Birthday Time!

So it's been an entire year since I started this blog....and I've managed not to keep up with any of the goals that I set for myself with this blog!  Bahaha, that's about right, isn't it!?  We make goals that seem so important at the time, only to realize that they become so insignificant as time goes by.

Over the past year my life has taken some seriously crazy turns- the biggest being the birth of our daughter, Penelope!  Ain't she gorgeous?

Born January 3rd, 2014

9lbs 5oz

21.5 in

She's been a huge blessing to our family, and is the cause of the collection of Samsonite baggage underneath my eyes- ba, new parenthood, awesome!

Besides the serious lack of sleep, it's been a pretty cool experience being a new parent.  It feels like only yesterday that she was kicking around my internal organs and causing some serious reflux- now she's kicking off blankets and teaching her Dad the importance of the wubbanub binky.

My one, tiny piece of advice for new parents- invest in an excessively large amount of DVDs and box sets!  Because let's face it- if you're gonna breastfeed, you'll be sitting on your rear for HOURS on end.  So far I've caught up on all 8 seasons of House, 4 seasons of Heroes, watched all the Harry Potter movies, and working on finishing all the seasons of Dexter....

So what's in store for the next year?  Raising this little nugget, moving to New York, continuing to work towards my Masters in Nursing Education, working (finding a new jobby job in NY), and taking advice from Dory- just keep swimming!

Baby Klim's Nursery

Happy New Year!  Wooty Woo!

Where has the time gone?!  Time has seriously been flying by around this joint.  It's been insanely busy around here- working, studying, traveling, crafting, painting, growing a baby, etc.- you know, the usual.

As for the pregnancy, it's been relatively easy (knock on lots of wood), minus a little run in with some kidney stones (which lead to my first ride in an ambulance- sweet!).  Now we have 3 more days until her due date....yeah, THREE DAYS...seriously.  The nursery is about 98% complete; we need to put up the rest of her wall art and pictures.  I use "we" loosely, because let's face it- dudes don't care about baby crap, and the hubs is no exception....womp.

I don't think I've shared what we (again, used loosely) picked out for her, but here's the fabric collection that I fell head over heels for and went all out-

   
I wanted something she can grow with- hence, no over-the-top pinky or baby themes (and NO PRINCESSES....I absolutely cannot stand princess crap, ugh).  I made her a few throw pillows (cause that's what babies want, decorative throw pillows) and a crib quilt with the Sarah Jane fabric.   



Then the kidney stones struck and I was stuck on my rear for a few weeks.  During this time, I became a human crappy-daytime-TV-guide....and embroidered my happy self to pieces!  I love the pirate girls in the Sarah Jane collection, so I embroidered and framed them for her wall.  Yes, ubber cool (crappy pictures, sorry).

With my kidney stone friends now embedded and not moving anytime soon, I decided to make her some crib bumpers.  Dear Jesus, why do the "easiest" projects have to be the hardest?!  Apparently being pregnant makes your ability to do simple math impossible; hence, I ended up driving back and forth to the fabric store to gather enough gray chevron fabric for the stupid bumpers.  But by golly, they look faaaaabbbulous!  :)

All the while, I've been refurbishing an old chest of drawers that we acquired from my in-laws.  The plan was to sand and paint it white, but after spending hours sanding the crap outta that thing, I fell in love with the natural Cherry wood that was underneath- gorgeous!  Several coats of semi-gloss polyurethane later (and hours of scrubbing nasty brass handles, thank you hubs), this is where our 'lil home girl will store her socks-

BEFORE 

("ewwwww")

AFTER

("ahhhhhh!")

Yeah.  Been kinda busy.  Oddly enough, I honestly don't think either of us are ready for her to actually arrive- but who really is really ready for a huge, life altering event?!  However, when I think about taking a deep breath without her kicking up into my diaphragm and getting indigestion, I am seriously ready for her to get here....

Happy New Years!
~Jacq.

Baby Klim!

Hey, ya'll! 

I've been MIA for a while, but I promise there is a good reason for it....
                                                                              we're expecting our first baby!

 

Our little nugget will be arriving January 4th, 2014, but with any luck the baby will decide to help its parents out on taxes and come in December 2013....no pressure, though.

I took the prego test in the morning after the hubs had already left for work, so I spent the entire day debating on how to break the news.  My mind was blank.  Completely and utterly blank.  But thanks to my two furry family members barking at my neighbors, the light bulb switched on.

I quickly made pink and blue pompoms, a simple sign, wrangled up the furry crew, and tied the decorations around their necks. They hated every single minute of it.  They whined, wheezed, complained, and attempted to destroy their "outfits" by rubbing against anything they could to get that crap off.

                                                       

Big Brother Barley Gump & Big Sister Lily Buggs

As you can see, Barley had already chewed off his pompoms.....

 

Thankfully we timed it nicely.  When the hubs walked in the door he was mauled by two excited furry kiddos, decked out with their "big brother/sister" signs! 

Best part ever-
The hubs read the signs and made the most horrible face one human could make.  Veins were popping outta his head, his ears turned beet red, and he glared at me with razors in his eyes.  I laughed, told him to read it again, and saw him transform into a much happier dude.

When I asked him about his first response, he said "I thought you had adopted another dog- I was pissed!"  Hahaha!  This man knows me way too well.....

So what are we having, you ask?

Well, the 'lil nugget decided to be coy and not cooperate for the first few ultrasounds.  However, modern science prevailed, and we found out last week that we're having a.......

We're over the moon excited about our little addition to the family and can't wait to meet her!  In the mean time, I'll be busy crafting my happy lil' nugget a room fit for a future Mrs. President....(yup, high hopes already for our baby girl)....

See ya'll soon!
~Jacq.

Ugly Beast ReDo

For several years we have owed the ugliest TV cabinet known to human kind.  We acquired the stupid beast years ago and have never really put it to good use.  Why not, you ask?  Because it was made for the bulky, old school TVs and doesn't fit a flat screen.  However, the bottom of the cabinet is roomy and good for storing crap, so I had a hard time launching the thing out the back door for good.

 

So what to do when you absofreakin'lutely hate a piece of furniture, but need the storage?  Refurbish, baby! 

 

My goal was to spend less than $50 on this project.  All said, I spent less than $25- just purchased a nice stainable wood slab for the top and a 1/4inch oak piece for the back. 

 

For starters, I pulled the back off, wacked the top off this beast, then ran inside and got my Google on.  I had never refurbished a piece of furniture before, so I relied on several blogs and YouTube videos to get me through it. 

 

(I was so excited about Office Space-ing this POS that I forgot to take pics of it when it had the back and doors on....oops..)

 

 

 

After getting some great ideas, I sanded (and killed my sander in the process...poo guy), primed and painted the cabinet with some paint I already had- white and light gray.  I got the "streaky" look by hand stirring the light gray into the pure white.  This was 100% by accident, but the look is pretty sweet!

 

 

 



 

 

I wanted a distressed/antique look, so I lightly sanded the edges and polished them with furniture wax.

 

 

 

For the top, I was going for a natural stain look, so I went with Minwax American something or other- it's the one on the far left.  I also screwed on the back, and put the doors back on this bad boy (with moral support from my 4-legged stinky bug).

 

 

 

 

 

Bazinga! 

New cabinet to hold my crap! 

 

 

...and I've seriously caught the furniture refurbishing bug....

 

'Till next time, ya'll!

~Jacq.

Cats On a Hot Tin Roof

Well that's what the sunshine looks like!  Ha! 

Life has been insanely busy lately, so I apologize for my slight departure from blog land.  If I sat here to type all the mess that's been going on in my life over the past month, I'd be here quite some time; hence, here's the run down:

1.  Finished (almost) the kitchen upgrade.  We have to throw a tile backsplash up, get rid of that awesome fluorescent lighting (maybe can lights?) and then we're dun, D-U-N, dun.  Check it outsies!

 

 

WhoooWeee, don't ya love that pasty linoleum floor and 80's Oak cabinets!  Dead freakin' sexy, people.

 

We wanted a neutral, yet updated look that would increase the value of this joint and be easy to rent (and sell) in the future.  We painted the cabinets white, started updating the appliances (so far only the fridge), installed a sweet black quartz countertop, and laid down new hardwood flooring.  Helloooo, love!  Check this baby out! (...and please don't mind our crap on the counters...)

 

 

2.  So let's chat about that floor, because it was almost the reason of a divorce.....

 

We purchased hand scraped hickory hardwood floors from Lowes and wanted to install them ourselves- fantastic idea, IF you weren't putting them in several areas of a home!  We put them down in the kitchen, den, hallway, bathroom, and foyer.  Holy poo, it was painful, but not as painful as the horrific job of putting up new shoe molding.  If I ever see a coping saw again I might keel over.

 

Here are some pics for ya:

 

Foyer-

 Hallway-

 

 

 

 3.  Updating the gross half bath.  I hated this bath.  It was plain, white, cheap, and ugly. Everything about it sucked- cabinet, mirror, lights, floor.  The toilet was okay, but let's face it- as long as the toilet works, it's all good!

 

As many of my family and friends already know, I'm cheap.  As in I won't pay full price for anything!  My first go-to in any store is the clearance/reduced section, and that's where I found pay dirt for this ugly bathroom.  The cabinet (minus the granite top) was regularly priced $500, however with a broken front drawer the reduced price was $220.  Um, no.  Still too pricey for my blood.  I haggled the price down to $180, and nabbed the granite top on sale for $120.  The drawer was super easy to fix, and ya can't tell a flip of difference. 

 

Another cheap grab was the $90 mirror I got for $18 at Target!  HA!  Not gonna lie, I think it was marked incorrectly, but hey- I'm not one to punch a gift horse in the mouth!

 

Ahhh, it's good to pinch some pennies!

 

 

 

Wow.  When you reduce all this stuff to pictures, it seems like it wasn't that much work. Ha! 

 

Anyhoo, life has been extraordinarily busy lately, and to pile on more mess to the insanity I just got into graduate school-  Gonzaga University to earn my Master in Nursing Education.  Wahooo!

 

'Till next time, y'all!

~Jacq!  

 

"Been busy as popcorn on a skillet."