$5.00 Makeover Part I

This post is going to be a challange to write because I am keeping my precious grandson and I have to hurry before he wakes up! I had forgotten how adding a baby to the mix makes doing things next to impossible!

I mentioned a while back about going to a huge neighborhood sale and picking up several pieces of furniture. One piece that I brought home was a pretty oak coffee table.  It was only $5.00, my daughter needed a coffee table and I need one more project like I needed a hole in my head!

Here is the before:

And After:

I used Citrastrip to remove the poly finish on the top and followed that with a light sanding.  There were a few nics that were pretty deep so I filled those with wood filler and resanded.  I knew these areas would take the stain differently than the rest of the table so I marked over them with a black sharpie.  Then I conditioned it with pre-stain conditioner and stained it dark walnut.  Well, dark walnut wasn't quite the color I was going for so I stained again with jacobean. Still not right! Lastly I tried dark mahogany. Perfect! 

I brushed on a layer of Minwax quick drying polyurethane then sanded lightly.  Wiped the whole thing down and brushed on one more layer of poly.

While waiting for the different layers of stain to dry I painted the legs and apron black. I think it turned out beautiful and my daughter loves it!

My Hubby said that this is his favorite piece of furniture that I have refinished! Here are a few more pictures:

Do you have a favorite furniture piece that you have refinished? I'd love to see it!

p.s. The baby never woke up!

**Linking to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday!**

Bestill my beating clock!

I was invited by laxsupermom to join her Before Blogging Throwback Thursday party.  It wasn't hard to showcase something that I bought before I started blogging since I am such a newbie!

This is one of my favorite things!  It is a Howard Miller Camille clock.  A friend spotted it in an antique store in Oklahoma and sent me a tiny picture. She knew I had been looking for a Swedish clock and wasn't sure if this would be something I was interested in.  I was! Two of my other friends (one being Rustic Raspberry!) and I took a roadtrip to pick it up. We had a blast!

Although it isn't a Swedish clock, I still love it!  What do you think?

Oh baby, what a good dream!

Have you ever had a dream so delicious that you hated waking up?  You know the kind I'm talking about; it feels so sweet and fulfills all of your secret desires.

Well, I had that dream!

I dreamnt that I was in Target. I dreamnt that in Target there was a whole shelf dedicated to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint samples. That's right, little dreamy jars of chalk paint. They were $6.00 each. There was only one sample jar of Aubusson blue left. I gingerly placed it in my shopping basket. Before I could even make it to the checkout I was rudely awoken by my Hubby opening his sock drawer. Ugh! I was drawn back to real life where there are no chalk paint samples at Target!

 I was so dissappointed when I woke. So sad! So disheartened!

Problem CitraSolved!

I picked this little sewing stool up at an estate sale.  It was in desperate need of a good cleaning and a makeover.  I had read about using Citrasolv orange cleaner to transfer an image from paper to cloth on the Ticking and Toile blog and decided to try it.  However, I couldn't find Citrasolv in my area so while I waited for my order to arrive, I tried an iron-on transfer.

Here is the little stool before.  I gave her a good cleaning and then taped off the legs and sprayed the metal feet with Rustoleum's Dark Bronze srpay paint.

I painted the legs and apron black.

Next, I bought and washed a drop cloth, cut to size and made a printable iron-on transfer with a graphic I found on the Graphic Fairy's website.  It was pretty but not the look I wanted!  It was very apparent that it was an iron-on transfer and a little bit of the edge was lifting up.  I tried to iron it down and ended up melting part of the transfer! I took the fabric off and threw it away and patiently waited for my Citrasolv to arrive! Here is the Iron-on transfer before I melted it.

After the Citrasolv arrived I tried (and tried!) again. It took me several trips to the office supply stores to get a toner based copy that would work. I finally found one at Kinko's. I had several copies made so I could practice first.  It takes lots and lots of rubbing to transfer the image. But, don't rub too hard or you tear the paper! The final outcome is lighter than the iron-on transfer but it looks like a vintage piece of material and that was the look I was going for!

I listed her on Craigslist and she sold within 2 days.  A sweet lady bought her to put at her little girl's vanity.

I've joined Debbiedoos Newbie Blog Party!!!

Julian Cruz

Baby Cruz finally arrived last Tuesday after 18 hours of labor! He weighed 8lb8oz and was 22 inches long. He is absolutely adorable and the most loved baby ever!

 His Mommy kissing him!

The first time I held him!

Five generations! Baby Cruz is the first boy born in our immediate family in 42 years.

Here is his with his Great, Great Grandma!

And with Auntie Ashah!

 With my Mom, Mimi!

Cruz and my Sister, his Great Aunt Sugar!

We are very blessed!

A change of plans

Last night I sanded and restained the top of the coffee table and got started painting the legs. I had made plans to finish it this morning before my DH woke (he is working 2nd shift this week) so that he could start painting the new doors for the house.

DH couldn't sleep so I unexpectedly had a change of plans! So, away goes all of my painting and staining supplies and out comes the painting booth. 

My wonderful Husband bought me the Graco paint sprayer for my birthday last April and made me a removeable paint booth (a.k.a blue tarps) for the garage.

Outside the booth (you can see the paint sprayer in the bottom of the picture)...

And inside the booth...

We are replacing all of the door knobs but are using the old hinges.  They were the old brass kind.  I painted them dark bronze by Rustoleum.

 Before:

And after:

In the past I just laid the screws out and sprayed them.  If you have ever done this you know that they roll all over the place as soon as they are blasted with the spray paint.  This time I had a brainstorm and stuck them into styrofoam! It worked beautifully!

Tomorrow I will post the refinished coffee table. Of course, if the baby arrives before then it may be a while before anything new gets posted!

Neighborhood Sale Finds!

I spent all of yesterday morning at a neighborhood garage sale with my friend Cassie from Rustic Rapberry http://www.rusticraspberry.com/. We loaded up her SUV, took it home to empty it and set back out with her Husband's truck!

This is a toybox I bought for the baby's room. First I will remove the duck! Then I will paint it black and may paint the inside green to mimic the bookshelf that I painted for the room.

We also bought a few things for Mommie-to-be's apartment.  First is a short corner cabinet that will be painted black and used as a tv/dvd cabinet for the bedroom.

And a coffee table. I will strip and stain the top with dark walnut and then paint the apron and legs black.

I bought this cute little shelf but have no idea what I will do with it. Maybe I will use my Annie Sloan chalk paint. I have two cans but have been too nervous to even open it.  (It must be because it cost so much and I am afraid to mess up and waste it!)

I left two nightstands that will be refinished for Mommie-to-be's bedroom in Cassie's garage.  I should probably hurry and pick them up before she steals them!

**Linking up to Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures**

Two Great Giveaways!!!

There are two awesome Annie Sloan Chalk Paint giveaways going on right now.  They end soon so hurry and sign up!

The first is at Karla at Home
http://www.karlaathome.com/2011/05/annie-sloan-chalk-paint-giveaway.html

and the second is at My Dwelling Place
http://mydwellingplace.typepad.com/my-blog/2011/05/childhood-dresser-makeover-and-a-giveaway.html

Take some time to view the blogs as they have some great ideas!

Baby Cruz's Room!

Here is what we have done so far.  We only have a few finishing touches and a bouncing baby boy to add!

To your right as you walk through the door are 3 stacked sonogram pictures.  They need to be straightened!

The crib is on the right side of the room.  I made the letters from wooden letters found at Hobby Lobby that I covered with black and green scrapbook paper. I also made the bedskirt!

The wall that faces you as you walk through the door has a window and the changing table.  I made black curtains and then sewed the green stripes on.  The changing table was Mommie-to-be's that I painted black.  Pops bought the baby the stuffed deer mount!

On the left side of the room is the closet and bookshelf.  Isn't it cute with all the toys.  We need to buy more books, though!

Here is a peak into the closet.  Can you tell that Mommie-to-be likes shoes?

I'm proud of how it turned out.  I'd still like to add a big, fluffy green rug and a printer's tray that I've started working on to hold some of  his treasures!

We're getting there...

Mommie-to-be chose a green and black color scheme for the baby's room.  I spent all day yesterday making the black and green striped curtains. (Pics coming soon!) They certainly were a challange.

After searching for what seems like months, I found this sweet little bookshelf on Friday at a garage sale.  It was painted a country blue.  I was so excited to start painting that I almost forgot the before shot! You can see that I had already painted one side black when I took this picture.

Before:

After:

Pops and I spent yesterday evening helping Mommie-to-be finish decorating the nursery.  I forgot to take my camera but will get some pictures in the next couple of days and post them!

But wait, there's more!

Just so the world knows that I do, indeed, have another beautiful daughter other than the one that is producing my first grandchild, I'd like to introduce you to (ahem, drumroll please)

The Amazing...........




The Talented............



And Sassy yet Beautiful...............

And one more to showcase one of her amazing talents.........

They don't come better than this!

Momma Mia!

The Mommy to be!  Sometimes I look at her and think, "Wow! Did I really create her? Amazing!"

Coming Soon!

Julian Cruz is due to join this world on May 17th but we (especially his Momma) are hoping he comes sooner.  Here is his preview! Isn't he precious?

Welcome!