Before and After's for the week

Having all the kids home for summer is proving to be a challange. The constant fighting, the empty stomaches that seem to never be filled and the sound of "Mom, we're bored" running through my head....my escape from it all??? FURNITURE!!

As promised I have taken lots of "before" pictures and cant wait to show you the "afters"


Remember this piece that Jackson was helping me with?

Well here it is all finished. I love the "Barn Red" color.





See these two dressers stacked one on top of the other??



Well the top one met an unfortunate fate when the "helpers" at the thrift store were "helping" me load it into my car.....notice the clamps and gorilla glue?



But here it is all fixed and painted a very bright but super cool funky "Peacock Blue" color...just in case you are wondering, this color is one of the top 2012 colors of the year...just a little bit of info for ya ;-)





And the bottom dresser was an absolute beast!! This thing is HUGE!! But I'm absolutely in LOVE with how it turned out. What do you think?








Well, hope you enjoyed some of the before & afters of the week.
I have lots more to show you but I must pace myself. Hope you have a great week and weekend.

Kris

Busy week of Re-Do's

Happy Summer ya'll! IT'S HOT!!!! What happened? It went from 85-90's to 110 degrees overnight. This weather puts a serious cramp in my DIY side. However I did manage to get several pieces done this last few weeks.

First of all....take a look at my To-do pile of furniture and projects just waiting for me in the garage



MASSIVE huh?? I know, I know....with a pile this BIG I even enlisted the help of the smallest DIYers of the family


He is so stinkin' cute!!

I found this old solid wood hutch, display cabinet the other day for $24.99 at the thrift store and I had to have it. I love the curves at the top and the fact that its unique and not super huge.




I lightly sanded it down and then into the "paint station" she went. Here she is all finished and isnt she lovely?





I also have been doing a lot of custom pieces for clients lately. I found these two side tables the other day and it wasnt long before I had a client dying to have them for her daughters bedroom.





She wanted them glossy white. I think they turned out awesome. Amazing what a little paint and some elbow grease will do.



I've started on a couple more pieces and I'll show those later, but until then here are a few more pics of some of the finished pieces I've done. I dont have before pics of these. I got too excited to get started. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Kris

Just Me, a Staple Gun and Dr. Phil

Normally I'm not the type to watch those cheesy day time shows. You know the one's I'm talking about, Oprah, Dr. Phil, The Dr's etc...but sometimes a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do!!!

I have been thrifting and re-doing junky pieces of furniture for a long time, but recently I have tried re-upholstering. The thought of such a thing used to be scary and completely "out of my league" but when stumbling upon some recent "treasures" I thought, "why not try it"

Enter in trial #1

I know its hard to see, but this couch is amazing. The curvy lines, her french legs....oooh be still my beating heart. And as if she wasnt lovely enough, she was only $35 at the thrift store. This poor beauty sat neglected in my garage used as a storage heap for months and months and then....FINALLY it was her turn. It was time to tackle the BEAST. I pulled her out into the middle of the garage and started taking off all of the cushions. I immediately encounter problem #1. This thing smelles like smoke. Like 60+ years of Grandma and Grandpa sitting in their dark panelled living room watching Happy Days kinda of smoke! YUCK!!! "Ok" I think, I will just get new cushions.....I toss the old ones off to the side and began to pull out all of the millions of staples and tacks.

Enter in Problem #2

As the fabric started to come off the back of the couch, I quickly realized so was the entire back cushion of the couch. It was literally disintegrating as I went. "Oh no", now I was going to need an entire new back cushion for the couch. Uuugg! It filled my entire black trash can full of nasty old crusty pieces of foam cushion.

I left what I could salvage of the old batting and support fabric and painted the wood frame a robin's egg blue color. I distressed it in certain places and sealed it with a satin polyurtheane. Sorry I dont have pictures of that process. Now, it was time to get the cushions and start covering this bad girl.

Enter in problem #3

New foam cushion material is EXPENSIVE!!!! Who would have thought. I took the 3 old cushions into my local fabric wholesale store to see how much it would be to get new cushions for the bottom and 1 big cushion for the back. This seemed like a reasonable question to me, however their response hmmm, not so much. $160 for the cushions....WHAT??? "Just for some foam", I asked. "Yes" the lady behind the counter quickly answered "And that isnt even the real good foam" she said. Well, I wasnt about to pay that so, what I decided to do is re-use the 3 old cushions from the bottom and just get a new back piece. $64.00 later I had a new back cushion and 3 stinky, smokey used cushions for the bottom.

I've seen people using canvas drop clothes as furniture fabric and I just love that idea. I went to my local Home Depot and bought the biggest drop cloth I could find (make sure if you are going to try using this, you DONT get one that has plastic backing on it)I think it was about $36. I brought it home and washed and dried it. I then took the old fabric covers from the 3 stinky cushions and used them as patterns to cut new pieces. I even used the old zippers. The new covers fit like a glove. I love it when I sew something and it actually looks like what it is supposed to look like. I forgot to mention that the 3 stinky cushions had been temporarily living outside in the fresh air with about 1 bottle of febreeze on each of them. No more stinky, smoky smell!! Once the three cushions were recovered and done, it was time to tackle the back. This process was a little slower.

I had my love help me carry the couch into the family room so that I could be inside instead of in my dirty, hot, lonely garage while I worked on the back. Well, once I got all the kids into bed, I decided it was now or never and I started. I did the back first....cut to size, stretch, staple. Cut, stretch, staple.....over and over until the entire back was done. "Wow" I thought, this looks pretty good. I'll keep going. I moved onto one side and then another.

By this time, my love had gone to bed and the house was quiet....I always work better and faster alone! Well, alone with the TV on. I looked up at the clock and it was 2am, there sure isnt much on TV at 2am, but I did manage to find Dr Phil. Lucky me, I happen to catch a Dr. Phil marathon. As Phil solved the world's problems one "baby daddy" at a time, I continued to stretch and staple, stretch and staple and it wasnt until my love came around the corner with his morning coffee and said, "Wow, you finished it, it looks GREAT" that I realized it 6:30am and YES I had finshed it. Me and Dr. Phil finally finished my first "Real" upholstery job.

Here she is....

Isnt she lovely??

I have officially conquered my fear of reupholtery and have even managed to do a few other things. Her are a few pictures of some of the other pieces I've tackled. Oh and I ended up selling my "beauty" on Craig's List for a pretty little profit.

Good Luck with your projects and thanks for stopping by,

Kris

Merchant Square Flea Market

I know, I know its been a while...I'm sorry. Instead of boring you with all the excuses of why I havent posted in 4 months, I thought I would just jump right in there with some exciting stuff.


This last Saturday I had the priveledge of participating in my first real "Flea Market". My dear friend Tana from Vintage Charm asked me to share a space with her and I couldnt have been more excited if I tried!!!


As you know I already have a booth/space at Qcumberz in Phoenix. If you have never been down to Qcumberz you really should go....it is such a fun little shop. All kinds of different and unique things. Anyway, Tana's shop (Vintage Charm) used to be down on Main St. in Mesa but when the market "tanked" she had to close it. So, she has been looking for some other "avenue's" to sell her most amazing things. When she heard about Merchant Square having these flea markets a few times a year she thought it would be perfect, and arent I lucky she invited me?


Between my duties as a wife and mother and running my catering company (which has been CRAZY busy) I have been a busy little bee getting things ready for the Flea Market.


Here are some pictures of the day

We had so much fun and made some great contacts for some possible business opportunities and although we both (and my mom) just about had heat stroke, I know we would have done it all over again in a heart beat!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

As if....

Its days like today that make me sit back and ponder WHY I do what I do and why do I always seem to get myself into these, well......things?

Its no secret that I am an EXTREMELY busy girl. I am a wife, a mother to 4 wonderful precious gifts from GOD, a sister, a aunt, a daughter, granddaughter, Caterer, Kitchen manager for our church, on the women's board at church, neighbor and friend just to name a few..... I don't claim to do any of these things well, but I do TRY my best to give all of them my attention. So what have I added to my list of titles? Crazy! That's what...

AS IF I wasn't busy enough, I have gone and done it. I have decided to open up a retail space at a absolutely wonderful eclectic place in Phoenix called, Qcumberz. WHY you ask? Well, it seemed like a good idea. Qcumberz is a place that you can find just about ANYTHING. It is filled with all different vendors who sell their "finds" and I wanted in on the action. I love to buy and re-do furniture and have been selling it on Craig's List for several years now and have started to branch out and do some more creative pieces and have found that people actually do LIKE what I do, so....why not?

My neighbor Laura (who I adore) and her friend opened up their space in Qcumberz last year and when Laura's friend decided to branch off on her own, it opened up the opportunity for me to come in and share the space with Laura. Oh My GOSH!!! I will say its been a little crazy trying to get stuff finished to take down to the shop, but boy have we had fun! I cant wait to show you all of the fun pieces I've been working on, and what our space looks like. Wish me luck and if you are curious about Qcumberz, you can find it located at 4429 N. 7Th Ave, Phx 85013 or at www.qcumberz.com

I'm off to go sand or paint or reupholster something....thanks for stopping by

Love,
Kris

Where have I been?

BOY....this new year came crashing in at light speed. Looking back through my previous posts, I saw that it was February 15Th when I last posted something. WOW, that seems like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then.

Where have I been, what have I been doing you ask? Here's a glimpse.....It was right around February 14Th, when my phone rang and it was my Grandma. She said to me, "Kris, I'm getting married." Wait, what? Don't get me wrong, I loved the man she had been seeing. His name was Stan and he made her laugh. It was so nice to see her happy again.



It had been almost 10 years since my grandpa died, it was time that she "got out there". She said she wanted me to help her plan and cater her wedding. Something small she said, nothing fancy. Well, you know me I don't do ANYTHING small or SIMPLE. We quickly started making plans, doing up the invitations, etc.....then it all came to a crashing STOP.

The evening of April 1st, I got a phone call from Stan. He said he was at the emergency room with my grandma and that they thought she might be having a stroke. He said not to worry about coming up that he would call me as soon as he had more info. Well, later that night we found out that she was being moved to a different hospital and that they were running more "tests." It seemed like days but was actually hours when the phone rang and it was my aunt. She said that they had found two masses in her brain. It wasn't a stroke it was CANCER. "Does grandma know yet, I asked?" "No, we want you to be there with us when we tell her." I called my sister and we went straight up to the hospital. She was sitting up in bed, smiling and was happy at the news that she hadn't had a stroke. Little did she know that we were there to deliver the news that would change her life forever.



I held her hand and my uncle told her the news. We told her what the doctor's told us....she could fight it. It wasn't going to be easy, and she had a long road ahead of her, but......She could fight it! And that is exactly what she did. Life changed, and it changed quickly. Unfortunately her and Stan broke up. He had lost his wife of 60+ years a few years earlier to cancer and I think the thought of going through it again with my grandma proved to be too much for him. It wasn't long after they broke up that we quickly realized that my grandma was having more trouble than we had expected. She was going down hill quickly.

I became her main caregiver. I helped her with everything from showering to taking her to all of her appointments. It was a full time job on top of my 4 children, husband, catering company, church responsibilities, friends, etc..... I barely found enough time to keep my laundry washed and my floors from becoming a sticky mess let alone do anything crafty or write a blog!



On Monday, August 22ND at 12:10am my Grandmother Marjorie J. Rudd lost her fight with Brain Cancer. She was 79 years old. I had no idea at the time that her cancer would not only change her life forever, but also change mine.



She taught me so much in the 4 months of her battle with this horrible disease. She taught me to live with no regrets. She taught me to always make sure your family knows that you love them and most importantly that we serve an amazing GOD. Even though we are not perfect and we make mistakes.....we are FORGIVEN. Christ died on the cross so that we could have a clean slate, do-overs a second chance. It is NEVER too late to ask for forgiveness. She was brave to the very end and I am so thankful that I got to spend that time taking care of her.

The last several months without her have been hard. I often am reminded of her by a picture, a smell, a sound and I just smile. Life goes on, thankfully I have a very forgiving family. They have been amazing through this journey. But I will say they are happy to have "me" back. So....I will be slowly but surely getting back "into" crafting, thrifting, blogging and whatever else I feel like doing in between the laundry, cooking, raising of said 4 children, and everything else that I manage to cram into a 24 hour period.

Thanks for stopping by,
Kristen

Stopped Dead in my tracks

Have you ever had the most brilliant idea only to have someone stop you dead in your tracks? Well, I have and did!! A few posts ago I mentioned that I was going to be re-doing my house room by room. I had planned on starting in the family room by re-doing my mantel. I HATE this fireplace wall. I've HATED it ever since we bought this house almost two years ago. This is what it looked like when we bought it....



Horrible, I know. The white rock along with the gold glassed in screen, UUuuggg! I love having a fireplace, but I really wanted a mantel for my fireplace. I wanted to find a black mantel with wonderful aged detail but had been looking for almost a year with no luck. Then I found one at our local Habitat for Humanity thrift store. It was a great deal at only $60 but wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I knew I could paint it though and make it beautiful. I loaded that sucker up and brought it home. But....like most things I do, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to mount onto the horrible, ugly, dated white rock. But of course, like he always does, my love found a way...what do you think?




Better Right? Yes, of course its better but not perfect. I really want to paint this mantel. So what's the problem you ask?

My love has told me NO!



What?..... This is something I rarely hear from him. He usually is very supportive of my "projects" but he has put his foot down on this one.....Bummer!
Although I haven't actually gotten out of him why he wont let me paint the mantel, he has said that I can paint the rock.
Wow, this shocks me even more than him telling me "NO". Maybe I should pick out a color for the rock that looks horrible with the existing color of the mantel and then I'll be forced to paint it, hmmm. For right now, my plan is to paint the rock and then talk him into letting me paint the mantel. Well, I'm off to pick out paint for the rock wish me luck. I'll be keeping you updated with the progress of the fireplace along with some other projects I have going.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris