Mistakes to learn from, #1 Bedroom Floors

Like any do it yourself home improvement project we have run into our fair share of Oop’s and setbacks. I don’t like to linger on the mistakes but to learn from them instead but I do want to touch base with the idea of remembering so that we don’t repeat them and hopefully somebody else can learn from them and avoid making the same ones.

Mistake #1 – Wood floors in the bedrooms.



Two of my workers



There are two bedrooms upstairs that are connected by a small hallway. In one of the bedrooms we had taken the carpet out about 15 years ago and finished the wood floor for my grandmother, the other room we had just ripped up the carpet that weekend. We did everything you are supposed to do, we rented a sander to bring them both to bare wood status and had the same two people do both rooms staining and wiping them. But unfortunately something went wrong, one room turned out a perfect Dark Mahogany color the other turned out almost black and splotchy. We tried adding more color to the lighter room and stripping some color from the other room but in the end the foreman ended up just sanding room #2 back down to bare wood and starting again. While there is still a difference in colors it turned out much better the 2^nd time.

Half way between the two coats

Master bedroom after finished and sealed

We aren’t really sure what caused the difference, one opinion is the can of stain didn’t get mixed enough in the 2^nd room, another is the wood that had been covered by carpet drank up the stain easier than the wood that had been exposed already, but whatever it was it put us back over a week and reminded us to go slowly and don’t take anything for granted.

Look back at Birthdays

Well the last of the Holiday activities just wrapped up for us this past weekend, “A’s” birthday is the end of January so I usually clump it together with the rest of the season, after all Christmas and New Years are barely over when I start working on the festivities for his b-day party. This year we did something a little different (more on that in a later post) but I wanted to look back over each special day and remember the awesome events that they were.

Birthday #1 – It was pretty typical as far as 1^st birthdays go, planned for later in the day so that a nap could occur (of course it didn’t), more adults than children and lots and lots of pictures. What I remember the most from the special day is the very hard lesson that I learned, I was working as the manager for a store at the mall and had to go into work the morning of his birthday because somebody else called in sick, I was so devastated that I might miss his big day that it helped me realize that I needed to get out of retail and do something that was more conductive to raising a family and didn’t come with all kinds of crazy nights and weekends. I turned in my resignation the next week, this was the 1^st step I made towards going back to school and it’s a decision that I haven’t regretted at all.

My other favorite memories from that day include him eating the small cake I made for him, he didn’t like how sweet it was and he cried when the frosting got on him, he did however pick off all the rainbow sprinkles that were on top of it. We put him straight into the kitchen sink, clothes and all to get some of the frosting off of him and he passed out in his playpen right in the middle of the party. I also remember my cousin laying on her stomach thru the entire cake ordeal snapping tons of photo’s for me so that I didn’t have to worry about that and could just enjoy being there with him. One of the many reasons I love her and my little sister who drove 8 hours home from College just to be with us for his birthday.

Birthday #2 –Nemo Theme - and I really went overboard. I bought a large round aquarium to use for punch (which of course was made to look like water and even froze Swedish fish in ice cubes so there was fish swimming around in it). I made and hung orange fish from the ceiling with lots and lots of green crepe paper to look like you were under water. I even purchased a bunch of goldfish and gave them out as party favors to the guests. We still have a lot more adults than kids but everybody had fun.

Birthday #3 – Superhero Theme – He couldn’t decide between a Spiderman theme and a Superman theme so we just made it a general superhero theme, the catch though was that everybody (kids and adults) had to come dressed as their own personal superhero, or who they would be if they were a superhero. People were pretty good sports and participated for the most part. The big kid activity was decorating cookies, a good idea until the red frosting got everywhere, all the pictures of the kids they all have red all over their mouths. Still more adults than kids but getting a little bit better.

Our "Super" family

Birthday #4 – Pirate Theme – The first of many obsessions he had, he was obsessed with all things pirate for a good 3 years and even made people call him Jack Sparrow (from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”). He thought all pirates were good and didn’t like the cartoon movie “Peter Pan” because it portrayed the pirates as the bad guys. This was a easy theme to do because the movie had just hit it big and there was pirate stuff everywhere. I sent the invitations out in plastic bottles, had people come dressed as pirates, did a treasure hunt, made a pirate ship cake, and did all pirate themed snacks. The really big thing for this birthday is I found a guy who did impersonations to come and pretend to be Captain Jack Sparrow. Andrew has seen him that fall at the fair and was absolutely enthralled with him, it took me 3 months and every contact I had at the news station (I was working there doing an internship for their radio department) to find him but it was absolutely worth it. He knocked on the door and the look on Andrews face when he opened it to Captain Jack was worth all the work and stress I had put into the event. The guy was truly amazing and did an incredible job, he never broke character and to this day the kids who were there still talk about it.

Birthday #5 – Pirates Theme (again)

Birthday #6 – Transformers Theme – This was the first birthday party that wasn’t at my parents house, so that brought a new group of stresses and chaos to the plate but it was also nice to not have to spend the entire morning setting up and then the entire night cleaning up. We went to the local roller skating rink, it was a ton of fun and almost everybody skated. My niece and nephew (technically my cousin’s kids) were so impressed that they both had their birthdays there as well. I made an Optimus Prime cake that turned out really well. Kids to adult ratio is finally starting to balance out a bit more.

Birthday #7 – Indiana Jones Theme – Now I’m in love with the ease of which you can have a party somewhere besides your home. This one was at a place at our local mall that acts as a kids drop center where they can play while mom and dad shop and on Sundays it is only open for private parties to reserve. They have a air hockey table, a climbing and tube crawl area, video games, a movie area, dress ups stuff, and tricycles to ride so kids of all ages were able to play and participate. The only bad thing about this was that it was so broken up that I didn’t really get to visit with everybody. Andrew was supposed to be Indiana Jones for Halloween this year but woke up with the chicken pox that morning so he got to wear his costume to his party instead. I made all the invitations and even made and sewed little whips onto each one, a great idea but a ton of work. This was also special for me because a little girl, well not so little anymore, that I used to babysit for and who was supposed to be a flower girl in my wedding way way way back when, works there and had just found out that she was pregnant with her 1^st baby. There is more kids here than adults because we invited a lot of kids from school.

Birthday #8 – Hockey Theme – This was his first year playing on an actual hockey team so of course we had a hockey theme. We had it at a local place called Jump-n-Play, it’s a large warehouse that has 5 large bouncy things plus a toddler area. It’s safe to say that the adults had just as much fun if not more fun than the kids did, some of us still have scars from that day to prove it, who knew you could bleed from a large inflatable slide. It was such a hit that we had my nephew Josh’s 3^rd birthday there as well as several other kids who were there that day. Kids outnumber the adults, finally.

Invitation that I made for the party

Birthday #9 – No big party for all our friends just a long relaxing weekend spent at a hotel/waterpark with our entire family. It was just what the Dr ordered to be sure.

1942 Frigidaire Oven

The holidays have not been good to my poor little house, what I mean by that is with all the activities that tend to go along with this exciting and busy time of year not much progress has been made. I am not upset by this, it is by choice, it was an easy decision to make, the painting will still be there but I will never get another Christmas with my son being eight so I am going to enjoy it every opportunity I can get. This was also a huge relief and help to my family, they didn’t need to feel guilty that they weren’t working on the house every time they attended a Christmas party or got together with some friends. Now that the holiday are over it is time to turn my attention back to the task at hand, the house. We have 3 more projects to complete before it will be move-in ready.

1.       Tile the Kitchen floor

2.       Rip out the carpet and re-finish the living room floor

3.       Remove wallpaper and paint living room

One major thing that did happened this week was we got the oven working. The oven is original to the house and has always been one of my favorite things about it however it wasn't currently working. The burners worked but the oven itself wasn’t working on my beautiful 1942 Frigidaire oven. Trying to track down parts or a mechanic who could/would work on it was a real challenge and the idea of getting rid if it was not even an option. I love to bake so not having a working oven has been a major point of stress for me the last few months. My foremon suggested that we have the electrician who was doing some other work for us look at it, and a great idea it was for sure. It took him less than 20 minutes to get it back to working order plus he was able to check all the wiring and confirm that everything is safe to use. So now not only does my oven work but so does the task light, the timer, the clock, and the 110v outlet on the front. It still needs a little TLC but at least now it works.



How is that for the best post-Christmas present ever?

Fashion Week - Vegas Style

I have an exciting announcement to make, I will be heading down to Las Vegas for a week in February to go to market with Maggie, the wonderful owner of "The Shanty" the greatest little boutique in Newport Washington. When I heard the news my mind immediately went to what would I wear? Since it is January and its kind of hard to get spring and summer inspiration around here right now (it is currently snowing out my window) I went straight to the internet for inspiration. Besides all my favorite fashion blogs (here, here, & here) I found this great post from the Singer 22 blog, its their top 5 pics on what to wear to NY Fashion Week (ironically the same week). Of course Vegas and the west coast style is definitely different from NY style but I got some great ideas from here non the less.

I will do many more posts on this subject I'm sure so stay tuned and tell me if you have a favorite fashion blog.

RIP Mickey Mouse

It occured to me today that while I blog a lot about fashion (here, here, & here) and the progress of the house (here) I haven't done much on what I am really passionate about, my son, also refered to as "A" on here. I was reading the blog "Surving Motherhood" by Alli  (a former a high-heeled wearing, cell phone slinging, Associate Art Director at a national magazine. Now a snot wiper and poop checker to two boys full-time) and after reading her story (here) was reminded of this funny incident when "A" was about 2 or 3.

We had only been in our new house a little over a year and Cam and his friend were hanging out there one day while I was at work and saw a mouse, so like the men (aka overgrown boys) that they are they grabbed a hockey stick and chassed it around the house whacking at it but finally losing it. There day continued on they forgot to tell me about the incident.

The next morning I was standing in a coma state watching the coffee pot brew, one of those morning when you are just waiting until there was a cup full to steal out of the pot when "A" came up to me in his little pj's crying and  holding a dead mouse. I didn't really handle it that well and totally screamed like a girl (scared my poor little guy pretty badly too). I appologized for scaring him and said I was sad too that there was a mouse in the house and he said, "No mommy this is Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse is dead.", truly one of those moments when you realize the difference between a 3 year olds mind and that of an adult. Cam was very appologetic for forgetting to mention the mouse thing to me later that day but the damage had already been done. It took us several years and a trip to Disneyland to convince "A" that Mickey Mouse was indeed not dead.

One of my favorite thing about blogging and reading other peoples blogs are those reminders that you are indeed not alone out there.

Hot & Cold Hooks

Last Wednesday night I had the wonderful opportunity to have dinner with my little sister and her son, we do spend a lot of time together (especially now that we are all living under one roof) but its usually with the rest of the family so some time to ourselves was a wonderful treat.  The four of us went to Josh's favorite, Panda Express, sometimes its just easier to give in than deal acting his age (he's 3) somewhere else. :) We were enjoying our rare sister time so much that we decided to go to the TJ Maxx that was right there and hit up their clearance sale where I am excited to say that i found the most wonderful set of shower curtain hooks ever.



Restoration Hardware "Hot & Cold Shower Curtain Rings"

 I had seen this set before Christmas as Restoration Hardware for $24 but made the mistake of not grabbing them and have regretted it ever since. They are fun and kinda quirky while still giving a kick back to the 1940's theme I seem to have going on, plus they match my sink and shower handles perfectly. So when I saw this set on clearance for $4 I grabbed them immediately. While there are some slight differences between the two the general idea is definately there. I still do not like the idea of hiding my awesome tile behind a shower curtain but at least now I am excited to hang these.


Now I just have to find a rod and a shower curtain, any ideas?

January Clearance Sales

January can sometimes be a hard month, there is always the let down that comes after Christmas and you still have 3 or 4 more months of bad weather to look forward to but there are 2 shining lights that get me thru this dreary month, #1 is A’s birthday & #2 is all the clearance sales. I have had pretty good luck so far and I’ll probably share more later but one thing that really stands out in my mind are these great little jeweled flats. I have had my eye on the Steve Madden version since early fall and at $79.95 they were a pretty good deal but when I found them on clearance at Target last week for $4.95 I was extremely excited.

Target version for $4.95

Steve Madden version for $79.95

I wore them to work the very next day and got tons of compliments, a great way to dress up a simple outfit without being too over the top and all for the cost of a cup of coffee.