Fun Fact Friday 12.06.13

The fact that I won't hear my alarm go off around 5 am tomorrow morning is what's getting me through this day. What a freakin long week! I guess that's how any work week after vacation is right? But man, I'm ready for the weekend.

Here's what we've got going on around here:

1. I finally attended my first Boston Bloggers event. And I am soo glad I did. Finally meeting a few ladies I've emailed with and who's blogs I've been following was so nice. Totally made reading these ladies' blogs less creepy ha. Well now that sounds creepy! But you learn a lot about someone from their blog, so it's nice to actually meet a few other bloggers finally. The event was held at Warehouse here in Boston and I have to say, their drink menu looked amazing! It was crowded though and not exactly easy to grab a drink at first so I snagged a water to start and before I knew it, I'd been chatting the whole time and it was time to go! Boo. Martinis next time.

Jodi, Rachel, Kate, Emily

2. We're getting our Christmas tree tomorrow finally. I have never felt so behind on Christmas decorations. The fact that we have nothing out yet is kinda stressing me out. Between a late Thanksgiving, and traveling for it, we're just behind schedule. I can't wait to get out there tomorrow and pick the perfect tree. There may be a few wreaths and mini trees that come home with us too....we'll see. If you're local, where shall we go?!

3. We had plans to head to Maine this weekend so I took Monday off. And then J remembered it's a home Patriots game this weekend, and he's going...boo. But, I'm pretty pumped to have Monday off now, especially knowing I won't spend half the day in a car.

4. Anyone get any unbelievable Black Friday deals? I took advantage of a few online sales to get some of my holiday shopping done but I have more to do. Honestly, I always thought it was crazy how early some people start their shopping. Until this year, when I read one bloggers plan to just enjoy December now that her shopping is done. And you know what, that sounds fabulous. That will be next year's goal. Cherish the Holiday season, don't save all my shopping until December.

5. This mild weather has caused quite the moth invasion over here! Anyone else? If we leave the outside lights one, the house is seriously covered in moths....gross.

6. It only took us 6 months to check out the local nature trails in our neighborhood. We started off on a nice walk down the street to stretch our legs and quickly veered off course into the woods to let Tuck off leash. He had a ball running around like a mad man in the woods. And definitely burned more energy than a measly walk would have done.

7. I still have a Thanksgiving recap I'd like to post next week if you don't mind. This week just included a few too many later work nights.

8. Lastly, I put a call out on Talkative*TLC's facebook page this week for post recommendations and was excited with the feedback. Are there posts you'd like to see more of?

Have a fantastic weekend!

What are you up to this weekend?

Linking up with H54F, That Friday Blog Hop

Printic

How many photos do you currently have on your phone? If I had to guess, I'd say too many. Right? Confession: my phone says I have more than 1,500 photos on it...dog-mom problems, new homeowner, blogger, lazy photographer...you name it. There are countless reasons.

When Printic reached out to me about printing some of these photos I totally jumped at the chance. I'm horrible about printing updated photos. Horrible! 

But I have to say, this was so easy. And I can't wait to use this again. Since printic is a phone app I really had no excuse. Printing pictures whilst sitting on the couch? Right up my alley. Yes, $.99/picture is more than you'd pay to print pictures to the local drug store or photo site, but I love how these instagram-ish photos look!

Here are screenshots of the app from my phone:

I love that there is an option to edit and add messages to the photos.

FYI - this is a UK based company. So the first time I tried to pay, Bank of America canceled the transaction and called me to make sure it was me using my card. Can't really be too annoyed about that! But it did take me a second try to get my credit card to work.

Here's a peak at a few pictures I had printed. How awesome is the polaroid finish?

Disclaimer: Printic provided me with a promo code for free prints. Although this post is sponsored, all opinions expressed are my own. And as you can see above, I printed more pictures than my promo code allowed...it was so convenient!

DIY: Ikea Rast Hack

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week. A week off from work (and blogging) was just what I needed. I plan to recap part of our trip south to Charlotte later this week if work doesn't get too crazy. We had a great trip! But until then, let's get back to house projects.

I shared our master bedroom as it currently stands two weeks ago. And since I promised to be back with more details regarding our nightstands, here we go.

When we originally bought our bedroom set years ago, I just couldn't justify buying the matching nightstands. For one, they wouldn't fit in our condo at the time. But also, they would have rung in at more than $250 each. No thank you.

So we made do in our tiny bedroom. But in our new home, using a TV table just wasn't ideal. Time to grow up. And with a laundry list of purchases to make, spending $$ on nightstands still wasn't a priority. So I knew early on that heading to Ikea for nightstands was the best solution for us. Why not? 

So here's what we did:

What you need:

• Wood conditioner
• Wood stain - we used Miniwax in Honey (new, still not on their website...)
• Polyurethane
• Paintable/stainable wood filler
• Oil based primer
• Paint color/finish of your choice (We used the trim paint from our master bath reno - white in a satin finish)
• Stain brush - wood conditioner and stain
• Foam brush - poly
• Paint brush - oil based primer
• Small foam roller - finish off the drawers with a smooth finish
• Sand paper - fine, superfine
• Steel wool
• Tack cloth
• Cloth rag
• Paint thinner - you'll want to keep some on hand with a separate cloth rag in case you get any stain on your hands, which is inevitable. Also use this to clean the brushes.

*Make sure you have a well ventilated area to  work with stain and oil-based primer. The fumes are insanely strong. I can't stress this enough. 

For the shell:

• Sand, sand, sand the unfinished wood. Then wipe down with tack cloth.
• Cover in wood conditioner and let sit for at least 15 minutes
• Once the wood conditioner has set in, coat with your first layer of stain of choice. Let the stain soak in for at least 15 minutes. The longer you let it sit, the more it will soak in to the wood.
• Wipe off the excess stain with a cloth rag (we used an old shirt of J's).
• Let this sit for a couple hours and fully dry. I believe the Miniwax stain says 4-6 hours on the back of the can.
• Once dry and ready for another coat, sand with steel wool (steel wool is much finer than sandpaper and will not leave any scratch marks that could show up in the staining process)
• Add another coat and follow steps 3-6 again. 
• Add as many coats as needed until you reach your desired color. We were happy with 2 coats of stain.
• Once dry and sanded with steel wool, it's time to poly the wood. This will give it a really nice shine. The poly takes a whole lot longer to dry. Like 8 hours...so get a coat on at the end of day 1 if you can and let it sit overnight.
• Sand with steel wool once dry
• Add a second coat of poly and let dry. We stopped here.

Drawer Fronts:

• If you are changing the location of the drawer knobs, fill the pre-drilled holes with paintable/stainable wood filler. Let dry (15 mins).
• Sand the drawer fronts down until smooth. Wipe with tack cloth.
• Prime the drawers with an oil based primer to ensure that no yellowing bleeds through from the wood.
• This should dry quickly, within 15 mins. So sand again, and prime again. 
• Lightly sand again and apply your first coat of paint.
• Once dry lightly sand once more and apply your final coat of paint.
• Add your hardware of choice. We went with these.

Make sure to stain the insides of the nightstand shell. I can't stress this enough. We didn't think about this, threw the drawers in to see how everything looked, and immediately saw the raw, unstained wood staring back at us. Thankfully this is a quick fix, but I'd advise staining all the way back to the shelf ledges. 

And the final product: 

What do you think?

I can't believe we waited so long to get these nightstands finished. If you can dedicate a full day and a half to them (with plenty of drying time to get other things done) these nightstands are very DIY-able. We love them!

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