Thursday, January 27, 2011

Another Project Bites The Dust

This past summer I found this for $25 at our local Goodwill. This is the only before shot I have and it's from my camera phone. I meant to take some more before shots but I forgot, and as usual just jumped into the project. I need to work on my picture taking!!!

Here are some interesting details about this whatch-ma-call-it. Back in it's day (the 70's according to a manufacturers sticker on the bottom) this was a snazzy stereo player. The sides were fabric speakers, and the inside had the shelves and wiring for the stereo. The top is like an old dry-sink. Very cool and definitely unusual.

Using the same bead board idea as the china hutch we completely gutted the inside and ripped out the speakers. Once B had installed the bead board, we (and I use this word loosely) added a shelf inside for extra storage. And that's it. That is all it took for a quick update.

Here's where I come in, time for some paint. Everyone know B does not paint, he absolutely hates it. I on the other hand have a painting sickness. For me it's instant gratification. I love it!

So anywho, I gave the bead board and inside a quick prime, then painted the bead board black. After everything dried, I used some of the blueish-green oopps paint I bought for $2.50. Everything got two coats of paint and several hours of drying. Once it was mostly dry, I broke out my sanding block to give it a good scuffing up. I couldn't get the groves of the bead board very well so I just ran a screw driver down the length of each seam. Perfecto!

I couldn't wait to get the doors back on and the sweet little crystal knobs in place, but alas it had to dry a bit more.

After a day of drying completely I put everything together and here is what I came up with!

What's that you ask? Where did I get that huge mirror? That's another Goodwill find from this summer. Set me back $9.00 and about 30 minutes of scraping some horrible silver paint off the mirror. After a couple coats of spray paint, even I couldn't believe how gorgeous she looked.

These two together are a match made in Heaven! I am completely enamored!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Here's a story, of a little baby...

Let me start by saying, no we are not expecting another baby in the near future. There that should take care of any hopes and dreams for all you grandparents out there. I would just like to chronicle Eli's baby story so I don't forget. As if!

So without further ado here's...Elijah Alvin Worner. Oh, and be forewarned, there will probably be a LOT of pictures in this post. I just can't help myself.



Isn't he just the sweetest, cutest most adorable baby born on June 3, 2007 at 1:49 in the morning? Even from the beginning he was ready for pictures. I will say over the years his opinion of pictures has changed (I'll show you later what I mean).

This had to be one of the easiest pregnancies ever! I had no problems and no sickness, my only difficulty was gaining weight. Imagine that (by the way this is not a difficulty nowadays). At my last doctors appointment it was determined that Eli was in the breach position so we scheduled a c-section for the next week. I have to say that I was a little disappointed that I had to have a c-section, but at that point there wasn't really any other options.



Here we are the morning of "delivery." I think we got up at 3:30 just so we could be at the hospital by 5 AM. I would just like to point out that out of the 18 pounds I gained, I'm pretty sure that 11 of these settled in my face. Talk about puffy!

Once we arrived at the hospital and got all checked in I was wheeled up to triage to be tortured with needles by the nurses. After having 2 veins blow they brought in an anesthesiologist and lickidy split she had my IV in. After this round of torture I remembered Dr. Esper saying, "make sure they do an ultrasound to make sure the baby hasn't moved." DUH!

I wish I had thought of this before all of the poking because I could have saved us some time and pain seeing as our little rascal flipped on his own! Thank the Lord! When Dr. Esper arrived she came to see us immediately to tell us that there would be no c-section, but guess what "you're in labor." Apparently I had been in labor all week, but just didn't realize what it was. I guess I should have read more books. Oh well, maybe next time.

Since I was in labor but the doctor on call was my least favorite, Dr. Esper suggested I go home and walk my toes off then come back the next day when she was on call. Did I mention that Dr. Esper is the best doctor ever? I totally love her (she also delivered my cute little nephew Jacob six months after Eli). So that's what we did.

While we were in triage my grandparents (who live and hour and a half away no less) arrived. How cool was that? They had driven up the night before just so they could be there when Eli was born! My Grandma and Papa rule! Since they were here and we were leaving we got to grab breakfast together. After that we hit the mall to start our marathon.

Long story longer... I know I can blather on sometimes, but bear with me.

Next day we went to the hospital around 1 o'clock after running errands all morning. Once we settled back into to triage my blood pressure dropped drastically and that was that. We would be stuck in the bed for the rest of the day. Do you want to know what I said to that..."epidural now please." That's right I went for the drugs early. Best decision ever.

From the time we were admitted at 1 PM I didn't start pushing until around 1 AM. When we reached what I like to call "go time" B and my mom stayed with me to help hold my legs up. Kind of hard to do this on your own, when you can't feel a darn thing. So anyway push, push, push and nothing happened. After pushing for about 45 minutes, Dr. Esper said that if she couldn't get Eli out with the vacuum then she would have to do a c-section. AAHHHGGG! So I pushed like a champion and Dr. Esper vacuumed the little fellow right out. Yeah! Eli came out weighing 6 pounds 12 ounces.

And there you have it the story of Eli, not to be confused with the Book of Eli (there was way more blood in the movie).

Now if you lasted through this whole post I'll reward you with some of my favorite pictures. I will say that when you have a picture taking problem like I do, it makes it very hard to pick out my favorites from over 3,000 shots! Just saying.


Eli at 6 days


Eli at 6 weeks


Eli at 5 months


Eli's 1st Birthday


Eli's 2nd Birthday


Eli's 3rd Birthday


And proof that he's not crazy about having his picture taken anymore!

Friday, January 21, 2011

A New Year, A New Post....FINALLY!

So let me just start by saying, that over the last few months I have blogged daily. In my head! Seriously over the past few months I have written thousands and thousands of words. Again, in my head!

So my goals for this new year is to be more consistent with all my projects (blogging, building, painting, picture taking and sewing just to name a few).

Let me start off with a project I have been working on.....



Isn't she beee-you-tee-ful. I found this little gem on Craigslist for a grand total of forty bucks! Unbelievable!

I had been looking for something similar to this for a while, and every time I would find a piece I liked it was way more money than I wanted to spend (did I mention I'm a tight wad). Needless to say when I came across the listing I jumped on it so fast it made B's head spin.

After some cajoling on my part, B agreed to go with me to pick it up (i.e. do the heavy lifting). So it turned out there was a little damage to the sides of the china hutch and it could use a little extra support but still for only forty buckaroos it was a no brainer. She was going home with us! Yay!

B came up with the bright idea to cover the sides with bead board (a personal favorite of mine), and fix the bottom support for the legs. Simple as that and she was ready to paint. I broke out all my materials and went to work right away.



I got everything done, but I forgot to finish the drawer. So she sat this way for several months because I get easily side-tracked.

But today, yes today I FINISHED A PROJECT! Please someone pat me on the back, or I'm going to start tooting my horn to everyone I see and talk to.

After I painted the drawer, I gave her a quick sanding and scuffed up the edges nicely. Then I broke out the glaze. This was my first time using a glaze and I'm happy to say it was easier than I anticipated.

Now after months of sitting half finished here is what she looks like today.



"Isn't she lovely. Isn't she wonderful. Isn't she precious. Less than one minute old." Sorry, sometimes I just break into song, but Stevie nails how I feel after I complete a project.

Here's an upclose on the drawer pulls. Don't you love the vintage girly look of them?


So anywho...here is the start to a new year, and a new post!