Restore Redue

So we have little kids and as most of you know they get into everything! As my oldest got to be around 4 he thought he was big enough to do what mommy and daddy do like put video and DVD's in the VCR/DVD player...plus he and his little brother just made a mess getting into all of the cases. So, one day my husband went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and found this video/DVD cabinet w/lock for $40! Now, of course when we got it the lock was broken and the previous owner had kids that colored all over it...so that gave me a new project! I forgot to take a before pic but below are the stages of painting the cabinet. The first layer of paint was actually a special furniture primer so that way i didn't have to sand it. (After all, it was paper wood laminate). Then next i painted it this country red that i love and have painted a lot of different pieces with.

 One thing you can't see over the red paint is the crackle paint. You paint that crackle paint over the color you want to peak through the top coat. Then once the crackle paint was dry to the touch i painted over it with an ivory cream color. 

 SInce i had the cabinet laying on the side, in places that i may have put  little too much crackle paint the paint kinda rolled/peeled down..witch ended up look really neat and almost like colored wood grain.

Crackle paint is VERY forgiving because it's kinda supposed to look messy.

 I LOVE the way it turned out! It was a great addition to our family room and the kids can't get in it :)

Twine wrapped letter

I had my first attempt at twine wrapped letters just before Christmas...I can wait to try bigger ones for another project. I love the rustic look of twine plus it's an inexpensive way to change the look of something.

I love old windows!

I started fixing up old windows about 4 years ago with two windows from the Fox family farm. A couple years later I got 2 more and just about a month or so ago I hit the jackpot with two different friends who have tons of them and told me to help myself. So enjoy the pictures! I so enjoyed working on them and have many more to share in time...they're are still in progress :)

two old window before

 THis one i made just for my family. Mike and i got married in 2005. Eventually it will hang in our breezeway...just got to get the hooks on it :)

Before the paint...i like the old rusted hinges..it even has an old eye hook on it

Layer 1, cream, then i put a coat of crackle paint over it then in the next picture you'll see the sage green finish. It turned out great.

The red window you see was one of my first windows. The glass was broken out of a couple so a broke out all the glass and hung dried flowers from it. Then you see the finished green window and then my family window.

This was an order i did for a family that wanted one for their daughter and son in law. The lady said to do whatever i wanted (which is hard since i don't know what the colors of their house are). I used black and then crackled painted white over it.

My breezeway. Notice the green window? I hung a little wreath from the hook.

I also love old ladders and mason jars. ANd if you notice that is a twine wrapped vase...but that is for another post :)

The best things in life

My mom LOVES her grandbabies and this Christmas i wanted to give her something to show everyone that enters how much she loves them.

Here i used an old window, cleaned it up and left the original brown window wood showing.

I painted the tree with acrylic paint and then used the 4 grankids hands to fill in the tree leaves. I saw the saying "The best things n life aren't things" and loved it. I used a paint marker to paint it.