currently | Little Stinky Feet Theater

Currently is a weekly link-up with the lovely ♥ Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am her happy co-host each week. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. What have you been smelling, wishing, loving, pouring, talking this week? Over here, we have been...

Smelling myself. I was gifted with some lovely Aveda products when our friends visited and the smell is so dreamy! Just the right mix of earth and sweet and spice - I smell fantastic. The smell is also reminding me how much I love Aveda's tea blends and that Rob got me a gift certificate to the local Aveda way back in May and I need to book a massage for myself. Yip! We have all also been smelling Etta's feet all week and saying "P.U!" and making crazy anime faces of near death. She loves it! She holds her feet out to us over and over for a Little Stinky Feet Theater. It's the sweetest. 

Wishing summer would never end. How is it August already?! Unreal.

Loving that I finally finished Omnivore's Dilemma as part of my long distance book club. It took my friend and I about four months to read this book because we have a Forgiveness Always policy for pushing our book clubs dates back due to anything (we are moms with full time jobs, yo). It was a great book - educational and thought-provoking. I loved the journalistic parts of it most of all and I want to learn more so I ordered myself two additional books on the subject of modern food culture: Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin' Mamas and Farm City. And I'm loving that my friend and I are starting a new book club book soon and this time we are picking a new topic - her choice this time and I can't wait!

Pouring coffee on my head Flashdance style. If the government ever decides to use coffee as a mind control delivery system I am doomed.

Talking with Otto at bedtime and cherishing every second of it. He has moved back out of our bed and into his big boy bed this week (ps there are some pics of the kids' room here). So far he's doing great (last night being Night 2 of this experiment). Me, I don't know if I am doing so very great. I miss having him there through the night and was really nervous that having him sleep elsewhere would ruin our amazing bedtime routine that I pretty much live for. So far it hasn't. We've been doing our daily recaps in my room and then just when he's about to drift off, transitioning over to his own bed. This all came about kind of out of the blue when Otto spotted a Darth Vader quilt in my PB Kids catalog and was like, "Whoa." We told him if he is ready to sleep in his own bed at night and has seven nights in a row that we would get it for him (he doesn't have a comforter currently so it's not that extravagant of us although holy lord Pottery Barn charges a premium for their bedding, eek). Anyways my brain knows this is a normal transition and ultimately a good thing but my heart is really heavy. He's just getting so big and independent you guys. All the sighs!
     

That was this week. Here are next week's themes: 

spending, saving, speaking, going, sharing 

old school blogging

We're going streaking! There is an "old school blogging" meme going around and Andrea from Bubblewrappd and Rebecca from Manic Mama have both tagged me. It's lists -- my favorite thing! I love lists. Sometimes I make lists of things I've already done just so I can check them off. So this will be FUN ♥

Five Things I Have a Passion For... my children, my husband, my family, laughing, and lately a passion has been reading/educating myself about the tragic industrial food complex. Am I a drag? Anyways, also close runner up passions would be Project Runway and coffee.

Five Things I'd Like to do Before I Die... find the death antidote, visit Greece, see my kids happily settled into lives they chose and get to know my grandkids, go back to grad school (but for what?), and grow/tend a really splendid English garden.

Five Things I Say a Lot... That's garbage, Make it work, You chose poorly, For reals?!, and Awesome

Five Places I Want to Travel... Greece, Hawaii, Italy, Galapagos Islands, and Ireland

Five People I Want to Tag for Old School Blogging... I think I am tardy to the party so I am just going to tag anyone who hasn't already been tagged elsewhere. Tag, you! What are your lists of five? Will we one day meet up in my organic English garden in Italy over a nice coffee and watch an epi of Project Runway and then go streaking? I hope so!

the project-per-month PROJECT month 5

Another month has come and gone and here we are with the Project-Per-Month Project, take five. I remain a huge fan of this method of home improvement. Small little projects, dealt with one at a time. Since we started, my house is just feeling nicer and tidier and I feel more in control of this space where I live.

Project-Per-Month Project HOW IT WORKS... If you want to join in the project project, and you totally should, here are the rules...
- Pick a single, manageable project off your to-do list, just one.
- Determine that you WILL do it, come hell or high water, even if you have to stay up late one night
- Give yourself specific goals.
- Give yourself a deadline: the end of the month.
- Give yourself a budget.
- Do it. Do it.

I can't wait to see what everyone accomplished in July. Actually because I'm a few days behind posting this I've already seen a couple of you guys' end results and it's AWESOME. You guys rock! For July I refinished my kitchen table in Annie Sloane chalk paint in primer red. I was going to do the whole table but the minute I got started I realized I liked having the top red and the base and legs black because this way it still looks like my chairs belong with the table.

I chose Annie Sloane chalk paint which has a great reputation for being easy to work with and doesn't require any priming. The whole project took about 24 hours, but really just four time windows of one hour each with breaks for things to dry in between, and I just love how it turned out. The paint is thick and goes on so cleanly that I started out with a drop cloth that I had intended to move around the table as I worked, but realized it was unneccessary so I painted this bad boy without a drop cloth! Danger Mom! I live life on the edge.

I used 2 coats of paint which equaled about 2/3 of the can and then I used 2 coats of Annie Sloane sealing wax which you smear on and then buff once it's dry. The end result is matte but with a nice sheen. I wasn't sure how comfortable I'd be actually using the table but we had guests in town the day after I finished this project so it was trial by fire.

And the table did great! Even with four little kids using it which meant hot food spills, sticky food smashed on, water and milk puddles, etc. this poor table has been through the shit already. So far it's done great. I wouldn't put a hot pan or anything on this, because I just feel like it's good but not titanium-level of heat-stain proof  and would end up with a ring (is titanium heat-stain proof? I don't know I just have that song in my head). Bullets would not ricochet off this table. It would fall down. Don't fire away at my table.

Anyways, I'm so happy to have my beat looking table looking swank again!

July was a success, and just under budget. For August I am considering turning the catch-all closet in the kids' toy room into a dressup station. I'm giving myself a couple days to commit to this project because it will require imagination, organization, and probably a handful of thrift store trips for dress up supplies and honestly I don't know if I have it in me. But I want to! But I'm tired. But I'm excited! But also tired. If I decide to put this project off for a month then my backup project is finding a tall/narrow dresser at the thrift store for the corner next to the kitchen table. Right now we have one of those square Ikea tables tucked into the corner and it's covered with my "desk" stuff including a mad pile of papers/bills, my laptop when I'm not using it, camera, stationery, etc. It just looks really cluttered and Loretta is always threatening to pilfer through it. So a dresser would hide the mess nicely. Either way my August budget is going to be $40.

What projects have you been up to or are thinking about taking on for August? Let me know if you have any questions about using the chalk paint. I had a bunch, but ended up just kind of reading a handful of online tutorials and then going for it and it worked out. Really easy, versatile paint. I have a feeling it will be my go-to for any future paint projects, even though it is a pain to hunt down and I had to order mine long-distance. If you do that, it's worth comparing not just the cost but the shipping cost at a few places to find the best deal. It was cheaper for me to order from New England than from a shop in Portland - crazy! And word on the street is that you don't have to use Annie Sloane sealing wax (which is pricey) so next time I'll just use Annie Sloane paint and non-fancy wax. I think the packaging is fancy but the wax itself is standard. All in all two big thumbs up on this one though.

currently | Tim Tam Jam!

Currently is a weekly link-up with the lovely ♥ Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am her happy co-host each week. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. What have you been watching, listening, writing, loving, creating this week? Over here, we have been...

Watching small, toe-headed persons with big personalities boss us around. Some of our best friends came to visit for a 3 day weekend, with their two boys in tow. Sebastian is 9 months younger than Otto and the two were inseparable. Ozias and Etta share a birthday and a fearless disposition. It was a handful of days of yummy, kid-friendly take-out and evening beers and whole days planned around baby naps and kid outings. Ice cream. County Fair. Four little cuties aged four and under. Four best friends who've known and loved each other for almost 20 years (yikes). Just all kinds of happy magic.

Listening to Etta babble in full sentences lately. She just talks and talks and talks, so much to say! I have no idea what she's going on and on about but I'm pretty sure it's a list of demands. Last night I got an earful after trying to help her eat mashed potatoes with her spoon. Plate thrown on the floor while roaring! Spoon ripped out of my hand! And then she ripped me a new one while shaking an angry spoon in my face. Hee hee. It's pretty hard not to laugh when you're being chewed out in irate gobbledegook. Ahem, BUT, I have fear about this one's teenage years. Grey hair making fear.

Otto is Writing a whole library full of books. He makes small books at school with folded paper and staples and fills them with stories and illustrations. The best part of Otto's books is that he sounds the words out himself! His most epic work so far is "Ottos Plan Bek" which is a book of daring and dangerous plans, most of which include helicopters, people dangling off helicopters, often all of it happening over a volcano, and everything is of course on fire. Boys!

Loving Tim Tams! Rebecca sent a most epic care package full of Canadian goodies (OMG thank you lady but my tight jeans DO NOT thank you!) and while I haven't gotten to taste it all yet, I have scarfed 2/3 of a box of Tim Tams in less than twelve hours. Tim Tams! Tim Tam Jam! Whoohooooo chocolate hyperness party!

Creating a refurbed kitchen table! There is a little sneak peak above. This was my Project Per Month Project for July so there will be a post hopefully tomorrow on the transformation from cruddy, chipped tabletop to smooth red chalk-painted end result. I may be addicted to Annie Sloane chalk paint in addition to Tim Tams ::does weird little jiggy dance::
     

That was this week. Here are next week's themes: 

smelling, wishing, loving, pouring, talking