Wow! I wondered if this blog was still online. I am planning on using this again, more for my booth business and creative projects that I work on and create. I will also add some great projects that hubby has created, too. We are looking forward to building some projects both for home and for my booth in the near future. Hope that you'll hang around and enjoy! ~M

Dress(ered) Up and Somewhere to go

Welcome to a project years in the making...so much so that I "took" this furniture back from my sister that I loaned it to. I had started to see makeovers of this type of furniture and thought that I could do just that to my old bedroom set. So, I did! This is the chest of drawers makeover...check it out.

Before minus the drawers, because you know I forget to take the perfect before photo.

My sister that used this had painted it with an oil paint. Man, that was a paint to sand down and get to a "blank" palette. See, I had plans to chalk paint it and it would be too slick to cling to the dresser if I didn't get those layers or at least sheen off. The prep on this piece was about 12 hours.

The drawers before...eesh. I'm so glad this project is DONE!

I used Dixie Belle Chalk Paint in Burlap. This is the best and my favorite chalk paint!

After two coats of the Burlap, I applied a coat of Black Glaze followed by Van Dyke Glaze, both also from Dixie Belle.

I topped it off with two coats of Dixie Belle Clear Coat in Satin. This is the top coat to seal everything.

The top drawer alone took 4 hours to clean up and get ready to paint, but it was totally worth it once I got to the glazing stage! I pushed the glaze down into those flowery grooves and it turned out beautifully!

I clean up the hardware and then spray painted them with Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze. An oldie but a goodie.

Here she is all gussied up and complete! Sh
e now resides in our bedroom and is my DH's dresser. I love how fresh and updated she looks.

Let's take one more look at that beautiful drawer! I just smile when I look at this furniture now. Much better and fits us much better. I am so glad I rescued it!

Pins and Needles

Hello all two readers of this blog! Your eyes are not deceiving you, this is a new post. Not too shabby for 10 months since the last post. I used to be so committed to writing and keeping up with this blog, but alas, life keeps getting in the way.

I guess I just don't feel the need to share all of my thoughts and feelings out here, they are more for my journal. I will say it is still a struggle to be content even after almost 4.5 years post-move. Moving stinks. Starting over stinks. It's not easy leaving a great life behind and it hurts trying to rebuild a great life. My emotions feel like the old, er, should I say vintage Atari game 'Pong'. Hit and miss, up and down, win and lose. I don't want to only show the good days and I certainly don't want to drag you through the bad ones, either. So, I guess I'm posting to let you know that I do still have a pulse and I do so want to reconnect with my blog and those that do read it when I post. I beg forgiveness and ask for patience and I recommit to reconnect and engage. Thanks, ~M

Dresser in Peony Pink

I have a horrible track record for taking before photos! Hopefully you can see how badly this dresser was in need of a makeover.

 

Using Dixie Belle Chalk Paint in Peony, I painted this dresser in just a few hours. Again, with the Zero VOC's I could paint it indoors and watch tv while doing it.

After I did the coats of Peony, I went over the whole thing and drawers with the Black Glaze. I love the way that it turned out!

The Black Glaze certainly toned down the bright pink and made it match my style more. Here's out fur-baby, Wallace, wanting to get in on the photo op. He's a good craft manager.
Again, so please with the easy use of the DBP. You have to try it!

Way Up North

We were able to make a trip to Canada this summer to celebrate Canuck's parents' 50th anniversary. We were able to visit some  dear friends that live in Revelstoke, BC. It was absolutely gorgeous!

There was a storm blowing in while we were at the top of the mountain. So cool to watch! We enjoyed our mini-hike and all of the beauty we took in that day!

Rockin' Chalk

You will soon see my love for Dixie Belle Chalk Paint! As I am planning posts for the next few weeks, most of them will feature DBP! 

In this post, I am sharing my classroom rocker. I love the style and wanted to paint it and I did with permission from my boss. 

I decided on a bright, teal blue to match my classroom. Dixie Belle Chalk Paint in Pure Ocean. I applied two coats of the paint for good coverage.

Here she is drying and waiting for Clear Coat.  I couldn't wait to get it in my classroom!

Isn't she so cute?! The kids love to take turns sitting in it and it literally disappears in my room instead of sticking out. It is weird to me how that works. It's fun, cheery, bright, and I love reading to the kids from my fun chair.

Chalkin' It Up with a little experience

Well, again, it seems I am starting this blog post with a "it's been a while", but it truly has! I have found new loves as far as decorating and crafting and sending projects to Canuck to build. He sure hates it when I have time for Pinterest! Ha!

Canuck built us a console table for behind the couch as well as a table for the TV to live on with storage underneath. I love the way the tables turned out and was sure I would paint them, but how? Well, there's a sweet little store here in town that I love and they carry Dixie Belle Chalk Paint and boy, do I love this stuff! It is super easy to use and work with. I wanted a driftwood stain for these pieces instead of a paint color. Well, I couldn't decide on the stain and the process was going to be many steps and much money. I am a quick results girl and once I met DBP, it was kismet! I ended up using the Hurricane Gray and watered it down to look like the stain I wanted. 

Here's the top and both Canuck and I were pleased with the results! Another great thing with the DBP is that it is Zero VOC so you can paint inside. It's wonderful!

I was giddy at this point! It turned out exactly as I wanted and in a matter of an hour, with no stinky fumes or chemicals, and it was done for less than $10 since the paint was watered down and I only used maybe half of a small pot. Truly exciting and I felt so accomplished!

And the final result. It's beautiful, made with our hands, and we have requests to sell some. Not sure if we will, but it's a compliment for sure!