Mother's Day take II

So how was your Mother's Day?  What did ya do?

Mine started off lovely.  Beautiful day.  Hubby set his alarm early to make us all breakfast.  

I was showered with lots of handmade drawings, paper flowers and cards. 

 And a few fresh flowers as well.  

Boys actually wore polo shirts to church with their shorts...only for my special day would they get so fancy. 

 I wore a newly thrifted linen H&M shirt dress with my new fancy necklace I ordered from a friend.  

Went to fav Mexican restaurant with friends (party of 15, only 6 were adults).  Chicken fajitas.  Every year this restaurant hands out a rose to every mother on Mother's Day.  Kids behaved at lunch.  It was bliss.

Then I came home and suddenly became very ill and was in bed the rest of the day.  Only coming out at 6pm to sit on the couch and watch AFV with the kids.  

They ate McD's and I had half a bag of plain goldfish and a sprite.  

Far cry from the steaks I was going to have hubby grill, the fresh milkshakes I was going to make, eating on the deck and playing with the kids.  ugh.  stupid stomach.

And I had planned to make a trip to Home Depot to by flowers and plants.  Instead spent the day in a dark room mostly alone.  Hubby did have the kids clean the house for me and was a nice surprise when I got up.

Anyway, today I'm feeling a bit better.  

So Maressa and I hit HD this morning and bought lots of lovely plants and some bushes for the front yard.

  We got some red geraniums, some white thingamijigs and some green leafy vine-y things for two large planters I got at Target earlier this year.  I've never had a container garden before.  

Any any other kind for that matter.  I think it turned out well. 

 M was SO excited to help me.  Til she got dirt on her feet.  

She changed shoes 3 times, then called it quits and waited for me to finish and she would water them.  

Then her dress got wet and we had to change that too.

I'm slowly working on a deck makeover.  This old vintage metal glider is getting quite the color face lift.

Oh how much I love this color.  And spray paint.

Speaking of, inspired by Julie's post, I painted a jar (first picture) for my new flowers.

Definitely loving the painted jar look. :)

Deck makover to be revealed very soon!

That cabinet...done

I got my cabinet finally done.  It is now bright white and houses all kinds of fun and colorful candles, dishes and whatnot.  It fits my dining room so much better now!

On top I threw some cheap off white paper globes that I've had a long time.  Kinda to compliment my crazy globe chandelier and provide more height to my cabinet.

Here is the sad before.  :)

Now to get those Halloween costumes done!!

Again with the paint

Yep, painting another piece of antique furniture.  We got this piece with wedding money during our honeymoon week (we didn't go anywhere...tragic, I know).  When we moved into our new house, it wasn't the right scale for the dining room really.  Then I got this for storage and decided to ditch the china cabinet.  So it sat in my garage forever.  Then I had a change of heart.  I decided maybe I could pep it up and then use it to store fun colorful pieces and I maybe will even make cloth napkins (that I've been hanging out on my to do list for a really long time) to roll up and put in a pretty basket or something.

So I have most of a primer coat on and can't wait til it is bright white.  Maybe soon I'll finally have the dining room reveal...nothing to hold your breath over, but I want to get more details done before I go taking pictures and all.  ;)

Yeah and don't think that dresser is safe either....it's dull brown days are numbered.

Oh and speaking of thrifting.  I went to Goodwill yesterday and found lots of treasures.  Will share soon!

A cartoon style coffee table

I got this table many many years ago.  For free.  I worked at The Limited when I was in college.  They were throwing this table and it's matching taller table (you can see here as my sewing table) out.  I totally rescued them.

I painted them black a long time ago.  You can see in these pictures how the black has chipped and peeled off a good bit.  For a while this table held our big tube tv in the playroom.  Once we got an appropriate entertainment type unit, I gave it a few coats of primer and white paint.  Then I got the idea to draw on them with a Sharpie.  I thought briefly of letting the kids at the table top to do graffiti style drawings in black sharpie, but thought that would be too much.  So I just gave it this little border.

Yeah I know you guys probably think I'm totally weird and/or crazy.  It kinda makes me think of a black and white cartoon type drawing.  But I kinda like it.  I put a melamine tray with couple of books and a bowl of dominoes.  Now I just need a nice fluffy shag rug for the floor.  :)

A five minute dresser facelift

Changing the look and feel of furniture can be as simple as changing out the hardware.  My old childhood dresser got moved into the girl's room sometime earlier this year.  I was not crazy about the old metal handles and knobs (ignore the fact in this before pic I already replaced the knobs) I put on 13 years ago when I moved into my first apartment.  It originally had floppy metal handles with a floral metal plate.

It does need a new paint job, but for now just changing out the hardware makes it fit much better in the girls' room.  Speaking of, I kinda have updated their room yet again.  To be honest the shabby chic and bland colors was just not working for me.  It was really pretty, but I just need lots of color...and I think the girls like more colors as well.  Not to mention that Maressa needed a quilt and I could no longer get the one like her sisters, so kinda gave me an excuse to get them both fun new (inexpensive Target) quilts.  I put hot pink sheets on Maressa's bed one day when cleaning her other ones and she was beside herself excited and kept thanking me over and over....lol.

Plastic Kids Picnic Table Makeover

I took our old hand me down kids picnic table and cleaned it up.

Then I painted it with spray paint for plastic.  Honestly don't know how long it will look nice, but worth a try! ;)

A Reading Cube

We had this dark brown wood cube forever.  Don't know where it came from or what it was really for.  (Sorry for the washed out pic...I took it in a hurry outside right before painting it, but you can get the drift.)  I used it some as a ball bucket for the kids or blocks (but it was really too deep for little ones to get things out of the bottom).  Or sometimes on it's side as a side table.  But the other day I had an idea.

I decided to give it a coat of white paint and add some wheels.  I had these wheels already from a local mod podge type store (for the locals it was Mike's Merchandise) that I bought without even knowing what I would do with them yet.  I cheated and used Gorilla glue to attach them to the bottom after wrestling with difficult holes and a drill.

So now it is to house the kids magazines and some popular books they like to sit and read in the living room.

Simple and sweet!!  And I think even Snoopy approves!  ;)

Dresser Makeover~Antique to Contemporary

Here is another project I worked on over spring break.  Weather finally cooperated for me to get this thing out of the garage and give it a work over with the spray paint.  

(For those interested in making your own photograph art work, find the tutorial here).

The hardware gave me the hardest time.  The pre-drilled holes were not a standard size.  This is about the only handle I could find to fit it.  Then the skinny handle went all the way through the hole.  To fix the wobbly handle situation, I used small silver washers on the outside.  Cool thing is they look like they are part of the handle themselves.  So I am satisfied.  ;)

Ok, this is the only before pic I could find...I thought I had a better one or I would have taken a before picture (this is from way back in our old house in Kalla's nursery where I used it as a change table/dresser).  I almost didn't keep the dresser.  It was in Kalla's room after the move, but when we put the girls together and redid their bedroom, the dresser took up too much room.  I really needed another dresser in my bedroom, but I have this thing about mirrors like this in my bedroom...they creep me out in the dark.  So when the dresser got assigned to the furniture graveyard in the garage, I found that the mirror and posts came off with little effort!  Cool beans!  So I doused the thing in white of course and updated the hardware.  Now I know all you antique lovers are probably cringing right now, but I just love the new look!!

Play kitchen makeover

Sort of. We got this kitchen (the stove and sink were originally sold/made separate, no corner unit at that time and we didn't get the fridge) for the kids several years ago. I wanted wood, but inexpensive...also wanted one that was NOT pink. Anyway, I have to admit the gift was kinda a flop. They never really played with it. However, since I still have a couple of little ones in the house I've been reluctant to get rid of it.

Once I painted and redid my dining room (that is over sized because it used to be the kitchen before the previous owners put on an addition) I decided to spruce up the little kitchen area.

And I had this old thing in the garage ready to be given away. Then it dawned on me that it would be fabulous for storage and play area (aka a 'counter') for the kitchen.


So I painted it dark brown to match my table and chairs and the kids table. Added the cool Target Orla Kiely placemat I got from Goodwill and some fun orange buckets from Big Lots to store food stuff in and recycled some soup cans for the spatulas, whisks and whatnot. And an old phone for making calls to their friends.

Above the kitchen I hung my old Coke crate I bought at an antique store many years ago and displayed their teapot set.

It's amazing, but these simple, 'real' touches with the added room for making dishes has made quite a difference. Especially with the littlest 2. Maressa especially likes making her stuffed animals and babies food. :) Not to mention it now looks kinda nice in my dining room. I plan to make some dish towels and oven mitts to put on hooks by the kitchen soon.

A chair before and after

This step stool chair is as old as I am, if not more. This used to live at my grandma's house. It was the favorite seat at the breakfast table when me and my sisters were kids. We'd fight over who got to sit in it. It is part of my fond memories of my grandma's kitchen in the mornings when my paw paw made mountains of waffles and bacon and the home of the squeeze butter I was so fond of. So when they passed away a few years back, I had to have this chair. But it needed a makeover.

So I cleaned it up and painted it white and recovered the top in oilcloth. It sits in my sewing room where my kids come in and enjoy sitting in it often. :)