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.

Trash to Treasure Tuesday!

Howdy Neighbor!  I haven't shared many fun things with you lately....Perhaps you could take the time to blog about them for me when I finish them?  Kammy?  

A few months ago I picked up 4 pressed back oak dining chairs for $15.  Yep $15, the reason?  Most of them were in craptacular condition.  Missing screw covers/missing spindles/all kinds of wobble.  I used the parts from four of them to make two of them into sturdy use-able chairs.  Met my friend Mr. Boring.

and his pretty back side.

These were going to become part of my "new dining set"  So on went the paint!  And while I was at it I snatched up Addison's $10 boring but nothing really wrong with me highchair and painted that too. (the second one since the first one I painted teal is too tall now for our new table)

don't mind the instagram photo its all I have :)

I picked a creamy white to paint them...

and while the creamy white was very pretty and looked nice in my house....it's just not my style, so I sanded/stained/distressed the heck out of them before adding a coat of polyurethane.  And now?

I love them.

   

The chair you can see across from the highchair big girl chair in this one is the too tall highchair big girl chair that we have to find a new place for.  Goal, to find 2 more mismatched chairs to complete the table!....(and paint the second press back chair I still have only finished one.)

Dining Table Finally Revealed!

I've been dreaming do doing this project since I found this image online over a year ago:

Credit

I just had to find the time, the table and the motivation to get it all done.  Oh and have a kid old enough to entertain herself a little while I worked on it on the days when she was here with me alone...that was a big one. So flash forward just over a year, I found a table that I liked the curves on the legs.  It was listed on craigslist for get this, $20!  Now IMO 20 bucks for a dining table is awesome even if it needs work (seeing how that was my plan anyway), I e-mailed them as fast as I could to see if it was still available, oh and I offered $15.  She said yes and I arranged to pick it up that next night.  The top was in rough shape but it was mostly just where the poly had been worn, no major damage, the bottom & the legs...omg, they were BAD, someone had tried to repaint them with a textured spray paint, without priming them at all.  It was pealing, it was ugly.

I got right to work with my palm sander!  With a little help from Addison

Next was primer time for the table base & legs, then 3 coats of paint.

Used the same color as I used on my dresser I recently redid

While I gave the paint a few days to cure I started on the staining and Polyurethane to the top of the table.  I added a little bit of distressing that I caused by a screwdriver but nothing too drastic.

 After the legs had a few days for the paint to harden I started sanding on them again to do some distressing...eeek so scary after all the painting work!

then on went the stain:

Then once the stain dried I put 2 coats of poly on all the painted pieces.  Then I put it all back together and fell in love!!!

And I kind of wish I would have got out my good camera instead of relying solely on the iPhone for all these pictures but you get the idea.  I love it!  Now I'm just waiting on finding chairs to refinish before make the swap out in my house for my current table and get rid of that!

Linking up with Get Out Of My Head,