My First Real Job.....

......furniture job that is.  That's right!!  I got to makeover a piece of furniture and get paid for it!!! WAHOO!! YIPEE!!  HOORAY!!  Can you tell I'm just a little excited??

     A big THANK YOU to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for giving me this opportunity, to my husband for allowing me to make a mess, my children for being patient & encouraging, my parents, the academy......wait, wait this isn't the Oscars is it!  Sorry, I got a little carried away there.  Back to reality.  In all seriousness though, I really am grateful that they took a chance and asked me to paint a piece for them.  I hope they love the way it turned out as much as I do.

This is how it began:

This dresser actually belonged to my parents.  It was in their bedroom the entire time I was growing up.  I could probably tell you what used to go in what drawer, but I'll spare you those details. :P  It is at least 40 years old.  All I can say is furniture is not made like this anymore.  It was well taken care of.  There were a few minor dings, but nothing that wouldn't add to the character of it, after all, I planned to distress it.   My biggest challenge was going to be finding hardware for it.  I absolutely did not want to fill in the holes and drill new holes!

I painted it with 2 coats Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White.  Before I began, I gave it a quick wipe to remove dust using a dry cloth.  Below are the drawers as they filled my living room floor.

I had one minor freak out when a couple of the drawers dried with a crackle effect in a small area.  I couldn't figure out the cause at first.  I knew that you can use a hair dryer on a high heat setting to create this effect.  But, believe me, I had not been blow drying my drawers!  Then it dawned on me that the sunshine that comes in my living room window is very warm in the afternoon.  The drawers that had crackled were right in the path of that sunbeam, hence the crackle effect.

I decided that it just added to the aged character I was going for and left it alone.  If all else failed, I could just sand it and repaint it.  Chalk paint is forgiving that way.  Have I mentioned that I  l-o-v-e, LOVE chalk paint?  I don't think I have.  I do, I really love it for so many reasons.

Below is a shot of two drawers at different stages.  One has only been painted and the other has been painted then distressed.

   

 After 2 (kinda sloppy) coats of paint and sanding/distressing, I put on a coat of Annie Sloan's clear wax.  Then I aged it further with a light coat of Annie Sloan's dark wax.  I fell in love with the way the distressing brought out the details in the dresser.  I know some people think I am crazy to paint a furniture piece with such a pretty wood grain.  I feel that some beautiful details get lost in the wood grain on certain pieces.  I think that many times paint treatments highlight those details and can really refresh a piece.  

Here is the finished product!

I lucked out and found the perfect pulls at a reasonable price!  The center knobs actually came off our Ikea shoe cabinet.  The color matched the pulls perfectly.  Lucky for me, I had been wanting to change them. 

Here is the final before and after:

The end result it a one of a kind dresser for a couple that is dear to my heart.  I am thankful for the privilege of contributing to the style of their new home!



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                                               furniture feature friday

  

Show Me What You Got #124

Love of Family & Home
Weekend Blog Hop #15

I gotta dresser.......

I gotta dresser, I gotta dresser, I got a dresser, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY!  <<Little Rascals Style>> 

 I found a dresser on Craigslist.  Yes, this is just a dresser.  

That doesn't seem very exciting, but put it together with 

2 of these & paint it with some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint,

 

And I hope to get one of these

Too ambitious??  Yes, possibly.  However considering that the wardrobe system that we wanted to get from Ikea was going to cost somewhere around  $700, we thought it would be worth it.
We'll see....

Have you ever thought you had taken on a project that you thought might be too ambitious??

Breaking Rules......Whose Rules??

(Disclaimer: These are OUR family's views & reasons why we chose to homeschool.  Please respect them.)  

I promised more insight about our homeschooling choice, so here it is...
     Here we were 2 weeks before the start of school here in our small town.  My husband and I had been casually discussing the topic of homeschooling our soon-to-be 2nd grader for several months.  As the summer came closer to an end, we felt we should really make a decision.  We definitely wanted to be sure, completely sure, that the choice we were about to make was the right one.  I prayed, my husband prayed, some peace came.  While reading countless getting starting articles & researching possible curriculum I came across a Bible verse on a website.  It was " 'But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.'" Matthew 7:14.  It spoke to my heart and made me think.  I pondered on it.  I remembered the words of the verse but not the "address".  A couple days later, I had opened my Bible, just to read and there it was!  Matthew 7:14, loud and clear!  That was it, peace came and God had called us to homeschool.  My heart and my mind had been decided long before that moment, but I didn't have a peace about it yet.  When I read this verse again, peace came, the peace that only God can give.
     As I look back a couple months, I realize just how amazing the peace He gave was.  I mean really?!? I was about to.....(in a few short weeks)

• Withdraw Jellybean from a decent public school with good teachers
• Research and decide on a curriculum
• Create a place in our home to "have school"(i.e. simply clean and clear out clutter :P)
• Then, what is she going to do while I'm busy with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)?
• Are my reasons legit?
• How am I going to keep Gummy Bear (our 2 y.o.) busy?

You catch my drift.  If God had not given me His peace about the decision, I would have found myself FREAKING out! :)  Instead I was able to calmly think things through.  And, for those of you who know me well, you know that I can get easily overwhelmed and come somewhat unglued. ;-)  It worked, everything just came together.
   
     Why?  I have had that question asked multiple times.  I will do my best to put it into words.  There are so many reasons we moved in this direction.  The primary reason, by far, is our spiritual journey as a family.  My husband and I want the Bible to be the foundation of our children's educations and most importantly their livelihoods.  Public school simply cannot offer that.  A solution to this, for many families, is enrolling their children in a Christian private school.  The cost for that was simply not affordable for our family.  Furthermore, when public school is in session, we found that time with our child(ren) is limited.  You know, in between breakfast, rushing out the door in the morning, an hour of homework (or more as grade level increases), basic daily life (dinner, dishes, bedtime routine, family time,etc.) any extracurricular activities and other necessary commitments.  Many parents are able to successfully teach God's word with their children in public school.  However, it just wasn't enough for us.  We needed more.....more time, more interaction and more teachable moments with our girls.  Another factor that influenced our decision was our disappointment with the public school system, however I am not going to go into specifics concerning this.  Bottom line is the pros of homeschooling far outweighed the pros of public school.

     Rules?  I have to say the first day of public school was by far one of my hardest days.  All I saw on facebook was 1st day pics EVERYWHERE, at least it seemed like everywhere.  Then it hit me, our life will be different now.  We won't have school picture day, spirit week, awards assemblies and field day.  It was a bittersweet moment I will never forget.  Public school, for my husband and I, is all we've ever known and those things were memories from our childhoods.  It was funny to me because for the first 2 weeks after school was back in, it felt like I was breaking some unwritten rule.  You remember that 'I am not in school and for some reason I feel really guilty' feeling we had when we were kids?  Especially when we got to miss school for a vacation or something other than illness.  Now, we were actually doing school work, staying busy and getting into the swing of things.  Yet, it still felt very strange, kind of like we were taking something away from Jellybean, keeping her from making some of the same memories we had made growing up.  But you know what, we will make new memories!  Yes, they will be different from mine and my husband's, but they will be memories, good memories.  Hopefully, they will be memories built on God's word.  What could be better than that??

Jellybean working in her Math workbook