He really seems to be liking sharing a room with his big brother. It took him a couple nights to actually sleep in his bed . . . we kept finding him under it, in the doorway, or other random places. But that's nothing horribly unusual for Jayce. Now he sleeps in it just fine though. And in just a few more days he will have a dresser too! I bought this cute little dresser (yellow with purple flower knobs) on craigslist not too long ago with the hopes of re-doing it to match Riley's dresser. I re-did Riley's dresser a number of years ago (it was made ages ago by my grandfather and was even used as my changing table/dresser when I was a baby), and thought this one would be simple enough too. A few more drawers, and some beveled trims, but basically the same idea . . . get the old paint off, re-paint it black. No problem! Unless you buy the thing off of Craigslist and have no idea how many times the thing has been painted, and with what kind of paint!!
This thing was an absolute nightmare!!! I bought some "safer" stripping compound, Citristrip, after reading a ton of reviews on it. All were mostly good, it did a good job stripping, it didn't have the fumes, or the main chemicals other strippers use. It's a gel, and a lot of reviews said to put it on in the evening and let it sit overnight, since it will stay wet for 24 hours. So Thursday night I got to work "painting" on the orange goop. It was drying very quickly, so I just kept slopping it on (one review said it was a pain to get off if it dries, another saying how thick you had to layer it to keep it from drying). About 2 hours later I thought I had it thick enough and went to bed.
Woke up the next morning and 3/4 of it was dry!!!! UGH!!! I don't know if it was the low humidity here (we did it in the garage with the doors open for ventilation), or if I just still needed it thicker! But the paint was puckered in a couple places so I set to work with my putty knife stripping. It took me nearly all day and I got just about nowhere on it. The Citristrip worked really great on the yellow paint (probably about 3 coats), but everything under that didn't want to budge. At this point I remembered one review saying it didn't work so good on primer. And after scraping off the majority of the yellow, I find a layer of white (probably primer) and some baby blue. Ugh. How many layers of that are there!! I scraped a little harder and find that there is also a pukey color of green under the blue!!! Who knows how many coats of each color there are! So I gave up. Cam came home and I asked his opinion - add more stripping compound to see if it will take off the other layers now that the top layers are gone (it said it would work for up to 7 layers of paint), or just get out the rotary sander and sand the junk off? And my Wonderful Husband (and his wonderful power tools!) got to work for me. 2 days of sanding later (we had to set the stuff in the sun for almost a full day to dry out the remaining paint still wet from the stripping compound) it's finally ready to paint. It's not completely free of the green paint, as you can see in the photo, but it's close enough. That stuff must have been on there forever, because it was really soaked into the grain. So tomorrow I will start painting it. I know what you're thinking . . . you are painting it black - why didn't you just paint over the yellow? Well, I am one of those people who like to make things difficult, that's why! No really, I thought I would do it right, so I could get a nice finish. Riley's dresser turned out great, and I wanted this one to look good too. Next time I'll ask how many coats of paint are on it, BEFORE I buy it off Craigslist!! Oh well. We have the black paint, so after $30 for the dresser, just under $30 for stripping materials, and a few more for new knobs, I will still come out cheaper than some piece of junk dresser from Walmart or IKEA (and I was able to keep this on from ending up in a landfill!!!) So I consider it worth it!
In other news - Riley got a new bike!!! We've been telling him since the beginning of the summer that we would get him a new one, since now he can ride a two-wheeler! And we just haven't gotten around to it - until this weekend. Cameron won a gift card to a local bike shop on Bike-To-Work-Day this year, so we decided to use it to get Riley's new bike. He LOVES IT!!! It's big, so it took him a few tries (and tears, if you know Riley) to get the hang of getting going, but now he does great. It helps that the neighbor girl across the street thinks it's "SWEEEEEET" ;) She's older, third grade I think, so her opinion matters that much more!
We also made a ton of Apple stuff lately. Mommy has been on this apple kick lately, call them cravings if you want! ;) It started with just apples and caramel dip, but then Cam wanted some applesauce, and the apples around here have been so tasty, so I decided to make some. I had already pinned a recipe on pinterest for an Apple-Pear Butter that I was dying to try, so this was a good excuse to get even more apples!!! hehehe! I made applesauce first, Riley helped me. And that batch lasted barely 2 days (time to make some more!) Then this week I made the apple/pear butter. And YUM!!!! You can find the recipe here if you want it. I made a few changes, I used a few more pears (mine were kinda small) and I didn't cook it the entire time. I shaved about 2 1/2 hours off the end because it looked done to me. It made about 1 and 1/2 pints . . . I was really hoping for more so I could give a few as gifts, so next time I'll double it (thanks to my gianormous crockpot!!)
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| Eating all the apple peels (nothing fruit goes to waste around here!) |
October is here already! I can't believe it! We have decided to take a much needed (and always delayed) vacation this fall. We are going to pack up the boys and head to Yellowstone!! Riley gets a TON of time off for fall break (full week plus the Friday before and Monday after), so we thought that would be the opportune time. We've talked about going to Yellowstone for years and just haven't ever made it work, but this time it worked out great! We are going to swing by the Tetons first and stay in a "Cowboy Cabin" whatever that is! Then on to Yellowstone. We opted for the hotel living since it is October (and Mommy has a hard enough time sleeping in a bed much less on the ground in a tent) so we are spending a little more than we thought. But I think it will be worth it! So if you're reading this Uncle Bud/Aunt Cindy and you wanna meet us for a visit, just let me know!!!
Well, I think that about covers it. I finished my first crochet item for baby girl (we really need to decide on a name for her!!). And it is so cute! It's a pink stocking hat (think Santa hat shaped). I'll try to get a picture this week. I'm looking forward to making so many more things for her!! I've already got plans for a couple more hats (loving that she's gonna be born in the winter time!) some booties and a blanket . . . or two! ;) (Can you tell I'm just happy to have an excuse to use pink yarn!!!) Things are going good!! Oh, I almost forgot to share our photos!!! My friend Nicole is starting her own photography business, so she did some amazing maternity pictures for us this week. I haven't gotten the "official" ones from her yet, but you can see some previews on her facebook page here. Also, please "LIKE" her page . . . just like me she is just starting out in her business, and getting her name out there is the best way - so please spread the word!! Thanks.
Have a good week everyone!
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