Gwyn's Furniture

Over the summer I decided I was going to get Gwyn some new furniture. So my awesome hubby found some on Craigslist and I picked out the colors. (Although I was talked into a darker grey than I wanted, I still like how it looks.)

It was a bit of work. First we sanded off as much of the original paint (well, what was painted on when we bought it) and then made sure all surfaces were smooth. The old pulls on the drawers were 3 1/4 in. apart. But I could not find any pulls that were not hideous set at the same distance. So we had to fill in, putty and sand the old holes. It was just delaying what I was excited about - painting!

Then we painted, and painted, and painted. There are 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint (at least), and 2-3 coats of protectant. (I still have not finished the bed. I just focused on the stuff she will use now.) My idea was to have a light grey (nearly white) with a touch darker for the drawers.I was told the two colors would be too close, but that was the idea. I am not a fan of the drawers, but I do love that her bed will be the dark grey. I think that will look nice, and different than white ones. At some point, we will add purple things to her room. And hopefully the furniture can make it through high school.

Gwyn loved that we were working on things for her. She loved to see it in the garage. Everytime we would pull in she would mention it.

Here are some pictures.

I can not stand the pulls! And the fake key holes in the top drawers. The color I can stand more than those things.

The couple we bought this from offered extra paint to Kevin. They looked hurt when he told them I had my own plans for the paint. Notice the top is the light blue. Yuck.

Twin bed being primed.

This was our garage for a while.

Gwyn was very excited about being a ballerina, having her new furniture, and getting her picture taken. It was heaven. I think I like the two colors on the mirror the best.

She is posing. She had to be in every picture.

I was only able to get a picture without her after she was tricked into leaving the room. For now, the mirror is somewhere she can stand in front of.

We brought this one up after the other pictures were taken.

Thoughts?

A Wedding In New York

Last weekend Kevin and I flew to Poughkeepsie, NY. His co-worker (and our friend) got married. Both Brian and Jess are from New York, but they moved to StL for his job at Boeing. If you have never been to New York outside of the city, I recommend it. It was beautiful! Here is the view from the train ride from the city to Poughkeepsie.

 

I tried to get pictures with Brian and Jess, but none of them turned out well. But here is the church, and a picture of the reception hall. I was a bit obsessed with how much I liked this town.

 Us at the wedding.

One of my favorite things about traveling for this trip was the train ride. Here is the (real!) train station in Poughkeepsie.

Since neither Kevin nor I have ever been to New York City, we stayed one extra day to explore the city. After we arrived at Penn Station, we dropped our things off and then started walking. We started in Times Square, which neither of us liked at all, but at least we can say we have seen it now. We first headed to the Brown Building. I wanted to see the building from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Kevin didn't care about that. He wanted to see that building from movies and tv. It was the same building, luckily. After that, we just kept walking south(ish). We walked through Midtown, Flatiron District, Lower Manahttan, Tribeca, Noho, and a few other neighborhoods that I don't remember. It was a straight shot, but it was still interesting to see the different neighborhoods. We both knew that we would only get to see a very limited amount of the city, so we didn't set up goals for things we wanted to see. We just went with it. (Much to Kevin's dismay, and my enjoyment.) This walk took about 2.5 hours, so we took the train back to the hotel.

Afterward, we headed to dinner at an Irish pub.

The next morning, we only had until 2:00 to do anything. We went to the American Museum of Natural History, and only paid for the two hours we were there, thanks to Brian! (Not the one who just got married. We know two Brian's from New York.) My favorites were the Hall of Human Origins (We saw the real Lucy!) and the Cape York Meteorite. It was amazing!

We got a big kick out of the dinosaur exhibit that needed updating. (Do dinos still walk like that?) 

And good thing they let us know the T Rex was extinct. (It is a bit scary that that detail was needed.)

 

After that we headed to the airport and flew home. We were both very happy to get to see the kids before bedtime. 

A big THANK YOU to Downtown Grandma and Aunt Pat for watching the kids!

Halloween 2013

Sorry this blog took so long to get written and posted. We have been pretty busy with a marathon, Halloween, and wedding in New York, and Kevin's birthday.

This year for Halloween Gwyn was a horse, Colin was a ninja, and Kevin was Harry Potter. I was so excited to find a horse costume. She loves horses, galloping around saying "giddy up giddy up." Since she had yet to actually wear a costume without screaming in terror, I thought this would be her year. She even asked aunt Pat for days leading up to Halloween if she could put her costume on.

And then Halloween evening came. It was rainy and windy. Gwyn made it up to the first house, carrying her umbrella, and before getting candy, she asked to go home. I convinced her to go to 3 more houses, but she was more than happy to spend the rest of the evening in the house snuggling.

As for the boys, they had to stop by the house after an hour to dump out their candy. Because of the rain, there were very few kids out for the first 90 minutes or so. We only saw 3 other groups in the first hour. That means that EVERY HOUSE gave out handfuls of candy. They boys are very happy.

This is how upset Gwyn was to stay home and snuggle.

P.S.
The boys wants their names typed on the blog. Colin is the first. (<- br="" he="" made="" me="" that.="" type="">
Colin Stephen McGuire
Kevin John McGuire III