Before and After- Antique School Desk Redo

Remember those old school desk we use to set in? The ones you could put your books in under the seat. Why is it we all have dreaded memories about school days in those desk, but we still think they're cute? Why do we want our children to have one of them?

I'm not sure, but I had this idea to find a antique school desk for my daughters room. Everyone on Craigslist either wanted too much or the deck wasn't "old' enough looking for me. After searching on Craigslist for weeks to no avail. I had to look elsewhere.

I headed out for the trendy antique shop part of town just knowing everything would be priced to high. And what do you know this beauty was setting outside the first shop I stopped at.

Yah, I know what your thinking "beauty?". Yes, beauty. I saw potential. But how much would it be? I had seen worse desk on Craigslist in the $40 range. And I was not about to lay down that much for a before picture. I slowly briskly walked up to the desk trying to hide my excitement. And there it was- a tag saying $5!!! You are kidding me? Only $5? EXCITEMENT ! EXCITEMENT ! SOLD !

So when I got it home here's what I was in for.

Pretty bad, well it got worse. I discovered the desk was covered in some sort of wood layer (sorry i'm not a furniture expert) that was coming off. Yikes, what do I do now?

Please, children do NOT set down!

Okay, so I did the only thing I could think of, scrap it off and get down to the natural wood. Good idea, bad idea? Who knows, not me I'm not a furniture expert like I said. My husband wasn't home at the time so I just found some of his tools and went for it. Like the crowbar? Every woman at sometime in her life should find a reason to use a crowbar! Enough said. 

I headed to Lowe's grabbed a can of metallic paint and found pink paint someone returned that was in the bargain bin. And here's how she turned out.... 

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I'm so proud... I'ts only my second furniture redo. Like I said, it was suppose to be for my daughters room. But I must confess, I'm so in love with it that it now sets in the corner of the living room. I can just look at it all day. She has used it so much more than I would have imagined. Mommy is happy, girl is happy, daddy wants to know why I used his crowbar. 

Have you ever refinished or painted an old piece of furniture? If so leave me the link in the comment section below. I'd love to see it. 

Free Shipping Code for my new Etsy Shop

In celebration of my new Etsy Shop August AVE I'm offering a free shipping coupon code!

August AVE is about creating convenient and beautiful items for you and your home that are different. Take for instance our handy pot holders; they are magnetized and stick right to your refrigerator or stove. No more digging around in a drawer when that oven timer goes off or something is boiling over on the stove. Your hot pad is conveniently located right at your finger tips! 

Magnetic tabs are also sewn into the towels. So your towel never falls off the stove handle or even hangs crooked. 

Take a moment to look around. You'll find not only are our items functional and well constructed, but also just so darn cute! Thanks for taking a moment to check them out. 

The free shipping code is  freeshipblog and it's good for free domestic shipping!
Thanks from Tiffany and August AVE.

Before and After Nightstands

I have always wanted matching nightstands for our bedroom. I figured if I was going to get them they had to be one cheap and two fit into my car. I came home with these hideous nightstands from the 70's. I picked  them up at a used furniture store for $20 each. I've never refinished furniture before, so my husband thought I was crazy. But he joined in the transformation. Before the weekend was over, they were finished and we had a great time!

Ugly what was I thinking?

I love them and I knew we could do it!

There were a few challenges. Do we keep the doors or ditch them? Another challenge was that  it rained that weekend, so the humidity caused the drying times to double. We ran out of spray paint and had to run back to Lowe's. They didn't have anymore of the color we needed in stock. That lead to a search all over town for one more can of the right color. Grrrr.......Also the tops didn't stain as dark as we wanted. I originally wanted to glaze over the white, but I was over my budget and just left them white. So, as a first project I learned as few things. Patience, patience, and some more patience! Total spent on the stands and supplies was $80 making them $40 each! Not bad considering the ones I had picked out at the furniture store were $250 each. And I wouldn't have been as proud as I am of these. 

Here's what we did-

1. wash with vinegar and water solution to disinfect (so gross someone else's nightstands from the 70's)
2. sand lightly on the bottoms and all the way to the wood on the tops
3. use oil based spray primer on bottom only (wow they already look better)
4. paint bottom (I used spray paint also)
5. stain tops (why is this not getting as dark as I want?)
6. polyurethane tops (stinky!!)
7. let them dry, let them dry, and let them dry some more
8. change hardware

Yeah! We're done!

Paper doll fun!

I'm absolutely obsessed with paper dolls. I remember playing with them more than anything else as a kid. I'm trying to pass on the love to my daughter and even got the hubs involved this weekend. 

I purchased this PDF package from etsy.com. It's easy! Print them out, color, cut, and put together with mini brads. It was a wonderful spring break project considering it poured cats and dogs most of spring break.  It kept my daughter and me busy for 2 days! No kidding.

We got right to playing paper dolls the next morning without even taking time to fix our hair.

Tiny hands may need help with the brads. It took us about 15 minutes per doll to cut out and assemble with the brads. This printable set can be purchased for $6.00 at  the Gingermelon shop on etsy.

Blue and Brown quilt.

This is a quilt I currently working on. I love the corduroy brown fabric and the purple is velvety soft. 

Not exactly traditional quilting fabric, but I'm thinking snuggly goodness. 

I would like to back it in a flannel and use a high loft batting. It's sure to become our favorite camping quilt. It's close to king size.

Heart Bargello Quilt

I've been working on this heart bargello quilt off and on for a year now. 

Everyone that sees it goes crazy over it. They think it must be so hard to do. Truthfully it's painfully easy! So easy it bores me to death, hence the year long snails pace rate I'm going. I have a goal of busting it out by the end of the week. Here is the link where you can buy the pattern. It's a bargain at only $5.99! When I get this done it's going to be soooo worth it.

Heart Bargello Quilt Pattern

Rag Dolls!

Rag Doll Time!

Here are some Rag Dolls I made for my nieces. 

My daughter helped to stuff these and pick out the fabrics from my scrap stash. 

It was a great mother daughter project.

I purchased the pattern from Sew Much Ado. The pattern cost is $9. It's a great way to use up your quilting scraps! Here is the link-

http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2010/01/ruby-lou-doll-pdf-pattern.html

As you can tell I've put my own spin on the doll by changing the hair and face.

My daughter is drooling over these! But they are getting shipped off to her cousins.

Love this one setting on top of my sewing machine.

 These four dolls will be mailed off to some very special girls.

Figgy Pudding Quilt from Moda Bake Shop

The idea for this quilt came from the following link. I made mine larger than the original pattern. 

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/12/figgy-pudding-quilt.html

This was my first time to free motion quilt. The above pictures take you through the process. It was quilted with Warm and White and is about a queen size.

Denim Jean Rag Quilt

Denim Jean Rag Quilt

This jean quilt is one of the first quilts I ever made. I lived in the middle of no where at the time and wanted to sew. What could I sew with? OLD JEANS- I was inspired by my grandmother who always cut up grandpa's old farm jeans and turned them into quilts. We had one for years. It also had alternating blocks that were tropical birds!? YES, not kidding. We always made fun of that ugly old quilt. Yet it gave me the inspiration to make this creation. The quilt my grandmother made was stolen by a neighbor kid! Still makes me mad.

The white denim used in this was the Guess jeans I wore over 14 years ago the night I got engaged to my husband. I could never part with them. But I could chop them up and turn them into something to snuggle with. It's better than setting in a box.

The back is red fleece.

This is so warm and has built in remote control pockets! Perfect for winter nights watching movies. This is sure to be a family favorite, even though I had no idea what I was doing and it has tons of mistakes. 

Rag Doll with Tumbler Quilt

This doll pattern can be purchased at the following link 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/67420504/softie-pdf-pattern-ruby-lou-doll

Back ground quilt is a pattern from the Moda Bake Shop.

Here is the link http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/09/sweet-baby-quilt.html

10 minute quilt block

This one is becoming a mess. I can't believe I forgot you can't jump around machine quilting. I have some serious stitches that have to come out!

 This is a 10 minute quilt block by Suzanne McNeill.

Check out the You Tube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUK5-nuhVcw&feature=related