A BIG thank you to all of you...

that took the time to either leave a comment or contact me via email!  It is nice to know that someone still does stop by, although I could not blame anyone for giving up on me after such a long hiatus!

I understand everyone's frustration with leaving a comment here...I believe I have rectified that.  As I explained in a few emails, I was getting so MANY SPAM comments on my blog, I had changed the format so that "cyber robots" could not leave comments, but apparently it discouraged others from doing it as well.  I have changed it back, so it should not be a problem anymore...for those that did have issues, I hope you will take a minute to try leaving a comment to see if I have fixed the problem.

I was so happy to see I still had readers who took an interest in my little blog!  I also encourage people to find me on Facebook and Instagram as well...still Fresh Cut Flours for both!  If it's not your "thang", I get it!  Believe me...I am sure I was the last person to join the Facebook party!  I always swore I would not do it, but here I am...all for the love of sharing my passions...cookies and ABC Projects!

What I have been up to since we last chatted:

Baby Boy shower cookies:

Also baby boy shower:

We added a new member to our family when my daughter Kelli, took home this little guy!  Meet Bruschi...

He is the cutest little white boxer...if you look closely you can see how much lighter is right eye is that the left.  He is now 7 weeks old...the best part, he can come visit but then I can send him home for her to train!

And in case you can't tell just how small he is...here he is next to Uncle Otis:

Sadly, we had to have our little Lucy put down a few days after Thanksgiving.  We knew the time would come eventually because she only had one good kidney...it still broke our hearts.  I think Otis gets pretty lonely without his sister around...at least now he will have someone to play with occasionally!

And last but not least...a project that has been in the making for about a year and a half.  I think I shared this OLD wooden tool chest that I purchased from an Estate Sale.  This is the condition it was in when I brought it home:

Yep...it was one hot mess, to say the least!  I loved how all the drawers had little compartments, but it had old, nasty green felt...needless to say out it came!  I removed the hardware and spray painted it black.  I also added cute little "bun" feet. 

How do you like me now?

Replaced the ugly green felt with black:

Wouldn't this make an amazing jewelery box?!  Well, if one were lucky enough to have that much jewelery!

And another peek at the before and after:

As much as I LOVE this piece, I think I am going to sell it...it does look pretty cute in my living room, however!

Till next time...have a great weekend!

Uggghhhh...

...has it really been that long since I posted?  Such a bad blogger!

Anyhoo...as promised, I am finally back with some "after" pics of my floor.  I was sort of dragging my feet because I was hoping to have at least one area rug by now...but that has not happened as of yet.  Think I may have found one though...just saw it yesterday at of all places, Target!  Loves me some Target!

So let's take a peek, okay?!

I actually have two accent walls to paint...and although I have a color in mind, I have to wait till I get the area rug!  I decided I needed some color in my life and my motto is...GO BIG OR GO HOME!  You can barely see the new drapes I made on the window (grommet drapes too, kind of proud of myself!).  More about those in a minute!

Ignore the sleeping pooch in the background...another spot where I desperately need an area rug!  I never knew how easily furniture slides around without something underneath!

Just another view of the floor!

Whatcha' think?  Should I get an area rug for under the dining room table?

Jury's still out on this one!  I guess if I find the perfect rug, I may put one under my kitchen table!

Now about those drapes and cushions!  Remember when I said, I needed some color?  Well, you don't get much more color than this:

The drapes are already made for the living room and dining room.  I will make valances out of the same material for across the back of my house, which is family room and kitchen.  What can I say...it just makes me happy!  I just purchased the fabric on the right to recover my dining room chairs...let's not talk about the fact that I just did this not that long ago!  What?!  A girl can't change her mind?!

Okay...that's about it for me, for now! 

For those that don't give two figs about my house reno and come by strictly to see cookies...I got lots of those to share too!  I PROMISE not to make you wait another couple weeks to see them!  Pinky swear!

Till then...

You don't need to tell me...

...that I have been a horrible blogger lately!  It's true...but in my own defense, it has been a bit crazy around here!  I'm going to try to make this as short and sweet as possible!

It all started with the fact that our carpet was in bad shape!  The living room and dining room, tolerable...the family room...NOT.SO.MUCH!  So bad that I cannot even believe that I am showing you pictures of it!  But because I like to "keep it real"...I am going to throw myself under the bus and share just how badly we needed new flooring!

With furniture and area rug, not TOO bad, right?  Bad, but trust me when I say...remove that furniture and it looks a whole lot worse!

 
Ugghhh, can you tell where we LIVE?  As open as our floor plan is...we typically use one pathway into our family room when the furniture is in there.  And to add to that, because of that HUGE niche that you see in the background, there is really only one way to arrange our furniture!

Dining room and living room...not SO bad, right?

It was time to get rid of the carpet, but with 2 dogs, getting new carpet was not an option for me!  And once again the open floor plan comes into play...it was an all or nothing deal!  So we went ALL in!

Which takes us to this phase

Yep, gone...2100 sq. feet of shared living space...pantry, laundry room, kitchen, two bathrooms, living, dining and family rooms.  Everything but bedrooms (and their bathrooms) and the den (behind those double doors, which already had a newer tile).

Needless to say, demo was a MESS!  It looked like a war zone in here!  It took about 7 guys and one day to complete 95% of the demo.  There was dust everywhere!

We opted for travertine tile...this was what started happening on day two!

We were now down to a team of about 5, but these guys were fast!

Each day just got better and better!

After eight working days...they were DONE, but you'll have to stop back by to see the end result!

Back home...

...for a while, at least!

Lots to share today!  Let's start with cookies...

Some fun, summer themed gift boxes:

Graduation:

More graduation:

Made into a cookie bouquet:

A super FUN Disney themed wedding.  These designs were being put in everyone's gift bags!

And these were for the dessert table:

Does that make you want to get married in Disneyland or what?!  Congrats to Jamiee and Rick!

Now for some non edible eye candy!

While I was in Denver, I had my "Mom to do-list".  First up was painting Taylor's bedroom furniture:

This is what it looked like when we started:

Such a cute set, but the downside...it's laminate!  Ugghhhh...time for some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!  All dressed up in it's "Pure White":

Pictures cannot do it justice!  There were a lot of everyday "wear" marks on this set, but nothing that a little fresh paint can't fix!  We're hoping that the ASCP can stand the test of kids!

And the last piece I cannot even take much credit for!  I did find the instructions for this Farmhouse Table (Ana White) but Tom (my SIL, for those that don't know) pretty much did the rest!  My small part was staining it and helping to apply the first coat of poly!

This is what it looked like "pre-stained":

And if it looks ginormous, that's because it IS!  This thing is 99 inches long!!  I said it would accommodate the  "Last Supper"!

With the stain:

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics after this...I was headed out of town not long after the first coat of poly!

Here are the chairs that she purchased to go with:

Pretty cool, huh?! 

 Till next time!

A LONG time coming!

Before we get too far, I will apologize in advance for the poor "staging" pictures Kelli's dresser.  I took the photos with my Iphone, in my garage...it doesn't get much worse than that.  However, it probably won't get moved until this weekend so, if I wanted to share pics sooner than later, it had to be!

My blog post title pretty much says it all.  This transformation has taken about a year and a half (at least) and should have been done in a weekend, TOPS.  But coulda, shoulda, woulda...it's all water under the bridge now!

I showed you the original dresser that I picked up at an estate sale for $65:

A smokin' deal!  We never had any intentions of leaving it in it's original state although over all, it was in good shape.

Then, if you remember, we thought it would be a good idea to silverleaf (hmmm...is that one work or two?) it.

Not. So. Much!

Now, this might have worked if you were talking about two very patient people trying to make it happen...but this was a little too tedious for me and Kelli has even less patience than I do!  So there it sat for a year while we tried to plan our next move.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  I ended up stripping/sanding the entire piece to get it to this stage:

And yes, the drawers too!

I went to Home Depot and looked at various strippers and decided that "Klean Strip" sounded like the way to go.

It was tedious to say the least.  I had to go through the silverleaf, the glue that was used to apply it AND the original stain.  I took as much off as possible with this, then sanded the rest.  It took a lot of sweat equity to get it prepared to start over.

Obviously, since silverleaf was what we used originally, you have figured out that we were looking for a "bling" look.  Paint seemed like the only other option, so after giving the dresser a coat of Rustoleum's Gray Primer, I opted to give Martha's paint a try:

The color I used was "Polished Silver".  Let me tell you about this paint.  It's relatively cheap (about $5.50 for this small jar) it goes on beautifully and it also goes a long way...you know there is a "but" coming, right?

BUT, if you are OCD about brush strokes, you may want to rethink this paint!  I thought I could get by it...turns out, I couldn't.  After painting the entire piece with a brush...I decided that I just couldn't let it go.  So, I went over the entire piece using my spray gun....ahhhhhh, much better.  Had I done it this way to begin with...I would have been done last week AND it would have only taken about two of these containers (thinned slightly) to do the entire dresser!

Still with me?

I won't make you wait any longer, I'm sure you didn't come by to hear me ramble all day...you are thinking, get on with it!

This is how she looks all done:

 

And because sometimes it's not just all about what you are wearing on the outside, I decided to line the drawers with this cool wrapping paper that I picked up at Home Goods:

So, there you have it!  Whatcha' think?

My thoughts?  Well, I would definitely use this paint again, and if you don't have an aversion to brush strokes, just paint it on with a brush!  If you do...save yourself the time and money and just spray it on the first time!

There is a mirror that goes with and yes, it will get done!  When it is, I will take a picture with the entire piece sitting in Kelli's bedroom!

And because you have been so patient...one more peek:

This post linked to:

My Repurposed Life




Till next time...