Soaking up the last bit of summer

It has been so super quiet around here this past week! I am not sure what to do with myself without Callie here. She is about to go on the second leg of her trip and we MISS her so much!

I put this little peanut on a plane a week ago and all I can think about it how I want to squeeze her skinny little body!

 Everytime my phone rings Kellen says, "Callie??!" and for the first few days he wandered around the house looking for her. The words, "Callie is in Texas." just don't quite make sense to him. Poor baby. We spent the last week before she left, trying to pack in all the fun...

Doughnuts at daddy's office

Playing in the pool, fully clothed. Don't ask.

Relaxing on our poorly constructed deck (more about that in a minute)

The Minion movie, it was pretty cute!

Dinner with our sweet friends, this is his buddy, big Kellan.

Beside missing the girl, we have been spending most of the days at home splashing in the pool and playing, we have made a few trips to the library, but mostly we have just enjoyed being at home.

He is having a strange obsession with sunglasses

and pretending to drive...

Morning walks have gotten extremely lengthy, thanks to the park in the middle of the neighborhood!

And he still hasn't mastered the "selfie" like his sister!

But we are having fun and still have a week to be home together and then back to real life. I am a little bummed, but I am excited to start the school year!

In other news, we have been wanting to refinish our deck since we moved in 4 years ago, but it was functional up until a few weeks ago. The nails holding the boards in were sticking up so high it was becoming a hazard. So last weekend Brien and I decided to tear it down... Hurray!! 

                                    

This was from last summer, yuck!

We were going to save the frame and just build over it, but it was in such bad shape and none of the posts were cemented in so when we had everything ripped out it just collapsed. I am so glad that no one was killed in the past 4 years of using it!

Callie was a little disappointed to miss the demo, she thought we would find treasures. Nope, just a bunch of trash, gross!

And deck be gone! It looks so weird out there without it! I am so ready to get some bids and a REAL patio to enjoy the last month of summer!

How I kept my children busy all day for $2

This week has been so strange without my eldest love here! Kellen takes really long naps and I have to keep him busy all alone, The struggle is real. Last week, though, we were determined to cram in every bit of fun we could before Callie left to visit our Texas family.

One of those days included the cheapest fun we've had in a long time. I am talkin' balloons people, 'cause that's where it at! We went to the store and Callie picked up a $2 pack of balloons and you better believe those came home with us.

First we had a raging game of balloon volleyball. It was pretty elaborate. I mean look at the score sheet...

 There were even brackets...The girl means business!

After Kellen woke up from his nap we filled our balloons with just a little bit of water and did balloon paintings. Kellen loved this!!

They made millions of beautiful pictures! Then it was outside to throw the water balloons, pop them, and make mud. Followed by blowing the balloons up and sitting on them to make them pop. I am telling you the possibilities were endless. This was the best 2 bucks I think I ever spent!

Summer closet additions

Oh thrifting, how I've missed you! Today was the first time in many moons since I have stepped foot in my favorite place and I added a ton of fun pieces for the summer and school year, some of them were thrifty and some not so much!

J. Crew light weight long sleeve $2

Forever 21 floral dress $5

Target sheath dress $5

Old Navy tank $2

Target tank $2

Kohl's tank $2

Limited top $2

American Eagle tee $2

Banana Republic tee $2

Target skirt $3

Target shorts $3, I almost bought these last week for $20, glad I waited!

Old Navy mint green capri pants $3, I can finally check these off the list!

Now for the not so thrifty...On the way to camping a few a weeks ago, I did a little online shopping in the car, hey it was 40% off, so I didn't feel too bad!

Old Navy Patterned shorts

Open front cardigan

Poplin cami dress

Lime green embroidered tank

Printed twill shorts

Target flamingo print button up

And there you have it! One thing I am actually looking forward to about going back to school is getting dressed every day in something that isn't a bathing suit or work out clothes!

The red dresser

Well this has been a true labor of love! I am finally done! At the beginning of the summer I set out to refinish our bedroom furniture and make everything more functional. I had been stalking craigslist and "junk" stores all summer to find a dresser to redo and turns out it was in my bedroom the whole time.

Originally, the mister and I bought new night stands and a new dresser at Ikea, thinking it would work just dandy. It turns out that we have more clothes than I thought! Even with a new huge dresser, we were still using the shelves I was hoping to get rid of in the closet. I didn't want to spend another $300 on a dresser, so I used the one we had!
                                                

Here's what I was workin' with...It was pretty and I love the shape and size, but the veneer was chipping, the top was cracking and it was in rough shape!

I did a LOT of research to find out how to paint and distress old furniture because I wanted this to come out great! Usually when I "refinish" furniture it involves a quick coat of sloppy spray paint and I call it good. But, because this piece was given to me by Callie's grandparents back when I was a single mom in need of furniture, I wanted to do the job correctly!

So instead of a week, this puppy has taken me almost a month to refinish. I think if I was actually working on it everyday, I could've gotten it done sooner, but this was a nap time/week day project.

First I sanded...

I sanded and sanded and sanded! All afternoon long with 60 grit sandpaper and my awesome guns, until I thought my arms would fall off. 

I contemplated using the stuff that you spray on and scrape off, but I was worried that it would damage the veneer, so the old fashioned way it was!

I wiped the dust, vacuumed the dust and I may have gotten out Brien's compressor and blew the dust off. (I totally did)

Then I primed...

This stuff is awesome!

I primed and primed and primed and using a regular old bristle paint brush, three coats and three days later we were ready for paint!

I used a paint mismatch from Lowe's and it was weird stuff. I don't know if was the kind of paint or what, but it seemed really thick, despite the texture it didn't cover very well, but I liked the color and it was $5!

So I painted...

I painted and painted and painted! Until I used up the whole darn can! Thankfully it was just enough for 4 coats of red-paint. I probably should have tinted the primer, but you know, hindsight!

Next I sanded and distressed. I got a little carried away here...I sanded down the edges using a palm sander and more 60 grit sandpaper and did spots on the top and sides and thought I should probably do the drawers to match. It's a little much, but the damage is done now and I actually really like how it came out!

I roughed up the red paint pretty good and then I stained it! I love how the stain deepened the paint color and made the primer showing through kind of an antique-y white.                 

                                                   

Here is the stain I used...

I just brushed it right on the whole surface using a cheap-y foam brush and then wiped it off after about 2 minutes with paper towel. I had to make peace with the fact that I was going to use up a whole roll of paper towel.

Letting it set...

Wipe it off, Voila!

After I finished the staining and distressing, I decided to seal it with Polyurethane. I have never used poly before, I am kind of an amatuer, but it is really cool stuff! I feel like the dresser can take a lot more wear and tear now!

After 3 coats, 1 a day for 3 days and then a week to cure. It's done!!!

I am so excited about my first "real" refinish job! I love it and it looks so great in our room!!!

I was going to replace all of the knobs and pulls, but the drawers are curved and the holes are a weird distance from each other, so I bought new glass knobs for the top drawers and reused the original pulls on the rest. I think it came together great!

Done and done! I am really excited for our last bedroom project and then our Master bedroom will be complete!!