Kitchen Table Redo

Earlier this year, I saw this in a Pottery Barn catalog:

I loved the looked of the white pedestal table and the black chairs. And I was sick of our current counter height table and chairs. I was over the whole style in our house, that's why it was all repainted and new decorations came in. I became obsessed!
Well, I knew I wasn't about to pay the $800 price tag that was on this table (plus the $200 or $250 per chair) from Pottery Barn. But I knew that I could create it myself. I had a mission...I searched craigslist every day, multiple times a day for the best bargain I could find. There are always pedestal tables for sale on craigslist, you know, the old oak ones that everyone had in their kitchens 20 years ago?

One night as I was do my search, I found one from a garage sale and the price had been knocked down to $40 if we could come pick it up or call by 7:00. I was on it! I loaded David in the truck and we got there as they were closing up the garage sale for the night. Of course I didn't take any before pictures of the table, but it was just a plain stained round pedestal table.

It sat in the garage for a few cold months until it was finally time to get out there and get to work. I stripped the varnish off the top, sanded it, and then David got out the paint sprayer and we sprayed primer and then we sprayed it the same white as our trim in our house. This was the tricky part because we had to wait for a day that wasn't so windy, and that just doesn't happen very often in Oklahoma. So the painting took a few weeks.

Here are some before pictures of the kitchen (this was right before painting so the walls are a little bare):

Did you notice that my light isn't centered over the table? Yeah, that was the brilliant idea of the builder. There is no way I can center a table under that light have room to walk around it. That's another item on David's list to fix...I can't stand it!

And here is my new table:

I bought the chairs at a furniture store for $59 each. That was a lot cheaper than anything else I found online and they were exactly what I wanted. I also bought a 2 person bench that matches the chairs for more seating at the table when we need it. It's sitting in my hallway though, it goes good there too :)

I forgot to take some pictures of my new bar stools, but you can kind of see them here on your right. I love them! So much so that I want one or 2 more. I also added those 3 baskets to the buffet. They match the stools perfectly.
And this picture also shows the uncentered light! Ugh, so annoying!

I'm not finished with this area...I still need drapes and a rug. I have both picked out, but just haven't purchased them yet. Hopefully soon.

Hello :)

I'm back! It's been too long, right? I know you all are just so disappointed everytime you log in and there's no new post right? Just kidding...if only my life was that exciting!

Well, I decided to start this thing back up again for a few reasons. Summer is here and our lives are picking back up. Things to do, places to go, and people to see all the time. Plus, summer puts me in a happier mood. I was also recently looking back at all of my old posts and I realized what I'm missing out on. It was fun to look back and see funny things that have happened and what we were up to at a certain point in the year. I want to be able to look back on this summer and do the same thing. I also have some updates with the house I need to post sometime. It's a shame to do projects and have no one see them and praise me for them ;).

Nothing too exciting today though. Just a little puppy post to get the ball rolling again... This is how I found the dogs last night...at 7:30 pm.

I guess they were exhausted from their long day of napping.

I imagine Peanut saying "Um...can I help you with something? If not, can you please turn the light back off?!" And he has this thing with laying on his back all the time. At least he was kind enought to cover himself up though.

A few weeks ago, I went down to the lake to visit my parents. My brother Tanner and his girlfriend Jessa also came down. This is Jessa's dog Apple: You can't really tell from this picture, but Apple is the smallest dog I have ever seen. I think she only weights a pound and her little legs look like chicken bones. She is so small, I was afraid I was going to squash her when I picked her up. Peanut fell in love immediately. I'm not really sure if it should be called love or lust! He kept trying to mount her! Well, she wasn't going to take it and she told him about it. Jessa said she never really barks so when this noise came out of her, Brutus would just stare at her. She kind of sounded like one of his squeaky toys! In this video, Peanut had just tried to hump her (again), and she was telling him to back off. Brutus came up to see what was going on and she had to tell him too.

National Infertility Awareness Week

Ok, Ok...I know I'm on a "break" from blogging, but I felt that this was something pretty important to post about (since it's the reason for my break in the first place!)

This week is National Infertility Awareness week. And as you all know, we've been struggling with infertility for 3 1/2 years now. Yes, I did get pregnant, but it was with assistance and as you might have figured out, I haven't been able to get pregnant since. We are still struggling with infertility and there is more to our story that I haven't shared yet. I promise I will one day, just not today.

Last year, I posted this. And at the time, I honestly didn't think I would still be posting about this crap. I thought I would be posting my babies' Easter pics.
I also posted this video. And it still makes me cry, maybe even a little bit more.

I'm not going to preach to everyone about what to say or what not to say to an infertile person. I not going to go on and on about how everything makes me feel, because honestly, no one can possibly understand it unless they have personally been through it.

I just want everyone to be AWARE. That's all.

I also wanted to share this post made by The Inadequate Conception. She always seems to nail exactly what I'm feeling every time:

Stressing me out
In recognition of National Infertility Awareness Week, I wanted to devote a post to Resolve's Bust an Infertility Myth theme. I'm busting the myth that not having children isn't stressful. I hear parents complain all of the time about their kids making them crazy because they drew on the walls with markers, puked in their bed, shoved a pickle up their nose, forgot about their science project until the night before it was due; the list goes on and on...

However, the stress of not being a parent or trying to become one is also incredibly daunting, and I think much worse.

As my pregnancy virgins and I know, the stress of not being able to conceive can overtake your life - your relationships with your spouse, your family and friends, your finances, and your dreams. Don't forget the stress on your body, mind and spirit (perhaps that's part two of this post).

Your marriage:I've never been close to the brink of divorce, but I know of infertile couples who have (and some who have even split up). When trying to conceive completely consumes your life, it consumes your marriage, too. Being tethered to the doctor's office, being told when to have sex, hormonal outbursts from fertility drugs, and blame games on why she can't conceive are enough to rock the strongest marriage. Add to all of this, the fact that the one person who completely understands what you're going through, is going through the same horrible thing. Ugh, even writing all of this is stressing me out.

Your family and friends:Relationships with family and friends can also change dramatically when you're dealing with infertility. There always seems to be a teenage second cousin who gets pregnant or a hyper-fertile friend who "wasn't even trying" to bring up a lot of resentment and bitterness. And, as much as we try for this not to happen, it can just be inevitable. Heap on the sometimes insensitive, but well-intentioned "advice" that we're sometimes given about "not stressing", "just adopting" and "trying a conceptionmoon", and it's enough to drive friendships apart. And, when you're the only friend at brunch who doesn't have a "birthing story", you can find yourself jealous of episiotomies and C-sections. I've seen several posts along these lines around the infertile blogosphere. Tension-filled rooms at family gatherings asking "when are you going to start having kids?" can also result in a moratorium on Sunday dinners at the in-laws.

Your finances:Fertility treatments, adoption home studies, background checks, and attorney fees, and the countless bottles of wine and retail therapy can set your finances into a tailspin. Do you put a new roof on your house with a leaking ceiling or do an IVF cycle? Put brakes on your car or buy a round of follistims? Take out a loan to get pregnant? I know of women who've had yard sales, just to pay for an IUI. Truly, thinking about the money we've spent on fertility treatments makes me a little sick to my stomach (would do it all over again, but still very stressful!).

Your dreams:If you've gone through fertility treatments, the process to adopt or other family building methods and no child comes into your life, there is the definite and heart-breaking loss of a dream. You may find yourself wandering about the 4-bedroom house that you bought to fill with children or aimlessly driving around in your SUV with a third row of seats - empty. I mourn things like Saturday morning pancakes made by daddy, fun at the zoo, running through my neighborhood with a jog stroller - dreams I've had since the day I met my husband. And, that can be the most stressful feeling of all.

So, as difficult as parenting may be, I'd take the stress of being a mom over the stress of not any minute of any day.