Summer Sunday Mornings

I know I’ve mentioned it before but I really love Sunday mornings.  It’s my favorite morning of the week.  I thought I’d document a little of our summer Sunday morning.  I have a feeling it may change in the next few years and it will be nice to remember a little slice of our quiet mornings.

Sunday mornings usually start with Ike and I waking up and heading downstairs while Nate sleeps later.  We grab the Sunday paper and plop in on the kitchen table.  And yes, it’s almost 10:00.   Life is good.  I usually don’t sleep this late but we had a busy Saturday and not much planned for Sunday.



Hydrangeas from the yard always put a smile on my face.  Especially in the morning.



Sometimes we run.  Sometimes we don’t.  Yesterday wasn’t a run day so we hit up Pinterest for a breakfast idea.  Yesterday morning’s selection was Glazed Donut Muffins.



Good choice. Good choice.

While I was mixing up the muffins, Ike and Nate catch up on some tv.  I know some bloggers are into showing their homes “as is” and it looks like a hurricane has hit.  This is our “as is”.  We are both pretty OCD.  Nate’s in denial about his condition but it’s true.  We like a tidy home.  Minus a stray dog bone and some smushed couch cushions/pillows.



Ike gets bored with the television and decides to keep a close eye on his fox.



I set the table as the muffins finish up baking.  Only the fanciest table setting at our house.



The muffins come out of the oven and get a good triple glazing.  We don’t mess around on Sunday mornings.



We read the paper.  The Food Network is on in the background.  Ike keeps a close eye on us.



After breakfast, we clean the kitchen and get on with the rest of our day. Yesterday’s “rest of the day” included some cleaning and yard work and a whole lot of wasting time on the interweb.  It was a scorcher out!

Man.  Can every morning be Sunday morning?

What do your Sunday mornings look like?  Any great breakfast recipes for us to try?  I’m running out of new stuff!  I like easy.  Nothing with vegetables. 

Animals in the Bed

Ike doesn't feel like he's getting enough blog time.  Poor Ike.

Our precious furry child has developed a naughty new habit.  Normally, he sleeps happily in his cage next to our bed.  He sleeps.  We sleep.  Beautiful.

The past couple of weeks have been different.  The sun has positioned itself so it shines brightly in our room at about 5-5:30am.  Naturally, Ike thinks this is now a good time to get up. I mean, the sun is shining.

Nate and I aren't big on getting up at 5:30am.  We definitely aren't big on getting up at 5:30am on the week-ends.  The past couple of week-end nights we have let Ike sleep in the bed with us.

He wakes up well rested on Saturday...



Nate was previously anti-dog-in-the-bed.  Now he's decided it's better than waking up at 5:30am.  I've always been okay with the monster sleeping with us.

I'm curious.  How do you feel about animals in the bed?  Do your furry friends get to join you or do they sleep where else?  Do you and your significant other agree on this issue?

Rust-Oleum’s Cabinet Transformations Review

Earlier this week I shared with you my little brother’s painted kitchen.

We used Rust-Oleum’s Cabinet Transformation kit in Linen.

via Rust-Oleum

The kit contains a deglosser, bond coat, decorative glaze, and a protective top coat.

Here’s our thoughts.

My brother was in charge of using the deglosser. 

We were only slightly worried…

He scrubbed down all of the cabinet doors before we arrived.  It was hard to tell if the deglosser was really doing anything.  The paint adhered well so we’re assuming it did what it was supposed to do.  The deglossing step was time consuming but cleaner than sanding.

The bond coat is a primer and paint in 1.  The kit recommends two coats.  My brother’s cabinets needed three coats (as did many other reviews that I read).  Two coats covered okay-ish.  You could get by with two but three looked a lot better.  The extra coat isn’t a huge problem other than you need to consider that when calculating the amount of paint needed.  My brother purchased the small kit.  It wasn’t enough to cover his kitchen in 3 coats.  We ended up using a stain blocking primer from Sherwin Williams for the fronts of the cabinets followed by two coats of the base coat.

The base coat adhered well and went on very smoothly.

We skipped the glaze step because this wasn’t the look brother was going for.  The instructions stated to use a brush to apply the base coat because it approves the appearance of the glaze.  We decided to be rebels and try using a mini-roller beings we weren’t going to use the glaze.  The paint bubbled with the mini-roller so we went ahead with brushes.  It never pays to be a rebel.

(My mom worries about me.)

The protective top coat was easy to apply.  This step was definitely the quickest.  Just brush the solution on evenly and you’re done.

Overall, we thought the kit worked well.  My brother had a couple of small yellow spots show through on the cabinet fronts.  We tried using a latex primer on them and it did nothing.  Next step is some oil based primer.  The paint adhered well and was easy to work with.  One of the downfalls is that you have to purchase another kit if you are short on paint.  No bueno.  We would use this kit again…but I really hope we don’t have more kitchens to paint in our future!

Have you tried this kit?  Any cabinet painting pros?  Who’s jealous of my sweet painting clothes?  Anyone want to date my brother?  Maybe I’ll do a giveaway for him. Bahahaha.

***I was in no way compensated for this post.  Rust-Oleum doesn’t know I exist.***