A Little Gift For My Sister....

We have had this hand-me-down light wood table for about 7 years. The Benvie's were nice enough to give it to Megan and I when we got our 2nd apartment together and had no furniture....so it's been around a LONG time.

It made the move to the house with us, starting in the kitchen (and looking awful against those yellow walls!)....

Then moving into the dining room during that transition. Here it is before Dad's dining room furniture arrived...SO....other than the dated wood finish, this was a strong, heavy, good quality table. However, once we got all the furniture from Dad's house, we ran out of room....and it became our outdoor dining table, and all the rain and weather turned it into THIS!

That shot was even after a good scrub! Here is a close up of the condition it was in....so sad.

But I knew we couldn't ditch this good, solid table! It had been through so much! I decided that I needed to pass this one down again since we don't have room, and since my Sister is staying in Atlanta another year- I thought that would be perfect for her new apartment! I primed it and added two coats of white semi-gloss paint and it looks brand new!! Check it out:

And guess again how much this cost me to refinish.........NADA. What would I do without leftover paint!

Updating the Kitchen Stools

For years I have overlooked my awful, paint-stained kitchen stools that sit quietly under my island. I have been meaning to prime/paint them to match the kitchen, but needed a free day. I finally got one recently, so here is the mini transformation...YUCK! I'm pretty embarrassed that these things even lasted a month in my kitchen! Look at all the different colors of paint on them (can you tell they're mine?). First, just like any other

wood furniture painting project (and exactly like the kitchen cabinets), had to prime these puppies with some tinted primer so our glossy black paint would stick. How much better do they look already? Even just after one coat of primer! And how completely different they look after the black glossy paint? Guess how much this project cost me? Absolutely NOTHING. Leftover paint is a beautiful thing....

Making Up For Lost Time....

I know I've been MIA- I'm sorry. I have been really busy with projects though, so hopefully the million posts I do today will make up for it. Many more to come, hope y'all enjoy! I promise I will post more frequently....promise.

Just to keep you entertained in this boring post, here is a cute pic of Megan and I building the half wall in our entryway/dining area. You have NO idea how much I wish I had a 'before' of this one. Those turquoise pillars were CLASSIC!

My Front Door Issues

Does anyone else have a front door that is painted the same color on both sides? I had that problem with our door, which was a really heinous orange/reddish color. Once we painted the great room/entryway, we were left with this lovely view....Well, this was not what I wanted to look at when I sat in my living room, so after we painted the dining room (which is located directly to the left in the pic above), I decided just to use the leftover paint from that project on the back of the front door. Here it is now (before we scraped the paint off the glass window- oops!).....still, much better huh?
And did you notice the little planter to the right in the first pic? That is a plant from my Dad's funeral (almost 2 yrs ago!) and I noticed it wasn't really matching anything anymore either. So, it got a little makeover of it's own too! Bye bye green and beige stripes, HELLO white! Spray paint to the rescue again :)

Stay tuned for some CUTE baked goods!

Okay, so everyone knows I am not really a sweets fan (I really hate the taste of cake). I do however, LOVE baking something really fun to bring to a party, shower, etc. Take this cake for example:This was a replica (well kinda) of Megan's wedding cake, that I tried to recreate for her bridal shower just for fun. It didn't turn out too bad right? It was my first experience with fondant and dye. It wasn't easy!

Well, since it's the fourth of July coming up- I have a few tricks up my sleeve for tonight. I am baking the cutest little guys for work (since we are leaving town and don't have a party to attend). I will be sure to post pics! It's gonna be soo fun!

Baby Signs- My new craft!

I wanted to make Maya a special name sign for her door or bedroom...So I decided to use green, pick and white to go with her room already, and wanted to make stripes so it wasn't TOO girly. Then I thought, painters tape would work great for that!

I painted the whole board green and then applied the tape, and painted white and pink between the stripes.

So when the paint was almost dried, I peeled off the painters tape and we had perfect little stripes to match Maya's room. I used some white block letters from Michael's, and hot glued them onto the painted board, then also glued on some cute pink wooden flowers. The ribbon is stapled and nailed to the back so it can be hung.

And here is another one I did for Kayce to give to her friend Kayte at her shower. For this sign, I just bought a wood block that was carved in a circle from Michaels and I painted it dark brown (the colors of Kayte's nursery are brown and pink). After that dried, I free handed her name and a few flowers with some craft paint and voila! Attach some pink gingham ribbon to the back with some heavy duty staples and you're done!

Veggie Garden

I finally planted our veggies this past weekend- I know, June is a little late!! We've been pretty busy this spring/summer, so I couldn't get to it until now. Hopefully a few will bloom for me before it gets too cold!

This year, I decided to plant the veggies OUTSIDE the fenced in backyard, due to 2 crazy pups that like to chew every plant back there. So, I went to the side yard that we never use, and dug about a 9ft by 5 ft hole and filled it with planters soil.

I planted one huge tomato plant that already had a few on there so far. Then I planted a green pepper plant and a bunch of seeds. This year, we will have green beans, mesculin greens, carrots, squash, zuccini, sweet potatoes and hot peppers (hopefully). I'll let you know how it turns out!