April Goals

So it just occurred to me the other day that I never made any April goals. The truth is that my April goals would probably have been the same as March, paint a lot of furniture!! But April has not been the best month for me.

It started with helping out a friend by watching her sweet and wonderful boys. A little bit too busy to be painting furniture. No problem. It then turned into sore throats and colds and a lost voice all during the last week before the Little Lambs spring program. I'm the MUSIC teacher at Little Lambs. My voice is kind of needed. 

And then it ended with torrential down pours, a flooded basement and crawl space and our church's basement flooded. We hold Little Lambs in the church basement. And it was now the actual week of the program.

So needless to say the month of April got away from me. And let's not forget that the stomach flu has now come to visit my house. sigh. I'll be back in May with some goals and hopefully a finished project to share. Thanks for putting up with my sometimes sporadic blogging :) 

Spring Chalkboard Calendar

It's been a cold and rainy week here in Chicago. So I decided that maybe if I gave Spring a chalkboard welcome it might decide to finally show up! Worth a shot, right?

My last chalkboard creation was nothing to write home about...well I guess I DID write a blog post about it which is about the same thing....but anyways. I didn't love it and so I never bothered updating the week's activities. Which just made life even more confusing when every week someone asked me what we were going to have to eat at grandma's on Thursday night.... 

So this time I worked extra hard and used some tips I found on Pinterest making sure that the end result would be something I'd actually want to update every week :)

That's the view when you walk in the back door....and a close up...

Not too shabby, huh? Especially for someone with TERRIBLE handwriting! Even those little flowers are a tiny miracle for this untalented doodler. ;)

My tools were a bowl of water, a towel, a yardstick, and a ruler. I was hesitant to wet down my chalkboard before writing on it even though multiple sources had said to do it. I was afraid it would leave unsightly smudge marks every where making it obvious where I had wet it down, but in the end as it dried it still had a hazy, chalky finish making it not so noticeable. And really, who says my entire chalkboard should be smudgless??? (other than the voices in my head of course)

So WELCOME SPRING! Come quickly please and warm up this tired woman who desperately needs some fresh air!!!!

Sharing at:
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Funky Junk Interiors
Silver Pennies
Alderberry Hill
twelveOeight
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Dry Brushed Antique Dresser

So March is over. My goal was to get lots of furniture painted so that when I figure out where to sell my furniture I'll be ready. I started with 2 chairs that needed painting and reupholstering but the reupholstering was pretty darn difficult and so those are on the back burner for now.

I was able to complete a beautiful dresser for a wonderful couple I'm friends with who are expecting their first baby. I made a fresh eggs sign which is a quick, fun project that I would love to sell along with my furniture somewhere. And I did a quick re-do on two little tables that were collecting dust in my garage. 

But I finished out the month with an incredible piece of furniture that I will be very proud to sell as an "All That Brings Joy" piece.

I got this dresser along with it's short and wide sibling on Craigslist last year. They weren't a steal and are such nice pieces of furniture that I was a little scared to put a paint brush to them. All along I knew I wanted to paint them gray with white drybrushed over but I let them sit in my garage while I thought and thought and thought, making sure that was the right decision! Now I know it was :) 

The colors I used are Annie Sloan's Paris Grey with Pure White dry brushed over it.

It started out beautiful but a little orange.

I decided to strip the top and restain it darker. I went with Minwax's Jacobean stain. I was surprised when it didn't take the stain as easily as my Primer Red dresser had. I'm guessing that this dresser must be made out of a harder wood. But even without the top getting as dark as I had wanted it turned out gorgeous.

I loved all of the details on this piece and knew that once painted they'd stand out even more.

It came with all of the original hardware still in great shape.

I'm finishing up the short and long sibling this week but would like to make a video of how to achieve this dry brushed look so it may be a few days before I figure out how to do that!! ;)

As far as selling my furniture goes I have a few ideas in mind. I'm thinking about having a sale at my house and advertising it around the neighborhood as much as possible. My only concern is that it will resemble a garage sale and people who stop in expecting that might be disgusted by my prices!! I don't like upsetting people,  100% people pleaser right here folks. 

There's the Kane County Fair that is about 30 minutes from my house which is a good option if I can figure out all of the logistics of it (hauling that much furniture!!). 

And when summer comes and my babysitting slows down I plan on visiting as many antique shops as I can hoping to find a store that feels like a good fit for me.

In the meantime I'll just keep on painting!! :)

Sharing at:
House of Hepworths
The Shady Porch
Miss Mustard Seed
Happy Go Lucky
Funky Junk Interiors
Silver Pennies
Alderberry Hill
twelveOeight
Knick of Time
elizabeth&co
Thrifty Decor Chick