I Love Lamp!!

I went back and forth between that title and "Re-wiring an Estate Sale Lamp...and only getting shocked once."  Not sure which one is better.

Anyway, I found a gigantic metal lamp at an estate sale a few weeks ago for $10.  We need more light in our living room since there is no built in lighting.  It was old and dirty, but I could tell it just needed a little love.

At home I dusted it off and realized it was a lot dirtier than I thought it was when looking at it in the basement of the estate sale.

I took it apart and scrubbed it down with Bar Keeper's Friend.

In order to get the grime off, I needed to scrub down to the bare metal...and that would take hours of work.  So I decided to give it a good soap and water clean and spray paint it.

Fast forward to this past weekend.  I spray painted the lamp with Rustoleum's oiled rubbed bronze metallic spray paint with primer.  I am having difficulty finding a tall enough lamp shade, so I also bought a non-glossy beige spray paint for the lamp shade.  It is only a short term solution until I find the proper lamp shade.

Yes I used a bush as a table so that I wouldn't risk
getting my outdoor furniture covered in paint.

 I followed the directions on the can applying very thin coats every minute.  I let it set for 24 hours, then did a few thin touch up coats.  After 48 hours for the pieces to cure, I was ready to assemble the lamp.

There was one hang up.  The lamp needed to be rewired.  The wiring in the old lamp was very old and non-safe looking.  Al helped me pick out a new lamp wire.  (Helped = said "here are the three they have...what color do you want?")  Unfortunately Al was going to be working tonight...and I REALLY wanted to assemble the lamp tonight.  So I was going to be brave and play with electrical wire...what could go wrong?

First I unscrewed the old wiring and got that out of the way.

How funny is it that I am building a lamp
on my husband's lighting design homework??

Then I assembled the lamp with the new cord through the center.  When I took the lamp apart I made a cheat sheet to put it back together.  I was very happy to have this now...my past self is a genius!

Clearly I should have been an art major.

I wound the new wiring around the screws and screwed them back in.  This is where I got dumb.  I wanted to test the whole thing out before assembling the rest of the lamp.  I plugged in the cord without covering up the exposed wiring...ZAP!  (Another title to the post could be "Lack of Patience Leads to Electrocution"...but that would scare the crap out of my mom.)

 After the shock of the shock (hehe), I put the old cover around the wiring parts.  (Don't be frightened by my highly technical lighting terms.)

 ...and screwed the switch on.

 This time...no shock!!  (Amazing what happens when you don't intersect a body part into the circuit.)

 Here is the living room before. 

 ...and here is it after!

The side by side of before/after is pretty great.

The painted shade does not allow light through, but it looks nice and it will work until we find a replacement.  Here is a cost break down...

lamp......$10
ORB spray paint...$8
beige spray paint...$5

new wiring...$6

Total = $30

The new shade will probably be $30-$50, so the total will likely double, but I'm still very happy considering well made lamps of this size are over $100.  Hopefully I can score a deal on a lamp shade.

What have you DIY'd lately?

Don't forget to drug the baby!

I can barely manage to remember my vitamin every day, so when Katelyn had her first ear infection last spring, remembering to give her medicine twice a day was not going to be easy.  The odds of Al and me getting exactly 2 doses (not 0, 1, 3, or 4) each day was not likely.

In the past when Penny or Guinness needed meds, I would tape a med schedule on the front door so that we would remember.  Once you give meds, you check off the time.  This way we would not over or under dose.

Here is the schedule I made for K and taped to her door.

It may look silly, but it keeps us from forgetting to dose her or doubling her up on the sauce.

Disaster of a Photo Shoot

I wanted to have Katelyn's 1 year photos taken by the photographer who took her newborn photos.  We used Livia Marie Photography out of Sun Prairie, WI.  Apparently I was too exhausted from having a baby and feeding her every hour to post her newborn photos...I'm such a slacker.  Here are two of my favorites.

How cute was she???  That photo shoot wasn't easy either.  6 day olds are supposed to fall asleep easily, and you can put them in funny positions, and take photos of them (and laugh a little)...sort of like your drunk friends in college.  Katelyn was having none of that.  We were able to trick her into closing her eyes for just long enough for Livia to snap the photo.

Anyway, back to the most recent disaster.  K cried the whole way to Sun Prairie, and there was traffic on the Beltline, so it took an additional 10 minutes (our past selves would laugh at that compared to DC...but with a crying baby, 10 minutes extra is like an hour extra).  She was cranky the whole time we were there only wanting to be held by me, we were getting near her bed time...oh, and she smacked her head on a bridge.  Mother of the year right here folks.

Livia had this cute bench that K was sitting on.  K decided she wanted off, and instead of catching herself with her hands, she caught herself with her face!  Here is a photo of the damage.  It ended up looking worse after it scabbed over.

She also cried the whole way home.  I thought it was a complete waste of time and money.  But I remembered how K was difficult even at 6 days old, and Livia did an amazing job then.  I just needed to have faith.  The following day Livia posted this picture to her Facebook page.

"Hey, I'll bet it would be lots of fun to fall off of this
thing...it's ok, I'm pretty sure my face will catch me"

She did it!!!  Al and I gazed at our computer screen.  Somehow Livia was able to capture the 1/2 second of happiness from that evening.  Here are a few more...

We are very pleased with our "disaster" photos.  I imagine some day Katelyn will be good for a photo shoot...maybe when she is 35.

Backyard Path

We can't afford to do any major renovations to the house/yard until Al is done with school, but we like to continue to spruce things up wherever we can.  The layout of one corner of our yard didn't make any sense.  The gate in our fence opens to nothing but grass, and you have to walk all through the yard to get to the patio. 

I started the project while Al was working in DC for 5 weeks.  I was able to get the logs cleaned up and the shrubbery removed (with my dad's help).  Here is the before...

1 - Here's the gate in the corner, but there's no where to go when you get in.
2 - Mud pit created by Penny.  When the UPS man makes deliveries across the street, we are at a threat level 5, and the only solution is to kick up dirt and grass.
3 - The wood pile is very sad.  Al had been asking for a log rack for a while...guess what he received for his birthday??
4 - This hosta may look tiny, but it was April when I took this photo.  All of my backyard hostas grow to be at least 4' in diameter.
5 - This random bush had a root that was almost 6" thick.  I dug and dug, and eventually, after calling my dad to help, I was able to remove the darn thing.

Once Al was home, we were able to move the mulch, stones, and edging out of the way.  We purchased sand, dirt, patio blocks, and grass seed for about $75.  We dug a place for the patio block, filled the hole with sand, hammered the sand flat, and placed the patio block.  Once the patio block was level, we filled around the block with soil.  We worked after K went to bed and only got 1 or 2 blocks done a night.  The project is finally finished, and we are thrilled with the results.

"What are you doing?" - Al

As you can see we are waiting for the grass to fill in the blank spots.  It is very difficult to grow grass in a severe drought, but we are watering daily and trying to be patient.  We have a temporary fence up to keep the dogs out of the corner until the grass fills in.

K's 1st Birthday Party

Katelyn is a year old...we made it!  We celebrated her birthday on Saturday with friends and family at our home.  Here are some photos from the day.  First, here are the simple decorations I chose.  I didn't want too much pink, and I don't like themes.  I used purple and pink streamers and made tissue paper poofs.

Do you know how difficult it is to find a girl's
1st birthday balloon without "princess" on it??...very.

This is the entry of our house.  There were also purple poofs in the kitchen.

We are blessed with many wonderful family and friends who showered Katelyn with gifts.

She now has her own rocking chair!

Katelyn gave her 1st baby doll kisses.

We ate BBQ pork sandwiches, roasted potatoes, lovely pasta salads that family brought, and butterfly cupcakes.  I was inspired by the book Hello Cupcake.  It has great ideas and simple step by step instructions.

Why is everyone looking at me??

Here is a video of everyone singing to Katelyn.  She was mostly frightened by the experience...apparently we are a scary group.

We are so thankful that so many people could make it to celebrate with us.  It was a great day!

In order to clean Katelyn's room...

In order to clean Katelyn's room, I must put away her laundry.

In order to put away her laundry, I must give her toys to play with.

Now have a messier room than when I started...clearly I am doing this wrong.

$8 Dress

I have gotten more mileage out of this $8 Target dress than any dress in my closet. It even received a compliment at the deli counter today!

Sorry for the crappy photo...apparently the new phone
can take great pictures it just can't upload them.

Katelyn's First Plane Trip

We took Katelyn on her first plane trip in March (can you tell I am behind in blogging??).  She did an amazing job.  I was very nervous about how she would do on the plane.  I didn't want to be that mom with the kid who wouldn't shut up.  It was also our first trip back to DC since we moved.  I can't believe it has been almost 2 years!

I had been planning the trip for weeks.  I made an Excel spreadsheet with schedules and packing lists.  I wanted to be prepared, but I didn't want to haul our kitchen sink along.  Here are the big items that we brought...

- checked suitcase
- backpack for a diaper bag/carry-on
- new carrier (the Ergo Sport if you're wondering)
- garment bag with our dress clothes
- my purse

So no stroller, no car seat (rented one from Hertz), and no crib (borrowed a pack and play).

Friday morning came, and I got up at 4:30am.  I was so happy that I had slept well (or as well as one can sleep waking up every 2-4 hours to feed K).  Many times before trips, I don't sleep because I worry about forgetting to pack something.  Even when I don't have a trip coming up, I have stress dreams about going somewhere and not being packed.  (Insert foreshadowing music here.)  Al and I got everything ready, the car was packed up, I had coffee brewing, and K even woke up right as I walked up the steps to get her (I dressed her in her travel clothes the night before in hopes that she would fall back asleep in the car...it worked).  I had wanted to leave the house by 6:00am.  When we drove down our street, the clock said 5:56am...the travel angels were singing.

We arrived in Milwaukee with plenty of time to stop at Dunkin' Donuts.  We got a great parking spot in the cheap parking lot, and the shuttle arrived immediately.  There was no line at the ticketing counter.  Everything was perfect...or so we thought.

After we checked our bag and started to walk away from the counter, Al said, "Oh no!  We forgot our garment bag."  I had packed the garment bag with our dress clothes (for the wedding we were going to) and placed the bag in the front closet so nothing would wrinkle.  Why I didn't pack it in the car, I'll never know.  It would cost over $200 to replace the clothes.  The wonderful Air Tran representative changed our flight to the afternoon at no cost, and we drove back to Madison.  Katelyn was excellent for the additional 3 hours in the car.  Al and I kept apologizing to each other for forgetting the bag.

Once back at the airport (no more cheap parking available...had to upgrade to $10/day parking...ugh), we caught our flight, and K did very well.  She nursed on the way up and fell asleep.  They don't let you keep babies in carriers for take off and landing, but once in the air, she was hooked in and asleep.  I was even able to read a book!  Here are some pictures of Katelyn and Daddy having fun on the plane...

The return flight she fussed for about 10 minutes on the landing because she was asleep and they made me take her out of her carrier.  All of the people around us were asking, "why in the world would they make you do that??"  At least the people around us were understanding.

Our trip to DC was a lot of fun, but it was too short.  Here are pictures I snapped on our way to the airport. (I made Al drive around so I could at least see the cherry blossoms for a second.)

Arlington Cemetery how it looks in the movies.

....and here is reality.

K and I fly again next Friday...by OURSELVES.  Al is already in DC for work, and we are going to visit him.  Hopefully the flights go as smoothly as last time, and I don't forget anything major.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

As an early birthday present, my parents bought me the BOB Revolution!!  (That's a jogging stroller for those not obsessed with stroller makes and models.)  But it's not any jogging stroller, it is an amazing jogging stroller.

In looking for baby gear my motto was, "unless a safety issue, find it used and cheap".  So the car seats and crib were bought new, and most of the other gear was bought used (thank you Craigslist!).  We got a $10 stroller at a garage sale until we could get a jogging stroller.

At first it looked like there were a few reasonably priced jogging strollers on the market, but after reading the reviews, I found that they didn't work well for running (wheels would fall off...uh, no).  Eventually, I determined that my "cheapest" option was the BOB Revolution.  It can be both a jogger or a regular stroller because the wheel can be fixed or rotate.  It also held up well over time (mostly made of metal, not plastic) and it held its value (ones on Craigslist went for $250 in 24 hours...tried so hard to get one used, but I never emailed fast enough).

Although Amazon has the BOB cheaper than REI, I am an REI member and they have a 20% off coupon for all members (you can sign up now to receive the coupon...$20 for a lifetime membership and 10% back annually on all non-sale purchases).  Also it is much easier to return it to our local store rather than Amazon if something were to go wrong.

K and I went on our first run yesterday.  We ran 3.5 miles, and she didn't make a peep the whole time.  She really loves the outdoors.

"Hey Milk Truck...stop taking pictures, and let's go!"

 Thanks again Mom and Dad!

One of the things you give up when you have a baby...

There are a lot of things that you know you will give up when you have a baby: sleep, going out, sleep, seeing the latest movies, sleep, getting together with friends with a moment's notice...did I mention sleep?  Anyway besides the usual things, there are some things that hit you like a wall.  "Well if I'd only known..." you tell yourself.  I had one of these moments the other day. 

I was driving home my old route from work because Al had picked Katelyn up from daycare.  Usually I pick her up.  There was a very large "going out of business sale" sign at one of my favorite stores.  It sold very cute purses and jewelry.  I had missed the sale and closing...ugh!

Katelyn, you owe Mommy a clearance purse and necklace.  Love, Mom.

Rockin' the Clearance Rack

Last winter I found these great Jessica Simpson shoes on clearance at DSW for $17.  My feet soon became too chubby to wear them, but I knew (hoped) that I would be able to wear them soon.

 

 

While day after Thanksgiving shopping, I found the skirt for $10 at Kohl's.  I paired both with a blouse from Ann Taylor LOFT and a cardigan from New York and Company...