Happy Halloween

Hope everyone is having a great Halloween!  It’s raining here so we haven’t even had any trick or treats yet. 

I love Pinterest!  And I love all the nail polish I find there.  I have always love nail polish, I’m a collector really…It’s similar to my obsession with ink pens.  So I did a little Pinteresty picture of my Halloween nails for you. I’ll call it my Twilight style.

  

I used Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine, color: Spark for the base coat and Sally Hansen Extreme, color: Twinkle Twinkle for the glittery top coat.

That is the extent of my costume for this season.  It is sad really, can’t remember a Halloween that I have not dressed up for!  Hope you all have a great Halloween night. 

April

Dresser How To

Happy Saturday Everyone!  I am enjoying my day so much…I am getting chores and projects done all the while watching scary movies on AMC Fear Fest.  I love Halloween weekend :)
I promised you a “How To” yesterday on the turquoise dresser…sorry for the delay. 
As I mentioned in the post above this dresser was in serious need of a makeover.  As I worked on this piece I wondered what it’s story was.  There were some interesting finds on this one. 
I did not have to do as much prep work as I did since I was using Chalk Paint but I did more sanding to get a smoother finish.  I also cleaned the piece well just because that’s me and I could not stand the dirt and grim on it. :)
Here are a couple before shots.  This dresser had 4 coats of paint and it was in pretty bad shape.  It had all kinds of paint splatter, oil, dirt, scratches, and cracks. 


One side was blue…the other was…brown or pink…
After just scrubbing it, the brown rubbed off…
This was a big crack in the top.  Also here you can see all the layers of paint.  Original stain, yellow, pink, brown, blue. 

Can rings…

First I cleaned it really good with dishwashing liquid and water, scrubbing it down.  I don’t usually like to clean any wood with water but this one had to be cleaned.  It was gross and it had a very musky smell. 
After it was all clean I stripped the paint off the top of the dresser with Strypeeze.

Sorry…I must have forgot the pictures on the paint stripping part.  It took about 3 heavy applications of the stripper to remove all the layers.  This brand is the best I’ve used, picked it up at Ace Hardware.
After I stripped the top I sanded the entire piece with coarse sandpaper.  Next I filled all the nail holes, cracks, and indentions.  Then I sanded everything again with fine sandpaper. 



All I could think when I saw these drawers was that there must have been a raccoon trapped inside…crazy scratch marks on one of the drawers. 


And then there were these weird holes in the top of another drawer.  Was someone keeping count of something?

I also realized when filling in holes that the dresser used to have pulls instead of knobs.

Here is a shot of the top filled and cleaned.  I used a pre stain wood container since there was still a little paint and this guy was in such bad shape, this is the way it looked after that dried.

The wood filler I used is paintable and stainable.  I purposely choose the stainable kind because of the large crack in the top that needed filling.

The key holes had been painted and I just sanded the paint off. Here is the before…

And after…

I used Rub ‘n Buff in Antique Gold on these to shine them up for the finished product.


Wow! What a difference!  There are still some issues…the bottom drawer does not work.  It will shut with some careful maneuvering but it will not open!  Still, I think it would be a great table for and entryway or side table in any room. 

April 


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Turquoise Chalk Paint

I have been so excited to share this dresser with you!  I created a new Chalk Paint color!! I mixed Provence with Old White and the result is a beautiful turquoise. 

Wow…I really need a new camera.  It looks so much brighter in person.  It is a real beauty!  Remember the before?  The $15 estate sale….see here

It was the perfect project for Chalk Paint because it had dings and scratches and at least 4  layers of paint.  It was well loved used.  I did strip and stain the top because I really wanted to see the original wood.  It still has a lot of scratches on the top and some of the old paint would not budge from the deep crevices but I think it gives it character.  On the body the chalk paint acted perfectly and covered up all the paint, scratches, and other stuff with no primer Instant gratification, gotta love that!
I plan to post a “How To” post tomorrow on this piece.  I really just want to show you the process a bit closer and it will be a longer post. 
I often wonder about the history on pieces that I find and I would really love to know more about this one.  It had a Yellow, Brown, Pink, and Blue layer of paint and I kinda of think it was used in a baby’s nursery with those colors.  It seems it’s last use was in a workshop because of the scratches, can rings, and oil spots on the surface.  I like to think someone kept it around a long time.  On to it’s new life :)


Whatcha think??


April


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Then There Were 3

I was hoping the next pets we took in would be Zebra Finches..but this little guy found us…

Glen is fitting in perfectly with our pet babies.  Our oldest Cat, Nipper, seems to like the company.  I should mention that Nipper is my BABY, I have had him for almost 6 years and I’ve had him since he was just over 4 weeks old.  I bottle feed him until he could eat solid food and I am his mother :) 
He loves his peace and quite and sleeping.  When we adopted our dog, Abbie over two years ago Nipper was not happy and I’m pretty sure he is still mad at us about that.  He has adjusted as much to Abbie as I think he ever will…he stays upstairs on his side of the baby gate and Abbie stays on her side.  When they are near each other without the gate Nipper hides because Abbie is just too much for him.

Now Nipper has a pal and playmate in Glen.  Nipper is a very playful cat when he isn’t sleeping and Glen seems to be pretty mild but since he is still a kitten there energy levels match.  I just want to see them snuggled up together one day then I’ll know they love each other.
 
As for Abbie, well she is a little jealous of Glen.  Glen is pretty fond of Will and she doesn’t like the attention Glen gets from him.  Glen is totally different than Nipper around Abbie, he comes and goes and is not afraid of her unless she is too close to him. 
  
I think before long Abbie and Glen will be friends too.  So all in all, maybe Glen was the missing link we needed in our zoo :)
April

Indoor Halloween

I LOVE Halloween! Seriously, more than Christmas…is this wierd?  It is such a fun Holiday and all ages can have fun with it. I really love spooky decorations, the scarier the better! 
Alas, I have not been able to decorate that way this year since our house IS STILL ON THE MARKET!!! Which is really starting to upset me, probably more so than most.  I thought my house would show well and sell quickly.  I feel like my decorating style is tasteful and I keep my house clean, really clean.  I just knew it was going to sell quick, oh how wrong I was.  Now we are over the average days on the market for our area and honestly it makes me sick!  Especially when none of the feedback has really been bad on any of the showings.  I guess that should make me feel better but it doesn’t at all because it has not sold yet and I don’t know what to do to make it better.  To make matters worse the new house will be done by the end of the month and we need one of them to sell!
Thanks for letting me rant! :)
Back to the regularly scheduled topic…
I used a lot more pumpkins and Fall decor this year on the inside, more orange, less black. 
  This is our kitchen table.  I picked up these guys at the Raleigh Farmer’s Market.  The garland I’ve had for a while.
This little display is in our Foyer.  I also picked up these tiger pumpkins at the Farmer’s Market.  I placed black sand in the bottom of a cake stand and just stuck the pumpkins on top.
These are in my Dining Room.  Little fake pumpkins, the larger two have Rub n Buff on them in Antique Gold and the other two were purchased with the beading on them.
My one scary Owl in the Living Room.  This is a candle I picked up a TJ Maxx this year.
This is my Mantle decor.  Again, small pumpkins (all fake) with a few spiders from the Pottery Barn.

I will leave you with my great graveyard pictures from my trip to Charleston this Summer.  I had planned to print these and put them in black frames just for Halloween.  But I just ran out time to get it done. 

 

What decorations do you have up this year?

April

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