A bannister makeover

I seriously considered titling this post "When your dog chews the crap out of your banister and you don't want to shell out $100 for a new one" but thought it was too long. That is exactly what this is about though.

Hank has always been an amazing dog. Since we got him at 6 weeks old, he was a little angel. House trained super quickly. Never jumped on people. Rarely barked. And, to top it all off, never chewed on anything but his toys. Which was a miracle, since labs are voracious chewers. But then, one day. One terribly, sad, notorious day a couple years ago. Ty and I left for work and we had unknowingly shut all of Hanks toys in our bedroom. We got home to a destroyed bannister and a puppy who, for months, treated all the wood trim in our house as his personal noshing ground. THE WORST!

Long story short, a lot of painting and trim replacing later, Hank has finally seemed to cool it. Thank goodness. But rather than shelling out $100+ for a new bannister (cause there are SO many other things I would rather spend $100 on), I decided to just make-shift fix it this weekend.

I should say right up front that I am 100% NOT a perfectionist. Most of the time I go for good enough and call it a day, and this project definitely fits into that category. So if you have also had your bannister chewed to smithereens and need a not-perfect fix, this is the one for you.

The bannister was in SUPER rough shape. I started by removing it from our wall and dragging it into the garage.

Then I sanded it like crazy with this Black and Decker Mouse sander. There were hugely deep pock marks from Hank's teeth all up and down the length of the wood, along with severely disfigured areas where he chewed for what I am sure was hours.

Even after a good amount of sanding, it still had some pretty rough spots. I thought about whipping out the wood putty, but that seemed like WAY too much effort, so I just sanded the best I could, pretending that large chunks of the bannister weren't supposed to be there anyway / were supposed to be totally disfigured.

Once all the sanding was finished, I gave the whole thing a nice coat of one-coat-coverage black, glossy Valspar paint (inspired by this bannister), which made a huge difference. The dark color hid a lot of the lurking imperfections, as you can see in that before and after shot up there. (NOTE: I LOVE one-coat-coverage paint. If you're never used it, do it. It works like a dream.)

Then I brought it back inside, hung that bad boy up, and bam! Good as new. ish. If nothing else, it's about 1 million times better than it was before AND it only cost me $10 in paint. Plus I kind of love how the new color plays off the shelf and frame at the top of the stairs. Now, just promise me you won't look too closely if you ever come over and we'll call this a raving success.

The best ad seriously ever

It's so simple. It's so perfect. Every time I see it, I just think "YES!" And then I want to go out and run. Honestly, Nike. Honestly. 

On another note, when we are driving, or watching TV, or searching the internets, or looking at magazines, Ty and I often comment on the advertising we come across. Phrases like "Oh man -- that was so on point!" or "That was waaaaaayyyy off their target market." or "That would have been so much more powerful if...(xyz)." are common phrases in our conversations. And I kind of love that I have a non-designer, non-marketer husband who will still take interest and comment on the things I am passionate about. Babe attack.

PS - ALSO BRILLIANT.

The 4th annual Christmas tree bonfire

This entire event started 4 years ago simply because I found a pulled pork recipe (side note: make it. do it. it's delicious.) that I wanted to try out, and I needed people to serve it to. A more appropriate title for this post may be "4th annual pulled pork sandwich bonfire" since there were no actual trees at the 1st annual. But. You know. That sounds weird. So a little bit of time in the kitchen, and a small gathering of friends later, we had ourselves a tradition. Now, every year Ty and I drive around post Christmas collecting all the trees we can, then ceremonially burn them one winter's eve while eating the same delicious pulled pork sandwiches with friends and family.

We precariously piled 10 trees in the back of the truck this year, and made our way to the lake's edge last weekend to find an unseasonably sunny and beautiful evening waiting for us. It was one of those nights at the lake where you just keep thinking "Man, how did I forget Utah was so pretty? Utah is PRETTY!" the whole night. Over and over. Cause really, it IS.

The sun was shining. The birds were chirping. And there was not a snowflake to be seen or ice to be walked on. Besides a healthy amount of wind going on, it was kind of ideal as we sat and ate and burned the trees one by one, and subsequently ooo-ed and ahh-ed as they went up in flames. Then, as the evening wound down, the sun quietly inched its way behind the mountains in the distance and provided the loveliest of sunsets for our little party. The nicest.

So in short, it was a winner. Even if it was not Chinese New Year and we didn't have any surprise guests and lantern lighting. Looking forward to next year.

The mountains called and we answered

Over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend we got invited to an amazing cabin high in the mountains, full of amazing people and amazing times and it was, as you can guess, totally amazing. The cabin is tucked into a spectacular valley in the Uinta mountains, accessible only by some sort of snow travel. We were lucky enough to get to take a snow cat in. Which, despite only traveling 10mph, was giddy-inducing fun. I'm pretty sure I exclaimed "This is so fun!" at least 5 times during the 50-minute drive.

Everett got his first taste of snow shoeing, which he loved so much he slept through the whole thing :) And there were 5 other kids there (along with 27 adults) so Ev got plenty of social time and Ty and I got to hang with the other parents in between adventuring out of doors. Ty even took a turn watching, I'm pretty sure, ALL of the kids while everyone else (me included) went skiing and cross country skiing and snow shoeing, respectively. Seriously, he's a champion.

It was honestly the perfect weekend. Sunday graced us with a light, little snow storm. And we all gazed out the picture windows in the cabin living room onto the strong, stoic pines and the meandering, quiet stream in the valley as the snow fell. I tell you what, I may have been born a beach girl, but I have slowly but surely become a mountain girl. They just do my soul so much good. That and all the wonderful people I get to share them with. After having so much time to myself lately, it was such a welcomed treat to spend three whole days with some of my most favorite people, with absolutely no agenda other than relaxing and having fun. Must do item on the life list: Own a cabin in the mountains.

In other news, I'm going to start a weekly mama adventure group in Provo. If you want in, say the word and we will go have outdoor fun together with our littles no less than once a week. Puppies welcome too. Ready....go!

Also also, I just realized I have zero photos of both Ty and I at the cabin. The lamest.

The most effortless hair

It floors me to think about all the time I had before Everett came on the scene. SO MUCH TIME! ALL THE TIME! What the heck did I do with all the time? Point being, with that cute little booger entering the scene, my get-ready time in the morning has been significantly downsized / obliterated / told to take a hike.

And so the ingenuity /  justifications have begun: "I don't have to shower every day, right? Because science. And, I mean, it's not like I smell. And washing your hair more than once a week is bad for it anyway! And I'm not actually going to see anyone today so..." And so on and so forth. But while I might be quite convincing, I still find myself in the shower every day (cause gross). And to save time on hair-washing days I have come up with a new easy peezy hair solution: Cut the blow dryer, enter the Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray.

Once I'm out of the shower, I simply douse my hair with that lovely stuff and let nature take its course. I don't even brush it (every second counts people), and this is how it turns out. And I kind of love it. Maybe not the best date / job interview hair. But for an everyday, tousled, I-don't-really-have-anyone-to-super-impress-besides-a-cute-baby day? Super perfect. Plus, the volume! My natural hair is fine and limp, so this surf spray does it some zesting-up good. And the no blow drying does seem to be doing some good for my sad brittle ends. Win, win, win.

Working on being snoozers over here

When he's not working or in class, Ty has been spending every waking moment studying for his first actuarial exam. Sidenote: crossing of fingers and sending of good vibes and praying for a pass totally welcome. Which leaves me a lot of time to myself. So, I have been working on getting Everett on a good eating schedule and sleeping-through-the-night pattern as of late. Both of which will come in mighty handy as today is my first day back to work (yay for working part time from home!) He has yet to sleep longer than 7 hours continuous, and that only happened once -- we are usually about 4-5 hour stints at night. But I just read a couple books that I found SUPER helpful, and they have been making a big difference over here. Everett has even gone down for naps without fussing, crying, or needing to be soothed multiple times recently (WHAT?!), and overall I feel way more competent when it comes to helping that guy get the sleep he needs. If you feel you'd like a little enlightening too, here are the goods.

The 90-minute baby sleep program - This was a nice eye opener as to sleep patterns in babies and how to maximize on them. It gives a good little guide into sleep timing and patterns in sleep development that can be expected in the first year of life. This was my fav, and it was a SUPER quick read.

Heathly Sleep Habits, Happy Child - Although it's a bit redundant and hard to re-find information (not the best-written book ever), this book's content was super insightful into sleep timing as well. It also gives good ideas on routines and soothing and has extra information on sleep training for multiples and colicky babies. As added content, it gives insight into baby behavior patterns (aka -- normal fussy behavior for all babies vs. hard-to-sooth babies).

Neither of these really fits the Babywise pattern well, but we have found they have really been good for us.

As an afterthought, I have a friend who had a lot of success with this one, but us...not so much. Could work for you though.

A movie for date night

Ty and I watched Labor Day for our date night last night. It started off a little weird but turned into quite the enjoyable movie. By far the saddest film I have seen in a good long while.* To quote Ty, "The amount of happy is not enough for the amount of sad in this movie." Agreed. We both cried. But it was good. Even Ty thought so. So if you need a good date-night movie (or even just a watch-by-yourself movie), and you don't mind some tears, totally go for it. It's on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

*Volcano was definitely the last saddest movie I watched - MUCH sadder than Labor Day. SO SAD. It was showing on our plane ride back from Iceland. Go ahead and watch it if you feel like bawling your eyes out over and over again for 1 hour and 43 minutes. I exaggerate not. SO MUCH SADNESS. But really, it's actually an incredible movie worth a watch (even if it is incredibly sad).