Craigslist

Need a giggle? Craigslist is full of good laughs, I almost couldn't breathe when I read these two ads:

GREEN SHIT-PILED COUCH
Hey everyone. As you can planely see this couch is no longer needed since we got the matress their in the bottom of the picture. Please only email if your interested since I don't want no funny buisiness on my email. Eric, if you want, contact me directly and we can work out a deal. I miss your face.

RE: RE: USED STICKS OF DEODORANT

Well, it was actually my CAT that used the deodorant if you MUST know, HE is a female.

If you build it, they will come.

I have always been a daydreamer. So in 2007 when I found THE wedding gown on ebay, brand new, and listed at $99, I was unable to resist. I bid & won, not caring that I was painfully single with no man in sight. I hung the gown in my closet & kept it a secret from most, but told a few girlfriends "if you build it, they will come" and we would laugh. Nine months later I met Chris, a year after that we were married and I wore my beautiful $99 bargain that fit like a glove.

 Fast foward to now, we are trying desperately to have a baby. My sister-in-laws have stopped having kids and have given us all of their outgrown items.(bouncer, clothes, bumbo, crib, etc.) We have set up the third bedroom with many of these items, choosing again to believe: If you build it, they will come. I chose a paint color that I like for either gender and decided to keep the furniture neutral. I will wait until there is a baby coming to choose fabrics and details, but will keep with a vintage theme no matter the gender. I couldn't keep my hands out of the paint can once I put the crib together, I love the crib but not the finish:

It took two weekends to paint the damn thing, and if you are concerned that the drop-rail cribs have been recalled, don't worry, we will fix it so that it doesn't drop.

This is a windowless room due to the fact that it is located on the neighbor's side of our patio home. I hate that it has no window.

Ignore the lamp, I'm thinking about making a burlap shade for it. The blue and cream chippy table is an antique store score from many years ago. I plan on changing diapers on top of it and stocking the basket with wipes, diapers, burp cloths, and anything else we will need at hand.

The nursery is in no way a baby shrine, it is a dose of encouragement every time I walk past. To me it would have been far sadder to leave the room empty and lean the crib against the wall in the garage. It reminds me daily to keep hoping and praying to become a mamma very soon.

DIY: Dresser Revamp

I finally found two matching tall dressers after searching for two years. These were on Craigslist for $100 each, and were removed from a fancy and historic hotel in Downtown Dallas. One of the dressers is missing one drawer pull, I am currently on the hunt for one on ebay. Here is the before:

As usual, I painted the dressers in ivory and finished them off with polyurethane.

The pulls were a problem: besides being brass(eww), they are two different sizes, neither are the standard size so, I had to keep them. I wanted to give them an aged look, I came up with a technique that is similar to faux mercury glass minus the glass. First I sprayed the pulls with water in a small spray bottle, then I sprayed them with a light coat of pewter metallic and gold metallic spray paint, i would immediately spritz with water again and repeat the process until the bronze finish was completely covered. 

After allowing them to dry, I touched/barely rubbed some of the air bubbles with a fine grit sand paper to give an "aged" appearance. Finally, I applied several coats of a clear polurethane spray.

Wah-lah!

We would like to mount the tv onto the wall, the dressers will stay side by side even if the tv goes up. Ignore the missing pull, I will find a matching one if it kills me!

Hair DO or Hair DONT!

I've been here before:

Thank you Natalie Dee for that laugh, my husband believes that this one better represents me:

Here is my current hairstyle that I have been growing out since June 2008:

But this is what I'm obsessed with lately, meaning every time I: wash, comb(kill me now), dry, style, and have to push my bangs out of my eyes(45billion times a day).

 I have my husband's blessing and friends that say "DO IT", but I'm still too chicken to chop off that much at once. I have twice donated my hair to locksoflove.org, I'm trying to convince myself to do it for the cancer patients, if not to make my life easier. Can I pull it off? Will I look like a boy? Who cares if hair grows if you look likean idiot for six months! AHHHHH, this decision could take awhile....

DIY: Dining Room Table into Coffee Table

This summer our family rented a cabin in the Texas Hill Country & floated the Guadalupe River for a couple of days. In the living room of the cabin the owners had cut down a giant round dining table to coffee table height, and I was in love. I began eyeballing my living room table, which I fancy, but decided that it wasn't ideal for our layout, it allowed very little room to walk around to sit down on the sofa.(Fifi was obviously NOT camera ready)

I searched Craigslist for weeks for the right table and never found one as large as my inspiration piece but discovered this antique oak table for $60! I started painting it before I realized I didn't have a before photo-oops!

Chris cut down the pedestal portion to coffee table height & replaced the old nuts and bolts to screw the pedestal and table top together.

I am painting all of my furniture in the same technique to unite the mis-matching pieces. I use an ivory colored Olympic flat paint from Lowes, seal it with Minwax water based polyurethane, and distress a few edges with fine grit sandpaper. Since the hubs was then out of town, I assembled the table on my own, and  had to quickly verify that I was current on my tetanus injection, darn those jagged-rusty-antique metal pieces!

This is so much better for our small living room, it really opened up the room without deleting table space. Chris really likes it too, we enjoyed getting to do this project together. DIY=romance in our book.