Chritstmas Time 2014

That's right people, I still have this thing, haha!!  It's only been a year since my last post.  I'm only a little behind.  I might do a few updates of things that have happened over the last year but for now it's just CHRISTMAS 2014!!

We did things a little different this year.  Andrew wasn't able to travel with us so we did our family Christmas early.  Then the kids and I fly to Arkansas to see the rest of the family for more Christmas celebrations.

Christmas Time in St. Petersburg...

Santa new we weren't going to be home with Andrew for Christmas so he sent a little gift the weekend before we left. After answering a knock at the door, Hadley was speechless when she saw our elf sitting on top of the gifts waiting outside our door.  And to top it off a note from Santa himself, with jammies and a ginger bread village to build as a family.

Andrew and I also had our class Christmas Party.

Complete with a Santa beard contest.

Oh yeah and they had a delicious BBQ food truck.  Yummmm

The next morning we had our Christmas before heading to church. 

The kids were adorably festive. =)

Hadley's class had their Christmas party the next week. Hadley was so excited to "eat junk".

 Each of the kiddos got a stocking from their teacher.

Frosty the Snowman to finish it out.

Sunday, Dec. 20th was the big day!! Flying to Arkansas, just me and the kids. 

Oliver slept the whole way and Hadley played on her iPad.  We made it to Arkansas safe and sound and I even had a couple people come up and tell me how great they did on the flight. 

 First stop, Aunt Kristin and Uncle Mike's!

After dinner the kids got to open their Christmas presents!!

Not to be outdone by all the awesome lights we went to see after that.  So fun and so beautiful.  Hadley would point at each house and say, "Wow, that's a good one.  They're definitely going to win."

Ollie got to stay up late, shhh.... Don't tell Hads.

Got a quick pic before heading to church.  Sunday mornings are always exciting.

A special lesson with the kiddos during church and they each placed an ornament at the front of the church.

Snuggles with Pap-pa and cousin Nathan after church.

A trip to Tulsa to spend time with old friends.

Recent Projects

While our whole house has pretty much been a project we've been working on a few specific ones over the last couple weeks.

I'll be sure to update you on the whole house, but for now we'll just start with these.

The previous owners left us a lot of surprises some were better than others.  This happened to be one of the good ones.

The metal frame was left at the house and it sat on our back patio for a while until I figured out what to do with it.  (Believe it or not I almost had them throw this in the dumpster during demo.)

The Pottery Barn table at the bottom was my inspiration.

 Some much needed sanding with this little gem of an attachment as well as a wire brush.

After spraying it and wiping it down I put on a good layer of primer specifically for heavily rusted metal.

Then a black satin exterior paint.

We chose treated exterior wood in 2x6 strips and used 1x6 for the support on both ends, as well as inside the metal frame, which you'll see in the next picture.

I used Behr's exterior weatherproofing transparent stain in chocolate.

Note: So glad there's casters on this thing because it weighs a ton!

These two have already enjoyed a morning at the table in their jams.

We've already had a family meal out here and I LOVE having it!  Can't wait for more memories sitting around this table.

Since we're on the back patio I'll continue with another very small project from back there.

The back light was in bad shape so rather than buy a new one I used the leftover primer and paint from the table and bought a new globe for $4.

Cheap and makes a big difference.

We also had the luxury of finding out just how fun painting a fence is.  My original thoughts were that it would go really quick.  However the wood was really dry so it soaked up the paint and took forever. 

(Again another project the previous owners left us with when the only painted a portion of the fence.)

Hooray for one even color!!!

Oh yes, there's still more....

We found a coffee table on the side of the road while we lived in Tulsa.  We made some changes to it originally, then had a mishap with gentian violet. (It stains by the way.) 

Original Find

Before the gentian violet.

After a ridiculous amount of sanding.

Staining and chalk paint

And now an antique glaze.

And the kitchen....

This has been a project for sure.

These were the pictures from the zillow page.

We added a thicker crown on the top of the cabinets and quarter round to the base.

After finding out that the laminate we wanted was actually more expensive than granite (because they were running a special) we went with stone. 

I don't have any close up pictures of our original counters but they had burn marks and bubbles, water damage all around the sink, and chunks taken out where it looked like they were using them for the base of some of their projects.

 Then, we decided to take on the roll of painting the cabinets on our own.  We purchased the Rustoleum cabinet kit after reading several good reviews on pinterest and the home depot guy saying it was awesome.

A week later.....

(The island is another project)

I love how this turned out and I'm even more in love with the fact its over!!

Also, adding some new cushions and colorful flowers makes a world of difference outside.

Front Porch

Back Porch

Hopefully my next post will be earlier than 2 years from now. =)

Thanks for checkin' in!!