Easter!

Easter egg hunt at the Roberts house!  You found out if you throw the plastic eggs, they explode and candy comes out.

Chipmunk cheeks full of jelly beans

Ready for church!

Easter stash from mom and dad

More hunting at the tree house

Matching Jammie's with cousin Jaden

Awwww :)

Touchdown!

Kitchen Countertop Tutorial

I've had a lot of people ask me how I did my counters. So I decided show everyone how I did it :-)

Here is the before shot:

Plain and ugly! I really had nothing to lose. I came across the blog prettylittleposies, and saw them paint granite with toll paints. I decided to go for it! I changed it up a little from what they did, so here goes.

Go to a hardware store and collect some granite samples. This helped me get an idea of the colors I wanted and also the pattern to paint. 

Here are the supplies I used:

Toll paints - I used mostly metallic shades (Michaels)

Foam roller - (Home Depot)

Recollections glitter - very fine (Michaels)

Recollections mica and ice flakes (Michaels)

Stipple brush

Sea sponges (Michaels)

Primer (Home Depot)

Sander/ sandpaper

Polyurethane topcoat - oil based will yellow your colors! Water based with give an orange peel texture. I used a combo of both. (Home Depot)

Step 1: scrub and clean your counters! I used scrubbing bubbles and scrubbed the heck out of them!

Step 2: sand down your countertop. I used a fairly heavy grit sandpaper. I did a lot of sanding with this project, so it helps to have an electric sander. Wipe down your counter once you're finished to remove any dust. Let your counter dry.

Step 3: Prime your countertop. I used biser 1-2-3 water based primer, and rolled it on with a foam roller. Let dry. Mine was dry within 30 minutes.

Step 4: choose your base color. I chose a regular black toll paint, also rolled on with a foam roller. Let your base dry.

Step 5: this is when it gets fun. I enjoyed this part, however it took a LONG time. I bought a Martha Stewart sea sponge pack from the craft store. 

White Pearl (Metallic), Rich Espresso(Metalic), Champagne Gold (Metallic), Black, Vanilla, Suede, and Espresso

It came with 4 sponges. I began dabbing my paints onto the counter. I used one color across the whole space, then picked a different color, and so on. I used all 4 sponges to get different patterns. The more random, the better it looks! Here is my first layer shown below:

Here is the second color:

And here is the final with all colors blended. Towards the end, instead of dabbing, I placed the sponge on the counter and rotated my whole hand to blend in all the colors. I used a champagne gold color over everything to really hide areas that looked too patterned. I spent a long time adding a little bit of this color here, and a little there. Just dab til you get it where you want! I used the stipple brush to get the colors into the corner areas where the sponge wouldn't reach.

Step 6: Next up, I used Recollections Mica and Ice flakes. 

You can find them in the craft store, and they're about $10. I used a 40% coupon to get mine. I used the black and pearlized flakes. I just sprinkled them on while my paint was somewhat wet so they stuck a little. When you roll your topcoat on, you'll get some movement with them, which I thought made them look more random.

Step 7: Next up is to apply a topcoat. I used minwax polycrillic. 

The polycrylic looks milky when you apply, but it dries clear. I used my foam roller to apply the finish. It dries quickly, so work fast. After the first layer, i poured some glitter in my hand and blew it over the whole counter. I might have gone a little crazy, but the glitter adds a lot! Once it's dry, you'll wait 2 hours sand, and re coat. I did two layers, and when I was finished, was left with an orange peel texture I wasn't thrilled about. I sanded the crap out of the counters and then applied a thin layer of minwax polyurethane (oil based) clear gloss to get the glass like finish. Remember it yellows, so if you do both, add a thin layer! I've also heard good things about varathane polyurethane for floors. Just research and choose the topcoat you think is best :)

Kitchen cupboards

On to the cabinets! This has been so much work we're taking baby steps. Actually, more like four huge ones. First the floor, then the countertops, now the cabinets and lastly we'll put up the backsplash. We have saved SO much money by doing this all ourselves. I can not even begin to tell you how cheap this project has been. Cheap, but SO much work. Phew. For the cabinets, we refaced our plain laminate ones by adding molding around the edges and and beadboard wallpaper to the center. 

Here they are to begin with:

See that ugly wood lip at the bottom? We ripped that right off. See ya! That gave us this:

We were able to borrow a miter saw from Jeff's uncle, which saved us the expense of buying one. Thanks Todd! Jeff then cut the molding to fit the doors, and I glued them on with liquid nails, and then cut the beadboard wallpaper to fit the center:

Once the pieces were all cut, I used wallpaper paste to adhere it to the board and removed any bubbles. This took a good 8 hours of our day from removing them to this point. LOTS of work.

Jeff used the foam remains from our window seat as a knee pad while cutting the molding. He spent the whole day bent over that saw. He must love me, right? :-)

Here we are after a full day of work, cabinets framed and ready for paint:

We took a break the next day, it being Sunday, and got back at it Monday. So grateful for the break in between, because we are old and our backs were sore from being hunched over working on them all day. Monday started with paint. I wanted the cabinets to have an antique look to them, so I chose an off white color. The exact color was cottage white from behr in semi-gloss.

Once dry, we were ready to glaze. Antique glaze that is. I was so scared at first, but it ended up being easy! Anyone who doesn't know that is,  it's a dark glaze you brush on, then wipe off to highlight the little nooks and crevices. Did I really just use the word crevice? Anyways, here it is with the glaze brushed on:

Ahhhhh! Scary, right? Yeah. After letting it sit just a few minutes, I wiped it off with a damp rag, and here is what it resulted it:

Thoughts? I didn't think I'd like the "dirty' look, but I am in love! I am so excited with how they turned out!! Next up, we applied a coat of varathane polyurethane to protect everything. I rolled it on with my handy dandy foam roller. We hung them, added some beautiful handles and knobs (in oil rubbed bronze obviously! ;)) and voila! The whole process took a good 3 days work, with Jeff and I both hard at work. 

Ok, here are the pics: 

Boston 16 Months

16 months! Wow! You are cutting your lower molars and having a real rough time of it. Your poor little mouth is hurting, and you're so swollen in there, I feel bad for you! You still hate having your teeth brushed, no surprise, but I'm hoping you'll feel better about it when they don't hurt so bad.

You are adding to your vocabulary fast! You are starting to say names of people in our family. When I ask you something, you will shrug your shoulders, like, I don't know, mom! If you're hungry you point at the fridge, and then we play a game of, what is Boston hungry for? And I'll pull out things til you see something you like. Usually, banana, Mac n cheese, cheese, or juice (which isn't really juice ;)) 

You eat everything face first. For example if I make you a grilled cheese, you pull apart the sandwich and eat the cheese off. You eat your pizza, toast, waffles, everything that way :-) It's silly! 

You are a great helper! You have been helping with remodeling the kitchen, and picking up tools daddy sets down. You picked up a wrench and starting banging on the cupboards. It was cute! You want to do everything dad does. You enjoy making messes (seen below) and making people happy! You make us happy everyday!