Easter Fun! {Easter Egg Animals}

Marin and I made these animal Easter eggs last night. Marin was in charge of spreading felt and pom poms all over the floor and telling me if the animal was cute or not. She really wanted to use the hot glue gun, and didn't appreciate me hogging it. Once they were complete I had to hide them away for Easter morning, otherwise, I'm not sure that Bunny, Chicken, Mouse and Pig would have survived "playing."

These were designed so that the plastic egg still opens. My plan is to fill them with goodies and place them in her Sunday morning Easter basket. She'll be excited to see them again!

Only items you need to make your own are: plastic eggs, felt in various colors, scissors, a hot glue gun and your imagination.

Jesse and Katherine {Save The Date}

I have been working with Katherine and Jesse to design a series of pieces to announce their July wedding. This save the date design was mailed a couple weeks ago. Katherine expressed the desire for something semi formal with bold block letters in navy and yellow (their wedding colors). She provided me with an inspiration board of images and elements they wanted to incorporate into their wedding. This is my interpretation of her wishes. More to come!

10 Year Wedding Anniversay {World's Most Romantic Husband}

On March 25, 2000 I married Steven Evans.

On Thursday, we celebrated 10 years of marriage. With the house deadlines and my pregnancy, planning something special to celebrate fell by the wayside. I suggested a simple dinner and movie night. Steven reluctantly agreed to the simple "date night" but requested that he plan all the details. I became suspicious that he had other plans in mind when he told me to dress casual. As we pulled away from my mom's house, after leaving Marin to spend the evening with her Aunt "Biff" and "Kay, Kay" Steven presented me with the first of five "clues." Clues?! My amazing husband had created a "memories scavenger hunt." Each clue lead us to a memorable spot during our dating years. We had so much fun running around Polk County reliving our teen years and "driving" down memory lane.

The evening culminated with an exclusive dinner for two in an abandoned building in downtown Livingston. Steven had created a quiet candle light dinner complete with a display of pictures depicting various "firsts" in our relationship. Our first valentine’s day banquet. Our first symphony, winery tour, sailing excursion and pet. Our honey moon and the birth of our first child. I was completely overwhelmed by all of the thought, time, emotion and attention to detail that went into planning such a wonderful evening. I'm so extremely blessed to have such an amazing partner. Thank you Steven...I could not ask for more.

Plumbing {The Good the Bad and the Ugly}

The floors are finished! Hooray! But you'll have to wait to see pictures, just like we are waiting to walk on them! In the mean time, we are focused on plumbing.

Above is a photo of the old sink we've been using daily since we moved into the house. I remember walking into the bathroom and asking the lady that was showing us the house "is, um, this bathroom useable?" She seemed surprised I would even ask such a question! Funny how people adjust to the unusual over time. Anyway, we've grown to like this old sink and were elated when our plumber offered to give us a "couple old sinks I have sitting around." One of those free sinks matched our old faithful! It was decided right then and there, that these matching sinks would be used in our new master bath! Free sink picture below. Pretty close match eh?!

On Sunday, the three of us piled into our old 1995 GMC truck and hauled old faithful, it's new matching partner, an old, 5 and a half foot, claw foot tub and the world's smallest (cutest) sink to Houston for refinishing. We had a blast that day crossing our fingers that the truck would make it and enjoying the closeness. Kevin Jerding of Gallaway Porcelain Works in Houston is handing the refinishing work on the tubs and sinks. The plan is to paint the underside of the sink and tubs an almond color and have the feet of the tub chromed. Can't wait to show you finished pictures!

What happened to the bathroom we are currently using you might ask? Well, that's where the ugly comes in. Yuck!

Steven spent most of Saturday taking down the old sink and installing a NEW, old sink in it's place. The wall was super yucky so we took the opportunity to clean. You never know what to expect once you dig into old plumbing, so we began the project with the worst in mind. In the end, Steven replaced the drain line and replaced seals in the faucets to prevent leaking. Hoping this new setup will suffice until this portion of the house is remodeled. Separate hot and cold faucets. Hum...just another unusual to adjust too right?

Speaking of faucets. We've searched and searched for shelf back faucets (see below) to replace our old faucets, and have finally decided it would be best to just have the old ones rebuilt and re chromed. Stay tuned!

Sanding!

Exciting! Loud. Smelly. Amazing. Beautiful. Progress!

Staying Busy!

Haven't posted much lately...we've been busy. We are on "deadline" with the house! Deadline enforced by the baby coming, but more pressing than that the "floor guys" are coming this Thursday! Yep, Mayes flooring out of Beaumont are coming on Thursday to refinish the wood floors in the west side of the house. That means all of the trim above the floor has to be finished. So.....Dan and Steven have been working on b-board for the master bath, hanging the last of the crown molding, building columns and cutting and routing trim boards for the windows. Below is a progression of the b-board installation.

I handled the second half of the b-board project. Spackling all of the nail holes and the priming and painting. The picture below shows the first coat of primer. I finished the painting last night!

And then there is the trim...There are a few "critical" architectural elements in our house that we wanted to save. The top trim pieces from the windows and doors are one of those elements. They are made from true cut lumber and we wanted to hold that look for the house. Who knew saving the trim would turn into so much work! The pictures below show the process we went through stripping each of the boards. A nightmare I tell you...a true nightmare. Each board had probably seven or eight layers of old paint that was extremely "strip resistant." I thought the project would never end until our savior arrived! The heat gun! LIFE SAVER. Steven was able to finish in three hours what would normally take me a full day’s work.

The top most board shows a piece of trim after hours of work. The bottom board shows how each board looked before beginning the process.

Below are just a few of the freshly painted window trim boards. We had 25 boards in all. After the boards were stripped, they were sanded and then cleaned with a water/bleach solution. Then re-sanded, spackled, and primed. Finally a final coat of trim paint color was applied. Tonight they are being hung!

Below is a shot of the window trim boards that Steven and Dan created and that I helped to prime and paint. These are being hung too!

And finally a photo of Steven using the mighty heat gun to strip paint from one of nine window stools. Yes, you guessed it. These were stripped, sanded, cleaned with water/bleach, spackled, primed and painted. And boy are they smooth and pretty now.

Stay tuned. I hope to have before and after pictures of the floors posted next week. Then it's on to hanging doors and door trim and the bath fixtures. We have three sinks and a tub that we are having refinished for the bathrooms on the west side. Progress, progress, progress!