Thanksgiving

With my family celebrating Thanksgiving in Ohio, Frank and I spent the entire day with his family.

I started my day by running the Gobble Jog 10K, then met up with Frank and his parents to walk the 5K.  (I obviously didn't take any pictures because I didn't bring my camera because I didn't want anything else to slow me down. Because it was cold and I wanted to run as fast as I could. Because I had turkey to eat later.)


After rehydrating and getting ready, we went to Frank's parent's house for an afternoon of hanging out and preparing dinner. Some of the guys hung out in the back, by the fire, while the rest of us were in the front. We had to be outside--it was such a gorgeous day!

family friends: Ann, Max, and Lee

my sister-in-law, Jessie

Not much happened after this picture, just the usually Thanksgiving day decline -- change to PJs, turn on the TV, and slowly fall into a coma. No big deal that it was 6:30...

On Friday, Frank and I decided to take advantage of some of our best friends being in town, so we hosted a small house-warming/get-together. We watched football, snacked on non-Thanksgiving food, and had great conversation. We never seem to have a problem picking up right where we left off, even if we haven't seen each other in months. 
That's a sign of real friendships.

bestfriend.

husband.

Even though this weekend was packed and we felt like we were going non-stop, we got to catch up with some of our best friends, spend time with family, and watch the Dawgs stomp Georgia Tech! 


Today will consist of church and....nothing. Ahhhh.....

Mr. Fitz

Meet Fitz.

He is another CCI dog-in-training that lives nearby.

And starting tomorrow, he is staying with us for 5 whole days!!

Dressers

Remember the furniture in the junk room I told you about? 

Well, look who made it out to the garage!

(Please excuse my trash cans. They didn't get a makeover.)

I was inspired to paint these a "Pottery Barn" black after seeing a DIY tutorial on Pinterest. 

I followed the pin to the blog and got moving.

Since the lady in the blog used Benjamin Moore products, I made a stop to 

my local Benjamin Moore store to grab my supplies.

Foam roller, brush, primer, paint tray, gloves and the paint.

             

This isn't the exact paint the blog used but after talking to the guy at the Benjamin Moore store, he recommended I go with a satin, oil based paint (make sure you wear gloves and have plenty of mineral spirits on hand or this paint will NOT come off of you!)

The furniture didn't have a strong finish on it, so just some light sanding did the trick. Then I added one coat of primer so the paint would really have something to grab on to.

I allowed these to dry overnight, and started painting the next day. With the help of my mom (this wasn't her first rodeo), we cranked these babies out in a few days.

We applied 2 coats of the black paint, allowing 24 hours for each coat to dry. 

As the last coat was drying, I made my way to Hobby Lobby to pick out some knobs. Are you ready for the best part? I got 16 knobs (10 for the dresser, 6 for the desk) for $24!! 

Thank you for your generous bargains, Hobby Lobby. 

I chose small, clear, glass knobs for the desk.

And broze colored ones for the dresser. 

I used 2 fancier ones on the top drawer,

and on the bottom 4 drawers, I used simpler detailed ones.

The final product? 

This is in our sitting room, which is an area on the other side of the kitchen from the living room. I have the intent of it being a cozy, reading nook.

The dresser is in our upstairs guest bedroom.

While shop was set up, I decided to do our dresser in the master bedroom. 

I followed the same process. It looks really good...in our garage. 

It seems to be taking longer than expected to get that one finished, for whatever reason. 

But I don't mind. 

Laundry is so much easier to put away when you don't actually. put. it. away.

the GRACE project

Please visit my friend, Laura's blog

twirl [lbr]

She is one of my dearest, sweetest friends.

She has such a pure heart.

(And an amazing blog!)

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See that cool icon labeled

The Grace Project?

Click on it.

It's pretty cool.