Refurbishing Furniture

I know I've mentioned before, how I'm not good at decorating.  I am, however, good at projects. Or at least I like to think I am. 

I have to give all the credit to my neighbor and good friend, Emily, for guiding me through this process. We went to Goodwill just on a whim before heading to an antique store.  Lucky we did because we found everything I was looking for there.  Well, technically, everything Emily knew I was looking for. She spotted this dresser and grabbed the claim ticket before anyone else did.  When I first saw it I was like, oh that's nice.  But she was in LOVE with it. Then she showed me some pictures of how we could refurbish it and I began to see what she had in mind. 

This wasn't exactly a quick project because, you know, life and all.  But I was able to sand it and get it painted in about a months time.  Obviously it could have been done sooner if I was more ambitious.
I sanded all the original finish off but you don't actually have to do that.  You just need to scratch it up  with some sand paper.  I used rough sand paper.  Then apply the paint in the color you choose.

After being painted, I just needed Emily to come help me distress it.  I've never done it before and she has so I didn't want to try it on my own.

To distress, just take a piece of rough sand paper (wear some gloves) and sand off the paint in areas that would normally show wear over time.  Like under or over the handles.  Corners, edges, that sort of thing.  You can do as much or as little as you like.  Start small and just keep stepping back to look it over.

The finished piece.  I am in love with it now.  I don't have the vision that Emily has so I wasn't able to see the finished product when I looked at the dresser at Goodwill.  She also picked out the lamps at Goodwill and the mirror was one she had that she let me have.

We left the top the original color and didn't need to finish it at all.  All we did was use this amazing solution that Emily had heard about and it worked wonders for the top.  It brought back the luster and shine, it conditioned it and it made all marks all but disappear. Ready for the amazing recipe? Here it goes.

1 part olive oil
1 part white vinegar

That's it.  Seriously.

Cost associated with the project.
$150 for the dresser at Goodwill
$15 paint
I already had sandpaper and paintbrushes.
I also used a mask for the sanding portion, I think it was $10 or less.

Valentines Day Gifts

My daughter and I decided to make her class and teachers some Valentines day gifts.  I thought you might like to see how we did it.

First cut out your desired shape.  I used a cookie cutter and traced a heart shape on a plain piece of paper, then cut it out and taped it onto the cup.

Use the tip of the pen to lightly tap the desired colors. This markers dries quickly so if you make a mistake you only have a minute to fix it. Remove the template and let dry.

The finished product. We made three and on the back we wrote each of the teachers names.  One cup was for my gramma.

For the gift bags.  Just print the template here. Cut them out and then place them inside a gift bag.  Fill the bag with as many fish as you want and then close and give away to the class.

We also filled the cups with M&M's and the remaining Swedish Fish with a little note attached to the handle for each teacher.

Things you will need:

1. Ceramic marker.  I got mine from Michaels and they are called DecoColor. 
2. Ceramic mugs, plates or whatever you want to decorate. 
3. gift bags - clear or mostly clear (found at Wal-Mart in the party supply section near the cake decorating stuff)
4. Swedish fish OR Goldfish crackers
5. Color printer

Vanilla Extract

You are going to kick yourself when you find out how easy it is to make vanilla extract.  I gave some to my family and friends as Christmas gifts and they all loved it. 

I order my vanilla beans off of Amazon in bulk so I always have some on hand. I use them all the time and they last for a while so I'm not desperately trying to use them up. 

You can find these cute little jars at places like Michaels or AC Moore crafts stores, Marshall's or TJMaxx, or I found these at World Market.  They are perfect for gift giving because the are not huge so they will easily fit in someone's spice cabinet but they are just big enough that they will have plenty of vanilla for much of the year. 

Take a sharp knife and cut a vanilla bean from top to bottom.

There are lots of seeds inside, leave them in there.

Clean your bottles. Depending on the size of your bottles you might need to cut the beans in half.

Insert 6 cut pieces (3 whole beans) into the bottle.

Fill the jar to the top with vodka. Leave a little bit of space at the top, about 1/4 of an inch is fine but I don't really think it matters.

Now wrap it up and give it as a gift.  They need to sit for about 3 months before using. Shake every so often, about once a month.

I hope you can make your own vanilla extract soon, it smells SO good!

Vanilla Beans
Vodka
Bottles

Ruler Measuring Board

Thank you Pinterest for another great idea!  I'm sure many of you have seen it as well and I thought it was such a cute idea.  

The original post I saw for this measuring board didn't give specifics about what size wood to by or any of the other supplies I'd need so I just winged it.  I made a couple of mistakes and I'll show you those too.  I'm honest like that. 

I had the project completed in less than a full day and only two trips to the hobby store.  I hope to save you some time by giving you the nitty gritty right away. 

The wood we chose to use was 3/4 inch thick, 6 feet long and about 7 1/3 inch wide.  I think you can choose any wood you like.  This piece is oak and didn't need to be stained because we didn't want that funky smell in the house and because I'm to impatient to wait for stain to dry.

We have molding on the bottom of the wall we wanted to hang this measuring board on so we measured up above the molding and started our "ruler" 9 inches off the ground.  So the bottom of the board is the 9" mark.  Does that make sense?

I used a pencil to mark the inch marks all the way to the top of the board.  I then used my husbands right angle tool and a sharpie marker (just a regular permanent marker) to draw 2 - short 1" wide marks and then a 2" wide mark.  So it would go in a pattern like this.

_____ (1 inch)

_____ (1 inch)

__________ (2 inches)

_____ (1 inch)

_____ (1 inch)

__________ (2 inches)

Get it?

These are the finished marks.

At first I used a black sharpie marker to do the 1.  But the black ink sort of bled and I didn't like that.

Then I used a black acrylic paint to do the number 2 and it was awful.  The paint sort of bled under the stencil and it looked awful.  We quickly wiped off as much of the paint as we could using some paint thinner to help get it off.  Most of it did come off but there was a slight discoloration where the number was.

Next I used a pencil to draw the rest of the stenciled numbers.

Then I ran to the hobby store again and bought this Sharpie Paint pen.  Best invention ever!  It was easy to do the remaining numbers with this thing.

My daughter took this picture of me painting on the rest of the numbers.  Pretty good picture for a 4 year old if I do say so myself.

This is the finished project.  Looks just like a ruler!  You can hardly tell where I messed up on the number 2!

This picture shows the molding we have on the bottom of the wall we wanted to hang this on, we measured up from the floor 1 foot and marked it on the wall, then matched up that indicator with the 1' mark on the ruler.

To hang it, my husband drilled a couple of holes under the 6 and a couple more near the 1 and just drilled it into the wall. Easy.  I'm sure there are ways to do it that won't leave marks on the front side but honestly you can barely even see them. So we didn't care.

Here is what you'll need:

• 6 foot long piece of wood.  You might need to stain it to match your decor. 
• Package of 2" stencils, you'll find the numbers with the alphabet stencils (all in the same package) but check the back of the package to make sure there are numbers in there. If you buy a piece of wood that is wider then the one I used you might want to get 3" stencils. 
• 1 black Sharpie Paint pen. 
• Ruler or yard stick
• Right angle tool (square) like I showed above

Total cost: $33.00  (25.00-Oak Board, 6.00 Stencils, 2.00 Sharpie Paint Pen)

Elephant and Giraffe

I recently made these two wall decorations for my friends daughters one year old birthday. I had a lot of fun doing it and I think I'll try to make some others for some friends to build up a portfolio and put them on Etsy. Let me know if you like them or if you have ideas of other items you'd like me to attempt painting.