Console Table Makeover

Well, I'd say the first week of October is a good time to come back from summer vacation :) We had a great summer and really did try to lay off home projects and enjoy all the work we had done, namely our pool + backyard (hello...chickens!!). It was nice to relax, well as much as one can relax with a 3 year old and a now crawling baby roaming around. But now that it is officially fall we are ready to dip our toes back into some home improvements.

The first project kind of fell into my lap by way of my friend - Facebook Marketplace. Every time I'm in a new town I like to peruse the site to see if there are any treasures waiting to be snatched up. Last Saturday I found this gem in Tifton, GA for $65.

Yes, her coloring is, well hideous, but look at the bones. I love the fluted details, the curves of the top, the leg positioning, etc. Plus, I've been in the market for a console table for awhile now for the stair wall off the mudroom.

We've had this hutch that belonged to Brent's Great-Grandmother on this wall since we moved in and while I like the piece it just wasn't working for two reasons. Number one, several rooms in our home open to one another in the center of the house. An open floor plan is great, but the issue I was having was too many wood furniture pieces with different tones in one line of sight. We have our breakfast room table, a china cabinet, the antique laundry room door AND this hutch, all wood and all in different tones. It was just too much and this hutch sat in the center of it all, so it only made sense for this to be the piece to go. And number two, I don't have very many surfaces to house picture frames and I felt like this hutch was taking up prime real estate for a nice family photo right when you walk in from the garage.

As soon as we got the table home I started testing out possible paint color contenders.

We settled on Elephant Ear a pretty, true gray by Sherwin Williams. The next step was to sand the beast down and get the shine off.

Next up we got to painting. We bought the Behr Ultra paint + primer in one from Home Depot (did a color match for the Sherwin William's hue) which worked out really well, because it only took one coat. There were a few areas we touched up after it was all dry but the paint went on nice and smooth and the piece became prettier with each stroke of the brush.

Things got fun when Croix decided he wanted to help, so I talked him in to letting me paint the body of the piece and he could finish it up by painting the top. He was SO excited and only asked me 100 times if I was done yet and ready for him. Finally, it was his turn, and while wet paint (inside) + his 3 year old bouncy self could of been a disaster he did a pretty good job.

As soon as the paint was dry I was maneuvering this piece into it's new home and wow - love, love, love the way it turned out.

I had plans to replace the hardware but the distressed, brass knobs that came with the piece looked great with the new color. This side of the house feels so much more airy now and I love having a place to check my teeth before I walk out the door :)

For now I put a family photo from a few year's ago on the shelf, but I'm excited to get an updated version with Lot in there soon!

All photos are my own. 

6 Months of Lot

Today my Lot Thomas is 6 months old. 

This kid, ya'll....he's just so good. Like honest to God the best baby. He is so laid back and go with the flow. Wakes up happy, only really fusses if he's hungry or gets overtired (he likes a schedule!) and is so patient with the sometimes overwhelming "love" from his big brother. Speaking of big bro Croix....

 He has loved Lot every minute since he met him and can make him laugh like no one else.

People warned us that going from 1 to 2 kids would be such an adjustment and a lot more work, but honestly life as a family of 4 has been awesome. Lot fit right into our life and now at only 6 months in we can't imagine life without him. He's the kind of baby that could make you want 10 more. Just saying.....:)

All photos are my own. 

The Shed

The weather was great in Atlanta this weekend so we decided to get started on a project we have had planned for a long time - a shed! Brent has a lot of tools and we have long needed a solution for storing them. Since moving in 3 years ago the tools have been spread around - some in our crawl space, some in the laundry room and others in the hall closet. As we continue to conquer rooms inside the house, we find ourselves moving the tools from location to location to just get them out of the way. BUT we use them a lot so carting them all the way to the crawl space every time is just not realistic. When we began the process of planning our back-yard project last year we knew we wanted to find a way to incorporate a shed in the side yard to organize and store all of this equipment. Close enough to the house for easy access, and big enough to really organize everything so we aren't constantly re-buying things we already have, but can't find (plumbers tape, caulk, paint brushes, nails and these are just a few examples of things we have double purchased as of late - so annoying!)

As the pool finished up late last year we really started talking about the exact location and specifics of the shed. We have a second driveway because our house currently sits on what used to be 2 lots. At the top of the second driveway we had a fence put in for safety reasons as it relates to the pool, but in doing so the perfect section of land was created behind the fence for the shed.

At first we had plans to purchase a shed, but in talking to neighbors and looking at the options, we realized building our own was going to be our best bet. Not only could we customize the specifics like size, layout and finishes but we could add special extras like a little greenhouse on the side for me (eek!) The initial plan was to build an 8 x 12 shed, but after we got a few of the holes dug we realized 8 feet deep was encroaching on the stone path a little too much so we shrunk it back to a 7 x 12 shed. With the exact dimensions of the shed determined we dug 4 holes...

 ... and put posts in each one. We filled the holes with concrete around the posts and then covered that with dirt. 

We let the posts dry over night and the next day we got the frame around the posts put in. I made marks on the frame every 16" and then Brent and Croix cut the floor joists on the saw.

and then carried them over...

Once they were lined up on the marks I made we nailed them into place. 

(Please note Croix entertaining Lot over on the right side of this picture - haha)

 We cut smaller pieces to install horizontal for added rigidity. 

That's as far as we made it today, but not too bad for 1.5 days work with a "helpful" 3 year old and a baby brother who likes to eat every 3 hours or so :) In all seriousness this project is really going to be great from an organization standpoint and I think it might be kind of cute too - bonus! 

All photos are my own. 

The Story of Lot - Intro

Well, we have some big news to share over here on the homefront, in the blink of an eye, 13 days early our January Baby decided to make HIS grand entrance on December 26th at 5:01 PM.

Meet Lot Thomas Shearer

For the second time I had a due date that was uncomfortably close to Christmas. If you know me, you know I'm kind of a date freak. Like, I have absolute feelings about certain numbers and birthdays and always swore my kids would have pretty dates. With my first pregnancy I was due on December 22nd and Croix arrived 5 days late on December 27th. This time, my due date was January 7th, a full 2 weeks after Christmas so all I wanted was #1 for the baby not to be born on Christmas, #2 for the baby not to be born on Croix's Birthday and #3 for the baby to be born in January so he/she could have their own birthday month.  Well, 2 out of 3 wishes isn't bad, right? I swear, I plan and God laughs.

Just like I did with Croix's birth I want to recount the day, because I love reading other peoples birth stories and I like the idea of documenting all the details while they are fresh in my mind so I can look back on them one day. No blood and guts, promise, just big picture details..

This pregnancy was very much like my first, I was nauseous (when I didn't eat) for the first 12 weeks and then felt it was pretty easy, and other than getting bigger and bigger I chugged along like normal. I will say I was more sore this time around. Like my body actually ached, my hips, my feet, I basically felt like a 100 year old at the end. One stroll around Target would have me dead on my feet for the rest of the day. My doctor said it was typical to feel more aches and pains with the second baby but that the labor/delivery would be faster and easier so I held on to that little fun fact.

Fast forward to the last month of pregnancy. I was busy. We had several projects going on at home (Pool...Croix's Big Boy Room/Closet...Guest Bath Remodel) + work was crazy busy with tons of projects to button up and a photo shoot to knock out before the baby came. All of that on top of an always busy December with tons of gatherings, Christmas decorating, gift buying, etc. At the end of every day I was beat and I had this weird feeling early on in the month that if I didn't start trying to slow down the baby would come early. But then I was like, nah - I (like baby Courtney) + my sister was 2 weeks late and Croix was 5 days late, so fear not, I would not be early, nay it would likely be in the double digits of January before he/she graced us with their presence. I worked all the way up to December 21st, the Friday before Christmas. It was a slow day at the office as a lot of people had already taken off and my CAD Designer - Wanda and I worked ALL DAY. We sent out so many drawings and quotes, we didn't even eat lunch, we just powered through and I'm so glad we did because this would be my last day of work....until late February.

The days leading up to Christmas were busy, but fun. My parents came into town on December 22nd and we did some shopping, some food prep, went to church, watched Christmas movies and just got all ready for the big day. For the third year in a row we hosted Christmas dinner at our house. We extended our dining room table to hold 21 of us and it was so fun.

We ate tons of food, played a game, opened presents...it was a great day, but an exhausting one. By 9 o'clock Brent and I were both beat. We actually excused ourselves, leaving guests in the den and food still out on the counters/tables to go to bed. I put Croix to bed and when I got back to our master bedroom, Brent's only comment to me was "you better not go into labor tonight or I will be of no use to you."Ha! Well, my body listened because I did not go into labor that night. Nope, I waited until the next morning...

I woke up feeling somewhat rested but a little off. Brent was having issues with his sinuses so I decided to head out to Publix to grab some medicine and a coffee for me and my Mom. When I got to the Publix parking lot I felt kind of crampy and actually waited in the car for a few minutes, hoping for it to go away. Well, it did and that's when it occurred to me... wait a minute...was that a contraction?! NO! It couldn't be....I got the medicine and the coffee and the cramps/contractions continued, but I was NOT HAVING IT. No this was not happening. I got home and realized it was garbage pick up day so I rolled the cans to the street,  pausing to let another contraction pass and then headed inside. I think I honestly felt like if I just pretended like it wasn't happening, my body would get it's life together and stop this craziness. Nope....as soon as I filled Brent in on what was going on, he lept into action mode. Go take a shower, let's pack a bag, I'm going to go tell your parents. WHOA WHOA WHOA, what part of this isn't happening today was he not getting? Ha - I feel like I was the same kind of obstinate last time around. But it grew increasingly obvious that it was in fact  happening so I slowly started getting my stuff together.

We left for the hospital around 9:30am and by 10:52 am I was in a room and the nurse confirmed I was in labor and already 4cm. Around noon I got my epidural (hallelujah), around 2pm I was 7cm so the doctor broke my water and at 5:01 Lot was born.

He weighed 8lb 0oz and was 20" long. 

Labor and delivery is no joyride but I felt a lot calmer this time around and the whole thing seemed to go faster and more seamlessly. For the first hour it was just me, Brent and Lot in what they call the Golden Hour. After that family was able to come in and meet our newest addition and while everyone was happy to meet Lot, Croix's reaction and genuine excitement took the cake.

He was and still is SO excited to have a baby brother. 

Croix turned 3 the day after Lot was born and could not of been more excited to come to the hospital and just hang out. We are pretty sure he thinks the baby is his ultimate birthday present :)

Thanks to a pretty straightforward delivery my physical recovery has been a lot easier this time. My mental state has also been a lot better. I had struggled with some postpartum depression after Croix, but luckily there has been none of that this time around. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I had done this whole thing before and knew what to expect. I knew/know that while there may be moments of frustration, discomfort, exhaustion, etc...it's all very short-lived and will be over in the blink of an eye. It's probably my personality, but the knowing has made such a big difference and I'm so thankful for that.

We spent two nights in the hospital and then got to go home where we have been settling into our "new normal." The good news is we are now 1 month in and Croix is still just as excited to see Lot as he was the day he met him. Like open mouth kisses excited. We have to watch him like a hawk so he doesn't love on baby Lot too hard, but it really is so sweet to see. Life is good and once Lot decides to start sleeping through the night all will be right in the world again. :)

All photos are my own. 

How Paperless Post & I Became Fast Friends This Holiday Season

This time of year I lick more envelopes and address more cards than any other time of year. 

For the last 3 years, Christmas + Croix's Birthday (December 27th) has given me a workout all on it's own, but this year the correspondence game was inflated even more because we hosted a Christmas Dinner. As much as I love good ol' fashion snail mail I just didn't have it in me to order, address and send out one more clump of invites so I was THRILLED when Paperless Post approached me about trying out their site.

For those of you unfamiliar Paperless Post is an online card company where every invitation, greeting card, holiday card, etc. is sent online via email. I'm sure most of us have received an "evite" of some kind before but Paperless Post definitely takes it up a notch. There are several things I really liked about my experience...

Let's start with the pretty factor, which was a really big factor for me. Again, I really like cards and correspondence so I was NOT all about some corny email invitation, I wanted something pretty and elegant that I would choose if I was ordering, stuffing and hand addressing.  Luckily the selection of cards is great - so many options, most of which can be customized with fonts, colors, etc. I had fun not only picking out the card but playing around with the wording to make it exactly what I had in mind. 

                                   

Another feature I really liked was the tracking feature. Once you have selected and customized your card you enter the individual email addresses for each person or family and the number of individuals invited. Once the cards are sent out you can see not only who has RSVP'ed yes or no, but you can see who has opened the invite. It tracks total numbers in this area as well so you can keep a running tab of your head count as your event nears. 

I'm so glad I had such a good first experience with Paperless Post because I ended up needing a quick invite. I had originally had these adorable 3rd birthday invitations made on Etsy. 

We mailed them out and all was set for a big jump jump party on the 29th until.......baby BROTHER decided to join the world a week and a half early. I'll have more on that soon - but needless to say Croix's birthday party needed to be postponed so I quickly created a new invite using Paperless Post, letting everyone know the party would be rescheduled for January 5th. 

All of my email addresses were already saved and now, 24 hours after sending I have a good idea of the final headcount because most of us are more likely to RSVP with the click of a button vs. emailing or texting the host to let them know. I mean...am I right or am I right? 

Needless to say I've given Paperless Post a good workout over the last few weeks and I'm happy to say it's a site I plan to use again and again. If you have any events or notes to send out in the new year you should definitely give them a try - highly recommend!