The Ugliest Little Thing - Transformed!

This is what I found during the same month that I found the sewing cabinet.

I don't have to tell you how thrilled Prince Charming was

to add another peice of ugly furniture to our garage ☺

I found it at a garage sale that I'd initially taken Kurt to because of the HUGE amount

of tools that were offered. He didn't buy any...but I spied this, the the VERY BACK

of the dark, dusty, overcrowded storage unit.

In the middle of downtown Ogden.

I would have been afraid for my life if I didn't have my Man with me.

When I asked the scary looking guy how much he wanted for it he said $10.00

I offered $8.00 (I know, but it's how the game is played) and he said OK.

$8.00 + Elbow Grease + One peice of glass for the front ($6.00) +

One roll of wrapping paper from

Tai Pan Trading Co.($4.00) =

A pretty darn cute place to show off my cookbook collection and my homemade Jam :)

   BEFORE

AFTER

It's not an amazingly high quality piece of furniture, but it has charm and it was a good deal.

Prince Charming cut two new shelves and I wrapped them with wrapping paper that I found at Tai Pan Trading Co. for a deal. I primed with aquaphor Gripper which is a primer that sticks to anything and makes sanding unnecessary, then topped it with two coats of Behr's Ultra Pure White High Gloss latex paint.

THE END!

A Solar System Bedroom

Phase Two of JD's Solar System Bedroom was to put the color on the walls. I mentioned earlier that I always paint the trim first, and I use a high gloss paint from Behr called 'Ultra Pure White'. The next thing we did was tape around the, now dry, trim. I like to use blue painters tape and then I use a trick that I read somewhere, a long time ago. Using any small paint brush (in this case just a craft, sponge brush) I seal the edges of the painters tape using Behr's Faux Glaze Medium. I bought a gallon of this stuff about 5 1/2 years ago and still have TONS left, most likely because I've never actually done a 'faux finish' on one of my walls! Faux Glaze looks milky white but dries clear, quickly. A thin layer on the edges of the tape gives me perfect lines and no annoying leaks to go back and touch up. It's the best.

[ Side note: One day about two weeks ago I stopped by my parents new house and during a casual conversation with their painter, he mentioned what a pain all of the mouldings were in their house. (The have TONS. I asked him if he had heard of this trick and he hadn't but got super excited and called his partner who was at Home Depot picking up supplies. I ended up on the phone with the "Head painter" trying to explain to him what he needed to do, yada, yada, yada. Anyhow, he found the Faux Glaze but called me back because the "You Can Do It, We Can Help" employee at Home Depot told him that you couldn't use the Glaze for this purpose. Of course I told him to ignore the guy at Home Dept and trust my 6 years of using this trick! In my mind, anything to make this guys job a little easier, and give my parents a better result...I'm thinking that home improvement stores make much more money by us trying to fix our mistakes rather than do it right the first time. Ha! ]

Bring on the BLACK! Months ago I had bought a cheap, $10.00 gallon of exterior, semi-gloss, black paint from Wal-Mart that was discounted. It had been in the garage through a couple of months of very cold weather and when we opened the paint, it was really tHiCk! It sure covered well, only two coats directly over white, but it also used the whole gallon, which (I think) was totally riduculous, but oh, well! Prince Charming♥ did an awesome job with only one or two drips on the carpet (which needs to be replaced anyway).
The color for the bottom half of the room was something I had deliberated about for weeks. Initially I wanted to use the turquoise that I used in our main floo 1/2 bath. Then JD told me it was a girl color, then I vascilated and thought olive green might look cool. I also thought about orange - for a second - but since I was going for a solar system and not HaLLoWeeN I threw that idea out the window. In the end, I changed the name of the paint from "turquoise" to "Surfer Blue", told JD that it was a boys color, and was totally thrilled with the out-come! Did I already mention that my fabulous hottie hubby did the painting all by himself because I was recovering from surgery? (Mwah!!Baby!)

When we went to pull the tape off the next morning, we had a bit of trouble with the black wanting to stick to the tape and pull off of the wall. This has happened before and I think it has something to do with the sheen that is used. As soon as we realized that the black paint and painters tape were having separation anxiety, Kurt used a razor blade to cut the paint where it met the tape. Wha-La!! Perfecto!!

Since the SUN was already finished, it was up right away, and decidedly more cool than the girly-girl fan that used to be in there. Kurt had installed a $15.00 super simple, one light fixture, before we had started. We have a compact flourescent light bulb in the socket and instead of the glass globe that came with it, the SUN is hanging from the screws!

This is a picture of my adorable "baby" brother lifting the Bug up to help put the stars on the ceiling. It's a perfect pic to see what I've described so far. Paint colors and the SUN - no more :)

Whew! That's it for Phase Two. Tomorrow I will post pictures of Phase Three which includes glow-in the dark stars that ROCK and PLANETS that look like they are floating in space (pun intended :).

From The Holy Bible, King James Version

Gen. 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth

From The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

3 Nephi  9:15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.

From The Pearl of Great Price

Additional scripture revealed in the Latter days containing communication

between our Father in Heaven and the Prophet of the Old Testament, Moses

Moses 1: 33 And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.

34 And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many.

35 But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.

36 And it came to pass that Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and then thy servant will be content.

37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.

38 And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.

39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

 

Go to http://www.gregolsenart.com/ for information about his newest masterpiece 'Hope On the Horizon'.

 CLICK on the picture to see the whole thing

I painted his ceiling BLACK!

Today is one of those days. I feel depressed, tired of my mal-functioning body and tired of dealing with too many doctors appointments and trips to the pharmacy. My fake it til you make it attitude is hiding under the covers and beckoning for me to join it for a while. So to cheer myself up I thought I'd post some of our progress on J.D.'s room.

BEFORE

This is actually the way that this room was painted when we bought the house in 2007. It's the smallest of our 5 bedrooms and we've moved the kids around quite a lot but have finally settled with JD here. He's asked for a solar system bedroom for several months so I've had plenty of time to plot it out in my mind. In the end I decided to paint the top portion of the walls AND the ceiling black instead of dark navy simply because I felt like the black was more realistic of outer-space. The trim was painted a high-gloss white about three months ago. Then my endometriosis kicked up enough that more painting was just not going to happen.  Poor JD, he really was a good sport to live in such a feminine environment for so long!

During Christmas break I was recovering from surgery and so, so grateful that I have a husband who is so family oriented. He was Mr. Mom, Prince Charming, and EQ Pres. all at the same time and he was so good through it all. One of the things I asked him to help me with was to finish a couple of homemaking projects during the break. I knew that if we didn't finish at least one or two, I would go crazy and be left super frustrated. You've heard the saying having to do with brains vs. braun? I can't quote it here so if you know it, feel free to check that comment box below and tell me - what I do know is that DOZENS of times I've used the word "we" and the only way someone could justify my using that word was that it was me using my brains and imagination and Kurt donating his braun and super hot muscles to the cause!

 ********************************

Phase one of JD's room makeover was painting the trim white. I use Behr's Ultra Pure White for all of the trim and doors in the house and I always paint the trim first. (The white is to tie all of our rooms together and also serves as one of the neutral elements to keep the color from being overwhelming.) This works for me because then when I am painting the walls, if the paint drips I can just pull out a baby wipe and clean it off. I ONLY tape the flooring when doing the trim, since it's the first color and the lightest I don't worry about keeping the paint off of the walls or having a hard time covering the color.

Also during phase one, I got crafty and transformed a paper lantern that we've had from IKEA for a couple of years and had recently been damaged by turning it into the SUN part of JD's solar system. I started with Modge Podge and though it worked well for mending the tears, it was also time-consuming. My research online in regards to Paper Mache'  found that liquid starch was sometimes used. I knew that since I was using tissue paper (in order to let the light through) using liquid starch would be really tricky, but in an awesome BrAiN bUrSt I remembered the little can of spray starch that I've had for, seriously, 5 years, sitting above the washer, lonely and neglected due to the advent of wrinkle-free dress shirts! It worked amazingly well and was so fast that I finished during the time it took for the pot of water to boil for our noodles. When the SUN  had dried, I did end up painting a coat of modge podge on the top of it as a sealer. The tissue that was applied with spray starch didn't dry hard and I wanted a more kiddo-proof finish. I used high gloss Modge Podge and love how the light reflects both through and off of the SUN!!

The paper lantern is the perfect size for the room and since the light shines through the tissue paper it adds a totally cool effect!

By using three different colors of tissue paper the varied look is totally amazing. The only thing I had to purchase for this little transformation was the tissue paper for about $2.00. Everything else I had on hand!

Also, I have since seen paper lanterns that are orange or yellow - of course after I had already done my own! I would still do this project on my own though. For one, the SiZe of the SUN is more unique to IKEA's lanterns vs. party supplies; and two, the swirled colors and gloss finish are two of the best aspects of the finished project!

Ahhh! Well, I feel much better now that I've had a little writing therapy, dropped JD off to kindergarten, started a load of laundry that includes a new nightgown for me (!), and put the two little ones down for their naps. I feel SO much better that I think I will go switch the wash and take a nap! Which means that part two of JD's solar system bedroom makeover will have to wait until tomorrow!! Smile.

Don't Hate Me....

Don't hate me. Before I tell you what I sold and how much profit I made I'll first lessen the sweetness of this amazing deal by letting you know that most of this money is going towards buying a new water heater. Wahoo. (not that I am ungrateful for the obvious blessing, I am.)

Now,this is what I bought off of KSL about a year ago for $50. Go ahead and click on the picture for a better look. Isn't it pretty? Not. Sike! Haha.

After spending it's allotted time in the garage to 'ripen' I pulled it into the house to paint it. Well, actually Prince Charming lugged it into the house so that I could paint it. After it was painted, it spent several months buried in my craft room. Eventually I realized that what I really want and need to do is organize the closet with shelving and a built in desk. I also realized that I really don't sew enough to justify a mechanical lift. I am NOT a seamstress. I can sew straight seams to make pillows, kind of, and I can't read a sewing pattern to save my life! Hence, the decision to sell it.

The only thing slowing me down was the 70's era hardware for the handles. I couldn't decide what to do with it, and the cold weather was preventing me from trying spray paint as an improvement tool.

In the end, I used black satin Ribbon! Wa-la!! Below is the finished product that fetched a whopping $700.00!!

As a final note: In case anyone reading this thinks that I may have ripped off the cute grandma who bought it from me, here is a picture of what you could buy today from an online internet store for $699.00, not including what would have to be paid for shipping + freight charges. Aren't I nice? :)