Birthday, Em comes to town, and WHITE paint.

So, I know many before me have said what amazing things a can of paint can do---but now, I'm a believer!  I remember when we were looking at houses a few years ago, I had a REALLY hard time looking at a house's potential when all I saw were disgusting rust colored/bright pukey green walls.  Lucky, for me, we found a great house with a good price WITH all white walls.  :) 

I'm a big fan of white walls and white furniture.  Always have been and I think I always will be.  It is clean.  It is bright.  It is fresh. 

Anyway, I had the idea in my head that I wanted to try painting our entertainment center & our armoire white, but I knew it'd be a big undertaking. 
So, I suggested that Aaron do it for my birthday. 
He loves me.  He's always needing gift ideas. 
Perfect. 

So, it was my birthday, and guess who was a featured speaker for EFY (Especially for Youth--a church youth camp) in SAN ANTONIO that very week?  Yes, that'd be my amazing sister, Emily.  Awesome.  She finished her session on my birthday, so we picked her up and hung out.  Here she is in the midst of teaching.  It was awesome.  She's such a great TEACHER!  If you know her and have sat in on her lessons, you'd totally agree.

 

Anyway, if you remember, what I wanted most for my birthday was my furniture painted, so we enlisted Emily's help.  :)  hA!  Ah, free labor.  We're lazy.  What can we say?  She was the ultimate champ in helping me get organized and finding supplies to help me put my life back in order (why do I always have to have people help me get life back in order?  hmmm... let's analyze that one later).

em bought tillie a new pop up book.  so darling.

 The before picture.  Why I didn't take one of the armoire, I don't know.  (the armoire was gifted to us from our dear Bishop's family when we moved.  we SCORED when we moved!)

my parents have had this entertainment center since forever.  Did they bring it home from Hong Kong?  It's been around for a LONG time.  They graciously let us take it Texas when we moved.

The painting process.  If you know about South Texas summers, you'll remember how STINKIN' HOT it gets.  It doesn't cool off in the night.  It just stays 100+ degrees.  So, we decided to not MELT and paint both pieces in our kitchen.  

Enough smiling!  Picture me in the background cracking the whip.  "Get to work!"

okay, I helped a little bit too.

Lots of fun painting.  Can't you see it in our faces?  The house was in SHAMBLES for a few days.  It was crazy.
Here we are doing a little reorganization for the paper supplies that would be in the armoire.  We bought some file boxes and cheery new file folders.  Em was such a big help!  Oh, and we decided to get hair cuts from my cute friend, Bre.  Here we are sporting our new hair styles.

Tillie and Aunty Em make a great pair.  They both love to read.  I think they both were in heaven.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun chatting and hanging out while Em was here.  Her birthday was two days before mine, so we cashed in on a ton of free birthday meals... including TWO birthday breakfasts from MiMi's.  Score.  Too bad we had the same waitress BOTH times.  She didn't think we were as cool as we did.  Oh well.

It was great.

Thanks, Em. 

Oh, and here is the fruit of our labors.  Why I haven't taken any of the armoire is beyond me.  

I'll do it soon.

Let's look at the before ONE more time, so you can remember ALL THAT BROWN.

 And the BIG REVEAL! 

So many pictures. So little time.

 

 

 

 

So, there you have it.  Sorry the lighting is a little weird in that room, but you get the drift (after I've showed you 6 pictures...).
Happy Birthday to ME!