Antique Glazing

Over the last week I took on a project which is a preliminary project to the one I am planning on taking on. I wanted to make sure I liked it enough to do it on ALL my kitchen cabinets. So before ruining my kitchen, I decided to give it a trial run on my laundry room cabinets. Pictured below you can kind of see the cabinets before. They were just a boring golden oak (this is how all the cabinets in the house are). Special thanks to my friend Nicole for giving me the idea & giving me pointers on how to get it done. And another thanks goes out to the random guy who's youtube video helped me tremendously :)

First I took all the doors off & handles. Then I primed everything twice with KILZ. (I found it easiest to use the spray paint on the doors since I could take them outside). Then I got a high gloss latex paint and had it colored ANTIQUE WHITE. I only had to go over everything once because the primer did so well. I let everything dry overnight just to be safe.

Then I got an awesome oil based glaze from Benjamin Moore in Kaysville (they are awesome there & helped me out) and the guy tinted it to be VERY dark brown.

I learned that using an oil based glaze is best because it doesn't dry as quickly as latex so you have more time to work and make things perfect. You also have up to an hour to remove with water.

{Pictured below is the doors after paint, before glaze}

I just used cheap foam brushes for all my painting. I painted with the glaze all over where the cracks on the doors are & then using a very damp cloth I wiped off all the excess. It's not important to be careful when applying the glaze because it wipes off super easy. You just want to make sure you get it into those cracks super good so that even when you wipe along the cracks the glaze stays in there where you want it to be.

If the cabinets are somewhere used frequently you should go over them with a clear coat so that the glaze doesn't wear off over time. I chose not to do that with these ones since they are in my laundry room but with my kitchen I will be sure to!

{Picture below is the cabinets all finished!}

What do you think?!

Happy 24th bday to Rach!

My birthday this year was quite boring. I was still sick with the flu so my older siblings didn't want to bring their families up to celebrate with the chance of getting the kids sick. So needless to say we never really celebrated my bday. The highlight of my birthday was all the birthday wishes I received on facebook, a sign made for me by my family & dinner at Red Robin which made me feel sick & the cupcake they brought me made me feel even more sick just by looking at it. Thank you to all my grandparents for the cards in the mail & thank you to those who got me gifts, I appreciated them!

Hope my 24th year gets better than it's been so far - haha - I'm getting old!

{the sign my family made me & hung out their garage}

Valentines Dinner

We had a fun Valentines dinner with some of our family at Bandidos (One of Tyler's most favorite restaurants currently) I took a photo of each couple just to remember this day and remember how loved I am and how much I love my husband and family!

I was sick so I hardly ate a thing but I didn't want to miss out on the fun :)

Feelin' the love

My husband is so sweet.

Even though I knew what he was up to when he told me he "forgot his socks" as an excuse to have to come home in between school & work.

I was still surprised that the flowers were SO beautiful.

And I never expected 3 perfect cupcakes.

We shared one together {not pictured}

He knows how to make a sick girl feel better on Valentines Day. Now if only I had the strength to do something thoughtful for him..

I love you Tyler, more than you know. You are my best friend & you make me so happy. I can't wait to see what life has in store for us!

My dad never forgets his girls on Valentines Day either.. a single rose speaks volumes from a father to his daughter. I love you too Daddy!

I'm sharing a secret...

For the past while I have been putting my cooking skills to the test every night making homemade meals for my family at my parent's house. It's great practice for my future family & I have come to enjoy it a lot! I think Tyler likes it too, because he gets a home cooked meal every night when he comes home from work.

Well for those of you who know me you know that I am a crazy psycho about eating healthy. Don't get me wrong I don't forget to indulge a little every once in a while but for 90% of the time I am pretty darn strict. So how do I come up with yummy healthy dinners you ask?

Meet my secret weapons...

These beauties are my favorite cookbooks so far that I've obtained. Prerequisites are that they must contain meals for 400 calories or less, use wholesome ingredients, & taste delicious!

...and boy have they yet to disappoint.

Some favorite meals pictured below.

{Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Sandwiches}

{Chicken fried steak with turkey sausage gravy}

{Loaded Nachos}

{Lasagna}

{Chicken Noodle Soup}

Other favorites:

*A-1 Swiss burgers

*Cheesy Turkey Enchiladas

*Apple butter pork chops

*General Tso's chicken

*Chicken nuggets & steak fries

*Chicken Parmesan pizza

*Fettuccine Alfredo

*Baked potato soup

*Chicken pot pie

*Mac n' cheese

*Crouton breaded chicken

*Spaghetti w/ meatballs

*Spaghetti Carbonara

*Chicken Cordon Bleu

*Bacon burgers

I know you're probably asking yourself, "how on earth can these be healthy meals?!"

They are.

And since I know you don't believe me.. I DARE you to go buy one or all of these books & see for yourself.

You can thank me later..