Dresser Redo

When we got married and moved into an apartment that was unfurnished we realized the luxury of owning a dresser. Which we didn't. We had to go buy one and then put it together- we were so desperate to have one immediately that we didn't even take the time to try to find a good used one. Well, okay, to be fair to ourselves we did look for a minute, but didn't find anything that looked like it hand't been sent through the dishwasher a couple times.

So, when my sister got married in May I put on my thinking cap for gift ideas. "Maybe she would like somewhere to put their clothes?" I thought. Genius.

My mom and I did the mighty garage sale hunt to find a good used dresser, and we found this lovely blue solid wood one. Lucky for us it didn't even smell bad.

The blue paint job wasn't sealed at all, so we could just paint right over it without having to scrape or sand any of the previous layers off. Great deal for us!  Two of my younger sisters helped me paint and redo this dresser. It was such a fun and easy project!

We used two coats of a creamy beige paint for the base. Once that was dry we tossed on a bunch of wood stain and then wiped it off with a towel. All the stain that was left was in the crevices and cracks, leaving it with a really great antique-look finish. I loved how this dresser turned out so much that I wanted to keep it for myself. Our newly wed sister was so surprised with this gift, and she loves it just as much as I do. I don't think I'll be getting it back anytime soon!

Wood Blocks

My hubby and I decided to make some blocks for our miss G for Christmas just recently. She didn't have any blocks of any kind to play with, and now that she is learning colors and letters we decided it would be so perfect for a Christmas gift! My hubby used some of the left over wood from the deck he built in the fall and cut them nice and small to fit in her cute little hands. He also sanded the edges and corners so they weren't too sharp. They looked so beautiful when he was done! Now it was my turn.

I dug out my painting supplies and tried to think of how creative I wanted to get with my three whole bottles of paint. Luckily the three colors we had were red, blue, and yellow. Perfect! I could mix whatever colors I wanted! I decided to go with some bright rainbow colors... ahem, except for the purple. That guy was just a little dark, but I didn't have any white on hand... oh well. Such is life. Sometimes the purple is just dark.

After a couple coats of paint and some amazing sharpie skills, these blocks turned out so cute! Miss G was absolutely delighted when she opened them up, and she loves playing with them. She loves to see the colors and the letters and the pictures. Her favorite game is knocking over the tall block towers that we build for her. Of course. Who doesn't love knocking those over?