Samantha Hicks

the Ju Ju Be Be Quick Wristlet (originally bought to use inside my diaper bag). Once we switch to cloth diapers at 10 lbs, I will carry one or two cloth diapers and a wet bag all of which will still fit in here (this wristlet has major stuffing powers). I usually throw the sample/travel packs I am gifted in the diaper bag, but also have this reusable, ultra-thin wipes pack I use once the sample packs run out. I don’t have extra pants for the girls right now because they are always in dresses, but will probably throw some legging type pants in here in the winter time for them.

First off, I use this Dr. Browns formula mixing pitcher to collect fresh milk in the fridge. The one thing to note is that you can’t mix warm and chilled breastmilk, so I let the bottles or haakaa cool in the fridge before dumping it in the pitcher. After the milk is frozen, I pop the cubes out into a gallon freezer bag. So far all of the milk I have frozen has fit in the one freezer bag (I expect about 50 ounces to fit comfortably in the bag).

As part of that project we were faced with the daunting task of painting four 9′ tall Billy Bookcases because the trim in our house is a cream color instead of bright white. The primer you need to paint laminate furniture (coincidentally our kitchen remodeler was also using to repaint our kitchen cabinets at the same time) is the Zinsser B-I-N Shellac Primer. We did not do this because we were so caught up in figuring out how to achieve the built-ins, and we noticed a significant ease for painting the shelves and door fronts (which weren’t attached) vs. the built-ins. We let the primer dry and then painted trim paint (just regular cheap trim paint from Home Depot that was paint matched to our existing trim) over the primer with the foam rollers.

We ended up spending about $100 on the boards and trim, another $100 on the shiplap and another $100 on caulk, paint and paint supplies. If you are familiar with board sizes, you’ll know 6.5″ was a little disappointing of a gap because boards come in 2×6 or 2×8, so we had to size up and bought two 12′ long 2x8s and Brad had to “rip them” on the table saw down to 6.5″ to fit in the gap. The last piece of trim that Brad added was a 1.5″ trim strip (he wandered around Home Depot looking for something exactly 1.5″ wide, which is exactly the width of the sides two bookcase that are butted up against each other). Basically to hang shiplap, draw out where all of the studs are along the wall you are covering, cut the shiplap boards to the size of the wall you are covering, and use that handy dandy finisher nailer I mentioned above to nail them up in place.