2 tone dresser

I’m really loving this look and I hope to try it again on another piece, very soon!   I started by buying my supplies.



Foam rollers work best for furniture, less hand brushing means less brush strokes.



Behr paint in {gloss} Creamy White.  A little trick is to use a flathead screw driver and put a few holes in the lip so the paint drains back in after you pour it.  {You really have no idea HOW many times I have splattered paint everywhere when hammering the lid back on!}
I decided to do something different and spray primer this to save some time, it was SOOOO much faster!!




I used this primer….



Next I spent about an hour {ok maybe 2} sanding.



The top was easy, the molding around it, ehhh not so much.  I got a detail sander, but a Dremel would be better.  {I just didn’t want to spend 100 bucks buying one} 



After sanding and washing it, I stained it with Minwax in Dark Walnut.



I took a few sandings and coats to get a good coverage, then I taped it off and painted the bottom.



A little trick to save your brushes for when you have to go in and take care of the child.



I’ve left them in there for days and they were still good to go when I came back!
I also sprayed these down with Oil Rubbed Bronze {my new bff! First time trying this stuff and I loved it!!}



{After}



Ain’t she purty?



I love the handles now, usually I buy new hardware, but I’m so glad I tried the ORB!
Remember the cords from the tv on the wall?  Well after doing some reading I decided that cutting a hole in my wall and running the cords through was just not something I wanted to do.  So I have 2 options: 1. paint them the same as the wall color {Rainwashed by SW} or 2. make one of those cute cord covers.  Since I already had the paint on hand I tried that first.
{Before}

{After}

It does help, but I think I may just make a cord cover and see how that looks too.  You really should have seen the look my husband was giving me when he saw me painting those cords He said ‘why stop there just paint the TV too! LOL

Look at this cute vase I picked up at Marshall’s for 5 bucks! Love the owls!
Just one more…..


Linking up!

What I eat

Diets.  A dreaded word, but I honestly don't see myself as 'dieting' now because I've been doing it so long it's just how I eat.  I've tried them all and they do work, for a while.

{Jenny Craig}
This diet is great for losing about 50 pounds, then you pretty much get tired of paying 120 bucks {a freaking week!} for food that tastes not that great.  You can't live on prepackaged food!!  Sticking to this diet I lost about 5 pounds a week, but it doesn't really teach you how to make healthy choices.  Plus it's crazy super expensive. 

{Weight Watchers}
I joined WW about 6 weeks after I had Miss M and they really do have a wonderful program, but the weight loss {for me} was just REALLY slow.  After a few months I decided I had enough motivation to do it on my own without paying 40\mo to go to meetings. {I found a better source for that money which I will talk about later}  I think the meetings are great and it does hold you accountable!  Plus it's affordable!

{Southbeach\Atkins}
I can't live without carbs and if you can stick to these restrictive diets for a long period of time, then more power to ya.  Not for me.

{How I eat now}
Honestly, it's not that hard.  Don't eat out!! It's basically all bad for you, even the salads.  Don't lie to yourself, yes Chick-fil-a is  'faux healthy' , but it's still FAST FOOD.  Those veggies you love so much at Cheddars, the carrots are soaked in brown sugar and cooked in butter.  Now you know why yours don't turn out that good!  

Don't keep unhealthy food at home, I know it's hard when your husband wants what he likes to eat.  Just get him on board with your plan and try some new recipes and find new stuff he may like. 

Don't eat when your not hungry.  I realized one night while I was cooking dinner that I eat dinner when my husband get's home just because it was 'time' to eat.  Now, I think about if I'm really hungry and if not I just don't eat! {Seriously it was a revelation! I don't HAVE to eat.}
Make healthy substitutions, I really like turkey meat better than red meat anyways :)  Buy low sugar, low fat, fake butter, {not Fat Free cheese, that crap is nasty!} egg substitute.   After a while it will start to taste good to you {at least it did for me}

Don't be fooled by packaging, learn to read your labels, check how much sugar is in those Fiber One bars!  Fill up on fruit during the day and veggies at night and don't deprive yourself, if your dying for some sugar eat a cupcake and move on.  They never taste quite as good as you think they will and you will probably regret eating it, but then it's out of your system!

{How many calories to eat per day}
Ugh.  Counting calories sucks.  Big time.  Honestly after going to the store, coming home, putting the food away and making the fricking dinner I have no patience left to sit down and figure out calories per portion size.   
I used Trainer Momma to figure out how many calories I should be eating a day, which was 1,994 + whatever my calorie burn for the day was. {My burn ranges anywhere from 500-1000} and I just can't eat that many calories {in a healthy way} in one day! I struggle with this and somedays it drives me so insane I just really hate even HAVING to eat food at all!!!!!!!   Then the apps on my phone are telling me to eat 1,200\day!   You all know I workout like a lot, so I try to eat lots of protein for my super muscles.  I try to drink a sh*t ton of water.  I *try* not to eat sugar.   I'd love to hear how some of you cope with the dreaded calories in\out!


Do you know what makes me feel better though?
73 degree weather in January.

and a lovely trip to the zoo with my baby. 


{Plus I finished my dresser! Yay!! I'll get some pics to share with everyone tomorrow.} Happy Weekend!

Bootyshakin' Music

Music is absolutely necessary to a great workout!  This is my bootyshakin' playlist off  itunes and I thought I would share.  I'd love to know your favorite workout songs, my list is burned out from all those long runs!  {ummm sorry there are so many 'explicit' songs!}

 Click on the pics to see it bigger.

5 Favorite things about my house.

My friend Jen over at Life Crafts and Whatever {we have actually known each other for 15 years! Yikes, we are old!} did a really great post about her house and I said I would do it too.  Then projects, school and a messy house got in the way, but never fear I always come through in the end :)   You can check out her post here and if any of you do one let me know, I love to check out inside peoples houses {uhhh that would be half the reason I blog!}

Here is my house, we moved here in 2004.

1. My huge yard {only because I don't have to mow it!}

Front yard {don't you just love brown dead Texas grass?}

Backyard {it's nice because the neighbors around me didn't put up a fence either so it's nice and open.

2. Madison's room

If I could of talked when I was born I'm sure I would have asked for this same room. 

3. My dining room.

I love this room because for the longest time it was the neglected room  It held a piano and elliptical machine we never used.  FINALLY I talked my husband into letting me put the elliptical in the garage and I gave the piano away.  Then I stenciled and found a hutch, now I sit in this room everyday {in fact I'm sitting at that table right now} I enjoy looking at all my hard work :)

4. Foyer

The foyer is straight across from me and those dang stripes just make me so happy.  Is that crazy?

5. Kitchen Nook

Honestly one of the best things I ever did was taking the table out of here.  I moved it to the dining room, I never bought a dining room table and for the longest time I was dying to get one, now I'm really glad I didn't! Who really uses a dining room table?? I think they are so wasted just looking pretty sitting in a room.  I added a bench with bins for ALL THE SHOES and Miss M has room for her little table.  The nook is much more functional for us this way.  I love when people turn their dining rooms in to awesome offices, a much better use!

You guys know my Mom is super talented at crafting and sewing right? Well, she saw this coat on another blog and made one for Miss Madison, how darling is this?

Yes, she is sniffing the dead tree.  She likes to sniff plants.

If your a decent sewer you should really try to make this, I think she said it was pretty easy.  Here is the pattern. 

My favorite accessory

I like jewlery, shoes and purses as much as the next girl, but I REALLY super love hats!  I just feel cuter or cooler as soon as I put one on.

This is really a 'faux' hat.  I guess you could call it more of a headband, but it covers your ears and doesn't leave you with hat hair. 

I loved these so much I bought another one, but it's made of a lighter material.

This is my pageboy hat, but it's pretty and silky. 

My go-to bad hair day hat :) You know I wouldn't have some boring baseball cap, gotta have that bling even on the 'off' days!

Wait a minute, that's Miss M's hat. Dang.

This was a xmas gift from a friend, how cute are those flowers?? I feel so french in this one.

As you can see Miss M was playing in my jewlery.   I have a bad feeling she going to start stealing my stuff sooner rather than later!

She doesn't quite get how to put in earrings yet.

She IS very close to having the Jersey Shore fist pump down though.  We only teach her the really important stuff.

The gear!

So workout gear.  Now obviously you can have a great heart pumping workout without ANY of these things, but I've spent lots of moolah over the years on stuff, thought I'd share what I love.

{THE FEET}

Who doesn't  go in to a department store and pick a cute workout shoe by color??  I did!  When I first started running my legs would kill me, so I took the plunge and went to Run On to be fitted for a shoe.  They made me run around the store barefoot and preceded to tell me I had a fallen arch on my right foot.  Who knew?  She went to the back and came out with several different shoes and I'll tell you I wanted to pick the 'pretty' pair immediately.  After picking the most COMFORTABLE pair {and did you know you should wear a half size bigger because your feet swell when you workout?} I will never run in just any old pair of shoes again.  They make a world of difference and I think the cost was around 100 bucks.  I make them last by only wearing them to workout.

{The boobies}

This is for the big booby girls, if you are not one you can skip this section ;)  The WORST part of being overweight and working out is containing the girls, ugh.  After I had Miss M I think I was like an F or some crazy letter like that.  I've always been "blessed" in that area {which is not really a blessing, if you have 'em you know what I mean}  I am a total bra snob, I literally have somewhere around 50 pairs.  Yikes, at 60+ bucks a pop, don't tell my husband!  I'm just always on the hunt for the perfect one.  SO,  do NOT go to Target or Wal-Mart or even a department store to get a sports bra.  Find a specialty shop, if you live in Dallas I recommend The Maddox Shop, they will fit you and can make adjustments when you start to lost weight so you get more use out of it!   If you don't have one near you, the sporting goods stores carry some good ones, I always buy a size smaller than you need so they are nice and pressed in, haha.

This is what you don't want, it's cute but no support! Pick something where the fabric doesn't have much give, the less the fabric moves the less your boobs will.  Sometimes I will take the one pictured above and put it over the smaller one, just so it looks cute under my tank :)

{Extras}

The one thing that I LOVE LOVE LOVE is my Polar Heart Rate Monitor, I wear it every single time I workout! 





The reason I love this and really think everyone should have one is that it measures your calorie burn, somedays I'm working out really hard {or at least I feel like I am} I look down at my watch and I'm only at 150 calories, I think to myself  "that didn't even burn off my Starbucks this morning!" so onward I go :)  It really motivates me to keep going, you really can't just listen to your body.  I would probably quit after 15 minutes!  Plus when you know exactly how long it takes to burn off 500 calories you think twice about eating that cupcake. 

The other tool I've been using lately is my Droid X, {I'm so addicted to this phone, if you have one look me up on Word Feud I'm prettymeg, my friends are tired of me beating them, lol}   I've been using it to track the distance on my runs, the app I'm using is the Cardiotrainer because it uses GPS to track and not movement like a pedometer.   I just got my phone so if y'all know of another one that's good let me know!

And after you are done with your awesome workout, nothing beats snuggle time with the baby while watching our favorite show, JERSEY SHORE :) Move over Sesame Street!  Watching that show sure makes me miss tanning....