Resurrecting Hub's Childhood

Well, the title may be slightly misleading... this post is more accurately about resurrecting a piece of furniture from Hub's childhood-- His nightstand to be more exact.

This is a nightstand that stood beside Hub's bed since he was a wee little boy.  I can just imagine him hiding a slingshot in it's drawer, so his mom couldn't find it.  Or maybe when he was five he stashed his pet worm in there or maybe a secret store of candy... or... or...

A year ago, Hub's mom offered me his old nightstand.  Since our wedding day, it had been taking up space in their storage room.  Hub's mom made it clear that it was time to either (A) send it to Goodwill or (B) relocate it to our house.  Because I am such a nostalgic, sensitive person (insert my sister's snorts here), Hubs and I carried the nightstand down the road and into our abode.

The darn thing looked like it had endured a rough life by the time it made it's way to our house (which lends credit to my belief that it probably housed a worm or two).  The drawer's knob was broken in half, the drawer itself was in pieces, and all of the wood was water-stained and scratched.

After we brought it home, I placed the nightstand just inside our entry because its compact size was a good fit for the space.  I put a tablecloth over it to hide its "beauty" and put a bowl on it to catch keys, poop bags (for dog walks), construction pencils, paint keys, and so on.  Then I proceeded to completely forget about it.

Until a month ago that is...  When I randomly remembered Hub's poor nightstand and committed to giving it new life.  I walked over to the local Ace Hardware and bought two cans of bright white, high gloss spray paint.  I also found a can of "oops" Benjamin Moore paint (discounted paint that was either mixed incorrectly or returned).  "Oops" paint is hit or miss, but I was able to find a light blue/green color that closely resembled the Homestead Green in our dining room and craft room.

When I returned home with my paint, I went about sanding the nightstand with a rough and then a fine sandpaper block.  Sanding was a tedious process, but I knew it was necessary for the best painting results.  I also used wood glue to reassemble the nightstand's drawer and I threw out the old, broken knob.  Adios muchacho.

When the sanding was finished, I carried the nightstand outside and began spraying it.  I would say the spraying was even more tedious than the sanding.  I have no patience... I just wanted it done.  I had to keep reigning myself in--Trying hard to spray light, even coats to prevent dripping.  I ended up doing three light coats to get a good white base.  Even though I knew I wanted to paint the legs with my "oops" paint, I gave them a good coat of white as well to act as primer.

The white base coat made the nightstand look like a completely different piece of furniture... It looked new and fresh, incredibly cheery, and ready for its extra special pop of color.  After drying for three to four hours outside, I carried the nightstand back into the house and used my new Purdy brush to give the legs some color thanks to my can of "oops" paint from Ace Hardware (Purdy brushes are the best).

Adding a new, basic, white knob to the drawer was the last step.  Although the knob was new, I still have my eye on a more antique and quirky knob (read expensive) from Anthropologie.  So I guess you could say the nightstand is still in process, although the main renovation is complete.

For now, the nightstand is once again living in the entry, but it is no longer hidden beneath a tablecloth.  It stands proudly welcoming our guests, offering them a place to stash their keys and miscellaneous items.  I really love how this makeover turned out.  What did Hubs think?  He didn't even recognize his old pal!  But once he realized it was his childhood nightstand- he said, "Wow."  Count on a man to give good feedback.  

A Sweet Little Visitor

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from my little sister.  The call came in on a Thursday afternoon and went something like this:

"Hi, sis.  This is little sis.  What's going on?"


"Not much.  How are you?  How's the weather down south?"


"It's super hot.  But hey, I was wondering if you would be up for a visit?"

"Really? We would love that!  When were you thinking? August sometime? Thanksgiving?"

"Hmmm... how about Tuesday?"

"Uh, okay.  As in this next Tuesday?"

"Yeah.  We'll be there Tuesday morning and we'll stay for a week. Can you pick us up at the airport?"

"Okay, I'll make up the guest room and a nursery.  See you then."

That's the condensed version of the conversation anyway.  It was such a shock.  My little sister lives in Texas and I really wondered if we would see her at all this year.  And dear little Maddie- she's almost one (in June) and growing so fast.  It was exciting news!

After the call, I got all Downton Abbey on my house (I'm currently watching season 2 and loving it).  I busted out the mop and the clean linen.  It was a cleaning marathon.  Maddie is just learning to walk, so I knew she would be all over the floors; I wanted to get up as much dog hair/paw prints as possible.

Cleaning done, I turned to planning (my favorite activity).  Hubs and I had already scheduled a camping trip with my parents over Mother's Day weekend, so that was on the calendar for Friday through Sunday.  That left me with Wednesday, Thursday, and Monday.  Thankfully, I had the ability to take those three days off from work for optimal hanging out and niece-spoiling.

My sister flew in on Tuesday as promised--braving a solo trip with her 11 month old.  Meanwhile, her hubs stayed home with their dog and home theater system (I believe he fully tested the surround sound capabilities).  I have to give him a shout out because I am so thankful he spared my sister during her very first Mother's Day. 

It was an amazing, wonderful visit.  We went shopping, we went to the Morton Arboretum (which has a prize-winning children's garden), we ate ice cream (I had awesome peach/raspberry non-fat, frozen yogurt), we went camping, we celebrated Maddie's birthday (early), we had blood orange momosas (the adults did anyway), we spent time with the rest of our family, we played games, watched movies, mowed the lawn, went on walks, and just vegged.

Then, as I stood watching my sister and Maddie waiting in the security line to catch their return flight home, I thought, "Man, that went too fast."

Happy first birthday, Maddie.  Still a bit early, but that seems to be my style.

Garden Party

So much has happened and I have been neglectful in sharing.  Sorry about that... I blame the beautiful weather, my (tri) training schedule, and the dogs.  Actually, the dogs have nothing to do with it, but why have them if you can't blame them for ludicrous things like not blogging?

As the title of this post suggests, Hubs and I have been busy planting our garden.  Finally.  Last year, we planted in late April.  This year, our weekends kept filling up before we could set aside time to make a garden plan.  Get it?  There was no time to plan for planning and everyone knows I am a planner.  Geesh.

Anyway, this past Saturday we finally said- enough is enough.  We sat down at the dining room table and pulled out our planting list from last year (our first year with a garden).  Last year we planted:

Carrots (finger-long), broccoli (which didn't produce), white onions, green onions, zucchini (another dud), cucumber, red peppers, green peppers, cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, bibb lettuce, and red lettuce.

Last year

Right away we knew we wanted to eliminate the green onions and broccoli because we rarely used them.  We also knew that we wanted to plant the zucchini from a live plant this year because last year the seeds produced only failure.  In addition, we knew that we didn't want to plant lettuce this time around because we didn't need to-- The bibb lettuce from last year came back on its own and has been producing like a champ.

From there, we drew up plans to add some new produce to the mix.  Unfortunately, when our list of  wants was complete, we realized we didn't have enough space to plant everything.  We considered container gardening on the deck in addition to using our two raised beds, but Hubs had a winning idea-- Add on to our existing raised beds... or more accurately, connect them and fill in the space in between.

See the space in between the two beds?  Well, it's not there anymore!

Due to the nature of our existing beds, adding on turned out to be simple.  We headed over to Menards and purchased a 1"x4"x10' board.  We took the board home, cut it into four 2' long pieces (with a little length leftover for cut lines and boo-boos).  Each board was then slid into the grooves on our existing raised bed corner posts.  Presto change-o!  A revised, much more awesome, larger garden bed.   Breakdown: we used to have two 4'x4' garden beds.  We now have one 4'x10' garden bed. 

Here's what we planted:

Cucumbers (tzatziki here I come), zucchini (using live plants), summer squash, finger-long carrots, two strawberry plants, white onions, red onions, cilantro, basil, rosemary, parsley, oregano, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, serrano peppers, and the bibb lettuce (which just came back all on its own).

In addition to this, I also planted 60 gladiola bulbs in the flower beds surrounding the house, two new rosebushes in a corner of the backyard, two new blueberry bushes to aid the one that was planted last fall, and four fern plants to beautify the front porch (in hanging baskets).

It was a busy weekend, but wait until you hear what happened the weekend before.  We'll just backtrack until we're caught up and then I'll fill you in on my preparation for the sprint triathlon, which is coming up on June 10th.  So much to be excited about... I can just feel your anticipation mounting.