February 20, 2012

Waterfall Desk

I finally finished my desk! Yay! :)



I bought this desk with a few other pieces from Craigslist this fall. I have to admit I didn't even want the desk. I'm a little embarrassed to tell you that I saw no potential and am not a huge fan of the waterfall style. This is how it looked when I bought it:




So it sat in the garage while I worked on other things...Until I saw this beautiful piece of inspiration from Twice Lovely:


via


I knew right then exactly what I wanted to do with my desk. So the stripping began.....and went on and on and on and on. Under the white paint was pink paint, then gold paint, then the old stain. There were so many crevices that I couldn't get into. It was such a messy job that I couldn't just run to my office and work on it when I had a spare 15 minutes. 




So it sat for days at a time untouched. Finally my husband, Scott, realized that sanding all of those crevices was holding me back from finishing, so he lovingly spent a few hours getting it completely ready for staining. I'm forever grateful :) 




I stained the desk with Minwax Polyshades (stain & polyurethane in 1) in antique walnut. It was my first time using it and it was okay. I used 3 coats to get the color I wanted and afterwards I still felt it needed a coat of polyurethane for strength and for more of a glossy finish. But it was really easy to apply with a cheap sponge brush and I'd definitely use it again. 




For the drawers I knew I wanted to use some cardstock with pretty script writing on it. I got it from Hobby Lobby while it was 50% off. First I removed all of the old hardware, then filled in all of the holes with wood putty and sanded them super smooth. 




I painted around the edges of the drawers with annie sloan chalk paint in graphite, then I attached the paper to the drawer fronts using Modge Podge. I bought the drawer pulls on Ebay and got enough extras to use in my office for whenever I get around to that project! The two little knobs came from Hobby Lobby and were spray painted to match the pulls.




I am really happy with how it turned out and have been enjoying having it in my living room, but it is for sale :) If you live in the Chicagoland area and are interested in buying it you can find my email address above on my contacts page.


(The inset panels were all painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in graphite and then waxed)








While I love how this desk turned out I'm not looking for any projects that involve stripping in the near future!! ;)
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February 13, 2012

The First Day of the Rest of my Life

I'm not huge into Valentine's Day. There's no decorating or big plans or anything. Me and the kids will be celebrating this afternoon by making heart shaped rice crispy treats and making their valentine's cards to bring to school tomorrow :) 

But this is still a very special couple of days for me. Nine years ago today my life changed forever. But let me give you some back story first....

I was 19 years old and working as a bank teller. I was quite outgoing and never had any problems talking/flirting with guys. I started to notice this cute guy who came into the drive thru every Friday evening. He was from my church but I had never actually really met him before. It turned out, after a little investigating, that he was 7 years older than me. Shoot, there goes that thought, he'd never ask a 19 year old out :( 

So I went about my business while he came in to get his cash every Friday night. I started dressing really nice on Fridays and fixing my makeup as often as possible. Everyone I worked with knew to let me run and help him whenever he pulled up in his black Mustang. But even with my usually outgoing personality I couldn't get myself to say one word to him other than, "Thank you, have a nice weekend!" As he drove away I'd mutter (or maybe yell, I was a ridiculous teenager after all) "Will you marry me?!" But I resigned to the fact that until I was at least 21 and able to go search for him in the bars he must hang out at, it was never going to happen.

To try and be proactive about it, you know with out actually talking to him ;), I told my mom about him. Even though he was 7 years older she was excited that she knew him and his family from church so she helped me out :) One Sunday after church she casually started a conversation with this guy's mom and started asking how old he was and if he was single and that she had a daughter who worked at the bank. Just enough to plant the seed!! But nothing happened.

A couple months later Valentine's Day came rolling around. My valentine's were going to be the 4 and 1 year old boys I babysat every weekend :)

I was, of course, at work in the drive thru on the night before valentines when my crush pulled up. My boss informed me that HE was here, which was the rule ;) But it was Thursday! I wasn't all dolled up! Then his canister dropped in the tube in front of me. It looked different....I opened it to find this:

(photo courtesy of my mom 8 years ago for a surprise wedding shower invitation:) 

It says:
 Hiedi (spelled wrong!:) 
Do you have plans for Valentine's Day?

I almost fainted. I got on the intercom and told him I was babysitting. I then PULLED myself together and told him I would find a replacement and I would love to go out with him!! 

After exchanging numbers he drove away and I ran to the back room and laid on the ground kicking and screaming in excitement.

The next night on our first date the restaurant was taking photos of all the couples for Valentines Day. I was ecstatic, even if he never asked me out again I would have a picture of us together! :)



Well, when he dropped me off that night he asked me if I could go to the car show in Chicago the NEXT night. I was on cloud nine. And I stayed there for a very long time :) 

The next Valentine's Day on our 1 year anniversary we were already engaged and about to be married in just 2 more months. Somehow, someway it turned out that we were absolutely perfect for each other. And we still are :) 

(on a family vacation, married 6 years)

In the end it turned out that Scott's mom started asking him casually about the cute girl in the drive thru at the bank here and there :) He thought I was in high school or something so hadn't really noticed me but that winter I chopped off my super long hair to my shoulders and looked a bit older and he took notice. He thought that I was only a few years younger than him and found out on our third date just HOW young I actually was! hahaha, but it was too late, we'd both already fallen for each other. So he was just going to have to put up with years of teasing from his friends for robbing the cradle ;)

So that's my story :) 

I suddenly feel the need to call Scott and tell him how much I love him!

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February 5, 2012

Holey Jeans get a new life!


If you have a little man in your life you've probably experienced the frustration of watching as every single pair of jeans he owns quickly get holes in the knees. 

So the other day while browsing the awesome blog make it and love it I came across her boys jeans refashion and realized I could use this british flag to patch a pair of jeans that had gotten a hole! Awesome!

I already had plenty of torn jeans that I could cut up to make the flag so I figured this was worth a try. I didn't measure or use a ruler for any of it. I just cut a rectangle out of the holey jeans, cut a patch and some strips out of a lighter pair of old jeans, sewed the strips on to make a british flag, then attached the flag!

I'll leave the directions to Ashley but will just point out some things I noticed while making them. I used a pair of jeans that had a small hole in one knee. If the hole has already torn all the way to the side seams it's too late for this technique, sorry! Also, I would recommend just opening up the side seam of the jeans right away. It made it so much easier to sew in the patch and sewing up the seam afterwards was so quick and easy it was worth it!

Here's a picture of the side seam that you want to open up. It's just one little seam that will be easy to sew back up afterwards.



But here's a picture of the side seam you want to leave alone. 



Those are the only pointers I've got for you, but go get the whole tutorial here! There aren't a whole lot of clothing projects for boys out there so this was very exciting for my guy :) And the fact that his ruined holey jeans have a whole new life as fun and funky is just an added bonus!! ;)






Linking up to:
Sisters of the Wild West
Better Life Bags
Craft-O-Maniac
Thrifty Decor Chick
The Shady Porch
Domesblissity
These Peas Taste Funny
aka Design
Bear Rabbit Bear
Two Yellow Birds
Stuff and Nonsense
Days of Chalk and Chocolate
Funky Junk Interiors
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