

However, I’m NOT complaining.  I love this sweet little monster with all of my heart and I’ll glady do it for a few more months and maybe longer if she keeps up the cheeky smiles. 

On a more productive note, having this one attached to me at most times of the day does make it easy to get those monthly pictures done.

Her first month had me thinking, “Hey, I think I can do this whole four-kid thing!”

I forgot that all that infant sleepiness doesn’t last, even though it kept on through…
maybe because her newfound sainthood by Baptism made her a saintly sleeper? 

But then it puttered to a stop in the midst of the third.

I also forgot about the four months sleep regression – all that newfound alertness during the day, taking in allll the surroundings, making nighttime the time when I need to catch up on all those calories I exerted during the day looking at ceiling fans and picture frames on walls, and those little creatures prancing around and prodding me and saying things like “HEYYYYY BABY SISTER!!!!!”.

And then at… everything around here is still so exciting so she’s still eating, eating, eating what seems like a thousand times per night and just when it seems like maybe she’s getting the hint that we eat during the day, sleep during the night, two little white things start making their way up the bottom gumline and any hope of sleepy nights is dashed until they finally make their debut and those aches go away (for now) and we’re getting closer to full REM cycles at…

Closer being the key word because Lord knows we ain’t there yet, any and all of my yawns will tell you that.  ;)

Anywho, I started writing this post while the babe above was soundly sleeping and now she’s up gnawing on the remote on the floor, Seraphia is ten feet away begging me (for the hundreth time) to once again put the diaper on her baby doll (she plays this fun game of mom-puts-it-on-and-immediately-baby-poops), and the other two, our most devious, are being way too quite in the other room which has me thinking maybe I should check on them…or maybe I don’t want to find out.  It’s like they’re all trying to prove some point to me, the mom blogger, that I really can’t write well and mother.  Fragmented thoughts be mine, I guess.  ;)

But really I should skidaddle before too much slobber finds its home in the clicker SO…

if you’ll excuse me, I have a baby to tend to…and a toddler…and two more kids after that. 

Hardware Swap

Sometimes I get this wild hair to do something and I have to do it rightthisminute.  Those wild hairs have really been rare since having kids but last week told a different story.  After seeing John and Sherry’s amazing kitchen renovation, we needed new hardware on our kitchen cabinets….okay, wanted…wanted knew hardware.  I loved how they placed knobs on their upper cabinets and coordinating handles on their lower and our kitchen was begging for it.

So, last week I plucked that wild hair and replaced all of our hardware with new, more modern handles on the bottom cabinets and coordinating knobs on the top.

Our old pulls weren’t bad and truth be told, they were actually pretty nice as seen in these old pictures:


But, they were definitely a little more traditional than the new bar pulls I bought and I thought adding modern pulls would make our refurbished kitchen look a little more modern; not like the old kitchen it is that we set new appliances in and painted cabinets to make it look new.

Old on the left; new on the right:

Replacing the lower cabinet hardware was easy peasy.  All I had to do was remove the old and install the new in the same holes.  The uppers were a different story.  I had to remove the old pulls, fill in the holes they left behind, drill new knob holes, and then screw in the new knobs.  On top of all that though, I figured it was high time I touched up the paint on our cabinets.  After almost five years, there were a few places where the paint was chipped just from normal, everyday use.  It was a simple fix though.  I just washed down all of the cabinets (something that also needed to be done) and used a small artists’ paint brush and leftover paint to paint right over those small chips. 

Once everything was painted, I got to work filling and drilling for the knobs.  To fill the holes in, I used Bondo (purchased on Amazon because it was cheaper there than at Lowe’s) after seeing Chelsea use it to repair her dining chairs.  The stuff is great and perfect if you’re like me and want immediate results.  It dries super quick!  I filled the holes, sanded them down, and had them covered in paint in under a half hour.  The one thing I didn’t do though was pay attention to detail.  I replaced all of the hardware in sections over four days time and everytime I had a chance to get to work, it was a small chunk of time while the kids were playing or Gianna was taking a cat nap.  So, I rushed and I shouldn’t have because there are places where I didn’t spend enough time sanding the Bondo so that it was completely flush with the door and other places where I should’ve went back and added more, like on this door:
Can you see those two small indentations right where the old pulls were installed?  *sigh*  Lesson learned:  Don’t rush through a project.  I’ll probably go back over and sand or re-fill the next time our cabinets need a touch-up and thanfully, the imperfections aren’t all that noticeable but the fact remains, they are there and I shouldn’t have rushed.  My OCD self will suffer everytime she sees them…

Anyway, lets get to the best part of this little project.  It will end up costing me a few bucks or even be FREE!  How?  Well, because we’re going to sell the old hardware for what we paid for the new – just under $25 for 23 pieces.  The old hardware is still sold at our local Lowe’s for $3 a pop and we bought the new at a fantastic price from the same place I bought the hardware for the kids’ play kitchen – eBay!  The knobs cost us 99 cents a piece and the pulls were $1.39 a piece – a fraction of what you’ll find them at in your local hardware store.  And, we can attest to their quality.  They’re heavy, brushed metal pieces of hardware that I’m sure will last just as long as the ones in-store. 
    


If you have a hankering to replace hardware (or if you didn’t before, maybe you do now!), we highly recommend these! 


Maybe it’s just me enjoying the change, but it kind of amazing how much of a difference hardware can make in a space.  We have original-to-the-house, ugly pulls on our master bath cabinets and I can’t wait to swap those out for these too.  Of course there’s a whole laundry list of updates we want to do in there eventually so you’ll have to stay tuned for those.  ;)

On another note relating to bathroom hardware, do you think it should match what’s in your kitchen?  I’ve seen lots of HGTV remodels where they install the same throughout the house.  Or is it better that it just coordinates?  Or maybe it doesn’t really matter at all and they can all be different and as long as they go with the rest of the decor in that particular room.  What say you fine readers?  I’m kind of asking because we were thinking of grabbing matching pulls for our bathroom, but in brass since a lot of the fixtures might be heading down the brass route.  Should we stick with the same or go different?  Of course this will all be happening months from now but it’s never too early to get a head start with plans, right?  :)

TGIF!

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P.S.  I’m sorry this isn’t more of a tutorial!  We’ve been slowly tackling a lot of boring things around here like hemming Anthony’s pants, fixing broken toys and books, and doing an entire house purge so I didn’t have a lot of time to document this whole process while it was happening.  Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be sure to answer them!

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Painted Sneaks

Whew!  What a week, huh guys?  I’ve been staying away from social media and focusing all my nervous energy on doing things like swapping out our kitchen cabinet pulls with knobs, a very spontaneous decision, and letting the girls paint their new kicks. 

They both started complaining last week, while wearing their old sneakers, that their feet hurt.  Maybe it was because, when I checked out the situation, their toes were stuffed into their now-too-small sneaks and needed a tad more space.  (Seriously?  Didn’t I just buy those yesterday?!)  So, to Walmart we went where we grabbed the same sneakers as the ones they had that had lasted us several months.  You can’t beat the price at $5.67 each and really, they hold up so well!  I really loved these tennies too but they didn’t have them in the girls size at the store and I didn’t feel like waiting for them to be shipped so we went another route – plain white with a project in mind.

I had to push my fear of messes aside to set out all of my (very permanent) paints so that the girls could get their customization on.

First, I removed all of the shoelaces.
(And speaking of the shoelaces, the girls don’t know how to tie their laces yet so I’m thinking about grabbing some of these laces!  They look so cool and would make getting out the door without having to bend over (twice) so much easier!)

Then I stuffed the insides of the shoes with plastic bags so that paint didn’t get inside and also because they kept the sides from collapsing in while the girls painted.

I wrote in this instagram that I let the girls “go to town” on their new shoes and maybe that was a little misleading because I didn’t just hand over the paint and walk away.  I did a little bit of what’s called micro-managing.  :)  Gianna and Sebastian were both sawing logs so I had two free hands to help, clean-up, whatever.  Part of that micro-mamaging was only letting them do one color at a time.  They wanted “rainbow” shoes and we’re still working on the concept of color-combining.  They have a hard time understanding how you get brown when you mix ALL the colors instead of rainbow… 

I asked them to try not to get paint on the rubber soles.  I knew that the paint would end up peeling off of the rubber and so I just figured we could skip that part.  They did pretty good staying off the rubber and the little bits that they did paint, I could scratch right off.

I also told them that they could paint them however they wanted – stripes, polka dots, zebra, whatever.  And I told them that they could paint them differently than their sister was.  Haha!  They tend to start coloring differently and then, once they see how their sister is handling the crayon, they do the same.  I wanted their shoes to be totally different 1) because I was interested to see what each’s idea of painted shoes looked like and 2) so I could tell whose was whose without asking (even though I did mark their initials on the bottom soles just to be safe…not that they can’t share shoes but more so they won’t forget which they painted and fight over them ).

I thought about grabbing some NeverWet to spray them with so they’d stay cleaner longer but I haven’t had a chance to grab some.  By the time I do, their little feet will probably be begging for the next size up and since this paint-fest went so well, we might have to repeat it later.

Next time, maybe I’ll grab a pair of my own and join in!  Anybody else?  :)

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Quick Hair, Don’t Care

Over the past several years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve had several requests for a hair tutorial and I’ve always had intentions of obliging but whoa, let me tell you, it is hard to film anything with kids running around.  After a few more requests flowed in last week though, I just threw caution and perfectionism to the wind and set up my phone while I was doing my hair one morning.  My thought was that I’d throw up a quick video tutorial, nothing too eloquent, that showed the basics until I could invest more time in a better video.  The filming went great despite two interuptions by kids asking questions but when I went to upload, that’s when everything got a little wrangled.  I couldn’t figure out how to add text, how to compress the size, how to blah, blah, blah.  Suffice it to say, I spent wayyyyy more time than I had intended on this video and it still is pretty awful.  Haha!  But hopefully you get the gist. 

The original video was eight minutes long but the file was too big to do anything with or store in any of my available storage places so I ended up chopping it into pieces that come in at just under a minute.  To make up for the cuts, I figured (and hoped) some written details would suffice.

So, here goes.

If the video isn’t working here,  hop, skip, or jump over to YouTube to watch it.

Just some notes:

First and foremost, it is painfully evident that I have no talent in video editing.  Ahem…

From start to finish, it takes me about seven minutes to get my hair curled.  It’s never perfect and because it’s curly to begin with, it hides that imperfection pretty well…and some people would dub the look “beachy” so I’ll just lean on that justification.  If I’m going somewhere special, I spend a little more time on it so we’ll just say 15 minutes max.

After I wash my hair, I put a little bit of Garnier Fructis mousse in the bottom half and I blow dry my hair upside down, focusing on the roots, for about two minutes.  I can’t stand wet hair on my neck and back so this gets me to dry at the top, damp at the bottom status.  I usually wash it at night so by the time I’m ready to curl, it’s 100% dry.  Also, about the mousse, I’m kind of a mousse snob.  I don’t like mousse that leaves your hair super stiff and this stuff is the best at not stiffening for the price.  I do think blow-drying after applying helps keep things soft too. 

My hair isn’t thin but it’s definitely not thick.  At the thickness it is, I divide it into two layers for curling.  If your hair is thicker, you might want three layers.  Also, my hair is cut with several layers.  The way your hair is cut detemines how it will look curled…that’s probably obvious but I thought I’d mention it anyway.  :)

When curling, it’s key not to adjust your grip at the base of the section you’re holding.  Grab the hair and wrap.  The section of hair will twist as it’s being wrapped and you want that to happen! 

The iron I’m using in the video is this Hot Shot/Helen of Troy curling iron.  It is amazing and I’ve had it since college (10+ years).  I have it in the 1” size and a 2”.  I’m using the 1” in the video.  The link will take you to it at Sally Beauty Supply, where I bought mine.  If you become an email subscriber with them, you’ll probably be able to nab a coupon that would make it even more affordable than it already is!

This is my hair after three days:
In the summer with all the humidity down here, it usually looks a little crazier after three days but the hairs are faring pretty well in this gorgeous fall weather.

I only brush my hair after showering and that’s it.  And actually, this past summer I tried something new where I brush my hair with a wide-tooth comb while I’m washing conditioner out and that’s it.  When I’m done and while it’s still pretty soaking wet, I apply mousse and then I blow dry, upside-down, for the usual two minutes.  My curls stick together more and humidity doesn’t hamper them as much as it usually does.  You curly-haired girls should try it.  :)  Sometimes it looks great as-is and sometimes just adding a few wrapped-curls here and there adds a little more form.

I didn’t have time to tack this on at the end of the video (another reason why I need to make a better one) but I usually tease my hair at the roots when I’m done to add a little extra va-voom.  On normal days, I just grab a fine-tooth comb or a pick and go at it a little bit but if I’m going to a wedding or some other special occasion, I sprinkle in some Powder Play and then tease it.  My sister introduced me to this stuff a few years ago and it is A+.  It holds and a little goes a really long way so it lasts forever.

I’ve never went Live with Facebook but I was thinking maybe it’d be fun to run through the whole process on there one day?  Maybe?  Maybe not?  We’ll see how much courage I can gather and how much awkwardness I can ignore to try that…

Anyway, I know I’m no hair pro but I’ve gotten pretty good at making my hair look fairly decent in the very, very little amount of time that I have to do it.  If anything, I hope I prove that it’s possible to lose the bed head with very little time and effort.  ;)

Questions?  Leave them in the combox or email me! 

Adios!

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