Baby Name Sign DIY Tutorial

I love the idea of name signs in a child's nursery! They can be so fun, colorful, and add a touch of personality to a room. When decorating my daughter's nursery, I decided to make my own name sign.

Here's what I used:

- Wooden letter cutouts

- Scrapbooking paper to cover the letter cutouts

- Acrylic paint to match the paper above

- Mod Podge

- Pencil

- Paintbrush

I wanted to have fun, bright colors for my daughter's name sign, so I chose some scrapbook papers that had a variety of colorful floral and geometric patterns. I think you could really play with different patterns and colors depending on the gender and the theme of your nursery!

Here's how I made it:

1. Start first by flipping the letter cutout so that you are looking at it backwards and place it on top of the backside of the scrapbook paper. Now trace and cut out the letter! Put your new paper letter cutout to the side for later.

2. Start painting the sides of the letter cutout with a contrasting or matching paint color. Let it dry. (Otherwise, you will end up like me and have a bit of the paint getting on the front side of the letter).

3. Paint Mod Podge over the top of the letter cutout.

4. Place your set aside scrapbooking paper cutout on top of the wooden letter cutout VERY carefully!

5. Place more Mod Podge on top of the scrapbooking paper. You can use your paintbrush to help smooth out any wrinkles that form. I also use my fingers and fold down the edges of paper that stick out from the letter. Let it dry. 

6. Repeat for any other letters you may have!

7. Hang up your letters with some command strips. I used one large strip per letter, and it worked great. For the "A," since the tip of the letter was very thin, I cut one large strip in half lengthwise, and attached it to each side of the "A."

And voila! There you have it! After everything is dry, you have yourself a cute little name sign for your baby's nursery! Enjoy!

My $13 Patio Set Project

After moving to Arizona, my husband and I knew we had to have a patio set. We love being outdoors, and so having meals outside is a lot of fun for us. In Arizona, you can pretty much go outside all year round, even in the 100 degree heat of the summer, as long as you're in the shade.

After looking at patio sets all around town, we found out that patio sets are expensive! For a little two seater, you're looking at paying at least $100 brand new! For us, we knew we wanted a set with at least 4 seats, and we knew that we wanted to pay as little as possible for it!

I was able to get a very sturdy metal table from my parents for free, but it had a bit of rust. It had been my grandparent's, and I remember going to grandma and grandpa's house and having lemonade out on the porch in the summer at this table. So for sure, even with the rust, the table was a keeper!

The only problem was that I had no chairs! For a couple of months, my husband and I took our dining room chairs outside with us because we refused to buy expensive or cheap or uncomfortable chairs brand new. I even looked all over at every thrift store I could find, but alas, no chairs.

Our patience paid off, however, and a nice lady in our church sent an email out that there was a table and chair set her husband's coworker was giving away. Well, just luckily, there was another girl who wanted only the table, and I wanted only the chairs, so it was a match made in heaven! (I had to double check that she didn't need the chairs though, because I honestly couldn't believe it).

The only problem? The chairs looked like this:

The chairs had this dark green metal frame and cushions that looked like they came right out of the 90's. They weren't exactly ugly, but they weren't exactly pretty at the same time. I decided that since they were free, and the cushions were actually very comfortable, I could definitely find a way to make them work!

For the table and chairs, all I needed to give them a facelift was four cans of spray paint and about 2 cups of chalk paint, and that's it! I got two cans of spray paint for free from Ace Hardware (I had a $10 off $10 coupon) and two cans at Home Depot for about $4 each. I had some leftover chalk paint that I had bought at Joann's for another project, and I had just enough to paint the cushions. (I had a 40% off coupon, so it came out to be $5). I was a bit disappointed that the chalk paint allowed a lot of the fabric's 90's pattern to show through, but for the most part, it covered the chairs pretty well and tinted the chairs to provide some contrast.This is the end result when all was said and done:

For my entire project, I spent a grand total of $13 for my patio set! Woohoo! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and we spent way less than what it would have been to buy one cheasy patio chair at WalMart!

Cloth Diapers: Our Experience

I LOVE the concept of saving money whenever I can. When I found out that I could save money on diapers by sewing my own, I knew that I had to try it. After sewing and using cloth diapers for the last 6 months, I wanted to review my experience with them and whether or not I think its worth it to use them.

Our Experience:

I actually really like our cloth diapers. I have a pretty good system of cloth diapering during the day, but we also use disposable diapers when we go on road trips, hiking trips, and at night when my daughter goes to bed. Ella is a morning pooper (sorry for tmi), so it works out for us that we rarely ever have to deal with soiled cloth diapers. When we do get that occasional soiled diaper, it is pretty simple to clean: you just shake the diaper out in the toilet, scrape the diaper with a scrub brush, and throw it in the diaper pail. I rarely have to touch anything icky with my bare hands.

BTW, there are these handy little tools that you can buy that hook up to your toilet to spray off soiled diapers. I never bought one, but I have heard that it makes cleaning messy diapers a WHOLE lot easier!

As far as leaks, we hardly have any with our diapers; we did have leaks in the beginning because Ella was too small for the diapers I made and the pee leaked from the leg opening, but she's grown into them and we don't have that problem anymore. The type of soaker (the fabric pad that is inserted into the diaper and holds in the pee) really helps with this, and buying quality soakers is key. I will get into what soakers I use later on in this article. We have 16 diapers that I have made total, and wash and dry them about 2-3 times a week.

The Benefits of Using Cloth Diapers:

Financial
We have saved a LOT of money by cloth diapering Ella. (We could save a lot more though if we chose to exclusively cloth diaper our daughter, but our active lifestyle doesn't always allow us to do that.) After you make the initial investment of sewing or buying your own cloth diapers, the only cost from there on out is just the cost to wash and dry the diapers.

Environmental
Cloth diapers have very little environmental impact. Disposable diapers, on the other hand, do. A child can potentially go through 9,000 diapers in the course of 30 months if you are exclusively using disposable diapers (that's 10 diapers everyday for 30 days for 30 months). That's a lot of trash to sit in a landfill somewhere! For me, this is not the main reason why I chose to use reusable diapers, but it is kind of like the cherry on top knowing that I can help cut down some of the environmental waste out there.

Health
It is not just a myth that cloth diapers help prevent diaper rash! My daughter rarely gets diaper rash now that we use cloth diapers.

Cuteness Factor
I love cloth diapers because they are so much cuter than disposable diapers. You can make them in whatever pattern you want, and can mix and match diapers with tops to make cute outfits! Plus, you don't need a diaper cover when you have such adorable diapers!

Resale Value
One nice thing about cloth diapers is that they hardly lose their value. Once your child has outgrown them, you can resell them to recoup some of the money you spent, which adds to your overall savings. This also provides environmental benefits as the diapers would be reused and recycled, instead of being thrown into a landfill.

The Cost of Making the Diapers:

For me, I spent about $137 on everything including fabric, soakers, tools, etc. If you want a breakdown of what those costs were, read below. If not, feel free to skip to the next section!

Initially, I spent $60 on materials to make cloth diapers. I got all of my supplies 40% off at Joann's (they were having a promotion) and used a $5 off coupon. Everything I bought included:

- $20 on plain, white waterproof "Outer" fabric (2.3 yards)
- $10 on Dri-Wicking "Liner" fabric (2 yards (we got the end of the bolt)
- $6.59 on plastic snaps
- $12 on the snap pliers
- $7 on the Fold Over Elastic (don't buy it, its only decorative, and I haven't even used it yet)
- $6 on an instruction/pattern book
- $3 on flannel fabric to make Soakers (1 yard total)

I could have made 16 white, plain cloth diapers from just the above materials, but I made a couple and realized that they were BORING! Actually, my husband and I saw some cute fabric on the clearance rack at Joann's, and he convinced me to make some cute diapers that had a pattern to it. Also, I didn't have a waterproof diaper pail liner, and I couldn't wait a month to buy one on ebay from China, so we bought some more stuff. We spent about $27 extra on:

- $9 on plain, white waterproof "Outer" fabric (1.3 yards)
- $18 on an arrangement of cute, patterned fabric (about 8 yards total)

I made the diaper pail liner out of the waterproof fabric, and still have extra to make a few more diapers with. Likewise, I have a few yards of patterned fabric that I am waiting to use for when I have to make a larger size of diapers when my daughter outgrows the ones she's using.

Other costs:
- $50 for 24 charcoal bamboo, 5 layer antimicrobial soakers

I made a few soakers with the flannel fabric that I had bought during my initial trip to Joann's, tried them out, and they FAILED MISERABLY. So, I ended up buying bamboo soakers on eBay and LOVE them! They are extremely absorbent and do exactly what they are meant to do! You can find soakers anywhere online - amazon, ebay, etc. Sometimes you can find them in maternity consignment shops as well. They come in a variety of materials and layers, but I suggest buying the soakers with the most layers as possible.

Is it worth it?

The question you are all probably wondering is, is it worth it to cloth diaper my child? And to that, I would say, it depends! Cloth diapering is not for everyone, and that's ok! I don't find it much different than using disposable diapers, except it is a little less convenient to have to wash out soiled diapers in the toilet and launder them. Because I had the opportunity to save money, I love to sew, and I have no problem cleaning the diapers, it was a no-brainer for me to try to make and use the diapers.

Alternatively, you can buy cloth diapers on-line or at maternity consignment shops, but they are more expensive that way. I say if you want to try them out, buy one or two and see how you feel about using them. If its not what you want to do, then you haven't spent too much money, and you can probably re-sell them online pretty easy.

If making cloth diapers sounds like something that you would like to give a go at, there are pattern books at any craft store and there are free diaper patterns on pinterest. I had a lot of fun making my cloth diapers, and will be making more in the future when my daughter gets bigger!

Palatki Ruins in Sedona, AZ

What better way to spend a day off than by getting out of the house and going to see something new? Well, for us, it was new, but in reality, what we were going to see was something a few thousand years old.

Many people know Sedona, Arizona for the beautiful red rock landscape, but what many don't realize is that there is a rich native American culture that is almost as old as the rocks themselves. In fact, there are many native American ruins in the Sedona area, a shadow of a people that once called the land home. One of the ruins that C and I visited before he started school this August was called Palatki, meaning "Red house," in the Hopi language. Palatki is the site of the largest cliff dwellings between AD  1150 - 1350 built by the Sinagua people. To visit the ruins, we had to make an appointment for a tour. We called that day and were able to get a spot with no problems.

Our trip to Palatki took us 30 minutes outside of Sedona on a dirt road in the middle of the Sedona outback. The path wasn't extremely rugged, but it definitely made me wish we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle to traverse the landscape with. We were surrounded by large junipers and towering red rock vistas.

We arrived at the visitor's center and were greeted by friendly park rangers. They instructed us on how to access the cliff dwellings and gave us wooden walking sticks for hiking up the mountain to the area. The hike was only one quarter of a mile and was not bad at all with a baby; we had a hiking backpack for Ella, and she rode in it very contentedly.

Making our way up to the cliff dwelling site was pretty mind boggling thinking about how the Sinagua people would frequently climb the mountain every day, most likely multiple times a day, to travel between their shelter in the cliffs and their farms in the valley below. (The picture above shows the valley where they grew their crops thousands of years ago, taken from below the alcove where the pictographs were located). I couldn't imagine myself having to go on a hike (not that I would mind) to access every resource I need like water and plants for food or for building materials. We are pretty lucky that we can turn on a faucet and have our water so easy!

The tour at the cliff dwelling site was very interesting. We were not allowed to enter the cliff dwellings to prevent damage to the site, but could see from the outside how they were made with bricks chiseled from the sage stone mountains. There was another site towards the west of the picture below of cliff dwellings, but we were not able to access that site due to severe deterioration (aka, some parts of the ruins had collapsed making it extremely dangerous to enter).

Our next stop was to the site of a ceremonial alcove in the mountains towards the northwest of the visitor's center (about a half mile from the cliff dwellings). There, there were many pictographs (some of which dated 6,000 years ago, way before the time of the Sinaguans), of lines, squiggles, animals, and one that resembled Princess Lea from Star Wars (see below left). In reality, the pictograph was most likely created by someone from the Hopi tribe as the figure has hair that is like that of Hopi women (see below right of a picture of a Hopi girl). Apparently, the area had been inhabited by not only the Sinagua people, but also people from other tribes as well throughout a period of hundreds of years.

All throughout the alcove on the cliff walls were hundreds of these lines that had been etched into the stone. We discovered that they were a result of someone taking drugs (which would have been ceremonial to the user) and trying to translate what they saw in their world that they were transported while they were under the influence. All I can say is, don't do drugs, kids.

One of the newest additions to the alcove area was a shelter built by a man named Charles Willard. In the 1920's, at the age of 65 after his beloved wife passed away, Willard discovered the area and constructed a stone shelter there as well as started an orchard. In the picture below, you can see how he used the cliff face as a natural wall to build upon, basically using the same technique as the Sinaguans to build their cliff dwellings. Likewise, in the top left part of the picture, you can kind of see a concrete box on top of a mound of stones; this is what Willard used to collect rain water to use for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Pretty ingenious.

After we had thoroughly explored Willard's shelter and the alcove of pictographs, we gave ourselves a little tour of the visitor's center museum and took off. We had also wanted to make it to Palatki's sister site that was located 4 miles away called Honanki, but it was too late and they were closed by that time. However, we had a great time at the Palatki Heritage Site! It was interesting to learn about the native American culture in the area and to get a feel for what it must have been like to live in Sedona thousands of years ago. We loved our experience there, and will most likely return to visit Honanki in the near future!

Mount St. Helens Day Trip

   

C and I lived in Washington for a few months in between the time we graduated from BYU in December 2014 and the time he started professional school in Arizona in August 2015. During this time, we got to visit many different parts of Washington and enjoy living in such a beautiful state.

One of our favorite places that we visited was Mount St. Helens, the infamous mountain known for its volcano that erupted in 1980. It was only a 3 hour drive from where we were living, so it was a very do-able day trip for such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We normally only drive to places that are 1 to 2 hours away as its hard to travel long distance with a baby, but this trip was totally worth it!

Let me just say, driving from the west park entrance of Mount St. Helens into the valley at the base of caldera, was AMAZING! The blast in 1980 had leveled hundreds of acres of forest and had dumped hundreds of tons of soil onto the valley beneath it. As you drive into the park, you see that the landscape is pretty much the same as it was after the eruption in 1980. There was much of the mountain that was still bare, and on the mountains outside of the volcano, hundreds of leveled trees looked like spilled toothpicks in the distance. It was awe-inspiring, fascinating, and somewhat eerie, all at the same time.

Cameron and I first stopped at the Weyerhouser free visitor's center, which had a very impressive museum. They had a moving video and exhibit that demonstrated what it was like for people who had been caught in the volcano's eruption and what was being done by Weyerhouser after the eruption to harvest the fallen trees. We had a picnic in the sun (notable, because there are hardly any sunny days in Washington), and enjoyed the cool summer day. Ella enjoyed playing in the grass, but didn't know what to think about it at first.

Outside of the visitor's center was a small hill in which you could climb for a scenic view. From there, we could see how the volcano had caused a giant landslide into this valley. Now, a river snakes through the new land and is home to wandering elk.

After leaving the visitor's center, we reached Johnston Ridge Observatory, named after the scientist killed on the ridge during the eruption. We didn't have much time at the observatory's museum, but instead, we spent our time hiking. There are miles of trails along the base of the volcano and up onto the volcano itself. My husband had hiked up to the top of the caldera when he was in Boy Scouts, but that was a multi-day hike. We only had time for about a 5 mile roundtrip hike, so we chose to start on the Boundary Trail #1 from the Johnston Ridge Observatory towards the Truman Trail #207.

Our led us east of the observatory up onto a ridge where we could see into the caldera better. It was very scenic along the path: towards the east was a hillside covered in red flowers and fallen trees, remnants of the 1980's blast, and towards the south was Mount St. Helens, in all its natural glory.

Eventually, the trail led to the side of a steep mountain with a narrow trail snaking along its edge, a section of the path called Devil's Elbow. We started to take it and maybe went 1/4 mile on it, but I was afraid of its sheer gravely drop offs (I'm not afraid of heights, but I kind of am), and how late it was getting, so we decided to turn back.

On our way towards Mount St. Helens, we had seen a little mom & pop restaurant called Patty's Place in Toutle, WA that advertised good ole' American food and Elk Burgers. We decided to stop there on our way back home and try an Elk Burger for ourselves for dinner. They were a little pricey, so we split one and had a peach cobbler. We sat on porch outside and overlooked the river below. It was a very beautiful evening with a slightly chilly breeze (summer can still be cold in Washington!), but it felt great to sit down and enjoy the evening after hiking. The food was great, and the elk was a tastier, leaner version of beef. Inside the restaurant were pictorial memorials to Harry Truman, the grumpy old man famous for defying authorities and staying in his home with his cats  during the eruption instead of evacuating. We left Toutle and made it home by midnight!

Overall, we had an amazing trip to Mount St. Helens, one that I would easily travel across the country for if we had the opportunity! We had actually gone into the wrong entrance to the park (there are multiple, and they don't connect, so choose wisely lol). We had meant to visit the Ape Caves (a series of underground tunnels carved out by the flowing lava of the volcano) which is on the south side of the mountain, but didn't realize that we would have had to drive another few hours to get there. Looking back, it worked out really well for us, and we had a fun time anyways. We will have to save the Ape Caves for another trip. ;)

Culture Pass Presents: Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve

One of the nicest things about living in Arizona is the culture pass. It is a pass you check out from your library, and it gives you FREE admission to a participating museum in the Phoenix area. You can only check out one culture pass every two weeks, and it is usually good for two people. If you have two adults in your family, you can have a free activity you can do once a week. (Kids under a certain age are usually free).

Last week, C and I visited the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve, one of the participating museums. It features a small indoors museum as well as a 1/4 mile trail outside that snakes along the base of a small, boulder-strewn mountain. About 1,500 of the boulders in this area are covered with petroglyphs, carved rock designs that were created by the Native Americans that inhabited the area hundreds and hundreds of years ago. It was pretty amazing to see the different types of petroglyphs that were there and to try to reflect on what they meant. For example, in the picture above, there are many petroglyphs on the boulder that resemble deer. Could it be that the artist wanted to carve deer to influence a future hunt, or could it be that the image represents a hunt that took place prior to the carving? There are many different possible meanings, but no one knows for sure which one is correct.

In the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve, you can see many more petroglyphs like these of all different shapes and characters. Some petroglyphs are close to the trail and are easy to see, while others are quite a ways in the distance and may be hard to distinguish. For this reason, I suggest bringing a pair of binoculars. You cannot leave the trail to get a closer view of the petroglyphs higher up on the mountain.

Although the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve is not a large museum and will take no longer than a couple of hours to see in its entirety, it was still quite a fun place to go to. C and I went in the morning around 9:30, and had no problems with the heat, but make sure you take plenty of water just in case. Because you will be walking along a gravel trail, it is not stroller friendly.

Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 8 am - 2 pm (summer hours: May-September)

On the third Saturday of the month during the summer, the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve is open to the public for FREE! However, when we visited the museum, we were the ONLY people there (we went during the week). I would highly suggest going on a week day if possible as we were able to take our time at the petroglyph sites and were not pushed through the museum.

How I Lost 35 Pounds After Pregnancy

I gained quite a bit of weight when I was pregnant with my daughter, and I am proud to say that most of it is gone. When Ella was born, she was only 5 lbs 10 oz, so I was pretty surprised that I had gained a total of 37 lbs during my pregnancy. I was expecting her to be a little chunky baby with adorable tire rolls resembling the Michelin tire man, but nope. Somehow my body had been greedy and took all of the late night brownies that I thought were going to be delivered to my daughter via umbilical cord and delivered them right to my thighs.

Likewise, after I gave birth, I was expecting to lose a bunch of weight immediately. Many people had told me that you lose at least 10 lbs during delivery (with the baby and placenta), but that was not my experience. I only came home 4 lbs thinner, and I am sure that the hand and foot catering I received in the hospital did not help. For some reason, I had gained some weight after I gave birth, and I definitely looked a lot puffier for quite awhile afterwards. I'm going to break down how I lost my marshmellow physique into two sections: exercise and diet.

My husband and I had been running together before we got pregnant, and once we found out we were pregnant, we pretty much stopped. I was really afraid that I was going to hurt the baby, so we started walking around the neighborhood for exercise instead. In retrospect, we probably could have kept running, but I was being super careful.

After we had Ella and I could start exercising again, we started running again (in the beginning of January of 2015). At first, it was just running a mile every other day, and walking a couple of miles the days we didn't run. I had not been running in awhile, so I had to slowly build up my stamina. The next month, we had added .5-1 mile onto our run, and kept increasing the distance each month. By May, (6 months after I had Ella and ), I was able to run 4 miles, although we wouldn't go that far every time since C had work that we had to schedule our time around. Usually we were running around 6-10 miles a week, and walking maybe 6-8 miles.

Now that C is in school (he just started dental school this August), we don't have as much time as we'd like to run that frequently, but we do walk a few miles around our neighborhood every chance we get and go hiking somewhat frequently.

Now, as for diet, at first I wasn't very cautious about what I ate. This probably slowed down my weight loss drastically. I had an app that tracked calories and this helped quite a bit, but it was too much work and it was helpful at first, but not worth it to me. Instead, I took the principles that I learned from my calorie counter, and consumed food based on that. For example, I learned to:

- Use measuring cups to measure out my cereal and milk intake. This helped to only eat one serving and not pour myself too much milk.

- Buy almond milk instead of regular milk for cereal. Almond milk has 30 calories vs. regular 1% milk can have up 110 calories for a 1 cup serving. It also has more significantly more calcium than regular milk as well, so it is really good for women looking to prevent osteoporosis. For the first 8 months, I only drank 1% milk, and took calcium supplements since I was cutting back on dairy and this was my only form of calcium.

- Buy foods with less sugar.  I check sugar levels on nutrition labels almost religiously and stay away from anything that has more than 9 g of sugar in it. You would be SURPRISED by how much sugar there is in stuff. Like Dr. Pepper has 40 GRAMS of sugar in it! FORTY! (Not that I drink the stuff, I only drink diet coke if I have a soda, which is pretty rare). But I used to have a yogurt everyday for lunch, and I didn't realize that every time I did I was pumping 26 g of sugar into my bloodstream. I stopped t

- DRINK WATER. It is free, and it doesn't have anything in it that you have to worry about (eg: calories, fat, sugar..). The stuff is amazing!

- Cut back on how much you eat, NOT what you eat! Counting calories made me learn that I can eat more of the good stuff if I eat less of something else. Life is too short to stop eating foods that you enjoy, so eat it! Just don't eat as much of it.

------

By exercising and changing various things about my diet, I was able to lose 35 lbs in 10 months. I am so close to reaching my goal of getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Once I reach that goal, I want to lose another 20 lbs (hopefully), but I'm going to take that one step at a time. :)

Payson Labor Day Hike

On Labor day, C and I decided to take a drive to the woods to escape the heat. From our house, Payson, Arizona is only a one and a half hour drive, and most of that is going through a beautifully scenic landscape. Going north to Payson from Phoenix on highway 87, you pass Fountain Hills, an Arizona's epicenter of wealth and the tallest fountain in the world (which, if you're lucky, you can see from the road). On the right in the distance are the Superstition Mountains, which host hikes of all skill levels (I recommend the Lost Dutchman trail), and off towards the north of the Superstitions are Four Peaks, one of the most famous mountains in Arizona for the fact that it is featured on everyone's license plates. This is one of my favorite drives in Arizona. You start off in the desert valley surrounded by saguaros of all shapes and sizes, and eventually climb into a juniper and pine forest with spectacular mountain views.

We had an amazing drive up to Payson, but our time after that was a bit rough. C and I got to the Horton Creek Trail #285 and realized we had forgotten our water bottles at home. Luckily, a family offered to share a few of theirs with us, and we were able to continue hiking. The weather was very mild, and there were lots of overcast clouds around us. This should have tipped us off that we were about to get some rain, but we had come so far that we didn't want to turn back.

We started the hike and went about 2.5 miles before we got hungry. There was a little creek that ran next to us, and we decided to cross to the other side and have lunch on a fallen tree. C had his Keane's and could just walk through the creek, but I decided to take my shoes off so I wouldn't get them wet and cross barefoot. The water was VERY cold! We enjoyed watching the water and the blue moths (or butterflies) that fluttered around us. It had started to sprinkle and we were halfway through our water supply, so we decided to turn around.

Our view up the creek from our lunch spot.

On our way back, the rain picked up more and more, but we were enjoying our hike and were slightly used to hiking in Washington where it rains most of the time, so we weren't phased. It wasn't until we saw lightning and heard thunder crash right above our heads that we freaked out and started jogging down the trail as fast as we could. Poor Ella was even scared by the noise and commotion and had started to bawl. The lightning and thunder followed us for a bit, and I couldn't help but pray aloud for our lives. We were on top of a hill that had sparse tree cover in some spots, so we felt pretty vulnerable to the lightning that was pretty close to us. We slipped and slid through some thick mud on the trail, but we eventually made it back to the trailhead safely.

There was a Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery that I had gone to when I was a kid that was close by, so we decided to visit that before leaving the area. We had fun feeding the trout that were there and marveled at how big and beautiful some of the older Rainbow trout were in the hatchery's show pond. By this time, we were soaked with water and there was a breeze, so we were very cold. But we still managed to stop at the Paleo Site on our way back into town, and had fun digging around for fossils. It took a bit to find a good specimen, but we found a sedimentary rock with fossilized sea shells and other types of barnacles in it.

We had seen some semi-bad traffic on our way up into the forest, but for some reason didn't think that it would get as bad as that. Our mistake! It seemed like everyone in the valley had gone up to the forest for Labor Day and were coming home the same time we were. It was 12 miles back into Payson, and we spent that entire drive stopping and going 5 mph at most. It took us more than an hour to get to town, and by then, we were frazzled by the traffic. After stopping to have dinner in Payson, our drive back to the valley wasn't so bad, though.

We had a lot of fun on our trip up north, but definitely learned our lesson about going out of town on holidays.

Chalk Painted Piano Tutorial

(This tutorial is for a chalk painted piano, but if you have a piece of beaten-up or just old furniture that you want to remodel, you can probably follow the same steps)

Chalk paint is all the go these days, and I've always wanted to try my hand at it. So, when my husband and I acquired a free, beat-up piano, I knew exactly how I wanted to fix it up. For those who are unfamiliar with chalk paint, the benefits are that it DOES NOT require sanding before you paint (whew! that saves a lot of time right there), it dries fast, and it can make a little bit of paint go a long way!

I found this great chalk paint recipe on pinterest:

1 cup of Plaster of Paris

1 cup of Water

2 cups of Paint in color of choice

I doubled this recipe, and it gave me more than enough paint to paint my piano AND a piano chair. I still have left-overs of the paint. If you are using this recipe for another piece of furniture, you can probably get away without doubling the ingredients. A little bit really does go a long way!

ONE TIP for mixing your own chalk paint:

• Because you are adding Plaster of Paris to your paint, your paint will dry lighter than what you think. Make sure that you choose a color that is slightly darker than the color you want.

As well as the ingredients for the paint mixture, you will need:

• a drop cloth
• at least 3 or 4 foam paintbrushes (get a small, medium, and large size mix)
• painter's tape
• a measuring cup
• 1 can of polyurethane
• sandpaper (for if you want a weathered look)

If your piano was as messed up aesthetically as mine was, you will also need:

• a filer
• all-purpose-filler
• sandpaper (for sanding down the filler)
• spackling knife
• screw driver
• a shop vacuum
• an applique (optional)
• wood glue
• clamps

Before starting, I put down a drop cloth in the room in which the piano was going to be kept. This is important! You should not paint a piano outside or anywhere where temperature, humidity, or weather is not constant. This can damage the piano and the sound it makes.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the piano was extremely water damaged on the front of the cover. (See picture on the right). The veneer was peeling and the veneer's stain had come off and the piano just did not look good at all. What I had to do was to break off the parts of the veneer that were damaged. A lot of it I could pull off with my fingers (I don't recommend this, though, you might get splinters), but I used a spackling knife to break off the veneer that was still loose but not enough to fit a finger under. On the bright side, I didn't have to take off all the veneer thankfully.

Next, in order to fill in the areas where there was no veneer, it was necessary to use some sort of filler. I used a material called Plastic Wood, but I DO NOT RECCOMMEND this product at all. It was terribly hard to work with. It would not go on smooth onto the piano's surface, and I had to give up and leave the surface bumpy - I figured I would let it dry and then sand it down. This was a horrible mistake. Plastic Wood was more like Plastic Stone - it was extremely hard to sand the surface where I had laid it down.

Above is a picture of the center of the cover of the piano where the veneer was extremely warped (this is about a 16 inch area left to right that I had to fill in with Plastic Wood.). Even after I sanded it down and painted this area, it still looked horrible. I ended up getting an applique to cover this area.

(Instead of Plastic Wood, I suggest using an all-purpose filler instead. I have heard that it is much easier to work with).

After applying the Plastic Wood and letting it dry, my husband and I ended up using a file to sand down the filler once it was dry because sand paper was not getting the job done. The picture below is my husband working his magic on the cover of the piano. We had to apply A LOT of filler - there was just so much water damage on both ends of the piano's cover, so it took a long time to file it down.

Here came the fun part: painting! I had to apply at least 3-4 coats of my homemade chalk paint onto all the surfaces in order to get an opaque color that completely covered the brown veneer. I painted the piano itself a dusty rose color (we actually wanted to paint it a slightly [light-ish] coral color, but as I added in the tip above, the Plaster of Paris makes things lighter than the original color.) We weren't disappointed, but I am happy how it turned out. Heck, it was a cheap can of Oops! paint from Home Depot, so I can't complain! 

I also taped off the keys and painted them all white. I'm not sure if you can see in the picture below how the keys on the right more yellow than the painted keys on the left - the picture makes them look less, well creepy, than they were. Yuck.). I got the white paint color as a 50 cent sample of Oops! paint, also from Home Depot.

 (Always check the Depot for the Oops! paints, and if you see colors you like, stock up. You never know when they'll come in handy for a future project). 

You have to be really careful painting the keys, however, so that paint doesn't drip in between them. It could possibly damage the sound quality and the playability of the piano. For this project, I just put as little paint on my brush as I could and just waited for a coat to dry and worked on another part of the piano before applying another one to avoid drips. If a drip happens, keeping an old envelope or piece of paper handy is great for sliding between the keys to wipe up the excess paint.

After your piano, or piece of furniture, is completely dry, it is now time to seal it up! This is where the polyurethane comes in handy. I applied about 3 coats of the polyurethane over everything, even the keys (also being careful with drips). It is really important that everything is dry before you apply the poly, because it will cause a chemical reaction with wet paint and will essentially discolor it. Also, be careful that you don't apply too much poly at one time, because when it drips and dries, it turns brown. Yuck. If you have any drips, just keep a dry brush ready to wipe it up. Also, if you have the brown dried drips, just sand it down with a fine grain sandpaper and paint over it, no one will know any better.

On the front cover of the piano was a square indentation, so I filled in the area with white paint to make it look interesting. I also added an applique very last (the scroll design that you see below). I had not made my mind up about whether or not to leave area alone or cover it up since I wasn't really happy with how the filler had dried. You can buy these appliques at Home Depot in the moulding section in a variety of styles and shapes. This one was about $6 for a 16 inch applique - they are very affordable! I love appliques!

 I painted this applique white and added poly before gluing down with wood glue. I would just suggest some clamps or a few heavy objects (depending on the location of the applique) to hold down the applique as it dries (it takes awhile). And voila! It covered up that ugly area and made a whole lot of difference in how the piano looks.

I also found an old, sturdy chair from a local thrift store for $10 because the piano didn't come with a bench or stool. I painted it the same colors as the piano while I was waiting for the paint layers to dry on the piano.

Lastly, if you would like a weathered look, just take a piece of scrap sandpaper (or anything you have laying around) and sand all the edges. So easy, and the results are amazing!

Overall, it took about 10 hours to complete this project, but it was totally worth it! There is something extremely rewarding about fixing up an old piece of furniture, giving it new life, and seeing its transformation take place.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Piano Facelift

I am so excited to finally be able to say that I am done with this project!  Someone at my church was giving away a free spinet piano,so my husband and I had to check it out.

 It had been horribly abused at one time - there was water damage all over every surface of the piano from condensation from drinks being left on the piano, the veneer was peeling, and there were scratches all over its surface.  However, the piano had a great sound to it and despite the keys being yellowed and chipped, they are still playable. I knew that it would be a lot of work to give this piano a facelift, but that it would be totally worth it.

I am so happy with how it turned out! Just check out the before and after pictures to see what kind of difference it made just to give this piano a fresh coat of paint and some TLC. I'll be posting the tutorial for this soon, so be sure to check back to see how you can give an old piano a facelift, too.

2 Months! Ella and family updates

Today is Ella's two month birthday anniversary! I can't believe its come this quick.

She's now the size of the normal newborn (about 8 lbs, 7 oz) and roughly 19 inches long. She's still at the bottom of her age group for height and weight, but at least she's growing and healthy!

Ella in her first Christmas stocking! Isn't her smile adorable?!
She thought that the sound of the clicking camera as I took pictures of her was hilarious!

Its been so fun to watch her develop from a little newborn into a more alert baby. Right now, she can lift and support her head pretty well on her own, and can sit in a Bumbo chair with a bit of assistance. She also loves to stand (although she can't stand by herself yet) and push her feet off of things. Her legs are so strong for being so tiny! She definitely gets a lot of attention from family with that skill. She has also begun smiling, although it is kind of random when she does. So far, these are the things that have made her smile/laugh:

• When Cameron talks to her with a serious face
• When I shake a bag of cereal
• When I jiggle her lips with my finger
• (Sometimes) tickling her tummy
• (Sometimes) when she sees me after being with daddy or grandma for a long time
• The clicking of my camera when I take pictures of her (my favorite)

I'm hoping this list gets longer as she gets older. 

Sometimes I think that she looks like a little bald old man (with a mullet). When she was born, she had longer hair in the back and shorter hair on top that covered her head, but the hair on top has somehow fallen out. She also has a bit of a bald spot right on the very back of her head on the left. Her hair is coming in thicker now.. I can't wait until its long enough to put little bows in (what mom doesn't want to put cute little bows in their kids' hair?).


On a side note: Cameron and I have graduated from college, and moved up to Washington. We've been here for a couple of weeks now. He's been applying for a ton of jobs, and there might be a lead on one working for a cellphone company. He loves technology and spends most of his time researching whats new. He also has a few leads on tutoring jobs teaching anatomy and physiology. We're trying to save up some money before he starts dental school in the fall before we start living off of student loans and racking up the debt (eeek). I won't be working and will instead be staying home with little miss being a full-time mom. Yesterday was our first day with not having to go back to school for classes, and it has been somewhat of a reality shock for us. For me especially, I feel bored and need to find something to keep my mind active and busy! (Hence, blogging). I am going to challenge myself to a new post at least once a week.