What I Did This Summer

I was really looking forward to summer this year so I could get some projects done.  Don't get me wrong, I love a routine, but having to be at drop off and pick up for two kids at specific times, and plan preschool co-ops and Primary lessons each week didn't leave much time for me to do the stuff I wanted to around the house.  So I was super excited for school and other activities to be out and have the freedom to do whatever, whenever.

Here's a few of the projects I got crossed off my to-do list.  (And since I am not one of those cool DIY bloggers, I don't have any before pictures, only finished products, sorry.)

Repainting my son's dresser:
When I found out we were having another baby I stole an old dresser from my parents' house so we could use it in my son's room and give his to the baby.  We removed all of the dated hardware and sanded it right away, and then it sat in the garage for months waiting for me to paint it.  I finally looked up some DIY blogs in June and got to work.  It was quite the drama.  Of course my son picked red which is the hardest color to paint because you have to do so many coats.  After two layers of primer and five coats (that's an entire quart) of paint it finally looked decent.  Only I was afraid the color wasn't quite right so I did one more coat in a different red I had lying around.  Big mistake!  The dresser turned purple!  So then I ran to Walmart and bought some spray paint and primer in one and had to do two more coats of that for it to be okay again.  I then tried to spray a protective finish on top but it kept squirting big drips instead of a fine mist so I finally gave up before I ruined it.

Drama number two came with the new hardware.  I measured the holes to be 2.5 inches.  When I went to Home Depot all they carried were 3 inch drawer pulls.  I figured I must have measured wrong and bought the 3 inch pulls.  I got home to discover that I had measured correctly, the holes were 2.5 inches apart and my pulls wouldn't work.  The DIY blogs mentioned filling the old holes with putty and redrilling new holes, but I didn't want to do that since I had already painted the dresser.  So I returned the pulls to Home Depot and asked for help locating the right size.  They don't carry any in 2.5 inches.  And neither does Lowe's or the specialty cabinet store they referred me to.  So I searched online and found a great product at a great price.  When we went to install them, they were too short!  Keith measured the holes and they were 3 inches apart.  What the heck!  Turns out some of the drawers were 2.5 inches and some were 3.  So irritating!  I tried and tried to find pulls that were the same style and came in both sizes but to no avail.  We finally ended up buying the stupid wood putty and drilling new holes.  Thankfully the new pulls were wide enough that they covered the old holes so I didn't have to go back and paint AGAIN.

Anyhow, this is how it looks in his room.  It used to be the same color as the mirror above it.  I haven't decided whether I am going to paint the mirror yet or not.  (And yes, the mirror is hung a little too high.  That's what happens when Daddy asks the kid where he wants it hung.  I think he wanted to be able to look at himself from the top bunk!)   

Baby's Bird Mobile:

Umpteen years ago I found a cute bird mobile online.  Only it cost $60 and was made out of paper. 

    

I figured I could make something similar only out of wood so it would last longer.  Fast forward to my pregnancy with my fourth kid and I finally decide to actually do it.  I had my dad and husband cut the birds out of thin wood left over from my brother's adventures in building his own longboards.  I sanded and primed them sometime in the ninth month of my pregnancy and then, you guessed it, they sat around for months and months.  Shortly after the New Year I broke them out and slowly began painting them.  It wasn't until the baby was nearly 10 months old that I finished painting them however.  And then I had a heck of a time trying to hang the flighty things.  I ended up cutting two birds out of the mix because I just could not get the mobile to balance.  But I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  And the best part is, this project cost me NOTHING!  I used only materials I had on hand.  Awesome huh?!

My other big projects of the summer were sewing some curtains for the family room (and they turned out pretty cute if you ask me, but I don't have any pictures, sorry) and painting the girls' rooms.  My big girls share a room.  The previous owners painted an accent wall pink and then let the girl run wild and paint whatever she wanted on the closet and bedroom doors.  Who paints doors?!  It is so ugly, especially all the I love so and so graffiti.  Drives me nuts.  Anywho...we used the leftover gallon of pink they saved in the garage and mixed it with some leftover white from our other house and painted the whole room one color.  I LOVE IT!  And once again, it was a FREE project.  It will look so amazing once I hang all the stuff on the wall and get some curtains sewn.  Oh, and repaint the doors.  They are still as ugly as ever.  Last but not least I painted the baby's room aqua.  (See above pic of the bird mobile.)  Now don't tell my mom, because she came up and helped me paint both rooms in two days which was AMAZING, and don't tell my husband who was upset that I actually went out and bought paint for this when we have so many leftover gallons in the garage, but I don't love this room so much.  The color is pretty, but it's just too dark for the stuff I was wanting to put in there.  I should have gone with the safer light color but I was trying to be daring.  I don't know whether to revise my decorating scheme or repaint.  Either is a pain and will take up time and money I don't have so for now I wallow in my indecision.