Go make something!

Before the days of Pinterest (seriously they existed) I had more bookmarks in folders than anyone should ever have on their computer.  One of them included this image:

Source

that I had found on a blog in 2010.  I fell in love and I had been wanting to replace our freebie table for years.  After reading how they redid I decided I could do it too!  So I scoured Craigslist for the perfect table  I came across a ton of them but I am cheap frugal, and I wanted something low cost if I was going to strip it down anyway.  Last June I finally came across this gem:

You can read about that here:

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-newest-project.html

After I refinished the table:

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2012/06/dining-table-finally-revealed.html

I started working on finding a hodge-podge of chairs for it.  The hard thing was deciding how I wanted to do it, no matching, 2 sets of two, all the same color, all different?  I finally decided to just see what I could find cheaply.  First I found a set of  four wobbly well loved pressed back chairs on a local for sale board on FB for $15.

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2012/09/trash-to-treasure-tuesday.html

Out of the four only one of them was really sturdy so I refinished that one and a highchair that I picked up off the same board from someone else for $10.

And then it took me nine more months to sturdy up a 2nd chair out of that bunch of wobbly ones and also luck upon a garage sale selling two similar-ish press back chairs for $4 each!

http://ayanovich.blogspot.com/2013/06/another-weekend-has-ended.html

So now that I have it all together I thought I would post a final product post.

Here she is:

Not to shabby, and I love it much, much more than anything I ever could have purchased in the store!


Breakdown:

Table (craiglist) $15.00
Sanding pads (hardware store) roughly $15
Teal (Cozumel by Behr) Paint 1Qt - left over from previous project
1qt Walnut stain by minwax - $8.00
2 chairs (FB sale) - $15
1 Highchair (FB sale) - $10
2 chairs garage sale - $8
1 qt  Zinzer 1.2.3. primer - $9.50
1qt Olympic One in Heavy Cream- $12
1 Gallon of  Minwax oil-modified polyurethane in semi-gloss - left over from Addison's bedroom floors

Total Cost: about  $95.00
And I have plenty of leftover stain which I have used on multiple projects more than 1/2 quart of the Cozumel and
 hopefully enough of the Heavy cream for me to redo this craigslist find:

And just for fun, lets remember how pretty this room was just 2 years ago....

Dining room make over

Ugh.  Next, replace gross carpet!

Another Weekend Has Ended

Monday, why do you do this to me every week?  Can't it just been perpetual weekend?  (with paychecks still please).

This weekend my mom took Addison for the whole weekend so that they could spend time with her and I could accomplish some kid free things.  It was a craft-tacular weekend around here!

Friday before my mom got out of work, Addison and I spent the day doing a little errand running/garage sale shopping and playing in the yard (well I tried to read while she played but that didn't work too well)

When my mom got out of work I met her in town to do a kid exchange and then decided to do some kid free shopping.  I was impressed with the number of stores I could quickly cover without a toddler in tow.  For real it was mind blowing and I have forgotten how nice it is to run errands alone sometimes without a time limit!  I almost always feel as if I am being rushed, rushing to finish, rushing to get somewhere on time.  I need a few chill pills.  After my errand running I came home went for a little run and then plopped myself in front of the tv to watch "What to Expect When Expecting" with a can of stain and I got to work on staining what will be new shelves for my bathroom.  Oh yeah, and a bird, and a "treasure chest" for Addison's B-day party.

Saturday morning I painted a few more birds (so I could have a little flock), shot a family session, did some thrift shopping where I found this cute little trivet that I will add to my collage wall.

To paint, or not to paint?  

I also found a 3.99 desk at goodwill that will be perfect for Addison (or another kid if I decide once I refinish it that I don't want to keep it seeing how I have another desk waiting to be refinished in the garage)

And this little spice rack which I'm pretty sure I will use to hold nail polish and possibly hang necklaces from for my bedroom. (it's yellow now)

Then I started the refinishing of these last three chairs for my dining room (if you remember...last fall..I got one of them done and had been waiting to fix the match to that one and looking for another set of two, I wanted two sets of two so they match the chair opposite them but not all 4 matching)  This process takes forever because 1. I do not own a paint sprayer, so brush it is.  2. Primer coat, Paint coat, Paint coat, Distress (sand), Stain, Polyurethane. (FOREVER!!!).  But I LOVE how it looks when it's done so the effort is worth it in the long run. 

this is usually when I remember my before pictures.

Primered

one painted, two to go!

Soon after the 1st coat of paint color it was time to head to Milford for my friend from works Wedding Reception. So I tried to scrub off all my war paint and we headed out for a little bit.

When we got back I stayed up far to late at night working on pictures and caught a one night early "supermoon".

Woke up Sunday morning to an absolutely beautiful day,

I was slightly ADD with my plans for the day, I planted the last of the flowers/bulbs that I had bought already this year, moved some of my garden ornaments around.  Started working on the chairs again and noticing how badly the green algae growth & bug bits on the side of the house were looking so I unburried the powerwasher, found some gas and started spraying.  while I looked like a hot mess afterwards, the house looks 1000 times better, even though its no where near finished! 

yuck

By the time 3:30 rolled around and it was time for me to hop in the shower to make it to my 5pm photo session I looked like this:

Ooops, shoulda remembered that sun screen.

But my chairs were finished!!!

I'll definitely have to do an updated post on the entire project, table, chairs, and a price breakdown.  But first this need time to air out and my house needs cleaned!

I also started working on a few more craft projects for Addison's B-day party.  Hello this is me going overboard on the details.  Every year I do her age in a 8x10 frame that sits out at her party and on her dresser after her party for the rest of the year.  I got that painted and embellished, except I'd like to find some pirate paper instead of the blue stripes to mount it to.

 And then my little peanut came home and is seen here making "noodle & sunburn soup"  sounds delish.

Mom sent me home some dinner and fresh made strawberry shortcake from the berries that they went and picked this weekend.  It was amazing!

And that, my friends, is how you do a kid free weekend.  Also, I am so sore and old today.