two is better than one

​We now own twice as many homes as we did last week! (And our bank account looks a lot sadder.) We closed on our new place Friday morning. After the closing we went and walked through the whole place again... my brain is exploding with house project ideas! Now I just have to find the time (and money) for them!

Regarding our current home, do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is, our original buyer backed out after we declined some of her unreasonable requests from the home inspection. The good news is, we were only back on the market for a few days before we received another offer. We are in the process of inspections again with that buyer, so fingers crossed that we can come to an agreement.

In other non-house related news, we saw the musical "Waitress" last weekend, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Our friends Joey and Lisa came over to watch Mae, and they all had fun eating pizza and watching Moana together. We are definitely feeling some cabin fever since the frigid temperatures have kept us bundled inside. I have started running regularly again and am enjoying the cooler days but not the below-freezing temps and icy sidewalks. Mae, however, is fully immersing herself (literally) in the wintry weather.

I completed another mom-milestone: surviving Mae's first real stomach bug, which was super gross. I am absurdly proud of how well I handled it. Considering I didn't burst into tears or faint, I definitely exceeded my own expectations.

Lastly, some exciting news that Mom has completed her radiation treatments! Keep up your prayers for her continued health and recovery!

lemon ikea kitchen

I wanted to share a couple more photos of Mae's new kitchen! The original kitchen is a wooden IKEA Duktig set that I painted and decorated to be a little more fun. I gathered ideas online, since many people have shared photos of similar makeovers.

Here's a picture of the original one from the IKEA website:

And here's our upgraded version:

I started by laying out all the pieces and deciding which surfaces I wanted to paint. I roughed up the surfaces with coarse grit sandpaper and then used a mini foam roller to apply a coat of low-odor Kilz oil-based primer followed by two coats of Clark + Kensington flat paint in the color Fountain of Youth. I like the slightly retro look of the aqua paint. I finished the painted surfaces with two coats of Minwax Polycrylic for a little extra protection. I have my fingers crossed that it holds up OK! This whole process took a long time since I had to paint front and back of most pieces and wait for each coat to dry in between! I worked on it a little bit each night for a week.

In addition to paint, I also added a backing covered in lemon-print fabric. Do you recognize the print? It's the same as my lemon dress! I just love the pattern so much and thought it would be very cute on this kitchen set. I used spray adhesive to attach the fabric to a piece of 1/8" hardboard which I then nailed to the back of the kitchen hutch with tiny finishing nails.

Dan helped me with assembly which took 2 evenings. Lastly, I drilled 4 holes and added some white knobs from Lowes to act as faux stovetop controls. Mae loves her new kitchen so much. She is juuuuuuust tall enough to reach the microwave, and she also enjoys removing the sink bowl and sitting in it on the floor.

I am excited to move this set to our larger kitchen in our new home. I think Mae will love cooking alongside Dada every evening!

avengers, assemble!

I mentioned a few months ago that Emily and Christopher had chosen "Avengers" as the nursery theme for their little boy Archer, who will be arriving in February. Emily requested another crib mobile like the Harry Potter mobile I made for Oliver (by far my most popular project to date, and one of the top Google image results for "Harry Potter crib mobile"). I was so excited that I started immediately: designing the characters, ordering felt, and cutting all the colorful shapes.

I got Emily's input on which characters to include, and she selected Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and Captain America. I gathered inspiration from the internet and spent a lot of time looking at stuffed animals, mobiles, and the original comics. Each character was super fun to work on. Cap's little shield is just too cute, and I giggled myself silly while adding a little belly button to Hulk.

Also, I was super proud of my idea to make Spider-Man hanging upside down! I attached everything to an empty mobile arm purchased on Amazon.

I gifted the mobile to Emily for Christmas. It was a bit of a cop-out Christmas gift since I was planning to make it anyways! She had also requested a car seat blanket similar to Mae's, since Archer will need all the snuggly warmth possible as a February baby! I stitched up a dino-print fleece blanket during my crazy week prepping the house to go on the market since I knew I'd be packing away my sewing machine for a little while. No photos of that project, I'll have to get one once the little guy arrives!

I love how this mobile turned out, and I hope Emily, Christopher, Oliver, and Archer do too!