Dresser Love - Status Complete

... Or cotton candy meets grunge.

The LP's dresser was completed (mostly, I still want to rub antique medium over the pink to age it a bit more) yesterday and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I promise it's not nearly as 'Barbie' in person, I think the flash makes the pink more vibrant or something. I'm thinking of putting some pink on one of the 'knobs' on the mirror cradle to pull the pink up, but we'll see. I also have to paste wax it, but you get the idea.

Before:

After (The original 'Dresser Love' is the inbetween):

The drawers are pink inside as well and will have pink toile paper podged to the bottoms, because, you know, everyone invests time looking in the bottom of their drawers, especially 2.5 year olds and 4 year olds...

Pretty Scary...

... or don't do projects in front of a mirror...

I have to do the vast majority of my 'projects' outside because we share our basement with the landpeople and are relegated to one room for laundry and storage. This wouldn't be a problem aside from the fact that A) Our laundry abode doesn't afford us any windows for ventilation and B) Mr. Pretties doesn't so much love having pink spray paint on his work uniform... so mostly I go outside. This morning Mr. Pretties helped me haul out the LP's big dresser, a little dresser, and my washstand that weighs more than both combined, I swear! I was ready for some work during naptime!

As you may remember, the LP's dresser has a swing mirror on top. I decided not to remove the mirror because it's a pain to put back together. I got the pink drawers all distressed and put back in and started working on the little dresser beside it. here I am all sanding away right, into it when I think I hear something, maybe someone coming up behind me. I'm a paranoid person by nature (Mr. Pretties can attest, he never comes up behind me because I scream like a banshee every. freaking. time.), which is made worse when I can't hear what's going on (believe it or not, a sander does not allow for good audio control...) around me. So I turn around to see if maybe the landpeople have made their way into the backyard when my gaze is met by the most ungodly looking girl with wild greying hair, pasty looking face and horrified eyes. Needless to say an accident of bathroomical proportions nearly took place.

Until, that is, I realized that the frightful girl I was having heart palpitations about was actually my reflection. My reflection in which both my hair and my face are covered in white crap from sanding. I'm such a huge dork it's unreal. If that weren't bad enough, five minutes later I did the exact same thing again...

What's the old saying?

"Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me"?

What does that say for me? Shame on me squared because I'm scared of my own reflection!?

I think I've finally reached the toxic level of breathing in lead paint particles...

Can You Hold?

... Or my furniture fetish (ie. sickness) has reached a new level...

Mr. Pretties usually phones home on his lunch to see how everyone's doing, and, obviously, because the tremendous pain of being apart from me for more eight hours at a time is far too much for one human to bare. Clearly. You might not want to cross reference that with Mr. Pretties though, you know, because he gets embarrassed about stuff like that. Or something. Anyways... so as I'm hosting an intriguing discussion of what kinds of diapers I've changed this afternoon, who threw what in the aquarium, and whether or not I think Wilma might not be feeling well since she's been boycotting the bed all day (yeah, there might be something deathly wrong with your cat if it decides not to nap for the entire day...) I spied these sweet little things:

MmmHmm... those are in fact pink antique spindles/balusters. For $5. Seriously? What a steal! So in the middle of my self diagnoses of Wilma's imaginary ailments our conversation (or non-versation as it were) took the following turn:

Jenn: What would you say if I told you I was going to buy pink spindles?'

Mr. Pretties: Pink what?

Jenn: Pink spindles, you know, like when you have a railing and then you have the up and down things (Mr. Pretties requires these kinds of in depth descriptions)?

Mr. Pretties: Uh huh...

Jenn: Yeah those are spindles, someone on Kijiji is selling four of them for $5! AND they're.... pink!!

Mr. Pretties: Pink spindles? No railing? Maybe a table top?

Jenn: No... just spindles...

Mr. Pretties: Why would you want to buy just the spindles?!

Jenn: Umm... because they're pink?

Mr. Pretties: So?

Jenn: They're super cute... and pink!

Mr. Pretties: But what would you do with them?!

Jenn: I don't know... who cares, they're pink...

Mr. Pretties: You would buy them even though you don't know what to do with them?

Jenn: MmmHmm... I'm sure I'd find a use for them sooner or later, maybe for now I could just stand them up in the corner and appreciate their pinkness?

Mr. Pretties: Uhh... can you hold for a second?

Jenn: Sure... why?

Mr. Pretties: I need to make a phone call... do you have the number there for the FUNNY FARM?! Seriously?! Pink spindles?! You're making me sick I have to hang up now... I'll see you when I get home *over exaggerated sigh* pink spindles...

Jenn: Well let's just check Ebay here... Ahh yes... spindles $73.26 shabby baluster pink set of four $34.98 o---

Mr. Pretties: Ohhhh... you didn't say you were going to buy them to sell them! Okay I get it now!

Jenn: Sell them?! I'm not going to sell them!!! Are you crazy?!

Mr. Pretties: Bye...

Obviously by 'I don't know what I'd do with them' I meant 'I don't know what I'd do with them because there are so many options to choose from!' Seriously. They could be table legs, they could be cut down for those cute baluster candle holders, but I adore the point ends, so that wouldn't work. A window table? Yes! An old window table, those can be the legs, that would be fab! There we go, got it all figured out ;)

I guess lusting after pink spindles is a little far fetched, but that's me, take me as I am. Or something...

Glorious Aberfoyle Season...

... Or has anyone seen Mr. Pretties?

Sunday kicked off my very favorite time of year, it's what I like to call 'Aberfoyle Season'. The weather man predicted a lovely balmy day of 26 degrees of sunshine and a beautiful blue cloudless sky for Sunday. What arrived however was a chilly 13 degrees of grey grisly clouds, and cold misting rain. Jerk. But rain or shine I was going, even if it meant I was fondling Duncan Phyfe's while holding a blue and pink polk-a-dot umbrella ;) As it happened it wasn't 'misting' quite enough for that to be necessary.

Although it was a quieter day (most opening days are, people forget that Aberfoyle opens that weekend, because, you know, they have lives or something. For shame...) and due to the weather the majority of the visiting vendors cancelled their spots, so the visiting section was a little worse for the wear. However there seemed to have been new permanent vendors with some fabulous stuff and the prices were amazing! I brought my camera with me with the thought of taking pictures to both discuss with my Aberfoyle buddy as well as to post here, but I brought out my camera and people started to stare, followed by me feeling like a huge dork... so I slowly put my camera back in my bag, people started turning back around and I went on my way. Next time, I promise.

As much as I enjoy Kijiji I hate having to route through the mounds of tacky floral couches, lease-to-own livingroom sets, and Grandma's old kitchen table from 1970 with the co-ordinating teal sparkly chairs to get to the real goodies. Aberfoyle is like a Brita filter in that it keeps out all the crap and gets right to the treasures. I could spend all day mauling everyone's items (get your head out of that gutter, you know what I mean!!), sniffy drawers, and asking Mr. Pretties why he doesn't make more money... kidding... sort of... anyways... it's great because it's not like the low end flea markets where you see the same things 50 times at different booths, everyone has something wonderful and unique to offer, and it's not like the high end antique shops that have wonderful tradition items that you'd have to sell your soul and that of all of your offspring in order to afford one of their pieces (this by no means means that all antique shops are like this) because the prices are reasonable, and if they're not they're always open for bartering! The prices entice me because you get the rush of a good deal on an awesome piece, but you also pay enough that it's still important to you and means something. Does that even make sense? That might just be me actually... Hmm...

I generally am not a big purchaser (I purchase regularly, just not bug purchaes, or a lot of little ones at the same time) at Aberfoyle (This is where Mr. Pretties income comes in... kidding.) but when I do purchase something it's because it's something that catches me the right way, *insert animal shelter analogy here - it's just like that puppy with the sad eyes that you can't leave behind* and it must come home with me because we have a 'connection'. I don't know if I've ever shared this theory with anyone other than Mr. Pretties, and this'll sound out there, but I always wonder when this happens if it's because maybe in another life I owned this item, or one like it and my subconscious remembers and makes this connection. Weird, I know.

This week it was an old spice cupboard that is crap condition, smells like a smelly green walnut from a barn, and a door that has swelled indefinitely open (unless I plane the side) and opens with a skeleton key I don't have. A real winner, eh?

What I see though is a terribly characteristic piece covered in wonderful naturally chipped and crackled paint, with fab moulding on the top, a key hole in the door, and a great hand written note inside the door about how many pounds each pot/pail/bowl in this farmer wife's home holds, and how much sugar to add to the pail of cherries :) It reminds me of the cupboard from the book 'Indian in The Cupboard' which has stuck with me so maybe that's why I had to pluck this up out of the rain and bring it home to shed it's leady paint everywhere ;) No idea what I'm going to do with it, but I'll do something. I have another small old cupboard that's quirky and I just love it!

Next Saturday (the 2nd) from 7-4 Aberfoyle is having their first Spring Special with loads of visiting vendors, vendors from out of town, and general fabulousness, as well as the open market 8-5 Sunday. It's an Aberfoyle weekend! Or you could just look it up at www.aberfoyle-antiques.com ;)

ETA: The cupboard door does infact close now... it was swollen from a combination of the side crack and the rain yesterday, apparently a day airing out in the warm sun (I can only handle so much 'ou de fruit farm' for so long while trying to sleep) did it some good because the door fits nicely now. However, it may never open again... why can't I just leave things alone?!

Dresser Love

It's been so long since I've used my sander that I forgot how to put the sandpaper on... resulting in me spending half an hour swearing at it for being such a cheap piece of crap... obviously I am the cheap piece of crap in this story, that's what happens when you get rusty!

I found the girls' a new dresser for their room last week. Did they need a new dresser? No. Is it a bigger dresser? No. But is it a better dresser? Hells yes! So I sold their old one, and bought this one. Please note that it had just been sanded down and will turn into a sweet concoction of dreamy pink and white with oval glass knobs shortly.

See the sweet little details that makes it special?

As I was emailing my girlfriend to tell her about this sweetheart (she's probably the only other person I know who loves furniture, antique markets, and sanders as much as I do) I realized what a freak I am, and that I should share it since I've been lacking blog fodder lately ;)

Firstly, I absolutely adore the mustly smell of well aged furniture. As soon as we had this in the house I opened the first drawer, stuck my head in and took a giganitic whiff of musty well aged goodness. Mmm... heavenly... Mr. Pretties pretended not to see this taking place, things like this make him worry about my sanity ;)

Secondly, as you can see this dresser has two litte drawers. I love little drawers, they are so adorable there aren't even words to describe how adorable it is. So I took one of them out and gave it a hug. Seriously. A hug. Mr. Pretties simply responded with 'You're sick...' which may or may not be true... sometimes I'm just so over come by the absolute adorableness of a piece of shabby furniture that I can't contain myself. This piece came with bubbled veneer on the top, rusted paint (wth?) spots, and a really crappy super shiney sponge painted paint job that was in dire need of redoing. It also came with gorgeous spindled legs, wonderful original appliques, dovetailed drawers back and front, and that fantabulous smell. I think the good out weighs the bad 20 fold. My old disappointment is I bought it for the Pretties' room instead of mine ;)

I'll show the after pictures when it's done, which may be a while as I'm waiting for glass hardware to come in for it, it's already ordered but international mail is slow, snail mail to the max.

Done Like Dinner...

... Or how not to cook a chicken...

I remembered some blog fodder ;)

Saturday morning Mr. Pretties and I were sitting outside enjoying ourselves some sunshine when we smell smoke. Not from our house. Our driveway and our neighbours are attached so we can see the back of their house clearly, since there isn't anything there. We look over, and low and behold, there's heavy smoke streaming out the back of their screen doors (which were opened and unlocked). So top floor tenants (duplex) call 911 and we wait. Mr. Pretties calls in to see if anyone's in there, which they aren't. but, their little dog is. Being the animal suckers that we are Mr. Pretties goes in to look for the dog, barely being able to see the smoke was so thick. He finds the dog on the main floor bedroom and I grab her leash from the doorway and we bring her home and wait for the fire department. It was seriously like 10 more minutes before they arrived to check it out. Keep in mind this particular neighbours uses oxygen tanks to breath and has half a dozen sitting inside her kitchen door... (Kaboom! anyone?)

Anyways...

So the fire department comes to find that our neighbour lady has put a small chicken in the oven for dinner, and instead of roasting it (or she roasted it alright) she put it in the oven and then set it on the self cleaning setting... Omg... So other than a major smelly house there wasn't any damage (although note: they said the dog wouldn't have made it with the amount of smoke that was in there when they arrived) so they air the house out, note that there were no smoke alarms going (bad!) and went on their way.

We took the dog home with us to wait for it's owner to get home. We were sitting outside with her when she arrived home completely oblivious to the previous going-ons. She sees us with the dog and comes over in a right aggressive mood with:

'What the hell?! You decide to walk my dog and just help yourself into my house and get her?!'

Yes, that's exactly what we did... with three little ones and a BBQ to get ready for we have nothing at all better to do than break into your unlocked house to find your dog and talk it for a random walk... never mind that we've never ever done that or expressed an interest in doing it the entire three years we've lived here... However...

I then explained that she tried to self clean her chicken instead of roasting it and it resulted in a smoke engulfed home that the fire department just left from... that in turn brought her to tears and next thing I know she's hugging and kissing us while crying her little old lady eyes out. Which them makes me cry my non-so-little-old-lady eyes out! She ended up being super thankful that Mitsy had been saved and her house only needs a new coat of paint to be back to itself again.

Oy! What day that was...

Oh My Cow!

In the words of Emma...

Wow, can you believe it's been over a month?! It's amazing how blogging goes, sometimes there are so many things to blog about that you're on here 3 or 4 times a day (or maybe that's just me... yeah...), others you're racking your brain the night before trying to think of something productive to blog about but make sure that you offer a few decent posts in a week, while others still you're just at a loss of what to blog, how to blog it, and then it's like the blog light just burns out and you can't do it. Blogging is very therapeutic for my, but it's like the light wasn't there anymore to come up with anything worth reading (I'm by no means passing this post off as something worth reading LoL).

It's actually kind of depressing, after four weeks of a blogging vacay I should be able to come up with 101 things to tell you and pictures to prove it. I've. Got. Nothing. Ugh...

We registered Emma for preschool last week, and Meaghan will be registering for JK next week, and then two mornings a week we'll only have Ethan, weird, eh? Everyone's growing up so fast... I know, I know, that's such a cliche among parents, but it's just so true and with each subsequent child it goes faster. With Meaghan she seemed to age at a reasonable pace, still to quick, but not scary quick, turning 1 was fine, turning 2 was fine, turning 3 was fine, turning 4 was entirely unacceptable!! With Emma she did things a little quicker, her first birthday came a little faster, and she was a big sister a little sooner (not really, there's only 19 months between Meaghan and Emma but 23 between Emma and Ethan) and with Ethan he was just born I'm telling you and already he's 9 months old and trying to walk, at the end of the summer we'll be celebrating 12 months of Ethan, WTH?! Don't you guys remember, we seriously just had him not that long ago, I remember it like it was yesterday (yeah, full of cliches today) and yet it wasn't... if he and Emma were spaced the same and Meaghan and Emma we'd already be worrying about him starting preschool in '10 (which we wont thank god!) In two short years Ethan will be in preschool and he'll be the last baby I have at home part-time.

I guess I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, but seriously, what's two years? It'll practically be here tomorrow!

Mr. Pretties injured himself at work last month and was home with us for a couple weeks, which was, let's say... interesting. Yes. Actually it was nice, made me wish he'd retire and stay home with us all the time. But with work injuries comes the good old workers compensation board, and when you have a very structured financial situation (as in when pay cheques get screwed up or, say, randomly don't appear, it topples the careful balance very quickly and very effectively) everything tends to fall apart, so that's bit just a little bit stressful and stress sort of saps my creativity which really sucks.

I should really be blogging about things that stress me out because it's therapeutic to me but I'm always worried someone's going to read it and a) be offended by my language (despite popular belief, I really pack a strong profane punch when I'm stressed) b) stop reading because who wants to listen to me whine about my problems (Nobody knows... the troubles I've seen... nobody knows but Jesus... *please use your best Spaceballs voice for that part*) and then I'll be blogging to myself. I guess I need to work harder at just being me, and I'm not always butterflies, cupcakes and pink glitter, infact a lot of the time I'm sarcastic, profane, and a little irritable and I try to hide that side from the blogging world in fear of getting labeled with dual personalities (which, essentially, would be true...). *Sigh*

In other news (now that we're all aware that I'm a nut obviously) the kittens went to their new homes, which we're very happy about :) I'm personally satisfied by every home each one went to, so that does a lot for my emotional health :)

We're on week two of the kids taking turns having fevers of 106 and the flu. It's sort of getting old at this point... mostly it makes me want to cry actually... Hopefully this'll be the last run since Meaghan's done preschool in a few weeks. I'm done now, but preschool isn't so I guess we'll wait it out. Although this seems to be a fun preschool months since we have the Mother's Day tea to go to, Marineland, and the end of the year picnic, I love those interactive preschool days!

In a four short days I'll be stretching my legs at the Aberfoyle Antique Market in Guelph. It's the opening weekend, and Aberfoyle is one of the few places that I go to and truly feel at peace (and where Mr. Pretties doesn't as he fears I'll bring the entire market home. On the roof of the Buick. Tied by dental floss found in my purse.) and the weather is supposed to be fab so I'm pretty stoked! Next weekend Aberfoyle is having what's called a 'Spring Special' which is on Saturday and is loaded with new visiting vendors. We'll be going there too. Clearly.

We've done some buying and selling in the last few weeks, but generally in equal amounts as one piece funded the others. And ofcourse that's rooted out some bad eggs on good old Kijiji. We bought a British bow front short chest of drawers a few months ago, used it, and then got tired of it so listed it for sale. It was sold for $65, which was a fair price as it's kind of an odd piece. Definitely shabby chic, but in an unusual kind of way. Anyways. The buyer was super rude when she came, tried to barter me down to a song and a dance (which didn't happen) and then made out like she was doing me the favor of the century by purchasing it for the asking price. After that I didn't give it another thought. Until my friend sent me an email telling me to check out this 'adorable bow front dresser' I click the link expecting to see something I need to buy when low and behold... it's my dresser... but it couldn't be, could it? At a whopping $175? Nothing had been done to it, and this miserably broad has relisted it for nearly 3x what she paid. She also stole my description almost word for word, except for the part where she lied about it's age... by 20 years... I emailed her nicely and said it looked great, her pictures were lovely, and that it was infact purchased new in 1951 not the 30's and received no response, this being the same address she used to buy it from me. She also listed it in every Kijiji area except mine, where it was purchased, even though that's her local area. So obviously she knows she's lying about it's age, is rudely reselling (a mere three days later) without doing anything to change the value, and that she behaved like a jerk at my house. All in all, I'm not happy. Not because of the money (she'll be fortunate to sell it for $100, obviously I'm aware of values more than she is) but because she stole my description, was a total creep at the sale, and is using my piece that people saw me list to lie about ages and hiking the price. That comes back on my ass and makes me thoroughly unhappy. It makes me want to buy it back and go to her house and kick her ass. Ofcourse I'm all talk, a wuss on top of it and that would never in a million years happen... so I'll have a glass of wine and stew instead ;)

Thanks for sticking with me throughout the absence, and for listening to my ultra persona rant :) I think I'll be able to get back in the groove now :)

What's new with all of your guys? (don't be thinking just be cause I haven't blogged or commented I haven't been reading, because I have, regularly).

A week already?! And Kittens!

Well obviously life at The Pretties has been insanely boring as of late, since no blog fodder has fallen into my ever waiting lap in the last week... jeez...

Seriously though, nothing has been going on. I've sat down to blog, and got as far as sitting down. Maybe evening signing in. I think once I even say and stared at the white 'create post' screen squeezing my brain, hoping for some kind of creative juices to drip out. No such luck. Even the LPs have been pretty boring lately, not in a 'my kids are boring' kind of way, but in 'they haven't done anything hilarious that I had to share' kind of way. Unless you want to hear all about the LPs beating each other up, screaming, making more messes than me and ten armies could keep up with, but since most of you deal with this at your own house, I'll assume not and spare you ;)

My cousin and his wife had a baby girl on the 4th, which is lovely, who doesn't love a new baby? So we got to go and meet her on Thursday, and I got to hold her. It's amazing how big Ethan's gotten... I don't even remember him being that small and he was. A mere 7 months ago. But it was great, I got to hold her, snuggle her, smell her new yummy baby goodness, and then give her back and go home. No nagging feelings of 'Aww... wasn't that wonderful? Doesn't that make you want to just jump in the sack and procreate again?!' Nothing. I enjoyed it, and I went home. Go me! You're probably wondering why this is a big deal, when clearly to normal people it wouldn't be. When Meaghan was born I always knew someone was always 'missing', I was not done yet. With Emma for the first month I thought maybe we were complete, then a few months later realized - Hello! wrong again! and after several months of discussion we decided to go for Ethan. For the entire month after Ethan was born I kept thinking 'Wow, I could definitely go for a fourth...' and the hypothetical fourth was always in the back of my mind. One day that thought just went away. *Poof* *Gone* The hypothetical fourth is no longer even permitted to being a though in my head, or anyone elses within my vicinity (as in Mr. Pretties) because I am at my sanity limit with three.Seriously though, that whole month after we had Ethan all I could think of was ' Holy crap, I want another one?! When does it end?! What if I want a million of them?! Stop the insanity! Will I always want more?!' So I'm so realized to realize we're done, all of our children are here and no one is missing and I wont ever wonder if we should have had more. What a great feeling. I don't see pregnant people and feel anything other than 'Aww... what a sweet baby bump. Better you than me, I'm really enjoying sneezing without peeing myself lately' . I see new borns and think 'Aww... how tiny and sweet. Still better you than me, I enjoy sleeping for longer than two second increments.(not that Ethan is a wonderful sleeping... since he's not...)' It just makes me happy to know that I'm not a baby producing factory after all, whew!

We haven't done much (read: any) antiquing, things have been pretty tight around here, which is pretty sucky, obviously. I think even Mr. Pretties misses it LoL But if the tax refund fairy shows up sometime in the next couple weeks we'll be going to an auction that has a few great things that should go for even greater prices, which'll be awesome to sell at Aberfoyle this season. Think white painted Duncan Phyfe drop leaf table and chairs - perfect for that space challenged shabby kitchen, child sized Duncan Phyfe styled chairs, a primitive early 1900's chippy white painted cradle, and numerous primitive dovetailed wooden boxes. PS. 43 days until Aberfoyle season starts - woohoo! Spring and summer is just so much better than winter, there's simply no comparison!

Since I'm being painfully boring and obviously have nothing interesting to tell you, I'll just shut up and leave you with some photos I took of our kittens this weekend. It's amazing that everyone is spoken for except 'Nana' and I don't know why! She's got a really sweet face I think!

Jasmine:

Baby Stewie:

'Nana':

And 'Aladdin':

You Can Take That Up With My Nap Manager...

... Or what I would do with a million dollars.

First things first. I'm a napper. I come from a long line of nappers. I don't require a lot in a day, but I absolutely require a nap of some form (preferably long form) inorder for the day to run smoothly. As it turns out, when you have three kids 4 and under nap-time becomes akin to performing a miracle. Right now it's mostly Ethan who feels entitled to not sleep when everyone else is, or sleep, but ensure that he awakes several times hourly inorder to keep anyone else (ie. myself) from getting any kind of consecutive quality sleep, which may infact be worse than no sleep at all. It's one of the great debates.

This brings us to, you know how people always talk about what they'd do if they came into large (very large, forget all your worries) sums of money? Mr. Pretties always says he'd get a nanny and a cleaning lady. I concur on the cleaning lady, because, again, cleaning your house while your kids are growing up is like shoveling the snow while it's still snowing. Seriously. But I've always disagreed on a nanny, I wouldn't want someone else raising my kids, spending more time with my kids than I do, etc... unless ofcourse we could located a real-life Mary Poppins, in which case who am I to deny my children that? I just can't fill those black pointy shoes... I digress...

So while I'd be out antiquing (with kids in tow) and other such related money spending activities (with kids in tow) I'd be hiring a nap manager ASAP. MmmHmm. My nap manager would be in charge of making sure the household nap went exactly according to schedule. Every.Single.Day. The Pretties don't always want/need naps anymore, so with the nap manager that should no longer pose a problem, she'll just hang out/entertain them while I take a nap sans interruptions (unless they're important, obviously). I will require atleast two hours of designated naptime, but three is far more effective.

Mr. Pretties also enjoys a good nap, and he can take advantage of the nap managerial situation as well, but he'll have to have his own designated nap area because I nap alone. I do not like to hear snoring while I nap, tossing and turning, or have someone attempting the cuddle. No thanks. Napping is a solo event and should be treated and respected accordingly. Wilma (the boss. aka the cat) will be the only other living soul allowed in my napping area, and only because if I don't, it's a vast possibility that she'll beat me when I wake up. And, she's a good napping buddy (buddies and partners are totally different things) and sleeps at the opposite corner of the bed (unless she's sleeping on my head. Or something.)

I would pay the nap manager handsomely because I believe the raise in quality nap time I'd be receiving would greatly improve all areas of my life and those of my family, and really, can you put a price tag on that? The nap manager may also be required to sleep over once a week so I can be reminded what a complete uninterrupted night-time sleep is like. I'm sure it's just dreamy and think I'd like to be reacquainted with it, even just one out of seven nights in a week.

I thought of this fabulous idea while dozing this afternoon. It came to me when you know when you're just falling asleep and then all over a sudden "WAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" and you nearly have a heart attack and die because you went from being 100% relaxed to waking up in mid air and landing in some kind of Ninja ass-kicking move that you didn't even knew you knew let alone could get into, because clearly nothing of this world could possibly make a sound like that! Unless ofcourse you happen to have a seven month old baby... who just happens to want a bottle, or maybe just two sips of one because it's totally way funnier to drink your bottle two sips at a time and wake up 10 times an hour to do so. On second thought, I think we should spring for the nap manager now... right now...

Disclaimer:

Obviously I love the pretties to pieces, even Ethan (aka LBP) who wakes up 100x per nap, so this is not a 'damn my kids suck' post incase there were a few confused readers. This was a 'damn, I need a nap manager to improve my parenting' post. Just so you don't think I'm all mean and complainy, sometimes 'posts' get read in a different tone than I type them in :)

Bird Catching 101

... or why cats and bird feeders don't mix...

Today as Emma's cat brought us a frozen sparrow-cube as a present I was reminded of Mr. Pretties and I pre-children and the first cat Mr. Pretties had ever owned.

When Mr. Pretties and I first lived together we lived on the third floor of a century home in a neighbourhood that sported a whole lot of pigeons (Hey, don't judge me, I can't help it if the pigeons have good taste in housing... or something like that...).
I was 8 months pregnant with Meaghan when Mr. Pretties opened the door to let Screamer in (he was siamese, what can I say?), but noticed nano-seconds too late that he was also with bird. Very. Large. Bird. Screamer was a very small cat. And he's hauling this bird that's atleast twice his size. Picture a guinea pig trying to haul in a turkey... you get the idea. He comes in making that trilling noise that only a cat with a present can make. Me, having years of experience with cats bringing things home thought nothing of this event aside from 'Crap. Now I have to take it out and bury. Thanks you little weiner...' while Mr. Pretties is a complete raving nut. "Why on earth would a cat do that?!" "How the hell did he catch that thing?!" "Is he going to eat it?!" "We have to get rid of him, he's wild!" And so on and so forth...
As I'm preparing to remove Screamers snack of choice he lets go. And it takes flight. It is not dead, nope not. at. all... And, it's flying around my livingroom. There is a very enormous, angry pigeon flying around my livingroom, and me in my very pregnant state trying to catch it (hello?! I'm not a cat!) while trying not to collapse in hysterical laughter.
Where was Mr. Pretties you ask? Why he was standing in the bathroom with the door shut, waiting for me to give him the all clear... what a man...

I did end up catching it and releasing it outside, but if someone had taped us looking in it would have been very comical. I still thank the stars to this day that that pigeon had been kind enough to turn off his poop generates as they're infamous for the good old 'poop and fly' method of making large messes. I can't even fathom the mess my livingroom would have taken on. We would have had to move. Clearly.

Ahh... memories.
And what ever became of Screamer? Someone thought he was so fabulous that they stoll him off our front porch a couple years later, and who was the most upset about it? Mr. Pretties... it's a good thing he's such a brute and hates pets so much. Right.

I've Got A Golden Ticket...

Or atleast Meaghan thinks she does...

Meaghan is quite fascinated (as in obsessed) by the movie Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, and by extension, golden tickets (Back story: Charlie finds a 'golden ticket' in the chocolate and takes over the factory) Mr. Pretties and I did some major cleaning up this week in loo of the landlord inspection (aka. the babysitting extravaganza, which went off without a hitch thank God) which may or may not have unrooted things we didn't know we had. I digress.

As I was helping Emma wash her hands in the bathroom I hear Meaghan in our bedroom yelling in the most excited voice possible 'I'VE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET!!!!!' (which, by the way, is the punch line in the movie) and comes barreling in to show me. Now this is not unusual, Meaghan is forever finding 'golden tickets' which are generally a store receipt, a piece of paper, a plastic tomato slice from our vast selection of play food, or it may even be invisible. Whatever. But not today, today I'll be damned, she had a bright and shiny golden ticket! Wondering what on earth she'd found I decided to inspect it closer, only to find that it didn't exactly say 'Golden Ticket' as Meaghan had thought, but instead it neatly spelled out 'Trojan'.... I'm not sure where she found this, how she found it, or that it even existed in my house (Ahem, it expired in 2006...) but I could.not. stop. laughing. Seriously. I suggested she go show Mr. Pretties her golden ticket. Let me tell you, a facial expression says 1,000 words.

Is Brass Recyclable?

Apparently it is when Mr. Pretties is in charge ;)

I've been stripping an old washstand and in the process I also needed to strip the original brass hardware that had, oh, about 75 layer of good quality lead paint on them. At the direction of our landman I set them in margerine container with some stripper (the paint kind, not the corner kind... c'mon on now) and syran wrap over the top (did you know it's the fumes that strip the paint not the actual gel? I had no idea...) so I did that several times and finally got them all nice and brassy like. I put them back in the container out on the deck to air out because they were pretty reaky... A week goes by and I go back out to get them so I can wash them off and... low and behold, the container is no more?! So as is the case when anything randomly goes missing in the Pretties household, I ask Mr. Pretties if he happened to where they might be... and, if it were a possibility that he put it in the blue bin and forgot and thus it went out Wednesday morning... He didn't need to answer, his 'Ohhhh shiznit...' face said it all. Crap. But that's okay actually, I was debating replacing the original hardware with glass repro. hardware but felt uber guilty for drilling new holes and dissy the old hardware by not using it, problem solved!
When in doubt, chuck it in the recycle ;)

Strike!

Or, how to bowl with preschoolers...

We did the bowling thing with Meaghan's preschool on Tuesday (yeah, so I'm going to use names now, we're all friends here and I know most of your kiddies names. So, we have Meaghan (4), Emma(2.5) and Ethan(6mos)). I was stoked about staying and hanging out with her during this life altering event. I was under the impression that she was too. We get there, get settled, and... she doesn't want to bowl. *sigh* Finally I convince her to give it a try, she slinks up the balls, rolls it out of the holder nearly rolling it on her foot, drags it with her arms hanging way down low, dragging on the group Neanderthal style, does the limpest loft into the gutter I've ever seen and slouches away. I'm sorry, isn't there some kind of prerequisite that demands that you must be atleast 9 before behaving like that?! So we let the other three in our group take their turns (you know, the kids who actually wanted to bowl...) and then it's Meaghan's again, except now that bowling appears to be good enough for everyone else, she may as well have at it too. So she gets right into it and next thing I know I'm refereeing her from bullying the other kids out of their turns! What the?!

We had an hour for bowling (and with 3 and 4 year olds, that equals about two turns each) and ofcourse Meaghan is now starving to absolute death. Yes, I did feed her breakfast only 90 minutes before, but, now I get to play the ever exciting part of the bad mommy who doesn't want to pay $5 for a sample sized bag of Dorito's like everyone else's awesome mom. In all honesty I left my purse with Mr. Pretties since I didn't think an hour at the bowling alley warranted me having to keep track of it and mind small hands and their magnetic attraction to purse pockets (not in a pilfering kind of way).

Then we have the mom in our group who came with her DD and brought her little baby (do you have any idea how happy it makes me to know I can look at other moms with teeny weeny babies and not feel the need to run off and find Mr. Pretties and convince him of the imperativeness of procreating again?!) which was nice, but she ignored her daughter the entire time and sat at a table at the other side of the alley (note: all the moms in our group had babies on their lap). No big deal really, the other moms and I pitched in and helped her with her turns, until the last three frames. Now as you know, when bowling the computer keeps track of turns and basically you get three rolls each turn, it counts as a roll when a ball reaches the end of the alley. Now with preschoolers, those balls don't always make it there... so the mom who decided to help her daughter out at the end realized that waiting for her daughter's ball to reach the end of the alley was taking a long time, so for each roll her daughter did she did one too, to get it on to the next turn. Great. Except for the part where that meant 3 rolls = 6 rolls and you've now taken your daughters turn as well as mine. Meaghan can be very strong willed and high strung, she likes watching the numbers on the screen to tell her when it's her turn and to see how well she's doing (she bowled by herself with me standing 3ft away and was beating butt to my complete shock) and now the other mom has taken her turn, messed up her score (she was throwing gutters intentionally) and doesn't even get it. I know, I know, who cares, it's not a big deal, etc... etc... but it really bothers me when people are completely oblivious when they do things like that and I am a 100% non-confrontational person so there was no way I was saying anything about it. God I really need to grow a pair...

Oh shoot, that reminds me, tomorrow is 'Show and Share' day at preschool... now I have to think of something to bring... better get on that right about now...

In other news, Mr. Pretties and I are going on a date Saturday night. Our landlords gave us a movie theatre package (tickets, snacks, drinks, etc...) complete with childcare for Christmas in, oh, 2007 and we had yet to use them (no reason really... the kids love them, we trust them, Mr. Pretties works odd hours and they both work very long hours so I hated to ask them) so they're coming Saturday and bringing dinner for the kids. Mr. Pretties and I haven't been on a date since I was pregnant with Emma in 2006 so we're about due. We aren't really movie people, but we'll enjoy it anyway and I'm looking forward to it. We really need more date nights, especially now that the LP's are a little older.

Apparently Jasmine has taken a plunge in the aquarium and it's up to me to rescue her (Meaghan says the reasoning behind my need to rescue is because I'm a brave knight... go figure...) so I better get on that too or who knows what'll happen, you know how aggressive angel fish can be...

Poly Kittens

Simply Stunning - I just tried to pop you an email but it got sent back to me undelivered and I can't view your blog info to comment back LoL We're located in Ontario, Canada. I found this Craigslist Ad for Jesup, GA though http://brunswick.craigslist.org/pet/1024009346.html that might (or might not) be helpful!

If you wanted to contact me my email is MMPretties@hotmail.com

Thanks so much, and what lucky cats you've an outdoor enclosure is always the way to go!

Hello? Brain?

It's Jenn, I was just wondering if you could just like stop by for a moment, I need to do some blogging and your co-operation would be greatly appreciated... Thanks so much...

Seriously. I don't know where my brain's at, but I can tell you where it's not. I've been wanting to blog so badly but I haven't experienced any great blog fodder lately. Friday was BLPs birthday and I couldn't even pound out a half decent sounding tribute to that. How sad is it when you can't put together a post about your oldest daughters fourth birthday?! I did LLPs back in September but for the life of me could. not. come out with anything worth typing!

My cousin did a party of BLP's birthday yesterday with five other LP's running around, good times were had by all, the BLP in particular. Obviously. We were pretty low-key Friday, we had big plans and then a change of big plans, so we played it up Sunday. BLP goes to preschool Tues/Thurs so we didn't send anything special to share on Thursday, we suck. Tomorrow the preschool is taking them bowling, I'm going to hang around for that event, hopefully I'll have some adorable bowling pictures.

Oh! I forgot to share, I finally got a new camera. Finally. It's pink. 'Nuff said ;) So I can take half decent photos now, you lucky lucky readers ;)

Remember those orange cats I took in several months ago? The ones that were fixed, vaccinated, etc... ? Uh huh. Apparently they're not as I now have four polydactyl kittens under my dresser. This is the price you pay for being a sucker. Lady was due for her spay, but instead, we got kittens. Good. Grief. They're about three weeks old now and just starting to venture out from under the dresser, kittens+small children = mommy's stressed.

Little Boy Person is growing like a freakin' weed! He's practically the size of a football player just now... not really sure how that transpired since he was a normal sized baby at birth... honest. He's cute and cuddly though and has learned to creep (Baby+Creeping=Mommy's Stressed!) and can sit up/roll over and he's really excelling at the ability to not sleep and screaming really loudly. I guess we all have to be good at something... personally I would have went with pincer grasping, or say, chomping on toes, but to ea ch their own. I suppose.

All in all, that's where we're at. Not much blog fodder or items of interest on the agenda, but I felt I needed to add something to the blog since it's been pretty sucky lately (I know, not much of an improvement. Sorry).

Hopefully I can regale you all with the wonders of 3 and 4 year olds bowling... this should be amusing ;)

We've Got Salvage Chic...

... Or how to make a shabby fab candlestick out of a salvaged baluster (spindle). It doesn't have to be a salvaged one, but honestly? It makes the project about 7,000 times better. Just saying.

So, what matrials need we gather for this exceptionally simple project that turns out impossibly adorable results? Here's the list:

1 (or more) salvaged baluster(s)/spindle(s)

bonus points issued for chippy paint and crazing.

1 saw or wood cutting tool

(optional, I like to keep my candlesticks tall and use them beside the fire place...)

*Insert Saw Of Choice Photo Here... C'mon, You Know What a Saw Looks Like...*

1 Tin/Metal/Glass 'cup'

For lack of a better word to use as the holder on the top. You can just drill a hole right into the top and plop a candle in, but if you plan to use it I discourage this. Using 90 year old dried out tinder as a candle holder isn't always the best idea...

1 Tool to pierce tin/metal (optional)

You'll need it to pierce the edges of the tin/metal cup if you choose to attach one to the top as a holder. Usually a nail and a hammer works just fab. Something like these from old chandeliers works wonders (especially if you're using the old crystals, those pieces usually also have the crystal cup!)

A few small crystal prisms/etc...
for that added shabby chic look. (also, optional)

Now given the photos of the required material it's fairly easy to 'put it all together' as to what steps will take place. But, just for the sake of typing, we can go throught it step by step.

Step 1:

If you scored those extra points with the chippy paint, it's probably best to take some fine grain sand paper, steel wool, or a well worn wire brush and flake off those loose chips of paint. As much as I love me some chippy paint, in the eye of safety, if that balluster/spindle is old than say 1970, you're likely dealing with lead paint, which is fine until it's disturbed (or eaten, which I also don't advise) so just brush off those little extras so that the spindle has a fairly smooth feel while still looking chippy/crackly. Also if you're going to brush on a coat of paint (allow me to suggest a pale pink/green or cream) just to give it a little colour but still allowing for that aged look, do so now as well.

Moving on...

Step 2:

If you desire a shorter candlestick now is the time to break out your saw and lop of the desired amount off either end (only one end though) and smooth that cut with some fine grain sand paper, try to smooth down the edges too or it'll constast fairly sharply compared to the rest of the piece (you know, 90 years of weathering storms comes at a price and all...)

Step 3:

Take your tin/glass/metal cup (either from your used chandelier parts or picked up from the good old dime store) and fix it to the top, be it by glue or by nailing a nail down the center of the cup into the wood. You can always just drill a hole in the top for tapers, but I prefer not to, I'm a fire-phobe in that way.

Remember: Never leave a burning candle unattended, particularly when your hold is 90 year old dry wood... so if you're going to use it in the light of, say, romantical event, blow it out first, Mmmkay? Thanks.

Step 4:

If you're going to attach prisms/crystals to the top edge of your holder, do so by drilling diagonal holes about 1.5" along the top edge. The prisms should come with little metal rings already attached so just break them open and feed them through the newly drilled holes, forcing the back together and feeding the 'broken' space back into the hole, feel free to fix it there with a dab of hot glue or the like.

What you should end up with is something similar to this:

The above photos are courtesy of, and linked to:

left(or top): trash2treasure.typepad.com

right(or bottom): abitofparis.com

Both are fab sites and even sell great wares like this!

I also believe in a few weeks or so Green Spot Antiques in Cambridge, Ontario will be offering kits of this nature containing both instructions and materials so that you don't have to go around hauling your used chandelier pieces, chipping paint spindles, and prisms while dragging out your power tools to achieve this adorable look. Let's call it 'Fab In A Bag' for now...

Enjoy!

Crackle-Lackin...

... Or how to create that fab old-time crackle finish on your shabby chic pieces.

No I'm not the super star who wrote these instructions (c'mon, you knew that!), they're straight from this Ebay Guides board. I've always loved the look (not on everything though, it can definitely be over done) and have always bought the spendy 'crackle medium', because I'm a dork, obviously. So if you want to crackle that fab find from the flea market, try this method out:

Did you know that the expensive "crackle medium" you buy in cans is really just plain old white glue? Any white glue will work just like the really expensive stuff in cans.

We all love the "shabby chic" look of old crackled paint. When we're lucky, it happens naturally. But most times we have to help it along.
Crackling is great for covering up flaws. If you're considering sanding off old layers of paint, crackle instead - it's much faster & gives the item a lot of character.

How it's done:

There are two different methods of crackling that I use - one where the color in the cracks comes from underneath - the other where the color in the cracks in rubbed on. I like the second method best. It looks like dirt has naturally accumulated in old paint cracks.

Method One: Color underneath

1) Primer your item if it wasn't previously painted
2) Paint it with the color you want to show in the cracks (use a color with a lot of contrast to your top color if you want your effect to be dramatic.)
3) Paint the glue on. You can dilute it a little to make it easier to work with. Use a brush, not a roller. Cheap brushes work better - they leave more lines & therefore more detail in the cracks. PUT IT ON THICK! Thin coats don't crack well

Experiment - the more glue you put on, the bigger the cracks.
I like to use a funky, random pattern so the cracks aren't all in nice neat brush lines.
And I like to vary the thickness of the glue from one part to the next so the cracks look natural.

TIP: Thin coats work best on vertical surfaces. This is true for both the glue and the topcoat. If you paint them on too thick, it will all run down & be a gloppy mess. You can turn your item on it's back, crackle the front, turn it on the side, crackle the side, etc. I did this on an armoire. It's time consuming, but works great.

4) After the glue is set up, but still tacky,(more than 1 hour, but not more than 2 or 3 - depends on your thickness & weather) paint on the main color. Don't let the glue dry too much - it won't crack if it's too dry.
As the top color dries, the underneath color will be revealed in the cracks.

Method 2: Color rubbed in

1) Primer your item if it wasn't previously painted
2) Paint the glue on - see details above
3) After the glue is tacky (see details above) paint on the main color. Cracks will appear as it dries, but they will be very subtle.
4) After the main color has dried overnight, take a rag and rub gel stain onto the item, working it into the cracks. Work in small, manageable patches. This is a really beautiful effect - gives gorgeous age, texture & patina.

Here are some photos of a dresser I did for a guest bedroom with this method of rubbing in gel stain:


On the dresser, I used a basecoat of french vanilla and did the crackle finish just on some parts.
Then rubbed the entire piece in two different colors of gel stain, to give it an aged, patinized look. I rubbed it in with a rag, alternating the colors in about 12 inch irregular patches.
Gel stain works great for this, because it dries slowly so you can work with it until you have the look you like.

You'll get the hang of this technique pretty quickly - you just glop the gel stain on with one rag or a sponge brush, and then rag it off with a clean rag.
Try to clean more off in some places and leave some spots darker, and leave plenty in the nooks & crannies to accentuate the carving. This really brings out the details of a furniture piece.

Jenn here - So that ladies and gents is how you create that fab crazing/crackled look! I find crackling isn't so much like distressing though in the land of shabby chic. Distressing you can do to every single piece of furniture you own and it's just marvy. Crackling you kind of have to select a few pieces to do and try to leave it at that. Easier said than done though, I know! It's kind of like me a spray paint cans. There is nothing better than a full can of creamy white paint, I don't think I've ever had to put away a partially used can. Ever. Once I get that puppy going there's no stopping me, everything in my path will be white until I run out. It's a sickness really...

As you can tell I'm feeling much more like my shabby self ;) Good old junking... is there anything it can't do?

I'm In Need...

Of some treadle sewing drawers. How many people can say that?

I found this adorable project on RoboMargo in the trash to treasure section and I love it. How great is project?!

You take these:

And turn them into this:

(Instructions are on the bottom of the page) but it just goes to show that things you would think are fairly useless can be used to make something really shabby and fab! I can't tell you how many times I've seen sewing drawers at the antique market and thought 'What the flip am I going to do with these?! Who buys this stuff?!' obviously people who're smarter than me ;)

Now I'm on a mad search for some locally (Ebay is loaded with them, but for $30+ to ship, I'll pass) and may have lead. Mr. Pretties thinks I've lost it, but I just have to have two pairs! Not to mention I've seen them painted shabby white with glass knobs and appliques and used as little storage containers, how marvy would that look in the LP's room now that it's all done up right?! *Squeal*

So yeah, next time you're at the market and see something ridiculous, grab it. You'll thank yourself later. Or I will, since I'll probably need it ;)

Love...

Nope, this isn't a Valentine's Day post. Now that the weekend is over and I've had time to sit back and review it, I have to say, Mr. Pretties really can be a pet ;)

The LPs required new beds. BLP's was older (ahem, as in from when I was her age...) and LLP's was still a wee toddler bed (she's only 2, give me a break!) so we needed to something about that situation. We talked about bunk beds, we talked about Ikea, we talked and talked and talked. And when I got tired of talking I went on Kijiji (when in doubt...) I usually keep my browsing limited to Hamilton/St. Catharine's/Brantford, you know, reasonable driving distances.

This time I happened to click on London and seriously, what was the first thing to pop up? Matching antique shabby chic four poster beds. Fate, I'm telling you! So Mr. Pretties and I headed up there (read: 2 hours away) to pick them up. Oh. And I got another washstand (sorry, but the black one wanted a sibling, who am I to deny that?!). These beds are super gorgeous, I love them more than it probably healthy. The LPs love them too, ofcourse. Although I told them it was a surprise (they had no idea new beds were coming) so we did the whole 'reveal' thing and they walked in and said:

BLP: Wow! New beds!!

LP: That's a big bed!

BLP: Mommy, where's my 'prise?

Me: This is your surprise...

BLP: Oh. Where's another 'prise?

Me: *Sigh*

Oh well, I should have known that was more of an adult excitement than a child's. So I spent yesterday with a can of white spray paint in one hand and a piece of sand paper in the other, taking care of important things like shelves, lamp shades, trim, doors, window sills, etc... I even got to hang my .50 curtains in their window, and I might add, they're pretty adorable and quite suitable!

I'll post pictures soon. I'll have to borrow Aunt Pretties camera because ours took the final crap out that no amount of counter bashing would solve. It's so shabby and cute in there I wish it were my room!

Next Up:

I'll be sourcing out an outdated chandelier and spray painting it, then adding the sweet little crystals! I love things like this. It makes me wish I had my own room, sharing a room sucks! Oh wait... I'm not 12 anymore, it's not cool to go around saying things like that... geez... well, then I wish Mr. Pretties wanted a pink frou frou room as much as I do ;)

Truly Fab...

I've seen this idea a few times floating around the antique/shabby chic forums this week and can't believe how completely great it is! If I had a penny for everytime I sat here and thought 'Damn... how did I not think of that?!' well, I probably would be sitting here right now talking about this... so, let's move on.

Let's say you're like me (just go with me on this, you can be the me that loves great stuff and not the me who's a total nut, deal?) and ofcourse lurve yourself some antiques/shabby pretties/uniques/primitives/etc... and your house is a fair compilation of things that make your smile. Now say you have to visit the ladies room (we're keeping this G rated people, uncover your eyes), and your smile suddenly disappears. Why would that happen?

Could it be, that like myself, you have one of those inexpensive shiny laminate-type vanities glaring at you in your bathroom? You know what I'm talking about. The type with two tiny doors, a 'faux drawer', a sink that has just enough room for your bottle of hand soap, and is so very hopelessly boring that you fear falling asleep mid bathroom break. Alas, everytime you look into purchasing a new vanity you're fairly (Re: alot) disgusted by how spendy anything even remotely stylish is (especially, if, like us you're rent-savy and don't want to drop the dough on something you'd likely leave behind).

So what's a girl to do? How about this:

It's such a wonderfully simple concept that makes such a difference in a room! I can't tell you how badly I want to go rip my vanity out right this second and try this out! It can even be an inexpensive project (dressers/washstands/buffets are available on Kijiji/Craigslist/Thrift store for a good price, especially if needs refinishing!)

A lot of people are able to fix the drawers to accommodate the plumbing, making the drawers completely usable and wonderful! Just make sure that any piece you redo for this type of use gets several good coats of a waterproof coating to help protect from all the water and humidity exposure it'll get in the bathroom.

I love this idea so much, and it can have so many great looks depending on what furniture you use, how you refinish it, etc... the possibilities are just endless and they are look marvy! Here's a quick How-To :)