Let's Hear It For the Boy Thursday!

  
It's Let's Hear it for the Boy Thursday! A link party all for boys! Each week myself and 3 other Bloggers pick our favorite projects to highlight from the previous weeks party. If you have a blog, feel free to link up. If you don't, you can still click around to find tons of inspiration for the boys (and men) in your life!
  On to last week's top picks:

 

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Yellow Painted Vintage Dresser Makeover

I am always searching for cheap vintage furniture that can be rescued from destruction and made over into something beautiful, and finding the perfect nightstand for our master bedroom was at the top of my list. Furniture on Craigslist seems to be selling for an arm and a leg these days, so I was beyond excited when I saw this vintage solid wood dresser listed for only $25! It had great lines and a shape that wouldn't clash with the modern dresser on my husband's side of the bed. It was located in another town that is half an hour away and was literally right around the corner from where I was headed to my son's gymnastics class. It was fate. Sold!

This piece was in even worse shape than I had expected, but I knew that there was a ton of potential there. When I say that the dresser smelled musty beyond belief, I'm giving it a HUGE compliment. Seriously, I think there could have been dead things in there at one point. The smell was atrocious.

The drawers were busted and stained, and there was a strange light green funk all over the back side of the piece. YUCK.

I started by giving the entire dresser a dousing of straight vinegar to see if it would help get rid of some of the smell, and after it dried, I sanded the heck of it with my palm sander. I had to enlist the help of my husband to give it a deeper and more thorough sanding because the smell of the dust was practically enough to knock me out! After he finished sanding, I gave it another spray down with vinegar which cut the smell dramatically afterwards.

I love Kilz spray primer. Great big puffy heart LOVE them. This stuff is amazing! I decided to give the entire dresser, inside and out, a coat of primer to help seal in the remaining smell and the deep set old stains. It took me six cans of spray primer to coat the dresser and all the drawers, but it worked like magic. NO more funky smell at all! Amazing!

 

I mixed together a few cans of yellow paint that I had in my garage until I found the shade that I wanted, and whipped out my trusty cheap-o paint sprayer. This thing is pretty amazing too. It does a really impressive job for being such an inexpensive tool. The best part is that I only used about half of this sprayer cup of paint to give the entire dresser two coats of paint. I don't think I'll ever go back to brush painting furniture! 

After the paint dried I used my oscillating tool to rough up the edges and distress it a bit. I was planning to give the dresser a layer of brown glaze so that it wouldn't be so bright, but I chickened out since none of the swatches I painted on the backside looked like I envisioned. In the end I'm glad I kept it bright. This piece was a true labor of love, but it was so SO worth it!

 Those nasty old drawers look so much nicer with their new paint and grey chevron drawer liners!

The chippy finish gives the piece an aged shabby chic cottage look, but it's not so distressed that it overwhelms the look. I don't usually distress my furniture, but I'm thinking that this might start a new trend for me.

It took me forever to decide on what type of hardware I wanted to use, but I finally went with Liberty Hardware pulls and rings because I wanted something that looked both modern and vintage, and I didn't want to break the bank either. The dresser only cost $25, so I was determined not to spend more than that (shipping included) on my hardware!

 I'm totally in love with the way it came out!

My most favorite details are the new keyhole plates. The original dresser didn't have any, but I fell in love with these while I was shopping for the hardware and had to add them to my cart as well. These babies add so much charm and finish to the piece, and they only set me back a whopping 80 cents for both of them!

Everyone loves a good before-and-after, right?

We kept this pop of bright yellow in our living room for a couple of days so that I could photograph it, and I fell in love with the splash of color and cheer that it brought to the room. I'm already planning on making over a yellow hope chest to take it's place once it moves up into my bedroom!

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Toddler Time: Oversized Outdoor Painting

Simon has recently discovered his love of painting (thank goodness! I was worried for awhile there!), and he likes to work BIG. I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and pinned up a giant piece of paper to our back fence, pulled out our tempera paints, and got to painting!

The 36" paper is perfect for using oversized brushes to create large bold strokes and splashes of color. We even managed to squeeze in a little bit of counting and alphabet practice!

Crazy hair day for both of us! ;)

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Root Beer Float Pops

Welcome to Week 2 of Hot Days, Cool Treats! If you missed last week's All Natural Strawberry Ice Cream Bars (they're dairy, sugar and gluten free!), you'll definitely want to go back and check those out as well.

Root beer floats and summer go hand-in-hand around here, so I knew that a root beer float popsicle was destined to be a huge hit with my family. The problem with freezing soda straight from a bottle is that it will freeze into flaky icy bits instead of a smooth popsicle. Likewise, ice cream straight from the carton will not generally harden enough to keep its shape in a pop. Luckily there's a simple solution that makes both the ice cream and the rootbeer freeze into a creamy dream!

First, pour the root beer into a glass and let it sit out until it loses most (or all) of the carbonation before you attempt to make your popsicles. Stir a spoonful or two of melted vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt into the root beer and fill up your popsicle molds halfway with the mixture. In a small bowl mix together the ice cream with a splash of root beer until it reaches milkshake consistency. Pour the ice cream mixture on top of the root beer in the molds and freeze until solid. Enjoy!

The ratings are in...

 Sawyer and Simon gave it 5/5 stars

Sutton gave it 4.5/5 stars

As suspected, the rootbeer float pops received rave reviews! Sutton's 4.5 star rating was due to the fact that he couldn't finish his entire popsicle in one sitting (this mold makes large pops), but his toddler brother managed to eat every last bite of his!

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Circle of Moms: Join the Circle!

Did you know that Circle of Moms has a new video series in partnership with Kia? The videos are all about parenting tips and tricks and feature real moms chatting about lots of different topics. The latest video from Circle of Moms by POPSUGAR features the all New 2014 Kia Sorento and is hosted by the adorable Tia Mowry whom you might recognize from the television shows Sister, Sister and The Game.

I've always loved Tia because her bubbly nature and personality are a spot-on match to a dear friend of mine, so I find her to be genuine and totally relatable. This new video joins Tia and a few of her friends as they discuss a few hot topics - sending sick kids to school, how to keep your kids occupied on a long plane or car ride, and ways that moms are awesome at multitasking. The video is pretty funny, and you feel as though you're hanging out with these four women as they laugh, joke and chat about the subject matter. Tia's expressions crack me up when she doesn't agree with her friends who have sent sick kids off to school due to their own work commitments. Watch it for yourself and let me know, do you agree?



Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Kia through their partnership with Circle of Moms. While I was compensated to review the Kia Motors video and write a review, all opinions are my own.

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Introducing CB2 & Novogratz's Brasil #CB2NovogratzBrasilSweepstakes

This post brought to you by CB2. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am a huge fan of Bob and Cortney Novogratz. Those of you in the design world probably know them for their quirky and colorful design elements, and you might recognize them from their HGTV hosting gig. Bob and Cortney always manage to incorporate playful elements while still keeping the design sophisticated and modern. When I heard that they had a new line out at CB2, I was super excited to check it out!

The CB2 and Novogratz Collection is full of fun pieces that you'd expect to come from the minds of Bob and Cortney.

This Figueira Indoor/Outdoor Swing Chair is totally going at the top of my wishlist - how awesome is this!?!

A few other pieces that I adore are the Breaker Chair, Rouge Coffe Table, Soneca Pendant Lamp & Dupla Credenza. 

To celebrate the release of the new line, CB2 is running an amazing sweepstakes where you and 3 friends could win the trip of a lifetime! Win a one week stay at the vacation home of CB2 collaborators Bob and Courtney Novogratz in beautiful Trancoso, Brazil. How awesome would it be to stay at their very own vacation home?! 10 other lucky winners will receive a CB2 giftcard worth $100 along with a personally signed copy of the book “Home by Novogratz”. Enter the CB2 and Novogratz Brasil Sweepstakes through June 3rd.

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{this moment}

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 {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 
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Let's Hear It For the Boy Thursday! #4

It's Let's Hear it for the Boy Thursday! A link party all for boys! Each week myself and 3 other Bloggers pick our favorite projects to highlight from the previous weeks party. If you have a blog, feel free to link up. If you don't, click around to find tons of inspiration for the boys (and men) in your life!
  On to last week's top picks:

 

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Raising Painted Lady Butterflies

This is our second year raising painted lady butterflies from caterpillars, and it was just as exciting and enthralling for the kids as it was the first time. We've also raised ladybugs, which is pretty interesting as well. I ordered a Live Butterfly Garden kit, and scheduled our caterpillar delivery for the week after I returned from SNAP! so that I wouldn't miss anything while I was gone. It's really nice that they have the option of pre-ordering and scheduling your delivery for later!

When we received our caterpillars they were initially much bigger than we expected (upper left). Last time they were only about half that size! After three days they were full grown (upper right), and by the sixth day they had all spun their cocoons (lower left). Two days later we moved the chrysalides to the mesh habitat (lower right), and a week later our painted lady butterflies emerged! 

The butterflies like to feed on orange slices and watermelon. The red liquid that you see all over the habitat isn't blood - it's meconium that is expelled when the butterflies emerge from the chrysalis. If you've never raised butterflies though, it can be kind of a shock to see all of that red liquid, so rest assured that it's completely normal!

We watched our butterflies for a few days, and then it was time to release them.

If you ask me, butterflies are actually pretty creepy looking up close!

Each butterfly waited a few minutes before they left the habitat, and all of them fluttered around our yard and patio for quite awhile before flying off into the sunset, but the last butterfly took an incredibly long time before he left us.

He would fly up to the very top of the mesh and crawl around before flying back down to feed on the orange slice once again.

The boys watched intently for about a half an hour as the last butterfly did his back-and-forth dance.

When he finally took flight, Simon was SO excited to watch it fly away!

...and then he stuck around and hung out in our yard and on our lawn for another five minutes or so.

Sawyer and Sutton were so proud of themselves for another successful year of butterfly raising, and they're already looking forward to our next round of caterpillars!

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