For our wedding china...

Found this amazing little piece at a local thrift store. After a little sprucing up, it is the perfect addition to the dining room. You know, to display all of the china that we got for our wedding.

Oh, wait a minute. We returned all of our china so we could buy a refrigerator and a washer/dryer. I don't know what we are going to put in there. But it still looks cute.

A little sanding followed by primer and paint (sort of a light grayish color - I mixed some paint together that we already had)...

 



Once it was painted, I bought a roll of wedding wrapping paper at Walmart for $3.  We just measured, cut and taped it to the back.



And the finished product.  You would never know this is a His House/Walmart combo, right??  :)







a few weekend pictures

We had a really great weekend and got to spend a lot of time outside.  Saturday we went to a birthday party at the park.  The weather was just perfect.  And I have the best friend in the whole world who took these sweet pictures of Ashlyn when I did not have my camera.  THANK YOU, ASHLEY for just letting me yank them right off your blog!  You are the best!  :)


http://www.pickelhong.blogspot.com/

First Steps

I know this has been a week of Ashlyn's birthday posts....but hey, you only turn one once, right?

In addition to turning ONE this week, Ashlyn took her first two steps yesterday.  And how funny that the singing "birthday bear" that my mom bought for her was what enticed her to step on her own. 

It sings and dances and the candles light up on its hat.  She LOVES it.  She likes to dance and clap her hands when the "happy birthday" song plays.  She even took her first steps toward it.  Ok, I was holding it so I guess you could say she was walking to her mom...

But let's be honest - she really just wanted one of those light up candles to chew on for a while...

A birthday celebration!

A sweet and simple birthday celebration for our precious baby girl.

Publix did a great job...especially considering I ordered it only 4 hours before the party!

Ashley made these adorable hats for Ashlyn's birthday.

A few homemade decorations...and a sneak peek at the cute little piece we just refinished for the dining room.

One!

I know everyone told me that the first year would fly by.  And it really has.  Ashlyn turned one on Tuesday.  And her birthday also marked the day of her one year check up.  Remind me for baby #2 that it is not a fun birthday present to go to the doctor on your birthday.

She weighed just over 20lbs (barely!) and measured 29 inches long. The nurse had to draw blood from her finger at the beginning of her appointment.  Ashlyn laughed and smiled at her the whole time. 

Then Dr. Delaney came in and pulled out the stethoscope to listen to her heart.  It was downhill from there. She was hysterical. So upset every time he touched her.  Let's just say it did not get any better by the time the next nurse came in to give her 4 shots.

Another one year old milestone...we decided to pull out the big car seat!  She giggled and waved at me in the car this morning while we were driving to her babysitters house.  I think she was really excited to get to face the front of the car!



Boston....sigh...

I have been in Boston all week for work...and missing my baby girl like crazy.  I miss that sweet face in the morning...when she is jumping up and down in her crib so excited to see us.  Christopher sent me this sweet pic this moring.  Ahh...I wish I was home...

dining room wall - part 2

Frames are up!  And using the paper taped to the wall proved to be very helpful.  Next on the list...pictures to replace the post it notes in the empty spots!

dining room wall - part 1

Our idea for one wall of the newly painted dining room was to create a timeline of our family's milestones (engagement, wedding, marriage, pregnancy, baby, ect) with photos. Christopher and I started our little project by outlining what we wanted the wall to look like.

I bought some frames from the Dollar Tree ($1 each!!) and plan on painting them white and silver. And then gathered a collection of random frames from around our house. Love inexpensive projects (this one has cost a total of $8.56 so far).

Ashlyn was a terrific helper. She loved moving things all around to give me new ideas as to how to arrange everything.

My little helper in action.

And here is the final arrangement on the floor of our living room. I gave Ash my cell phone to distract her while I finished and took this picture. Works every time.

Christopher put up the two largest frames and then I taped paper on the wall around them. I am sure there are some people who think that taping paper on the wall is not worth the time involved, but I really like the idea. It helps me to make sure I like the way it is going to look on the wall versus on the floor and get the spacing right.

It's definitely a work in progress. I promise to post Part 2 once the frames are painted and hanging on the wall. There will probably even be a part 3 to this project once we decide what pictures to use. Stay tuned...

Clemson & Carolina girls

In honor of football season, I thought I should post a few pics of Ashlyn and Ava (and their daddies) in their game day attire.

We can all be friends, right?




Like father, like daughter.





Can you believe Ash turns 1 in fifteen days?

Rub 'n Buff

Has anyone ever used Rub 'n Buff? Better yet, has anyone even heard of it? Let me tell you, the stuff is pretty amazing depending on what you want to accomplish.

We are in the process of decorating our dining room. And the brass chandy had to go. The problem is, the ceiling is really high. While I was googling "indoor spray paint" (yes, I was really hoping we could just spray paint it without having to rent scaffolding to take it down), I came across the "original wax metallic finish" - Rub 'n Buff.



For less than $4 at Michaels, it was worth a shot. Basically, you just kind of paint it on with your finger. And it creates a nice metallic finish, similar to a satin or semi-gloss spray paint.

Good-bye, 1993.






Hello, 2010.







It took me about 30 minutes to paint. It is not perfect, but much better than before. The main problem we have now is trying to figure out what to do with the brass chain that kind of clashes with the updated silver chandelier. But who will really look up that high anyway, right?

A sippy cup and painted dining room

Big night last night. Ashlyn finally drank from a sippy cup. First time ever. She did not scream or push it away. Pretty AMAZING, little girl. Don't we love Christmas pajamas to celebrate the last night of September?

We also finished painting our dining room. Normally when we start a project, we like to finish it that day. Not so much with the dining room. Main reason, the ceilings are really high. And we are both too stubborn to pay someone to come in and paint. So we borrowed a 20+ foot ladder, and the rest is history. I painted the majority of the "reachable" areas last week...and then it has been sitting halfway finished all week. And at 8:30 last night, we decided it was time. Bring out the ladder. The REALLY TALL one. I am really pleased with the paint color. It is a dark grayish blue (Behr paint in "Dark Ash"). And after painting last night, I don't think we will be changing it anytime soon (even if I wanted to).