Saturday, February 27, 2010

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!!

Austin Ealy Bradshaw
Born: February 27, 2008 @ 6:26pm
7 lbs 11 oz & 20 1/4 in long


HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY!!


Love Bug,
You light up our life every second of every day! 
We are so blessed to have you as our son and
we thank God daily for this gift he gave us!

Love always and forever,
Dada & Momma

Friday, February 19, 2010

POTW: 2/14-2/20


Daddy's Helper!!  <3

For Austin's 2nd birthday we joined together with my parents and Scott's for 1 big group gift.  Austin LOVES swinging on the swings every time we go to the park so this was a perfect gift.  Scott was working on it tirelessly for 3 weeks - 1 hour here, 3 hours there, etc - and it was finally complete a week before Austin's birthday!! 

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

My own DIY Project: Stripes

About 6 (?) years ago when I went to visit my cousin in San Antonio and saw stripes in their kitchen I've been wanting to do the same.  I would've never thought of something that creative before and loved the classic look it brought to the room.  So at that moment I placed it on my "To do. . . one day" list LOL 

When we moved into our home about 3 years ago, I knew this was the house I wanted to do the stripes.  Now I needed to figure out which room, what colors and MORE importantly (!!!) how to go about doing stripes on a textured wall!  One and a half years into our home we finally decided to paint our kitchen, living room, and entry way.  My dad came over to help us - THANK GOODNESS - since it was such a large task.  After it was all said and done it took Scott, my dad and I close to 10 hours, working non-stop, to paint this.

Once the color was on the walls I knew just what color and where I was going to do the stripes.  I wanted some sort of distinction between the living room and kitchen.  One thing that drew us to this house is the "Great Room" (aka the openness between the kitchen and living room).  Every house we looked at were individual rooms and that's not something we wanted for us.  So I told Scott, who wasn't too keen on the striped look, what my ultimate goal was.  Again, it was on my "to do. . . one day" list so I didn't pursue it since I still was unsure about how to put stripes on a textured wall without the jagged lines. 

After researching, asking around, and an extra little push of recieving a gift card from my parents for Christmas LOL!, I was going to do it no matter HOW hard the work was!!  Everyone I knew who's done stripes in their own house have told me the horror stories of how hard it is.  From measuring all along the wall, to placing dots, then to putting the painters' tape on the walls and then re-measuring for verification that the painters' tape was indeed straight (vertically).  So last Wednesday after gathering many rolls of painters' tape - I ended up using 2 1/2 rolls - and supplies I went to the daunting task of taping.  OMG Let me tell you that was W-O-R-K!!!  After having to re-do it after working for 1 1/2 days on it because I did it wrong (long story) I was finally finished taping by Monday evening. 

My mom and I were the painters and I think we did an exceptional job, if I say so myself!!  We worked non-stop with maybe 2-15 min breaks (1 for lunch and 1 for a true break) and it took forever.  We started around 9am and finished a little after 4pm.  What took so long is that doing stripes is 90% 'cutting in' with 10% of rolling so it's lots of work.  After talking to a co-worker of mine who painted stripes in Her house and telling me to take the tape off the second I'm done with that particular stripe, I'm glad I listened!!  Doing so gave my mom and I the opprotunity to touch up any areas where the brush went under the tape.  Thankfully there were very few since we pressed as hard as we could right before we painted near the tape!  I think THAT was key to painting stripes on a textured wall.  Press as HARD as you can on the tape, paint lightly x2, roll x 2 and then take the tape off. 

I was SO happy with the work we put into this.  It was such a fun opprotunity to do this project with my mom!!  Here is the progression of our day:
Prior to painting.  The small painters' tape is the section to paint:

The start of it:
The windows.  Time consuming!
A little less than 3/4 done. 
The hardest part -
around the doorways (pantry and leading to the garage)
Excuse the mess.
Above the Fridge and cabniets
The Texture vs. the straight (YES I said Straight!) line. 
We won!!! LOL

THE FINISHED PRODUCT with the curtains, blinds and art deco up. 
(bad lighting, sorry!)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Picture of the Week: 2/7-2/13


I decided not to post a picture of the Week that centered around the snow.  How could I decide which one was best - therefore I chose this picture.  This was taken on Saturday when Scott and Austin were out and about recovering from being cooped up for a few days due to the weather.  They went EVERYWHERE and this was taken at Bass Pro Shops.  And yes. . . they did BUY the hat LOL

Friday, February 12, 2010

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It SNOW!!!

February 11, 2010 is forever known as the day that D/FW broke the all-time record of snowfall in a 24 hr period.  Collectively on February 11th (Thursday) and February 12th, we personally got 13 inches of snow!!  I have lived in Texas since I was born and I have never ever ever seen this much snow, or even a fraction of it.  This snow was the good fluffy kind too where it was ideal for snowmen and snowball fights.  :-)  Of course the roads were hazardous and every 5 minutes for a few days straight (starting Wednesday through Friday morning) the weathermen would bring us "Breaking News" about our winter wonderland outside and the effects it was having on the roads.  I'm SO thankful that I work weekends only and that the snow was falling on Thursday and Friday.  Although Friday and Saturday still had plenty of ice patches, it was tolerable!

As I went to bed Wednesday evening, the weathermen forcasted that we'd get 2-3 in of snow.  I didn't put too much thought into as the saying goes, "If you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait a few minutes"  Although it's a tad bit of exaggeration, it's pretty accurate - that and our weathermen (and women!) are wrong more often than they are right LOL!  So when I awoke Thursday morning I opened the miniblinds to see a winter wonderland!  I was SO giddy.  It wasn't but a few inches at this time, by my inaccurate eye, but the snow was still falling in big flurries pretty heavily.  I've never (ever ever) seen snow fall that much and that hard at once.  I was absolutely shoked to hear that Scott's college classes as well as Austin's Preschool class was still a GO!  I really was looking forward to Austin going to his preschool class today because it was his 1st Preschool Valentines' Day Party and I didn't want him to miss out!!  :-)  After bundling up, Scott and Austin went on their way to school while I watched the news and enjoyed the beautiful scenery taking place outside my window.  What a beautiful gift from God!!  I don't think it's ever snowed this many days EVER in Texas in one winter, so again I thank Patrick for whispering to the angels to send us a beautiful winter.  (Remember our Christmas Eve/Day "present" from him: Snow on Christmas morning!) 

After school was over, Scott, Austin and I relaxed the whole day watching TV, playing and getting some snow time in.  Austin was possibly getting sick (runny nose, sneezing, coughing, cranky, etc) so I didn't have him outside for too long.  Here are some pictures of Thursday:
This was taken Thursday morning at 9am.  At this time there was 4 inches on the ground.
Scott pushing the snow off of a ledge.  Abby was trying to eat it and Austin was cracking up laughing. 
On Friday, we again stayed inside and vegged.  Although I was enjoying vegging out, Scott was getting a bit stir crazy.  He HATES being cooped up (But Trust me, on Sat he went anywhere and everywhere.  Guess he made up for lost time LOL!!)  We did bundle Austin up again and treked around outside.  Here are some pictures of Friday where we rec'd the tail end of the snowfall.  Again total we rec'd 13 inches!!! 

This was our house Friday afternoon!!
We couldn't figure out where the street began and the lawn ended!!  Curb Check!!!!
Abby LOVED the snow!  Shocking since the Princess doesn't like to get her feet wet when it rains LOL
Putting Austin down in the snow to see where it falls on him (Just right above his kneecap!)
"Okay Momma, GET ME OUT!!!!"
Breathtaking!
Our Family  <3

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Picture of the Week: 1/24-1/30

My little gamer.  His Daddy is SO proud!