320 * Sycamore

fitbit ultra giveaway!

2012-02-15T10:55:00.000-06:00

Okay, I said the ft7 polar watch was my favorite, maybe this one ties. Meet your new teeny, tiny best friend in helping you reach your fitness goals:

The FitBit Ultra .

I love this little thing!

First, you set it up on your computer with your height, weight, age, etc. Then, you clip it on to the middle of your bra, or your belt and GO.

That’s it.

You wanna know what FitBit tracks?

Calories you burn throughout the day: (these pictures are taken at the end of the day~a little fuzzy)

Flights of stairs you climb:

The time:

How many steps you take each day~this was a BUSY day and is actually my highest # of steps yet. I thinking I went on a cleaning/organizing rampage on this day and went like gangbusters. You get special badges online if you make it over 5,000 or 10,000 steps :)

How many miles you logged for that day. This has been so helpful when I’m running outside and not really sure of the distance.

And this little flower is my favorite~the more active you are, the more it grows. It’s nighttime…flower is fading.

Oh, and that’s not all.

You dock it on this little stand via USB and it will send all your info to your computer

where you can compare days, weeks, months, and most importantly PROGRESS.

Here is how it shows up:

SO COOL. You can make goals for yourself, log food eaten, how long you exercised, etc. so it can help you track even better.

It also can track your sleep! You clip it onto this little cuff at night on your non-dominant hand, press and hold the button, and it will start tracking your sleep.

Here is how it looks on the computer when it syncs~

This was a BAD night…my little one had a fever and cough. When is naptime for us both??

It also has a stopwatch feature if you want to see how long a particular workout is (or time your kids when they want to see how long it takes them to run down to the last mailbox on the street and back)

He’s also kind of sassy and sends you little boosts of inspiration:

Can you tell I’m completely hooked??
But oh YES, we’re giving one away. Just tell me in the comments which feature on FitBit you would love/use most!

Good luck! Note to mobile version users: to be entered, you have to click over to the comments on the actual blog, not the mobile version. Otherwise,it won’t include your comments.

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment (see above)
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will .be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 2/15 – 2/21 Also be sure to visit the Inspiration to Fitness page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers' reviews, get great fitness tips and find more chances to win! You can also click on the Best Buy image at the top of my blog to view a calendar of all the Inspiration to Fitness content. Here is Best Buy Buyer’s Guide Sweepstakes. Have you taken the fitness pledge? Best Buy does not sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any responsibility for this promotion.

happy valentines day!

2012-02-14T16:22:00.000-06:00

I hope your day has been a good one so far! Do you remember my sugar cookie fiasco from 3 years ago? Well, I like to *think* I’ve wised up since then and we attempted sugar cookies again today. And by “we” I mean, *I* mixed up the dough this morning, baked them this afternoon,

and I let the kids help me frost them after school. No fancy frosting or decorations, just a simple buttercream with red sugar sprinkles.

They were soooo good. We used this recipe, and it was divine (if you like big soft sugar cookies) Definitely a keeper, but we didn’t refrigerate the dough overnight, just a few hours in the fridge and I didn’t have any cream on hand for the frosting, so we just used milk. And they were still delicious!

For Valentines, the kids’ wanted to do the lollipop ones again. I actually begged them to just do the store bought ones to simplify this year, but they really wanted to do them, so we pulled out the camera on Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t smart about how I positioned the hands though~it was way too hard to get the hole punches to the middle of the picture. Hailey went for an upside down look this year, Spencer kills me how he scrunches his face up when I tell him to smile (I just want to hug him when I see this picture though) Logan had no leftovers..sorry, and Lauren said she is too old for Valentines {sniff.} She took some candy for her friends though. Landon scrounged for any candy scraps when they came home.

That’s about it~we’re having taco salad by candlelight tonight and then it’s basketball practices like normal.

Spencer said something so sweet just out of the blue today: “moms keep care of dads and dads keep care of moms.” I hope I do. I love my husband so much, but can be much better at showing it. He does so much for me every day.

I hope you get to give or send love to your dear ones today~

courage for the week 2.12.12

2012-02-12T00:02:00.000-06:00

health journal: healthy meal/snack ideas

2012-02-09T07:59:00.001-06:00

5 weeks down…wow! I really think what people have told me is true…if you can get through the first 3 weeks, you’ll start seeing a little progress and for me, there is nothing more motivating than jeans fitting better, or inches/pounds gone. You can start anytime! Alysa, our heart health trainer will help you get on track with your workouts~here is her latest post on staying motivated. This week I’m going to talk about FOOD.

I saw this sign on Pinterest, and I’m beginning to believe it:

So, I thought for this journal post, I’d share some of my favorite meals/snacks, and I would love to hear your favorites in the comments. I was really struggling my first 2 weeks and I came across this book in the Goodwill (I’m never in that store…).

and it spoke to me…because like I’ve told you before, I’m so not a salad for every meal girl. (I’m not in any way affiliated with this author or book, this is just my experience) So, I took it home and started reading. She focuses a lot on keeping your blood sugar steady so you don’t have the hunger, headaches, sugar cravings and eating a healthy proportion of protein, carbs and fat, eating every 4 hours, which was huge for me. You do a 7 day kick-start (that was the week I lost 3 pounds) and then can get a little more liberal from there if you want to. I love it, but the key is finding what speaks to you and what you can keep up with. Here are some of my favorite meals/snacks~some are from the book, some are not:

It looks gross, huh? But this is what I drink every morning:

Protein smoothie abt. 300 calories. 1 cup skim/soy/or almond milk, 1 frozen banana (get a bunch of ripe bananas, peel them, and put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer), 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, and 2 handfuls of spinach. I promise you can barely taste the spinach, and this keeps me completely full and going until lunch. I crave these things for breakfast and they are refreshing after a workout.

I also love this PB2 powder!It’s powdered peanut putter~they press the peanuts to remove the oil and fat, so you get the pb taste, but it’s only 45 calories and 1.5 g of fat per 2 Tbsp. I love it in smoothies as well!

In the book, there are also huevos rancheros (with potatoes!!) and spinach & feta scramble I love.

Some lunches that I love:

Egg salad in a pita pocket with about 8 strawberries 280 calories. 3 hard-boiled egg whites (half a yoke), 1 Tbs light mayo, green onion, and celery stuffed into a whole wheat pita pocket.

Cajun grilled shrimp with brown rice 250 calories: take 4 oz of shrimp (about 15 medium), cook it with some pam cooking spray, lemon, and some cajun seasoning, serve with 1/2 cup brown rice and some salad.

Tuna stuffed celery sticks with apple 270 calories : 2 oz chunk light tuna, with 1 hard boiled egg, 1 tbsp diced olives, 1 Tbsp light mayo, stuffed into 4 stalks of celery ~I eat with an apple or peach.

Bbq burger with 2 whole mandarin oranges 280 calories: Take a boca veggie burger, stuff it into a wheat pita pocket (or a wheat light bun) with 1 Tbs of bbq sauce and a cup of broccoli carrot slaw.

On Fridays, if I’ve been good, I love picking up some california rolls at Kroger’s sushi bar…yummmm. 280 calories

For my afternoon “meal”, I love a protein bar, (usually about 190 calories) with fruit.

or 2 light string cheeses with 2 slices of low sodium deli turkey (you can dip them in dijon mustard) with a big old grapefruit, sweetened with a little agave nectar.

I don’t trust splenda or equal. They are both full of chemicals~but Christine introduced me to natural agave nectar! Ooooh, but my favorite is this cinnamon cottage cheese sweet potato:

Take a small sweet potato (4-5 oz), steam it in the microwave, then slice it lengthwise, spread with 1 Tbs natural peanut butter, 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese, cinnamon, and 1 tsp agave nectar. Mmmmmm, love it. It sounds a little weird, but so good to me. 360 calories, but a lot of times I’ll leave off the pbutter to save some calories.

For dinner, I try to fill up half my plate with a big salad and/or veggies, and a small serving of what my family is having~usually some kind of protein or soup, stir fry, etc. but I have been trying to make our recipes more healthy. I love asian chicken wraps and thin crust veggie pizza when we order pizza on Fridays.

Desserts? If we’re making cookies/brownies, I just try to budget it in~maybe just do a small afternoon meal or skip it all together to make up for it. If we’re going to eat out, I try to go lighter for breakfast and lunch. It’s all about moderation…right? After dinner, I usually chew on gum if I’m still craving something sweet or drink some herbal tea.

Wow~that was a lot, but I love hearing what others like to eat, because that has been the hardest part for me. I want to hear YOUR favorites: snacks, meals, books or programs that have been successful for you?? Help us all out and spill it :)

BlogHer's Inspiration to Fitness page is here~you can join us on the road to health anytime.

The female Polar Ft7 watch giveaway is still going on here!

Polar FT7 fitness watch * heart monitor giveaway

2012-02-08T08:32:00.001-06:00

Okay folks, so far this one is my favorite: the Polar FT7 fitness watch & heart rate monitor. Here’s what you get: the chest band and the fitness watch. You initially set it up with your height, weight, etc. but after that, it’s pretty simple~let’s take it on a run to test it out, shall we? First you need to run the two gray parts of the strap under warm water, then strap the electrode-thingy on and strap it around your chest right under your bra. (Sorry, no picture of that one-ha!) It’s really quite comfortable and you get used to it in no time. Then, you get to monitor your heart rate AND what mode you are in: fat burn, or fitness. Do you know how tricky it is to take pictures while you are running? :) We’re starting to go uphill, watch my heart rate go up: Here is the hardest hill, suck it up…you can do it. We are most definitely in fitness now! you better believe it…. I’m getting such strange looks from other runners wondering why in the world I am taking pictures of my wrist while I’m running?? Can I say how much more I enjoy running outside than doing workout videos inside? Even in the middle of winter, I think it’s beautiful. Glorious fresh air! I love getting out in the morning, but if that doesn’t happen, exercising before dinner gives me the boost to get through the rest of the evening. When you are done, you can see how you did: nice Polar tells you how long you were in each mode. I better be blasting that fat off! Average heart rate and maximum heart rate throughout your workout: How long and how many calories: 258! Does that mean I get to eat 3 extra cookies tonight?? I kid, I kid. I can hear you yelling! It just means I’m that much closer to shedding another pound… right? One of you get one too!! To be entered for a chance to win, just leave me a comment and tell me why you would love this Polar FT7 fitness watch/heart rate monitor. Good luck! Note to mobile version users: to be entered, you have to click over to the comments on the actual blog, not the mobile version. Otherwise, your comments won’t be included~thanks! Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment (see above)
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will .be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 2/8 – 2/14 Also be sure to visit the Inspiration to Fitness page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers' reviews, get great fitness tips and find more chances to win! You can also click on the Best Buy image at the top of my blog to view a calendar of all the Inspiration to Fitness content. Good luck! Have you taken the fitness pledge? Best Buy does not sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any responsibility for this promotion.

a solution for the bathroom office

2012-02-06T13:26:00.001-06:00

We have a tiny master bathroom, so I have to make every available inch count. I wanted a spot to put newspapers and magazines that didn’t take any room on the floor. I loved this double pocket from Ballard, but it was horizontal, and I needed vertical. And it was $60. Booooo.

But my friend, TJ was reading my mind to the Maxx, because look what I found last week for $15!

I printed off my own numbers onto white cardstock, (the years we were born, using Engravers MT font)and it was the perfect solution for our bathroom “office.” Love that TJ.

We’re trying to put the baseboards on and caulk, hang a few frames and we should be there! More to come…

Do you have an bathroom office? Perhaps you read newspapers and magazines in a more refined location?

The winner of the Perfect Portions food scale giveaway, is #51 Kay She said: “I would love this scale. I just started logging my food earlier this month (boy, was that an eye opener) and my little scale is just pitiful” Congrats~I’ve emailed you, Kay!

courage for the week 2.5.11

2012-02-05T00:02:00.000-06:00

tidbits 2.3.12

2012-02-03T09:45:00.001-06:00

1. The winner of the Withings Body Scale is #29, kt7! Congrats! I’ve emailed you~

2. We were in Home Depot this week (of course we were.) and bathrooms are on my mind since we are in the middle of ours, and this vanity caught my eye for $299

It looks like their version of this PB one, but it’s about 80% less.

Do you pick out mickeys while you are there?

3. Gently: I like that word for driving.

4. trying fun new hats at Target on special time: they are putting out all of their spring stuff!

5. rainbow before school~it’s been gorgeous here!

6. This is my husband’s favorite shepherd’s pie recipe. Pure comfort food~don’t worry fitness girls…I only had 1/2 cup. I still eat the same dinner with my family, I’m finding it’s all about portion control. and filling half your plate with veggies. and drinking a full glass of water before eating.

7. I am over at Homemaker on a Dime talking about blogging, money, and balance~click here to come on over.

Have a wonderful weekend, you wonderful people!

health journal: keep going!

2012-02-02T09:38:00.001-06:00

We're still going and you know what? It’s getting easier! Hallu-loo-yer.

The first 2 weeks were killer getting back into exercising regularly and slowly reforming my normal eating habits, but it’s feeling more “normal” now, which is a good thing. Let’s talk about some more good & bad:

GOOD: In the first week especially, I would do great for about 2 days.

BAD: Then on the 3rd day, I would be eating great in the morning, get stressed out in the late afternoon, all of a sudden just say to heck with it and binge on whatever I could get my hands on in the pantry: coconut flakes, chocolate chips, graham crackers. Then I would feel awful, but think the day is wasted anyway who cares?

GOOD: BUT I came across this quote on Pinterest and it rang truth in my ears:

It has helped me get over my moments of weakness and not turn them into days of weakness. Love that Pinterest.

GOOD:Don't they say that it takes 21 days to break a habit? I can feel things changing, and that is SO good.

on pinterest One of the biggest things I’m noticing is that my cravings are changing. As in, when I drive past a McDonald’s now, I don’t all of a sudden want one of my favorite treats in the world: 3 of their warm, gooey, soft chocolate chip cookies with an ice water for $1.06. Or a Dairy Queen:an order of onion rings (with extra honey mustard, thank you) with a cherry dilly bar. That’s huge for me!! I drove past the other day, and thought, “that doesn’t even sound good right now... and that was awesome.

BAD: The scale didn’t budge the first week. So disappointing. Stupid program..why am I doing it anyway??

GOOD: But this week, I’m down a total of 3 pounds and 2 inches and that is VERY motivating. I’m starting to feel strong and healthy. What an awesome program BlogHer has put together!! :)

One last GOOD: I found these like new running shoes for $4 and then looked them up online to see that they are $120 new score! Run girl run.

So my 2 words for this week are: KEEP GOING!

Alysa, our heart health trainer is giving us some challenges each week, and she’s going to be switching things up from here on out to mix in some strength & flexbility training. Here is the first strength workout and flexibility will come next. She is awesome. BlogHer's Inspiration to Fitness page is here~you can join us on the road to health anytime!

How are your health goals coming? What's been good and bad for you?

Some great giveaways going on! Here they are:

Personal Microderm giveaway

$100 Olive Garden gift card giveaway

Kirkland’s $50 gift card giveaway

Personal Microderm Review & Giveaway

2012-02-01T10:45:00.000-06:00

Another amazing giveaway: the PMD Home Microderm Abrasion Device.

I’m not a spa girl. I can count the number of pedicures I’ve had in my life on one hand. So I was pretty nervous about doing a review on something I normally wouldn’t look at, let alone buy.

Here is what comes in the box:

The PMD device, the cord, 6 different discs to choose from, and 2 caps to fit the coordinating disc. AND an 8-minute instructional video, which I would be completely lost without.

I have to tell you, I take awesome “before” pictures. Here is one my SIL Kristine took when we were getting MAC makeovers:

There ain’t gonna be no beauty shots in this post folks.

Here’s how it works (from my understanding, using my terms, and totally not endorsed in any way by the company)

Plug it in and choose a disc. The discs are different sizes and grits: the large ones are for larger areas of skin and the smaller ones are for hard-to-get areas, like around the nose. They recommend starting with the blue moderate grit and working up to the green course grit if you need it.

The discs are coated with aluminum oxide crystals which will help remove the stratum corneum. What in the heck is the stratum corneum, you ask?

It is the top layer of skin: the flaky dead skin cells that prevent lotions from penetrating deep into the skin and can make your skin look thick and dry. The PMD’s job is to remove the stratum corneum to make your skin look soft and supple:

(picture from the instructional video that comes with the PMD)

Place the cap over the disc (picture from the instructional video that comes with the PMD)

and start moving it like a vacuum across your skin. It exfoliates and then sucks the dead, white, flaky skin cells away.(picture from the instructional video that comes with the PMD)

Then you just remove the disc, wash the filter where all of your tiny, flaky, dead skin goes, and that’s it.

And here I am with my shiny, smooth, PMD’d bare nekked skin. Don’t laugh!

You may not be able to tell a difference, but my skin felt super soft & smooth, tingly, fresh, and a tad pink. It’s something I plan to keep up, even though I would have probably never initially dropped the $180 to buy it. My spa insiders tell me microdermabrasion treatments cost $80-$150 a pop, so this would be a great investment if you have it done regularly.

A few things to note:

*DON’T hover over one spot for more than a second or two, because then it will give you baby love bites (hickies?), and it won’t be pretty.

*your skin will be extra sensitive to sun for the first couple of days; be sure to wear sunscreen.

* they tell you to buy the lotions and toners, but I’m perfectly happy with my good old facial moisturizers.

*they recommend no more than once a week in the beginning, and then you can eventually taper off to once a month.

And now it’s time to give one away! To be entered for a chance to win, just tell me: what is your best skin care tip?

See rules below.

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment:what is your best skin care tip?
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 2/1 - 2/7.

Also be sure to visit the Inspiration to Fitness page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers' reviews, get great fitness tips and find more chances to win! You can also click on the Best Buy image at the top of my blog to view a calendar of all the Inspiration to Fitness content. Good luck!

Best Buy does not sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any responsibility for this promotion.

Good luck!

quickie valentine banner

2012-01-31T19:26:00.001-06:00

Oh, I so needed a little crafty creative fix with all this healthy stuff and working on the master bathroom. This was just the thing.

These cute little heart clips were $1 in the Target dollar spot.

I printed out BE MINE (since there were six clips, a six letter phrase was perfect) in Ecuyer DAX font (free!) onto white cardstock. I think it was about size 200 font. I ripped apart a clear scrapbook page cover (ahem..since I don’t scrapbook anymore) and cut it into a triangle to fit over the letters and traced.

Amanda from Red Barn Candle Company shared how she uses $2 Walmart yarn for wannabe bakers twine in our favorite things party in December and I totally copied her!!

$1 for the clips, $2.xx for the yarn, and can I say the paper and ink are free since I already had them? Please?

thank you.

We’re planning on filling the bottom part with hearts that

say what you love about each member of the family (we got the idea from Shawni and did it last year)

SOOOO under $10 and SOOOO under 1 hour.

project master bed & bath + kirkland’s gift card

2012-01-31T08:03:00.001-06:00

Our next project?? The master bedroom and bathroom. Let the fun begin :)do you think I should choose one of these colors, or perhaps a mosaic all around the room? :)

The bathroom is COMING and we hope to finish it up this week. Here’s a little sneak peak:

For the bedroom, we got a fantastic piece to get us started, sent to us from Kirkland’s.

It’s the Weston mirror, for only $69.99. I think it will go perfectly over the bed:

They have a fantastic selection of mirrors, online and in their stores. Here are some of my favorites:

Kirkland’s is so kind and wants to give one of you a $50 gift card, good for online or in stores! Just go over and check out their mirrors and tell me which one is your favorite in the comments.

Official rules here.

Good luck!

$100 Olive Garden gift card giveaway!

2012-01-30T07:38:00.001-06:00

Well, that got your attention, didn’t it? Do you love Olive Garden as much as we do? With 5 kids, we hardly ever go out to eat. It costs a small fortune, and honestly, it just makes more sense for us to stay at home and order pizza. When the opportunity came through BlogHer for us all to go to Olive Garden, we were super excited. My kids: “You mean a real restaurant?”

I love that Olive Garden is very family-friendly but nice enough to feel “special.”

What should we eat??

Thank goodness for fun children’s menus to keep little ones entertained while we’re waiting for the best part: salad and breadsticks!!

Another trick I learned from my skinny friends: when the meal comes, ask for a box right away. Divide your portion in half and put half in the box so you won’t be tempted to eat the whole gosh darn thing. I loved the feeling of being satisfied, not stuffed.

I’m gonna use that trick again! I ordered the Grilled Shrimp Caprese and loved it. My husband really liked his Chicken Scampi.

This isn't the school’s chocolate milk! They said it was like melted creamsicles :) I love restaurants that give kids cups with lids. Do you think it’s more for the moms or the clean-up staff? Probably both, huh?

The pizza was a big hit from the children’s menu and so was the ravioli.

We ALL had leftovers, so thank you, Olive Garden, for lunch on Saturday as well!

Do you know what I did though?? I was so good about setting half my dinner aside, and guess who forgot her box on the table?

I was so ready the next day; my mouth was watering for Shrimp Caprese, and I started opening all the boxes and was SO sad. Don’t forget your box on the table, even though your 3 year old is throwing a tantrum, and you're trying to quickly distract him out to the parking lot.

If this post made you hungry, then you should check out Olive Garden's new 3 Course Italian Dinner special. For $12.95 you get three courses, the first course is soup or salad, followed by a choice of one of five new entrees and the third course is one of five Dolcini desserts! Check out the details here.

What could be better than enjoying a dinner out? Enjoying it for free, of course! Olive Garden and BlogHer are giving one lucky reader a $100 Olive Garden gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, just make our mouth water and tell us: what is your favorite thing to eat at Olive Garden?

Good Luck!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

This sweepstakes runs from 1/23/12 - 3/18/12.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment (see question above in bold)

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

Also, visit the Olive Garden page on BlogHer.com to check out the other blogger reviews and more chances to win!

courage for the week 1.29.11

2012-01-29T00:02:00.000-06:00

I loved these questions from Margaret S. Lifferth…full talk found here.

health journal: target heart rate & exercising

2012-01-26T09:28:00.001-06:00

Well hello, health journal. Here I am again to deeply ponder and analyze the previous week. If you’re new, I’m participating in BlogHer’s Inspiration to Fitness Program. You can read all of my previous posts here.

The goals for this week that I made with my heart health trainer, Alysa were:

1. Find my target heart rate zone, and be aware how my body feels at different levels while exercising.

2. Exercise for at least 30 minutes, 6 days a week.

For the first one, you can got to lots of different websites to find your target heart rate. I like WebMd~and my target heart rate zone is between 93 and 140 beats in a minute while I’m exercising, not to exceed 193. I have the coolest gadget I will share with you next week that helps me track this while I’m working out, but basically it’s good to be aware of how you are feeling when you are exercising, so you can know when to push harder, or take it down a notch.

I just hear Jillian’s voice in my head: “you’ve got to PUSH your body to adapt to change…it’s mind over matter…” or whatever it is she says. If I’m just la-la-laing my way through exercise and my heart rate isn’t being pushed up, I know my body isn’t changing. If I’m not feeling sore at all this week when I wake up, I know I need to change things up a bit. It has really helped me be aware of how my body is feeling and hard it’s being challenged during the workouts.

I made the exercise goal, but with a little “adaptation.” One of the days, I woke up late (we stayed up way too late catching up on some Downton Abbey), the kids were out of school and we had stuff planned, then it was too dark to go running, and then I was too darn tired to do an exercise video and didn’t feel like facing Jillian, so….I skipped that day and ate 4 peanut butter oatmeal cookies my daughter made for family night to round everything off. Bad Melissa.

he tries to do Jillian with me~my favorite is when we do high knees!!

I was feeling extra guilty, so I fit in 2 the next day~I went running in the morning and then did an exercise video in the afternoon. That’s basically what I do for exercise: run or do a dvd, because it can happen anytime: in the morning, afternoon, or at night. No excuses, right? I love getting out to run and that is my first choice, but winter weather can be tricky, so it’s good to have Jillian as my back-up. I’m actually kind of getting to the point where I miss exercise if I don’t fit it in. I *love* the feeling afterward, isn’t the hardest part just getting your buns up to go? It is for me…

So, my question for you this week is: what is your favorite workout dvd? I’m ready to switch things up a bit, and I would love to know which ones you LOVE and have had good success with.

The Perfect Portions Food Scale Giveaway is still going on here!

Perfect Portions Food Scale Giveaway

2012-01-25T10:26:00.001-06:00

So by now, you all know I’m on a journey to better health and well being. Take the pledge and join me!

For me, that includes tracking what I’m eating. Now, some of my friends have said, “Track every calorie/thing I eat? I could never do that!”

And I was one of them. But, it really shines light on your habits and portion sizes and has helped me see where I need change. It’s very educational, and it helps you make choices like, do I want this Almond Joy that will leave me feeling empty in half an hour or that big sweet potato that will last me for the afternoon and is loaded with vitamins?

A lot of my skinny friends say it was key to helping them at the beginning. It’s not something I’m planning to do hard core my whole life, because once you get the hang of it, you know things like that a fistful of almonds is around 160 calories, and you don’t have to weigh and measure everything (or so I’m told!)

Please meet my best friend in helping me with this: thePerfect Portions - Food Scale with Nutritional Calculator from Best Buy ~ Instantly adjust your food's nutritional facts to your portion size with this food scale and nutritional calculator in one. A touch of a button shows you how many calories are in food and also tracks the sugar content.

Here is what came with the Perfect Portions scale: 3 things, that’s all! I love simplicity.

I also love that it fits neatly into a skinny kitchen drawer:

and that it nicely hides my stash. :) Like I’m going to cut out chocolate!! I'm just trying to eat better chocolate and less of it.

Back to the scale~

First, you turn on the side button, then place the bowl, cup, etc that will hold the food (if you are using one) on the scale and press ZERO. Not the number 0 but the word ZERO. I was cursing this scale, pushing 0, wondering why it didn’t work, and then I finally saw that darn ZERO button.

Duh. You’ll be way smarter than me.

I am making sweet potato chips today. Well, they are supposed to be sweet potato fries, but let’s just say I’m not sophisticated with a knife, so I do slices because they are easier for me. (We love the OBB recipe!)

Once I figured out the zero thing, I have zero complaints. Honestly, I think it’s worth every penny of the $50 price tag if it lasts a good long time.

AND it’s entertainment; my kids love to throw random things on there to see what they weigh. In case you wanted to know, Rory weighs 136 grams.

And they told me I can’t eat him.

Of course, we’re giving one away! To be entered for a chance to win, just leave me a comment and tell me why you would love this scale.

Best Buy does not sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any responsibility for this promotion.

courage for the week 1.22.12

2012-01-22T00:02:00.000-06:00

Southern Living Style book

2012-01-20T14:26:00.001-06:00

When I was contacted to see if I would like to review the new Southern Living Style book, I had to think about it for about 2 seconds. Yes, (ma’am!!) You know that I’m completely smitten with a previous Southern Living before & after magazine that was the inspiration for my living room tablescape.

Speaking of which, do you think they left that beautiful piece out?? Of course not:

It’s full of tips and quotes from homeowners and designers,

But the PICTURES is where it’s at!

Bedrooms,

(you just may be seeing my version of this orange dresser and driftwood mirror in my boys’ room…love.)

kitchens, dining rooms, and offices.

and great ideas for artwork.

do you like to take the dust jackets off of books to see what’s underneath??

I do.

Pinterest is awesome, but there is just something about having your own book on your nightstand or coffee table you can look through and pore over page after page of loveliness. And the best part? Bookmarking pages of ideas with stickies that no one else will see.

You can buy it on Amazon, or most bookstores.

health journal: water & emotional eating

2012-01-19T13:04:00.001-06:00

I’m participating in BlogHer’s Inspiration to Fitness Program! You can see more about it at the blue bar at the very top of my blog.

My two goals for this past week were:

1. Drink 8 glasses of water each day

2. Write down everything I eat

The water was no problem, once I set up a little system. My glasses hold 16 oz, so I drink one in the morning, one at lunch, one in the afternoon when the kids get home, and one at dinner. Easy peasy. I’ve always loved water, never been a soda girl, and I can feel a difference with the way I feel already with that one. Half the time I’m hungry, I’m thinking I may be thirsty. Go water!

The next goal. THE NEXT GOAL.

yikes.

I. eat. a lot.

Without even realizing it. This has been such an eye opener for me. I was thinking to myself in December when I agreed to do the New Year, New Year thing: I don’t eat that much! I don’t know why I’m gaining weight. I need to exercise more. But it all adds up and as my body gets older, it’s not going to be forgiving about it as it has been. I eat as I’m making the kids’ lunches in the morning. I eat when I’m cleaning up breakfast. When I’m making/cleaning up lunch. Same with dinner. I got embarrassed at how many things I would have to write down if I hadn’t caught myself because of this little goal. Awareness is going to be a huge step for me.

And do you want to talk about emotional eating? Oh, wow.

It was Wednesday night, the laundry was piled up by the kitchen table ready to be folded, I was helping my daughter on her project, prodding my boys’ to clean up their room before they went out to play, my husband called and reminded me of something we had later on that night, which meant dinner had to be in half an hour. BLAST. What are we even having for dinner?? I headed right for the pantry~not to start dinner, but to soothe myself with food. I stopped myself (because of this goal) and foraged through my purse for an old, crumb filled piece of sweet mint gum. I feel a bit like a druggie.

It happened lots: a text with some sad, sad news about a dear friend. I headed for the pantry as I thought about the text.

I got an awesome email with some good news from a fellow blogger. To the pantry!

I forgot to write in my son’s journal for school and as he got ready I was thinking of something clever to write. I went to the pantry..I guess food helps my creativity??

I remember watching an Oprah where they were talking about emotional eating and someone in the audience asked: why can’t it just be about the food? What if I just love food and that’s why I’m fat? And the expert lady answered, “it’s never about the food. Otherwise, you would be at your ideal weight, because you would only eat when you were hungry.” Probably not the exact words, but you get the idea. And I thought, “what a bunch of crock. I’m not an emotional eater, and I’m overweight.”

Really, Melissa?

So, thanks to my younger sister, I’ve invested in some of the Extra dessert gum to tide me over when I head to deal with things with food. I’ve gone through 3 packs this week. I would love to get to a point where I don’t need anything in my mouth, but for now it’s a good alternative.

So that’s where I’m at right now~a little disgusted with myself, but kind of relieved that this may be a big part of the puzzle. We’ll see. I’m tracking my food online at sparkpeople.com because I don’t have a smart phone, but I know there is lots of cool apps out there to just track what you’re eating. There are lots of things I simply didn’t want to eat because I didn’t want to write it down. It’s a HUGE first step for me.

My next 2 goals I’ve made with my heart health expert, Alysa :

1. Find my target heart rate zone, and be aware how my body feels at different levels while exercising.

2. Exercise for at least 30 minutes, 6 days a week. Sundays are off! I don’t keep track of my eating either.

What about you: are you an emotional eater? How did you confront it? How are your goals coming?

I love your tips and suggestions~you’re keeping me going!

p.s. the Withings Smart Body Scale giveaway (measures % body fat, bmi, and weight and sends it wirelessly to you!) is still going on here.

The winner of the Zeo Sleep Manager is Heather @ Sunshine and Some Tea ! Congrats!!

Withings Smart Body Scale giveaway

2012-01-18T08:54:00.001-06:00

On the second week of New Year, New You my true love sent to me: a Withings Smart Body Scale!

Look at how sleek and slim and pretty it is:

Kind of makes you want to be sleek and slim yourself, doesn’t it??

I was sure it was going to be a beast to set up since it’s all up to-do date and techy, but not at all. Put the batteries (came with it) in the back, attach the feet if you will be using it in carpet, then take it to your computer, iPhone, iPad, whatever wireless device you use, and connect it with the USB.

From there, you will set up an account on the Withings website, complete with a username and password. The whole process took less than 10 minutes. Here’s the cool thing: every time you weigh yourself, you simply step on the scale. You don’t have to push on, tap it once to get to zero, etc.

In a few seconds, your weight will come up, Uhhhh, obviously this is not me~it’s my handy assistant!

then your BMI, then your % body fat. It’s sending it to your wireless device!

You’ll see the little bar fill up and you’ll know that it’s sent to your wireless device where it’s stored safely. Then, it goes dark and no one will ever know your weight if you don’t want them too. If you see one of these scales at a friend’s house, don’t step on it when you are in the bathroom! Because your weight will be sent to the owner’s online account. It will show up as an unknown user.

BUT if you’ve always wanted to know how much your skinny friend weighs, ask her to test your scale to see if it’s accurate. bwahahaha :) My friends are making a mental note to never come near it at my house.

My favorite things

It graphs your weight so you can see your progress and determine what’s working and what may not be. You can choose to have it emailed to you. Whether you weight yourself weekly or daily, you can see the little trends and try to think about what may have influenced them? Tuxedo cheesecake? Lots of water that day? Maybe that exercise is finally starting to pay off in the weight department? If the weight is beginning to creep up, you can make changes that day: a salad for lunch may be in order.

I love how it looks.

It is so simple, and it tracks my BMI and % body fat as well.

Everyone who uses the scale can set up a separate account where they can track their progress as well.

Drawbacks?

The price. It’s a healthy investment at $160. I would have never given it a second glance at that price, but now that I’ve used it, I’m thinking that it would be a fantastic gift for anyone that loves health/body stuff.

I don’t see how any scale can accurately test your % body fat from your bare feet? I’m tempted to take a real body fat test at my doctor’s and compare.

But, of course the best part is that we’re giving one away!!

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post: why would the Withings Smart Body Scale be a good thing for you?
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 1/18 - 1/24
Be sure to visit the Promotions & Prizes page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Also be sure to visit the Inspiration to Fitness page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers' reviews, get great fitness tips and find more chances to win! You can also roll over the Best Buy image at the top of my blog to view a calendar of all the Inspiration to Fitness content. Good luck!
Best Buy does not sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any responsibility for this promotion.

Good luck!

how to install diy subway tile backsplash

2012-01-17T17:33:00.001-06:00

Previously, our backsplash was just your basic beige laminate. We googled installing a tile backsplash over laminate and the recommendations were mixed. Some said not to do it, others said you should be fine if the laminate was in good shape and you roughed it up real good. When our over-the-stove microwave was installed, we could see that the laminate went up quite a way behind the cabinets. We figured it was going nowhere. So..guess which one we went with?? We are DIY rebels.

1. Turn off the electricity to the outlets! Then double check to make sure they are off. Did you double and triple check? Okay, thank you.

2. Then, we roughed up the backsplash with some heavy duty, 60 grit sandpaper to prepare the surface for the tile.

Next comes the mastic. You just buy this in a bucket at your home improvement store.

Apply a layer with a notched trowel to get yourself some nice grooves.

And then start applying the tile. Watch a bunch of youtube video tutorials and you’ll get a good idea of what you’re going to do. It’s basically a big puzzle~we worked from the bottom middle up and you just go along placing your tiles with little spacers in between.

When you come to the outlets (are you SURE your power is off?? double check.) just unscrew them slightly so you can get the tiles behind the metal things on the top and bottom of the outlet.

We bought this trusty little tile saw at the Home Depot over 4 years ago and it’s never let us down for our little tile jobs.

You’re going to run into some tricky cuts around outlets and corners, so this is how we do it: make the cut for both sides for where the outlet will go

then, make a bunch more cuts in between,

so they will be easier to break off with tile nippers (that’s what they’re really called!)

and there it fits. Those cuts don’t have to be perfect because the outlet cover will be hiding most of it.

and just keep moving down the line. Let the mastic dry overnight, then you can apply your grout. I like the look of unsanded grout better, but you’ll want to use sanded if your spaces are bigger. They also sell pre-mixed grout, so you don’t even have to worry about mixing it up.

I didn’t take pictures, but basically you apply the grout with a rubber floatlike Katie from Bower Power!

until you fill all of the tile joints, then you wipe the tiles with a sponge, smoothing over the grout. Let it dry for about 20 minutes and when a haze forms on the tile, you polish the surface with the sponge, being careful not to rub the grout out of the joints. It’s really not bad, I promise!

Listen to Rocky.

courage for the week 1.15.12

2012-01-15T00:02:00.000-06:00

a new year, new you

2012-01-12T09:34:00.001-06:00

In December, BlogHer approached me about doing a New Year, New You initiative with Best Buy and participating in the Inspiration to Fitness program. I was in the midst of scarfing down treats from the neighbors, white fudge oreos, and coconut almond chex mix. I hadn’t exercised in at least 3 weeks. My first thought was that you’ve got the wrong girl. I’m not a fitness girl, gym girl, or count every calorie, always order a salad when we go out to eat girl. Not even close.

I’ve always loved food and loved to eat and have honestly never really dieted. Well, I tried once in college with my roommates: we did the cabbage soup diet and lasted 1.5 days? I didn’t even know how to diet, or really how much I weighed, or counting calories, which is a credit to my mom. She never focused on that kind of stuff (even though looking back at some pictures…uhhh….maybe she should have said something, but I love her more because she didn’t)

1995 with my baby sister Kerri my senior year in high school

I got married when I was 22, got pregnant soon after and actually started dropping weight. Maybe it was because we were poor and couldn’t afford junk food, or maybe the whole emotional roller coaster of dating and college life was over, I don’t know.1999 in my first maternity outfit with my first baby!

I stayed fairly slim~not crazy skinny, but nothing I ever worried about. 2006

When we lived in Idaho, I was friends with some runner girls and they got me going. They would be waiting outside my door at 6 a.m. and wouldn’t let me fail. We all ran a half marathon in 2006 and was in the best shape of my life running about 3 miles a day with long runs on the weekends. My husband said he’d do it too and I hated him because he barely trained and totally schooled me. I tried to eat healthy, but I wasn’t obsessive about it. It felt so good. 2006 my husband and I ran the Great Potato Half Marathon

Fast forward 6 years, some major thyroid issues, 2 babies later and wow, things have changed. I’ve gained about 15 pounds, I haven’t run over 1.5 miles in a loooong time, and I’ve got a blogger belly. That’s where I gain my weight (my mid-section: I’m a total apple) and it’s not pretty. Doing projects around the house and sitting on a chair at a computer is not so productive in the calorie burning department. And I’m realizing that I can’t wolf down 6 chocolate chip cookies anymore without some consequences. I know I eat emotionally…a lot. I’ve seen a few pictures of myself in the past couple of months that have made me want to cry. I’ve been asked twice when I am due when I’ve been in Lowes. (really…Lowes??) It’s time for me to put my health back on my priority list. My husband and kids deserve the very best Melissa, and my well-being affects everything in the home.

Every week I’ll post a journal-type post about my progress, what I’m doing and I’ll have some fun giveaways along the way from Best Buy! The cool part is that you can join us! I'm following registered dietician, Alysa's Heart Health Track exercises and challenges. Are you ready to begin the journey to new health?

My first assignment is to set 2 specific goals for the week and schedule in exercise for 30 minutes, 6 times a week.

My first goals:

1. Drink 8 glasses of water each day

2. Write down everything I eat

I can do this…right?? I’ve got to admit: part of me is scared to death to be doing this publicly on the blog, but it’s going to be a good thing for me. What about you? Will you join us?

Have you been successful at taking more steps to be healthy/lose weight? Do you have any tips for me? I need all the help and motivation I can get.

Here we go…

* If you roll over the Best Buy image at the top of my blog, you can view a calendar of all the Inspiration to Fitness content.

You can enter to win the first giveaway here: a Zeo sleep manager!

sleep? oh yeah, the thing I used to do before kids…

2012-01-11T10:07:00.001-06:00

I used to have a wish that I would never need sleep, that I could stay up all the time and get things done while everyone else slept. I would never be behind.

My laundry would be neatly folded in the drawers. I would leave sweet notes everywhere for my kids and husband. I could learn new instruments and languages. I would be ripped because I surely would exercise for at least 2 hours a day. My legs would be shaved every day, my toenails freshly painted, and I would grow all of our food and store it like Ma.

My projects would all be caught up, and my emails would all have thoughtful responses the minute they showed up in my inbox. I would put cinnamon rolls out for the garbage men.

Pah!

I’ve decided there is a reason God made us NEED sleep. I think He wants us to slow down, to rest, to look back on the day, and to have a fresh start the next morning.

To decide how to spend our precious 16 hours of awake time.

To look at those sweet sleeping angels who love you no matter how much you messed up today.

To be forced to choose the best things for you and your family among all the choices in life.

For the next 7 weeks, I am joining BlogHer and Best Buy for a New Year, New You program. They will send me a new product every week to review and to give one away to one of you as well. I will also be journaling in a weekly post how my health/fitness goals are going.

So…what does this have to do with sleep?!

This was my first surprise in the mail:

A Zeo Sleep Manager: get a full picture of your sleep habits with this mobile sleep manager that features an adjustable SoftWave sensor headband to track sleep stages and measure REM and deep sleep. The SmartWake alarm helps you wake up refreshed and ready for your day.

In Melissa terms: charge the sensor, snap it into the head band, turn on your smart phone (this is my husband’s), download the free app. It should recognize the sensor. Put the headband on, and your phone will tell you when it picks up the signal (about 20 seconds for me) and then it tells you to go to sleep.

The Zeo Sleep Manager shows you not only how much sleep you get, but what kind of sleep your body is getting and breaks your night into quarters.

This was a bad night: my 3 yr old woke up a bunch with a stuffy nose and coughing. In this quarter, I only got 9 minutes of deep sleep. Not good, Melissa!

The cool thing? It will gently wake you up in a window when it’s the best time for your body to wake, instead of being jolted out of a deep sleep.

We all know sleep can make or break your next day, so it’s helpful to track the nights you are getting good deep sleep and then thinking about what made it happen.

Does caffeine make a difference? What time you exercise? A hot bath or shower?

For me, it comes down to this: I can sleep like a rock if my kids do. They think my headband is hot, too.

I do have to say I’ve become a bit ~~obsessed~~ enamored with this Zeo. It’s something that I probably never would have purchased on my own, but I love to wake up and see how many minutes of deep sleep I got and when I got it. My husband laughs at me positioning my headband before bed, but it’s quite fascinating to me~it makes such a big difference when I get more deep sleep.

AND of course...we’re giving one away!

Just let me know in the comments: do you have any tricks or tips for a good night’s sleep?

Good luck!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment (see above)

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 1/11/ 2012 - 1/17/2012.

Best Buy does not sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any responsibility for this promotion.

how to paint kitchen cabinets

2012-01-10T11:43:00.004-06:00

Goodness gracious this is going to be long, so let’s go!

Set your time you’re going to do it. There will never be a perfect time with nothing going on, you’ve just got to block it off the calendar and GO! We chose to do it in the spring when my husband could give me 2 full days when he had some time off for spring break.

Then, you’ve got to set up shop. Cover any surfaces you don’t want to get paint on. Most of our work was done in the garage, and we used the kitchen counter as well.

1. Remove all doors and hardware and let your handy, super strong assistant separate them into bags.

Number all doors and drawers with numbers and leave a number back where you got them from so there is no confusion and they will hang correctly when you re-attach them.

while we were painting, we kept the number right above the door. It got hit with the sprayer, but you can still see the number, right?

We spray painted our hinges with brushed nickel spray paint, so my boys put the screws in a piece of styrofoam to get them ready for spray paint.

If you have lots of build-up on your cabinets you may have to clean first with a degreaser. The Zinsser primer we used said specifically to avoid TSP cleaner, so we skipped that and just used Fantastik spray degreaser. Sand all the doors and drawers with an electric palm sander. If you don’t have one, it is well worth the $30 investment!! Fill in any big scrapes or holes with wood filler, let it dry then sand them down nice and smooth.

For the cabinet bases, we used a liquid sandpaper to get them ready for paint:

Then the real fun begins. We had a paint sprayer we used to stain our fence, so we used it to apply the primer. We did a trial run on my daughter’s furniture~you can read more about that here. We used Zinsser’s oil based primer, and since it’s fairly thin, it worked in the sprayer like a dream mixed with some Penetrol.

We didn’t use the sprayer for the paint though because it was too thick. If you don’t have a sprayer, the small foam rollers and a quality brush (you can’t go wrong with Wooster or Purdy brand!)will work just fine.

Don’t I look HAPPY?!

Apply 2 coats of primer, then sand lightly with a super fine sanding block to get them super smooth and ready for paint.

and then wipe them down to get all of the dust off. Let dry.

Then, the real painting begins! First, I have to tell you a little back story on the paint. When we did our trial run in my daughter’s room, we used Benjamin Moore Impervo paint in white dove. I had done my research online as far as what people had used and been happy with and BM Impervo paint came highly recommended. The only problem is that it takes forever to dry(okay, when I say forever, for us it was 24 hours per coat and I’m not patient) We were on our second day, my husband had some deadlines and we were going to go out of town for the second half of spring break, so we decided to go with something that was quicker drying since we wanted to do 2 coats and be done with it. I was sick of trying to keep the kids out of the kitchen.

So, I ran to Lowes and got their kitchen & bath paint that they mixed in white dove (most stores have Benjamin Moore colors in their computers)

And it dried much faster and we finished the painting for the most part that second day. Let me say that this is not bad paint. But the areas we used the Impervo paint on, including my daughter’s furniture, is rock hard and I love the satin enamel finish the impervo settles into after a few weeks. I try to scratch it with my nail and it’s really, really hard to do. I don’t have to work too hard to scratch the Lowes paint. Looking back, I wish I would have been patient and just gone with the Impervo as much of a pain it would have been for it to dry. My advice would be to go into Benjamin Moore and tell them that you are painting your kitchen cabinets and see what they recommend. I give the Impervo two thumbs up, once it’s dried and cured. John & Sherry at Young House Love are using BM’s Advance Paint and seem to love that, so check them both out. And that is Melissa’s take on things…back to the painting process.

It works best if you can have one (or more) painting bases on the inside, while the doors and drawers are being painted in the garage.

A few more things:

We wanted to bulk the moulding at the top of the cabinets up, so we added a small piece of trim, painted over it all,

then ran some caulk along the top:

When we painted the drawers with the small foam rollers and a quality paint brush, we let them hang slightly over the counter edge and that worked well. Also a tip: even though your drawers will seem dry, they may stick when you put them back in and they sit against the cabinet bases for awhile. Apply a thin coat of vaseline where the drawer meets the base to prevent sticking and ripping off the paint. You can wipe it off after a week or so when everyone is complaining that ewwww, the inside edges of the drawers are sliiiimy!

The best part is putting the hardware back on and re-attach the doors. It looks sooo much better. It was worth it…right?? :)

(More after pictures and sources here.)

Let’s put this crazy long post into simple, to the point steps:

1. Prepare to set up shop~you’ll need lots of room to work. Protect areas you don’t want to get splattered with paint. Read a bunch of tutorials online to see what worked for them, then decide what’s best for you.

2.Remove cabinets, hardware, spray paint hinges. Number them so you can put them back in the right spot.

3. Sand everything down including bases, then wipe them down.

4. Use two coats of Zinsser oil based primer on all visible wood surfaces (we didn’t paint the inside of the cabinets, except for one where the glass doors were installed), letting them dry in between coats. Lightly sand and remove dust.

5. Use two coats of Benjmain Moore Impervo (color: white dove) letting them dry between coats.

6. Replace hardware

7. Re-hang and LOVE!

If you have any questions, ask in the comments! There have been some great questions, and I’ll follow up with one more follow up post to answer them all in one spot. I have no affiliation with any of these products or brands~thisis just our experience. Thanks for sticking with me~happy Tuesday!