Chalk Paint Tutorial

This blog post has been a LONG time waiting. Life gets crazy as soon as football starts up! When we bought our house I had a vision for our bedroom. Since we have a king size bed, I wanted chest night stands with pull out drawers for plenty of storage and detail on the front because of our white walls. (We didn't want to repaint!) The problem was that the blue ones I found and liked were over $1000. No I did not mistake an extra zero in there ya'll! So I found some at a warehouse that had some detail to my liking on the front but they were no where near the robin egg blue color that I was crazy about. So, that is where my need for painting them arose. Once Alfred agreed to buy them and we got them home I was thinking, YIKES I really have to paint these and I need this to be a MAJOR success.

My dear dear friend, Julie had mentioned to me about her mom antiquing furniture and being crafty. So I reached out to her and got all the details from her sweet mama! She had actually taken a class about it at a college so in my eyes, she's basically a pro.

Let me break down your two easiest options:

1. You can go on amazon.com and search chalk paint. This is the most expensive way but still economical if you buy knock of furniture and need a specific color. (This is what I did, because I NEEDED Robin Egg Blue in my mind!)

2. You can always go to Walmart and get their Waverly Chalk paint for less than $6. They have way less color options which is why I went with Amazon.

Regardless of option 1 or 2, you will need Johnson's Paste Wax to be your finishing coat!

I will now break down the process I went through to do my night stands.

1. I took them on my back porch which is covered, yet has good aeration.
2. I Remove handles & used painters tape to separate the top section which I was keeping the rustic wood look from the rest which I wanted to paint.

3. Clean and dry furniture. YOU DONT HAVE TO SAND WOOOOO!!!!
4. Paint first coat quickly, as it dries fast. (I used a brush that was deemed for chalk painting that I found on amazon.)

5. When completely dry, paint second coat and let dry over night.
6. Distress! This is the fun artistic part to me. I used sand paper to get my desired look and you can also use the rod of a screw driver to distress as well!
7. Apply wax to the entire painted surface using squares of an old t shirt, or in my case I used the chalk painting brush that was also for applying wax.
8. Then use a clean old t-shirt to buff, basically just rubbing in circular motions over where the wax was applied.
9. 24 hours later you do your second coat of wax, and second buffing.
10. You are done! You may want to let it sit outside for another 24 hours because of the smell of the wax.

Before:

After:

Thank Him

God has a funny way of taking care of everything all the time. And even though I know that, this moving thing can be really really hard. A new city, new jobs, no friends, no family, and gps-ing everywhere you go. All of these things are stressful if I let them be but the amazing part is God had these things worked out before we were even called to Dallas. How cool is that? 

He knew who would become our Texas family. He knows our every need! We need people who are real, genuine, & authentic. We need people who aren't impressed by football, but are impressed by our character and our faith. God already knew this and brought these people into our lives. This is why I'm writing. I really want to just point out how gracious and faithful our God is!! 

Let me brag on God. We have these adopted grandparents in our neighborhood who have opened their home and hearts to us. They never ask for anything, but always give to us. They give us rides on their golf cart, they feed us, they mow our lawn, collect our mail when we are out of town, they watch our house, they feed our son endless Cheetos and Popsicles, they dance with my son, they run in the sprinklers with us and they are refreshing & are so full of life. 

They watched the monitor for us last night... And you might say that it's? Just watched the monitor. But to have people whom we trust come sit in our home with our child asleep is such a blessing. That's our baby ya'll!!! Because of them, we got to get a final date in before this years training camp kicks off. 

I'm so encouraged to see God come through for us as always. With Alfred's job we could have to move at the drop of a hat, and it's really amazing to see God, the master of all orchestrating every detail of our lives.

So to all my friends who are in the stages of moving or transition, be just as encouraged as I am. God will never put you somewhere without the opportunity to build a community. He cares so very much for you and will work out every detail. So don't stress, fret or worry. Just do what He calls you to do, and when you follow His will, everything else will fall into place. Most of all, thank Him!!!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving 

and his courts with praise; 

give thanks to him and praise his name." Psalms 100:4

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thesselonians 5:16-18

Hello Dallas!

There has been this temptation to go search Alfreds name... Just to see if there is maybe a hint at where we might end up. But I refrain. This free agency thing has painfully drug on much to my surprise. It seems so simple when you are only considering yourself, but then you step away and realize that your little world is only a tiny piece to this very large NFL puzzle. 

Some days when the phone would ring, my heart would jump and I would be ecstatic just to hear the latest development or team interested in us. Other days, when time began to drag on and the interest seemed minimal, I found my excitement dulling. Let's be honest, words are easier than action. So I found myself in the first few days easily saying we are trusting in God and His plan. But, was I REALLY trusting? 

By day three I found myself really exhausted. A lot of people we knew were already committed to teams and had their contracts worked out and I was frustrated with the lack of progress and truthfully the lack of interest in Alfred. Could one year of a team devaluing him do this much damage?! 

By day four I was FINALLY searching for God's gracious peace. Oh how I needed it. A potential business opportunity hadn't panned out the way we wanted it to that week and to top it off we had no team and all I needed was peace! The reality that things weren't going how I anticipated left us without the comfort of answers, as if these answers were going to fix everything. 

Side note: peace doesn't come from knowing your future, having a home or knowing where the next team is, PEACE COMES FROM GOD!

Every journey is a lesson, and God seems to always be teaching me about patience, faith and His endless grace. Free agency alone has been a lesson to me. A lesson to truly let go and let God. To stop worrying, wondering and digging for hints, & to just be!! Just be in the moment enjoying my little family, and the simple things in life like farmers markets, picnics and working out. 

After what seems like the longest free agency of life, we are proud to announce we are headed to Dallas, Texas! 

Free Agency

I've had so many people ask me , "do you know where you're going yet?!" that I decided to just write a little update on our current situation! 

For those of you who don't know: 

- Alfred's contract with the redskins ended this year. 

- So as of March 15th, 2016 he will be considered an unrestricted free agent.

- We packed up everything in Virginia and put it all in storage!

- We are currently without a home (aren't renting and don't own) and are staying with family during this transition period.

What does this mean? The only team that we can make a deal with prior to free agency is the Redskins but since we haven't heard from them, I think it's safe to say that's not happening! Then when free agency opens up and as teams make offers, we can sift through and make the best decision for us and our situation. We also have an agent who is basically our spokesperson and deals with all negotiations and conversations. 

Once free agency happens and we know where we are going I'm planning on writing a post about our free agency experience and what the process looks like from the inside. We still have a lot to learn about this process and I can't wait to update y'all and see where God places us! 

Thanks for following our journey!

Xoxo, Team Morris 

Closing The 2015 Season

What a year this has been! We have been stretched. We have ridden a roller coaster of emotions. We have struggled. But then, something beautiful happened. In the midst of this crazy year we grew closer together in our marriage, we grew closer to God and we experienced His overwhelming joy and peace. 

Oftentimes joy and peace from God is unexplainable to those looking from the outside in. Many people didn't understand why we were more than ok with the way this football season went. We know that no matter what, man can't stand in the way of what God has in store for our family and our future. 

So as we loaded up our things and said good byes to our friends I experienced a wave of emotions. As much as I will miss all of my friends (a large majority of my friends' husbands also just finished their last year on the contract) I am excited for our futures and to see where God places each of us. We pulled away from Virginia with hearts full of love and memories made there (plus a 15ft trailer). Now we look forward to the future, free agency and where this next chapter in football and life take us. We kissed the state of lovers goodbye!