I pulled into my driveway at about 11pm Wednesday, very exhausted and a little sad. Valen and I were delayed two hours at the airport because of crazy Floridian weather, and I'm sure you can all use your imaginations about what it's like for a toddler to sit on someone's lap thousands of feet in the air for nearly three hours. Add four hours in the airport, and an hour drive to the airport, and you have a super-duper good time for mom and pajama-clad baby. Thankfully, flights to and from Florida always have a ton of kiddos screaming and embarrassing their parents so I never feel out of place. I guess I've covered "exhausted" pretty sufficiently, but there's still the matter of "sad". I always miss my bed after a long trip up north, my routine with Vale, the beautiful weather, etc. but it's hard not to have a stomach ache whenever I leave. I never feel like I get enough time with my nephew or sister even though we spend every day together; there is always a huge list of people I want to see, but never get to see even half of them; if I'm staying in PA with my sister it's next to impossible for me to get down the shore to see all of my Jersey friends; and when I come back home I realize what my life in Florida is missing.
I love this state. It's beautiful, it's fun, and the people are wonderful; but, they're not my people. Most of my friends and family (besides my papa, LOVE YOU DAD!) are concentrated in a small area in the Northeast and I forget how good it is to have a network of support until I have it and leave it. So today's blog post is for you beautiful people: the people I was able to spend time with, the people I didn't spend enough time with, and the people I wish I could have spent time with. Kristin, Steve and Casen: I am so proud of you and your sweet family. You're an incredible inspiration for what a solid relationship should look like, and how such a partnership can produce the happiest and most fulfilled children. I love you guys so much, and I'll miss you every day until I get to see you next. Kim and Jackson: My friend, I am in awe of you. Not only are you a single mom, but you're a great one. Your son is the sweetest, and gentlest little boy I know and he's both of those things because of you. I'm so glad I got to spend a little time with you, and even though we aren't still snuggling in Pleasure Bay every night you're my main squeeze and I miss you every day. Johnny and Vanessa: I am so excited to watch you two get married in September! You both deserve every happiness this world has to offer, and I hope you're enjoying all of the pre-wedding festivities! Kellyanne and Brandon: Thank you for letting me get my hands on all of your furniture! I can't wait to watch you two get married in July. You're so sweet to watch together and I'm so happy you found one another. I missed my beautiful, amazonian friend and it was really special spending time with her. Jaka and Chrissy: I'm so obsessed with that baby boy of yours, and I'm looking forward to many more beautiful days in the park. He's the happiest little chunk, and that's a real testament to your character and the strength of your relationship. Keep posting a zillion pictures so I don't miss a thing! Caitlin and Dennis: I am insanely happy for you two, and can't wait to see you in a few weeks! Those little boys are the luckiest ducks, and they'll have in you the most wonderful parents. I'm pretty confident you'll survive the first year. Melanie and Guy: I'm so sad I didn't get to meet your beautiful baby girl while I was up, but I can't wait to. She is lovely, and the perfect combination of you two. You must be over-the-moon in love with her! Miss you both like you wouldn't believe. The Aidala Girls: I love you ladies so much. It's so great sitting around the dining room table gossiping and catching up with you. My trip home is never complete without some (many) Italian delights getting shoved down my throat (albeit politely) at your house, which has so many beautiful memories. Don't get rid of any of that antique f**king furniture, Jayne, or so help me, I will take you out. Diane and Pete: I'm so glad I got to spend a little time with you! Thank you for trusting me to work on your beautiful decor pieces. I can't wait to get started on the rest when I'm back in town! I'm so blessed to have grown up with such wonderful neighbors. Ashley and Jeff: I'm really upset I didn't get to stop by and see that baby bump, and stare at your nursery, and gush about parenthood. You two are going to be the best, most hysterical parents and that little lady of yours is so lucky to have you. Next time I'm up north you'll have your very own baby girl, and probably a lot more firearms if I know my pal Jeff. To all of my friends and family members who aren't celebrating any special milestones at this particular moment, I love you as much as everyone above, but my fingers will fall off and I'll just DIE if I keep typing. Had to shout out to the procreators and fornicators this time around, but you are wonderful, and I keep you in my heart always. You constantly inspire me to be the best version of myself, and I'm so grateful. So here I am, getting reacquainted with my Cujo-esque poochie, in my sweet little house, in the great state of Florida. The sun is shining, as it usually is, the birds are chirping, and I can't breathe because the next wave of foliage is exploding out of the ground. It's a beautiful place, and it's the best place to get over a broken heart. I will miss you all, until next time! Back to reality, and keep checking in for the rest of the pictures from my PA-adventure-DIY-extravaganza. If you liked this post, you'll love these posts about my little Bunny and nephew! Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and share <3
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It's this time of year when I get most nostalgic. Don't get me wrong, Christmas! I love you more than coffee, and puppies, and white sand put together, but I don't feel the same sense of nostalgia then as I do now. When the snow starts to melt (or when nothing happens because I moved to Florida and it's always the same), and the tulips my mother planted in the 90's still manage to bloom along the driveway at the House where my sister's family now lives, I think about my beautiful life and all of the people who have blessed it.
I turned 16 in February of 2004, and a few weeks prior my mother died. Some of you reading this blog today knew her, and some of you didn't. She was beautiful, she was incredibly kind, and she was an unabashedly bad singer. I don't know if I'm thinking of her today because it's almost Mother's Day, or because I am one (a mother) and I'm living in toddler-land with some questions. Valen pushed her nephew about fifty times in the last few days, laughs like a villain after, and then runs away. She walks/runs like she has a full diaper even if she's naked so it's hard not to laugh. How do you tell a small person, who the other day pulled feces out of her diaper and fed it to our dog, that she could hurt her best friend? I could try, "It's not a joke" like I did when she was punching the window with her shoe but that just made her belly laugh, repeat verbatim what I said, and smash it harder. I need guidance. I need a Gilmore Girls marathon and a whiskey and coke. It's definitely because of Mother's Day. I think people usually expect me to be upset on Mother's Day. After all, everyone is celebrating their mama's and ours is gone; however, I'm never sad on this day. I always end up feeling nostalgic, but also so thankful and so proud to have been raised by such a beautiful soul. I have no bad memories of my time with her. She devoted her entire life to raising her children. She wore fur coats to the bus stop and always had throat lozenges in her purse (usually melted). Certain memories fade, like how she smelled or what her voice sounded like, but others are as new as the day we made them. I want to make sure, no matter what happens, my daughter feels as loved as I have felt. I want her to know that she is the most important person to at least someone on this planet, and that she is more special than she'll ever know. My mother inadvertently taught me how precious life is, and I'm going to try to do the same for my baby. I hope this weekend, when I'm feeling nostalgic and saying weird things about flowers and birds, you're all giving extra tight hugs to your mamas and/or your babies. Love your moms for their weirdness, because they love you no matter what. Even if that weirdness involves singing Tub Thumping, by Chumbawumba when you have friends in the car. Or sleepwalking Step Brother's style (thanks for that genetic freak show). Or wearing double coats, long underneath short. Or eating cream of spinach. And moms, don't worry about embarrassing your kids. I know from experience that those memories will be their most steadfast, and most cherished when you're gone. Even if that embarrassment is caused by you chasing down their school bus in your pink fuzzy robe because they forgot a very important book. Or because you made them apologize to a store clerk and mall security guard for stealing a teddy bear pin. Or because they made you turn in the VHS rap tape project you made in kindergarten for extra credit, that your teacher had the whole class watch while you were home sick. xoxo If you liked this post, you'll love this one about my dad! Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and share this post!
I was just finishing up a blog post, my first in a long time, when my kid went nuts, computer died, and my content disappeared. Fudgesicles! <-- see Dad, I don't always have to curse. I am super mad, though; it took me about twenty stewy minutes before I partially got over it and could start typing again.
So here I am, sort of over it, and trying to figure out what I was saying. I'm getting angry all over again because my brain is made out of oatmeal and I really don't remember. It was witty and awesome, though. Ehem... I know it's been a while since my last post but I swear I'm not a horrible, horrible, lazy, loafer type of person. I came up to Pennsylvania at the end of April because all (yup, all) of my friends are procreating, exchanging vows, *insert milestone here* and I missed my sweet nephew and his mama. I have one month to complete a lofty list of tasks. Lofty list is as follows: See everyone I love Super secret bridesmaid/guest projects furniture projects Don't die So far I'm not dead, and I won't be if I can stop living off of Chang Mao, Joey's Pizza, Walmart cheesecake, and Dunkin Donuts. I've gotten a lot done on my super secret white ops (get it) wedding related projects, seen a few people I love, and I'm in the middle stages of most of my furniture projects. That is only if the people I'm doing them for don't add fifty more things to the list. YOU KNOW WHO YOU LADIES ARE! Just kidding, I love this sh*t. I'll write a blog post sometime next month that is sooooo freakin' bridaly it's going to make your head's spin. Today's post was a toss up between The Notebook style tear-jerker or progress report on Kelly and Brandon's house. Progress report won out because I want to wait until I've racked up lots of cute moments from my trip so I can really ruin everyone's day. So here goes ze reporte. I would define Kelly's style as Rustic Glam because she's neither afraid of sparkle nor is she afraid of wood. She's a healthy mix of traditional and rustic. You've got to appreciate roughed-up furniture when you have two ninety-pound German Shepherds. Before I came up I told her I'd refinish whatever she wanted as her wedding present. She bought about 50 pieces of used furniture in the month preceding my trip so that's occupying most of my time while I'm here. It's been so much fun hanging out with this coffee-guzzling lunatic in her beautiful home. Usually I'm coffee-guzzling alone, working in 90 degree heat out front of my garage and telling my neighbors, whether they like it or not, about what I'm doing. These are the pieces in Kelly and Brandon's house that are getting a face-lift: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. 9 Drawer Dresser: this is a giant, crazy long piece of furniture that we're going to use as a TV console for Kelly's living room. It has oak veneers, so I've stripped them and "stained" them a grey color. I put 'stain' in quotations because the veneer wouldn't take the stain I bought, so I mixed grey paint and water and rubbed it in. I achieved the exact look I was hoping to, so it worked out! I taped off the top and painted the base in a gorgeous light blue. When I go back over there tomorrow I'm going to use black glaze to show off all of the pretty details, seal, and attach the hardware I painted black. 7ft Dining table with 8 Chairs: the chairs for this bad boy are really intricate, and solid wood with dovetail construction. We all loved them as they are, so I'm just going to do some light restoration work to the finish and re-upholster the chairs (that can get checked off my list) in the gorgeous fabric we picked out. The dining table has been the bane of my existence. I first stripped it to uncover gorgeous wood in the center, a laminate border, and laminate trim. Bummer. I tried staining the wood (it looked great), and white washing the laminate. I was able to white wash the laminate but the overall result looked too checkerboardy. I do not want anyone to see my work and think about old people in the park. So I painted the whole table white, distressed it, and antiqued the pretty details using black glaze. I LOVE how it turned out, and I think it was the right choice to coordinate with her teal walls and warm-toned dining chairs. China Cabinet: this piece was a part of a set, so it is just like the table in that some of it is wood and some details are plastic. We decided to paint this out in Robin's Egg blue chalk paint by Renaissance, and then lightly distress it to show off the warm wood tones like in the chairs. Huzzah! Buffet Table: This is a really pretty, oak veneer Broyhill buffet table that will go in the living room, so I wanted to coordinate it with the TV console. I haven't started this piece yet but my plan is to stain sections of it like the console, and then paint the rest white. It will get lightly distressed and the pulls will be changed to something simpler, and more rustic. 2 Nightstands: There are two nightstands in the master bedroom that are a dark stained wood. We're going to swap the pulls out on those and move them to the guest bedroom. She purchased two nightstands (in a set that came with the 9 drawer dresser, a wardrobe, and a bed frame) and they're going to get painted white, distressed and put in her bedroom as a replacement. Lane Cedar Chest: I just refinished an identical chest in Florida, and went with a girly theme thinking it would make a great toy chest or linen chest in a kiddos bedroom. For Kelly and Brandon I'm going to re-upholster the chest in a burlap with silver detail (we picked this out when we picked out her chair fabric), fill the holes where the pulls were, paint the chest white, and replace the pulls with something simpler and rustic (cool knobs we got from Homegoods). Dressers: The master has gorgeous solid wood dressers that just need some light restoration work. I'm not going to name names, but Kellyanne spilled nail polish remover or something on these bad boys because they're totally stripped in some spots. Wardrobe: This piece came in the set with the bed frame, nightstands, and dresser. They're all going to different places in the house, and so they're all getting very different looks. The wardrobe will be painted white, distressed, and antiqued using black glaze. We'll have to replace the pulls because it looks like parts are broken and/or missing from one side. Bed Frame: The bed frame that came in the set will go in the guest room with the wardrobe and dark nightstands. I'm simply going to paint it in a cool-toned red and distress it. Entry table: This gorgeous piece of Broyhill furniture is going to live in Brandon's super manly man cave where really manly stuff happens. I'm going to restore the top and legs, and then paint the drawer fronts in a dark grey for a sleek look. The pulls are going to be sprayed oiled bronze. Lane side table: The two-tiered table is going to be done the same way as the entry table, warm wood, grey and oil bronzed pulls. Side table: They have a large entry way, but not a ton of wall space. This cool, round table with lots of detail is going to be stained and painted. The top dark, the base light, and distressed to show off the detail. Heavy duty desk and chair: this mother is gigantic. It looks like very good quality, really heavy, and like some fool went over it with a coat of dark gel stain. I'm going to get 'er naked and see what's underneath. That's as far as my plan goes. Current console table: I don't know what they're doing with the little media cabinet they have in their living room now, but once they move it it'll need a home and I'm not leaving it blond wood with gold pulls when it looks solid and loverly. Remind me to ask about that. I think that's everything. I have 6/50 projects in middle stages so I'm moving right along. That's not including the projects I'm doing for my PA neighbor, Diane and Pete. I'll be blogging about their projects in the next couple of days! I love all of you, and thank you for your continued support as I try to become an adult while covered in paint and stain. No, my fingernails aren't dirty. I'm a workin' gal. Here are some before pictures, and I threw in a couple progress pics for your viewing pleasure! Click here for updates on this project, and below to follow us on Facebook and Instagram! |
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AlyssaMama to a beautiful and hysterical toddler. Owner of Young, Wild and Thrifty. Archives
May 2018
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