Life as we go it

Back in November I was perusing our local Habitat For Humanity ReStore store (one of my favorite places to walk to every week with the kids, when it's not February warm out) and came across a super cheap and cute doll rocker. It was white and dirty and had weird stuff painted all over it. Now you'd think I would have taken a photo of it, but I didn't. So you'll have to imagine what it looked like beforehand. Ha!

Anyways...I saw the potential it had under all that old paint and grime.

I knew that Chloe's nana and grandpa were planning on getting her a doll for Christmas, as well as a doll stroller from Matt and I :) So I thought it'd be fun if she had a doll rocker to go along with her doll & accessories. And the rocker was only $5, so I couldn't pass it up!

I hired Matt persuaded Matt to clean the rocker up, wood putty it in a few places, prime it and paint it. We used a sample size paint from Menards and had the rest of the materials in our basement stash already.

The paint color is Pink Limoncello:

Once Matt had it painted I added my own little touch, Liquid Leaf gold paint to all of the flat edges:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out:

Details:
Solid wood rocker from ReStore: $5
Small sample of pink paint: under $5
Wood putty/primer/gold leaf that we already had: $0
Chloe rocking & singing to her dolls over and over again: Priceless!


Oh...and did I mention that Chloe got FOUR dolls for Christmas?

Let's just say the rocker has gotten much use already!

This is where we do dishes...

Our home is around 120 years old. When we moved into our house 4 1/2 years ago the kitchen was the one room that we said we'd like to re-do eventually. It was very functional the way it was (great appliances, plenty of storage space, heated floors, under cabinet lighting, etc.) but it just wasn't our style. It had orange textured ceramic floor tiles, late 80's-esk cupboards and counter tops and a Spanish-style back splash. It definitely did not mesh well with the style of a 120-year old house.

So around 2 1/2 years ago Matt & I took the plunge and started remodeling the kitchen! Matt & I and some family & friends did all of the demolition. We saved the appliances because they were totally fine and donated the cabinetry to our local Restore. We did all of the wall and trim painting ourselves. My uncle added more lighting in the ceiling and installed new cupboards. We splurged on custom granite counter tops from a place in Milwaukee and hired a local carpenter to install a new wood floor and legs on the kitchen island. Matt and his uncle installed new floor & window trim and window ledges. We hired another local carpenter to make custom open shelving in two areas. As for the decorating, that has been a long process done by me. Some day I will show photos of the rest of the kitchen....

We finally got a new tile back splash installed last week. It's amazing how different the kitchen looks with a new back splash! It really pulls all of the elements of the room together and finishes it nicely.

We picked out a really simple, small subway tile. Our cabinetry and flooring is quite simple, yet our granite counter top is detailed, so we wanted something simple that wouldn't take away from the beauty of the granite. And we got the tile on super sale at Menards which makes it even sweeter!

Here are some before photos of our back splash area, without tile:

The grout we chose is called "Mushroom."

Liam and I walk to our local ReStore every couple of weeks. It's only a few blocks from our home. Liam LOVES looking at all of the things as we walk through the aisles.

In case you're unfamiliar with what ReStore is -- it's run by Habitat For Humanity and people donate used or unused home-type goods and materials. The store is always filled with goodies, and at excellent prices :) The store is a maze of wooden doors, used appliances, retro office furniture, ugly ceiling fans, cabinetry, mismatched tiles, etc.

Matt and I have donated a few things to our local store (kitchen cabinets and ceramic tiles) and we've also bought some things there (a sweet window seat that's currently being used as storage in our garage, a cool wooden box that we store firewood in, and a couple of other little doodads).

I bought this old black magazine rack a couple of weeks ago. I'm not big into decorating with the color black, but I saw potential when I spotted this. And it was only $5:

Hello weird ol' eighties-ish magazine rack...

Rust-Oleum in "Lemon Grass"

Two coats

I'm not exactly sure where I want to use it yet. And as I've shared with you before, I'm a bit of a magazine junkie, so I could really use it in ANY room in the house! But it will probably end up in our kitchen, living room or downstairs bathroom.

It's next to our couch for now

The lemon grass color matches well with my new LOVE pillow in our living room :)

And here's a quick show-and-tell from this week's Crafty Club. My friend Andi hosted craft night this past Monday and we worked on two paper-crafting projects:

We each stamped & put together six happy birthday cards

And we each made a bouquet of paper flowers