Modern Bird Studios EPIC Event and A Sneak Peek!

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of Modern Bird Studios by now!  You know, these folks:

Modern Bird Studios

They're pretty awesome!  And they're having an EPIC photo contest right now!

Want to see the cuties I entered?

Aren't they ADORABLE?!  That's my neice and nephew!

I have a favor to ask of you!  Please vote for these little cuties!

Wanna know how?  I'll tell you! It's simple!

Simply stop by Modern Bird Studios on Facebook and "like" them!

Then look for my neice and nephew - they are photo number 58 of 157 - and vote for them by "liking" them!

Don't worry if you know someone else in the contest - you can vote on as many photos as you like!

The photo that gets the most votes will be transformed into something like this:

Or this:

So hop on over and enjoy all the cute photos!! I appreciate it!

Also, here is a sneak peek at my mirror frame project - I'll post all about it this weekend!

Any ideas what I'm doing with it?!

Cheers!

The Pink Lady

I think I'm in love!  I bought this antique nightstand a few weeks ago off Craigslist, and it was one of the many projects I've been working on this past week!

Here is the before:

Gross hardware:

One of the drawers was messed up, so I had to pry off the front so I could fix it.

I put gorilla glue on all the areas that would go together.  Once the front was reattached to drawer I held it together with  a clamp and nailed the side back on.

While I was working on it some creepy bug came running across the garage floor at me.

Note to creepy bugs - never come running at a chic holding a hammer.  I smush now, ask questions later.

While I was cleaning out the inside I discovered this:

Apparently my "nightstand" used to be an old phonograph player that was converted into a nightstand.  That made me love it even more!

Because it was so friggin cold, and I didn't have time to wait on the weather to clear up, I moved inside to paint after the hubby left for work.

I got caught! Oh well.

Here she is with one coat:

I wanted to do a harlequin pattern on top.  I knew I couldn't free hand it, and I didn't have a stencil, so I did the next best thing.  I cut out my own stencils with cardstock and my exacto knife.  I love that stuff!

Once all the stencils were in place I rolled over the top with a coat of paint.  I knew it would be a slightly different color - just enough so I could see the pattern to paint.

It worked brilliantly - except for one small glitch:

Yeah - girl genius here taped the stencils on.  So naturally, the tape ripped off the paint. Awesome.

So I just painted over the holes.

I originally wanted to paint the other squares, but since these looked horrible now I had no choice but to paint them.  I grabbed my purdy and got started filling in the squares.

Perfect? No way.  Did I care? Not at all.  I wanted this to look old and imperfect, so the uneven pattern worked for me.

After it dried overnight I went to town sanding everything down.  I went over the edges very heavily, and I tried to really sand down the purple squares.

I forgot to mention, the purple squares were supposed to be dark pink.  I added a little bit of black to my pink paint and somehow it ended up purple.  Whatever. I went with it.

Here she is with a coat of Minwax Dark Walnut stain.  I used cheesecloth this time.  This worked better for me than the t-shirt material.

Once it dried I put on satin wipe-on poly.

Here she is in her new home!

Here is a photo where you can kind of see the old nightstands we had.  They were cute, but really chunky and not tall enough.  The new nightstand is at the perfect height.

I bought an antique washstand for the hubby's new nightstand.  I'll do a post on that later!

So here are all the angles of my new love!

Yeah, my handle is crooked.  I don't care.

I love those sweet legs!!

One more before and after:

Cheers!

Linking to these parties!
MommaHen

Introducing Britt's Apron!

I know I've already posted once today, but I wanted to tell you all about one of my besties! She started a new cooking blog and it is devine!

Please allow me to introduce:

 Britt's Apron!

And here is Britt, the master chef!

How cute is she!!

She hasn't been up and running very long but already has TONS of delicous recipes!  I personally can't wait to try her simple cheesecake recipe!

YUMMY!!

She's also having a giveaway right now!! So stop by for your chance to win!

Be sure to check out all of her delicious recipes, give her a warm welcome, and tell her I sent you!!

Cheers!



Cue the Choir...

                                                                                                                                                                

...cause these bad boys are FINALLY done! Hallelujah!

I've kept you all waiting long enough!  Mom's barstools were priority number 1 for Spring Break.  I've been working on them since Christmas break and had to postpone my work when school started.

You can read about the first half of the transformation here.

They started like this:

Then I painted and distressed ALOT to make them look like this:

And that is how they sat for almost two months! Thanks for understanding Mom!

I personally kind of liked them how they were, but they're not my barstools!  Mom wanted a more golden color, so I busted out the Minwax Dark Walnut stain:

I used t-shirt like material, poured a little bit of the stain on the cloth, then just started rubbing it on the chair.

It took longer when I first started because the rag would soak up alot of the stain.  Once I was almost finished with the first barstool the rag was pretty much saturated and it was much easier to apply.

DON'T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR SUPER COOL RESPIRATOR!

When I first started doing projects I would never wear one and I could smell the paint/stain fumes for hours.  I put my mask on and I don't smell a thing.  And if you breath (or in my case sing your heart out) just right, it makes a fun whistly noise! =)

Here is the comparison again of how the stain makes the wood pop and tones down the yellow:

And here they all are ready to dry:

Now what I've learned about Minwax stain is that it can stay tacky for days.  I'm not so great in the patience department, especially when I'm on a time crunch.  I applied my poly after the stain sat for 24 hours.  Although the stain was still tacky, the poly dried just fine on top.  Sometimes the stain just won't dry right, so don't be scared to put your poly on a tacky surface.

Now with that being said, the wipe-on poly that I used will try to remove some of the stain on your piece.  I just wipe very quickly, in long straight strokes.  I've found that if I do tiny areas and really try to rub on the poly it will remove a lot of my stain.  So I just saturate my cloth (the t-shirt stuff again) with the wipe-on poly and work quickly. 

Once I was done I let the stools sit for about three days.  Not because they needed that long to dry, but becauseI was doing other things. 

Here is the bowl that inspired Mom:

It had to match her counter-top too:

And here they all are in their new home!

It was really gloomy outside, and I was in a huge rush, so pardon the sub-par photo!

And here are some more just for your viewing pleasure!

Cheers!

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