Dont know what to call this thing....

Recently my step mom and I were walking through Goodwill trying to find a piece if furniture that she could use in her "new" craft room. We stumbled upon this piece.




She said, "Oh this would be perfect if only it was a little bit higher." I looked it over and was immediately taken by all of the drawers this thing had in it. What in the world was this thing? It was too short to be a dresser...it was too long to be a night stand. It certainly wasn't a coffee table...."Hmmm, oh well" I said and walked away.

Later that night I was laying in bed and couldn't stop thinking about that piece of furniture. "What is it? That's it...I'm going in the morning and buying it. I don't care what it is, I want it." And that is exactly what I did. I had the guys load it up in my Suburban and off I went...home with my "unknown" treasure.

This thing sat in my garage for months and months. And finally this last weekend I decided it was time to tackle it.




After several coats of paint and sealer, It is finished. I swear I was going to be painting drawers forever. This thing has 13 different drawers and of course I didn't label them as I was taking them out, so it took me forever to get them all back in their proper spot. Or what I thought was their correct spot. It wasn't until drawer 12 that I discovered that someone else had labeled the bottom of each drawer. (Enter a HUGE sighhh here!!)So, I had to take them all out again and put them into their "real" correct spot. Aahh...they fit so well now!





Anyway, I fell in love with this piece the minute I finished it. I decided to paint it a "Barn Red" color...I have several accents of red in my family room, and this is just where I moved this "thing"



I would love to figure out what this thing is, so if anyone knows, please tell me. Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

P.s. Yes, Krista I know you wanted this...and I may be able to part with it after I have loved on it a few more weeks. I'll let you know. :-)

Racing to Goodwill

I have been working like a crazy woman trying to get some of my projects finished. I desperately need to make more space for new treasures just waiting out there for me to discover them.

One of the projects that I just finished is a "french" inspired dresser. I have seen tons of these type of dressers all over the place lately. Magazines, blog land, TV, etc...so I had to HAVE one (and two others) when I found them at Goodwill's 1/2 day.




I am terribly embarrassed to admit that I actually raced to Goodwill to get in line before 9:00am. You'd be surprised how CRAZY that place gets on 1/2 off day. I even took my son with me so that he could run into the store and lay claim to the dressers before anyone else could (literally..lay on them if needed)



I know, I know it's sad...but a girls got to do, what a girls got to do!! But I was glad to see some friends of mine doing the same thing. Luckily we were not going for the same thing or else there could have been blood shed. She had her husband with her to do the "dirty work" for her....






We both got what we went there for and left with all of our hair and nails intact!



OK, back to the dressers...I bought three of them that day. But, so far I have only finished one. I started out by wiping down and sanding it. Then I looked through my stash of "Oops" paint. If you are not familiar with "Oops" paint, it is paint that has either been mixed wrong or returned and they mark it down. I ALWAYS check the Oops paint section of any store, before I pick out "real" paint. It is super duper cheap. $5.00 for a gallon and usually $10 for a 5 gallon bucket. I have painted almost my entire house with Oops paint. Maybe that is a good idea for a future post. Hmmm...I'll have to remember that one. Anyway, I picked out this great blue color and got to work on painting....




After the paint was dry, I glazed it. I love this technique! Then got out the sander...well you know the rest.



Here it is all finished. It is missing one drawer hardware and I need to go to the salvage yard and pick one up, I'll add that to my To-Do list...I have moved it into the house for right now, and it may stay or it may go onto Craig's List or maybe I'll sell it at my Garage/Boutique Sale who knows, but for right now I am enjoying seeing it in my entry way!



Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

When trash really is just TRASH

In this current economy, too often we are seeing families having to leave their homes. This recently happened to a family who lived around the corner from me. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, they had to move out almost as quickly as they moved in.

I had noticed that they had left a ton of stuff on the driveway. I asked my other neighbor if she knew why they had left so much stuff and she said that they pretty much left in the middle of the night and that what was left was pretty much up for the taking.....WHAT??

Of course I was trying not to show my excitement. I knew that this was a really sad thing for that family, but for me...someone who loves other people's trash, this was awesome...

I waited for Scott to get home from work and once we had eaten dinner and gotten the kids off to bed, we drove around the corner and "scoped" out the place. I suddenly felt like I should be dressed in all black and have a ski mask on. Anyway, once we looked at what we could see from the truck, we decided that it would be easier to go back home and walk back with the dolly.

Oh my, I was like a kid in a candy store...toys, clothes, furniture, car seats, strollers, exercise equipment, dishes, etc...all just left in the driveway. It took us several trips, but we finally got it all home. Lots and lots of treasures..at least that's what I thought.






In the picture you can see a train table, Treadmill, a couple of benches, a white rocker and several other small little items. OK, so what's the problem your asking?

Let me just tell you first that Scott and I hauled that Treadmill all the way around the corner and it was NOT light. We plugged it in....yep, you guessed it...IT DIDN'T WORK! OK, strike one...

The cute train table I cleaned and hauled into Jackson's room....yep, strike two. It was missing several pieces of track and was way to big for his room! Bummer

The white rocker, well it is still in my backyard on the patio, but when I sat down on it, I immediately got my rear end pinched! There is a huge crack all the way down the seat. Nothing that a cushion cant fix but....this would have been useful info when I was carrying it all over the neighborhood.

Come on...I am starting to realize WHY all this stuff was left on the driveway. It wasn't all in vein though! I did score on a few of the pieces. Remember the benches?


I brought two benches home. One is this smaller one and the other is a bit larger. I had big plans for these beauties. Today, I'm showing the smaller of the two.

First, I washed it (it was pretty nasty) then I sanded it down and used wood filler to fill in some of the gaps and holes. Then I sprayed all the cracks and detail pieces with black semi-gloss spray paint. Then I went over the whole thing again with a gloss paint (I used a paint brush and roller) Once that had dried, I distressed the edges and sealed it with a water based clear sealer. I think it made that nasty, faded, yucky bench look really nice and very "upscale"




So you see....not all trash is going to make a good treasure, some of it actually is TRASH, but if your willing to haul it around your neighborhood. You may find some treasures even among the trash. Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

Goodwill Airplane

I've said it numerous times before and guess what? I'm going to say it again...I LOVE Goodwill. Although, I will also say that I sometimes have a love, hate relationship with it. I love when I go and find GREAT bargains.....but I hate when I have to pay more than a $1.00 for them. But really...who am I kidding, listen to me....

Take this wooden airplane


(sorry for the sideways view...stupid computer)

This was purchased for $7.99 (Gasp!) I know it wasn't a $1.00, but look out stinking cute it is...I know once I fix this up, it will look GREEAATT in Jackson's "Airplane" nursery!!

And I was right...I painted it a Navy blue and distressed the edges just a bit and within a few minutes, this airplane was ready for take off.






His room is still a work in progress, but for right now, I think this airplane is perfect!
I have been so busy working on projects, I cant wait to show you...Make sure you keep checking for new posts. Thanks for stopping by!

Kris

Sheet music side table

Oh blog....how I've missed you! I can finally say, "I made it" I survived the summer and now my kids (all but one) are back in school and I can actually complete a thought, a sentence and even some projects.

I bought this table several weeks ago at DI (Deseret Industries) for $15. I absolutely love the fact that it is "two-tiered" and when I picked it up...boy it was solid alright.



Of course I can NEVER just leave things the way I find them. So, I got out my trusty ole' sander and gave it a quick sanding. I do this, so that the paint will adhere better.



Then I painted it a base coat of "cottage white" I made sure to do the base and legs really well, I did two coats on these. But because I knew I was going to cover the tops with the sheet music I just did a light coat on those.



Then it was time for the sheet music. We have loads and loads of old sheet music from Scott's mom. So I looked through our stash and picked ones that we had duplicates for and went to work arranging them "just right". Actually there is no real "process" to this, you just see what looks best.



After I had picked out my music, it dawned on me....how am I going to get all of those sheets cut to fit onto the top of the table??? Hmm...so I decided to take a large piece of butcher paper and place it over the top of the table and trace around the top with a crayon. This left an outline of the top and then I was able to cut around the outline and use the circle as a template. (I'm sure there was probably a easier way, but...)



I used "Mod Podge" to stick the sheet music to the top of the table. Once the sheet music was dry, I started my "glazing". I showed how to do this in my last post "Craig's List" After I glazed it, I sanded around the edges and in places that would naturally show signs of wear. Then I sealed it with a water based sealer.




So, what do you think? I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Scott says the top is a little "busy" and he may be right (don't tell him I said that) I should have maybe had all the sheet music going in the same direction. Next time!




Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

Craigs List

So, many of you know my current obsession right now is fixing up furniture. This is no big secret, however if you saw my garage right now you might mistake it for a used furniture store or possibly a dump, either way I have entirely too much stuff right now. Time to get rid of it....Enter in my dear friend Craig.

Craig's List for those of you who don't know what it is, is a online site that allows you to post tings that you want to sell. It is basically a HUGE garage sale. People list things from a candle stick all the way to cars, boats and even houses. They also have a section for people looking for jobs and even more scary are the people advertising themselves....YIKES! Anyway moving on..I'm not even gonna go there.

My neighbor introduced me to Craig's List and was telling me how she sells things she finds at yard sales on Craig's list. Hmm, I thought I can do that. So, my first listing was my King Size bedspread that I had from when I re-did my master bedroom. Remember the grandma green? Oh my...anyway, I listed it on Craig's List and had a few people interested, but nothing ever came of it. I thought, "this isn't that great" But then it happened. My first "real sale" I had picked up a bench at a church yard sale for $3. It was one of those benches that goes with a kitchen table. I painted it black (of course) and I sold it for $45....CHA CHING!!! Sorry I don't have pictures of the bench to show you, it was pre-blog. Anyway...the excitement and rush I got from selling something that I had paid almost nothing for, was amazing. Of course then I was on a mission to buy, fix up and sell anything I could get my hands on.

Remember the little nightstand that I painted...yes, black? The one with the yard sale glass knobs? Yep..sold it $30. Oh Craig how I love you. I recently listed these cute little nightstands that I just finished. They didn't always look so cute. And did you notice what color they are? NOT BLACK!!! I'm so proud.



These two nightstands, I picked up at Goodwill for $7 each. This is what they originally looked like.



I decided that I wanted to try a new technique that I had heard about and seen on TV, but that I was always too scared to try. Its called glazing and it really isn't that scary. So, here is what I did.

First...buy a cheap piece of furniture...check
Second...sand it to rough up any type of smooth surface...check
Third...paint it desired color. I call this color "Vintage vanilla"...check



Fourth...time for the glaze, this is what it looks like. You can get it at Home Depot. It isn't terribly expensive, about $15 for this can, but a little goes a long ways.



The way glaze works is that you mix 1 part glaze to three parts paint. What the glaze does is allow you to have more time before your paint dries. I mixed the glaze with a dark brown, so that when I painted it on the "vintage vanilla" and then wiped it off, it would create the aged look I was going for.

So, you brush on the glaze, wait a few seconds maybe a minute and then take a cotton cloth and wipe off the glaze. Its important to get the glaze into all the little nicks and crannies if you want it to look really aged.



Once it was glazed and wiped off, I let it dry for several hours and then sanded the edges and then applied a coat of sealer. I also took the original hardware off and just spray painted them black and while they were still a little tacky, I took some steel wool and just roughed up the finish, they turned out better than I expected. This may be a new technique instead of buying new hardware.



Here it is again all finished. I love these. If I had room, I would keep them. But obviously that isn't going to happen. So, Craig gets these too. I have them listed on Craig's List right now. I have noticed however, that Craig's List goes in cycles. Sometimes its really busy and I have no problem selling things and others, well things don't move as quickly. So you just have to be patient. Have fun out there and don't overlook something just because it doesn't look cute now, think of what it could look like. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by.

Love,
Kris

Back to Basics

Recently, I have been trying to simplify my life. On a recent weekend retreat with some wonderful women, I came to the realization that I need to go back to basics. Thus my new life motto for this year. "BACK TO BASICS"

There is something about the 4Th of July that just makes me smile. I'm not sure if it is the meaning behind it or if its the chance to get together with family and friends, or if it is all the cute decorations, but I just LOVE the Red, White and Blue. Since I'm going "Back to basics" I decided this year I was going to really go back to basics with our 4Th of July BBQ.

I promised myself that I wouldn't go and buy ANYTHING to decorate with for our BBQ. So, I set out to recycle things I had used before and find new uses for others. I started by decorating the tables with plain white linen tablecloths. Then I layered a blue floral fabric over the white and then topped it off with a red bandanna. I think the three things together really looked cute.



For the centerpieces, I used scrapbook paper to create these super easy and super cute "Firework" picks. I made a red, white and blue for each table along with a star in each color for each table. I have lots of just plain greenery centerpieces that I keep around just for this kind of project. I simply just changed the ribbon to a red, white and blue stripped ribbon and stuck my homemade picks in the greenery and you have a instant patriotic centerpiece.




For the drinks, I wanted to of course use something that I had a lot of, so I used mason jars for cups. These were a huge hit. The adults and kids alike loved drinking out of them. There is something so refreshing about a big glass of lemonade.



For the food, we kept it really simple. Everyone brought their own meat to grill and also brought a dish to share. We had all the classics. Watermelon, Potato Salad, Corn-on-the-cob (fresh picked) Baked Beans, Every kind of chips, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, 4 different kinds of pie and then the best part of all......HOMEMADE ICE CREAM...YUMM-OOO!! We actually made two different flavors. Classic Vanilla and to spice it up a bit, I made a lime sherbet. The vanilla was gone in two seconds flat, the lime...well, it's still in my freezer. (That's what I get for not sticking to the basics)





We swam in the pool, played croquet, laughed, talked, played cards, and when it was time to watch the fireworks, we pulled our chairs out in the yard and the kids got to watch as much of them as they wanted to and then jump back in the pool.





It was by far the best 4Th of July I have experienced so far. And it was all possible, because I decided to go back to basics. And I feel extremely blessed to be Forgiven, Loved and FREE! Happy Fourth Of July everyone.



Thanks for stopping by

Love,
Kris