Milk Paint

When one of my favorite bloggers revealed another secret paint she used was milk paint, I knew I had to get my hands on some.

 I bought mine from Mister Milk Paint. Believe it or not, this small bag of paint is enough to make 1 pint of liquid paint.

Milk paint has been around forever and was especially popular in Colonial America. It's made from milk protein and other natural ingredients. As you can see it comes in powder form. When mixed with varying amounts of water, you can create different effects depending on how thick you mix the paint. But overall it does not cover as well at latex paint, which is fine by me! It gives more of a soft finish to things which creates an aged look. Just what I like. 

I am hoping to use this on one of the chairs I have that is currently collecting dust in my basement. Note to self - get your act together and start painting!!

Stay tuned for an update on my experience with milk paint!

Take Your Dog To Work Day

 Today is "Take Your Dog To Work Day". I'm not lying. 

Sadly enough, I didn't get to bring Emmit to work with me today. If I did, I would most likely find him sleeping on the job....

Or I could put him to work supervising others. 

He seems to excel at this task...

And after a busy day at the office, I am sure he would look something like this.

Heck, I'd feel like this after a busy day at work too!

Master of Blonde, er, Business Administration

Guess what arrived by certified (oh la la!) mail yesterday? The hubs finally received his diploma for his MBA degree! 

I couldn't be prouder!

 

Even though he officially completed school in January, the university doesn't issue diplomas until the end of the school year (now). I am so proud of the hubs. He spent countless hours doing homework, going to class & writing papers. I am so proud of him not only for sticking with it but for rarely complaining throughout the process. Oh, and for 3 years he put up with eating my fabulous dinners at 10:00PM or later on Thursday's, which may or may not have consisted of Hamburger Helper on a regular basis

CONGRATS on this major accomplishment!!!!

PS-some would say I have a 

Master of Blonde Administration degree. 

And I'm ok with that! :)

$1 Find...From Drab to Fab - REVEAL!

I found this small table at a garage sale last weekend. 

She's got nice legs, don't you think?

And guess what? She was only $1! 

She was a little wobbly, but I saw her potential. 

 I painted her with standard white latex paint. Then decided to put on a coat of brown glaze (my version of glaze anyway). It helped cut the stark white paint.

But I wasn't convinced that this was going to be 

her final "look". 

Confession: I splurged and bought myself the soft wax and brush to accompany the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint that the hubs got me for my birthday.

I also bought some clear Briwax brand cream wax.

After distressing the table a bit, I was ready to apply the clear wax.

It was easy-peasy with my new wax brush. But I was dying to get some dark wax on her legs. 

Not sure if you can tell from the picture above, but this wax was a lot creamier than the Briwax. I only needed a spec of wax on the brush and it went a looooong way.

Here is an up close and personal look at the finish with the dark wax....

It definitely gave the table an aged look...which was the look I was going for. This wax is a bit stinky, but very easy to work with and dries quick. All I needed to do was to buff her a bit.

This gave her a nice shine...

Since this was my first forte into using such wax, I can perhaps go a bit lighter on the application next time. But overall, I think she turned out great!

She looks a bit orange in the lighting in my pictures...a bit like a really bad fake tan. Ha. So I brought her inside where the lighting was better. 

Check her out in all of her waxed glory! 

Lookin' good!

PS-those hydrangeas are from our garden. LOVE.

PPS-I shared this piece in MMS's Furniture Feature Friday!

$1 Find.....From Drab to Fab - SNEAK PREVIEW

Here is little sneak preview of something I found last weekend that I managed to find time to paint.....

 

And the best part....it was only $1!

Stay tuned for the full reveal...

Chalk Paint!

Guess what came in the mail today? My chalk paint! Hello Duck Egg and Old Ochre. Where have you been all my life?

Let me back up for a second. The new "it" paint in the blog world is this Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Not chalk BOARD paint, chalk paint. It's this paint created by a UK woman, Annie Sloan, that can literally be used on any surface. Apparently it distresses a lot better and easier than regular latex paint. I've mainly followed other bloggers using this paint on old furniture. It is recommended to finish off the paint with a coat of wax (instead of a polyurethane). The paint, distressing and wax give furniture an french country look. I'm all about french country.  

I have two pieces of furniture in our dining room that I am dying paint with this new chalk paint. Here is the corner cabinet...

We've had this cabinet for a while. In fact, my mother-in-law gets the credit for finding it for us. It was originally cream and I painted it black (back when we were living in our condo). 

And here is the hutch/breakfront cabinet that we got from our neighbor in the 'burbs...for free! Can you believe they wanted to throw it away?! Illegal. It was a dark brown color so I slapped some cream paint on it to spruce it up.....

I love both pieces of furniture but with them both being different colors, and with the new dining room table and chairs, I feel like  the room lacks any cohesion. You can sort of get the idea from this picture. 

I'm just not loving it all at the moment and I realize it's a work in progress and things are constantly involving. Plus, I know I need a rug in this room to break up all of the wood tones. But I think painting both the corer cabinet and hutch/breakfront the same colors will make things more cohesive. 

A special thanks goes out to the hubs for giving me this chalk paint for my birthday. What crazy person asks for paint for their birthday?! This blonde crazy woman does!

Bare With Me!

So I thought I would enhance my blog template today. Bad idea. Bare with me while I fix things!!!! YIKES!

Porch Eyesore Fix

Our screened in porch is great for many reasons. We like to dine "alfresco" when the weather is nice. The screen helps keep those pesky mosquitos away so we can actually enjoy ourselves. 

 
I've mentioned before in our porch makeover post, that this porch most likely built by Joe Homeowner. There are several reasons why we think this but won't bore you with that right now.

One corner of the screened in porch is an eyesore...

Between the electrical box, random phone line box (I think that's what that is?) and other random cables and cords...it's just a mess. I hate looking at all of it.

I've thought about trying to camoflauge the electrical box by painting it a shade of brick red. I still may attempt this, but was looking for another solution. I figured we would start by trying to put something in front of the mess. That's when the hubs came up with this idea...

We put the new column we just purchased at the Luckett's Spring Market in front of the eyesore. Yes, I know it looks a but random at the moment but it's a work in progress. 

I bought a fern to place on top of the column. Looks better but still sort of random. It almost looks like a person wearing a crazy green wig - or is it just me?!

I still want to place some things around the bottom of the column - maybe a few bright colored flower pots in different heights to give that corner a little more interest and less randomness. Or if anyone has any other brilliant ideas - please do share!

New Additions...

This post is a little late...apologies. I gave a recap of the Luckett's Spring market in this post. I am still dreaming about all of the great stuff they had. The hubs and I made a few purchases that I thought I would share....

I've always had an affinity towards chunky woven baskets. I liked this picnic basket. Not sure if it's that old or not? But it looks weathered and could even see myself actually using it.

The hubs walked by this old column in someones booth and before I knew it, had his money out and was paying for it. We found the perfect spot for it....stay tuned!

And lastly...remember these shutters from my recap post? They were in Miss Mustard Seed's booth and I just had to have them. I loved the patina and old metal latch. Here they are in our hallway...

Not sure if this is the final resting spot for these or not. We may mount them on this wall or possibly in the finished basement...I will keep you guys posted!