Coffee Table Makeover

Several weeks ago, the husband and I were looking around at some local thrift shops and I saw a coffee table I had to have. I liked the big size (40x40) and thought it would work well to fill some of the space in our living room. It cost $9.99 and looked like this:

The brand is Lane, and when I went to their website I saw that their coffee tables are quite expensive. Mine wasn't in the greatest condition (water stains and whatnot), but it was clearly solid wood so I didn't think I'd have a problem refinishing it.

Here's how I re-finished it:

1. I found a big can of liquid sander in our garage courtesy of the previous owners and put a thick coat of it on, then scraped it off.

2. Then I sanded it by hand with rougher, then smoother sandpaper. I should have done a better job sanding the top though because it ended up needing several coats of primer to cover the spots where I didn't sand it very well.

3. I used several coats of primer. I think it was 2 coats on the legs and 3 or 4 on the top because of my not so good sanding job. For both the primer and the paint I used cheap foam brushes and a foam roller. Here's a picture of it with primer:



4. Then I started painting it. I used Benjamin Moore Aura paint. Most people I asked recommended I paint it black to go with the black picture frames, mirror, and shelf currently in the living room, but I decided to match it to the trim instead and go with white. I wanted to brighten up the room.

5. I used a couple coats of Minwax Polycrylic in Satin to protect it further.

Here's the end result:
I'm definitely happy with the table! It was a great buy for $9.99, and probably under $30 for the supplies since I already had some of what I needed.

I'm in the process of redoing the master bedroom..... pics to come soon I hope!

Workout FAIL, and Shopping in My Own Closet.

Workouts this week have been a big fat fail. I ran Saturday, and Sunday woke up feeling sick so I decided to rest. I've been sick a lot this year, and when I try to run anyway it's made it a whole lot worse, so I finally decided that all the people who told me not to run when I'm sick were right. We also had parent/teacher conferences all week, which means I've been getting home really late and haven't had any time to even think about exercise.

Food has been going better though and my clothes are fitting a lot better. I'm currently at the point where my "big" pants are too big but my "small" (non-stretchy) pants are a bit too tight but wearable. My favorite jeans are close to fitting but not quite there yet, and my second favorite jeans now fit and I've been wearing them a lot. I wore two of my favorite jackets this week that I haven't been able to wear in a few years. I LOVE shopping in my own closet!

Developing Habits

I think I had a good workout week last week and I seem to be getting into a good rhythm. Crossfit Tuesday and Thursday, running Monday, Saturday, and Sunday.

This week, so far, isn't going as well. Yesterday (Monday) I did nothing, and today I was supposed to do crossfit and really wanted to, but I ended up going to watch my students in the spelling bee instead. Tomorrow I'll go run at the gym, and my workout clothes are already in the car ready to go. Crossfit is Thursday, and I'll run Saturday and Sunday again. Not as good as last week, but not terrible.

The bad bad news is next week. Next week will be a DISASTER as far as workouts go. It's conference week, which means I have parent teacher conferences Monday and Wednesday until 5:30 and Tuesday and Thursday until 8! Obviously T and Th are out, I'll run Sat and Sun but I really need to go do something Wednesday after conferences. My #1 goal for next week will be to get my butt to the rec center Wednesday after my conferences. I just can't take the whole stinking week off.

My reading goal is going well too. I finished my 3rd book of the year and am about 2/3 of the way through #4. Here's a link to my 2010 reading list at Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2596746-kirsten?shelf=2010-books

Finding Balance

Lately I've been struggling to find the right balance between challenging myself but still enjoying my workouts. I decided to really push myself to try to run faster, but it ended up being a very frustrating experience. I felt like a failure, and after one particularly bad 2-mile run that ended with me in tears about how much I sucked, I decided maybe I was trying to improve too quickly and I decided to scale back a bit. I'm still doing the same workouts and following the Nike+ 5k training program and everything, but I'm going to let myself increase my speed slowly.

Yesterday I had a 3 mile run and it went really well! I stuck with a slower but steady speed which was still 1/2 mph faster than I was running a few weeks ago and was able to run the whole time plus some! It felt AMAZING and I felt successful again. My next run is 4 miles. I was looking forward to trying it tomorrow but I have to get home early for a delivery so it's looking like I'll probably need to put it off until Friday or Saturday.

Today's crossfit felt great too! It was AMRAP (as many rounds as possible), for 20 minutes, of 6 knees to elbows (which I still suck at but I'm really trying to get my knees up higher), 3 pull ups with the bands, run 1 lap, then 9 step ups. I did 10 rounds and it felt great! I had to do the last 9 step ups after the time was up, but I wanted to get in all 10 rounds. The craziest thing to me is that the first couple rounds are so hard and slow, but then you can speed up sooo much as you go along. Seems like it would be the opposite, but it's kind of neat how it works. One of these days I'm going to need to figure out how to jump up instead of doing step ups.

Things are going well and I'm feeling good! :)

Nike+

I got the Nike+ system up and running and I'm really liking it! I did my first run with it a couple days ago.

Here are the stats for run 1:

I set the program to run 5k, and according to Nike+ it took me 34 minutes. I'm not sure how accurate that is but that's what it said. I was absolutely dripping in sweat and it was not easy, but I was running faster than last week so that's something. I still have a very long way to go in increasing my speed. I'm going to do the 5k run a few more times then start a program with Nike+ that trains you to go from 5k to 10k. Honestly I can't imagine running 6 miles, but a year ago (heck, 6 months ago) I couldn't imagine running 3 miles and I can do that now so who knows??

I also made a goal of running 50k in 4 weeks. 5k down, 45 to go!