Monthly Archives: November 2011

Hair Help Needed!

Posted by Leanne on November 30, 2011 4 comments

So, Wednesdays are my new day to post about what’s inspiring me on Pinterest… but today is not about crafts or furniture, it’s about my hair! I pinned the above pictures some time ago, and still can’t decide which style I want! Ever since having my baby 6 months ago, my hair is drab, boring. This is me, just after the baby was born

I have since chopped it to just past my shoulders, but it still has no life to it. So, tonight I have a hair appointment, and I need to make a decision! My stylist will already be adding a few foils of darker brunette, like this picture I pinned:

I think about half of my subscribers know me personally, and the other half doesn’t at all, and I would like to know what all of you think I should choose!

#1.

#2.

Thanks for reading!

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I’m partying here!

Meet A Table Named Abby

Posted by Leanne on November 29, 2011 10 comments

That’s right, I am naming my furniture! Abby, (short for Abigail) is named Abby because she is strong, beautiful and stubborn, which reminds me of the Abigail in the Bible.

Abby is Gorgeous!

I picked up Abby off of Craigslist for an awesome deal. When I first picked her up, my plan was to use her as a craft table for my kids.

Abby "Before"

This is Abby’s before picture. The more I looked at Abby and tried to decide what to do with her, the more I noticed her beauty. She is an antique table, and I saw similar tables, unfinished, at antique stores for $300.oo I decided I wanted Abby to be beautiful… and not a craft table anymore.

Well, Abby didn’t make things easy for me.

I first sanded her like crazy. She had a varnish on her that needed to be roughed up, and her top was in pretty rough shape.

After priming her legs, I painted them with a creamy white that I had used on Anna’s furniture in the past.

Then came my first experience with staining.

It was not a good experience.

The first coat took okay, but not as solid as I had hoped for. The second coat completely bubbled, and was sticky and tacky.

So I had my first experience with stripping. That’s not fun either.

I stripped and sanded again, and gave it another try. Again, the first coat of stain was okay. The second… began to bubble. This probably sounds silly, but after being an esthetician for 8 years, I knew what was going on. When nail polish does this, it means the first coat did not dry enough for the second to be applied, plus it was raining and cold out… I didn’t want to admit it, but I would have to wait… I sanded down the second coat and waited for a sunny day. It took weeks. In the meantime I distressed and glazed her legs. …Finally I could drag it outside and try again. All the other times I had applied he stain with a paint brush, this time I used a rag. I enjoyed this much more… Here is how it turned out…

Abby "After"

Isn’t she gorgeous?! She turned out very different than I had imagined, but I love her rustic outcome. And because I love her so much, I am selling her. She deserves so much better than the abuse she would receive from my kids. The link on Craigslist will be at the bottom… but for now, enjoy her model shots!

If you are local, and interested in her, let me know!

(Update, January 2012… no longer for sale. My family fell in love with it, we decided to keep it! To see what Abby’s doing now, visit here and here!)

Thanks for reading!

I’m partying here!

Milestones

Posted by Leanne on November 28, 2011 2 comments

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend?! This past weekend was full of milestones for me, which made it fun and exciting:

First, this gorgeous little girl popped out her 2nd tooth and turned 6 months old!

6 months old!

Second, My blog hit its highest number in views yet… on Friday I got 118 views and over the weekend received a lot of new subscribers! This is a big deal for me… This blog is simply a hobby for me, a way to keep me a little sane as a stay-at-home-mom. A wee bit of me time. I usually write my posts during lunch while my 3-year-old eats her lunch in front of her favorite movie, baby plays happily on the floor, and 7-year-old is at school. The crafts and furniture refurnishing happens when I need to “escape” for a few minutes, or let out some frustrating (why I love sanding and distressing!) I am very flattered that you take the time to read what I write! So welcome to all my new subscribers, and thank you to all of you for following along on my trials and errors, and for telling others about my blog!

Third, On Friday I hit up our local craft fair, and had a ton of fun visiting the different vendors. My favorite vendor I met was a vintage jeweller, named Opechee, you can check out her Facebook group here. She also sells on Etsy. Plus, I found out Abbotsford is having another Vintage Market on December 3rd, you can check out the Facebook Page here. There were a few of these over the summer, which I didn’t get to go to, but heard they are fabulous, so I am really looking forward to getting to this one!

Fourth, Okay, 3 and 4 aren’t really milestones, but just some good stuff that happened over the weekend – I guess the 5th and 6th will be the same! Anyways, the 4th is that I started work on my desk from “What was I thinking?!” … I took the ugly drawer fronts off that were falling off anyways, and they went from this:

to this:

This gets me very excited… the look of pallets are all the rage right now, so I can definitely use this look to my advantage. Trust me, that desk is going to look stellar when I’m done with it!

Fifth, You may have noticed my photos are coming out larger again… yes, all electronics have been FIXED! Whoohoo! Plus, we have a card reader finally, to get the photos from camera to computer, instead of the crazy cord situation we were dealing with before. Easy and efficient and even I can do it!

Sixth, I’ve complained about the state of our living room long enough (remember when I posted about how our living room set up irritated me?) So hubby put it on the calendar for Saturday… and we did it! I Love the new set up, I feel like I can actually breath, it’s all been opened up… we both had to compromise a bit; I had to give in and neighbors can now see our TV from outside, and he had to give in and leave the piano where it was. I will take pictures and show you as soon as I have the current mess cleaned up!

Thanks for reading!!

If you are just visiting my blog, thanks for visiting! I love comments, and I love, love new followers… to become a follower, and receive my postings by email, just find the spot at the top right hand corner where it invites you to add your email.

I’m partying here!

New Magazine Holders

Posted by Leanne on November 25, 2011 12 comments

This is something I did even before I did my Desk and Hutch Makeover. I had been everywhere looking for colorful and pretty magazine holders for the desk in our kitchen, when I realized… duh! And I turned 2 of these:

Into this:

It was a very simple decoupage project. Here’s how it worked out:

8-year-old magazine holders from IKEA

Cut scrapbook paper to the size of the folder (I get my scrapbooking paper from HomeSense - they often have the huge books there that would cost $29.99 at Michael's for only $5.99. So I stock up when I find ones I like!

paint decoupage onto the folder

press on and smooth out the scrapbook paper, and I hot-glued ribbon to the edges where the paper didn't reach. I also added tags, one labeled for me, and one for the kids

decoupage overtop

and Ta-Da!

Thanks for reading!

I’m partying here!

A teachers Christmas Gift

Posted by Leanne on November 24, 2011 18 comments

I Love boards with inspiring words on them. And since it’s slightly inconvenient to have large pieces of furniture projects scattered all throughout the house, I thought maybe I should try making some of these boards… I can still get my painting and distressing obsession done, just on a smaller scale!

So for trial number 1, I decided to make one for a special teacher in our life. Now that we have 3 teachers and 1 piano teacher to add to the Christmas gift list, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to save some $$ by making the gifts for them! So for $0, and supplies already around the house, I made this:

How I made it:

left over piece of pine, and a quote printed off from the computer, I first painted the pine in brown...

topped it with turquoise... (which by the way is the new color of our Master Bedroom, I'll be sharing with you soon!)

a little sanding to distress and show some brown from underneath..

decided on placement or the quote...

elementary art came in handy here... I colored the back of the quote with pencil, then traced the top of the quote, to transfer onto the board...

fun!...

hand painted the quote in brown...

I then sanded the top a bit to distress the letters, and I glazed the top and edges with my usual brown paint diluted with water. I gave it 2 coats of varnish to protect it, and added a gold butterfly (from the dollar store) with a glue gun… and ta-da!