Hola Saturday

I can't think of better bonding than sharing burgers with my siblings while our parents are in Maine. My sister grilled in a storm, just finishing as the rain stopped, of course. After dinner my husband, brother, and my sisters boyfriend played a little James Bond on N64... Retro, I know. We then left for the Eastern Shore Lanes, hoping to bowl a few games.
   Who knew, we were 12 days early, as their GRAND OPENING has yet to occur. As we pulled in we saw that the parking lot was loaded (how odd for a place that isn't even considered officially open). We came in and got on the long waiting list. In the mean time the boys played pool. And we moved on to arcade games. It was fun playing skeeball and other shooting games.  Mine and David's points bought a light up rubber ducky.  Jordan and Steve doubled our points and wound up with a fuzzy rubber ball and a pink alligator claw toy. I wish I had a photo of Pedro the gator. Grant has used Pedro as a "dummy" for his ventriloquist act. Pedro is quite an irritating character, Shocking.
    After waiting for far too long we skipped bowling and went to marble slab (minutes before closing.) then it was back to Mobile for more Bond on the 64. Well, it could have been worse, at least I have my duck.

Lunch at the Loop

MMO's

So the Husband took me to lunch (I invited myself). We decided to try the new place at the Loop, Mimo's (formerly the Cannon Grill). The atmosphere was great. There was an eclectic feel to it. It made me think of a lake or river cabin. There were large windows, brightly painted paneling and a brick column. I wish we could have sat by the window or at one of the old kitchen style tables, but our booth was cozy and did the job.

my lunch special...the Mimo burger

 I ordered a Mimo's burger and David ordered the Caesar salad and Rodeo burger (Every item on the menu sounded good). His Salad Came with fried onion strings...Amazingly good!

Oh the fries!

Rodeo Burger (on a yummy onion roll)

 Both of our burgers were delish. My sweet potato fries were perfect, not soggy or too dry. I actually could have just had the fries and would have been happy. We sadly didn't have time or stomachs for dessert. Next time, and there will be a next time, we will be getting dessert.

My  attempt to be in the picture of the background

I snuck a picture...

{ It's Summer }

101- you aint seen nothin' yet!

Scrabble date with the hubbers

A few of the carrots from the garden...thanks Dad

Headed to the Farm (War Eagle)

Cat Tails (meow)

No bird, you can NOT build a nest on porch...and make babies

ICE COLD!

weenies on the grill???

I-10 in Mobile, AL...beach traffic 5 miles long...

Hubbers catching...nothing.

Bubba and Hubs...baiting the crab trap... (p.u)

Happy 7th of July? Better late than never :/

Be My Guest...Room

After

Before

Back at it... I took a small blog hiatus, and upon returning,  I decided to rename my blog and catch up on what I have been up to. I have mostly been out shopping for our guest room re-do.
I have been pinning ideas for months and finally, I have been given the okay to decorate away. We sold Davids Granny's old bedroom suite to an old college buddy. I hated to see the beautiful American Drew pieces go, but I really wanted to better utilize my guest room, and use my own style.

 I found a great twin bed in Foley, AL. (The Green Ant), I thought I was going to go with a day bed, but this twin bed won me over. I painted an old beat up vanity desk with homemade chalk paint. It is a shade (or two) off from the bed, but it all works.
The windows now have linen drapes and a linen and nail head trim cornice board (which I made with a staple gun and stitch witch). All I need now is a pie/jelly/linen cabinet for art supplies and to hold the T.V. Almost there!

Entry

Dresser is going in the closet to make room for the cabinet

Cornice board and drapes (no sew)

Table Remix

Wrong coloring, lamps too small, bad accessories... all wrong!

Perfect lamp shape/size, great colors, fun staging!!! LOVE

This past fall I desperately needed a sofa table. So trying to be thrifty I painted over my high.glossed.particle board.desk which I received on my 12th birthday. I figured it would be okay to paint it (since it didn't go with my current decor). Above is what I came up with. It served its purpose until I grew tired of the beachy blue. Last Sunday (1/15/12) I decided that since I had a few hours before David returned from the camp I would conquer this little project. (Not to mention that I found some amazing PB knock off lamps at Old Time Pottery {$20ea} that needed a more adult look). I drug the desk outside and decided not to prime since I had only painted it a few months back. I rubbed a candle on the surface in a few placed where I would want to remove/distress the paint later. I used the leftover sample paint from the knobs of my dresser project to apply two coats (with a roller). I sprayed the dated looking brass handles black (which didn't go very smoothly, but I no one really sees the handles so I didn't fret). Once I had the dresser in place I decided it needed some distressing. I drug a chain across the top and scraped the surface where I had applied the wax. I finally stopped the destruction after 5 minutes and realized I had messed up. I had taken too much off and it looked like a 5 year old had destroyed it... I quickly went back to the garage, grabbed the paint and with a dry brush went back over the areas where too much blue was showing. The final finished turned out GREAT!!! I found things around the house to stage the table with and Voila! It was perfection.

In the daylight.

Accessories and a close up of the finish.

David is 24!

I can't believe David is already 24. I have my birthday next month and it is really hard to believe we have been married for 2 years. We really have grown up together and I am so glad to celebrate this milestone with my best friend. Happy Birthday David!

The banner his sweet mom made him!

Go Bama... Oh and happy birthday David

Opening the 2011 champion shirts I got him

Opening what I made

I painted him a watercolor of Trent's touch (for his office)

Watercolor of the National Championship Game

My mom bought these yummy cupcakes for us.

Painted Chest

before (it was quite beat up)

I have had in my mind for months that I would find a three drawer dresser to paint for my spare room. I looked and looked around town to find the right one.
Fortunately I work at a furniture consignment shop.

Every time consignor came by with a truck load of goodies I scanned all of the pieces looking for my gem.

Primed

Early November we had a man come by with a trailer filled with furniture he used to stage homes. There it was...my perfect dresser and better than it being the right shape it was already pre-priced from an email my boss had sent. At $150 I didn't wait another minute. I called David and after a huffy conversation he agreed to bring the Jeep to pick it up (I am the master of persuasion). So we got it home and it fit perfectly. Now the hard part...to paint or not to paint? Do I distress it or re-stain it and show off the maple wood? This just got tricky.

Finished product

    I took to the internet, scanning blogs, high-end furniture websites and Pinterest. After perusing techniques and finishes I finally decided to paint and distress the chest. After a trip to Lowes (where a nice man showed me everything I would need) I was ready to sand and prime. {side note: wear gloves to prime or buy paint remover.}

After prepping I stood the pieces up on four bowls to get it off the ground. Then I started to roll on my blue/gray semi gloss paint . I used a brush to get the tight corners. Once dry I realized that it was already perfect and I would be nuts to intentionally scrape and beat my shiny and fresh dresser. So there it was painted and perfect and that's how it would stay I finished the project by painting the knobs a brownish gray (remind me to only by sample size paint jars...cheap and the right amount). Once fully re-assembled I fell in love. This project turned out fantastic and was relatively easy!

The Start!

Well Hello! I have a blog, and I am learning what to do with it...

Since I practically use my Facebook as a blog I figured I should go ahead and make

 the move to blogging. I think this will be a good outlet for my photography/projects/commentary even if no one else reads it. I can't promise my spelling will be good or my grammar will always be perfect but that is so not the point of this. I also want to somewhat document the tales that I have to tell. It's good to have a place to share what's going on with me and David (the husband). So that is the start. That is the driving force for this blog and I look forward to sharing the good the bad and the (in my opinion) utterly hysterical!

...and a picture for visual interest.