Happy New Years?

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a fun night last night and that you are not paying for it too much today.

Wanna hear how exciting my night was? Well, Topher had to finish end-of-year things at the office and didn’t get home until really late. So, I got to sit at home with our unnamed teenager, who was violently ill with the flu. While I’m sitting with her on the couch with a bucket on her lap, Gracie our pup, jumps up on the couch and starts vomiting too. Sympathy puking?

Super fun night for me! I just pray this nasty bug passes me by.

My daughter was pretty bummed she was spending New Year’s Eve at home with her mom, and with the condition she was in, I wasn’t too excited about spending too much time with her either. So today I am going around the house disinfecting everything in sight.

I thought I would brighten your day (when I say brighten you will soon see why) with one of the 2 projects I had due right before Christmas … that nearly killed me.

I had the blue nursery armoire that had to be completed, and that was a huge project.  After that was finished, I had 2 1/2 days to get this next one done.

It was a Christmas gift for a client’s two beautiful daughters and had to be picked up on Christmas Eve.

Lesson learned:  I waaay overextended myself. By Christmas Eve my fingers were all held together with Band-aids, and my right hand looked like it went through a sanding belt (which is close to the truth).  There is no hazard pay in with the art of distressing.

My client bought the turquoise desk I did with the stained top (my favorite project of the year)– also for her daughters’ room. They had hot pink bedding, so we needed to incorporate that plus the colors of the desk.

We selected a dresser that was old but solid, and had gigantic drawers.  The top of the dresser was heavily water stained, but that was getting covered in paint, so it didn’t matter too much.  The veneer needed some TLC, so we glued-down some loose spots, and filled-in some of the chipped areas with wood putty to get a smooth finish.  The bookshelf we selected was filthy and also heavily water stained.  After some deep cleaning and heavy sanding, it was ready to go.

She wanted the shell of the dresser a hot pink and the drawers yellow and turquoise. After painting was finished, I distressed and waxed it.

On the book shelf we did a bright yellow with the blue and pink shelves.

The lamp that you see on top of the dresser was originally horrific.  I got it at a yard sale this summer, and Topher kindly suggested I throw it away since it was so heinous.  The base was burgundy with a dirty antiqued gold bottom, the light wouldn’t turn on, and the globe was filthy.

I chalkpainted the base turquoise, sprayed the bottom a brighter gold, cleaned up the globe, and Topher fixed the wiring.

I am so mad — I once again forgot to take a before picture.

Overall, I’m thrilled, and these pieces will go great with their Alice in Wonderland theme.

Before:

After: