Dresser dilemma.

Well, poor hubby is going to kill me because now I'm on a dresser kick.  I'm really trying to get our mismatched master in order and it's taking me a while with all the other stuff we are doing every.single.hour.of.the.weekend. So, while I was doing my hourly search on craigslist.org I cam across a really rough looking dresser for $15. It was gigantic and very unusual. Almost immediately I had a vision and it looked a lot like this number...

Which is a $2500 Williams Sonoma french style buffet. Ha, right. I love how the white contrasts with the stained top. Then as I searched more for inspiration, I found this dresser, which was in horrible shape and this lady spruced up. Now the craigslist dresser and this dresser are almost JUST alike. Same details in the drawers and everything! I decided I had to have the dresser.

So I sent poor hubby over to the house to get it and let's just say he came home empty handed and smelling a little like "grass" if you catch my drift. He proclaimed that the dresser was not coming into our house. Enough said. So I've been on the prowl for a nice old wood dresser that I can paint white and stain the top a dark mahogany or walnut. If any of my friends come across one at a cheap reasonable price, let me know!

Paint...yet again...

I've come to realize I might be a little, tab bit obsessive over paint colors. I cannot just choose a color and be done. I literally scour the internet for any and every painted room I can find. I can look at paint swatches, but it definitely doesn't compare to seeing it on someone's actual wall with their decor. I'm also pretty sure the people at Home Depot hate me by now. I've had plenty of trips their in the last month(have even been 3 times in one day). I stare at the paint swatches in one brand, shimmy over to the next brand, usually skip Disney, then over to the next. I grab a few swatches, throw them in the basket and then back to where I started. About a month ago, I was looking for a Tiffany blue. I told the guy that I needed a paint match to Sherwin Williams Tiffany Blue.

He mixed up the sample and it came out a weak, baby blue, clearly not robin's egg like it was supposed to be. So then, he searched Tiffany in his swatch matching thingy and mixed another color. This time it came out  very close, but a little too green. So I had him add more blue. What I had was pretty dang close!

He told me it would be easier to just bring in the box to match. Did you hear that Hubby???

Finally. I grab my paint samples and move to the front of the store where there is a plastic tote the exact color of Tiffany blue! I grab it up and take it back to the guy to match the color. By this time, he tells me that on my receipt there is a place to go on the internet and tell HD how their employees are doing. He said if I do that he could get a $50 gift. Ha! Apparently, I put him through so much trouble, he thought he really needed that extra $50!!

During one of the most recent trips, I went in looking to get a sample that matched Ben Moore's Santorini Blue.

I super serious wanted this for my bedroom and bathroom. I tell the older gentleman and he tries to look it up. He says it does not exist in Benjamin Moore, but Sherwin Williams had that color. Since he could not see the color on the screen, I googled it. It was wayyy too dark. I also couldn't understand why I could find it on BM's website, but they didn't have it in the system. So then, he asks me, in such a lovely tone(did you catch the sarcasim?) if I wanted to take the chance with that color and pay the $3 for a sample. Um, no. I want BM's Santorini Blue, not SW's. Thank.you.very.much. Finally he leaves and I do some more research and find out that they changed the formula a tad and call it Nantucket Fog. It is almost the same. So I get my $3 sample and move on, only after the other employee kindly laid out every other brand's swatches they had available :)

Nantucket Fog

Finally, the day came when it was time to get the actual paint for our bedroom and bathroom. I confidently(only because I had actually made a paint decision) went up to the employee(one whom I had never seen) and told him exactly what I wanted. BM's Nantucket Fog and Philipsburg Blue. He goes to the computer, looks them up and tells me he doesn't have to formula for either one! Luckily the kind employee who had scattered the swatches the day before took over and found the colors for me before I had a nervous breakdown.

The rooms look great and I love the colors, but I have to put my finishing touches up before I reveal!

If your my friend on FB you know that I have been struggling to choose a paint color for my kitchen. I had three narrowed down, but now I have added two more. Sheesh. Will it ever get done?? Here are the updated options.

Also, I wanted to mention that Melanie, over at The Frosted Gardner is giving away a $50 Home Depot card! Wouldn't that be lovely if I won? Maybe I should just invest in HD!



Let's Build!

My 2 stepdaughters are growing fast and running out of room in their shared room. As of now, they have two matching twin beds, a nightstand and a tv stand. They have to live out of thier suitcases while they are here because hubby has taken over their closet. Our master closet is just not big enough for mine and his stuff :).  They have only the nightstand with 2 drawers to use for storage. So all their junk goes under the bed or in those two drawers. Needless to say, their room is a disaster when they are here for lack of storage. I saw some awesome bunkbeds on my local Craigslist, but they are out of our price range right now and I have been trying my darndest to sell the ones they have, but no bites just yet. I'm positive the lady will sell her bunks before mine will sell. So, I have given up on those and I have decided to build my own!! Big surprise there, right? I have been doing research online and there are several websites that offer plans for FREE! Yes, free. But, none of them are perfect.

 Let me explain.

I had bunk beds as a child. They were the big ugly metal ones that was a futon on bottom and twin on top. I pinched myself often on the ladder and the futon. Now, I hope I haven't offended anyone with my statement. But, for some reason, I find anything that was in my house as a child repulsive, such as that bed, baby blue and pink paint and wallpaper(I could also go on forever about my hatred of oak cabinets). Metal bunk beds are just not my thing.

I found plenty of bunks that I LOVE, but they are $1000+. Yeah-freaking-right. I have stayed up at night debating on whether I really want bunks in my house, but it will free up so much space in their room and be better in general. When I started googling, I knew exactly what I was looking for and found this

and this

The first bed is my favorite and is what we will be aiming for. It looks so cottagey and I LOVE it! I have forced the hubby to agree and I think we will be starting next weekend! What makes it even better is that one of my junking, thift storing, yard sale-ing friends has an armiore she is passing along to me that will look great in their room. Not to mention, I came across a very retro desk that is still in decent shape that will be marvelous! I'm so excited to get started on their room and see the looks on their faces the next time they come to visit and they have a new room! I will post pics soon and list the instructions and materials when I finish in case anyone else is as brave as me!

Rainy day...

Well the weather down in MS is super nasty today. However, it was absolutely beautiful Saturday and Sunday. I was able to get a couple of projects finished(even though I can't even use some of them!). 

I have been bound and determined to get a headboard and footboard for our queen size bed. Since we have been living in our house, it has been mattress and box springs on a metal frame against the wall. I feel like a bachelor. Finally, I found a headboard on Craigslist that was worthy of painting and redesign! Woo-freakin'-hoo! She wanted $25 for her king headboard. I emailed her for measurements and she let me know it was 60" wide. Now, my reasonable side didn't come out and I thought she had just gotten confused and it was a queen size. I even measured our mattress and it was 60"! Score! So I drove 45 minutes to pick it up. I got it home and it even had spindles that screwed in the sides that she didn't show in the pic! Even better! So I went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on primer and Krylon Bright White satin spray paint. Then I headed to Home Depot for a wood scroll to glue on and spruce it up. I was so excited to get into action and have a headboard before we went to sleep!

I got home and started spraying the wood scrolls and set them aside. Then there was this awful looking notched piece that just wasn't cutting it for me. Luckily, it came out very easily. It left some markings where the nails were, but I sanded those and filled with wood filler(the kind in a squeeze tube). I primed and put a coat on with the spray paint. It was so not covering. So I busted out the leftover trim paint. It was a Behr semi-gloss white. I rolled on a few coats and perfecto!

Since I already had the spray paint out, I decided to paint the spindles, some Home Interior sconces I found on ebay, and finish the wood scrolls. Our puppy, Dixie, had been inside all day so she wouldn't interfere with my work.  So I let her out to have some fresh air and the mutt decides to run off with one of the wood scrolls! I chased her around the yard for ten minutes before she led me to the side of the shed where I slipped on some leaves and promptly landed on my backside, giving me an immediate headache and sore back. (If you are my friend on FB, this will explain why I was trying to give away my puppy Saturday)  Needless to say, I finished the headboard and got it ready to install to our bed frame. Hubby and I got it into the house and realized, either the lady I bought it from really doesn't know how to measure anything or I should have measured before I left her house with it. The dang thing is 6 ft wide, rather than the 5' she told me. All that work and the stinkin' thing is too long. Hope Mom and Dad can use it, or it's up for sale.

I will try to get pics up asap.

This let to another bed disaster. I found aother headboard and footboard on CL for $25. Hubby decides we will buy it just because it's so cheap. The guy wants to get rid of it so bad that he delivers it to our house. Hubby thought it looked a little small to be a queen but this guy insists it is. Well, it's not. Big surprise with our luck in beds. It's a full size. It is very pretty and has amazing details, but is a little scratched up. I'm hoping to get around to it this weekend if the weather is pretty. Not sure if I want to restain it or paint. Either way, it is up for sale. I'll post before and after pics when I'm finished.

Finally, I bribed the hubby into letting me just make an upholstered headboard. He obliged(probably just because he as tired of hearing me whine and felt sorry for me because I fell). Anyway, we woke up bright and early, all three kids in tow, and went straight to Home Depot where I bought plywood and a 1"x4".  I then headed to Joann's for some pretty suede-y fabric and nailhead trim. By the end of the day I had a beautiful headboard straight out of the Pottery Barn catalog!

Not really, but close! Once, again, no pics, but will add them soon! I will also post a step-by-step of how I made it and the materials I used!

Goodwill Wingback Chair

In a previous post I mentioned my wingback chair that I am attempting to reupholster. "Attempting" is the key word here. My crafty friend, Jennifer, saw it at Goodwill and snatched it up for me. Turns out, it's a reclining chair, which makes it that much more complicated. I had looked up ways to easily recover this thing and found great tutorials here and here. But when I found out it was a recliner, I kind of cringed. This makes it twice as hard.

One post mentioned 11 yds of fabric...the other mentioned 5 yds. Of course, because I'm cheap and all, I bought 5 yds and another half yard for a coordinating pillow. Then, I ran to the remnant bin and grabbed up two more yds of green fabric. Love the remnant bin at Jo-Ann's...half price baby!

I had serious issues regarding the fabric choices for the chair. Here were the options.

I ultimately chose the yellow print. I really liked the navy and white but when I saw this yellow Pottery Barn chair on The Creative Maven's tutorial, I started obsessing over yellow.

Man I wish my house looked like this!

I searched long and hard for this fabric. I found some here and there but was all out of my price range.  So I settled with the Jo-Ann's yellow. I'm happy with it. So here is a small picture of all the fabric I came home with, including the remnants.

The gray coordinates perfectly and will look too stinkin' cute as a pillow. I may ad some tufted buttons in covered in the yellow or green fabric for contrast. We will see how much patience energy  I will have after this chair is finished.  The printed green fabric is an upholstery weight, where as the solid green is more of a satin weight.

I would love to post some before pictures, but my phone was going dead so I had to snap the pics on the hubby's phone. When I called today to have him send them over, he informed me that he had deleted them, asking "why would I want pictures of an old chair on my phone?" Um, because I took them for a reason. Really? Not only did I want to post them, I needed them to help me figure out where everything was stapled and where to start reupholstering my "onion". Gah. Men.

Fortunately, I am out of school tonight, tomorrow, the whole weekend, and Monday! Woo-freakin'-hoo! And the weather is beeeautiful! Hopefully I will have that chair finished and ready to enjoy by Monday night!

Baby Blanket(s) Sewing 101

Before my lil' fella was born, my aunt knitted ablanket for him. I also recieved like 100 more blankets at my showers. Really, only like 15, but that's still a lot.  Most of them are really small and he is getting too big for them at a year old. So, when my cousin's baby shower rolled around, my aunt made 3 blankets for her baby, and I got a little J :) So I asked if she could make one for Lil' Man, he was outgrowing the baby ones anyway. I went to Jo-Ann's, muh favorite store, and found some flannel fabric to get started.

Now, I have never sewn before. Except when I was little my grandmother had a fancy schmancy sewing machine that made all sorts of neat seams and designs, as well as letters. She used to let us practice sewing our names on fabric. I still have one of the little pieces of fabric she let me design. Sigh. Oh the memories.

Anyway, back to the story, since I am a beginnner, I asked her to sew it for me. She informed me that for the size I wanted, I would need 2.25 yards of fabric. This would give me a square blanket when she was through with the seams and all. It took me a while to find the perfect fabric, mainly because there is so much cute girly prints there that I couldn't stop looking at them! Ah! So I ended up finding a super cute print that was white with a bunch of different colored shapes and dogs on it. Not too baby-ish.

I ended up the the cutest stinkin' blanket eva! Previously, I had tried to sew a cushion and pillow for the rocking chair in Lil' man's room, and it turned out pretty funky looking. This blanket, however, was puuuurfect! How in the world did she do it? I mean, the seams were flat and perfect!! SO I called her up and begged her to tell me her secrets. Now, I'm sure many people know these secrets, but I was totally oblivious! So I will lay it out for you. I am one that over-analizes everything, and I want directions that are

S-P-E-L-L-E-D out for me so I know exactly what I'm doing, and why I am doing it!

Here goes....

Most flannel fabric bolts at Jo-Ann's are 41" wide and a yard is 36" long. So 2.25 yds of fabric will give you 81" of fabric. When you divide that by 2(because you need a front and back) you get 40.5. Now, by my sinple calculations, that's about as close as you'll get to square. Also, Jo-Ann's fabric has sections at the bottom of the fabric that say "Made exclusively for Jo-Ann's", you will have to work around that. I bought the same fabric for the whole 2.25 yds for the blanket she made. For the blanket I made, I bought two different fabrics.

I'm pretty sure I got a 1.25 yards in each fabric for some wiggle room in case I totally screwed it up.  I didn't cut them to size, I just lined them up and started sewing. I faced them towards each other and sewed a zigzag seam about 1/4 inch from the edge. Any seam will work I'm sure, my machine is ancient and refuses to sew a straight seam, hence the zigzag. 

After I got to the end and my blanket was almost sewn together, I stopped and ironed the edges. My aunt told me that this step is not necessary, but makes the seams flatter and straighter when you flip it right-side out. AND IT DOES. Probably why my rocking chair cushions look like a 5 yr old made them :).  I had left about an inch and half space open to flip it. A bigger space would be easier to pull the fabric through, but then, that's more space I'll have to hold together while I'm trying to sew.  When I get the fabric pulled through and face up on both sides, I have to sew together the opening I left.  So fold the pieces inward to match the other seam and sew it together. BUT before you do that, you need to  decide on what type of seam you want to use for the "border"(that's what I call it, I don't know the technical term). I had to use zigzag of course. My border is about 3/4 of an inch thick. 

You can use that same seam to sew the space and to make the border. I only stopped the machine to turn the fabric for the corners and that's it. I continued all the way around the square until I met the start seam. My blanket(including the seams) ended up being about 39.75 inches and a 3/4 inch border.

 This blanket was easy peasy for real!

I bought 4 more types of coordinating fabric for 2 more reversible blankets, but just haven't had the time to sew them up. When I get a chance, I will take pics of the process which may help more.

Hope this has helped anyone out there. I'm so lucky to have such great knowledge just a phone call away!

(Oh, and sorry for the dark and blurry pics, my camera is not-so-great. Hope to get a better one with tax money. Here's to wishful thinking:)



My First Post! How stinkin' exciting!

So, I've been contemplating on how to start out my first post and what exactly I should write about. Finally, I just decided to start out and give credit where it is due.

I want to share the blogs that inspired me to start my own blog.  The following is a list of blogs that I have kept up with or just come across that have stopped me in my footsteps and made me go "ahhh"! These ladies are so talented and I have even stolen some of their ideas ;). These blogs are the reason my home looks so dang good now!

One of the main ones I started following is Thrifty Decor Chick. L O V E this chick! She has great ideas and is so talented(check out her son's big boy room)! And did I mention?? She's recently DEBT FREE!! Shut up, how many people do you know are debt free?? I have branched off her blog to many others that have linked up with her.

Another I love is Allison at House of Hepworths. Such a great personality and she lives in Texas, which means she's a country girl like meeeee!

Other blogs I love are

4theloveofwood
Sweet Something Design
i heart nap time
mormonchic (this blog and the next are where I learned how to reupholster my Goodwill chair that is currently in the works)
The Creative Maven
Better After(one of my FAVES)

These are just a few of the maaannnnyyyy I look at each day! I promise I will mention more throughout future posts.

I have more post coming, including the old, stinky Goodwill wingback I've been tackling the past few weekends. It's a booger, I tell ya!

Oh and DUH, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! And Happy 30th Anniversary to my wonderful parents!!