a post of epic proportions (as in, get cozy, it's a doozy)

 Here comes the epic-ness. John is feeling okay right now, so I actually have a few minutes to sit down and blog. I don't know how long it will last, so I'm trying to go fast. In case you didn't realize it, the only way I ever get anything done is when John is a healthy guy and that has not been the case for at least three weeks. It has been a beyond frustrating experience for us both. He has been in quite a bit of pain and still is, but it comes and goes. He got the standard tests and they came back negative for gallstones, but they are still convinced that is what he has so they have him slated for more tests which they only just now scheduled for this Wednesday (and only because I pestered them to death). Apparently there is no rush if you are in extreme pain but it isn't considered life threatening. I could just about kill the medical industry at this point. Poor poor John. The last time we checked a few weeks ago he had already lost 10 pounds from not being able to keep things down, heaven knows what it's up to by now. If you have a prayer to spare, we wouldn't mind if you included John in it. He's had a rough time (three E.R. visits, several hospital visits, lots of blood drawn). And by the transitive property, I've kinda had a hard time too, but it sounds kinda selfish for me to think that because John's the one in pain. I've struggled with feeling guilty about feeling so overwhelmed and tired and frustrated with being unable to help John feel better and wanting his help with the kids etc. We are so ready for it to be done. I really hope they figure out what is going on this Wednesday.

So now that you've read that uplifting bit of news, want to see what else I have been taking my frustrated energy out on? It's my kitchen/dining room. Don't be mad, but I'm not showing you the kitchen yet. We got about half the floor done (as you'll see in some of the pictures below) before John got sick and it's still sitting there unfinished and the house has been in chaos. I can't lay the floor by myself unfortunately, so it's the one project I haven't tackled by alone. So, you'll have to wait for that and a few other small details to be finished on the kitchen. But the good news is that I LOVE how it turned out.

First some befores. I have several because I change things way too much. This room bothered me more than any other room in the house. That's why it hasn't stayed the same in case you were wondering. It may stay the same for a while now because I really like it. It's kinda bold which is not usual for me.

Stage 1 of many

Stage two, but then we moved this table into the other other room to make a formal dining room.

Then I bought a table set like this on Craigslist a while ago for super dirt cheap. It was pretty hideous and badly painted (you could still see a  line of Hunter Green (Remember when that was a popular decorating color???) around the table base where they didn't bother to spray paint up all the way ha! I knew I was going to paint it when I bought it, but I didn't get around to it until recently when I painted the kitchen cabinets and the paint was so easy to use that I just used the same paint on this table.

Voila. White table top. No more hunter green stripe. Oh and I might have gotten some chairs too. My other craigslist find. Amazing. Here was my inspiration photo that made me buy these chairs for ten bucks a piece (and then sold my other chairs that came with this table for twenty, making my new chairs only twenty). Anyway, the inspiration photo:

I probably shouldn't have shown it to you before my pictures because they will look pitiful in comparison, but I just loved these chairs. I was looking on craigslist for something else and came across these vintage beauties and could see similar lines:

This is a really bad craigslist photo of the chairs, but it gives you an idea of how they looked. The chair seats crumbled when you touched them, so they were in kinda rough shape, but I knew I could make them shine. I was super nervous to try my idea of the bright cherry red paint, but I decided life was too short to worry about such dumb stuff. You can always repaint my friends.

Here you can see where the flooring project lost it's short life. We'll bring it back soon I hope.

I used Rustoleum Enamel spray paint accidentally. I thought it was "normal" spray paint, but enamel is much stranger and more wonderfuller. :) It has a super shiny and expensive looking finish. It does take longer to cure and my garage was covered in red paint even though I covered the floor with a drop cloth (and the dog's fur turned pink and it hasn't come back to normal despite multiple washings). But still, awesome paint. Spectacular finish.

And I recovered the crumbling seats obviously. I decided to kinda do a slight nod to the beach cottage thing since we live close to a beach and pops of red next to my kitchen which, surprise ruined, has blue gray bottom cabinets now, just seemed kinda nautical and beachy. Hence the red stripe beachy fabric. It has been copiously treated with fabric treating stuff. I use technical words with ease folks.

This next thing was my other project. Because obviously with everything else going on I needed SOMETHING else to do. It's a sickness. Actually, like I said, it's how I detox. You probably saw the finished product in the background of the above photos. It was in someone's trash on the curb. As you know, broken/missing drawers never stop me anymore. It's all about baskets to fix that problem. This was my plan until I realized that the top space you see above was really tiny and would possibly look weird with baskets. So I took a little electric saw and got all Home Improvement on it and cut out the middle partition to make the shelf below it taller. I felt so cool, I usually let John handle the saws, they make me nervous. But this week it was all about what I could do since he was sick.

 Anyway, you may not be able to tell but the piece is also laminate (aka fake wood). So I used my same kitchen paint that works on laminate and painted it out. I also added beadboard to the back to echo my kitchen cabinets (and so I would have to paint less stuff, let's be honest here).

 And with the magic of hours of work and slaving, you have the makeover right before your eyes.

 These are the same drawer pulls that I used in the kitchen you have not yet seen. I did a fairly poor job of filling in the previous holes, but I was in a hurry and the piece is laminte so it's not the easiest thing to fill in/sand down, so I'm giving myself a big old break.

Then I did my favorite part, which is to put pretty stuff on the shelves. Like a bread basket.

and other cool stuff I own. The juicer was a going-away gift from my sister. How awesome is that?? I have always wanted to display it, and now I can! Bowls are plastic from Target. If you want to know where I got other stuff let me know. (ha, see the tag hanging off the basket, classic...)

Another attempt to be quietly beachy. No sand dollars and giant conch shells for me. I'm trying to be subtle. Well except for the red chairs...Also, do you like how I keep the tags on things until I absolutely decide I like it? I think I should take the tag off of this since I already dumped sand in it. ha!

I changed out the curtains because they were bugging me. I remembered I had these from years and years ago in our bedroom. They are an old sheet from the thrift store. Don't look too closely or you'll realize that's what they are and you won't be impressed.

That's the pattern.

So thar she blows mateys. I'm not done decorating the top of the new-to-me armoire thing there. I put up a computer printed picture from our beach vacation just to see how I would like it and I took down some plates that I might replace elsewhere. I also ordered this to hang somewhere:

Okay, with the crab, I think I'm officially over the edge of subtle. But I liked all of the colors in it.

And then I saw this bowl at Ross and had to get it just so there was some red in the kitchen. So there's a sneak peek for you.

 And one last look at the whole scene. What do you think? Is the red too much? Can you believe I shoved a shelf into that little corner? Don't you think it makes it look more layered and cute that way? So many questions. Just give me some love in the comments won't you, it's been a rough week.

and lastly Maddy made me take her "photograph" as she called it.  I love my kids so much.
Okay, one last picture, the one that I had up on the top of the armoire thing that I'm trying to decide whether I should put it up there. Here's that picture so you can see it.

This picture is pure happiness.