I guess I'm an Antique!

When my mother was pregnant with me, my Grampy made a baby cradle for me.  My parents used it for myself and my brother when we were infants before we were moved to the crib.  It has been with my mom for 27 years!  We brought it to our house a few weeks ago for our baby!  It was hard for my mom to let go of it, but it is going to good use :)  It needed some TLC after so many years.

In preparation to refinish it, mom and I sanded it and used some "stain-able" wood filler.... that didn't end up being stain-able at all.  We used Minwax Dark Chestnut to stain.  After only 15 minutes of the stain setting, we achieved the darkness I was going for. I used a  Minwax Polyurethane coat to seal and finish.  It was a semigloss.  I used three layers.

Here is the finished product!   I am very pleased with the outcome!  I think my Grampy would be proud!  Hopefully it will now last until this little one has our first grandbaby! 

 

We can't wait for baby J to be here!

Catch Up Time!

I started this blog, with the intent to document the following events... as they came- not all at one time :) 


In as short of a blog as possible- here is our latest happening over the last 5 months and some news at the end!

We had tons of fun with our closest family and friends during our pre-wedding events!  We were showered with great gifts and lots of love! 

My PICU family threw me a fun shower!! (You are next Erika!)

Mom and Amanda threw us a shower in Texas. 

My beautiful bridesmaids and best neighbor threw me a shower at Vieux Carre in Little Rock.  The cocktail party was entertaining and there were plenty of memories made that day!  My mother, step-mommy and mother in-law were all able to be there! So special!

In September Raylen decided just he and I were going to go on a brother/sister trip before the big day!  He got us front row tickets to George & Reba in Nashville! It was a trip with my baby brother I will never forget!

We spent our day at the Country Music Hall of Fame!

Our evening was spent with George!! He & Reba were incredible!

On my actual birthday, we drove up to Harding University to see Jason Mraz in concert! It was an amazing birthday gift! 

My two favorite guys, going to see one of my favorite "guys"!

The weekend before the weeding, Martin's bachelor party was spent at a lodge on the Buffalo River in NE Arkansas. 

I didn't see the pics until after the wedding.. he appeared to have a great time!!!

The same weekend, Mom and I did the Race for the Cure in Little Rock! It was great to be apart of something so big and meaningful to our family!  

My bachelorette party was fantastic!! Vickie did a brilliant job planning this from half way around the world! 

My girlfriends are so much fun!

Before we knew it... we were MARRIED!!!

It was a perfect day for us!  We have never been so in love as we were that day! It was so special to spend it with our dearest friends and family!

And we were off to ITALY!!! 

We ate gelato every single day, sometimes twice- just because :)

Piazza Novana was our favorite place in Rome! 

The food was wonderful! We ate at this restaurant twice!

The Colosseum was immaculate! 

The honeymoon was a once in a lifetime opportunity that we are so thankful for! 

We hosted our first (married) Thanksgiving at our small little house with Martin's parents, my dad & Laura and my brother.  It was the first Thanksgiving I have made my great grandmothers cornbread stuffing without my mother or Grammy!  Dinner turned out great!

We were so blessed this year and had plenty to be thankful for!

December 12th, Jenny and Brandon started their family with our darling niece, Diana Jane!  

A healthy, beautiful baby girl!

Christmas was a time to make our own new traditions.

Motley Tree Farm was the place for our first Hogue Family Christmas tree! After about 45 minutes of searching- we found the perfect tree! Boji was pretty happy about it too!!

At the Mangles, we got in on the cookie decorating contest!! Anna won, with her brilliant design skills!

Group shot!  Syd was missing and Bogart was so sad!! 

After Christmas, we made the trip to Arlington for my mom's 50th birthday! She was so surprised to have a house full of kids and a party!

Fifty and Fabulous!!

Shortly after the new year, Marty flew to Cali to see our new niece and visit Brandon and Jenny!

Ms. Photogenic!

They took M up to Napa for the day to visit some wineries.

She loves him, I think!

Are you still with us?? That was a lot to take in!  I think I have learned my lesson.. never wait 5 months to update a blog! 

The latest news in the Hogue household....

We are moving!!  Martin has decided to attend school in a place that will allow us to partake in the following sporting events!!! 

August 1st, we will be residents of Texas!  

We are very excited and will be following up with more details as they come!

Labor of Love

On my first trip to Blue Suede Shoes in Bryant, I fell in LOVE with a chest of drawers.  I despised the paint job and LOVED the lines of the mirror and legs.  That afternoon I was able to take Martin and show him my latest desire.  He was less than impressed with it.  The dresser was 100 dollars.  This is double my usual budget on a good "junking" day.  Needless to say, I had to beg and pester him with hints about how wonderful the dresser would look if I stripped it and painted it an antique white and distressed it.  In less than 24 hours, we were back at BSS purchasing the poorly painted piece of furniture.  Thank you Martin!

When we got it home I started to strip it with CitraStrip.  Immediately, the paint started to bubble.  This process usually takes 25-45 min complete.  With the first scrape of strip, a dark (almost black) varnish came through.  When we wiped it down, a beautiful cherry top wood was revealed.

Martin was suddenly and surprisingly willing to help out after finding out what a beauty we had :)

The process took longer than 20 hours to complete.  We ended up stripping the dresser 3 times.  Every surface was sanded with medium paper and a palm sander.  The palm sander is definitely my FAVORITE power tool!! We are currently borrowing our neighbor's and there are definite plans to purchase our own.  Maybe I can talk Martin into getting a pink one!

The pictures show the process.  We tried to document every step in detail.  With every step, we were flabbergasted at how great the piece looked and could only dream of how good it was going to look when we were completed.

Minwax Red Mahogany and SemiGloss Minwax Polyurethane was used in the staining process. 

We are still pleasantly surprised every time we walk into our bedroom and see this beautiful piece.  There will be may more labors of LOVE to come, but none will be as special as this first piece we completed together!  We will have this piece for years to come. 

Should be doing laundry..

Life is taking off for us right now! I am halfway through my orientation at the new job (that I LOVE!).  Martin is hot and heavy with his job right now.  It being 100+ degrees makes his job literally- Hot and Heavy.  We are getting excited about the wedding.  We keep talking about how great it's going to be to have all of our closest family and friends in one room!
The pups are doing great.  They are beating the heat by sleeping with me during the day. Then they hit the sack again with Martin at night.  What a life!
My next door neighbor/fabulous friend, Anna/Tryna,  has turned me on to "Junking".  She took me for my first experience in mid-June.  What a fun hobby!  Other's people junk have most certainly become our treasures.  The pictures are of the first few projects that we took on.
 In the beginning, Martin wasn't very fond of my new found hobby and the mess that it made.  I began driving across town to The Home Depot several times a week to build up my supply bucket.  5 quarts of paint and several cans of Citra Strip later, I have quite a starter kit.

The (now) blue primitive table was my first "revamp".  It is now a walk-in table in our dining room.  It was dry brushed with Martha's Agean Blue.  Once you go Martha, you never go back!  Her paint is fabulous to work with and has so much vibrancy to every color.

The vanity was something I had been searching for since we made the move to our Hillcrest home.  This was found at Blue Suede Shoes in Bryant, Arkansas.  It was in great condition and all of the drawers pull out (hard to find)! The mirror is three mirrors that are hinged together with smooth movement.  I turned to some oil based Killz for priming.  What a mess oil priming was!! Won't be doing that again.  Martha came to the rescue on this piece.  The faint yellow is almost a creme.  It goes wonderful with the grey and red of our bedroom.

The antique side table was definitely a pieced together piece of furniture.  We are thinking it was one half of a vanity.  It was stripped with Citra Stip, primed and painted with Martha's Heavy Creme.  The glass red knobs are darling and definitely give the piece character.  This serves as the perfect nightstand for our high king size bed!

Whew! How exhausting.  It is never a short process turning something drab to FAB!

If only all of the time I have put into the revamping process went to our ever-growing laundry pile.. What a wife I would be :)