Kitchen Table Redo

I am so excited to finally have this table done and in the house, and so is my husband as it is finally out of the garage. 

I originally was going to build a table but happened to come across this one.  It was a homemade piece that was built to last and we all know with three boys in the house that is exactly what I needed.  

The only thing I wasn't loving was the color, I am really not a fan of the yellow stain.  With the dark hardwood floors I wanted to keep it light so the base was painted white and the top was given a coat of stain and 5 topcoats to insure for maximum defense against little monkeys.

This table also has two leafs which I love, we won't use them very often but it will be nice for family dinners at our house.  

My hopes are to add benches to the sides of the table to allow more space for moving around the table.  

As for the rest of the house renovations they are coming along more slowly than I would like but little by little I am adding new pieces and hoping to starting painting the kitchen cabinets soon. 

Record Player Refinished

This little bad boy was as ugly as can be but what I really love about it was the detailing on the front.  

My sister in-law actually found this for me and when they went to get it her hubby decided he just had to have it because it had a record player.  So what started out as a project for me to refinish and sell turned into them keeping it for themselves.  

We ended up taking the legs off because without them it was short enough to go at the end of the bed and double as a seat.  

For the handles I just loved them so all it took was a fresh coat of paint to make them pop and the screens for the speakers were also sprayed to get rid of that ugly brown color.  I was a little skeptical if this would work but it turned out great. 

She had picked an orange color for the piece and then I used was to antique it. 

So this little unit serves as double duty and hopefully he can get some use out of the record player. 

Dresser Makeover

 Did you ever have that piece of furniture that you were so attached to that you just couldn't get rid of it even if it didn't have a spot in your house.  Well this is that piece for me.  I have had this dresser since I was a baby, so of course as my kids would say it is antique. My favorite thing about it is the lines around the top it is just so girly and feminine to me.  

Although this dresser has had many looks over the past 30 odd years it just has not been utilized in the right way for a long while and it needed to be brought back to life. 

 Yeah I know what you are thinking, ugly right.  It has been sitting in my laundry room for the past 7 years being used for crafts and tucked away.

I dragged it out to the garage and started to strip down the many layers of paint that were on it.  My intentions were to stain the top piece and then paint the rest of the dresser but when I got it down to the wood I seen this.  I tried a few different tricks but was not able to get the black marks out.  If it was just the little marks I probably would have gone for it but with the big mark in the center I didn't think it would look good.  So on to plan B, to paint it. 

 This little beauty got some new hardware which was painted and sanded to give the look I wanted.  And then I couldn't leave the ugly pink drawer lining that has literally been in there since the 80's so the drawers were given a face lift with some new drawer liners that I glued down. 

Although I am sad to see this go, she is going on the market this week to hopefully be enjoyed for many more years. 

Fun Nails

Today while waiting for a prescription to get filled I had a chance to take a look at all the new fun nail art that is out there, and I was lucky enough that it was all on sale. 

I found this fun little kit and thought why not give it a try. 

I am not a fan of sitting and spending a ton of time or money on my nails as they usually end up with paint on them anyways. So this was perfect gives a fun look in a short time. 

I even got the thumbs up from my boys who thought it was pretty cool.

This week my kids are back to school after spring break so I am hoping to get to some of the many projects I have going, my husband has told me the garage is getting a little crazy with everything I have going on in there. As well the house renovations are going along smoothly and hope to be sharing some more pictures on that soon.

I know I haven't been posting alot lately but I have been doing a ton in the background and soon you will bombarded with all those updates. 

Update on House Makeover

Our house renovation is coming along nicely, it really is crazy to think how far we have come and how many changes our house has gone through already.

We started off with this space, nothing to fancy. With three boys it is hard to have nice things, lol. 

With the kids getting older I wanted to make this space a more grown up space, you know where there are actual curtains and lamps. So on my travels I found a couple of these fabulous chairs for my kitchen table.  I tell the kids they are not allowed to use these ones, we will see how long that lasts for. We also traded in the ugly brown love seats and found this fabulous couch.  Finding something that suited my hubby and me was a little difficult but honestly not as hard as finding an occasional chair.  He wants a "man chair" big puffy and reclines.  I want a sleek, pretty chair that goes with the space, needless to say we haven't found one yet. 

I found this fabulous table and I can't wait to get my hands on it and change up the color.  What I love about this table is how chunky it looks and how durable it feels. 

 Notice how I have one wall that isn't painted, this is the wall I refer to as the death wall.  I am a little terrified of heights and the thought of climbing out over the stairs on a plank is really not my idea of fun. So after finally coming up with some ladders that would work on the stairs I set out on this scary plank to paint.  This is definitely a two man show.  I make my husband hold the ladder and fill my roller so I don't have to get up and down. 

 Notice all the patches on my wall this is what my whole main floor looked like, and to think these are in a space that are too high for the kids to reach.  

It is really starting to come together but I have a ton more ideas that I want to do, so I will keep you posted. 

Batman Cake

I was asked by a friend if I would make a cake for her little guys 4th birthday and of course I couldn't say no.  I believe that celebrating our kids birthdays is special and to be asked to be part of it is such a privilege.

While I love the look of fondant and I think they look so much neater and put together I realize that even the best fondant some people don't like especially kids, so it makes you come up with different ideas on how to get the look you want with butter cream icing. 

I wanted a few images on this cake, one being the batman symbol and then I wanted the cake to be outlined with city buildings. 

First I searched through the internet to find the image I wanted and then printed it in the size I was looking for.  With this image it didn't matter if I printed it regular or mirrored the image as it looked the same either way but if you do something with works you would want to mirror it before you print. 

Once I had my image I taped it down to a plate and the taped wax paper over the image. This makes sure that when you are icing nothing moves around.

Then I started with outlining the image and doing the bat and filling him in. After this was finished I put it in the freezer to let it harden up so when I put the yellow in there was no streaking.  Once the yellow was filled in I put it back in the freezer to harden once more and then did a layer of black over the entire thing.  And once more it was put back in the freezer.  I did this same thing for all of the buildings which I did individually.  This step seems long as you are spending more time waiting for the images to set in the freezer.

 Once the image is hard you can take them off the wax paper and place onto your ready iced cake.  I went back and outlined all the images after to finish it off.  Keep in mind it is butter cream and the warmth of your hands will soften it so don't play around with it to much.

Hope this little tutorial gives you the inspiration to give it a try.  

Lego Cake

 This past week was my sons 9th birthday and as I write that I still can't believe I have a 9 year old.  Every time some one says time goes by so fast it really is true.

This year when I asked Keegan what he wanted me to make for his cake I was told to surprise him.  With his love for Lego I thought that would be the way to go.  

This was a last minute decision so all the Lego pieces were made by hand. To get the dots on the top I used an icing tip and added them to the blocks.

On another note our hardwood floors are all done and look fantastic.  Can't wait to start painting the walls and cabinets. 

What fun projects did you do this weekend?