a photo with scribbles.

i love how two-year-olds have no clue whether it's Monday or Zunderday.
i however, do know the difference...and since i've been feeling a bit under the weather, i let Ellie dress herself this morning...and do pretty much whatever the heck she wanted till nap-time.

i love this picture i captured of her ensemble/playing time for many reasons..
so i scribbled a few out on the photo.

happy, dappy Monday, folks!
if you're feelin' blue, pull out a tutu.
it might make you feel better.

xoxo

missing.

(slight disclaimer: i wrote this post last night...but outta legitimate fear of the boogie man and other less-than-fictional creepers out there knowing that my man was gone, and coming to my house to hide in my closet or bed or other creepy things...i waited till this morning to post it...thank goodness M returns from traveling today.)

i'm laying in my bed, by myself with Oreo cookie crumbs scattered on my chest and sheets (yes, i broke my own rule of no eating in the bed) and having a hard time falling asleep. oh and i may or may not be watching the Glee season finale...for like the 15th time.

yep, it's true...M is traveling yet again...it feels like he's never home for longer than 10 seconds these days, before he's off again. such a weird reality to be in...one that i don't like one bit..but that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. and so i continue to suffer from traveling-husband-has-turned-me-into-a-widow-disease....aka: loneliness. fine, i'll admit it, i get terribly lonely.

now let me back up: i consider myself a fairly independent person. i like doing my own thang- and i can handle Ellie by myself, and eating by myself and picking up by myself and even watching shows by myself. in fact, it's kinda nice sometimes to not have to worry about another human being at the end of the day and if their needs are being met. but that usually lasts for about a day...until i just feel like part of my little soul is missing.

that missing feeling especially happens when its time to go to bed. i despise going to bed by myself- i am a scaredy cat. All of a sudden i see weird shadows everywhere, hear random noises in my bathroom and kitchen, and the bed seems enormous...like its going to swallow me and never ever regurgitate me.

to make matters worse, i even have terrible nightmares- like how last night i dreamed that M divorced me after the baby was born and married his cousin. sick, right? but it was terribly realistic and had me waking up in tears...with no M to console me to reassure me that he loves me and is not into incest.

and so tonight i am thinking about my M, while he is traveling, yet again, and how much i love him. and about how even though i can be miss independent for about 10 seconds, i much prefer being Mrs. Chapman.



do any of you have the traveling-husband-disease? how do you cope? just curious.

i obviously cope with excessive amounts of facebook status updates, reruns of my favorite shows, Oreo crumbs in my bed, and pointless blog posts. thank heavens he comes home soon :)

xoxo

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

a table, a table, and another table.

oh, and some chairs, too!

that's what i've been up to the last few days...refinishing some of these lovely items.
i thought i'd show you their transformations...since i think they're kinda cool (i mean, turning old junk into new, cuter-looking junk is just too fun not to share).

exhibit a:

a kitchen chopper block table which looked like this:

well, i sanded it, painted it black, then distressed it...and put it in my door-way to act as a shoe-rack. behold, the black-distressed shoe rack:

pretty cool huh? i also like the little bottle of sunscreen in the left corner. nice.

exhibit b: the table with the most personality you ever saw, which started out as the saddest table you ever saw:

looked pretty nasty, eh? well, i sanded that baby down, gave it a nice few colors of white spray paint, and then gave it an antique glaze- which i learned how to do from the awesome Brooke at All Things Thrifty (one of my fave decorating/furniture refinishing blogs...go check it out. you'll love it too). i'm in love with the end results:

how cool is that!? i love it...and am still trying to find the perfect location for it...baby's room? maybe.

exhibit c:
the kitchen table our lovely friends, the Cunningtons gave us for a wedding gift...they got it for like $30 bucks at a garage sale...and trust me, we needed it then. we had NOTHING. well, this baby was well-loved- and i actually already somewhat refinished it a few years ago with my aunt and mom- we sanded the top and painted it a light light green, and then recovered the chairs to be what you see here:

not too shabby- but just a little too......generic for me. so! i decided to go for it and give this baby the makeover she needed. i was going to paint it black- but the red in our kitchen is very dark...and when i painted one of the chairs black, i was definitely not too pleased. so i went with white instead. wow. i love it. check it out (disclaimer: the photo's i took make the table look grey...i don't know why. i just couldn't get the coloring right. but here's the general idea):

it's definitely not perfect- painting something a solid white is HARD! a lot harder than i thought- but it was worth it because i love it. i especially love the yummy yellow fabric i got to recover my chairs...for $3.00 a yard....you heard me! THREE BUCKS! man, i love getting deals. way too much.

so what do you think!? do you have any projects you're working on? if not, go find something! it's so rewarding and fun.

anyway- doing all of this stuff is super exhausting, but oh-so-worth it. because i've got myself a whole bunch of new stuff for the cost of paint!...which isn't much folks...it isn't much at all.

next on my list:
toy trunk,
picture frames,
shelf,
end tables...
and lots and lots of other stuff in my house that i randomly look at and think, "man, i should really paint that!" yeah, this is a pretty severe addiction i've found myself :)

hug to you all!

xoxo

joy school.

oh gosh. i look at that picture and my heart just skips a little beat. is my kid really old enough to be having SCHOOL experiences already? what the?
so, it was her first day of school today.
joy school, that is.
it's only once a week, for a little over 2 hours- and it's a Co-Op, which means for four weeks, one mom runs the joy school, and then it's another mom's turn to run it.  it's basically ran the same way as nursery- play time, snack time, music time, lesson time, more play time, and lots of referreeing for the mama in charge :) and when it's not your turn to be in charge, you get a free 2 hour window to be toddler free, and do what your heart desires. today, my heart desired nothing fun: blood work and oil changes....but i promise you this: i will be shopping and pedicuring someday soon :)

anyway,

it was so cute- Ellie woke up and knew it was "school" today (i've been talking it up, BIG TIME, to ease the transition...since Ellie and transitions do not mix well)- and so she went and found this little Tinkerbell backpack that my mom had given her for Christmas, which usually holds a bunch of her toys. well, she dumped out all the toys inside of it put a bunch of random stuff in it to take with us. there was a lip gloss (yes she has her own lip gloss...i got sick of her eating/destroying mine), a Mickey Mouse figurine, a necklace, a ponytail, and a comb (maybe she was planning on fixing her hair later?). don't you worry, i snuck all of her stuff out, and slipped in some diapers, wipes, a drink and a snack for the carride without her noticing. sneaky me.

well, once she had that thing on, she did NOT want to take it off. she loved that thing. i think it made her feel "big." and can i just say, she looked big! seriously. what happened to my baby?

so since she loved it so much, she was pretty dang upset when i told her she couldn't wear the back-pack in the carseat. wow, major melt-down...avoided only by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse + Snow White songs in the car. but don't you worry, she was sure to ask "where's my pack-pack, mama?" right when we got to our destination. and as the car stopped and i was getting out, i hear her little voice say, "Ellie wear pack pack now?"

so cute.
and she loved school.
she couldn't stop talking about it.
and still can't stop talking about it.
my little Ellie is growing up.
sniffle.

xoxo

i have a new hobby.

so it hit.
nesting mode, that is.
i've been going cuh---razzzzyy the last several days with the most random of random projects.
my most favorite project that i've adopted:
refinishing furniture.
it's so fun!
it's like magic.
though i do admit, it does give me a major crink my neck, and make me a little woozy from paint fumes.
but still.
transforming old, weird furniture into new-looking, matching, even CHIC furniture, is so cool to me.
some things i've refinished:
a little, tall, wobbly table with the most personality you've ever seen. (yes, furniture has a personality, as i've recently discovered).
a shelf/coat/hat hanger thingie.
a long, weird-like table which is now in our doorway as a shoe rack thingie.
a little bookshelf for Ellie's room.
and my most favorite (which i will show you very bad pictures of):
a dresser/shelf combo for baby girl-to-be's room.

so the dresser was a dresser that i used in MY room when i was a teenager.
seriously.
but it was in good shape-and even though it was small, and in a weird yellow wood color that never matched anything, i never had the heart to get rid of it because i knew i could use it someday.
well, someday came.
i wish i had a good picture before..like when it was put together.
but this is the best i've got:

then several months ago, i bought this shelf off of craigslist for around $15 bucks thinking it would be cute as a bookshelf in Ellie's room if i ever got around to refinishing it. then M pointed out to me that it was really a desk/hutch/topper thing that wasn't a standing bookshelf at all. we almost got rid of it... at least 4 times.

this is the best before picture i have: (yes it is tilted on its side- i'll explain why in un minuto)

so i asked M...hey handyman of mine, maybe you could cut the bottom part off...so it IS just a shelf..and then we can hang it above the dresser? and of course he obliged. he loves his tools and any chance he gets to saw something.

so then i went to work.
i primed away.
and then i seriously used paint we already had.
like from our doors and baseboards...maybe i shouldn't admit that. but oh well.
i gave the stuff a few good coats of paint.
(don't want any chippin' going on).
and then i gave them an antique glaze...(you can glaze too- it's so easy! learn how here)...to make them sorta shabby chic-ish. because baby-girl-to-be's room will be shabby-chic- inspired by lilacs.
and this is how they finished up:
(now, don't judge the horrible pictures. i know they're horrible, ok? but i couldn't wait a second longer to show them to you. and lighting in a dang garage is tricky. i promise to show better pictures someday soon...like when the room is actually painted and put together...but for now, this is the best reveal you and me are gonna get).

tahdah!!

you like?
don't be too harsh.
i am just a rookie.
(and i'm thinking about changing the mismatched knobs (though full of character) to be all black...to enhance the glaze... i think the mismatched would be cute for a play room...but not as cute for a nursery..........thoughts? )
maybe i like 'em so much just because i spent so much time on them.
but i'm in love.
and i can't wait to set them up...and to actually give this baby the love and decor she deserves :)

next up:
kitchen table.
wicker toy trunk.
any other random treasure i can find to put lots of gobs of paint on.

one word of caution:
refinishing furniture is addicting.
so is checking craigslist.

oh, and one more little thing:
i love coming in from the garage...taking horrible furniture pictures...only to find my little Ellie like this, coloring her little heart + soul out, as if her life depended on it:

melts my heart into a big pile of goo.

xoxo