furniture redo

Well I have been just awful this last week with a post! My Mother in law has been in for the week and when she comes we play:)
So anyway I painted my bedroom a soft cream and LOVE it!
also here is the chair we talked about before and after....booya!

From Drop Box

it looks great in our room with my red chicken wire frame (finals pictures to come soon)
But here is my chalkboard door that I painted (spray painted, if you will)
Brent was the first to break it in!

Also most of you know Brent and I went to Sips and Stokes ( a place where you bring your own beverage of choice and a teacher shows you and others how to paint a picture)
here is ours:)

Mine is on the right....You can go ahead and admit it looks better, B already did! lol jk....I think his looks just as good.

Have a great Easter Weekend......I hope everyone understands that God loves them so much he sacrificed his own son for you! Have fun and enjoy the day and remember to thank Him.

Abbs*

Opposites Attract

my Mainiac husband (I'm not being mean he was born in the Lobster state) has always been the popular sporty athletic (also known as JOCK!) type, I have never cared much for the sports, I have always cared for the arts (music, reading, painting). I was the wallflower in HS, still am at times. Our WHOLE marriage we have struggled with finding things we ACTUALLY LOVE to do together, not just do out of love for the other. I love garage sailing(I know I spell it wrong, that's part of the fun, people!), thrifty deal, and whole in the wall coffeshops. He loves running, working out, and video games....EWW:)

Anywhos it was a HUGE surprise when we created something beautiful (besides our beautiful chirren)!!
the Farmhouse bed is available at Pottery Barn for $1449.00

We found the COMPLETE diections with shopping list included at Ana_White's website
We paid $350 for the wood and materials....
and I'm going to show you the pics, BUT want you to know these were taken before I had the new camera!
the headboard

the headboard again (that stupid headboard is what was tough, the dimensions she gave were off, but by reading the comments below the directions after we finished we were able to see what we should have done differently)

Headboard completed

Almost finished!

One coat of stain....I think I'll paint from now on, thank you!

the bed before we built the canopy on top, we had to wait on some Brackets to get in...I'm well aware that the paint color in our room really clashes with, well everything else in the room (I'm painting it this week)

The finished Bed!

We love it, its a great place for Saturday morning cartoons!

On a side note, I stumbled on drawer liners at Ace for $2...

And this is currently what I'm working on...I know the fabric is hideous, but for $20, you will just have to wait and see:)

So Brent and I have decide that we LOVE, and I mean LOVE building things together! I think we have quite a few pieces of furniture and maybe another baby left to create! we will see....

By the way my Mother in law is on her way here today all the way from Maine(She is flying because if she drove it would be 27 hours) the boys are VERY excited to see Grammy!
Grammy, fly safe!

I hope everyone has a GREAT Friday!
Abbs*

THE big reveal!

WELL WELL WELL.....It is time! The dresser is all done, and personally I think Anthropology would sell it!
Okay so quick recap..go here to see the old one.
to catch you up after we scraped all that yucky stuff off, we sanded it.

then I put two coats of "springfield" on it.

full body shot picture if you will, I think you will..

next I took a block sander to all the corners and sides that I wanted to, I also to a nail and scraped down the top to give the stain something to grab hold of

and Here is the finished product with me in the mirror..HI!

a couple more close ups...

(We have two different types of knobs on them because I like the circles and Brent likes the rings) maybe after a year of looking at them one of us will lower our pride we will decide which one looks better.

I'm VERY happy with it, I think it will go perfect in our "New" room

...AND... for those of you who don't know I will be the big 27 in just a short 10 days. My Sweet friend, Michelle all the way in Cali sent me these mugs as a early bday present, (chelle, I'm drinking coffee in them, well one, right now!)

and there you have it! My first piece of "distressed" furniture...I think I'm addicted. $75 dollars for a dresser at goodwill, that you could probably buy at Nadeau for $1200...It's definitely got SOUL!
Have a great weekend!!
Abbs

Photoshop Tip

Okay peeps....I know what you're thinking, "who does she think she is, hasn't had a camera for a week and is now giving ME (the photographer) advice?!?! BUT while I'm still learning my way around a nice expensive camera, something I do know my way around is Photoshop CS4. I found these actions awhile back for free! did you hear that?? FREE...that doesn't happen very often....Anyway I forgot about them until now. (How Convenient, right?)
Well (if you also have photoshop CS4 or Photoshop Elements) you can go here to download these actions. Once you dl them, you apply it to your photo by opening the .atn file.
Here is the pic of my crazy boys BEFORE:

I applied one of them ("seventies", because I like the old look) and BAM!

Or this one of my niece's crib table, BEFORE:

BOOYA! "Vintage" action...

Or this one of Gage and his cousin Harper Kate
I gave this on the "lovely and ethereal" ?? not sure about the meaning, but I'm going with it:) BEFORE

and AFTER....can you tell a difference? It's a tad softer around their faces.

There you go Suckers:)
try it and see if you don't like it! basically when you hit apply actions it adds all the filters to your picture that would normally take you a half hour....
And for learning sake, you can back track in the layers pallet and see exactly what they did to get that effect:)

P.S. Thanks Aunt Caprice for sending the huge Oneonta Indians t-shirts, as you can see they LOVE them! They are a little big, so until their little bodies fill them they will be great PJ's....because when I was growing up their was nothing more comfy at night than a HUGE t-shirt!

fabric flower tutorial

I put together a little step by step for ya... You can put these on a headband, pillow, anything you want. I chose to put them on a picture frame I had.

choose your coordinating fabric, and you won't need very much for these.
Also a glue gun...

cut or tear a 1 in strip of the fabric

fold the fabric in half by length and tie a small loose knot in the end

twist fabric around knot keeping it folded and put a dot of glue every once in awhile to keep it sturdy.

keep twisting and gluing until there is about 1 in left of the fabric

glue the fabric down on the back

you want them to be tight in some spots and loose in others, that's what gives it character (I like character).

next I took the green and cream polka dot fabric and laid it pattern down, I cut it about 4 inch in diameter

then I took white thread and a needle and started a small stitch, going around the whole circle

last pull both sides tight and tie a small knot. then just work it til it is even and looks the way you want it to. Like below...

I then glued my flowers to a picture frame of my husband and I on our honeymoon...

I have to go now though because this baby wants his mommy:)

I hope this gave you some inspiration to try this easy flower on your own!

Craft Tuesday, (or would it be crafty Monday since I made these yesterday?)
oh well Have fun!

Abbs*

weekend happenings

Well we went dresser hunting on Saturday morning for a piece we could transform an old one to look like "us".....for those of you just now joining me, we are slowly redoing our room. I took three "know your style" quizzes online and they came back as, Scandinavian antique, country classic, and vintage modern (go here to learn more about these quizzes or take them yourself!)

So here is the dresser we found at a thrift store ($75)

It had 2 or 3 coats of paint on it, So we dunked that sucker (painted heavy) in paint stripper, waited 15 minutes and shaved it off

We then sanded it down with a hand sander, and while we worked on this Eli played with luggage that I forgot to drop off at goodwill (WHY do we buy our kids toys again!?!)

And....Cole thought it would be sweet to give Gage a handful of dirt to play with....It only seems fair! (I took a picture Quickly before I ran into the house and completely washed his mouth out)

Oh well we are almost done, you will have to come back to see the big dresser reveal! That's my way of hooking you, HA! (that was an evil laugh).

On another note,
I created a mood pallet to show you my ideas about our room

I hope everyone has a great Monday!!
Abbs*

camera crazy

So my new camera arrived! Very Exciting, BUT when it came I got so overwhelmed!! I don't know how to use a camera like this!! My wonderful brother saved the day, he called and said look until you figure it out, put it on the setting and play around with it.....I definitely played around with it.

then this morning while my boys were eating breakfast I decided to try to capture the craft they were working on...(Yes that is a banana peel and a pen) I didn't even give them the idea, those crazy little artists!

I'm off to find more tutorials on this camera and finish the design for our Easter series...If you live in the Birmingham area DO NOT have a church try ours!
http://www.ncfonline.org/

Happy Friday!

Abbs