The Bandaid

I forgot I said that I would explain why I had the bandaid on in this exciting post.  Mainly I just want to write about it so I can look back and laugh at my silly self.  Three days after we got engaged (how crazy!!) I was taping the stair treads off in preparation for painting them.  I quickly swept my hand underneath a tread to secure the tape down and promptly gave my self the biggest splinter I have ever experienced.  It was like a twig in my fingertip.  Not even a twig....a branch.  After a few choice words I ran down to Darryl flubbering (yes that's a word!) and trying to explain what had happened while my poor finger throbbed and throbbed. 

Maybe the picture doesn't quite do it justice, but this thing was THICK!  Straight away, Darryl got to work pulling out our first aid kit, disinfecting my finger (as I was paranoid that lead or some other poison was leaking into my body) and working those tweezers like they've never been worked before.

What he didn't tell me until it was all said and done was that after telling me to look away, he ditched the tweezers for a mini scalpel! 

It took a good 45 minutes to get this thing out, it didn't look very deep but it turns out it was.  After nearly fainting twice (eyes going black, everything sounding far away, knees week and room spinning) I quickly dropped myself to the floor and put my head between my knees and avoided the humiliation of fainting over a sliver.  Twice. 

Finally Darryl took me to the couch to lay down, so that if I did pass out I wouldn't fall, put a blanket over my head (like they do to worked up animals at the vet!  ha!) and continued his surgery. 

Eventually it was all over and Dr. Darryl had fixed my poor little finger.  I had to take a picture because how can you not laugh at the dramatics all caused by a sliver!  I mean really, a head lamp?!



And Dr. D does not give just any old bandaid to good patients, no no...

I was a happy bunny in the end.  And grateful to have an in-house doctor.

Ever had a huge sliver and performed mini surgery on your self?  What's your biggest home project related injury??



Staining

I haven't given many updates on the staircase project in a while, I wrote this post the day after staining but never got around to sharing it, so here's the story of how my first ever staining attempt went (with a few updates):

A few Saturday mornings ago I got to work on the stairs.  I was on a mission and a strict time line so I was determined to get it done, even though Darryl offered for me to wait until he was done work.  But we didn't know how many more days his shift would go on for so I just couldn't wait!  First I vaccumed them up, then used a tack cloth to grab any other debris I might have missed.  This was my first ever attempt at staining any type of wood.  I know, not a good idea to test your staining abilities on something as major as your staircase! 

Here's how they were pre-stain:

The first coat made such an impression because it's such a drastic visual change - I couldn't stop walking into the hall to check them out. 

One boo boo I sort of made on purpose = you're supposed to put the stain on, let it sit for 5-15 minutes according to the instructions and then wipe the excess off. I started doing this on the first 5 upper steps but the cloth kept pulling funny and only wiping certain parts off, making it look super streaky. Sooooo I decided to put a thin coat on the rest and not wipe it off. Stop gasping! It's going to be okay, I promise! It just may take a few days for it to dry :S Sorry Darryl! I'm happy with how it looks after just the one coat, but Darryl says it'll look even better after another coat, so another coat it'll get. So Saturday night we camped out on the couch because even after more than 8 hours of dry-time, the stairs were (obviously) still tacky. Sorry Darryl! *Update: As the stain is oil based, even on day 2 the stairs were far from dry. We knew this was going to be a problem (well Darryl knew it from the get-go but I was in denial) It was too goopy and tacky and at the rate it was going, it was going to take weeks for it to soak in! And that was not an option as I was just days away from hosting the Baby Shower.

We couldn't get upstairs either because I stained every step, as opposed to alternating ones (again another on-purpose boo-boo) With the shower less than a week away, I didn't have time to double the time it would take to stain and varathane everything by doing every other step.

*Update, so on day two when I came to terms with my big on-purpose boo-boo, Darryl came to the rescue. We sacrificed the stairs and climbed to the top to start from square one. Somehow Darryl knew that if he started a new coat (while the old one was still quite tacky), that it would do something magical and take all the old gunk off, while doing a new PROPER coat!

He had those babies done in under an hour and I was all "ohhhhhhh that's how it's supposed to look!" That coat was dried before I knew it and I was all "oohhhhhhh that's how it's supposed to dry!" Woops!

Obviously I wouldn't recommend my on-purpose boo-boos to anyone....because they don't work!  Well, staining every step was fine - just remember to bring everything you need downstairs before you begin, toilettries, a change of clothes...But don't ever not wipe your stain off!!  *Update:  It turns out the reason I was having trouble wiping the stain off was because we had bought micro-fibre cloths.  So if you're about to stain your steps, do not use microfibre!  Just a regular rag or old t-shirt will do the trick.

Lesson Learned.  Darryl is now our official stainer and I am the painter. 
Next week I will have a complete "after" post about the stairs and I can't even wait to see the finished product.  It's already looking fab in my humble opinion and it's not even done yet! 

How did your first wood-staining experience go?  Any other tips to offer readers?  Any projects you'll be finishing up this weekend??

Unwanted Visitors

Sunday night Darryl and I were both startled awake by some funny squeaky sounds.  We sat there awake for a few minutes waiting for the next sign of movement to determine what it was.  Darryl concluded that squirrels had somehow gotten into our attic.

I did not fall back asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, but rather with half paranoid thoughts of squirrels getting into our living area and half cracking myself up with visions of this becoming my new norm...

I pray this was a one-off?!  Please don't let them get in.  Please let it just have been our sleepy minds thinking they were louder and closer than they really were.  Please don't let them really have been playing with little crafting beads right above my head even though that's exactly what it sounded like.  Please!

Tea Time

How was everyone's weekend!?  I've got some holidays from work this week, woot!  So I'm hoping to use these few days as best I can between house projects and some wedding planning we're trying to get underway. 

We spent this weekend with a couple family visits and lots of lounging actually.  Yesterday we did put a good 5ish hours in on the staircase though.  Man, priming is taking forever!  I've changed from regular primer to Cover Stain because is was taking too many coats of regular primer (5!) So I'm hoping I can go back with one more coat of Cover Stain this week and then I have a bunch of nail gun holes to fill and sand...and then we'll be ready to paint!  Cannot even wait!

My great Aunt recently moved out of her apartment and had to downsize some of her stuff and I inherited some lovely new-to-me Royal Albert China!

They're light grey leaves with gold accents.  Isn't fine china so beautiful!?

I've since rearranged this cabinet, added a few plates under the cups to give them height, I should take some updated pictures someday...

 

Psst, hey Darryl...imagine how great these pictures would look with a finely painted and revamped hutch....!?!?!  Hey?  Hey??  Pretty pleeeeeeeaaseeee!!

What did you get up to this weekend??

 

Baby Shower

The shower was a success!  I was a little nervous about hosting 25 ladies in my house, but my mum was such a huge help and made me feel calm and ready.  (Darryl's sister came over late Friday night and helped me set a few things up so that was a huge help as well!)  My mum came a couple hours early to help me throw a few last minute things together which really helped me out a lot - and thank goodness she did because people started arriving half an hour early!

I decided to go with a light green and pink theme as those are the nursery colours and I think they look so sweet together.

What the table looked like before some food and drink were added.

Table with some treats, a bust cake and some cupcakes (made by my aunt's neighbour) on some home made cupcake stands

Rattle cupcakes

The tissue pom poms I made for some decor.  They got a nice compliment or two!

Some books in the theme colours (Anne of Green Gables suffered at the teeth of one of my sweet kitties many, many years ago)

Some prizes for a couple games we played

And the diaper cake that I made for them with a few baby essentials tucked inside like shampoo, baby powder, stretch mark cream, wash cloths and socks.  I forgot to take closer pictures of the turtle on top that I sewed out of extra fabric from the nursery.

Another turtle shot - turtle templates are from here.  The little guy was my first-ever sewing attempt!  I'm quite happy with how he turned out  :)

So all in all, it was a success!  I was in bed 9pm that night though, I was pretty pooped.  But 25 adults fit on my main floor comfortably and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  Next stop is the baby coming!!

*Thank you to my mum and cousin for giving me these pictures, I didn't have time to snap any pictures by the time everything started!



Have you ever hosted a large amount of people in your home - how did it go?

Thank You!

Thank you for your kind words yesterday, it is such an exciting time and I look forward to documenting my memories and some planning on here as well.  That's the beauty of a blog eh?  It's a journal of sorts, only I was never good at writing in journals - my hand would cramp up, I would get frustrated at how messy my writing would get, then if I tried to write neater it took forever...so this blog is my much preferred way of recording specal memories.

pinterest

I'll be back tomorrow to show you a bit of how the baby shower went!!  Enjoy your Tuesday!



Time to Spill...

Last week I was saying what a hectic (a wonderfully hectic) week it was.  Hosting a shower takes a bit of planning and preparation and early in the week (Monday evening to be exact) my plans were thrown through a bit of a loop.

A loop that I could not have been more happy to be thrown through.  So, now that we've had a chance to share with our families and friends, it's time to share with you!  

We are going to get married!!  I have been on cloud 9 all week, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much - this thing makes me blush!

Darryl had the ring designed just for me, which makes it even more special.  It's hard to see the fine detail, but on either side of the ring, there is a scroll-like detail with three tiny diamonds. 

Thanks to my cousin for taking these beautiful pics!

Can you believe it actually happened over a can of varathane??  Mhmm, very true-to-us!  Alright it was a little more romantic than that haha, but I did literally have a can of varathane in my hand, reading the directions as we were sitting down for dinner. 

(This was taken 3 days later - we were so caught up in the excitement we kept forgetting to take a picture!  And I'll explain the eye-sore of a bandaid later.  Silly story)

I haven't forgot to share details of the shower, I just couldn't wait to share this!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend - anything exciting??

TGIF!!!!

This has been one crazy week (I'll share more of why next week) so I'm really glad it's finally Friday!  Tonight I'll be running around like a mad woman getting things together for my sister's baby shower tomorrow.  I've been looking forward to this day for so long now, so I'm really excited, but I'm feeling a little less than prepared because of the week we've had.  But not to worry it will all get done!  And my mum is such a big help, she's coming over in the morning to help with set up.

I'll let you know how my first hosting gig goes next week, wish me luck!  For now, here's how I wish it would look in my house tomorrow...

Photo is from pinterest, but the link took me back to a "failed" page.  If anyone comes across where it's from let me know so I can credit them.

***Update: Thanks to Nette from This Dusty House for finding the link.  Pic is from here.

How's your weekend shaping up??