14 days of loves: day 9 {our gray dining room}

Once upon a time, we painted our dining room bright green.

I wrote about it here.

For two and a half years we have enjoyed our vivid dining space...

however, we are soon to list our house for sale

and I had my doubts as to whether any potential buyers would see the beauty in the hue.

In fact, pretty sure it would 

scare most buyers away.

Immediately.

{you need vision people!  it's only paint!}

Anyway, so we painted it.

Um, correction:  Hubby painted it.

{he is an awesome painter!!! we I don't even have to tape anymore!}

Went with Woodlawn Colonial Gray {Valspar}

a color we love so much now we plan

to use it in our new home.

(And by "new" I mean 150 years old.)

Here is the finished product:

Gorgeous gray, right?

I'm also having fun getting packing up all kinds of other things that might deter buyers...such as personal photographs, certain artwork, and raggedy paperback books.  

Oh, and developing an attack plan for hiding all baby items 

whenever we have a showing.

Keeps a mama busy!

As if the crawling kiddo didn't already.

Wanna see him crawl the first time?  Click HERE to see me nearly pee with excitement over this milestone.

:)

Anyone else have a room painted gray that they absolutely love?

g

thirty before 30 #5: a secret revealed!

I am terrible at keeping secrets...

...especially those wonderful, happy, ridiculously awesome secrets worthy of shouting from the rooftops!

But now, since we have finally told the rest of our immediate family and most of our dear friends, I can share with the rest of the world...

I am pregnant!!!

People keep telling me life is about to change...but it already has! I have traded in my wine for ice tea, my afternoon Red Bull for unreasonably long naps, my size S clothing for, well...let's just say more loose-fitting attire.

Yes, life has changed already - and will change much more!
We are ready {as we'll ever be}!
Change is definitely oh-so-good in this case!



{we can only pray that baby has my ginormous head}



Oh, and did I mention I'm done with my first trimester? Yes, Baby and I have made it through 12 weeks together.

{the little one waving at you}

Some answers to some questions you may be dying to ask:

• Yes, we are going to find out the sex, and yes, we will share that the world!
• Yes, we DO have our girl and boy names picked out, but unless you are my sister you will not know until baby has been born. I know, annoying, right? :o)
• Due date = July 12th, 2011
• Yes, you can rub my tummy! Please do!

So that is #5 on my list of Thirty Before 30 checked off: get pregnant. {This was definitely my hubby's favorite - ha!} I had to keep it a secret as we really had no idea when it would happen. Turns out first official try is a charm. :)

Welcome, Baby Ford - to the world, er, womb!

G

thirty before 30 #10: hostess a wine tasting

{wine enthusiast}

I consider myself a lover of wine. An oenophile, if you will.

:o)

I've always wanted to host a wine tasting, but since my energy has been down to nil and planning/executing a large party seems a little overwhelming at the moment, I decided to incorporate a mini-tasting into a small gathering of girlfriends last Saturday night.

The style I chose was simple, as my guests were admittedly novice wine drinkers: three different varietals, from three different vintners, paired with three complimentary cheeses: Swiss with the pinot, cheddar with the cab, and {my personal favorite} g-g-g-goat cheese. LURVE!

I led the tasting, poured the wine, shared my meager technical knowledge, and had a lovely time doing it all! :)

Have you ever hostessed a wine tasting?

What type was it? I would love to do this again on a grander scale, and would value any advice you might have!

Another item accomplished on the {30 before thirty} list - phew!

Salute!

G

Thirty before 30 #9: Paint my Ikea dresser

Recently I told you the tale of my Ikea dresser. The full version is here, but the short version is that I bought an Ikea Hemnes faux-oak dresser back in my college days {assembled with love} but for the past few years it has sat in my bedroom looking completely out-of-place. The color just didn't match the rest of our modern brown-black furniture that we purchased when we bought our current home.

A re-do was in order!

Because this has been a project that has been nagging at me for what feels like an eternity I decided this was something I had to put on my "Thirty Before 30" list...just to give myself a little, um, pressure to do the dang thing.

So I did!

I bought a quart of black paint (Cracked Pepper, Valspar) and scoured the internet for advice on painting Ikea furniture. In the end, I kind of just, well, painted it! All in one fell swoop, with the help of several cans of Redbull {elixer of the gods.}

Two coats of paint that made the dresser match my platform bed perfectly!

So here is my dresser {before} the transformation:

And here is the dresser {after} - at long last!

I absolutely love the result, and am glad to have one thing checked off my Thirty Before 30 list -- hurrah!

Hope everyone is having a beautiful Friday. I'll be checking in from my trip back home to my parent's farm in Minnesota later today -- to share Mom's kitchen re-design. It is beyond gorgeous, I promise.

Much love from MN!

G