Oldie but Goodie!

This is an oldie but goodie! I love my kitchen and the changes that we made! At the end of this long post I have current updated pictures of my kitchen today. Lucky for you, I cleaned before taking them :)

           

                                                                                                                                   

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                                                                 May 2012

Here is the long awaited kitchen cabinet makeover!

I am so excited to share because I love, love, love, how they turned out!

These are pictures of our kitchen before we even moved in and painted. I fell in love with the house because of the kitchen. I love my huge island, the room to move around, and the openness into to the living room. I just wasn't a fan of all the dark colors. The floors were the same color of the cabinets, there was no contrast. So before we even moved in my plan was to paint these cabinets.

  We first started by labeling all the doors and drawers with numbers then removed them. Then we taped all around the inside (the kit doesn't give enough paint for the inside, I wouldn't want to do that anyways, too much work!) and outside of the cabinets. We covered the floors and counters with plastic.

I had a big package of Red cups from Costco which came in handy for the whole project. We put the hardware in cups and labeled which door they belonged to. I didn't want any screws, hinges, and knobs to be lost. This was a great way to keep track of them all. 

We bought Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations. The kit is supposed to be a quick easy project. No sanding or stripping, just deglossing. The deglossing took forever! I read all over the Internet that if you don't degloss very well then the paint won't stick and can chip. So we deglossed till our arms fell off. After delossing all the drawers and doors We were still a little worried about just using the deglosser so we created an extra step for ourselves and decided to use a high grit sandpaper and sand everything. (The lower the grit the rougher the sandpaper is. The higher the grit, the smoother the sandpaper.) I am sure it would have been fine without sanding, it was just about a peace of mind for me!

The red cups came in handy when it was time for painting and drying. On the instructional video they suggested using a 2x4 with screws that are screwed in just enough so it can hold the doors. On one blog I read, she said that the screws just left marks, plus, that seams like a lot of screws and 2x4's. The cups were much easier and left no damage.

Once all the dust was cleaned off, the real fun began! Painting! It was fun for about 5 doors until we realized that this was going to takeforever. The doors are supposed to take 2 coats of paint and one coat of the finish. The kit also comes with a glaze to give it a more wood look, but I like the Linen color by itself so we skipped the glazing step.

 I found this cabinet door at DI for Kambree to paint. I knew there was no way that she wasn't going to help. She loved helping and she did a pretty good job!

There are 2 sizes to the Rust-Oleum kit that we bought. We measured the kitchen and figured that we only needed to by the small kit. We even ended up with extra paint. The problem was from going from extreme dark to extreme light the 2 coats didn't cover all the way. It needed 3 coats of paint. UGH! We had enough extra to paint the cupboards, but not enough for the drawers and doors. So we had to go buy another kit. So, if you are going to paint your kitchen cabinets from dark to light and your not going to use the glaze, then you should probably make sure that you are going to have enough paint for 3 coats.

This whole thing was a lot of work but totally worth it. With Brian working and 2 sick kids, it took us about 9 days from start to finish. A lot of the blogs or tutorials I read say that this is a quick weekendproject. We did give ourselves extra steps as far as sanding and the extra coat of paint. I still don't think that if we skipped those extra steps we could have finished in a weekend.

Anyways, it is done! I am so excited! I love how they look! Totally worth all the hard work!

What do you think?

{before}

{after}

Food is Fuel!

It has been about 3 1/2 weeks since I started Insanity and although I am much stronger, have better and longer endurance, more energy, and better recovery time, I still have been frustrated with my weight. The pounds aren't coming off like I thought they would. I have been doing everything right by eating healthy, drinking lots of water, and working out every morning except on Sundays. 

So whats the problem?  

I was talking to my friend Brinlee yesterday about this and after doing the process of elimination we have figured out that I am not eating enough calories. I have been counting my calories and making sure that I don't go over 1200. Doing the workouts that I am doing I should be eating 1600-1800 calories because I am burning off so much.. I thought that if I stick to my 1200 and do the workout then this fat would just fall right off. I was so wrong. 

My body is in starvation mode and holding on to everything I eat. So here I am taking 1 step forward and 3 steps back. I am now re-focusing on my eating. This doesn't mean that I am going to load up on a bunch of empty calories, I am going to eat more of the healthy foods that I am already eating.

I am using an app on my phone to help with this called My Fitness Pal app. It keeps track of my calories burned, calories in, and calories out. The best part is you can scan the bar code of of most of your food and it will log it right in for you! Check it out!

Moral of the story is you wouldn't starve your car of fuel and expect it to run efficiently. Just like our bodies, we need the right amount of good fuel. Successful weight loss is not about starving yourself. It is all about fueling your body with the healthy and low calorie food it needs to help you lose weight!

food is fuel!

Insanity Fit Test

Today was day 15 of Insanity and we did the same fit test that we did on day one. I was dreading this day because I thought that I would do worse than my first fit test. I was so wrong! Here are my stats.

                                         Day 1               Day 15

Switch Kicks                        58                   116

Power Jacks                         28                    38

Power Knees                       60                     75 

Power Jumps                       20                     32

Globe Jumps                        5                       9

Suicide Jumps                      8                      12

Push-Up Jacks                      0                       4

Low Plank Obliques              20                     44

I was so excited about my results. It amazes me how much stronger I am. I also didn't even come close to puking like I almost did during the first fit test. My endurance is much better and I can last longer. I love Insanity. The feeling I get when I finish a workout is amazing! I love pushing myself and I can't wait to see the results. 

Music

My sister LOVES music. That is an understatement. I just downloaded some music from iTunes that she played during our drive up to Utah. One is Kid Cudi's album Man on the Moon and the other is Lana Del Rey's Born to Die. Good music. Two totally different artists, but I like just about anything when it comes to music! I like to get the edited versions. Check them out :)

Miss Nicole

Out with the old and in with the new!

Every morning at 7 am my best friend walks over to my house to do Insanity with me. I am not sure how I talked her into it but I am so glad that she is making this change with me! 

Today I was talking about how my scale is a piece of crap and how it tells me my weight then 30 seconds later it says I have gained or lost 2 lbs. 

A little after our workout this morning she came over and brought me a new scale!

How lucky am I! 

She is so awesome and I am so glad that she is doing this with me because honestly if she wasn't at my house every morning then I would be sleeping in till 8 rather than waking up at 6:45! 

Thanks Miss Nicole! (that is what my kids call her!) 

You made my day!

Also, she is blogging too! Read about her journey here!

October post...

Okay so I am looking back as far as I can in my phone at pictures. I was looking for crafts that I have finished so I could post about them here, but I am the Queen of starting projects and not finishing them! So I will post about Birthday Parties! I love to go all out on the kids birthday parties. I would do it for a living if I could. This is all about Kaden's 2nd Birthday and I am already thinking about what I am going to do for the next one. Anyways, Kaden loved Toy Story, and at the time especially loved Woody. (He goes back and forth between Woody and Buzz). So we did a little cowboy party. 

I got the idea for the banner from Etsy. She was charging more than I wanted to pay for it so I decided to make my own. It is made out of cardboard. I printed the letters from my computer and traced them onto the cardboard. Cutting the letters out was the biggest pain, I used scissors and an x-acto knife. If you are thinking about doing one out of cardboard just be careful, it would be easy to cut yourself. After everything was cu,t I painted them, distressed the sides with sandpaper, and used a little bit of brown glaze on the edges to make it look more aged and cowboy like. I love the way it turned out!

I made his cakes myself and they were super easy. I usually make my own fondant but this time I used pre packaged fondant from Walmart for the rope and cow spots. The sprinkle cake was so easy, I just cut out #2 out of paper for my stencil and put sprinkles all over the top. 

For the table and island I used a roll of brown packing paper from the Dollar Store, then I placed bandannas from Hobby Lobby on top of the paper. I also used some raffia and some hay bundles to decorate the tops. The napkins I found at the $ store and used twine to tie the rolled silverware. I did a western BBQ for food. We had corn bread, rolls, honey butter, chips, corn, fruit, mac-n-cheese, baked beans and ribs. We drank fruit punch and root beer out of mason jars. I found the cow balloons at Hobby Lobby and took the package to Party City to have them blow the balloons up. 

It was such a fun day. Even though it is a lot of work and stressful, I love to plan parties!

Never give up...

So the past couple of days I have been frustrated because I have been working so hard and I haven't seen any weight coming off. Yesterday, I not only did the Insanity workout in the morning with my friend Nicole, but I also did the same one at night again with Brian. I have never been so motivated, I am working so hard, and I am counting my calories but I am not seeing the results like I expected. I am not expecting biggest loser results and lose 20 lbs in 1 week but I thought it would be more than the 2 I lost. Thankfully today in our challenge group everyone had to post motivational quotes and there were a few that I really needed to see.

 

I am thankful for this day in our challenge group. I love seeing these motivational quotes, they really do help. My coach always says this isn't a sprint, it's marathon. I am not going to see the results I want over night. This is all about my lifestyle change. 

I have to stay motivated, keep pushing play, and continue fueling my body with good food. 

I WILL SEE RESULTS. I WILL CHANGE! I CAN DO HARD THINGS!

Disney treats!

My family loves Disneyland! We have been going every year since we were kids. Every time we would hear that we are going to Disneyland, some of the first thoughts in my head were about the treats I was going to eat. 

I plan it out! Churro, Dole Whip, chocolate chip ice cream sandwich, caramel apple, and etc.  

Now that I am the adult I still think about the treats, but now I have to control how many and what treats I get. I try to get a healthy treat and one of my favorites is the fresh mango and lime. 

Mmmm, so good, fresh, and healthy! 

I love the little seasoning packet that comes with it and it turns out that you can buy it from the grocery store. So now I get to enjoy a Disney treat at home! I like to buy my mango's from Costco (pre cut = less mess and I love less mess!), I also love getting my limes there because they are so juicy. 

Next time you go to Disney try it, or even better try it at home!

TODAY... Is the last day

to order the Insanity Challenge Pack at the discounted price! Don't miss out on this special offer. Email me for more info.

Insanity update and new carpet!

So, I have done and week of Insanity and I feel great! I love how it pushes me to do things that I didn't think my body could do. I thought that because I am not fit or skinny that Insanity would be the death of me, but it isn't! Don't get me wrong, this stuff is no joke, but I love how I feel after I am done!

Even though I am now using this blog to post about my fitness journey, I still want to post about my house and projects that I do. Crafting is my happy place and I want to get back to blogging about it!

About a year ago the kids and I drove to California to visit my parents. Brian stayed home because of work so I left early Friday morning. Roxie, our dog, was left home alone for 8 hours by herself and when Brian walked through the door after work he saw that she chewed a big hole in our carpet! Right in the middle of the room! Ugh! I was so mad that I cried when he called to tell me! We didn't have the money to fix it right away so we bought a rug and covered it up. Fast forward to Easter time this year, we went to California again and had to leave Roxie. We had family look over her but once again she tore the carpet up! I was a little mad this time but more relieved because I knew that we were going to be able to get new carpet! Yay! We think the owners before us had cats and I think the smells in the carpet drove her nuts. We love our Roxie, but if she digs through the new carpet I just might die!

Here goes everything...

Everyone always says here goes nothing, or I've got nothing to lose but for me I have a lot to lose! I started Insanity yesterday and let me just say that it is insane! It is like everyone says, extremely hard and just crazy! I was really nervous to start but it amazes me how much your body can do if you just push yourself. The fact that I got through it without giving up is huge. Having support from Brian, family, friends and my challenge group is what will keep me going. I am lucky to have a best friend that will be at my house 7:00 am every morning for the next 60 days to do this with me. I will be posting about this journey I am taking and at the end I promise that no matter what I look like I will post my before and after pictures. I have never been more motivated in my life and I am so excited for this lifestyle change that my family is making! If I can do this anybody can!

Valentines Wreath

I just love the burlap wreath that I made for Christmas, so I thought I would make one for Valentines Day. I love, love. love, the red burlap! It only cost me $3.00 for the fabric, everything else I already had. For the hanging heart in the middle I just cut a heart out of card board and used a strip of fabric to wrap around. So easy and fun!

Valentines Garland

My kids were driving me just a little bit nuts today, so to keep myself from going crazy I decided to do something crafty. I didn't want to run to the store for anything so I sat in my craft room, (aka my master closet!) went through all my fabric, and picked out all the red and pink fabrics. Then I decided to make a Valentines garland. This was so EASY and I just loved the way it turned out! Here's how I did it...

First I found about 7 different but coordinating fabrics.
Then I cut a heart shape out of card stock to use as my template, and traced it on the back of all the fabrics I used.
After I traced my hearts I ironed the fabric, and then cut out all my hearts.
Once all the hearts were cut out I connected them by running them one by one through the sewing machine.
That's it! Simple huh! I love the way it turned out and I love how easy it was to make! Most of all I am just glad that I was able to get in a little bit of crafting today!