Pinterest Challenge: Toy Cabinet Refinish

I did it!  I finally finished the last big project for Zeek's room and I couldn't be happier!  (Because I'm done and because I love it!)  This one has taken a few months to finish.

Not because it was that huge of a project - I think I spent about 5 actual days on it - but because I had to wait for 2 things: good weather and a free afternoon.  Those things don't seem to come in pairs to often around here in the spring.

I had been searching for the perfect chest/cabinet/buffet for Zeek for several months.  It was one of those "I'll know it when I see it" kind of ordeals.  Couldn't explain it to my parents to keep an eye out for, just had to find it with my own eyes.  

I had seen this awesome cabinet that was posted by a friend on facebook (which led to her friends online shop "It Is Dwell", and I "pinned" the photo so I wouldn't lose it!):

Source: etsy.com via Kayla on Pinterest

I LOVED this cabinet.  Unfortunately, listed at $350, it was way beyond my price range.

After months of searching, I finally found it.

It was sitting in a crammed space with a few kitchen tables and chairs and other small cabinets at the St. Vinnie's store in Albany.

And it was marked 1/2 off, making it only $25!  Definitely more my price range.

But, don't get too excited yet.

It was ugly.

Really, really ugly.

The whole thing had a layer of really disgusting finish, which was peeling badly on the top.

BUT - it was a very well-built, sturdy piece of solid wood - no particle board here!  (Something I try to avoid at any cost!)

I hauled this thing to my dad's house and enlisted some help:

My eight year old niece!

She helped me carefully apply stripper to the entire cabinet and scrap all the gunk off.

I forgot to wear long sleeves and unfortunately, I always manage to get some of the stripper on me.

Have you ever been burned by that stuff?!  I'm a pretty tough cookie, but that stuff makes me yelp and run for water in a split second! 

Take note, if you plan on refinishing any furniture!  Wear long sleeves and long pants, even if it's hot!! :)  

Here's how it turned out after we finished stripping it:

It was really very pretty mahogany (I think...) wood, and had I not already had a plan for this guy, it would've been the perfect candidate to just re-stain.  Maybe some day in the future if it is demoted (or promoted?!) from being Zeek's toy cabinet!

The inside was pretty ugly, but since it was just going to hold baskets of toys, I decided not to waste time and paint by doing the insides of the doors and cabinet.

 After it was completely dry, I primed the cabinet with Kilz.

Then spray painted the area for the white stripe. 

Once it was dry, dad and I carefully taped off the lines and I painted the rest of the cabinet.

The knobs on the top doors were permanently attached, so I decided to spray paint the bottom knobs (which came off) white to match also.

Then it sat on my back porch for about a month, waiting for the perfect opportunity for some touch up paint... 

And the other day, I finally finished it!

Finding baskets that fit was no easy task though.

I went to probably 8-10 different stores looking for baskets.

I'm still not completely set on the ones I found, but for now they are in there (with price tags still attached!)... we'll see if any better surfaces in the next week or two. :)

Here she is all set up in Zeek's room:

Details:

Canvas baskets for the top shelves fit perfectly - they hold stuffed animals and light/small toys.

Galvanized buckets for the bottom cupboards... These are the ones I'm still iffy about.  I like the looks of them, but don't feel they utilize the space all that great...but try finding a 17x17x15 basket!!! It's impossible! :(  I'm still keeping my eyes out...

(Like I said, the inside of the cabinet isn't super pretty...but it doesn't bother me. :)

I took out the ugly metal grates and cloth that used to be in the cabinet doors.

These are two sheets of galvanized metal, cut to size and held up by a supporting piece of plywood behind it.

I have some ideas to make some fun magnets for Zeek now. :)

Anyway, THAT is my (ok, Zeek's) new toy cabinet!!

I am obsessed with the color of it and am trying to decide what else in my house could get a coat of the paint... ;)

Cost:

Inspiration piece - $350.00

My piece -

• cabinet - $25
• quart of paint - $10
• spray paint - $4
• 2 sheets of metal ($10 ea.) - $20

Total cost: $59.00

Of course, this doesn't include the baskets...but I figured I'd have to buy those for the other cabinet too, so I didn't include them in my cost...but if you're curious, the white fabric baskets were around $8 from Wal-Mart and the galvanized tubs were $15 at Target... Another reason why I'm still searching for new bottom tubs - $30 was a little more than I wanted to spend for 2. 

Anyway, I'm pleased (and SO glad it's finally done!).  Only a few more things to do now. :)

I finally feel like he's got a decent big boy room now!  Such a huge progression from where it started.

Ok, now it's off to pack!  We're leaving in an hour for a couple nights and all I have to show for my packing so far is a mound of laundry on my bed!  YIKES!

See ya! :)

Love, 

K

OMG, It's Totes Driving Me Cray Cray!

I'm just kidding.

Really.

I can't stand that talk as much as you can't.

And neither can my friend Michelle.

And she wrote a hilarious post about it yesterday.

So hilarious, I decided it was finally time to introduce you to her.

She always writes the most hysterical posts.

Like this funny, (but sad) story about her zombie eyes.

Or read about her wedding day horrors here, here and here, which will make you laugh, cry, want to punch a few people, and realize how awesome she is for handling it so well.

But back to yesterday's post.

On my list of words that drive me insane include (but are not limited to!):

 

totes

cray cray

adorbs

hubs

hubby

preggo

 

I know there are more... but I can't think of them...

But seriously, go pop over to Michelle's blog and read her reaction to the use of the above words by bloggers...

As a major English nerd myself, I can completely relate to her annoyance! :)

 

Love,

 K

P.S. Hope you all are having a good week!!  I am having a crazy busy week (again), but I finished one more project in Zeek's room yesterday, so stay tuned - I will share it later today! :)

 

A Little Rain Don't Stop Me!

We headed out to go camping with my whole family on Friday afternoon, even though the weather forecast looked like this:

We got there and, as we figured, it was pouring.  We set up our tent, my sister's tent and two pop up tents and some walls as quickly as we could to start making some dry ground.   Within the first five minutes of being there, Zeek was running and slipped and knocked his forehead directly on the tow hitch ball on the back of the Tundra... instant blue and purple bruise and a nice goose-egg for the poor guy.  

The kids played in the rain and sand for a couple hours until my parents arrived with their RV.  

We sat in the pop up's and watched the puddles deepen and widen...

After my parents got there, we finished setting up some more dry area's and hung some more tarps.

We hung out by the firepit for the evening, had some awesome chili and cheese biscuits for dinner and tried to stay dry.

It poured all night long; which was very soothing to fall asleep to the rain on our tent!

We stayed dry and warm and cozy inside. :)

Zeek woke up HAPPY!  He loves waking up inside of tents!

 It was still dumping, so we built a fire and dad, Krista and I made breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, rhubarb coffee cake, and fresh raspberries and blueberries for on the pancakes!  We feasted.  :)

Part way through eating, I started having issues keeping Zeek content on my lap, because he just wanted to get down and run around.  Mom disappears into her RV for a minute and returns with this little kid size plastic chair.  "Maybe this will help?"  she suggests.   I immediately wedge it over the picnic table bench and ask her for a belt.

In no time, we have ourselves our very own white-trash high chair!  I just sat him in it and strapped him in.  Zeek didn't seem to know the difference between this and the one at home. ;)

After breakfast, my sister decided she'd had enough of the pouring rain and packed up her things and her kids and headed home.  My parents were up for braving it out and we were fine with staying too...

and of course, within an hour of Krista leaving, the rain stopped completely.

Mom and dad, Skyler, Zeek and I headed to town to see if we could find some rain boots in Zeek's size, since I didn't have any for him.  After about 7 stores, with no luck, we ended up in nearby Astoria.  Skyler hadn't been to the Astoria tower before so we headed up there.  I only vaguely remembered it from when I was there when I was in elementary school.

We climbed the 164 steps to the top.

Dad got an extra 25 lb weight in his workout...

View from above... :)

By the time we made it back down, the clouds were really breaking up and it was starting to get warm.

Since we were in Astoria, we decided to make a couple stops at some film locations!

First stop:

The Goonie's house!

Just down the road is the school that was used in the filming for Kindergarten Cop.  We didn't get out, but we drove around the entire school.

Then we stopped in downtown Astoria, got some lunch and ate it at the docks and enjoyed the sunshine!!

Then as we were heading back to the campground, we went into the next town over (I don't remember the name!) and saw the ramp/jetty from Free Willy.  (From the very end of the movie where they are releasing Willy into the water and he has to jump over the rock jetty.

Who knew there were so many movie filmed in such a small radius?!  I only previously knew about The Goonies before heading there this weekend.

Back at camp we made an early dinner and then went to the nearby beach - Peter Iredale.

There is a shipwreck on the beach from long ago, and Skyler immediately hopped over to climb on it...

We very much enjoyed our little weekend away - even despite the rain!  It stayed nice the rest of the weekend, except for a light rain while we were sleeping that night, and then as we were driving out it started sprinkling again.  We lucked out and had a great weekend!  Can't wait for more camping.

I love pretending to be homeless. ;)

Source: someecards.com via Sandra on Pinterest

Love, K

P.S.  Here's a lil video I took when we got home last night.  Skyler was chasing the ball Zeek kept throwing and Zeek was rolling in laughter!  I LOVE this boy's laugh!

Keeping Your Cards.

A long while ago, I ran into this picture on Pinterest:

Source: somethingturquoise.com via Kayla on Pinterest

Such a simple idea, but so smart!  I have always been one to save cards that I get.  Any type of cards:  thank-you's, Christmas letters, birthday cards, "just sayin hi" cards...all of them.  I kept them in both my file cabinet and a box for a long time.  This week, I finally decided to go through my giant stack of cards to make sense of them all, if I was going to keep them!  (Which, I was.  I am a sentimental girl about certain things. :))

So, I dug out all my cards...

Bought some rings (2 pack for $1.79 from Jo-Ann's) and some packs of chipboard (pack of 5 for $1.50 from Michael's).

I sorted all the cards into different topics, hole punched, make labels with my Silhouette cutter and put the books together...

I love how they turned out, and that I get to treasure the details of all of these cards in a more organized and special way now.

The "Wedding" book... Friends' wedding invites, photos, bridal shower invites, wedding programs... Anything related to their wedding!  This is probably my favorite book so far.  I organized it all by my friends' wedding dates.

This is my other favorite book.  I'm a sucker for sweet sentimental cards and Thank You notes always are just that!

So far, the books I have made are:

• Wedding Invites
• Thank You's
• Ezekiel's Baby Cards (Baby showers and when he was born)
• Ezekiel's Birthday Cards
• Skyler's Birthday Cards
• Kayla's Birthday Cards
• Christmas 2009, 2010 and 2011 (I'm keeping them as separate books for each year)

The books I have still to make are:

• Our wedding cards (need to dig them out from our keepsake box in the garage!)
• Thinking of you cards
• Him & Her cards (letters and notes between Skyler and I)
• Compassion International letters (the letters from the little boy in the Philippines I've sponsored for like 8 or 9 years!)
•  Grandma Harriet letters/cards (Grandma Harriet is Skyler's great grandma.  Her and I were penpals from just before we got married in 2009, until this past fall when she passed away.  She told so much of the family history and stories as she wrote and I want to make a special book just for her correspondence).
• Graduation cards/announcements
• Friends' kid's birthday invites

I'm sure over time there will be more that come up, but so far I'm loving how they are turning out.  Way better to keep them in this book-fashion instead of just shoved in a file cabinet.  :)

What do you think?

'Cause we like adventure.

So I planned one.

For Father's Day.

I kept the plans a secret, because it's our favorite way to torture each other.

We started with breakfast - scrambled eggs and avocado, cooked zucchini/squash, and sausages.

Then headed out around 10 am, south on I-5.

After an hour drive, we took a pit stop (aka, pregnant lady bathroom break) at Cabela's!

The one and only in Oregon, and I had not yet been.  The one in Spokane is far better, but there were still a fair share of taxidermied animal's to interest Zeek with while daddy gazed and dreamed in the guns and hunting section.

We got back on the freeway again.

This time for an hour and a half, before we finally made it to our exit, 140 miles away from home.

It was at this time that Ezekiel finally decided he was ready to close his eyes and take a nap....

.....................

No matter how long the drive, it always seems he doesn't fall asleep until we are 5 minutes from our destination.

Without fail.

Sigh.

So, we let him sleep for 25 minutes because we are that nice. ;)

But then we had to wake him up because there was fun to be had!!

We were at Wildlife Safari!

Bonus: we found out they were letting dad's in for free, and children under 3 are free, so we only had to pay for me!

Flamingo's are my favorite to watch!  They have them at my beloved little Jungle Gardens in Sarasota, FL, and they just wander around and come right up to you!

We explored the petting zoo and park for a bit...

First thing we did was get Zeek his smashed penny (but of course!).

Zeek and daddy learned to milk a cow...

We petted the goats, llamas, pony's and "oinked" and the pigs. 

We took a train ride - Zeek's first!

He is so fascinated by trains.  He couldn't stop staring at it.

Then it was time to hop in the car and do the best part!  Drive through all the animals!
I will admit that I was a little disappointed that some of the really cool animals were as caged as they were - felt you could see them better at the zoo (lions, cheetahs, hippo).

BUT, the rest of the animals were really cool to look at!

This giraffe was so close to us, and we got to see it being fed!

It literally passed the road like 2 feet in front of our car!  SO cool.  We sat here and watched it for about 15 minutes.

Then we took one more little stroll around the park before we left...

 I love these little strollers!  They have the same ones at Jungle Gardens and I have some pictures of myself Zeek's age, sitting in them!

We stopped at McMenamins for dinner!  Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty queasy and nothing sounded good...so I ordered some ginger ale and hummus/pita while Skyler scarfed his pulled pork burger and Porter beer.

Then we made our final stop for the day:

Colliding Rivers in the town of Glide.

Colliding Rivers is just as it sounds - it's where the North Umpqua River and Little River meet head on and then flow together as one river in another direction...

It was beautiful there.  We walked around for a bit and splashed in the icy cold water.

 I love this smirk of his!

Then we headed home a little after 7 and pulled up at 9:30, just in time for bedtime. ;)

These are mine (and Skyler's) favorite days.

An adventure, with the fam, going to unexplored territory.

No real agenda, just taking it all in and enjoying our time together.

New ventures, even if it means driving 2.5 hrs to get there. :)

Skyler said he had a perfect Father's Day.  

I'm so glad, because he is an amazing father and really deserved a GREAT day. :)