O-Me-G

That's what's been in my head about every thirty minutes for the past week. Our to-do list is a bit outrageous. Ever bite off more than you can chew? That's what it feels like. If I don't have time to blog about it, too much is happening at once. At least that's my theory. So let me introduce you to pure, unadulterated chaos. Are you ready for forever change your opinion of us?

While working on our mini-kitchen renovation, we had to bring a bunch of stuff out to the dining room. It's been weeks since we have eaten at the dining room table. 

This is the breakfast-nook as we turn it into a formal storage/pantry area. Not looking too fancy yet.

This is the kitchen as Joey repaints (not matte white this time!), and refinishes the cabinets. Notice the pizza box? Yep pizza and Chinese food. All week.

And that, my friends, is the guestroom #2. Yep. I haven't seen Joey in days. While he is downstairs in the kitchen, I am upstairs pounding the pavement on this room. We have a guest this week. Maybe that's why a lot of this has been going on...

Flattering, eh?

So the gem in all this madness is a little trick Joey came up with while working in the kitchen. He took a "break" from the painting and cabinets to work on something else. Let me pass you over to him so he can explain.

Greetings again friends. Lana and I are going through a relatively large DIY kitchen remodel right now and I want to share a little slice of what we're doing to help save some cheddar during the process.

We have these gold door knobs that came with the doors in our kitchen. Lana and I looked into changing them to brushed aluminum, or steel, or whatever people make door knobs out of these days, and for the model we have Home Depot wants a bit over 200 bucks plus a few weeks to order and ship. So during a moment of clarity I decided to see if I could just refurbish the existing ones. After all, they aren't made of gold or I'd have sold them already.

Turns out, my theory was correct. Not made of gold. I just removed the face plates and door knobs and busted out the trusty Dremel.

With a coarse sanding attachment for removing the apparently micron thick layer of faux gold and the steel brush attachment to polish the rough bits, this is what you get.

Be sure to do two things while attempting this project. 1. Wear a face mask and eye protection. Little metal bits are not good for your respiratory or ocular systems. 2. Tell your significant other what you are planning on doing. Little gold bits look like glitter. And you are going to be covered in it, and we all know how that conversation goes.

Have fun. Save some bacon. And make an old tired part of your space feel new.

Pinterest Challenge Anyone?....

Huh? The Pinterest Challenge? What the heck is that? Oh...I bet you want to know. I bet you

want to know really bad!

Clue numbro uno. It involves myself along with these lovely ladies above. Clue numbro duce....

check out the video below for an entertaining explanation...

I laughed so hard I cried the first time I watched the video! In case you have a choppy connection or are at the work place (I won't tell your reading blogs!) I will break it down for you. Sherry from YoungHouseLove.com, Katie (who had the brilliant idea!) from BowerPowerBlog.com, and Emily Henderson (yea, that Emily Henderson!) from StyleByEmilyHenderson.com (and HGTV Design Star Winner and Host of Secrets from a Stylist, in case you live under a rock) along with me from JoeyandLana.com (you are here, duh!)  have self issued a challenge to knock a project off of our Pinterest "to-do" list. 

Our project?! We won't tell. At least not yet. We will provide some clues for ya though.....

1. It's super quick and easy!
2. It was scary to do!
3. It was totally worth it!
4. It involved a spray can
5. We did it in the kitchen
6. If I give you too much detail now, there would be no surprise for next week!

Maybe, just maybe you can guess what we are doing by sneeking a peek at my pinterest? Hrrrmmm Nacy Drew, what do you think it is?

Want to join in? Pick a Pinterest project you have wanted to get done, and meet us all back here, and here, and here and here next Tuesday (August 2nd) to share what you did. It could be anything! Quick and easy, tried and true, or totally massive. Just make sure to include a link to the original pin and post it was pinned from. Grab the banner on the top of this post and use it for yourself when you join us!

By the way, none of us were paid or asked to do this! Katie had a great idea, and we were all game. Pinterest has no idea what's going on. We just really love it, and think this is a fun way to knock a project off the list. We hope you join us!

This Weekend Was For The Birds!

How was your weekend? Did you get a chance to watch Secrets from a Stylist and Design Star? I was over-indulging in my two favorite shows for sure. Super excited to see Emily do a bedroom, and fell in love with the $11K headboard in the first look. I am also not quite sure how I feel about the new picks from Design Star. I knew I totally loved David, Emily and Antonio from day one....not really feeling anyone right now from this season. We'll see. We will see.

So yea, this weekend! We went to Long Island to this park we go to every year to welcome back the Ducks and Geese from Winter. We were super late this year, yea we know. Much to our surprise, Gerry Park looked like a train wreck. This park was AMAZING just last year. Now.....let the picture tell the story....

So you can see everything is super overgrown and hard to walk to. And it was swampy. Gross. Totally bummed us out. None the less, we had to feed our feathered friends, and as soon as we whipped out the bread bag, they came flocking!

How super cute is that little guy above? I wanted to take him home. After feeding the ducks and geese, we did what we always do, as per tradition, and went to The Jolly Fisherman where we dined amongst 65+ year olds and laughed our booties off before we headed back to Westchester. 

When we returned home, I decided to pick the raspberries we have growing in our side yard. Last year I was too late and all the birds snatched them up!

I was excited that I found a bunch of great tasty berries. Joey called them poison berries. 

I didn't have enough to make a pie, but I am very much going to experiment with some mini doughnuts and these bad boys. In the spirit of instant gratification,  I did use them as garnish in some cheese plates I made for us later that night. 

We totally did some DIY homey stuff this weekend, but we flopped and failed. We'll tell you all about it this week.

Have you fudged something up recently? Let us know we aren't alone!