Ava Rose 10 months (a little late)

I've taken a little blogger vacation for the past 6 weeks. We've been so busy and just got back from an amazing 2 weeks in Florida! I have so much to share about what we've been up to, but first I need to start with Ava's 10 month update. She turned 10 months on May 26th.

I'm only going to share the things she was doing at this point, even though now she is doing so much more. This picture captures her so well. She is always smiling, clapping or tearing up something.

Ava you are in to everything. You are taking a few steps at a time still, but not walking full time. 

You still love to eat just about anything, in fact we still haven't found anything you won't eat.

Your sleep is still pretty terrible. We have tried just about everything, and have determined you will have to grow out of it.

You're a happy baby. You love your baby doll, balls and destroying most all of Jackson's creations that he's been working on.

You have a few words, ball, Daddy and the occasional Mom.

You weight about 22 lbs and are pretty long for your age. We think you're going to be a tall girl. What hair you have is coming in pretty red. I never expected to have 2 red heads.

You are so much fun to be around. You are also challenging to be at home with every day. I'm thankful for your inquisitive personality. It's going to be lots of fun to see you grow and change with that.

Your first birthday is just around  the corner...CRAZY!

We love you!

Decorating

I have had some decorating ideas in mind for awhile now. They involved old doors and pallets. If you've been paying attention to the latest home decor fashions, you know that doors and pallets are a hot commodity these days. 

A few weeks ago I was walking in my neighborhood and noticed someone throwing out an old pallet and some fence panels. I went back the next morning and loaded the pallet and a few of the old boards up in my van.

I ended up cutting the pallet in half , turning them on their sides and nailing an old fence board to the top.

I wanted to hang them on the wall to hang pictures in.

Here is how it turned out:

The next thing I wanted to do was make a headboard out of some fabulous doors I found at my husband's grandparent's house.

The doors didn't require much work. I just cleaned them up and then sanded them to scuff them up a bit.

I'm pretty happy with the way all this turned out, especially since it was all free!

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

We've lived in our house a year, my kitchen walls have been 3 different colors and my cabinets 2 different colors. 

This is what our kitchen looked like after we painted the first time.

This is what we did last November

I have been very happy with this, except for the top cabinets. I strongly dislike white cabinets. They started to look dingy around the pulls and other places. Since new cabinets aren't in our financial plans, my sister had the idea to distress them. Hopefully this would make it look like they weren't meant to be this way.

First we sanded the cabinets to rough them up a bit. Next she wiped stain on the cabinets and then wiped some of it off. We made sure to get more in the cracks of the cabinets. The corners and edges of the cabinets were also sanded down to reveal some of the wood underneath. This looked really great when she added stain to that part to make it darker.

Overall I'm so happy with how it turned out.