Vintage Find: Dresser

I picked up this old dresser from the Thrift store. Paid $50 and figured it was worth it. I don't know that much about antiques, vintage finds but I figured it was very solid, and the name on the inside of the drawer with beautiful dove-tail joints were a good sign of it being old-ish... and of quality too.

I think I loved its original knobs the most!

The top of the dress had beautiful wood grain but needed to be sanded and refinished. 

A lot of work ~ as I learned from this project.  

 I'd recently heard about Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint and thought this dresser would be a good first project. I figured if it didn't work out, there was little investment and I could just sand it anyway.

But chalk paint is a fabulous product - easy to use and the learning curve is quick. There's no sanding required. I know. I was sold there. And when combined with a dark wax, it gives you a fantastic French country look. Which is a look I love but had never attempted. 
Until now...

Aaah. I love those knobs even more now.

With just one project behind me I feel like I can easily tackle many more!!Seriously. This paint is so easy to use. Go get some!

Now to tackle those floors.....

watercolour: starting point

I hadn't intended on posting any of my watercolour attempts until I got much better at it.

But I've been neglecting my blog lately so today I thought I'd show one of the pieces I've done. 

I've learned that watercolour is hard!! But I really enjoy the challenge.

As you can see, I have much to learn. But it might be kinda neat to track my progress as I go. So here is my starting point.

On a personal note, I have so many things going on in my life and have not had much time to create. Bear with me a little longer while I ride this wave and I'll be back to posting more very soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

what I've been up to

Just thought I'd pop in to show you what I've been up to lately...

Although it doesn't look like much here...

I'm learning how to paint with watercolour! And I've got lots to learn so I don't have any pieces that I love enough to show you just yet. I'm hoping that will come soon.
Stay tuned...

playroom table & chairs

I've been slowly working on updating our playroom.

I have a few things that I've picked up from various garage sales over the years and I've been meaning to give them a fresh coat of paint. I just got around to it recently and am happy with the results.

So here is one of the chairs I bought. It came with another chair just like it and a table that was beyond repair. I paid $10 for all 3 pieces (and tossed the table). The chairs were vintage and super heavy duty. Yup should do for my boys!

Then I came across this Ikea bench. You can't tell from the photo but it was in rough shape. The paint on the back was all scratched and chipped. 

I paid $5-$10 for it (I can't remember now).

Next I bought this sturdy little table for $10. I don't have the before, before picture. This is after I had painted a small chalkboard area on the top.

I freshened up the chalkboard paint and painted the legs white. Actually I was going for cream... it looked so much creamier than white in the store. Honest!

I painted the chairs blue and the bench all one colour. 

Again, you can see that I'm 'paint colour challenged' because I was going for a more cherry red but got a rusty-brownish red instead. Sigh.

I love the way the chairs turned out though so I might just paint the bench to match.

That's a peek at our little 'work bench' as my boys like to call it. All the pieces fit together as a great set, ready for hours of entertainment - even for fort building. 
Not bad for $30!

thrifted dining room (a work in progress)

We've been super busy with life stuff around here, but one of the things I've been working on is my dining room. Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures so instead I'll update you as I go, and I'll put it all together once it's all done. 

I posted about my new table here, and now I'm sprucing up the rest of the room. 

I bought a pair of lamps like this from the Thrift store recently. 

I didn't like the shades but I figured they were easy enough to change. 

The lamps were just the right size.

I had hoped to find drum shades but settled on these ones from Ikea. I'll keep looking though (which is why I left the plastic wrap on!). 

I didn't mind the white lamps, but wanted to add a bit of punch to the room.

So I painted them yellow. I used Americana acrylic paint (Moon Yellow). I also painted some of the brass with a metallic silver paint.

I haven't decided whether to glaze them to make them look old, add varnish to make them shiny or just leave them as is. But I do like how they pop against the blue walls.

The mirror still has to be hung on the wall. Right now it is just resting on the hutch that I also bought at the Thrift store a few months ago. More to come on that later.

A new runner is in the works too.

So little time, so much to do!

Thanks for stopping by.

welcome

I'm at a point in my life where I find it hard to make new friends. Sure I meet new people who I'm friendly with, but they aren't usually people I would necessarily consider close friends. And I don't think I'm alone when I say that it's much harder to make friends and meet like-minded people once you've hit your <ahem> thirty-somethings. I guess that is part of the allure with the blogging world - for me anyway. I get a chance to see what great ideas other moms are doing for their children, what people are crafting or sewing up, decorating or even baking. There's so much inspiration on the internet and I truly love having my blog. Although I 'check in' on my favourite blogs just about daily, these people aren't in my 'daily life'. 

A couple of years ago, I met a mom through my work who seems to share the same interests, ideas, parenting views and even tastes. I considered her to be much more like a friend than a 'client.' And I'm happy to have Natalie in my life as a friend now.

Natalie blames me for getting her 'hooked' on reading various blogs (tee hee) and recently made me this beautiful wreath; inspired from the one on the blog Made. She knew that I had been wanting to spruce up my front door and this would be the perfect addition. It is so rare to receive handmade gifts and they mean so much to me. I love it!

A vibrant red wreath made of lima beans! 

It's adorable but the door wasn't doing it any justice, so....

...I painted it.  

Much better, don't ya think?!

Even better :)

A freshly painted door with a new wreath to welcome friends new and old. Perfect.
Thanks Natalie!

happy mother's day!

I'd like to wish all moms, moms-to-be and nurturers of children a happy mother's day!

Here's a little peek at what the kids and I made this week for their moms.

We had completed these earlier in the week... that is until I watered the plant! That's when the hand prints started to wash off!! I had white washed just old plain terracotta pots with acrylic paint but the hand prints were put on with washable (water-based) paint. So as soon as I watered the flowers, the paint came off. <sigh>

We redid the hand prints in acrylic paint and then I sprayed them with a clear gloss to protect them even further.

I included this cute little poem that I've used for a few different hand print crafts over the years. It's one of my favourites. My apologies that I don't know who wrote it or where it comes from exactly.

What did you give your mother today?

riley cat

Introducing: Riley Cat.  
That's his full name according to my youngest son, Evan.

He's our family pet, and I think of him like cat 'eye candy'. He's so soft and pretty.

But most importantly, he puts up with a lot from Evan - who is not the most gentle child at times. But secretly I think Riley really loves him anyway because he always comes back for cuddles.

Oh and the backround colour?! 
Well, with that beautiful weather we're experiencing today, I was able to send the boys out to play in the backyard... which gave me a chance to paint the dining room. Lovin' that new smokey blue.

baby T

Earlier this week I showed you a gift I made for my neighbours and their new baby boy. 

But I also gave them something a little more fun that I haven't shown you yet.

As you know, I absolutely love the technique of using freezer paper as a stencil for painting on fabric. So of course, I had to make baby Mitchell a fun new shirt too!

How could I resist?!

So much cuter than just a plain ol' T, no?! 

To start, I printed out the iPod logo with apple and traced it onto my freezer paper (with an extra letter). I cut out the template I had made and ironed it on to the shirt. 
Then I painted the letters.

Next to play with the infamous apple logo. 
I wanted to keep its recognizable shape but turn it into a poopy diaper as well.  

I tried a couple different ways - but being limited in my artistic abilities - I really struggled with this part.  It seemed so much easier in my head.

I ended up painting it white and then going over it with fabric markers. 
So you think I pulled it off?!

I love the stem - turned stinky fumes tee hee!

a place for books

You haven't heard from me much this week because I was hit pretty hard with the stomach flu that is going around. I have managed to putter around and get a few little things done but mostly cleaning and organizational type stuff. 

It was a slow recovery process but I'm better now and ready to get back to it!

Back in January I picked up this strange little piece from the thrift store nearby. 

I couldn't resist its quirkiness and thought it would work well in our playroom.

 

I gave it a few coats of white paint (no primer on hand) and did my first ever 'distress' job.

And, because it's for my kids, I added a little pop of colour on the inside to make it a bit more playful.

Just a small project - but enough to get my confidence up to try something a little bigger... (more on that later)

royal family

 
The castle I've been working on is still under renovation so our royal family has had to move into this little one-bedroom home while they wait...


I bought these wooden figures from a little shop on Etsy a few months back. They came naked, ready to paint. I am not a strong painter so this is my minimalistic approach! 
I do love how they are expressionless - leaving their emotions up to the imagination.

cute as a button

I learned about this neat technique for painting fabric on one of my absolute favourite blogs and couldn't wait to try it. So out I went, in search of some freezer paper and a plain white toddler-sized t-shirt. I printed out a phrase in a font that I liked and traced it onto my freezer paper to create a stencil. Then I carefully cut out the letters and ironed the stencil onto the shirt. I chose some fun fabric paint colours and dabbed them onto the shirt.

Honestly, this was such a fun technique that I had to stop myself from freezer stenciling everything I own!! Consider this your warning that there will be many more projects like this one to come...

I made this shirt for my friend's 1 year old daughter Brooke.

Once the fabric paint dried I sewed a big blue button onto the shirt.

Earlier this week I showed you one of my books, called Handmade Beginnings, by Anna Maria Horner. It has an adorable pattern for reversible pants and I wanted to make them for Brooke to go with the shirt.

I lucked out and found some fabric with the same colours as the ones I used on the t-shirt (yes I know ...most people would have chosen the fabric first, but not me!) 

 
As usual, I aimed for super girlie. 
This is the front of one side - perfect for Valentine's Day, don't ya think?!
 

...and this is the back of the reverse side.
Aren't they fun? I love the panel on the bum!

Brooke has the most amazing big brown eyes and I just know that she can pull off such bold colours. I made the pants a touch big so that she can roll the hems and grow into them.

It's so much fun to make handmade gifts. To me, when someone takes the time to make a gift it means that much more. What's your favourite handmade gift to make?

fit for my kings

This past Christmas I had a really difficult time shopping for my boys. I'd been trying to purge some of the toy clutter for months so I wasn't keen on adding any more to the lot.

When you have kids, it can be hard to have balance in the home - and not have the toys take over. With every birthday and Christmas that passes there are more and more toys that slowly invade your space. Of course, as a parent, you want your children to have everything they need to learn, develop and keep their imaginations soaring. And there really are so many great toys out there for our littlest of growing minds. But my goal is to cut back a bit and focus on better quality toys. I'd love for my kids to have more natural products such as wood or fabric, and a little less generic plastic stuff in their playroom.

Sadly, replacing all of their toys with the most amazing handmade toys just isn't in the budget. So instead, I'm making small yet conscious steps in that direction. And sometimes, it takes a bit of creativity.

I took my boys to Michael's a couple of months ago and we spotted this plain wooden castle. It was $29.99 and my boys begged me to buy it for them. Armed with a 50% off coupon, how could I say no?! 

We brought it home, and I tucked it away. I had hoped to surprise my boys and have it all painted for them on Christmas morning but time just didn't allow for that. So I'm just getting to it now.

I've managed to paint the exterior. This took me quite a while because I really had no reference (there aren't too many castles in Canada). I started off by painting it all gray and hated it. So I worked at getting some more earthy tones in there and I think it looks more realistic that way. 

I have lots more to do - like paint the top and the interior. So stay tuned!