oh snap (beans that is)!

Two years ago, Paul built this planter box and we filled it full of veggies!

We placed it in the small grassy area between our driveway and the apartment complex's driveway/parking lot. We grew tomatoes, peppers and jalapenos. Last year we did some of the same but some birds found our tomato crop and went after them with a vengeance.

Did I mention we live next door to a brick four plex?

We've run into issues with people parking in our driveway before, mainly friends of people who have resided in the apartment who didn't realize it didn't belong to the building, or people who went out late partying and thought they would get back early enough in the morning to move their cars before we would notice. And other than a few loud parties last summer and one guy (from another complex) who lets his very large dog do his very large business in our front yard WITHOUT picking it up, it's been a pretty peaceful living arrangement.

We know one of the couples that lives in this building (they got married the same month we did and moved in shortly after). We talk some and see them around town and at their jobs every now and again but other than that we don't really know the people that come and go in the apartment buildings. The neighbors to the west, in the houses, we all know each other, but everyone to the east of us changes out so often being only renters that we never really get to know them.

Well...

We got up one morning a few weeks ago and headed out to the garage and noticed that our planter box was full of vegetable plants. That we did not plant.

We have new neighbors in the apartment complex and I've only said hello to them once as they were crawling through one of their windows after locking themselves out (which I still haven't figured out). They claimed our planter box!

It wasn't too late for us to plant things yet, and we had plans to do so either that weekend or the next and were completely shocked that they had staked their claim (literally, using stakes for their tomato plants). We laughed about it, both a little shocked, but as the day went on I got sort of pissed off.

I get that it is sitting on the property between the house and the apartment complex and that it could quite possibly belong to the apartment. But why not ask first?! Ask someone in the building, ask your landlord or ask us. And even if it did belong to the apartment complex, why would you be so bold to use the entire thing assuming that no one else in the building wanted to plant something? And I know they didn't ask around the complex before they planted because the couple we know, knows it belongs to us and told Paul last night they (the couple we know) were wanting to plant some things of their own this year but didn't get around to getting a box to put next to ours.

So I chewed on it for awhile and decided that even though it wasn't the end of the world, it still was sort of rude and that we would want our box back for next year. With Paul hating confrontation so much we decided we'd just put a little garden sign in the box. So today, I made one.

My friend Lauren says it's because I'm passive aggressive. I've never thought of myself that way, I'm typically just aggressive. But I'm glad I got to be passive about this one because my note is cute.We plopped it into a small little pot I had with a hosta that came back from the dead, probably only to die again and laid it gingerly in the box. I hope it doesn't rain before they find it, I didn't laminate the thing.

The more I think about it, the whole leaving a note thing may be a bit trashy but I was actually really nice and I left off the part at the bottom about how they needed to clean up their containers and trash because that stuff seemed to always find its way onto our driveway and into our backyard (which theirs did). I just feel like if you live in a building with more people than just yourself you should be more community minded than most people. Plus, when you live on a block like we live on, everyone's looking out for each other and I'm sure they'll get the hang of it soon but until then...I guess I can leave passive notes in pots.

whoop-dee freaking-dah

This past weekend, I made bread.

I know what you’re thinking. “Whoop-dee-freaking-dah, I make bread all the time.”

Well, I don’t so it was sort of a big deal.

In fact, I’ve never made bread. Paul threw out there that he’s made banana bread and some other things that have the word “bread” in them but he had never made the flour and yeast, sit on the counter rising type of bread either.

There has been lots of buzz on the blogs I read lately about people making bread and I figured Saturday would be the perfect day to try it. And I was right; it was absolutely the perfect day to do it. We spent the day at the grocery store and buying new plants for the backyard. And while Paul worked in the back, I made homemade bread and baked potato soup. Other than the fact that I over-thymed the soup, it was a delicious meal.

I used this recipe after We Met in A Bar raved about how simple it was. Simple was good. Simple was necessary.

And to my surprise it really was simple; in fact, it was a little TOO simple. I want to make bread all the time now. I have the recipe memorized and the amount of time it needs to rest and rise and when to knead it and when to bake it and for how long.

I also snagged this book off of Amazon over the weekend and not a moment too soon since they raised the price yesterday. Hope it’s as good as Kathleen says it is.

saving the important stuff

The weather in Oklahoma leaves plenty of room for improvement. It's either 10 degrees outside or 108. It's either icing over or we have tornados. We can't seem to find a happy balance, ever. The last 10 days around here have been full of tornados, thunderstorms and freak hail showers (I say freak, because Sunday was a gorgeous day until out of nowhere balls of ice covered the metro making it look like snow was covering the ground).

(this wasn't taken yesterday, but a few months ago from Paul's parking garage downtown)

Yesterday the metro was at a high risk for severe weather so before I left for work, I grabbed a pair of socks and my tennis shoes. I thought to myself while I was brushing my teeth, "If I have to come back to a completely demolished house and I have to sift through the wreckage, I am not doing it in heels." I also thought about what we consider to be our "safe spot" in the house (though I am debating that title as I don't feel like our house is in anyway shape or form going to do well if it gets hit). I thought about throwing a couple of things in the hall closet (our so called safe spot) that couldn't be replaced like our wedding photos, our external drive full of digital photos, etc. I didn't get around to it before I left for the day but as I was sitting at my desk, checking our weather station's website, I pictured our house getting blown over and the only thing surviving the ravaging winds to be the hall closet. Which would not be holding our wedding album or digital photos but rather 30 jackets/coats/sweaters, scarves and gloves, a suitcase, our wedding cake topper, a swiffer, our vacuum and SpotBot, a step stool, cat food and Paul's high school awards. Oh and let's not forget our graduation caps.

Yep, that's what would be spared from the tornado and what we would have to start our lives over with if that closet were to survive. Luckily, the downtown metro didn't get anything at all. In fact, it was sunny and warm all evening.

So the graduation caps are safe for now, just in case you were worried.

I love lamp.

Brick: "I love...carpet."
Brick: "I love...desk."
Ron (Burgundy, of course): "Brick, are you just looking at things in the office and saying that you love them?"
Brick: "I love lamp."
Ron: "Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?"
Brick: "I love lamp. I love lamp."

I never thought I'd have anything in common with Anchorman's Brick Tamland (especially with a tag line like: "I'm Brick Tamland. People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks. Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48 and am what some people call mentally retarded.") but lo and behold, I love lamp.
Or lamps to be more accurate.

There are some that are down right hideous but then there are so many options out there and the combinations are endless when it comes to the not so ugly ones. Like below:

Z Gallerie

West Elm

Williams-Sonoma Home - and yes, that is empredor marble. Hot.

I think that's why I like them so much. You can take one lamp and put 40 different shades on it for fresh looks or you can paint them or add fillers to the glass ones and everything about it is different.

Crate and Barrel

Z Gallerie

Pottery Barn

We have two large brass lamps in our living room that I used to loathe (pre-house days, back when Paul had the apartment). They came from my husband's side of the family. They had white pleated shades on them and they looked out dated and I did not like them. I made due with them for awhile in our new house/living room and then one day had the bright idea to put a black leather shade on them. They looked gorgeous. I loved, loved, loved them. Since then I have had to change to a black fabric shade but they still look good. They are the most rocking lamps on my block if not for a good few blocks and right now, they make my living room look good.

If you are ever in an undermotivated mood, find something you fear and do it—and watch what happens.

I’ve been trapped inside my own brain for a few days now thinking about habits and motivation. It’s a bit of an exhausting internal dialogue all the while being completely invigorating. Making changes to your lifestyle and your habits is what I would consider to be essentially invigorating. Something has caused you to have a change of heart and has motivated you to make a change. What’s more life stirring than that?

The habits I’m looking to change right now are being beaten down (just as quickly as I decide on starting them) with a lack of motivation to actually execute the new plan. Which is why it’s been mentally exhausting for me.

It’s funny to me that there are good and bad habits. Or rather, that we (speaking for the human race here) have made good and bad habits. Why is it that the “bad” habits seem to occur so easily? It’s not like I had to work at biting my nails on a regular basis in order for it to become a habit. It just happened, subconsciously and here we are with pathetically crooked, brittle nails and dry cuticles. Breaking this habit has been twelve years in the making. Sixth grade. That’s when I started trying to stop. It hasn’t been even remotely productive until the last year and even still I have the hardest time keeping up my routine to take care of them. Twelve years. I wish I could fall into good habits as easily as I fall into bad ones. Why can’t washing my face diligently every morning and every evening just happen?

I have to have a plan in place in order to break/create habits. Who am I kidding? I have to have a plan in place for everything (including the order in which my evening was to occur last night, half of which did not get done). I made a list though of the things I wanted to stop/start. But that’s not the kind of list I need in order to actually successfully do things. I need a child’s chore chart for days/weeks/months. I’m kidding…sort of.

Maybe I’m not kidding at all.

I’ve started making changes just recently to lots of areas of my/our life. Health, activity, spiritual, etc. I haven’t been motivated though. I’ve done it all because I wrote it down and that was it. I wasn’t interested in going for a walk or taking my vitamins or preparing for Monday morning the night before. I told myself before I feel asleep last night (with the help of a Benadryl since I had taken a 2-1/2 hour nap) that I needed some serious motivation if any of this was going to work. So I prayed a quick prayer.

This morning when I got to work I got my monthly email update from Books 24x7. It’s a website that my company has access to, giving all of the employees access to thousands of e-books. 99.9% of them are self-help/technical support. With titles like, “Killer Presentations: Power the Imagination to Visualize your Point: with PowerPoint” (gag me), “PCI DSS: A Practical Guide to Implementation” (I don’t even have a clue what any of that means), and “Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life” (authored by, you guessed it, Donald J. Trump), I’ve never even bothered to go to the website. But today, I clicked on the link and the first book that popped up was, “100 Ways to Motivate Yourself: Change your Life Forever.” Ignoring the cheesy subtitle, I held my breath thinking, “Really God? A motivational self help book? This is how you are giving me motivation?” and clicked on the book. I mean how bad could it really be?

The chapters are blurbs. I flew through 25 of them in a matter of 30 minutes and although they were good, I was a little saturated with “go get ‘em-ness” that I had to take a break for fear of quitting my job and opening a fresh cut flower shop on the spot if I finished the rest of the chapters in the book.

I have to say, I’m a little bit motivated. No one said that self-help books didn’t work, just that they were awful. A lot of what I read talked about being creative in finding solutions to things you didn’t want to do in order to make them quicker, easier and more enjoyable. Check out this blurb, “Make a commitment to yourself to find the natural highs you need to stay motivated. Start by finding out what it does to your mood and energy to laugh, to sing, to dance, to walk, to run, to hug someone, or to get something done. Then support your experiments by telling yourself that you’re not interested in doing anything that isn’t fun. If you can’t immediately see the fun in something, find a way to create it. Once you have made a task fun, you have solved the problem of self-motivation.” Mary Poppins much?

Other favorite blurbs were, “When you focus on being a happy and motivated person, that is who you will be” and “Most people are reluctant to see themselves as being creative because they associate creativity with complexity. But creativity is simplicity….It’s hard to stay motivated when you’re confused. When you simplify your life, it gathers focus. The more you can focus your life, the more motivated it gets.”

I can feel the cheesiness seeping out of my pores. I’m sorry. I can’t help it.

I’ve decided that everyday I’m going to try and do two things that I don’t want to do, just for the reason that I don’t want to do them, in order to keep my willpower in check. I’ve always had willpower; I’ve just chosen not to use it until now.

Chapter One, Exaggerate

My mom left a comment on her birthday post saying that the things I had learned from her could be chapters in her autobiography. But until then, I figured they could be chapters on my blog for funny stories and antidotes.

So without further ado, chapter one:

Very early on, my mother realized I was not a speller. With words like 'mazagine' and 'gril' (instead of 'girl') showing up pretty regularly, I’m sure she started to watch my spelling and reading to make sure I wasn’t dyslexic. I wasn’t, and am not. I just never took the time to proof read or to think about what it was I was putting down on paper. Spelling class and tests were miserable for me and I dreaded playing the popcorn spelling game in Mr. Inman’s fourth grade class because I knew I’d be one of the first people to have to sit down.


Let’s just face it. I wasn’t much for schooling; I liked being social and creating stuff. I didn’t like memorizing how words were spelt or how the hypotenuse of something did something or other to something else. All that information is all well and good; it just wasn’t up my right brained, want to be gluing and coloring something alley. My mom and dad told both my brother and I very early on that classes that were all about memorization were not classes we were allowed to perform poorly in. They could understand not grasping theories or understanding concepts that were of a vague nature. We were still required to learn the information, but if we didn’t thrive in those classes, it was ok. The classes they were talking about were spelling, history, etc. Things that didn’t change, that weren’t affected by a million possible options or other outcomes. I understood what they meant and I respected that. It didn’t mean that those classes were any easier for me so my mom got creative when helping me learn how to spell words. All of the mnemonic devices she taught me I have forgotten, except for one. Finding something to work for the word “exaggerate” took not only a lot of brain power on her side but a lot of naivety and memorization on mine.

As a second grader, the word 'exaggerate' seemed like the most impossible word to remember in the entire world (and I’m not exaggerating here, it really did). How was my seven year old brain supposed to recall all of those letters and in the right order?! My mom worked on a saying for quite a few hours before coming up with this little beauty: “every time a girl gets excited, rockets and trees explode”.

I know what you’re thinking. Where did the word ‘time’ come from for the letter ‘x’?! Well as a first grader, I didn’t question it. Not knowing my multiplication tables or what multiplication even was for that matter played a part into that and I just went with it, but the thinking behind the “time” was that when you see an ‘x’ in multiplication you say ‘times’. Ok, so it isn’t the most fool proof mnemonic device but it never bothered me, I remembered that ‘time’ stood for ‘x’ and ta-dah, I could spell that word correctly. I even remember my mom driving down the road one night quizzing me on my words and being able to recall the entire device and regurgitate the correctly spelled word. I was thrilled with myself. I had no idea, at the age of seven, slurping on a Sonic slushie in the backseat of my mom’s car, spelling words, how often I would use that device and think about my mom.

Since the invention of computerized word processing my brain has decided that memorized spelling can take a backseat (no earlier pun intended) to spell check. I have to say this lack of desire to spell things correctly didn’t actually start until college although I’d been typing papers and emails for quite some time before the laptop emerged. There were still multiple teachers that required hand written papers in junior high and high school and my brain hadn’t quite lost its elasticity for words. Nope, not until I got a laptop and went to college, that’s when it all went downhill. Please don’t think that I’m a frivolous typist and that I have lost all of my recognition for correctly spelled words while I am typing because that is not the case. But for those longer words that take a little more thought and effort, well let’s just say I try and get close enough in order to get my right click action on and find the word in the queue. I remember the first rough draft I hand wrote in college for a paper and how ridiculously hard my brain had to work to remember how to spell some of the words that I regularly glazed over via the computer. I felt incredibly ignorant and ashamed. No one knew how hard I had to think about the proper spelling and all the words that I got down onto the paper were spelled correctly but it took some internal work to get myself there. It was embarrassing. I’ve since tried to put forth a little more effort so that my brain doesn’t completely turn to mush but still find myself thinking “eh, that should be close enough to find the right word”.

I don’t do that with “exaggerate” though. Not that it is a terribly difficult word for an adult to know how to spell but it doesn’t even seem to register with my brain before I have it typed or written on paper. And you better believe, that every single time I write it down that the entire saying runs through my brain and I smile.

I was in college when I thought about what the saying meant. I had never done that before, I’d always just repeated the necessary words in the necessary order. I didn’t stop to think that they formed a sentence and a somewhat dirty sentence at that. If we’re talking dirty here, my mom knew that every time she got “excited”, in her world, rockets and trees were exploding. And right on sister. I’ve had my fair share of exploding rockets and trees. It’s funny to think that for 15 years, I silently repeated that device in my head never thinking twice about what it meant and at an early age, even if I had, wouldn’t have understood it.

Tulip Time 2010

Last week Paul and I hit the road for Michigan. This is like the fifth time we've made the 14 hour drive and it's amazing how much of the highway I can remember from Tulsa to Chicago but everything between here and Tulsa and Chicago and Holland seem to escape me.

We were there during Tulip Time this year which was great. I love being there during Tulip Time which is somewhat cheesy and a little strange. Some people love it, some people hate it. Paul and I happen to be the ones who love it.

Three parades, junk food for blocks, a carnival, dutch dancing, miles and miles of tulips planted along the road, wooden shoes outside of every downtown store (people have to take them off to go inside) makes Holland seem like a totally different place. We spent a lot of time with our family and friends and it was amazing for as quick of a trip as it was how rejuvenating it was.

Wednesday night after we arrived we had dinner with Paul's parents and grandmother before heading downtown to watch my sister-in-law, Jenn, dutch dance.

Thursday, we had breakfast at the bakery with Bill and Di before we left Bill and headed to GR to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Frederik Meijer Gardens. It was just as cool as our permanent installation and the install we saw in St. Louis on our honeymoon and the three of us drooled over the pieces for sale in the gift shop. We also went on a trek looking for TOMS so that I could grab a more neutral pair, but it turns out, they aren't as popular in Michigan as they are in Oklahoma. One store within 50 miles of Holland had them and while it was a cool store, they didn't have the size I wanted in the color I needed. Right next door I found something to buy though so my feelings weren't too hurt. We got two glass jars wrapped in black wire to place candles in and hang from a tree in the backyard - they're pretty cool.

We grabbed a corn dog from a street vendor and plopped down with the rest of the family to catch the Thursday parade, where Ava fell asleep in my arms and my heart melted just a tiny bit.

We did a bit of shopping after the parade, met up with some of Paul's old co-workers for a junk food dinner and then met Paul's best friend Jon for some time at New Holland. After which I got myself a funnel cake (Thursday was the day for fried, came from a square box on the side of the street with flashing lights kind of food day) and headed back to the in-laws house to relax. Ladies, Jon is single and needs a good girl. If you're interested, let me know.

Friday we went shopping in downtown Holland, had a family dinner and spent the evening with good friends at the Perton's house, at the Curragh and in the hot tub, where Jon declared this would be the best summer ever. And I have decided that I agree. 

(PS: Seeing Paul play with Ava makes my ovaries want to jump out of my body)

Saturday morning, we (Paul, Jon and I) met the Schaaps for breakfast at JP's and then went for a walk and a quick stop to get Ava the Tickle Monster. We spent the afternoon packing, installing a cornice board in the basement bedroom and watching the final Tulip Time parade. We had a quick dinner and we were on the road. Sad to not be in Holland but glad to be home.

The Starfish Foundation

I'd like you to meet Leinel and Danay.

This is going to be a shameless plug for a charity so if you aren't interested, I'm sorry.

The Starfish Foundation was started by a gentleman by the name of Dennis Cady. The entire Cady family has made such an impact on the life of my family over the last ten years and I think the stuff Dennis works on is fabulous. He is an elder at the church I grew up at and one of his sons (daughter-in-law and grandchildren) go to church with us at Edmond. I got the go ahead from my mom (and Dennis) to write about her kids so here's the plug:

Dennis is working in Haiti now (as well as Indonesia) and is sponsoring an orphanage in Haiti called The Good Samaritan Oprhanage in Fort Liberty. My mom is sponsoring two of the kids at the orphanage (Leinel and Danay).

My mom sent me an email about them a week ago and told me that she picked them because they weren't smiling. I laughed because, how typical is it of my mother to chose unsmiling children when there were thirty four that had great smiles. They made her cry and so those were the two she wanted.

Leinel Jean has no last name and is nine years old. I've already given him our last name. Leinel Jean Ryckbost, a french-haitian dutch boy. Even if my mom and I are the only ones that have a last name for him, I'm glad he has one. That kid has got some mad style too - check out the popped collar. And then there's Danay Love and she is eight years old. I'm not trying to sound like a cheesy, send your money kind of infomercial but that's exactly how I feel.

It's only $80.00 a month to sponsor a kid and it pays for their food, clothing, bedding, etc. Here's the infomercial part again, think about how much you spent this week on anything. We are such an exorberent country. This may be a little nearer and dearer to my heart after my time in the heart of La Romana and being so close to Haiti but I'm excited for Dennis' project and hope he gets all the support he needs.

jr. high humor

Saturday night I started having some elbow pain so I threw my heating pad on and went to bed which turned out to be the worst idea I had ever had. It was joint paint, not muscle pain and I only made the whole situation worse with the heat. About 20 minutes after heating it, my forearm and hand started to burn and hurt just as badly as my elbow. It was horrible. I finally woke Paul up at 12:30 and made him go to the 24 hour pharmacy with me so that we could get something to make the pain stop.

I'd never had pain like this before so I was googling it on my trusty phone in the car on the way there when I ran across this:

Oh, you read that right. I get that it's talking about tennis balls but at 1:00 in the morning, that was pretty much the funniest thing I had ever read. We giggled like junior high boys for quite a while. The highlighting was added by yours truly in photoshop, ya know for an added effect. I want to know who at http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/ was in charge of proof reading that page.

A Derby Party

In order to keep up with my New New Year's Resolutions, I have to throw some parties and entertain people.

So Saturday night, we did just that!

We celebrated the "greatest two minutes in sports" by throwing a Kentucky Derby party and had so much fun. This was the first time we had people in the house since we had started remodeling the kitchen and we worked up until 45 minutes before their arrival putting everything back together. I was that hostess, ya know, the one still shoving the vacuum cleaner into the hall closet (where we had thrown everything else) and frantically putting on mascara and jewelry while Paul was out picking up last minute food items and the winner's prize. I was glad the first guest to arrive was my friend Tara, who totally understood.

The house was full of red roses, big hats, great "southern" food and drinks with lots of laughter and good stories. I loved it. I love having people in our home. It makes this little building feel more purposeful than just a place where I sleep, eat and dress. 

I unfortunately love to host and enjoy my time with people so much that I take very few photos. Which was a bummer because everyone looked so cute and dressed for the occasion and the table of food was to die for.

an early peak at a before and after

Better after photos need to be taken and edited but here is a quick taste of what has consumed our lives for the last four months:

Like I said in my previous post, we still have two shelves to build for the North wall (above the oven), roman shades to make and install and a book case to find for our cookbooks and a little added storage. There's also some serious staging that needs to occur but this was good enough for our party last night, so it is good enough for a post!

done enough is good enough...for right now

Well, we've reached a "done enough" point with the kitchen.

There are still two shelves to build, stain and install on the wall with the oven, window coverings to make and a bookcase to find. But we have a usable kitchen that looks like it belongs in this house and that is a fabulous thing.

Instead of writing about everything we did this week, I think I'll just show you some of the highlights in photos.

Paul did yard work...

I put together a new TV stand for the front living room and a rug for the dining room using free tile samples from work and duct tape. I love them both but the fact that the rug was free places it just a little higher.

We painted our very dark red dining room a very gorgeous green. The red color was great, but the woodwork was red, the furniture was red and the room had such a lack of contrast. Not anymore.

Paul got the dishwasher situated into place on Monday night so that our counters could be installed...

which look so unbelievably good.

 

Paul built custom floating shelves that I stained and then he installed.

And we tiled and grouted a back splash with not a minute to spare, literally. 

Here we are again, Paul doing the part I didn't like, and I doing the part he didn't. He would install the mortar, I'd install the tile and the spacers.

 

And then it was time to start putting everything back together.

marriage bonus

They do the things you don't like to do...and you can do the things they don't like to do. It's really a sweet deal.

presto chango

On Saturday I painted our end tables to match the base of our couch. Paul has had these end tables since he bought his condo in Ann Arbor when he started grad school. They've been really great tables and held up to quite a few moves. I didn't want to pay for new tables since we already had some that worked well but they matched the woodwork of the house, not the woodwork of the other living room furniture. So I went back to some old posts from two of my daily DIY bloggers, combined their advice and went for it.

It took me awhile to find a color that I liked and that I thought would work well. The base of our couch is a dark espresso color but when I put dark browns next to it, the wood went black and when I put blacks to it, it went quite brown. So I grabbed out "Black Bean" from my Sherwin Williams box and hoped for the best. It was close enough. I took the color to Home Depot and had them color match it for me in a small tester of Behr's Ultra paint, which I have been thoroughly in love with since I painted the kitchen.

I bought the 8 oz tester of flat paint because I knew I wouldn't need much and it worked great for Jenny's mom's console table.

I then took Young House Love's advice and sanded the tables down, ever so slightly with sandpaper we had left over from another project.

And then I went back to Jenny's post when deciding what to apply the paint with. I used a mini foam roller to apply the paint but YHL, swears by not using a foam roller because they would leave small bubbles but it seems like every other post that is on Little Green Notebook is about a piece of furniture she painted herself and they always turned out great. So I held my breath with the foam roller and was relieved when I didn't get the bubbles but a perfectly smooth finish.

I applied a coat, let it dry and came back and rolled another. After both coats dried, I took a brush and filled in all of the grooves around the legs and the base of the table. The great thing about these tables is that they took the paint really well but the red of the table still gave the paint a good undertone. They don't necessarily have that "cottage painted furniture" thing going on which was what I was trying to avoid in this room.

Last but not least, I applied water based polyurethane (two coats, just like YHL said). I used the polyurethane that they recommended (Minwax's Polycrylic Water Based Clear Gloss finish in semi-gloss) and it worked well for all of the vertical surfaces but I wasn't thrilled with how streaky it made the top of the table. I worked hard to put on an even layer and to brush it on in a way that kept it from leaving marks but had no luck. I am going to try and lightly sand them and then possibly apply one more layer, just to the top with another mini foam roller and see how it turns out. I'm also following the 48 hour rule and letting them sit completely untouched so that I don't get funny nicks or spots (except a 21 year boy sat his hiney down on one Saturday night to which I quickly yelled, "up, up, UP, UP!!!").

I am happy with the way they turned out overall and am happy that all the furniture now looks like it belongs together.

The coffee table that matches these end tables is in our current TV room and had been painted a few years ago black to match the futon and other furniture in the room. It however is in some sore shape and either needs a new coat of paint or needs to be distressed a bit more to make it look like that was the effect we were going for. That however is another project for another....month maybe.