Meadows and Reeds: life of a blogger

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

My heart's desire

I used to be scared of having kids. Was I really made to be a mom? I didn't even see myself as a stay at home mom really. In my somewhat small town, I would dream. I would dream big of being a famous actor/singer or fashion designer. Anything that would take me away from that somewhat small town.

When the idea of being a military wife first came up. I was most certainly not interested. Well, I was scared. The only picture I got of the military life was a non operational, run down George Air Force base. Or way out in the boonies, middle of nowhere Edwards Air Force base. I was scared! Who wouldn't be at the sight of those places?

But God had other plans!

I had been working hard on dreaming up my life plans in high school. The idea of being a mom was far from my mind. And the possibility of being a military wife was lost.

I focused on my life and my dreams this time. I looked into photography schools, performing art schools, Christian schools.

Not really making a decision.

Then this boy walked into my life... Like they always do. He changed me, he changed my heart. He was in the Army so close from graduating basic training. Uh- oh a military guy? How did this happen again? I couldn't help it. I fell... I fell hard. We started talking and two months in he deployed to Iraq.

And I had my first taste of the military life. I stayed faithful and true. I was honest and attentive. We lasted the entire 12 month deployment. { well minus a couple months but that doesn't count}

I knew what sacrifice meant now, I knew what I wanted now.

I may have never had the college experience. After all we got married at 19/20. I may have not experienced the normal young adult life. But I have gotten so much more.

After all God knew what he was doing when he brought Evan and I together. When he made me an Army wife to an amazing man. When he made me a mommy to two precious babies. One in heaven and one precious girl who loves to dance, loves footie pajamas, and loves to make us smile. I didn't need to be scared because my life was in Gods hands and he knew what was best for me even when I didn't. He knew the desires of my heart and he followed through on his promise. I know it's only the beginning.

And you know what I still got out of that somewhat small town. I am still avid about my passions. {Fashion, Photography, Music} I still get to pursue them in one way or another. I've had a life full of trials AND blessings. A life full of adventures!

PSALM 37:4

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

{DIY} Dining Room Hutch

It's finally done! This was by far my biggest project so far and it was a daunting task indeed!

I knew I wanted a hutch to replace my make-shift dining room hutch that I had previously. Which was really an old entertainment center. I wanted something that would fit the feel of the rest of the furniture in the house. Something older, slightly classic and vintage like. Maybe claw feet or something like that. I kept hanging around my favorite place {The Salvation Army} and I finally eyed his bad boy! I loved the caged doors, it gives it such a unique, shabby chic look to it. I don't see many hutches like this around.

I knew from the beginning it was going to be red. I wanted something bold and rich. Red is one of my favorite colors. When we finally got it home it sat in the garage for awhile. And of course I let the months go by and let it gather dust. I always have big ideas when it comes to these projects. But sitting down and getting them done is a whole other thing. I was inspired to get it done when my parents said they were coming to visit for Thanksgiving. I wanted my dining room to look nice for the holidays!

It wasn't easy because it was getting colder. I thought I knew what I was doing this time around. I wanted to spray paint the whole thing. There's a lot of crevices and hard to reach areas. I thought spray painting would be the way to go.

The problem with that is. It's a HUGE piece of furniture! What was I thinking!? Not to mention spray paint doesn't go very far on something like this. I bought over a dozen cans and it still wasn't enough. Then I ran into another problem. I picked RED! Red and more specifically this shade of red isn't a very popular color choice. Meaning: Stores don't stock very much of it. I cleaned out Ace and Wal-mart and it still wasn't enough.

There was only one thing left to do. I color matched at Ace hardware as much as I could and ended up going with brush painting. Honestly, I should've just done that in the first place and I would've saved myself a lot of time and money. So if you are going to be painting furniture just use a brush. At least when it's a big piece like this.

Remember how I said it was getting colder? I wasn't exaggerating! I was out there freezing to death trying to get the job done. Sanding and priming.... it wasn't until I was really close to being done with the paint that we realized we could bring the pieces in and finish it inside in the nice warm house! Serious blonde moment there and I was in fact kicking myself,{once I defrosted that is}.

What I used:

KILZ Primer Spray Paint {4-6 cans}

Reusable sanding pads

{next time I would sand better if I had more time}

A gallon of color matched {Satin Burgundy} to Krylon satin burgundy

I did at least 4-5 coats. I didn't get to do a finish yet. Or get the glass cut for the shelves.

I will post the completed dining room once everything is all finished.

I was actually really please with the finished product. I was worried about brush strokes but it doesn't show at all. So you must get a good brush not the cheap ones! It is a must when painting furniture!

What are some of your furniture redo's?

After & Before

{Thanksgiving Recap}

I know it's been a week already but I didn't get a chance to show off this tasty Turkey we had.

Being in the Army we are used to spending holidays alone usually. But this year it was nice because my parents drove up from Virginia to spend the weekend and we had a blast. We played tons of board games. Went to see Frozen and then went into Boston to visit the Kennedy Library and also take my Mom shopping. It was a good time with good food. Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving too!

September, naturally

September has come up pretty fast. Was that not the quickest summer ever? Now we are back in school already. It is of course another of Pre-school except now this year we call it Pre-K. Whatever, she still loves school and is always excited to go. This time the hubs got to go with us! Riley had the same teacher and same room so it wasn't a big deal for her. But she's always been an independent little lady. Wonder where she got that from?

Showing off her outfit for the first day of school !

Shop Riley's outfit:

Jacket: Target.com

Dress: Target.com

Boots: OldNavy.com

Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month {My Story}

I wanted to talk about something that is very important to me. The month of September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness month. I wanted to take advantage of this while I can, while it's still September.

Thyroid cancer is a cancer that starts in the thyroid gland. It can be treated with radioactive iodine or surgical resection of the thyroid gland. Chemotherapy or radiotherapy may also be used.

Seems simple enough right?

I am a Thyroid Cancer Survivor

Here is MY story

I don't really remember when it was exactly. Back in the day of Myspace I took a lot of "selfies" and one day I just noticed this egg size lump on my neck. I asked myself "Has that always been there?" I shrugged it off but started feeling self-conscious about it. If you know me well enough sometimes when I am self-conscious I will just point it out sarcastically and laugh it off so there is no talk behind my back about it. I even would say that to doctors who were giving me an exam. I specifically said "Don't look at my adam's apple" !!!! I thought that's what it was. That all of a sudden I had a man-size adam's apple! :( This went on for a couple of years. Throughout my entire pregnancy with my daughter and afterwards. I literally just thought that I just had a new feature that I had to live with.

It wasn't until the summer of 2009 when I was visiting my parents and I was showing my mom and my grandma a video of a song I had recently written. All my grandma said afterwards was concern for this lump. My thoughts were "really, nothing about my song?"

That's when my mom joined in on the concern. They both started examining my neck, this lump moved around. Whatever it is I thought it was isn't supposed to move like that. We were in the middle of a move so I had to wait awhile to see a doctor. We moved from California to Colorado and we were still on vacation. I had to wait before all that was done and had to get a new doctor so they could refer me. That was all in July-August. They did an ultrasound on my neck and then we patiently waited for the results. They decided to send us to a specialist at the Air Force Academy. That's where they wanted to do an ultrasound biopsy on this "strange lump". {Similar to a regular ultrasound but they have way more people and they take a needle and take samples of this strange lump". Again we waited for results. A good three weeks I believe. It's not that I am always a negative nancy, but in the back of my mind I had a gut feeling. I knew this was cancer, I don't know I just knew that it was.

The Doctor had us into his office and sat there to explain the results.

"It's Thyroid Papillary Carcinoma.....it's cancer."

I think my whole entire world slowed down, and my mind sped up. Here we were this little young family. Sitting there with this 8 month old baby. I quickly flashed to that scene in Stepmom. When Susan Sarandon is watching her kids sleeping and knowing she wasn't going to be their to watch them grow up. I felt like that was my future. My life had become a movie and not the happy ending kind.

The Doctor started with giving information on what we were going to do. They were going to take my entire thyroid out, even though it was a slow growing tumor. They wanted to just get in there and get it taken care of. They scheduled surgery for October.

We drove home and I was in a daze. I think we both were. I was 21 years old only two short years before we lost our son. How was it that we were dealing with something so huge again? I had a whole month to deal with this, and let it all settle in. It was an excruciating month let me tell you. There was a lot of fear and loneliness. I would lay in bed afraid of leaving my husband all alone. I would rock my baby to sleep with the same fears, and the same tears. Some of the people I thought that would be there for me weren't. I didn't hear from a lot of family either. I felt pretty isolated. Time came for surgery and it was so scary. You don't know the outcome, you hear horror stories of routine surgeries going wrong. They had me countdown and I was out, when I woke up I was very out of it like a foggy dream. They wheeled me into my room and my hubby was waiting for me. {He's always waiting for me : ) }

The aftermath of surgery was just a lot to take in. I had a ton of medication, we had a lot of things to look out for. Not to mention this huge hole in my neck that I was freaking about. Oh and I couldn't talk and you aren't supposed to for awhile. {no bueno for a singer and an avid talker}

Now I had to start this new life. Because it's not just over once you have the cancer removed. You are on medication for the rest of your life and it affects everything. You're mood, your weight....everything! You have to be checked all the time to make sure this cancer does NOT come back. Personally for me we opted to not do the radioactive treatment. Along with a few doctors opinion. {everyone's case is different}

Here I am four years later and you would've never guessed that I am a cancer survivor!

I have a new view on life. It has changed me in so many ways. I know the things that are important and I cling to those things/people. It has made me and the hubs even more stronger than we were before. We take the hits and we keep getting back up.

James 1:4

Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.

Riley and I getting ready for my 22nd birthday {with my lovely scar} 4 months after my thyroidectomy.

Me 3 years and 4 months after my thyroidectomy

It's so important to spread the word. Don't forget to check your neck! Anyone can get cancer these days. I did and I had no family history of Thyroid Cancer!

{DIY} Chevron Curtains

This project had been on my list of things to do for almost a year. It took me forever to find the right kind of curtains. I also spent months looking for the textile medium. I went from store, to store, to store and no one carried any. {Even though their website said they did...grrr} So it got put off again and I moved onto other things. I finally just gave up and ordered textile medium online, got the painters tape and a can of paint and attempted to measure it out.

Everyone made it seem so simple and easy. Follow the measurements on their blog and you'll be ready to paint and have beautiful curtains. Wrong! This had to be the worst, most frustrating DIY project I've ever done. Even when I painted my desk. It was horrible and it took over my dining room for at least a week. We tried taping the first panel probably a dozen different times. Let the bickering begin!

I used a few sites for instructions

A Drop in the bucket

Sunshine on the Inside

Kristen F. Davis Designs

Things you'll need:

Cotton type curtains/ dropcloth

Scissors

Painters tape {I used the skinny one after attempting to use the wider tape}

black paint {color of your choice, I used a quart}

Ruler

Small paint roller

paint tray

Textile Medium { I used two bottles}

BEFORE

AFTER

First off we didn't have the correct measuring tools. We had a sewing measuring tape. Then we tried to use a flat scrapbooking stencil and then finally got a yard stick.

Once we finally figure our measurements. They didn't exactly measure up to the other ones on the blog. We made up on our own in the end. I ended up doing the other panels myself. Since I was doing 4 curtain panels it was more work. Luckily I was able to lay the other two on top and just trace the tape that way. It kept messing with our eyes too! Because it's an optical illusion it was driving us nuts. So we kept re-taping, because I am a perfectionist!

Finally it was time to paint. We mixed the textile medium and the paint directly in the tray. {Should've bought a bigger tray}. It will look a bit runny and I guess that's normal. We stayed with the 1:2 ratio and I went to town on the painting. After all that taping I just wanted to be done with it already. I had to go over it a couple times to make sure the paint looked even. This part may seem easy too but again it is not! Think of how difficult and painful it can be to play twister. That's exactly how it feels. I'm still recovering it didn't a number on my poor little back. So heads up on that!

Here they are opened and letting in the light. It was definitely worth it I think. Still less expensive then buying them online for 100-200 a panel. Which would've cost me $400-$800 just on curtains. While this project cost me probably less than $150. At least this way I can control the thickness on the stripes too!