Easter Dress & Life married to a Nerd

First off-- I finished Brynley's Dress--- yay! and this year not the day before easter (oh ya- oh ya)-- course thinking ahead to next year and the fact that I'll have to make two easter dresses-- hmmm I'm not sure how well I thought out this tradition-- I never thought of the fact that I could have more than one girl.

Anyways I didn't realize that I had picked out the same pattern of fabric that I picked last year till I got it home and started cutting-- you can see last years dress here

I used pretty much the same pattern that I used last year I just modified it to fit my needs-- Simplicity 5695

I used my friends pattern last year and was going to just try to do it this year without one-- but seeing as this is only the third dress I've ever sewn, and I really didn't want to push my "forgetful pregnancy mind" I figured I'd just go buy the same pattern-- I was so smart though I forgot that the pattern doesn't have all sizes 0-4 in it and they split it up so I bought the 0-2 pattern and didn't realize it till it was all cut out--- so I still had to use my preggo brain and resize it.

I also changed the sleeves a little bit-- and made it so it had a pretty ruffled tie to wrap around it

Bryn's favorite part though is the underskirt i made to go with it--- I wanted something that she could wear with the dress or without it -- I just made up my own skirt pattern off her measurements and than sewed ruffles along the bottom-- I like how it turned out

I plan on making some fabric rose/flowers for a headband to go with it-- probably later this week I'll post a mini tut on doing that-- and after easter I'll take some pics of Bryn in it-- She's not allowed to wear it till Easter of course :)

The other thing that happened this week is Dave got his Computer-- 

Ya his dream computer, the one he's been harassing me about for over a year now, the one he'd build and love and name something cool, and actually get out of bed early in the mornings so he could play on it before work, Yep he got that one.

Really I'm happy he got it-- I like to make him happy and it makes me happy cuz' now my camera is bumped up to number one on the to get next list. :)

Anyways the packages came yesterday and well you know those home offices that are so pretty and designed so nice-- if you don't know here's some pictures to refresh your memory

So clean and pretty- no wires hanging everywhere-- no big computers-- ya I'll never get that-

cuz just 1out of the many packages that came yesterday- that held "only the Case" to Dave's computer was as big as Brynley-- I kid you not.

Luckily it was a little smaller than the box-- but not by much

Payton of course is following right in Daddy's footsteps and found setting the computer up so much fun-

Ahh oh- well I still love my nerd-- if he only wasn't so dang sexy and sweet and thoughtful and cute with the kids and my best friend- I'd kick him and his huge black box outta my study!

Anyone got any suggestions on how to make this 

look good?

Farmhouse table

So the table has actually been done for awhile, but with the busyness of March so far I hadn't even had time to take pictures of it--- but now she can finally have her debut-----

Isn't she a beauty fish...........

(if you don't know what I'm talking about go listen to Brian Regan- I love him he makes me laugh so hard :)

So if you recall the before:

Lovely hunter green-hmmm--

I originally bought it just for the chairs, but after getting it home and noticing the lovely shape to the legs, I figured we'd at least try to see if we could make it into something that I'd like.

So after a visit to Knock off wood and falling in love with the farmhouse table that she made I figured we could just rip the old tile table top off of this one and replace it with wood planks- (Thank you so much Ana for the idea and plans)

For more detail about that process visit my post here

Anyways I ended up finishing the table with some country white paint for the legs with a pecan glaze over top of it to strengthen the finish and add a little bit of distressing color to it. 

For the top I first did a whitewash of a yellow paint so the grain of the pine didn't stand out as much and than stained it pecan and than on top of the pecan stain and mostly around the edges I used a gel walnut stain- I also used the walnut stain very lightly around the legs, and than a few coats of satin poly on the top to make it a little shiny and protect the finish.

The Chairs-- I lightly sanded and than painted one coat of a dark brown/black (can't remember the name of it), than I used walnut stain over it-- it deepens the color but leaves a little bit of the undertone so it doesn't look so flat and gives it a harder finish- the chair tops I finished like the table top minus the whitewash.

I love her and all her imperfections-- and I don't worry about the kids hurting it- let the fork jabbing commence she needs more character :)-- sometime I want to build or find a bench for her so we have more seating-- what do you think should I use these plans and make the top of the bench match the table?? Either way it's gonna have to at least wait till after the baby is here-- I'm so in my third trimester and the tiredness has hit big time!

Here's the Cost breakdown:

Table and Chairs- $60

Wood for top and supports underneath- $30

Paint- I already had some left over in both colors--Brown and white-- but a quart at Wallyworld is around $8

Stain- already had it--- that's the good thing with many projects :) but to buy would have been around $12

So Total cost for me was $90 and some time-- not to shabby I don't think for a whole new kitchen set.

How time flies...

I can't believe we're almost to the last week in March-- isn't that how it goes though, when you want time to slow down a little it speeds forward faster..
March so far has been busy busy-- We're getting to where the many projects we've started we are getting finishing so I'll have lots to post but if it seems like wow look at all these finished projects keep in mind we've been working on many many at the same time over a long peroid of time.

Anyways so beginning of March my parents called and said they'd found some cheap plane tickets and were gonna come and visit us on the 20th--- Yay and panic at the same time--

 "uhh honey we have a lot of work to do to pull the house together just a little bit more for visitors" So we've  put on trim, painted trim and finished the fireplace except for patching the holes- but at least the tv is off of our coffee table now- always a plus, I finally tackled my ridiculous fear of the caulk gun ( I could use the chop saw and nail gun with no fear but the caulk gun that I was scared of ) So than I caulked like crazy-- we put up the doors on our laundry room finally, I finished the table, we filled in cracks on our wood floor, painted Brynley's room again, and than I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned-- it was time to do spring cleaning anyways and I was nesting just a little :)

Needless to say the kids did a lot of this- this month

But not all the time-- I try not to be that bad of a mother-- we played and they worked with us and we did schoolwork and we also went to the zoo when the Bastians invited us to--

The zoo was tons of  fun, but man all those hills and the braxton hicks and pushing the stroller ugh-- it seriously took me 2 days to recover from that trip :) but the kids had lots of fun

They loved looking at the fish

and Payton took tons of pictures and videos of the animals

The giraffes though--- ya-- how would you like to kiss that thing- yummy.

I also this month got to take pictures at a wedding-- which was way fun to do- Loved it!

And than my parents came-- Payton & Bryn were so so so excited to have them here!--- and I had planned on just relaxing with them and seeing the sights, just having fun but instead, my dad on the verge of being bored to death I think- decided he'd help us get the tile in our bathrooms.

So than we tore apart the house I just cleaned-- shared one bathroom, didn't shower for a few days cuz' the toilets were in the tubs and tiled and tiled and tiled and tiled- and I wanted to kill the idiot who wanted the tiles at a diagonal- oh wait that was me- but truthfully I am so so so so thankful that my dad was hear to help us!

 Dave's a great electrician, carpenter and nerd, but plumbing.... he can do it cuz hey he's my mr. incredible and his dad made sure and taught he him how to do all this stuff,  but the plumbing is not so much his specialty- whereas my dad has some "awesome skills" in the area of plumbing.

Sadly the only picture I have of them being here is of my dad working- but ya that's pretty much what we did the whole time- worked---tiled, did a power point for my mom's research paper, made a brochure handout for her paper, tiled some more, ate out every night, played cranium, watched star wars and lord of the rings- tiled, not so much of a vacation for my parents I'd say but I LOVED every second of it and having them here with us.

Here's some teasers of some of the projects were so close to finishing that I'll post soon.