September is upon us

Wow, what a busy summer it's been and what a joyful one in our household. 
I know I haven't posted in a long time, but wait till you hear all that I've been up to and what has been going on in our family. 

Our second oldest son has found the love of his life and has proposed! 
Yup..for the first time I'm going to be a mother in law! 
Caitlin is a wonderful woman who is absolutely perfect for our son, we couldn't be happier for them both. The wedding is planned for August 25/2012. Less than a year away. I've been doing the happy dance all summer long. 
I have so many pictures to share, I won't be able to do it all overnight, so please be patient with me as I find time to upload and comment and post stories of our summer. 

Along with the good, the sad and the interesting has happened as well. Our baby girl left this past week for her first year of college in a city about 2 hours away. She did send me a BBM (blackberry messenger) saying she got there safely (she was home for the weekend) and to thank us for everything. I'm excited and terrified for her on her own for the first time in her life. 
We thought we would be empty nesters, but just days before our daughter moved out our oldest moved back in and has taken over our basement. 
So the cycle continues. 
As far as my recreating/refinishing goes. That's the best part of summer. I've rented a booth at the local Antique market and it's going wonderfully! Not only that, I'm getting orders from friends, and friends of friends and people that have seen my work. I'm also doing over furniture that people have brought me. I swear some days I just can't keep up. 
Then on top of it all, I'm now working at least a day a week at an office. I was looking for a second part time job, but decided if I wanted to stay sane I should stick with what I'm doing now. 
I'll spend some time over the next week showing you some of the things I've done this summer and some of my projects for the fall. 
Ahhhh I think things will start getting organized now that September is here.....here's hoping!!
Hope you all had a wonderful summer as well. 
:)

I've been trying to keep up

I've been trying to keep up with everyone here, but sometimes life just gets in the way. I've gotten a new job (outside of saving furniture that is) 
BUT I have still found time to add a few things to my home and sell a few more. 
I just finished this tonight and couldn't wait to share it with you. 

It's this cute little table I found at a yard sale. (I swear its the only place I shop during yard sale season) 

Poor thing looked so neglected, but when I checked it out a bit closer I saw how sturdy it was.

I really do need to learn how to take pics before I start sanding away to my hearts content :)
But having said that...I continued on and did remember to take a few pics after the paint was put on. 

Although I loved the design on the side of this table, it just didn't make sense for it to stay a table. I mean really? Look at the lips or hump or whatever you want to call it on the top. That would just be calling for a child to accidentally spill something by knocking it or trying to set a cup on it. So I had my own kind of solution. 

Tadaaaaaaa!!

So what do you think? Doesn't it make more sense to you as well? 

 

Where has the time gone? Look what I just did :)

Wow, I'm so sorry, its been way to long since I've posted. But I do have an excuse, I have been so busy, buying up all sorts of things and getting them redone that I seriously have had little time to get online and post. 
I'm going to try to get you all caught up on my finds and what I have done with them. I've also been under a bit of pressure because almost all of the things I've been doing have been for customers. Finding what they need and doing what they want to each piece. 
So here is my latest piece, and just something fun for me. 

A friend of mine has a daughter that just recently moved out and took with her their coffee table. When I showed her one that I had just finished for our cottage she mentioned her need. 
This is the before and after of the one at our cottage. 

Isn't she just the cutest thing? 
She is sitting in our cottage now. :) 

So anyway, the day after I talked to my friend, I went to several yard sales. I found this table. It wasn't the round one she was looking for, but when I sent her a pic, she said it would "do". 

After running home and grabbing my husbands truck, I lugged this home (plus a dresser they threw in for free, I'll show you that as soon as it's done) 
I called my friend and described what I pictured this table to look like after I was done. 
She was very enthusiastic. So I immediately stripped it, removed the legs, cut some off, added some details, stained it, primed it, painted, sealed....you know, all the fun stuff...lol
And this is the end result. I love it, and she loves it more. 

 Now for that fun item. :) 
While garage sailing with my daughter and her boyfriend, he found 20 cents on the ground. He handed it to me and dared me to find something for myself but told me I could not spend more than that 20 cents. Then he winked and said he was completely confident that I could do it..lol
How well he knows me. 
This is what I found.

 After using some steel wool and scrubbing off the rust, I spray painted it a smooth black.

 Cute eh? 
I think it is for making apple sauce and my mother in law thinks it's for something else. What do you think? 

So now I've got more work to do...off to finish yet another project.

Oh no, what was I thinking??

Two weeks ago I came across this adorable table and fell in love! Seriously, there are a lot of tables out there that I really like, but love? This was love! 

 Isn't she just the cutest thing you've seen? I love that she opens up on the sides for storage and the lines and details are just so much fun!  She sat in the garage for less than 24 hours before I decided to strip it down and paint it. I used a Lowe's "oops" paint after priming it. It's almost a baby blue. 

 Isn't she just so cute now? I stripped, primed, painted, glazed, and distressed it. LOVE IT! 

Sigh... hubby wasn't in love. :( 
He's watched me transform a ton of stuff (furniture included) and hated this!
He tried, I have to admit he tried, he sat out there for over an hour each day looking at it and trying to convince himself it wasn't all that bad. But finally he broke the news to me. He said it just wasn't him and he didn't like it. I was heartbroken. 
Sooooooooo I told him I would sell it. Secretly I thought it would take forever to sell and didn't worry about it. BUT a friend came by today and I showed it to her to see if maybe I was really off on this one, maybe it really was ugly and I just couldn't see it. I knew she would tell me the truth. 
So I took her out on the back porch to show her. She GASPED! Fell more in love with it than I had. I offhandedly told her it was for sale and she bought it instantly! 

What was I thinking? I let her go!!
No worries my friend said, you can come visit her. 
Sigh...I hope her husband likes it more than mine did. 

On to the next one. 

Crate designs

Not sure about you, but this weekend was the best on Friday, it was wonderful weather and I was able to pull a lot of things out at the cottage and get our small plants (that we started from seed) into the garden. I also started and finished a small project. 
Remember the crate I picked up at a yard sale last weekend? Well it's done and I'm really in LUV! 


Here is what it looked like before. 

Now I did take a few really nice "before" pictures, but my camera died and I don't have replacement batteries here :( So the next few pics are done on my phone, sorry for the lousy quality. 
First I sanded down the top lightly so that all the really "rough" edges were no longer dangerous, and no small child would ever get hurt running little hands over it. We often have friends with little ones over and the last thing I would want is one of them hurt. 
Then I planned out a design. I wasn't sure if I was going to go with a coffee or wine theme. I really love both ideas, and hopefully I will be able to find another crate so I can choose a second design involving coffee as I chose wine this time. 
This is what it looked like after I painted the letters on it as well as an established date. 

Again, sorry for the lousy quality. 
Then I picked out a stain, I used or experimented with a gel stain. I wanted to see if I could use it sparingly to create an aged look by making it heavier in some areas and lighter in others. I love the end result. 

So what do you think? I have no idea where I'm going to display this, but I sooooooo love it!! Something I'm going to keep forever! Especially since it has my last name on it :)