Here's what's been happening with me!

Wow... Ok so I've been away for a while! At least from this blog, I've been very much present otherwise! So very very busy! And loving every minute of it:)

It's been lot's of fun though. I've been working on lots of projects, mostly in anticipation of this wonderful little one on whom I am "trying" to wait patiently for!

First of all. Remember in my last post I said I was going out for the night with my gals??? Well, they are just the most amazing girls of all!:) They did this...

They completely surprised & shocked me with a wonderful baby shower!!

All the wonderful food...

Letting them take pics of the ever growing belly...

Trying to figure out the pack-n-play, yep we did get it!

And then the night just got funnier:) Such good laughs & good talks girls! Thanks again! To see more pics go here and here.

My mom & sisters were also there, such fun that night was!:) I just LOVE surprises & this one was an awesome one!

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This is a project that is totally completed now & I am so happy with it:)

Here is what it looked like in the beginning, just a blah ol' basket. But I liked the shape & weaving of it. Saw the potential & snatched it up at a garage sale for a whopping $1! Love them sales:)

So I set up shop on the front porch, got out the paint supplies & away I went. I've done this several times now & people passing by on the road kinda give me funny looks, but hey, I like my front porch "work shop":)

Here it is getting a coat of white satin spray paint.

The day was rather dreary but so calming, the rain was coming down so slowly & gently, I just had a take a pic to remember it:)

And here is the finished product!! I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. And the best part? Supplies & all, total cost was around $2. Not to shabby for a diaper holder for my changing table, don't ya think?:)

I found a new favorite as well... Chalk board paint. The "label" I guess we'll call it is a little die-cut that I bought from Pat Catan's, spray painted it white then drew the outline & filled it in with 2 coats of chalkboard paint. Such fun stuff!! You'll be seeing more of it in some up coming projects too:)

Oh, and credit must go to Jenny for the inspiration of this idea! Although, I still think her stuff looks better than mine!!

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And now a little preview of a couple more things that are still in the works. I must warn you this next one is SCARY!!

AAHH!! It looks like the entrance to a cave or something I think.

What is it? The landing at the top of our stairs going into our upstairs hallway.

Why is it so ugly? Well, when someone (previous owners, not us!) wallpapers & then decides to go for a different look and paints OVER TOP of the wallpaper with a shiny, glossy, stark white, OIL paint, what is a girl to do???

Strip the wallpaper of course... *sigh* So much work! So I beg all of you... NEVER paint over wallpaper! Please remove such wall covering BEFORE painting! And then of course, what was under the wallpaper was nothing short of daunting... First of all, the glue would not all come off of the wall so we were left no choice but to sand it off. Thanks to my hard-working mother who endured the dust so I wouldn't have to! Thanks Mom!

And.. plaster, OLD plaster, full of small holes & dents & knicks & whatever else you can think. So this creates work for the husband as well! He ever so diligently went about filling all the above mentioned holes in the walls and created a much smoother surface for me to paint.

In this picture you can also see the new doors that were being installed. Once again (previous owners, not us!) ruined the old doors by sawing of bits here and there to try to level them after the new basement was put in rather than re-installing the door frames. Oh & these were also painted with oil based paint & then painted over AGAIN with latex paint WITHOUT properly preparing the surface.

The result? Chopped up peeling painted up doors. So not a pretty thing. So what did we do? My handy husband worked mucho much & installed brand new doors. AH... So much better!!!

So as you can tell, there has been much progress since these pictures have been taken. The walls are now painted & the trim is currently being painted as I have time. It should be completely done this week and then I can't wait to show you the after pics! It is such a change!!:)


Here is another project that has been started & is awaiting completion... I was searching for just the right thing and I finally found it so now all I have to find is time to finish it up & show you all!:) This little crate cost 10 cents at a yard sale & I do believe it was well worth the dime spent:)

And here is a picture of Baby's crib... Just waiting to gaze upon a sleeping (we hope!) newborn in there!!:)