Five Friday Thoughts...

It's Friday, y'all!  I decided to do a li'l "brain dumping" as some of my bloggy friends call it. 

I bought my 2012 planner on Wednesday.  Yes, I know it's still August, but I am already finding myself needing to write things down for January and February.  The planner I have fallen in love with is a 17-month version running Aug '11 - Dec '12.  Therefore, we are now in the first month of next year's book!  I just love taking a break and going week-by-week writing down birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  The experience is all the more joyful when I'm using a brand new pen...I'm just sayin'...

When I came home yesterday evening I found this (below) hanging on my front door:

I mean, what joy!  The sweetest li'l note and new sharpie highlighters?  I'm still doing my happy dance.  I have mentioned before how involved I am with my local Relay For Life of the American Cancer Society.  If you feel the need to be charitable, there are plenty of options.  In today's world, we do not have to look far at all to count our blessings.  My family's health is at the top of my blessings list.  The Relay For Life event itself is such a moving way to actually see the fruits of your labor.  You see cancer survivors of all ages come together during the opening ceremonies and later a darkened stadium is illuminated by candles in memoriam of cancer victims; it all makes you realize how widespread the disease is.  Cancer needs you.  Cancer needs me.  Cancer will not overcome!  If you want to learn more about Relay For Life, or find a Relay closest to you, please go here.

Seriously, there is no good way to transition to this next topic, but if I'd led with it, I may have lost you by now.  It has been well documented here, here, and here that the Morris family loves to observe nature's inhabitants from the comfort of our own home.  By the way, Goldie the red Betta Fish is still kickin' it after over a year, and Sami our "pet" dove came back this spring / summer for her 2nd season on our porch.  Here is our latest visitor:

Bobby has been calling him a banana spider.  However, in researching for this post, I found out he is actually a golden silk orb-weaver and he could just as likely be a she.  Wanna learn more?  Go here.  Like most rational adults, I want to take this down immediately.  But as (s)he has built a web outside my kitchen window, the Morris kids have really enjoyed its industrious nature and love to watch it make daily repairs to its web.  We even watched it eat a captured bug recently.  Weird?  Probably.

Peeps, Rob's 5th birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I am feeling really nostalgic as to how quickly he is maturing into a wonderful boy rather than a worrisom tot.  Just yesterday afternoon, he was running down the street to his friend Micah's house and I started thinking, "When did he get old enough to (with permission) just take off down the street?" 

Last but not least, see that lady in the yellow shirt?  She's one of my neighbors, Ms. Ruby.  She is the sweetest older lady and I happen to know that she has a full time job, yet still tends to her flower beds.  She told me once she just loves to have pretty flowers at her home. 

Way to go, Ms. Ruby.  Don't you wish the whole street tended to their yards as well as you do?

To take a walk on the wild side, I'm headed over to Kat's place at Living Like The Kings and linking up to her Friday Five series.  Stop by and check out her 5 awesome iPhone photo apps...then just try to restrain yourself from downloading them all!

So Long, Soft Pink!!! (A.K.A. New Kitchen Countertops)

As of August 2010, we have lived in this house for 5 years.  I really do love my house, even though we have outgrown it.  The house was built in the mid 90's, but both the builder and previous owner had impeccable late 80's taste.  I wish I had before-and-after pictures of everything we have redone...Our hall bath's wall-paper was truly a Miami Vice airbrush-esque look.  There was mint green, baby blue, peach, cream, etc. splatters on a white background.  We have painted, replaced metal mini-blinds, tiled over laminate floors, and more.  Ironically enough, the thing I loathed the most was the thing I learned to live with the most complacently...my kitchen countertops!

Enter my sister-in-law Mary.  She is starting a side business called Fantasy Faux.  She loves to faux-finish anything that isn't moving or breathing.  Her first love is furniture re-do, but she also can do countertops.  Guess who she chose to be a guinea pig and practice on?  Moi, Myself, Me!

Here are a couple of before shots...the countertops were supposed to be neutral...

but they were textured and they had pink swirly designs in them...

So, the first thing we decided to do was try to smooth things over by sanding the fool out of them (pun intended).

Hmm, that didn't exactly work.  Talk about resiliency.  These 'tops may be mighty ugly, but they were built to last.  So on to Plan B.  Mary concluded that we would be putting quite a bit of layers on top of them...that would smooth things out anyway.  First step, primer. 

...aaaaaand buh-bye pink!  I'm loving it already!  Now, about that stove.  It's going to really be in our way.  So we pulled it out, revealing another dark secret...how do you like my red kitchen?

Yeah, I like it too!  Much better than the old wallpaper that I lazily never finished painting over!  Hahaha.  Okay, next step, the base coat.  We chose a warm okre/mustard color.  Almost too mustardy.  I'm craving hot-dogs fo' sho'!!!

Okay, maybe it's not so bad.  I guess all these paint fumes are just getting to me!  Let's get back to work.  The next steps went from exciting to waaaaay scary.  I freaked out more than once.  Have I made a huge mistake?  Have I gone from guinea pig to lab rat?  But I know and trust Mary.  I have seen her work.  So I bit my tongue.  Well, until the last night.  Anyhoo, enough talk.  Let's paint:

And finally, we were through with the coloring part.  Here's my beautiful niece Lauren showing off the almost-finished-process and her fabulous new haircut:

Now, keeping in mind that #1 this is a painted surface and #2 I tend to lean toward the careless side of life, we decided to put a truckload of two quarts of poly-acrylic clear coat on top.  Not only will this seal the painted surface, it will also give the countertops the glassy surface associated with real granite.

That would be my brother, David, applying the first layer of poly-acrylic.  Just like a gym floor, right Dave?  Well, with no further ADO...I present the finished (almost) product:

I'm still waiting for the poly-acrylic to finish setting before I can accessorize again.  Ugh, patience is so hard!  How about a little before-and-after again?

So long for now...I'm off to watch paint dry!  Heeheehee...