I worked hard today!

Today I worked on the house... all day :)

I

• put a second coat on all of my cabinets, drawers, and the back side of all the doors. (All I have left is to two coats on the front of the doors.)
• Sanded down my credenza.
• Put the first coat of primer on my credenza. (It's gonna turn into a design sponge type before and after project :)

My hubby

• grilled us some hot dogs :)
  
• pulled up a few of the vinyl tiles in the kitchen
• got a dresser from his mom's house
• disappeared for 30 minutes
• then helped me a bit with my credenza

His big work day is gonna be tomorrow. He's gonna try to get the floor done in the dining room, get the vanity for the upstairs bathroom, mow the lawn, uhm, and something else.

I'm pretty tired, but I wanted to share a picture of the crazy cabinet I found at a thrift store yesterday!

It's about four feet tall. It has dovetailed drawers. It was made in St. Louis. As an old man was leaving he said, "I haven't seen one of those in years!" Which made me laugh. And the best part... it was only $4! It's so crazy, I love it. My sister used to say I would pick things because I knew they were crazy and no one else would like them... Well, Annie if you are reading this, there were three other people who wanted this and were mad I beat them to it. It must not be too ugly, lol. Just ugly enough to be awesome! Here's the inside label, which cracked me up.


My sweet, sweet friends Brian and Kathleen drove twenty minutes to help me move it to my apartment. Gotta love friends with trucks :) Brian said it reminds him of the Partridge Family bus, lol.
I'm gonna use it in my sewing room. I think I'm gonna store yarn in it. I'm gonna put the different colors of yarn in the different drawers. (White shades in the white drawer, pinks in the pink drawer, etc.) I just really love how bright, happy and fun it is :)

I can't wait to see all the work Justin does tomorrow, and get some more progress pictures up :)

Sewing Room: Chair Project

So the room I am most excited about is my sewing room/ art studio!!! I'm a majorly crafty person, and I've been working in a tiny space these last three and a half years. My sweet, sweet husband built me a crafting center in our apartment. It takes up one whole wall, which was some precious living space, but it was totally worth it.

It has been really great, but I am soooo looking forward to having room to move and play. As you can see it's pretty cluttered because i have to jam everything I use onto 8 shelves (there used to be 9, but I overloaded one and it fell off the wall... oops!) What do I do exactly... well...
I

• crochet
• sew
• scrapbook
• make cards
• make jewelry
• make accessories
• upcycle
• paint
• draw
• design
• make ceramics
• and play :)

It's been pretty tough trying to do all these things in such a limited, but well organized, space. I'm going to have a whole room to play with. I get half the basement. This is pretty huge for me, and I'm really excited about it. My plans are to have scrapbooking dates, crochet small group nights, sewing days with mama and Annie (my sis), and just have a place to be artistic. Down the road I plan on developing patterns and probably writing a book. I also will probably open an etsy in the near future. Ok, I've got to stop dreaming and get back to the point.

My first project for my sewing room is my table and chairs. I love 50's diner tables, and BOTH of my moms (my mama and my mother-in-law) bought me diner tables. Cheryl (MIL) found a red topped one at an auction. She got it for $1! Yeah, rainy day auctions are the best! My mama found a white topped one with green, pink, blue and yellow flecks at a yard sale. I don't know what she paid, but it was definitely more than a dollar :) I'm gonna use the red one in my laundry room and the white one in my sewing room. The problem with both tables was chairs... neither had four chairs, or four good chairs, SO... my chair project!
I bought 3 mismatched wood chairs at an auction with my MIL, and my mom bought me one from craigslist. I've been sanding and painting like crazy. These pictures are not very good quality because I took them with my phone, but I will try to put up better ones later.
They are a sunny yellow with crazy orange, pink, and yellow damask fabric seats.

Lesson I learned: ALWAYS USE PRIMER!!! I just tried so sand this chair and then paint it... It was a hot mess, so I had to resand it (by hand no less) and then try again. ALWAYS USE PRIMER!!!
This is my MIL's favorite. She used to have these chairs in her dining room when she first got married :)This is chair #4 sans paint. My MIL taught me how to repair cracked legs. (Actually a piece o' cake if you have clamps), and I ripped out the caning. We are going to make a seat out of some scrap wood she has. I'm going to add foam and upholster it.

More pictures soon, as I finish up this project... It may be a few weeks. I have a lot of work to do yet on chair #4, and I will be making pink damask lumber cushions for all the chairs. The little slat back chair is gonna have a box cushion :)

Hope you enjoyed!