Refurbished Sofa Table

I found this vanity at a yard sale for $5. It was just the right width for a sofa table, and I have always wanted a sofa table, so I snatched it up. It has sat in the garage for a while, but I finally got it going!

I didn't take pics during, I should have because it was funny! You can see that some kid wrote all over it, and some of it was written in fingernail polish. That stuff did not want to sand off. Also, the top of this thing is some kind of wood/plastic combo, and THAT wouldn't sand off, either. I started off sanding the whole thing, as good as I could. Then I painted the whole thing white, and gave is some sanding to distress it. I didn't like it. It looked like something you would put in a baby's room, too bright white. It needed some dimension. Also, that pink showed through some, and also this must have been green at some time because I had some green showing through as well.

I thought I would try wiping some dark stain on then wiping it off for the dimension I wanted. This worked on the real wood parts, but that top didn't look right. As soon as the stain got on, it wasn't budging. I thought, I am going to have to paint the whole thing white again, so why not cover it with stain, then paint, then sand?

If any of you have done this before, please don't laugh at me! This was my first attempt at something more than just painting and distressing. I was having fun though!

So I did the stain, then I brushed the paint on kind of patchy like, not full coverage. This was the only way I could get the top to look right, since it wouldn't sand off. Then I distressed it just a little, and bought new clear knobs for the front.

So here is the before...

And the after....




What do you think? I like it. I kind of wish I had sanded down a little more, but I was worried that pink and green paint would show itself again. I will take pics with it all decorated.



Some of you have asked to see pics of the house; they are coming. I wanted to finish some decorating first. I am going to take pics this weekend.

Nine out of ten dentists recommend....

I like the kid shows on Nick, at least the ones for little kids. I hate the teen ones, but I will get to that in another post. The young kids shows aren't bad. They are cute, innocent, and most often educational in some way.

Doesn't replace a parent's teaching, but that again is another post!

What I don't like about it is the commercials. They have commercials in between shows, and sometimes they aren't even directed at kids but the parents they suppose are sitting watching with their children.

Disney doesn't have those commercials, I wish Nick was the same. I thought that the commercials for toys would be the ones I would have to content with, but I was wrong.

In Walmart yesterday, we were getting Ava some new toothpaste. I had already put her normal kind, Crest for Kids, in the cart. She points at one and says,
"Mommy, I want that one!"

"I already got you some. Look, its here in the cart."

"Noooooo!" (Begins to have a minor meltdown) "The TV says that this one cleans the best!"

Well.

I had to explain to her that commercials always make things sound better than they are, in an attempt to get you to spend your money on them. I assured her that any toothpaste is going to do an equal job.

I am not sure she believed me, but she gave up the fight about the toothpaste.

Perfect Color

Our bedroom was this awful mix of colors; one deep burgundy color, one a gold tan, and two builder white walls. I cringed every time I went in there. Usually, I try to keep our room clutter and toy free; a serene place. It was that way in Idaho, but when we moved to Utah our large master in our last house seemed to appropriate everything that didn't otherwise have a place to go. In this house, the bedroom is even bigger, and the same thing was happening to a lesser degree. In getting the rest of the house put in order, I would just carry things I didn't know what to do with upstairs to our room. It also held all the pictures that would eventually go in there. The problem was those awful walls. I just couldn't get motivated to declutter or hang pictures when the backdrop was so horrible; it wouldn't be serene or relaxing. So even though this is a rental ( we love it and still want to buy it, our fingers are crossed!) we decided it would be worth it to paint.

I read a blog that has the most amazing color on her walls; Comfort Gray from Sherwinn Williams. That was my color. Jason stopped buy and picked up a color sample, and I got all confused. You know how they have a darker color on the bottom, then the color gradually gets lighter and lighter towards the top? Well, Comfort Gray was right in the middle....of a lot of green. I had thought the color was a gray with blue undertones, but it was green. I didn't want green, I wanted more of a blueish. So we went back to the store, picked out two colors that I thought would work, got samples of them, and went home and put them on the wall.

LIke I said, this room has three different colors on the walls. This made if VERY confusing to tell what the colors would look like. They looked different on each wall! The lighter color looked to me too blue, not enough gray and maybe even a hint of lavendar. NOT what I wanted. The darker color looked straight gray, no blue at all; depressing.
Here they are on the white wall,

Here they are on the burgandy wall and the gold tan wall.

After agonizing over them, I decided that neither color was the one, and just stuck to my original color, comfort gray. We bought it, and started painting. It was looking minty green! AAaaaah! Oh well, I thought, it will be an improvement over what it was, at the very least. But, as it started to dry, it looked less and less green. When we got all the tape off the walls, it looked even better. Then, this morning, I woke up to this:

I don't know what this looks like on your screen, and I apologize for the messy room, but it is the perfect color for me! It dried to a bluish gray, just like I wanted. I am in love.

Here is a pic of it in natural light, no flash. Next up, decorating. I am going to make some curtains and I have a neat idea for the wall above the bed. Sooooo glad we did this, I no longer cringe when I walk in. I smile!

A fun adventure!

We wanted to do something fun this week, because Michaela was on spring break and Payden and Ava went off track on Wed. Our original plans were to go to Antelope Island and have a picnic, but since it has been snowing for two days straight, we had to adapt. So we decided to navigate public transit and take a ride on a "train", the Frontrunner. We took it downtown, then took the Trax to the Discovery museum in downtown SLC.

The Frontrunner was a big hit. I was impressed by how clean and comfortable it was. We have seen this going by, and Ava has always wanted to go on a train.




It was a cold, snowy day, and we made good use out of our umbrellas. We made it safely to the museum, with no wrong stops.

The first thing we did was play in the ball room. Very fun, the girls loved it.



Here is Ninny looking in a mouse hole in one room.

There was a water exhibit that was lots of fun.

I had to tear Corrine away from this one. She got all wet.





Another big hit was the supermarket room. Ava and Corrine really liked "shopping" and ringing up their order.



Ava on the rock wall. I purposely took the shot without getting the ground in it, but she is only about three inches up!

Our new reporters.

After the museum, we met Jason for lunch at Rubios. Yum! Then we got cookies at the yummy cookie store, and candy at the chocolate factory.

Candy makes kids of all ages happy!



The ride home was old hat! We kicked back and ejoyed the scenery!

A big day, Ninny fell asleep eating her cookie.

So fun! We wanted to do some shopping, but the weather was too yucky. The Gateway mall is all outside; we would have been soaked. So, that just means we have to ride the Frontrunner again!

Ninnyisms

Ninny: "Mommy, my nose is running out. I need nose paper!"

After being outside and her hands are cold, as she gets into the bath: "I washed the cold off."

Who needs a bed?

Arrg, Mateys!

Last Friday was Pirate day at Ava's kindergarten. They were told to dress up as pirates, then they followed that theme all day. Ava's teacher is really great; Ava can't wait to go to school every day.

Here is Ava doing her best pirate face.

And not to be outdone, Ninny needed a pirate "hat" as well, and put on her best pirate face!

Aaaarg!