How to paint wood veneer

Remember The Project to end all projects? Well, I haven't stopped working on it. I have stopped blogging about it because cleaning out my kids' rooms just wasn't that interesting and I'm currently bogged down in cleaning out my memorabilia (a PROJECT in and of itself...and a post for another time! Look forward to some posts about baby Sarah in the near future and GET. EXCITED.)

Meanwhile, as I work my way through my house room by room, I've also taken on some design projects I've wanted to tackle forever and just haven't. First, I tackled the wall in my kitchen. Next up? Our entertainment center.

This is what it looked like:

Big and dark and squat and sort of ugly. Inspired by all the painted dressers I saw on Pinterest, I thought I might go that route and started scouring thrift stores around town.

No luck.

Finally, at a furniture consignment store, I found a modern TV stand a little bit taller and MUCH prettier than the one I have now. Only one problem...it was espresso brown. Another dark TV stand. I wasn't going to do it.

The only solution was to paint it. I looked at a lot of spray paint tutorials online but decided I wasn't wiling to risk it and it wasn't going to give me the smooth finish I was looking for. 

Instead, I (what we call in the South) "jerryrigged" the process and adapted it to my own (somewhat lazy) purposes. 

First up, I sanded the heck out of it with a rotary sander. One of the best tips I got online was using tack cloth to take off all the sand residue and that stuff worked like a charm.  

Next up, I took some notes from the spray painting idea and used a spray primer - Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Primer for anyone wanting to know. I probably should have gotten the coat more even but it worked really well otherwise. 

Next up, I took some notes from the spray painting idea and used a spray primer - Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Primer for anyone wanting to know. I probably should have gotten the coat more even but it worked really well otherwise. 

I was hoping to skip this final step but alas, it was not to be. I also painted on two coats ofMinwax Polycrylic Gloss Protective Finish and we were good to go! Because I'm lazy, I painted right over the metal hardware and then scraped it out with steel wool when I was finished! 

I mean when I'm right, I'm right. How much better does that look!?!

Emerge Kentucky and Pursuing Your Dreams

Today I'm on Her Kentucky sharing where my dreams of public office began.

I remember the first time I considered public office. I was in high school and I was obsessed with Barbra Streisand. I thought it was because I wanted to be an actress. Then, I realized what I really loved about her was her political activism. She seemed to care. People listened to her opinions on important issues.

Now, I realize that Barbra Streisand is a unique choice as a political role model but hey I was 15.

Read the rest on Her Kentucky!

I also wrote my first blog post on the blog for Emerge Kentucky on meeting awesome female legislators in Frankfort.

There is dreaming about leadership. There is planning for leadership. There is being trained for leadership.

Then, there is actually engaging with current women leaders.

Read the rest on Emerge Kentucky's website. 

My baby and kindergarten

Let’s just get this out of the way. I don’t want him to go.  

There, I said it.

He’s my firstborn. He’s my baby. He still runs up to me for hugs and loves to cuddle and I don’t want him to go to kindergarten. And yet here I am, setting up appointments for kindergarten screenings, getting to know the teachers, figuring out who will be in his class.

And all against my will.

I remember vividly the first week Griffin was born. For one reason or another, I had attached special importance to the first week. I could feel every second tick by. I wanted to dig in and slow everything down. I knew. I just KNEW once that first precious week was over that it was going to be three blinks and I’d be putting him on the bus to kindergarten. A rush of diapers and blocks and preschool parties and my long days with him would be over.

AND I WAS RIGHT.

I know kindergarten is even worse. Once they spend a majority of their day elsewhere, the time you do have with them passes even quicker. If his babyhood passed in three blinks, his primary school days will pass in one. Then, I’ll be balling my eyes out as he walks the stage at graduation and moves far away to follow his dreams and never calls his mama.

This is the worst.

What I hate more than the thought of how quickly the time will pass is how quickly he will change. My friends report the same phenomenon over and over again. They go to kindergarten and they change. They are no longer your sweet little kid. They grow a little bit harder and edgier. They pick up bad habits from their friends. They might as well be describing a person’s first time in prison. 

I don’t want him to change! I want him to grow and learn and develop but does that have to be in exchange for attitude and sass and disrespect. If I’m being really honest, I want to protect him. I know there will be kids different from him in school. Kids that have seen and experienced things I’ve spent the last four years protecting Griffin from and that scares me. 

Not because I don’t think he should ever learn to confront these types of challenges or deal with people different than him, but because I don’t really want him to learn these lessons at FIVE. 

My logical mind tells me he’ll be fine. My friend’s kids are fine. They are better than fine. They are really great kids. But still, I just can’t get behind the positivity.

So, if I grimace at your encouragement or frown at your kindergarten stories, give me a pass. 

This mama is wallowing. This mama is singing the kindergarten blues and she’s singing them hard.

How did you (or are you) handling the transition to kindergarten?

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