Finally Out of the Garage

Way back in June, I shared a picture of a cabinet I had that was taking up my car’s spot in the garage while it waited for a bit of a makeover. At that point, it had already been sitting there for two months. Fast forward to October, AKA the onset of freakin’ coldness in Utah, and it was still sitting the garage taking up my car’s spot. So I finally decided to tackle the beast so as to reclaim the garage before snow hits. {And by “I decided” I mean that my husband finally nagged me enough to make me do it. Now if I could just get the claw foot tub out of there, we’d be in business.}

Just as a reminder, this is what I started with:

And now, after much blood sweat and tears on my part {HINT: Don’t rush things, pay attention to the temperature recommendations on the dang spray paint, and whatever you do, do not, I repeat DO NOT decide you won’t need primer. Because you probably will. And then you’ll be mad at yourself and then you’ll start rushing things because the temperature is dropping because you avoided the project all summer and now winter is knocking at your door and then…well, just use a good primer, okay?}, I finally have a bright and cheery cabinet in which to store all of my sewing supplies:

Now, I totally made a ton of mistakes along the way, and in the end, I just gave up on some things {like the blue overspray that ended up on the front of one of the doors} because I was soooo done and honestly, out of time weather-wise. It had to come in immediately or I’d be scraping ice from my windshield all winter {which, when you’ve become accustomed to a garage, totally sucks}:

It’s not easy to see in the pictures, but I did do some light distressing by rubbing some high grit sandpaper over some of the edges. Nothing major, but enough to make it looked loved and just a bit chipped and old:

I also replaced the knobs on the doors, but kept the original drawer pulls:

And one last shot of the whole shebang:

So what do you think? Have you ever refinished furniture with paint or new stain or even reupholstering something (that might be my next big project)? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

**Added to this linky party on the SNAP! blog**

Real Life Trumps Blogging

It’s possible you’ve noticed already (seeing as how it’s been over a month since my last post and it’s not the first time that’s happened), but for me, blogging takes a back seat to life. And let me tell you, at the end of the school year around here, life is all we have time for. And over the summer? Yeah, we try to live it up then to. So while I may not be around much this summer, I’ll be doing stuff. And I may even blog some of that stuff. But I make no promises.

As for the past couple of months, we’ve been busy with Batman’s first season of soccer:

Filling up the garage with thrift store things to refinish so I have to park in the driveway:

Helping with Grandma’s annual “Harry Potter Camp”:

Paying people to leave big holes in our bathroom floor:

Celebrating the last day of school:

The Princess’ first year doing track club…

And crying over the fact that my camera whacked out and deleted ALL of my pictures of the Princess at her first track meet.

DIY Ruffle Skirt Tutorial…Yay or Nay

Okay, you’re going to have to comment on this one. Yes you. You who always reads my blog without ever commenting. I see you there trying to hide behind your screen.

Last week Mr.LessPinningMoreDoing and I were asked to perform a mambo for a fundraiser thing at our church. For the occasion, I made this skirt, along with multiple unfortunate facial expressions.

The ruffle skirt is made from 2 thrift store tablecloths, a scarf and an old stretchy t-shirt. {I blame my mother, the queen of costumes.} Since I was kind of making it in a hurry, I did not take any pictures during the process. Well, that and the fact that I just made it up as I went.

Your commenting assignment is this: Would you or would you not like me to post a tutorial for creating one? This would require making another in order to take pictures, so if nobody is interested, then I won’t bother. {Because what would I ever do with two?!} But if ya’ll are, I’m happy to do it.

Ready. Set. Vote.

Four Day Master Makeover: Day 3

A busy, yet successful day. With a bit of a FAIL.

I spent the morning running errands (including dropping over $550 on new tires for my van…yeah…all of the sudden I’m thinking the husband is not going to be happy about the money spent on this makeover stuff.)

At our local thrift store, I found a FANTASTIC little table to use for my nightstand (for $8!) that will get a bit of a facelift first. Not by tomorrow night, mind you, but eventually. Actually, there are a lot of “eventually” things left to do in the room. That probably makes it not such a Four Day makeover, eh? And not that this has anything to do with the makeover, but I also found a big box of wood building blocks for the kids for 5 buckaroos. Seriously – this thing was HEAVY. How could I pass up a deal like that with 4 munchkins in the house?

Moved the mattress and box springs back into the room after some much needed vacuuming. Checked on the bedding and it’ll be here tomorrow! Yay! And I got the laundry sorters all painted, inside and out. Since the insides are blue and I decided to use spray paint for that part, I ended up looking a bit like I belonged in Kentucky with these guys:

But never fear, a shower and much scrubbing has returned me to my normal state.

Aaaaaaand onto the FAIL. As I mentioned last night, I was planning on using this photo transfer to canvas method. I have 4 photos that I wanted up on the wall and I thought this would be a great way to display them. Unfortunately, I can’t find my cord to upload the photos I took, but I’ll tell you all about my failure that has me back to square one for some wall decor. :P And when I find the cord under all my mess I’ll add photos.

I decided to try the Mod Podge and Elmer’s Glue method she mentions at the very end of her post. I had the UPS Store print my pictures because I don’t have a laser printer. Unfortunately they printed them on very nice paper. I guess the lower the paper quality, the better this method works. But I digress.

I prepped the canvases with the glue. I was so excited to sit down and do this (maybe I was just excited to sit down?). And then…I sucked at it. My first photo was practically unrecognizable. Word to the wise: If you’re planning on doing a photo transfer like this, use a picture you don’t care about for the first one. My second one looked a bit better. Not great, mind you, but better. My third was looking dang good. I started to think of tips I could post like:

More Mod Podge is better than less. But not so much you’re oozing out the sides in great gobs of Mod Podge gooeyness.
And: Wetter is better. All this “dampen the paper” stuff is garbage. You want that paper wet. Soaked through. And when it’s getting even just a little difficult, spray the area some more and then go work on another area that is very very wet and has had a bit of time to soak. And then when that gets a little resistant, spray it and go back to the first area.
And: Don’t rub too hard. Yes, all of the tutorials out there say this, but seriously…DON’T rub too hard.

All great tips. But then I looked at the dried products. I could hardly see the pictures through the ghostly white residue left behind. I even took a damp soft cloth and tried to rub (gently) the film away and it looked great when it was wet, but when it dried…BAM! White residue. Sprayed the dang thing with water and wiped (a little less gently) with the soft cloth again. Still white residue.  I’m tempted to brush some Mod Podge over the top of one just to see if that residue will disappear when that happens, but if I do, it won’t be until tomorrow…when I have nothing else to do. #eyeroll