Project...chunk of wood

I am a sucker for a project, apparently. For some reason I find a certain satisfaction out of turning something old and battered into something new and exciting. Perhaps its the uniqueness. Or the fact that my taste is expensive but my wallet is not thick so I try to attempt at mixing the two together. Or maybe its just the simple fact that I really like to envision the possibility of something and watch it take form by my own hand.

Yep. I think that last one must be it. Otherwise I would've lit a match to this project long ago or tried to re-sell it if I didn't care so much about seeing a project through.

Who would've thought re-painting a silly old dresser would be so much work?

Not me. Obviously.

The first complication was trying to pry the stupid handles off the thing. I thought I would be able to keep them intact and spray paint them to attach later...but, they would not come off without being ruined. Totally ruined. And, I ended up giving myself a black-eye in the process. Literally. I guess my face was too close to the hammer and as one of the handles popped off the hammer smashed into my cheek bone. Awesome...

Sigh. I should've lit a match to it then...

Because next I realized that the intended minor fix to sticky drawers was not so minor after all. In fact, the more I opened the drawers the worse they got. I wracked my brain to try to come up with any possibility not to replace the drawers...in the end, I had to replace the drawer slides.

I hauled the dresser to my parents house where my dad helped me attach the new slides. I had to go with center slides (like the original ones already on there) which I wasn't thrilled with because they're not as smooth, sturdy or long lasting...but there just wasn't a way to do side slides without spending a bunch of money (that the dresser was not worth) and spending way too much time doing it. So I opted for the simple and inexpensive and because my dad is a genius and has all the necessary tools...we got the job accomplished. It took us far too long for a "simple" fix (I can only imagine how annoying side slides would've been to attach!)...I swear this dresser had it out for me--it just wanted to ruin my vision and steal my excitement...

Dang dresser.

Once back home I finally got to the step that I had thought I would have started with. Painting! A coat of primer. A coat of paint. And then the fun....

I wanted the dresser to have a sort of vintage look, yet fun and different...but I just couldn't quite settle on a look for it. My friend Teri was at my house one day and I asked her opinion (she has amazing decorating taste and I knew she'd have a good suggestion.) She suggested one of my favorite words: Lace. Heck yeah, genius. Thanks Teri! And after a bit of research online I found a dresser that I wanted V's to look like. There's so many tutorial's on different techniques...hodge-podging lace onto a dresser, painting...I chose the easiest...

Spray Paint.

Did I mention how much I love spray paint? Well I do. It's great. Simply fabulous. And did I mention easy?

Yes! One thing that was easy. Thanks God! All I did was buy a piece of lace, tape it tight to the drawer and spray paint lightly over it. Let it dry for several minutes, peel it off and re-use the same piece for the next drawer. Effective. Easy. Done! Finished with some cheap vintage-style hardware from ebay (spray painted a matte black) and you have this!

I'm really wishing I had taken a 'before' picture right about now. The above would be a lot more impressive.

Oh well.

I couldn't be happier with it. It's perfect for a little girls room. So despite that it was a much bigger project than I had thought, and despite how annoyed I got with it...the result turned out to be one of my absolute favorites!

Project Ottoman

So I haven't blogged much recently, as you can tell. Instead, I've been busy trying to get all these silly projects done around my house before the baby comes. I am not sure why I decided to tackle so many projects this pregnancy, but I just had this desire/need to...change a few things/be creative/make myself go crazy. Since February I have turned a coffee table into an ottoman, painted two rooms, re-did a dresser, made an entire crib bedding set including curtains, sewed a new blanket for Vienna, rearranged rooms, re-painted frames, knobs and even lamp shades, reorganized spaces in my house...the list goes on. All while trying to keep up with normal house cleaning/nesting urges, feeding and preparing food for my family, running after a two-year-old, exercising, growing a baby and trying to prepare for the upcoming birth.

Whew.

Maybe it doesn't sound like a lot, but it's felt like a lot--probably because some of my projects have taken me much longer than originally anticipated. Over the course of these last four months I have constantly had something to do. Its made the pregnancy go by extremely fast, I can say that, but now I sit 4ish weeks away from my due date and I still feel unprepared!

I will get there though. My goal is to have all the loose ends tied up by the end of the week so I can just focus on birth, read some more birth books and spend time relaxing. And maybe squeeze a bit more cleaning in the mix. ;)

So now I want to share all the hard work I've done. This was my first project. The ottoman.

I found this great big coffee table on craigslist for $10. Andy chopped off the bottom portion of the legs for me so it'd sit a bit lower, then I threw a coat of grey paint on the bottom frame and distressed it a bit with sand paper.

Then I measured where I wanted my tufts and marked them on the table and on the piece of 4in foam. Then I drilled. Broke a drill bit too, oops. It was quite tricky to drill indents into the foam, but I managed after many attempts at practice. Then I sprayed spray-adhesive onto the foam and attached it to the table so that the holes lined up.

Then I used a painters drop cloth for my fabric (because I'm cheap and I wanted something durable!) and started tufting. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to get the needle through the thick foam and find the hole in the table underneath...I spent far too much time sitting on the floor, straining my back and...I admit...cursing under my breath. But I finally managed to figure out a trick to it and it went much smoother after that! Once the tufts were finished I pulled the fabric tight around the edges and waalah!...here's the finished product.

I love it. It fits great in my living room.

Unfortunately, it's not 100% finished. I still need to varnish/seal the wood frame. And since I've never re-upholstered anything before, I didn't pull the fabric quite tight enough, so it's already starting to get loose. I'm going to have to re-do the fabric at some point but that's okay because it only cost $5, and since I've already done it I think the second time will go much quicker! But those touchup projects are going to wait until winter...!!

Growing Up

My little baby is getting to be such a big girl. I know this is a good thing especially since we're rapidly approaching the arrival of our son, but a part of me is sad that my little girl is growing up so quickly.

Just a few weeks ago Vienna started freaking out when I put her in her carseat. It took me several moments to figure out why she was so instantly upset...she wanted to try to get into the carseat by herself. So I obliged and took her out of the explorer and watched as she crawled backed in, up her carseat and turned around and plopped down. The biggest smile was stretched across her face like she wanted to say, "Look what I did, Mom!" She's been doing it ever since.

Vienna has always liked dolls. She isn't obsessed with them, but they're definitely one her most commonly played with toys. She's been very into babies though for the past couple months...probably because we talk about baby boy a lot and point to my belly. The other day she discovered that her baby wears a diaper and wanted to take it off and bring it to the potty. I watched as she trotted over to her potty chair, threw the doll on it, waited all of 2 seconds before picking it back up again, and then proceeded to wipe its butt. She could spend the better part of an hour trying to put the diaper back on the baby, taking it off, and wiping the baby's bum...with a box of tissues. One day I walked into her room and there was literally an entire box of tissues on the floor....and a cute little girl who looked up at me as if to say "Check out what I can do, Mom!" Perfect. :) Who cares if it was a waste and a mess. She was so proud of what she figured out. Though since then I have showed her that we really only need a couple of tissues to clean the baby. :) She also loves to carry the baby around and talk to it, pat it's back and try and get the baby dressed...I love to see how she acts towards the baby in the same way that we do to her. The first time I helped her get a little shirt over the dolls head and began feeding the arms through, she looked the baby in the face playfully and said, "Hand! Where'd go?" She was playing the game daddy always plays with her when he gets her dressed. 

I think she is really going to like having a real live little baby in the house. Miss big sister.

Her vocabulary is constantly changing--which, with every new word or phrase she seems to grow bigger that much more. Literally the week after she turned two her talking changed drastically. She started saying more, communicating more, and was much clearer. Ever since then it just constantly turns less baby-jabber and more big-girl chatter. Its fun to watch her put words together, and sometimes she shocks me by knowing the names of certain things that I didn't think she knew. Just the other day she told me "I want my daddy," clear as day. A few of her constant phrases are "Oh no!" (which is especially cute because she puts her hands to her face as if it is the biggest deal in the world.) "I did it!" and "I get it!" But it is amazing to see how much she observes and what she wants to tell me, it's fun and puts a whole new adventure in the day. Despite her growing vocabulary she still does that Vienna lingo--the one where she'll tell you a whole stream of things with a soft little serious voice...and you can't understand any of it. She's entirely serious, and moves her hands and body in a way that makes you believe she thinks that you can understand everything she is saying. But she is entirely satisfied that you don't. I like to think that she's sharing a thought she has...and we all know that sometimes you just want to share a thought--you don't always need to be understood. I look forward to the day when I find out what she jabbers about.

Just this morning she was lying in bed with me and jabbering away, whispering, looking intently into my face. She kept putting her hand on my cheek and rubbing it--cutest thing ever. Then she pointed to a picture on the wall and said "baby" and I realized she was referring to a picture of when I was pregnant with her. I told her she was right and that was her when she was baby in my belly. She smiled so big and nodded her head and put her hand back on my cheek. Then pulled the covers off my belly and patted my tummy and kissed it. Seriously. The cutest thing ever.

She understands so much and is getting so big. I just can't believe how quickly she is growing up.