Fun at the cabin!!

So as we always do, one week this summer my family spent in the Uinta's at the cabin. Just thought I'd share some of my favorite pics from the event. There are FAR more than just these...but I'm getting behind, so I'm going to leave it here. We had a great time. :)

Dresser re-vamp

Have you been on pinterest? People aren't kidding when they say it's addictive. But because of my awesome sister-in-law Jandel, I actually did one of the projects I'd seen (in various forms) on pinterest!
 See, Jandel told me on a Friday that Ace was having this amazing "Free quart of paint to the first 50 customers" deal the next day, in August. No purchase required! I mentioned it to Sam and he was like "you should get a nice turquoise color for the dresser." So I got online and got inspired:

Ooo! Ahh! Ooo la la! Jk, furniture rarely makes my heart sing. But It can make me smile sometimes when it gives me ideas, and these ones did.
(Found them here, here and here)
 So I marched right into Ace, chose my paint color and they mixed and gave it to me for free! (Then decided it was a bad color, drove back and they switched it!) Ace is now, officially, the bomb. 
Before pic (or as close as I can get): In truth, this pic is 2 1/2 years old, but because the first 3 days we worked on the dresser (over at my parents, since they have a garage) I forgot the camera, this has to do.
This is my dresser from as long as I can remember. My parents let us have it right after we got married. 

Can you kind of tell the color? It's kind of a cream, but it has some serious pink in there. Poor Sam was ready for a change, as was I. 

So what I used for my project: 

1 dresser: already had it;

 

 About 4/5ths of a quart of paint from Ace Hardware: free; 

One quart of Zinsser cover stain primer: 8.88 plus tax; 

About 1/5 of a 5 oz. can of Minwax Stain in Ebony: already had it from another project; 

Some painters tape: around $7.00; 

2 cans clear protective finish spray: around $6.00 (already had one can);

Some cheap washcloths from Ikea: already had them (rags would have worked but we haven't been married long enough for any of our old towels to turn to rags);

And some sand paper, 2 foam rollers, 2 foam brushes and 2 bristle brushes. I had everything but one extra foam brush, costing $1.00. So this project cost around $23.00. Not bad! 

Steps of project: 

1. Clean drawers-this was embarrassing, because I didn't realize how easily most of this stuff would come off. But it needed to be de-greased before painting, so I had at it and thought "Why didn't I do this years ago..." Maybe it's a good thing I didn't have my camera during this part. :S 
2. Use the first roller, bristle and foam brushes, and paint everything with the zinsser cover stain primer. This stuff doesn't wash out of brushes, so try to do this all at once or you'll have to buy more. We decided to only do one coat, mainly because of lack of patience. Everywhere I'd read online said 'foam brushes are sooo much better blah blah blah' but if you click on the dresser pic, can you see how many rivets there are?! There was no way foam was going to work on the front of those drawers. 
3. Apply first coat of turquoise paint. Finally found camera and took these: 

You'll have to forgive the shadows: we were working under some trees, since it was blazing hot and there was no way I was going to work on these in the garage. 

4. Get paint everywhere, including under-bum and sit on the lid. Yeah, I'm so awesome...

4.5. Go to library with daughter with said paint bum for some fun reactions.

5. Back to business: If there are any bubbles in the paint in the crevices on your dresser, push down on them to eliminate with something. We used a spackling spatula thing-worked like a charm. 

6. Using the sandpaper, sand down where 'natural wear' would occur on the dresser. Which means...who knows. Just do your best. :) We got better at this with each drawer. But I forgot to take pics, surprise surprise.

7. Using a bristle brush, paint on the stain. This part was intimidating for me-the project stood still for a while as I researched how I was going to 'antique' the dresser. But it was soo so easy! After you paint it on nice and thick, just take the rags (or washcloths, in our case) and wipe off the stain. Wipe harder if you want it to look lighter; apply more stain and wait longer before wiping if you think it should look darker. 

Here's a comparison of stained drawers and not:  

Excuse shadows :S

8. Spray the protective finish evenly. This part was funny to me-everywhere I saw online, when applying a spray finish or spray paint or anything, you're supposed to apply a thin, even coat, then gradually more coats. But I thought this was wayyyy easier said then done, so I just sprayed like mad and called it good. 

AAANNNNNDDDD here is the finished (minus drawer handles, that's another story) dresser! 

Jori's first haircut

So this was actually a few weeks ago now, like three or something. But Jori got her first haircut!! It was turning into serious mullet city in  the back, so I thought it time to switch from mullet to sweet little bob. *Edit* Funniest part of the haircut process? She pooped as soon as we got there, and of course we hadn't brought the diaper bag. Good thing the stylist was a trooper!

 Before shots. 

Look at my sweet little girl! She looked hilarious with that huge black thing wrapped around her, the booster seat they had for her and the chair. Looked cartoon-ish. But we brought her favorite Baby Einstein DVD (Christmas, of course) and a portable DVD player to distract her. She hardly needed it though: she was tired enough that she just kind of sat there and didn't even wiggle. My lil angel!

 I also got bangs, at the same time. I ended up trimming them a bit more after the above pic, and then have since trimmed them again just because they were growing.

Annnddd you'll have to forgive this crappy picture, this was the only one I could find. I was trying to get a pic of her bob and my bangs together, but she just wanted to steal the camera. And I couldn't crop it successfully-arg. But can you see how it's shorter?? So sweet. :) Looks more like a layered bob now, as I've said. It's even grown quite a bit since this haircut! I'm glad Jori's hair grows so fast-I'm sure she'll be grateful someday!