Bunny in a Jar

I made a little Easter gift for Tom on the weekend. Nothing outrageous, just something to say, "thinking of you". I saw this idea on a link party this week, but I forgot to pin it, so I don't know who it belongs to. Whoever you are, thank you and take a little bow.

Super simple, you just need a mason jar, some ribbon, and a chocolate bunny that fits in the jar. I emphasis that because the first one I bought was too wide. I tried to shave some chocolate off of his feet - the widest part - but he broke in half. A little temper tantrum followed. (I had fallen off of the stool into the closet trying to get the mason jar so I was already annoyed.) That was my only bunny so the gift idea went out the window. But I had to go out later to get more paint brushes so I picked up another (skinnier) one.

You just add ribbon (or easter grass) to the bottom of the jar, put in your bunny, drop a few chocolate eggs around him, and close the jar. You can then add a ribbon to the outside to fancy it up if you want. The only spring-like ribbon I had on hand was some light green with silver dots. It works though, don't you think?

I like 'im. Sweet and sparkly. And pretty tasty too.

How was your Easter?


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I'm linking up here this week!

Teddy Bear

No update on the kitchen today. Really, it'd just be about watching paint dry and that's about as exciting as...well, you know.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we were looking after my in laws' dog. Now that I've recovered from the lack of sleep that went along with having him here, I can share some pictures. Because this dog is a cutie. Straight-up, teddy-bear-fluffy, can't-stop-hugging-him cute.

His name is Bosco and he's a Chow Chow. He's also mostly blind so you'll notice that his expression doesn't change much from picture to picture. I'm not sure he even knew I was taking his picture. He just kept walking towards me looking to be petted.

And boy, does he like to be petted. I would spend every morning getting ready for work with the dog pressed against my legs. Every 30 seconds or so he would paw at me, like, "Hey, I'm still here you know. Get to the petting."

He also likes to bark. Not constantly though. Just here and there when you're least expecting it. Like at 3am. I think he wakes up, doesn't know where anyone is, and wants to make sure he's not alone. Even if it means getting yelled at. Negative attention is better than no attention, right?

So he pretty much annoyed me all week (before this I was always begging to have him stay with us), but I forgive him now. He's more than welcome to come back again. For the day. Or maybe a weekend. As long as I can sleep in afterwards.

A Kitchen Update

Betcha forgot all about the kitchen makeover we're working on, didn't you? Or maybe you thought I forgot all about it - though considering the awful view of open cupboards I get every time I walk into the kitchen, there is no way I could forget.

The original plan was to strip off the green factory stain and re-stain it a dark espresso brown. The kitchen walls are BM Ranchwood, and we plan to install a white backsplash - either tile or beadboard. However, stripping the stain has been a bear of a job. Just horrible. It's been 5 and a half months and we aren't even halfway along. Though to be honest we haven't been working that hard on it lately since we can only work in the garage, on the weekend, with the door closed because it's been so cold out.

So, a couple of weeks ago we talked it over and decided to go with white painted cabinets. I know, everyone's doing white cabinets right now. And that's one reason I was really opposed to it. But I think it's time to be realistic about what we can accomplish. The stripping/sanding is so uneven, and most of the doors are particle board so there is the constant fear of sanding too hard and losing the wood grain completely.

Also, since our kitchen has no window, staining the cupboards brown, along with a marbled brown countertop and terracotta coloured tile just says dark, dark, dark.

We have a lot of experience staining wood but not much experience with painting it. So I did my research, read lots of other blogs, and kept reminding myself that to do this properly it was going to take some time. Most of the online recommendations were for Benjamin Moore paint and primer, and since they are our faves anyway, that decision was easy. We bought BM Fresh Start latex primer and BM Advance paint in pearl finish.

Why pearl? Semi-gloss is just too shiny, and satin finish - my first choice - wasn't available. I like the slight sheen of pearl and there is enough of a contrast with the walls (matte) and trim (semi-gloss). We didn't have the paint tinted as I didn't want to have to worry about colour-matching it later. The out-of-the-can colour is a clean, crisp white anyway.

Saturday morning we started with the pantry in the dining room area. It's a small space that we could finish completely without interfering with the rest of the house (and use it as practice). We hung plastic sheeting to divide the dining room from the rest of the downstairs and sanded the sides and front edges of the cabinet. Green dust everywhere - even with a dust collection sleeve on the power sander. After wiping it down with TSP we were ready.

The instructions on the paint cans recommend 3 hours drying time between coats of primer, and 16 hours between coats of paint. 16 hours! But we don't want to have to do this twice, so we're not cutting corners.

one coat of primer done

This is where we are on Sunday night. We've applied two coats of primer and one coat of paint to the pantry cabinet and to the two doors on the table. And we've applied one coat of primer to the doors on the floor (started later).

Each coat doesn't take very long to apply so we should be able to work on it each night after work and have it finished for the weekend. We're still trying to locate 8mm Blum dowels to reinstall the hinges (without paying crazy shipping charges) but I hope we can install the doors in a week or so.

It's so nice to feel like we're moving along with this project now as it felt stalled for so long. And the room is looking brighter already so I think this was a good decision. I honestly can't wait to work on it some more. Maybe I should take the week off work? I am feeling kind of sick (cough, cough). ;-)