Old junk is now new junk!

Mostly I am a purger! If I am not actively using something or it doesn't get used a couple times a year I get rid of it! The only exceptions are my china and silver (which I have probably only used once!) and my wedding dress! I think when we moved a few years ago it cured me of compulsively saving. Or maybe watching Hoarders did...?
But every once in a while I save something because I just have a feeling. Does anyone else ever do this? I am praying at least one or two of you are saying "Sure!". Anyway, we received some wine as a gift from one of my hub's clients one Christmas. I saved the wooden box it came in. In our old house I used it on top of our kitchen cabinets as a riser for some decorative plates or something.

 I like the box itself, especially the little knothole in the front there.

The top just slides out. I never really liked that stag on the top. It just looks, I don't know, a little too huntsman for me. (And yes, those peeps in the bowl were my snack while I did this project! At least I shared the first two rows with my kids!) And the wood is just plain, unfinished. Too "new" looking for me.

I took the lid off and grabbed my Minwax Early American Wood Finish to give it a little color. I gave it 2 coats and let those dry.
We got both a bottle of red and a bottle of white in this box.

So there was a little divider in the middle. I went back and forth about whether to leave that in or not. I stained it along with the rest... And THEN decided I didn't want it in there. So I removed that. Not as easy as it sounds. That sucker was in there tight!
Now. Where to put my new "vintage" wine box?!

I had this little arrangement on a wine buffet in the kitchen. That owl is just my favorite little accessory right now. Owls are SO popular right now. And mercury glass. This one is just TOO cute! Guess where I got him. GUESS!!! HA! Walmart! Love!

Just so friggin' cute!
My little boxwood came from my favorite store, HomeGoods.

Do they look cuter in there? Hmmm. I'm still deciding. (That is our bulletin board on the wall. Where I keep our family calendar, schedules and misc papers). Oh. I also took a Sharpie marker and colored in the letters to darken them up a bit. I' so glad I saved it. Even if I don't keep it in this spot!

Maybe I will turn the top over, hide that deer and make a cute sign too!

Milk Paint Coffee Table - a lesson in trial and error!

When I last left you I was have some problems with my first attempt at using Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint. I had a
bit of a problem with one side of the table. Basically the paint all fell off. You can read about that here.

So I had to salvage what I had done. And again, since I am lazy, I refused to sand it all off and restart. I paid a visit to Janet at The Empty Nest in Warrenton and chatted with her about my project. We had a nice talk about the pros and cons of milk paint itself. The beauty of milk paint is that if you don't do any prep work the paint will chip and self distress in a pretty unpredictable manner. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to how much chipping you get on which type of finish. You would think, the glossier the finish, the more distressing you would get. But that is not so. So the pro is ALSO the con! She suggested I use some bonding agent on that side. Or start over and use the bonding agent all over. I pretty much pretended I did not hear that second part.

So now the one side of the table had progressed like this: First, a coat of Linen milk paint that produced some mild chipping. Second coat. Both coats of paint entirely fall off (what the...?!), except for 2 small patches. Another very thin coat of paint. ANOTHER coat of Milk Paint with bonding agent added. Ergh. And then I still had to do some very creative spot touch up. And sanding in between.

Anyway. Live and learn! Here is the finished piece.

Ignore the glass table top over there leaning against the couch!
I still need to get Mr. Muscle to take the other coffee table downstairs.

 And I'm not hating that Christmas poinsettia still hanging around. The white was the right way to go.

This photo shows the side that originally fell of completely. It's still a lot more distressed than the rest of the table. All in all I am happy with how it turned out. I love the vintage feel of it. I may still move it up to my master sitting room though. I keep thinking all those drawers would be perfect for housing my insane amount of jewelry!

Milk Painting for the first time... and ribs!

I decided to take my first shot with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint. I bought this awesome little piece for a steal from a neighbor. Her kids were using it as a painting table so it had a few stains and paint blotches on the top. The top planks and the ones on the bottom are pulling away a little. There were just a few minor scuffs on it as well.

I knew as soon as I saw it I wanted to paint it. Now I am not going to lie. My initial plan was to paint the entire piece. But then I started looking at all those drawers. All. Those. Drawers... So.... THEN I decided it would be way less work more artistic to paint everything BUT the drawers. That will look cute!

I had grabbed some MMS Milk paint on my way back from the barn sales last weekend at Lucketts Store (insert floating hearts here! Love that store!). The paint is on sale there for 30% off so if I'm going to try it now's the time! I got a box of the Graphite and then a sample of the Lucketts Green and Linen. I decided to use the Linen (off white) and then I can use it as a coffee table in either my living room OR my sitting room. I'll figure that out after I'm done!

Milk Paint comes in powder form and then you mix it yourself with warm water. I mixed up the paint. No big deal. Not scary at ALL! Then I put on the first coat. Awesome. Looks fine. Very messy but fine.

I then proceeded to wait the suggested hour for that coat to dry. I came back and checked it out. It was looking great! Chipping just a little JUST like I wanted it to. Who said this stuff is unpredictable? Ha. So then I walked over to the OTHER side. OMG. It was completely bubbley and chippy. The WHOLE side. Just one side. I touched it and the whole side of paint literally fell off the table. Just fluttered off like a bunch of feathers to the floor. ARGH! Now what. Google... More google...

The picture above is the side that "fell" off. See. At first it was just chipping along nicely.
I did not take a picture of the after. I was so freaked out that it just fell off that I lost my composure.

So off to The Empty Nest in Warrenton to chat with paint expert Janet. I'll just let you know what happens!!!

On to nicer things!

At least I had one success today! I decided to try baby back ribs in the crockpot. Helloooo! Now THAT worked out perfectly! I got two racks of pork ribs. Cut them with my kitchen scissors into 3 bone portions. I sprayed a little no stick spray in the bottom of the crock pot (not sure why. I won't next time). I placed the ribs standing around the perimeter of the pot, meat side out. I used about a half a bottle of barbecue sauce and let it cook on high for 5 hours. Then I took out the ribs and laid them on a foil lined pan and broiled them for about 5 minutes. I slathered on more sauce after that. And served. They were SO yummy! They literally fell of the bone. So moist and a ton of flavor.
I cannot believe I have not done this before!

This is how they just fell off the bone! Yummers!!!

Black Doors and Burlap Pillows!

Wow! Is the sun ever coming out here again? I was waiting for some nicer days to take photos but CLEARLY that is not happening any time soon. So excuse the bad (even worse than usual) photos!

I showed you my black basement doors last post. I decided to go ahead and paint the front door as well. We had had the outside of it stripped and painted black in the Fall. We have a composite door that was stained to look like wood. It was gorgeous! For about 3 years... Then the fading started. And the peeling. And some more fading. You get the picture. So we stripped and re-stained. And one year later... the fading again.

Well, if you haven't figured it out yet I am LAYYYYY-ZEEE! There is no way I want a front door I need to upkeep on a YEARly basis! No way, no how!

Anyhoooo... Tangent. Sorry. Sore spot!

Here is the before of the front door:

And here is the after:

So, again, the black is just really making my other black blend into the house better. The rug has a black background and then the sconces are black as well. The dining room to the left has wallpaper that has a black background. And I have a ton of black furniture throughout the house as well as black trim in some rooms.

I could not take these arctic conditions any more and had to put my lemon wreath back up on the inside of the door too. I just need some promise of spring and color right now.

January to spring just drags on so here. Once the holidays are past I have no patience for the cold weather! I think I am going into hibernation mode.

Now I told you that I had gotten my new sewing machine. I busted it out of the box, set it up and immediately had to make something. I am the queen of immediate gratification. It really doesn't matter if I know what I am doing or not.

I had bought a couple of burlap coffee sacks at a barn sale for only $7 each - such a steal! And if you saw my slipcovered couch post you know I was hungry for some new pillows. Again. Since I am lazy. I basically just stuffed one of my old pillows down in the bag and sewed the sides. Ha! 

And then the finished pillow. Sitting with my favorite ruffle pillow. They look cute together, don't they?

And here is the back of it. An that is the existing side seam that I just left. For character. Or laziness - or whatever!

So I am pretty proud of this sewing experiment. Hopefully the seams don't burst open on me. Now I just need to replace those other two pillows on the outside and this will be the perfect place to hunker down until spring!

Basement Doors - Back in Black

I am finally, FINALLY, getting around to doing this. I really need to kick up my efforts on the Man Cave this year.
The kids are getting older now and they are really only down there for video gaming. We have a big ole supply of toys in a corner for when we have parties and all the younger kids come over. But the Hubs has been talking about a pool table possibly so I think that is my CUE (ha ha) to start making it a little more adult down there!

So there are a LOT of plans we are batting around. But this one was the easiest and after seeing
Thrifty Decor Chick's post HERE on getting hers done I decided to make that the project du jour.
Well, it will take MORE than one day but I have done 2 doors so far.

Before:

After:

Looks SO much better right? This is the bathroom door at the bottom of the stairs to the basement.
The black door really brings out the other black accents in the bathroom:

 This picture is taken through the mirror - so those marks on the door are not bad painting... Um... just a dirty mirror!

 And here is the door to the toy closet (soon to be craft closet! Shhh.. don't tell!)

I used Benjamin Moore Aura paint so it only took 2 coats straight over the builders painted white door.
The color is actually Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black. Since I already have that color in my kitchen and family room
I know I like it. What do you think? I love how it makes the white trim really pop.
AND it hides all the dirty door since no one here seems to be able to figure out what the KNOB is used for!