the lovely days of summer.....

since the weather around here has become a bit more temperate, it is starting to feel like a real summer.  

this has to have been one of the most unusual years for weather in our little corner of michigan.

winter was unusually snowy, probably the most snow i remember since i was a kid.

spring was unusually cold and wet and we were left feeling like it would never get warm....it was kind of like the dementors had invaded our city.  

summer came and we went from cold and wet to hot and humid.  i think the weatherman said that our area had seen more days in july over the 90 degree mark than below it...and my electric bill confirms that fact. totally not normal for southeast michigan.

last week, after not having had rain for about a month except for a little rain shower twice, we had 

a storm that dumped  6-7 inches of rain in one night, caused a power outage and flooded our basement.

fortunately, we don't have a finished basement.  we use it for storage and since we had had a flood when our house was 4 years old and the 4 year old sump pump broke, we got smart and put most of our stored things in plastic bins and up on shelving. 

we only had carpet in a small are of the basement where don has his exercise equipment.  

 there is still a bit of organizing to redo since we tried to get some of the stuff up off of the floor in a hurry.

 our poor neighbors weren't as lucky.  they had a finished basement and their back up battery powered sump pump (that they installed in the event of a power outage) failed as well.  there was just too much water.  too fast.

our neighbor curtis came over to the house on thursday morning and told us to check our basement for flooding because theirs had flooded.  when i went to their house a few minutes later, they and their kids were bailing water out of the basement egress window.  what a mess.  i was too overwhelmed to take any pictures of this debacle while it was happening, but lets just say it sucked!  

today, things are back to normal for the most part.  

austen is done with this:

(ooh, just look at that face, that determination)

(good form)

  and they got second place in last weekend's tournament.

it was a fun season, they lost more games than they won but the boys were great.  i was a great baseball mom and never missed a game and i will miss the other moms and dads.  

football starts soon though, so i will be just as busy with that, i'm sure!

for right now, i am going to happily live what is left of summer and enjoy the little things....

the kitchen table and chairs.....

are (just about) finished....

they started out looking like this

as i blogged about here.

i just need to wax the pedestal.  i was too tired today and i wanted to show you how it turned out.

we both love it.  no one else has seen it yet so we haven't gotten any unbiased opinions.

i painted the apron of the table and the two stripes on the pedestal for some visual interest and to tie in the chairs with the table.

you can see that the top of the table has been waxed but not the apron or base.

the table has the leaf in it right now but we usually just use it when we have company.

it has already lightened up the space and we love it. ( it looks less blue than in this picture.  the other pictures are more true to color.) i am still trying to decide if i want to paint the ball in the ball and claw foot in the blue as well.

we still have to paint the cabinets and replace that crappy piece of crap flooring....i'll give you the 411 on that flooring disaster soon. 

i used the annie sloan chalk paint in old white for the table and i used a mixture of old white, louis blue and duck egg for the chairs. 

i also used minwax paste wax in clear for the table top.  it worked beautifully.

i am working on this piece next..

i got a gallon of the prettiest pale pink paint for free so i thought i would try it out on this little desk.  

i found three of these chairs the other day at goodwill for $5.00 apiece. 

i think the seat cover alone is worth $10.00, don't you think?

snort!!!

i got three of them.....and painted one of them with the old white chalk paint.

i found some cute pink and white pinstripe fabric for the chair seat.  i can't wait to see how they both 

look together.  i'll share that in an upcoming post.  

i hope everyone is having a great fourth of july weekend....

we are!

uh-oh......

it all started out so innocently....

i wanted to lighten things up in my kitchen.  

it's a little dark even though we get a nice southern light in this space all year long.  

lots and lots of natural light made us not afraid to paint our kitchen cupboards black about 5 years ago. 

it kinda scared my dad though, because when he first saw them he asked me if we were 

"going goth"..... 

the cupboards started out your typical builders grade oak....

boring.....

so during my pottery barn phase of house decor, we painted them black.  we also painted our kitchen table and chairs. they used to be a dark oak which wasn't bad, but i thought they looked much better in black.  which they did...except that dust shows up on every black surface 3.7 seconds after you dust them....so i used tablecloths a lot.

but now i am in my light and bright phase of decorating and i wanted to change things up a bit.  

so i painted that table and chair set....

it's not finished yet because i haven't sanded or waxed them yet but i am 

already loving how they lighten the space up.  

and we were both amazed at how the detail in the chair backs showed up with the new lighter paint.

here is a chair in paint progress....note the cool dragon thingys in the corners of the chair backs....

even thought i have had this table and chair set for almost 30 years

(10yrs really, cuz i'm not that old)

i never noticed the detail in the backs of the chairs.  when i bought the set, i bought one of each of the styles of chairs that they had so each has a different design.

 because i'm weird like that....

i will be distressing the table and chairs lightly.  and yes that is paint on the floor under the table leg but we already have this

 new flooring for our kitchen waiting to be installed.

so we also decided that we are going to lighten up the cupboards too.  my plan was to paint the upper cabinets white (or off white) and the bottom cupboards a medium gray.  

i think that if i paint both the uppers and the lowers white, the countertop will make it look 

like just too much white. and i am sure that we don't have plans to change the countertops out

in the very near future.  not that i don't want new ones because i do and i have even 

plotted setting a hot pan on them and burning them to get new ones...

but i am don is much more practical than that.....

so......

since we decided to paint the top cabinets white, don decided to get started on them....

while i wasn't home to supervise....

and i came home to this...

painted with this.....

(insert long, loud scream here)

i had been extolling the benefits of this paint (which i used on the table and chairs) to don 

and excitedly told him how you can paint over any type of finish

without having to prime, sand or prep your surface first.  

in his mr. oblivious  mind, 

this was the perfect medium for the cupboards....

i had to do a lot of double talking to get him to understand that this was not the best medium to use unless he wanted to pay way more coughcoughthirtyfivedollarsaquartcoughcough than he intended to for this little project without actually telling him how much more!!!

so, it's back to regular paint and primer for this job....

phew!!! that was close.

the real life.....

this is what my life consisted of today.....

there were, at one time or another, 9 kids in my house

using my couch cushions and decorative pillows as a fort and/or armor... 

for an epic nerf gun war.

things got out of control pretty quickly

what is this, you ask?

besides a really dirty front door rug?  how about the front door handle

which ended up on the floor

how does a handle just fall off of the door?

since we are having a subdivision garage sale tomorrow and i will be participating, i made some 

goodies for the kids to sell....4 dozen cupcakes, a pan of brownies and banana bread which resulted in my kitchen looking like

this:

and this:

aah, a little visual reprieve....

nope. back to real life.....

the dog played it safe and hid out in his cage during all of the madness...

and what could be more craptastic than all of that?

the email i got from my girlfriend that said 

"good morning! 

your baby is now a high schooler"! 

yes, austen graduated 8th grade and hence is done with middle school.  he had his recognition ceremony 

tuesday night....

and today?

he turned 14.  fourteen!

and my stomach is sick.  he was just in kindergarten....how does this happen?

he is too young to be 14!

happy birthday buddy, you are a rock star.

it's on its way......

photo courtesy of kate @ centsational girl

i caved.....

and purchased this magic paint.  from what i have read and heard all over blogland lately, i will never use another paint again.  i am surely hoping that that isn't totally true.  if my husband finds out how much i paid for this paint

i am a goner!!!!   

i'm serious...

he will kill me.  so don't tell him. please.

so anyway, no sanding, no priming.  just slap it on and throw a coat of wax on top.  

i'll let you know what i think when i use it.

i think the first piece i will use it on will be this one

which i picked up a the goodwill a couple of months ago for a whopping $9.99.

followed by this one from craigslist for $40.00

 

and its mirror

 and then i shall try it on this one

found in the trash......

i will post a review on the paint when i get it.  i expect to get it monday or tuesday.  when don is safely at work.

good thing he doesn't read my blog.  and if he ever does, i will swear that my blog was hacked.

:D