Mommy/work~

Since summer vacation has started Ive been teaching myself how to balance working and spending time with my kids,,, not the making food,brushing hair, breaking up fights,band-aid putter on-er,chore enforcing no fun mom. But the book reading, littlest pet shop playing, Lego building, side walk chalk drawing kind of mom.  This has been really hard for me. I reeaalllllly want to be the mom that wants to sit and build Lego's for hours, or play littlest pet shop for hours kind of mom, but I'm so not. I do it. and I totally pretend to love it but i actually dread it. I keep asking myself is it normal that i want to be unloading the dishwasher instead of playing barbies right now? I wonder if Im the only mom like this?! I love my kids so much, and really love spending time with them, but I feel guilty working during summer break. I don't really have a choice though, I have spaces to fill at both stores that Im a vendor at, and working doesn't go over well with the kids. So, i have to delegate my time wisely. which for me means, sanding dressers before they wake up in the morning. Priming them when they are eating breakfast and then painting them in the late afternoon after we have spent the day doing whatever we do. I wonder if other moms actually play with their kids during the day or send them off to play by themselves? Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times I send them to play without me, but not without a "are you ever going to be done?"  "you NEVER play with me!" "all you do is paint stuff".... and the list goes on, when this is coming from a little 6 year old girl with a basket full of barbies it makes me feel bad! should i be taking the summer off with my kids ? ugh, this is a hard one.  I guess when I thought of At home mother , I always thought of the Cleavers and mom always had dinner in the oven and a clean house and was helping kids with their homework with a pretty dress and curled hair... I cant really compare to that. I'm so not an at home mom if I'm working in the garage for 3 hours and feed my kids cereal for breakfast and a quesadilla for lunch can I? I think I might just need to change the way we look at At home moms who are trying to help their husbands in this terrible economy, and want to do something other than be an 'at home mom'... and maybe not feel so guilty doing it. yeah, that's what I'm going to do, Maybe not focus on what I'm not doing and realize that what I am doing is a positive thing for our family.

 This is us getting ready to go to the park  (not easy getting a good picture of all of us)

yeah, that's how Im going to look at it now... Its not so bad to be a "Working at home mom".. that my new title. :) :)

The Undecided hutch~

I was really undecided on this hutch... I love the bones of it and the curvy little legs and all the drawers... but i didn't like the brown. So i put a picture of it on my Pretty in Paint facebook page and asked for everyones opinion on what color it should be,, i got alot of feedback, mostly for black or white! So i went out to paint it and couldn't bring myself to paint it either of those colors! I'm not usually undecided like that! So instead I painted a buffet, i decided to paint it a fun color, I chose Provence from Annie Sloan and then put a dark stain over it and love how it turned out

                                                                  Here it is before:

and After:

I loved the finish so much I painted the hutch this color, I know it wont be for everyone like White or Black would've been but I know a few will love it as much as I do!

                                                                         Here is the hutch before:

                                                                               And after!

Happy Painting!!!!
Mindy~

Barn Red desk~

I recently had a customer wanting a Barn Red Desk. she found the desk and then picked up the paint. I usually have my customers pick their own paint, because sometimes what i think is sage green is not sage green to someone else or blue or whatever color!  So when I opened the lid to the paint she picked out i fell in love! Its a new must have color in stock for me now!

This was her desk before, (not the best before pic) I'm getting a little better with before pictures, at least i snapped this one before my first coat of paint!

she wanted it heavily distressed so that's what she got, and I LOVE how it came out, I cant wait for her to see it! 

Have a happy Thursday!

Mindy~

Im linking up to:

http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/

the sad little dresser

I spotted this dresser on the side of someones house on the way to getting my car washed, it looked so sad on the side of the house covered in graffiti!  so i told my husband about it.... and about a week later we met up for date night, and he said "you know that dresser you told me about on the side of the house" I said yes,, he said, "Its in the back of my truck"  he not only remembered me telling him, he went and knocked on the peoples door and asked if he could buy it.  Wowza!  lucky me :)

Well, this dresser was a total time sucker. i sanded this thing for hours... and i couldn't get the veneer smooth on the front. i pretty much gave up and decided to paint it the bright green i love so much and thought, a little rough veneer might give it more personality. :) :)

so here is the before picture...

the veneer was soooo bad on this one!

I used this Plastic Wood filler, that worked pretty good. I got it at home depot for around 4 dollars

Here is the first coat of 'sassy green' from Lowes

Then a second coat of botanical green from Lowes.

I decided to use the original hardware on the bottom and pretty it up with some glass on the top.

If you zoom on the picture, you can see the bumpy veneer on the bottom drawers... I'm wishing i would've sanded those for awhile longer, but its done now, and going to the shop soon.

(it gives it character)

Mindy~

im linking up to: http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/

Mother Bird~

So as I was painting today,... bent over a dresser with my sprayer, I felt a rock hit my back,at least it felt like something hit my back! it hurt!! sort of weird since I was alone out there.... so then I stood up and looked around. Nothing... hmmm so i went back to spraying, then I heard a screech over my loud sprayer and looked up , a BIRD was about to dive bomb my head, talons out and beak down!!!  So i actually dropped my spray gun and ran as fast as I could run into the house. I kid you not the , bird was hopping from my sprayer to the dresser i was painting to the saw horses next to them screeching looking at me in the window!
I knew exactly what bird it was too, the one that just had some babies in my shop rafters!  ugh. so Ive been tiptoeing around its nest the last few weeks, I even moved my vintage couch under the nest just in case one fell out! And she wants to attack me! hmmph!  So I got a picture of her afterwards. not a good one though, i was too scared to wait there to get a good one! 

Here I was bent over these dressers:

Here are the baby birds:

Do you see the beak on the big one! watch out!

An eventful Saturday :)

My Yard Sale finds for Wednesday~

I got Lucky today when my aunt called me and got me into an 'early showing' yard sale, ... you might think that sounds crazy but yard sales are soooo competitive!! It quite ridiculous how crazy people get at these sales! So I jumped at the chance to go.  And boy am I glad I did! Here are just 3 of my very favorite things I got today!!  


This is something.. I'm not sure what... but what I do know is its going to make an AMAZING chalkboard!
I'm excited, can you tell :) pretty sweet for $2.00

This Chair is in perfect condition and boy is it going to look  great all shabbied up. a steal at $16 dollars

And these cuties were only 10 dollars each with the cute white slip covers and the little pillows, (brand new) i might add were only $2 bucks!! LOVE yard sales. love.

small changes...

I neglect my house. Everyone thinks since I'm always painting and transforming furniture that i must have the most beautiful decor! But the truth is, i rarely keep the good stuff. I keep the seconds 90% of the time.  There has been 3 times in 3 years that i have kept something... a buffet, a hutch and a crystal chandelier.. everything else gets switched out when i find something i like better. But those 3 items have officially graduated and are part of the family now.

These are a few of the latest finds to enter the house, I wonder how long they will last :)



This Coffee table was a total steal, i wasn't looking for it and I got it for $35!

This fireplace mantle was $90.00 I got it for display in my booth for Christmas time and it just happened to work out perfectly in my house

This little side table was sprayed with that textured spray paint,(why would anyone do that!!) so i sanded the top down and found the wood to be beautiful so i stained it and then it just ended up in my livingroom.

It is yard sale "season" so these beauties might get replaced... we will see!!

Furniture Hoarder?? maybe.

So with the looks Ive been getting from my neighbors... between remodeling this house we've just moved into and constantly building or sanding or painting something outside... I realized maybe we look a little craaazzy to the outsiders. To be quite honest, I keep my house pretty 'clean looking' I'm not gonna lie, It could use a good deep scrubbing but to friends and family it looks clean :)
I went out the other day and my neighbor said "what on earth do you do for a living?"  He just couldn't understand why im constantly buying and stacking furniture every day almost!  I really try to keep my mess behind the shop door, but having to push and pull and drag furniture out each day that I paint its hard to 'hide' the mess! I guess I just feel bad now that i realize that just because i think its normal, it not to most people! so I thought i would share what they see. (the neighbors)  I'm almost embarrassed to show these to the world! It makes me feel better knowing that all y'all shabby chic'ers will relate. Hopefully!!

Here goes: walking into the back garage:

one side of the garage:

Other side:

and here is the open bays of the garage: eeeeek!!

and deeper in:

I sell things rather quickly so i need to have stock right?  come on girls..this is soooo normal :)