A Lack Thereof

So the twins conception has brought with it a lack of motivation for anything diy...or really anything of anything for that matter.  Hence why the loveseat still sits in the same, unfinished condition it was in a month ago, our master bath window is still naked, and my sewing machine (and the pile of must-do's I have waiting for it) are out of commission.  I blame this lethargy partly on the fact that, unconsciously, my mind is tantruming over the fact that paint of really any sort is out of the question right now.  Don't get me wrong, I'd choose our two little souls over a hundred cans of spray paint and projects any day, but I'll admit that I'm going through a little withdrawal.  I'm hoping trimester numero dos brings with it my former motivation to take on everything (but painting) and I'll be counting down the days - nine - until then.  :)

Lucky for you, I still have my will to write.  :) 

First things first - towel rings. 

I'm not sure if writing about this will slightly ease my withdrawal pain or just cause it to go into overdrive, but c'est la vie, right?  Here's what happened:  I had been on the hunt at my favorite discount store - Dirt Cheap - for some oil rubbed bronze towel rings to give our hand towels a home during our bathroom mini-makeover.  Well, I came up short time and time again until ReStore came to the rescue and I found these:

 As shiny as gaudy, shiny gold can be but ringing in at $4 a piece.  And you can probably guess where I'm going from here...

Yep, after one coat of primer:

And two thin, even coats of Krylon's oil rubbed bronze:

We have these (Anthony has one on his side too) - used for two months now and without a scratch or scribble to be seen.  I heart spray paint!

So that's that and this is this.  You'll probably think we're crazy...because we are...but we've scored some more free furniture.  This time from our parish priest's home.  Yes, we recently had a priest switcheroo in our parish and our new priest casually ridded his new home of some of the previous priest's furniture...of which two club chairs were a part.  So, we (Anthony) kindly asked if, since the chairs were in indecent condition and would probably be thrown out or given away, if we could take them off the hands of the parish, thereby releasing them of the dirty work.  We're so selfless, aren't we?  Well, a borrowed truckload (thanks Jess and Alan) later and two over-sized raspberries we've got:

 We didn't like the skirt and they had nice legs so with a little bit of pregnancy motivation one night while watchin' the tube, off they came.  What do you think?  Better with or without the skirt?  Thankfully, they were really simple to remove.  All I had to do was lay each chair on it's side, lift up the skirt to expose the staples,

and rip them out one-by-one, after which the skirt came right off and we were left with some slightly better looking club chairs.  The plan is, someday, to diy some slipcovers (for their washable advantage) and construct a home decor friendship between them and our sectional but for now they're just sitting in our office.  Since it'll be the future nursery, we wrapped up the twin bed that was in their place and stored it in the attic for now.  The chairs will eventually be moved out (after the twins take up residence circa six months after birth?) and placed elsewhere but for now, they give off a good home office/library vibe, even if they are still pretty sore to look at...raspberry, not my idea of a a good furniture hue.

Anyway, what else can I bore you with?  Oh yeah, we're officially going to take on a small kitchen makeover.  I wrote an itty-bitty post a while ago about my wish to do so and now the other half has officially signed on.  We just feel that in order to sell this house (we've had it on the market for a good while now in hopes to move closer to work), we need to give our semi-sad kitchen a freshening up.  We started pricing out countertops today, trying to get the best bang for our buck.  We don't want to spend loads because we know that we're probably not going to get much of any of this small investment back but we also don't want to skimp either.  That means that laminate is out and we're leaning towards a solid surface like Corian or an inexpensive, simple Quartz.  Of course, we'll let you know how that tops out.  Other than that, we're going to paint the cabinets white...let me rephrase that...Anthony is going to paint the cabinets.  I'm simply going to sit in a back room with a mask on sulking.  I'm really excited about it though...the project, not the sulking!  More to come later!  We've only just started researching countertops which could mean, with our tightwad ways, that it could be little bit before any actual progress is made.  :) 

Last but not least, I can't not give the twins their due.  Here's the three of us last week, at 10 weeks:

Not much of anything yet besides a little b-l-o-a-t and a messy bedroom.  :)

Before I sign off:

While we were perusing the addicting corridors of Pinterest for "white kitchens" Anthony said, "all these pictures are of huge, expensive kitchens!  Why don't they make a Pinterest for poor people?"  Agreed.  Pinterest, although incredibly inspirational and much-loved, is quite I-wish-we-could...except for the diy and crafts area of course.

It's so very refreshing to know that I'm not the only one who thinks that spending $20 for a shirt is outrageous.  Thank you for the ego boost Ana!

Sign this petition.  It's to protect the eyes and hearts of young people...and everyone for that matter...by making it a requirement for Cosmopolitan magazine to encase their ill-worded mags in a non-transparent casing.

You must read Grace's blog daily if you want to be at all in high spirits.  Laughs, doses of lovely reality, incredible sewing inspiration, and lots of simple wisdom abound...and her kids are about as cute (and sometimes mischievous) as they come.

Check out Mona Lisa in her earlier days.

Consumer Reports is the most incredible research engine for those of you, who like us, like to research to the death before we buy anything to make sure we're getting our pennies worth.  Seriously, we make every big purchase decision after we check it out.  They're so smart, non-profit, and totally worth the subscription fee!

Problem:  My blog header is blurry and no matter how many times I remove and reload the crisp image from my comp, it's still all fuzz!  Anyone know how to fix?

Adieu!