Refinishing Projects

Jess, my husband, loves to refinish old furniture and give it a new look and new life.  The top two pictures are of our living room table.  There are two side or end tables that now need to be refinished as well to match.

We finally found a new dining room table that will fit our family and even extends to fit many more guests for dinner when the occasion calls for it.  I was not happy about the table at first because it's not "my style" or even the style I wanted but Jess cannot pass up a "good deal"  8 chairs, table and 4 leaves; all solid oak for $500.  He will most likely not be so lucky when he does by me my dining room set that I want.  $500 might cover the shipping cost.  Anyway along with the cheap price of the table came the promise of refinishing it.   So far if you ask my sweet, amazing husband who picked out the color schemes he will tell you he did.  And because he does most of the work in refinishing the furniture I let him believe that and even tell others that as well.  I know that if I want something done my way or my color, I make him think that he came up with it and then I get what I want.  He does ask for my input so I give it.  I usually start by showing him pictures on Pinterest or Facebook or Google search.  Then I let it be for a few days or weeks.  Then when he approaches the subject again it's usually to go with him to "look" at colors.  (This is how I got the stain I wanted for the living room table and my small kitchen table and chairs)  He usually has a nice color in mind and would be okay, but I steer him towards the one I really want.  One of two things happen.  Either he picks up the color right then or if he is not ready for the stain or paint, he remembers the color and goes back for it when he is ready.  It's so simple and easy to do.  As for the oak table, it is still sitting unfinished because of several factors; first it is summer and there are a million things to do, second our summer this year has been a scorcher and being out in the non-attached metal shop/garage when it is over 101 (upto 109) for 9 consecutive days is not going to happen and third, he is the assistant scout master with the 12 & 13 year old boys in our ward soooo... his time has become very limited.  I am hopeful once it cools off that he will start on our table (oh and once we have the funds to buy a paint sprayer for the chairs).

Project Furniture RE-finish

 My husband loves to give new life and a new, updated look to old furniture.  This dresser came from my great aunts house and used to be gold and this green/beige color that was really not so pretty.  This dresser will be going in my girls room.  He put new pulls on it as well and I talked him into going to Hobby Lobby with me to check out their drawer pulls and these cute butterflies (since it is going in the girls room).

 See how darling these butterfly pulls are?!!!

 Next is this beautiful picture.  It came from the same great aunts house.  I wish I had a before picture of this.  The frame was gold.  The picture seemed dark and foreboding with the gold frame and it dulled the picture as well.  Now that the frame is a white color I think the picture looks peaceful and serene and the colors more vibrant.  This picture now happily hangs in my dinning room.

 And lastly... new curtains for the living room.  I love reds and I love blues with brown but not both red and blue with brown.  So we are steering away from the reds in the living room for now and going with blues.  I found these beauties and couldn't resist.  Now to find some pillow coverings that are blues that will cover up my couch pillows.  I have more projects up my sleeves, just waiting to move to the top of the list.  I found the cutest fabric store in Lake Chelan that I am so excited to go and visit again.  Now that I am starting to settle into life here, projects should start popping out regularly.

Trees and Ornaments

Sorry for the blurry picture. I love these trees. They were pretty simple and easy to make.  Again these are a Wood Connection buy.  So I bought the wood already cut out and then decided on the paper and embellishments, came home and put it all together.

Over the years I have made a bunch of wood ornaments for our Christmas tree.  They are great because I really don't have to worry about them breaking and they are not so fragile that little hands can't help decorate the tree.  And we now have a letter A for our baby Ammon to go along with the rest of the letters from our names.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and that you have made some goals for the new year to work towards. Like I said my goal is to start working on my "projects" list.

The Husband Files

Jess has decided to start re-finishing some of our hand me down furniture.  I must say it looks great but I don't like the dust all over in the garage and on my cars.  This will be my crafting table for my craft room (insert squeal). Jess has needed something to keep him from going crazy while "waiting"!  It's funny because I have plenty for him to do but I realize that he needs a creative outlet just like I do so I haven't pushed the other things that need doing.  He has been approached by several people now wanting him to re-finish things for them and I think if we were in a different situation (ie- not trying to sell our house, not trying to pack up and move) that he would love to do it.  But he just doesn't have the time right now.  I think maybe when we get settled and moved in that he might make it a second job (to fund vacations) to re-finish and sell furniture and re-finish furniture for others.   For now though- he gets to re-finish things for our house and I must say they are looking great.  He has also done a buffet table a dresser and is working on the second dresser and a table.

Christmas Blocks

This year for Christmas presents for our home teaching and visiting teaching families I made these super cute Christmas blocks.  I also made some for the girls at work.  I love how simple they were to make and how fast they were as well.  Everyone needs as much time as they can get during the holiday season and these seriously took me about 2 hours one afternoon.  I don't have all the blocks pictured.  But I think we knocked out about 25.  All I used were wood blocks of various sizes, paint, scrapbook paper and a few bubble embellishments and stickers.  I really should have taken pictures of all of them but I forgot.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

It's been a while since I've actually sat down and did something creative.  I love The Wood Connection and all it offers.  I love wood crafts.  I love to paint and create.  This little guy makes me so happy.  Every time I look at him I just smile.  I think it's might be his huge red, glittery nose.  (btw: red is one of my most favorite colors but I'm rather picky about the shade of red.)  I have a huge list of projects I want to do and things I want to create.  I am hoping that this will be the year I can start to tackle that list.  Especially if I get my craft room :)

R.S. Christmas Craft

For Relief Society (R.S. is the acronym for it.  I am LDS and it's the organization for the women in our church- to briefly sum it up)- we had a sweet lesson about the nativity and then we made these cute crafts.  I love to craft.  These are made out of 2x4's cut down to size.  I waited until I got home to make mine, because I had different colors of paint I wanted to use than the black and white they had at the church.  The black and white look amazing too!  

All we did was sand, paint, then I sanded again for the distressed look and last place the vinyl cut outs onto the blocks.  I think they turned out pretty cute!  I'm so excited to have added something this year to my Christmas decorations and it even goes along with my nativities.  I like to add one new nativity a year to our collection.  I am a little behind but I will catch up eventually.