Dressers

 I did this project a week ago and I am finally getting something posted!!  We have all miss match, free, garage sale dressers.  We knew we needed one 'new' dresser for our boys and I have been wanting 'matching' dressers for our room for the last 8 years!  After doing some pricing and not wanting to spend the money on new dressers I decided to take an idea that I pinned and paint two of the dressers black and antique them.  These I would put in our bedroom.  Then I saw this pin and thought it would be Perfect in Maddy's room!  So the three dressers that we had I was ready to paint!!

 

This is what they looked like before....above is the drawers for the tall dresser and that was for Eli.  I did chalk paint on the drawers for labels (more for my husband than Eli!!)  But it was time for a change. 

Below is the really cheap dresser that I had when I was in HIGH SCHOOL!!!  I won't tell you how long ago that was!  It is just a particle board dresser. 

 I sanded everything down to rough it up....and then put primer on all of it.

Ok, now that that part is done I waited, played with the kids, ate lunch...waited and then started painting!!

So here are the first coats of black paint: 

Lots of pictures, I know....It was such a nice day out!

So next step was to wait again....and wait and wait...and then when it is dry I took a sanding block and sanded it down again.  After cleaning it off I put coat number two of black paint on!

It is starting to look better!!  At this point It was getting later in the day and I let these coats dry over night.  The next day I was ready to start sanding!  So I sanded around the edges of the drawers and other spots that I wanted to look antiqued.  I sanded it down to the bare wood.  I used a stain pen then to give the wood a finished look.

Seriously, it was so nice out....March in Minnesota is not like this....so that is why everything got moved out of the garage to dry and be worked on!

Next step was to polish it up...I used a finishing paste to give it a shiny look. 

So after all of that we moved them into the bedroom and we now have MATCHING dressers!! 

I would really like to show you a finished picture but I keep forgetting and when I remember my little man is sleeping in there!  I also still need to spray paint the handles so they all match.  BUT I am almost done and I WILL HAVE A FINISHED PICTURE SOON!

Oh I almost forgot.  Here are the pics from my little Maddy's dresser.  I painted the main part white and then I started by painting the bottom drawer the pink color that I bought and then I kept adding white paint to get the lighter colors!

Yep, we still need to get new hardware on this dresser but it fits her room so well!! 

So there, a LONG post but 3 beautiful 'new' dressers!

Vintage metal letters....made from cardboard and tin foil

I have seen a few different versions of this floating around pinterest and wanted to do it.  I didn't want to spend money on 3D letters (I'm that cheap) so while I love the look of THESE I wanted to use stuff I already had around the house.  Then I saw this PIN and thought...I can do that!

So here is what we did:

Cardboard (got it from Sam's club...used from all the boxes that my kids played in)
Tin foil (heavy duty)
I used Spray paint

I printed my letters out on the computer and then traced onto the cardboard to get....

....this, not too bad!

Then I started to put the tin foil on.  With my smaller letters I first put it around the edges and then the front.  In the tutorial it says to mod podge....not sure why....but I did it anyway.  I think I would put it on the bottom and top to keep tin foil in place if I do it again.



Here is the letters after they are covered

Then after the mod podge dried I spray painted with the same metallic paint that I had used on Making the old new.  This paint dries REALLY fast!  Right away I took an old rag and started to rub some of the paint off so the tin foil showed through.  It looked especially cool with the wrinkles. 

So here is the finished product.  I had a few problems along the way....like the tinfoil not staying down; but that is why I recommend securing it down before you paint!  The pictures are not the best but I will try to get some better ones up and Janelle will post a picture of how hers turned out too!!

Oh and I am going to put these on a wall with 3 pictures of my kids because there is much JOY in doing His will for my life!!

Thanks for reading and have fun trying it out yourself!

homemade coffee creamer

Good Morning!  After having my babies I decided I needed to become a grown up and start drinking coffee....and to give me a little get up and go in the morning!  Unlike my husband I cannot stand coffee black!  Although I love the taste of the store bought creamers have you ever looked at what they are made of??!!  So like so many other things in my home I decided it was about time to make my own flavored creamer.  I do like the recipe's from this PIN but like a little richer flavor so I am experimenting with that.  This morning I made the chocolate almond creamer.  I just love this idea and found the perfect jar just sitting in my cupboard collecting dust!! 

I hope that you try this also and share if you have any other great flavored creamer recipe's!!!  Have a wonderful Friday!

Old windows

I love to work with 'old' things!  I got this window from my parents farm and the shutters are ones that my grandma took off of her house and my husband made the window box out of barn wood from my parents old barn.  With a little spray paint and some plants it makes the boring front entry of our house have more depth!

Dollar Store Craft~Apothecary Jars/Candy Dish

We have SPRING FEVER here today, and since our Thursday afternoon happened to fall on March 1st, we decided to do a spring theme.

For the kids we picked up some stickers and foam shapes from the dollar store: Butterflies, flowers and eggs. 

                           

We started with this, all from the dollar store: Candlestick holders, bowls, and candy eggs:

We ended with this:

Very easy and VERY cheap, but pretty and springy!  We found the idea HERE.

After checking out some other blogs all devoted to dollar store crafts, and after browsing my local dollar store this morning, I'm excited to try a few more things in the weeks ahead!  Stay tuned :)

Making old new

These are two things that I picked up at a thrift store.  The lamp was only $5 and the tray I believe was 50 cents.  The lamp I thought was cool because it reminded me of something in my grandmothers home but I really don't like gold so I bought a metalic spray paint.  I loved the way it turned out so I also did it to the tray but was unsure of what I wanted to do with it.  After a little thought I decided to hang it above my stove with some magnets (which are just round magnets with scrapbook paper) and use it to put recipies on it so I can easily see them!  I just hung it with command strips right now.  It hasn't fallen!  The lamp is in my entryway.

Chores for toddlers...they can help out too!

I don't want to sound like a 'slave driver' but we have started to do chores each day in our house.  We have a Chore Jar that the kids pick a stick out of.  These are some of the things that are on the sticks and I have two of each because there are not a lot of things a 4 year old and 2 year can do.

Dust

Clean kitchen floor

Help clean bathroom

Make Bed

Kids choice

Mom's choice

Day off

I got the great Printable from HERE but decided that most of the chores listed were not toddler friendly and just printed the blank ones and made my own!

The kids actually love helping out and it gets me to clean everyday!  Also they each have their own laundry basket (name written in the bottom) and help to sort the laundry.  This again gets them helping and makes folding/putting the laundry away go faster for me! 

Use a Branch and Sheet for your Curtains

In our room, our window is our 'headboard'.  We live in the woods, and in keeping with that theme I used a branch for the curtain rod, and just a plain white sheet for the swag.  Plain flat sheets at Wal-mart are just a few dollars, and the branch was free!

You could spray paint your branch white and use a bright blue sheet or another color for a totally different look.  In fact, I might do that in our other rooms, now that I think about it!

Update Your Old Flour and Sugar Canisters

I am a little bit obsessed with chalkboard paint these days!  I used to throw away EVERYTHING...In fact, I am the opposite of a pack rat, I throw away too much stuff.  But since I discovered Pinterest, and all the uses for spray paint and chalkboard paint, suddenly I am seeing the potential in everything from an old Folgers container to my Snapple bottle :)  It seems everything can be re-made using either spray paint and/or chalkboard paint!
Anyway, I was getting a little tired of my old, plain IKEA flour and sugar canisters, so I tried this idea:  Tape off a square, paint with chalkboard paint.  Let dry.  Apply another coat.  Remove tape, and you have this:
BEFORE:

 AFTER: