Busy Bee

I don't know why I get these ideas in my head about making over one of the kids' bedrooms while they are away. I have been non-stop moving for three days now: cleaning, organizing, priming and painting, building shelves, and decorating.

Building the shelves has been the most work. I just now finished cutting all of the pieces (which involves jointing each piece, planing each piece, and cutting it on the table saw and then miter saw. I had to use the router to soften the edges of the wood and then sand all of the pieces smooth. There are 19 pieces altogether! I ended up choosing something extremely simple so that I can actually finish it. And I really like the style of them, too!

It was actually fun working on all that this afternoon because Jerry came out in the garage to keep me company, and I showed him the whole process of squaring up boards. Jerry is not a woodworking-person.

Noah's room is looking really good, and I'm so excited to finish it and share the pictures! Even more so, I'm excited for him to come home and see it.

This is actually what we decided to give Noah for his 18th birthday. It sounds kind of lame, but he's been wanting to do it for a while. The decor was kind of expensive and the whole makeover was definitely a ton of work (well, it's not done yet).

So, this week has been kind of crazy. I didn't do my Friday Night Photos post, and it feels too late to do that now. I'll just wait until this Friday (and watch, I'll have a ton of pictures). I didn't get a chance to make a new vegan recipe for a recipe review.

The kids come home tomorrow, so it's crunch time getting Noah's bedroom ready. Thankfully, it's a 10 hour drive, so I'll have the day to do it. The kids haven't sent me many pictures or texts (typical teens) but my sister sent me a couple of pictures of Joey:

And riding the side-by-side with Bentley, my sister's dog:

Jeanie actually ended up taking Joey home to Illinois with her. Not for good! Just for a few weeks to play with Bentley. Jeanie's other dog, Remy, died not too long ago and she was understandably heartbroken. Now that Bentley is alone, she thought it would be fun for Joey to go for a long visit. It's already been so weird not having him here! Usually, I let him out first thing in the morning (and last thing at night) and it just feels so odd locking up the house at night without letting him outside first.

Anyway, I am going to cut this relatively short (again) because I have to get back to working on the shelves. Not only do I have to put them together, I have to either paint or stain them when I'm done! And, of course, hang them.

Speaking of all of this DIY stuff reminds me that tomorrow is Transformation Tuesday. So please please send me some transformations! I may have to do the post early in the morning, so if you send me one and it's not on tomorrow's post, that's why. I'll hold onto it until next week. But I still need some for tomorrow--so if you have a transformation to share, just send me a before picture and an after picture at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Thanks!