August 17, 2011

Thrifting

We headed out to Goodwill yesterday since baby girl has gone on a nap strike and momma had to get out of the house before she lost her mind.  We didn't find much but we scored on books, brand new (2 of which are hardback) books for 20 cents each!!  And that old school cork tiles (4 for a buck) are going to become some cutie bulletin boards that will go into the shop soon!

Happy Wednesday!!

ashley



August 16, 2011

All I want for Christmas is a Paint Sprayer

Long time no see huh. Well I have been up to my eyeballs in paint and stain and a palm sander.  Some good friends gave us a dining set they no longer needed and instead of going to goodwill they thought of me. By the way, isn't nice when people think you can make something out of nothing and give you stuff for free :)  Hubby picked it up after school about a month ago and it sat in the garage until I could find some motivation to tackle it, I had planned on selling the set once my new company Christian Creations is up and running (SOON I hope) but Hubby liked the chairs so much we decided to keep them. The table on the other hand will probably be sold (still finding the motivation to finish that). The chairs are solid pine and pretty comfy and free, what could be better?  After a quick sanding I started painting...this is where the post title comes in.  After the third chair I was about to shoot myself.  Those spindles were killing me and I saw that they were going to need two coats of paint.  But lucky me I survived, only to realize they looked too plain and would probably get filthy in a few days time.  So,  I channeled my inner Pottery Barn designer (didn't you know we all have one of those? it's called potterybarn.com )and got out the sander and some stain.  I sanded down places that would naturally wear and applied a thin walnut stain.  Working in small areas, I wiped on the stain and quickly wiped it away with a clean cloth, the darker you want it the longer you keep it on. And finally finished them with a coat of spray polyurethane. All in all, I love how they turned out but I have already asked for a paint sprayer for Christmas...  Some of you might think I'm being dramatic, and to ya'll I would say some very not nice things.  August in New Orleans is probably what hell feels like.  So here is some pictures to walk you through the process:
SANDED

FIRST COAT OF PAINT
and now the after dun dun dunnnnnnn:

Have a great Tuesday, I'm battling a toddler who refuses to nap so my day is going to be awesome.

ashley

Here's where I'm partying:


   













Designer Garden




August 3, 2011

Fake-It Frugal: Fake Febreeze

Fake-It Frugal: Fake Febreeze I came across this great idea to Make Your Own Febreeze over at Homemade Mamas , and I just had to give it a try and thought I would share it with anyone else who is too cheap to buy the real stuff like me :)

ashley