Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sitting Pretty - Update

Progress has been made on re-vamping the craigslist chairs! Thanks to he hubs, again, for giving up his Sunday afternoon and sanding more chairs. I painted 2 of the sanded chairs today. Here is a sneak peak....
This is the first time I used this paint technique...not sure what to call it exactly but it involved using a "dry-brush" technique and a glaze. The final step (which was not completed yet) is a coat of polyurethane. 

Here is what the chairs looked like before......

Stay tuned for further updates!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Sitting Pretty

Thanks to the hubs for giving up part of his Sunday afternoon last weekend to sand down one of the six dining room chairs we got off of craigslist. Although we plan on painting and recovering these chairs, it already looks 1000x's better! 
Here is the before and after:
Our inspiration came from these Pottery Barn chairs which I just adore!

More chair refinishing progress to come. Stay tuned... 

Monday, February 14, 2011

The Adventures of Emmit & His Siblings!

Like I mentioned in my last post, I was able to track down 2 of Emmit's brothers and schedule a birthday bash/reunion that was held this past weekend. All 3 of us (dogs and families) met at a local dog park for a reunion/birthday play session. It was SO GREAT to meet Emmit's brothers and their families! It brings such joy to my heart knowing that such caring and loving families rescued these dogs.

What a great lookin' hound group....check 'em out!

Emmit looks most like his brother Brady only because they both share the brindle coloring. But after meeting everyone and seeing them all together, I definitely noticed they all share the same mannerisms and bark! What a hoot it was to see them all together. Whether or not they remembered each other, it was difficult to tell. But I would like to think that they did. 


This was the best photo we could get of all 3 brothers together. 

Trying to get 3 energetic dogs to sit nicely and look at the camera is near impossible...but thought this was a decent attempt! We hope to make this (at least) an annual event. Can't wait to watch these boys grow up! 



Friday, February 11, 2011

Birthday in the 'Burbs

Dear Emmit,

Today we celebrate - what we think - is your 1st birthday! What many people may not know, and what we've been told, is that you were born in a median on the side of the road along with your 5 brothers and sisters. Well, you've come along way and have settled in quite well at your house in the 'burbs. You've brought such joy to our lives that we often think back at how dull our lives must have been before you arrived. There is no doubt that you have tested our patients & our sanity at times, but the love and joy you have brought to our lives is immeasurable.


In honor of your 1st birthday, we managed to track down several of your brothers that were also rescued and adopted into loving and wonderful homes. A family reunion/birthday celebration is planned for this weekend. We are thrilled to have connected with them and CANNOT WAIT to see you all romp around and play at the dog park together. Happy 1st birthday to Emmit and his siblings! 


Much love,
Mom & Dad

A Year In Review......



Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Change of Plans....

As I wrote in this post, the plan was for me to get my mom's circa 1970's sewing machine after it made a little trip to the service shop to get fine-tuned. Pump the breaks...hard. We are now on to plan B. The cost to get the old machine serviced was going to cost more than a brand new machine. Boo-hoo. 

So thanks to my wonderful mom, she scoped out a new machine for me and delivered it last weekend. In a million years I never thought I would own one of these.....
Erika, this is Janome. 

Janome, this is Erika. 

This should be interesting! Stay tuned! 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Master Bedroom Paint Project

The hubs and I have been talking about painting our blah cream colored master bedroom for quite some time - I'll be honest. 
This room, being the 2nd floor of a cape-cod style house, has interesting ceiling lines and a large dormer window cut-out (not pictured). So we were a bit confused as to where to end the paint color and where the ceiling actually began. Our main concern was not making the room look smaller with the new paint color. 

After agonizing over several paint chips, we finally found our color! Martha Stewart's "artichoke heart". 
We finally tackled this paint project this weekend. We decided to have the color matched in Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint (sorry Martha). We went with this paint because it already has primer mixed in it. It's a bit more expensive per gallon, but when you think about it, you don't have to purchase primer, AND you save time with not having to paint on a coat of primer.
Oh - and as you can see, I taped the wall where the paint color ended and the angled ceiling started. I used the green Frog Tape instead of blue painters tape. I've heard great things about this tape on other blogs and decided to give it a try  - and I will admit that I will NEVER go back to using the blue painters tape. This tape FAR exceeded my expectations and left crisp straight lines with almost no bleeding paint at all. (I was not paid by Frog Tape to give my review!)


After two coats of paint, 50 yards of Frog Tape, 1 expert paint roller (the hubs) and one confused and curious dog - here is the finished project. (Please excuse the lighting in photo below...it was taken at night! Against photography rules, I know!) 

The color appears (to me) to be slightly more mint green than "artichoke heart", but perhaps we are splitting hairs here? This picture was taken at night by the time we got all the furniture back in place, so I think the color is a bit off in this picture. The jury is still out with me as to whether or not I like the new color. It's a bit more "mint" color than I had hoped. But I am trying very hard to like it.
Better "after" pictured to come....bare with me :)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Adventures in Craigslist

Although our dining room table re-do is still in progress, I have been stalking Craigslist for months looking for chairs to go with our new (err old?) table. I fell in love with these Queen Anne style chairs from Pottery Barn but not the $249 per chair price. So I have been looking for something similar ever since.
After several months, I came across the perfect set of chairs for sale - 4 side chairs and 2 arm chairs. Thanks to the hubs for giving up a Sunday to go check out these potential chairs and ultimately make this chair-acquisition possible. And a HUGE thanks to my sister for temporarily housing these chairs in her garage. The seller lived closer to her house than ours and when we decided to purchase the chairs that day we had to make two trips because we couldn't fit them all in our car at once. The best part is that all 6 chairs (and it came with a table too) were $250. So I got an entire dining set for the price of one Pottery Barn chair!

Although I don't have all the chairs yet, I do have one arm chair to show you. They are all in great shape and can't wait to get started on painting them. It's going to be a bear of a project with 6 chairs to sand paint and distress! But I am up for the challenge!

Oh and since this was my first forte into the Craigslist world...I've learned a few things along the way:
  1. NEW dining room chairs are expensive. 
  2. Timing is everything with Craigslist. If you see an ad for something you like you should respond right away!
  3. Do not get discouraged or take it personally if after several emails to the seller expressing your undying interest in their item you get no response. 
  4. Be sure to bring another person with you to go look at the potential item(s) at the sellers house.
  5. There is some interesting stuff for sale on Craigslist! 
  6. Who the heck is Craig anyway and why does he have a list?
  7. On a more serious note, you can get some really great deals on Craigslist if you are willing to be patient. 
 More to come on this chair project so stay tuned!