Front Door Fiasco

Fiasco: noun; abject or utterly humiliating failure.

This is our house 2 years ago.  (Notice the bat Halloween decorations on the door.)  2 years ago, I decided I REALLY wanted to paint our front door.  I wanted it to be a color that looked good on our house, and I wanted it to be fun and inviting.

 

I spent many hours researching pictures of door colors, and I even picture "tested" a few out to see which shade would look best.

One full year later (notice the next year's Halloween decorations) I woke up and decided today was the day.  It was time to paint the front door. Reminder: I was a HUGE 7 month pregnant woman at this time.  I was emotional and nesting like a crazy person, and I wanted our front door to be perfect for our little baby to come home to the first time.  So, I picked out a nice dark blue paint color, spent hours and hours taping the door with painters tape, laying down plastic, and preparing to paint...

...and it turned out to be a disaster!

 

Evidently, painting a piping hot metal door is not a good idea.  As soon as the paint touched the door it immediately dried, so when I would try and get more paint to paint on top of it, it streaked, dried, and clumped.  It was a mess.  I was so mad at myself for being so stupid.  I couldn't even take a picture of how bad it was, because it made me sick to look at it.  The above pic was taken for something else and only shows a small glimpse of how bad it was.  Since I was an emotional wreck, I just cried and cried and cried.  I couldn't even look at the door.  It was ruined and would never be the same again.  Jaxon would be coming home to an ugly door and a mom who couldn't do anything right (at least that was my thinking at the time).  I promised myself I would fix it soon, but winter came, snow fell, Jaxon was born...and nothing ever happened.

Until now.  So... I guess that makes it about 1 year later.  I got sick of my ugly front door, and decided to do something about it.  I started at 10am.  To prevent another hot metal door fiasco, I took the door off its hinges and put it in our shady garage to cool down.  Then, I sealed our entry way with plastic to avoid "air conditioning the world" as my parents would say.

In order to get the old paint off, I had to use paint thinner/stripper.  Wow...that stuff doesn't mess around.  It even stripped right through the gloves I was wearing and through my top layer of skin.  Ouch.  That process took about 5 hours.

(Look close and you can see Jax hanging out in the background.  Don't worry, I fully aired out any paint thinner fumes before I would let him near my working area.)

Then, I had to paint the door with primer (which I didn't do last time).  While waiting for the primer to dry, I realized I really didn't like the color I picked the first time around for the door.  It was darker than I wanted and wasn't fresh and inviting.  It was now or never if I wanted to make a change, so I went to Ho-Depo, closed my eyes, and picked the first paint swatch my fingers came to.  Feww...It's a good thing I didn't use that color, because hot pink would have looked horrible.  I ended up bringing home a nice colorful teal-ish color and got to work painting.

At 10pm I was FINALLY finished!  This 12 hour plus project was seriously a huge pain in my (insert any body part).  Literally...my legs and back were killer the next few days from being hunched over in a squatting position scraping and painting all day.  I am so glad to have this project done and checked off my to-do list.  The journey was tougher and longer than I imagined, but I finally have the front door I wanted.

Before and After

The most powerful thing on earth

So good, so true, and so funny.  Hail to the V!  I feel like giving it a hi-five now.  Why can't I work at an ad agency like the one that made this commercial?  Not fair.

Ongoing projects

Ever since Steve, the insane old man in our basement, moved out, life has been great.  We don't have to deal with his crazy antics, we finally have complete privacy, and our house size has doubled.  It has been so nice having more space to spread out.  The only bad thing is how ugly and boring it looks downstairs.  I am constantly day dreaming of how I want to decorate everything, but of course all of my plans include an unlimited budget and never ending shopping sprees to Target, Home Depot, and Bed Bath and Beyond.  Just in case you thought otherwise, I am not a millionaire, so my decorating dream is out of the question.  Dang, I know that's disappointing to hear.  So, to decorate on a dime, I have been shopping a lot of garage sales and finding deals wherever they can be found.  I'm taking things slow, and I hope to post each project upon completion until the whole basement is finished.

Here is my first little addition.  I bought this ugly wooden board at a garage sale for $1.  It was so ugly and almost falling apart.  With a little Modge Podge magic and a few magnets to make it snazzy, this project took me a couple hours and only cost about $5 total.

Before: (It was all blue when I bought it, but I forgot to take a picture at the beginning.)

After:

Oh no...

I just read on a blog the following sentence:  "The fanny pack is back!"

I almost dropped over dead.

Please tell me this is a joke.

Fanny packs everywhere should be ripped off tourists and geeks everywhere and burned.

I remember wearing a fanny pack back in the day.

It was a huge mistake. 

I love how they tried to put ruffles on the fanny pack as if it's something new. Psh...

Oh no Mr. Fanny Pack, your disguise isn't going to work on me.

I guess they are called "waist purses".  Really?  Call it what it is-It's a fanny pack.

I guess we will see if the trend actually catches on, or if its just one of those high fashion "trends" that never actually makes it in the real world.

Either way, heaven bless us all if the fanny pack is really back. 

"Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,...beautiful boyyy."

10 points to anyone who knows what movie that quote is from.

I read on a blog about a lady that was going to visit an orphanage in Africa, and she was taking donations for supplies and things the kids would love.  I decided it would be fun to make a few flower headbands to donate for the little girls there (and maybe I made a few extras for myself since they turned out so cute).  Jaxon was the best helper and modeled all the headbands throughout the day.

Needless to say, Robie just about when into cardiac arrest when he saw his son wearing a flower headband.  Freak out!  Hopefully I will get a little girl someday (in the far future), or Jax might be subjected to being my "helper" again soon.  Don't worry, I am all about the sports, dirt, and trucks and I am not trying to turn Jax into a girl, but you have to admit he does look pretty darn cute.

Cousins

I couldn't help but snap a photo when I saw Robie cuddled up with Jax and our little nephew, Brighton, who was visiting last week.  These little boys are so cute together, and I know they are going to be the best of friends when they get older.  We love you Brighton and we can't wait for your little baby brother to arrive soon!

Weekend Getaway

Okay, so maybe it was more of Jaxon and I taking advantage of Robie's work perks rather than a spontaneous weekend getaway, but how could I say no to a free hotel stay in Vegas?!  No way I'm going to let that slip through my fingers. So while Robie was slaving away at a work conference, Jax and I enjoyed the sites in the city that never sleeps.  Mostly we slept a lot during the day (since the hotel had those awesome curtains that block every inch of light to give you the illusion it's still dark outside).  We also enjoyed some shopping, bathed in sunscreen, and lounged by the pool with all the drunk cougars who couldn't get enough of Jax in the pool on his green frog floaty.  That was a lot of fun.  After Robie was done working for the day, we consumed overly priced dinners and toured a few family friendly Vegas exhibits. It was a nice little trip that was practically free to us, and that's the best kind if you ask me.

M&M World

Coca-Cola World (Can I get a what-what!  I was running around like a little girl in a candy shop.)

They had a sample tray you could buy with 16 different drinks from other countries that Coca-Cola makes around the world.  It was fun sampling them all and seeing the different styles of drinks from other countries.  Mental note- NEVER drink Coca-Cola products in Italy.  Puke fest.

The next day we went to the Shark Reef Aquarium.  It was a lot of fun since Jax is starting to notice animals, and he loved looking at all the fish swimming around.

7 Months

This little guy keeps growing and growing.  I am enjoying the fact that he is not quite yet mobile, because I can still put him in one spot and get stuff done during the day without chasing him around everywhere.  I'm sure that will change in a few weeks though.  Here is what this little bug has been up to the last month:

• Wears size 3 diapers
• Wears some 3-6 mo shirts, but mostly 6-9 months clothes
• Still mostly loves squash and sweet potatoes, but he tried peaches today and ate them, so I hope that means he will eat other fruits too.
• Rolls over and over to get places.  He can also scoot (backwards only) and is working on getting his legs under him to start crawling

•  He loves to eat puff treats and can rake and pinch them with his fingers, but doesn't quite know how to put them in his mouth yet.
• Loves to be upside-down!  LOVES it!  Also loves to be thrown in the air, flipped, swung, and pretty much anything else dangerous for a baby.  (I'm in for a treat when he's older.)

• Still only has 2 bottom teeth, but the top ones should be arriving soon...I hope...
• He can sit in a high chair and loves to be at the table with us

• Makes all kinds of funny noises and faces and is simply the best baby ever!