A new look and a few days off

I’ve been wanting a 3 column blog for awhile now. After trying a few things myself (that didn’t work out so well), I got some help from Leslie over at Lamberts Lately. She has a cute blog and very reasonable prices…check her out if you want a new look! I am loving having more space on my blog…thanks Leslie!

To go along with my new blog I thought I should make a new header and background. I think this one is perfect for spring/summer. I got the kit from Shabby Princess, for free!

Today was my last day of work for the rest of the week. Tomorrow I am going to have some minor surgery done. Nothing too invasive, but I am still a little nervous. :( I am trying to stay up late so that I will sleep in tomorrow morning…my surgery is not until 1pm and I can’t eat or drink anything after midnight. Speaking of which, I should go have one last snack before the clock strikes 12. :)

My cabinet facelift is going really well…sorry no pictures today, but once I am done I will post some of the finished product. I applied 2 coats of paint to the cabinets and the front of all the doors this afternoon. Later this week I will finish up the backside of the doors and hang them back up. I think they are turning out really well…not perfect, but they will look much better than before.

-Lauren-

Cabinet facelift: part 1

Sunday morning I decided to embark on my next home improvement project…painting the bathroom cabinets. As I mentioned in a previous post I decided to “practice” on the bathroom cabinets in hopes that it will turn out great and I will be ready to paint my kitchen cabinets.

I was so eager to get started that I forgot to take an official “before” picture. This is the best I could do. I had already taken off the hardware and was about to start cleaning and sanding. This is the guest bathroom, I also did our master bathroom (envision the exact same cabinet/sink).

Here is the part 1 “after” picture. I forgot to use a flash so its a little dim, sorry.

There’s the flash! That’s what the doors look like after cleaning, a little sanding and 2 coats of primer. It was pretty easy and both bathrooms only took me a couple of hours (including a little HGTV watching while the paint was drying).

Today on my way home from work I am going to pick up the paint we will use. Tomorrow I only have to work until noon, so I am going to finish up the project Tuesday afternoon.

Stay tuned for cabinet facelift: part 2

-Lauren-

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms, and grandmothers that are so very special to us. We love you all so much!!

“A mother is not a person to lean on,
but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”

- Dorothy Fisher-

-Lauren-

Our Mother’s Day weekend so far

My parents drove down from Plano yesterday to spend Mother’s Day with my grandparents. Last night Hiro and I meet my parents and their dog Rubi at Auditorium Shores. After the dogs got some energy out, swimming and playing, we made our way across the street for a picnic in the park. We enjoyed fried chicken, homemade potato salad, Texas caviar and brownies for dessert. It was all delicious! Even though yesterday was the hottest day of the week down here, a humid 98 degrees, by the time we ate around 7 it was feeling pretty good outside.

This morning I got up and went to another outdoor yoga class. It was pretty hot, but I still really liked it. There is something about working out outside that makes it better than being in a gym.

This afternoon Jon and I went up to my grandparent’s house in Round Rock. My parents were there along with my aunt and uncle. One of my cousins came with his fiancé. They have a house literally about 3 miles from ours, yet we only see each other at family functions like today. We decided we are going to try to do a date night or something soon. It was great to see everyone and spend some time with my grandparents. We really don’t get up there as much as we should. Hiro and Rubi had a blast together…in fact she wanted to come home with us when we left.

On our way home we stopped by Home Depot. Jon wanted to get some hooks to hang up our bikes in the garage. We are trying to clean out the house, including the garage and get more organized. While we were there I picked up the first round of supplies that I will need to paint our cabinets. I am going to start in our bathrooms since we eventually want to replace those (if they don’t turn out it won’t matter). I am a little nervous about painting them. I have painted many cabinets before so its not the process that I am nervous about, but our cabinets are on the cheaper side, so the frame of the doors are wood, but the middle of the door is laminate…does that make sense? I am worried the paint will look different on the two surfaces. I got some good primer so hopefully that will help. Anyone have any advice on painting these types of cabinets? My plan is to start tomorrow…stand, clean and prime. Then next weekend I will do the actual painting. I promise to take pictures throughout each step.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom, I love you!

-Lauren-

Show us where you live - Living rooms

Today, I’m showing off my living room over at Kelly’s Korner. Her blog is amazing and I’m pretty sure I check it out about once a day. Every Friday she is having everyone post pictures of specific rooms in their house. I think its a great idea and its so fun to see everyone’s spaces (not to mention get some good decorating or craft ideas)! :)

Ok so here is our living room. Nothing special, but it is definitely were we spend 90% of our time at home.

This is the view from our entry way. We have a pretty small house (1200 sq ft), but it feels bigger and I think it is mostly because the living room and kitchen feel like one big space. We love having it so open. When we have people over, everyone can spread out in either room but still feel like they are part of the group. The door on the right goes to our bedroom. The blue accent wall is probably my favorite part of the living room. I also love the walls in the kitchen. You can’t tell very well from this picture but I mudded, painted and then stained over the walls (with help). It turned out great!

Here is the room from the kitchen. The table, entertainment center and end table are all from World Market and I love them! I borrowed took the iron wall hanging from my parents garage. It fits perfectly above the table. The hallway leads to our 2 other bedrooms, the 2nd bath and the laundry room.

Here is the last view, from the hallway. That’s Hiro on his little spot. He would much rather be on the couch, but we are trying to nip that habit. I am not a big fan of the black couches, but Jon bought them before we meet so I really didn’t have a say. We aren’t ready to replace them yet, but some day I hope to get a more neutral brown or tan in here. We are also pulling up the carpet and installing wood floors later this month!! Yay!

Thanks for checking out our space!

-Lauren-

Half way through the week

I took my last final yesterday! It wasn’t bad at all, except we had to take it on the computer in class. My computer only messed up once and thankfully I was only on #25 out of 100. I needed a 79 to make a solid A in the class and I got an 89 on the exam so I should be good to go. :) Tomorrow night I have to go to my other class, but I just have to sit and listen to other groups present. Jon says I can’t really celebrate being done with school until tomorrow night, but I consider myself done already.

Last night after our final, my friend Jesse and I celebrated with margaritas at Trudy’s. We had a blast. Next week we are planning on getting pedicures to start off our summer.

Tonight since I didn’t have ANY studying to do I decided to try out an outdoor yoga class. A couple of weekends ago when I was walking around Town Lake I saw a group doing yoga and I picked up a flier. Apparently the instructor leads a class every weekday evening and weekend mornings. Its free for anyone to come a join, she just asks for donations. Tonight was the first opportunity I had to try it out and I LOVED it. I am going to try and go twice a week and maybe some Saturday mornings over the summer. The class meets on a pier that looks over a pond with a fountain. It across from Town Lake so it’s not as crowded. I have never done yoga outside before, and it was definitely great.

Another highlight for the week…Jon and I have caught up to season 5 of LOST. In fact we are going to be totally caught up just in time for the season finally next week. :)

A glance at our weekend

It’s hard to believe it’s already Sunday. I think I say that every weekend, but they just go by way too fast.

This weekend was nice and relaxing. Friday night Jon and I decided to get our errands run. We had dinner at Mighty Fine Burgers (they have amazing strawberry lemonade), and then we headed to Costco and HEB.  When we got home we watched a few documentaries on Netflix. Jon signed us up and not only do we get movies in the mail, but we have an online queue and we can watch things instantly through TiVo.

Saturday I spent the early afternoon studying for my final at La Madeline's with my friend Jesse. We got a lot of studying done, and I think we are going to do well on our final this Tuesday. Saturday night we hung out with our good friend Jason. We finally got to have dinner at Home Slice. It is a pizza place on Congress that is always packed! They were having a slow night and we still had to wait about an hour for a table. Luckily they have a patio out back and we were able  to get drinks and appetizers to hold us over. All and all we decided the pizza was good, but probably not worth an hour wait. After dinner we walked up to our favorite dessert place, Hey Cupcake. Yum!!

Today we headed to the Pecan Street Festival on 6th St. It was fun, but very hot and crowded. Now we are home and I think a late afternoon nap may be in order. I have a little more studying and some cleaning up to do tonight, but for now its time to relax.

Count down update: on summer break in 4 days! :)