o f f i c e   t o u r 

 I have been trying to organize my office. I took out an old black LARGE tv armoire that really didn't serve a great purpose for me in my office. Truthfully, I had it in the office because it was so large and heavy I wasn't sure where else to put it. With my mom's help we took the doors off the armoire and put it in my garage to hold all of my paint.

So, with the ugly armoire gone, I did a little re-arranging in the office.

 {My favorite thing to do! I might not be able to cook but boy I can re-arrange a room!}

I didn't have much of a choice with my color palette. The inspiration for the room was taken from the stain glass window on one end of the office.

I balanced the other end of the office with a gallery of some of my favorite photos and a large mirror.

Below is a picture of my desk, where I blog, and where I am typing now. The chalk board keeps me organized with the furniture projects that I need to get completed for the week.

I hope you enjoyed my office tour.

Oh, and this leads me to ask you a quick question. Do you think I should add back my home tour tab? I took it off a few weeks ago because my blog is also my business website. What are your thoughts on home tours and personal photos on a blog that serves as your work website?

k i d s   f u r n i t u r e

I love painting furniture for kids. I just finished this dresser. I adore it so much I made my new logo from it. Do you like the new logo?

It was painted the same blue as the dresser I showed you yesterday. Same technique used. 

Prime, paint, distress, glaze then wax.

This is going up for sale today on Modern Cottage at Blooming Kids.

I am also taking over to Blooming Kids this sweet antique play table and chairs. These were in my basement playroom. I found a larger table for that space so off they go to Blooming Kids.

Have I told you how much I love that I can paint furniture and sell it to people that love it just as much as I do? I love love love my job. I makes me tear up thinking about how lucky I have been to do this. I wouldn't have been able to do it without a supportive husband, and great family and friends.

p e a c o c k   b l u e

I started transforming some of my estate sale finds from last weekend. I usually have a plan of what color paint and hardware I want before I head to the paint store to purchase paint.

I headed to Home Depot yesterday and went to the Behr paint section {I know I usually go for Benjamin Moore but my Home Depot doesn't care this brand}.

Behr had a small section of "vintage" inspired colors, so I thought what the heck...and I bought a peacock blue.

I also bought a lovely grey from Martha Stewart but this is for another piece that I will show you later this week.

{sorry for the blurry photo, my camera is acting up lately}

I bought a knotty pine dresser from an estate sale {sorry no before picks}. I sanded, added a bonding spray primer {the finish was still pretty shiny after sanding}, two coats of the blue, distressed the edges so the wood and some white primer would show through.

I then mixed up a dark glaze and when over whole piece. I finished with a wax and it is done!

I will put this on Shop Modern Cottage today and it might end up going to MC at Blooming Kids {see tab}. 

Right now it is sitting in my office waiting for a new home.

Come and get it!

Please scroll down to bottom of page to see what this was linked to!

f a v o r i t e   h o u s e   f r i d a y 

{on a sunday}

I haven't done a FHF in a very very long time. And for those of you who are new to my blog and wonder what the heck favorite house friday is... it is a way to share my obsession of real estate with you all.

A brief background on why I love looking at real estate listings. It took us a year and a half to sell our last home. I was anticipating the sale the entire year and a half, so everyday I would bring up the real estate listings that were new for the day in our desired neighborhood.

After we finally sold our home, we were so nervous about buying again that we rented. We rented the house for two years that we now own. Even as we were renting this home I looked everyday at the new homes for sale in this market. We didn't think the old owners of our home would sell this house to us.

Anyway, we lucked out, they came to us to see if we would consider buying it and we jumped on the chance.

Even though we now own our home, I am still in the habit of checking what new has come on the market {I really do this everyday, I think it is fun}. Here is the order of what I do when I log on to my computer. First I check my personal email, then facebook, then the blog, then my business email, then craigslist deals, then the real estate listings.

This sweet home showed up on the market Friday and I thought I would share some pictures with you.

Sweet from the outside, I love the beach grey.

Isn't the kitchen sweet? I love the painted ceiling...hmmm maybe I can paint my kitchen ceiling?

 The birch branches are lovely and I want a fruit stand like this.

Now I must go out and find one, like, tomorrow.

 Don't you just want to know exactly what that sign says below?!?

I also adore the tv stand.

I like how this room is not over-decorated so you notice the view outside. 

Beautiful stairway.

Who doesn't want a fireplace in their room?

Anyway, darling home.

I had a decent thrifting weekend. I bought a small dresser, a large dresser, and a huge {I mean huge} antique waterfall buffet that is fantastic, really really fantastic.

I will show you a preview picture of this buffet sometime this week. I realized what a furniture addict/dork/lover I am when I saw this buffet. Am I the only one that gets this way? I wanted to do a cartwheel.

I need to get to work tomorrow because the next week and a half will be busy. 

i t   s t a r t e d   w i t h   a   c h a i r

I needed to find a new chair for my family room. Something that would go with my brown leather couches and something that would hide kid and pet messes.

I found this chair at Cost Plus World Market.

{sorry not the greatest picture}

I love the shape and the tufting and how it is small enough not to over-power my room.

Since my home is very open {one room right off another room} I needed to have the living room and family room in the same color story.

Even though I love the polka dot pillows, they were not working in my new color palette of greys, greens, blues and soft yellows. 

I moved them to the kids playroom and they are more fitting there.

I bought a curtain panel from Cost Plus that matched the chair and made some pillows for both my family room and living room.

Softer, calmer. I am happy with the new color palette. 

Remember this library table I bought?

I sanded the top, stained it, and sealed it.

The base got a coat of Benjamin Moore, Simply White, satin {in Aura}. Have I told you how much I love Aura paint? It is worth the $60 a gallon it costs. It goes on sooo smoothly, dries quickly, and I need less coats of paint to finish a piece. With one gallon I can probably use it on 4-6 different projects so it is worth the $60.

m y   f a v o r i t e  d e s k 

I was going to post this desk tomorrow but I was excited to show it to you. It turned out lovely. 

I started off with the typical sand, prime, and one coat of creamy-white paint. After the first coat of paint I wasn't sure how this desk was going to turn out. I doubted myself.

I wanted to this piece to make a statement, so I decided to add the circle pattern to the drawers {BM Covington Blue-I am going to keep use this paint until I run out. I have about a half a gallon left, plus it is my favorite color}

After the paint was dry I distressed the edges, painted the top black {this is leather that I primed, painted and sealed with poly}, painted the original hardware black, and the finished the desk off with a good wax.

This is going in Shop Modern Cottage. I hope this goes to a good home because I love it.

Please scroll all the way down to the bottom of page to see what this was linked to.

s m a l l   c h i l d ' s   d r e s s e r

I am finally finishing some projects.

I painted this small dresser a creamy-white, the drawers an apple green with a charming white bird on the bottom drawer. I distressed the edges then finished off the piece with wax.

I have it shown in my son's room but it would also be cute in a little girls room.

It could either be a night stand or a small dresser.

It goes perfect with my Target lamp.

This will be for sale on Shop Modern Cottage.

I just finished a desk today that I will post about tomorrow.

It is absolutely stunning. Absolutely my most favorite piece that I have ever done.

Come back tomorrow and take a look.

l i t t l e   b o y   c a m p i n g   t h e m e   p a r t y

I have some "before party" pics of my son's sixth birthday party. It was a camping theme and we were going to have a tent outside with a bbq and smores, but the weather didn't hold up for us. So we had an indoor party with pizza, it turned out to be a great time.

Here are some of my decorations.

 A rainy day, everything is wet outside.

 I hung a toy lantern and net in the windows.

 I strung dollar store rods and fish from my candle holder.

See the rain outside? We we were warm and toasty inside.

I also had a fishing game set up {but we forgot to play it} and a little tent full of legos.

I think my six year old had a grand time.

f u n k y   j u n k   s i s t e r s   

f l e a   m a r k e t,   s p r i n g   2011

{Puyallup, WA}

Hello, I just got back from a fun local flea market. I thought I would give you my review and show you some pics!

I came home, loaded up my pictures, poured myself a glass of wine {and you should do this yourself}, and put on Pandora {Adele is my station}.

This year was my first year going to the Funky Junk Sister's Flea and I have decided that I want a booth next fall {and it isn't the wine talkin', it was a great flea!}.

Ok. I have to warn you about the pictures. I had to heavily edit them on Picnik. 

I am a "shy" photo taker {meaning: I get embarrassed to ask if I can take a picture so I do it as fast as I can, I am a dork.}

Love the colors in this booth, yellows and aqua's, my favorite.

This booth was gorgeous, she really knows how to display. Perfection.

I took a picture of this booth because I really liked the table, which you really can't even see how cute it was in this photo.

How cool is this locker?!!

I was drawn to bird houses tonight. I am not usually a bird house type girl, but I was tonight for some reason.

This booth was in the very front of the flea, it was stunning in person.

A cute little trailer full of vintage clothes.

I walked away with a small mirror and table, and I will show you these in a later post.

Now I must get back to my wine.

Cheers my friends!

Ok one more thing....my comment section is being temperamental. I don't know what is going on with it. I do appreciate comments so I am sorry if you make one and it gets deleted for some reason.

s n e a k    p e e k

Well I still don't have a normal voice, kind of a whisper voice. It is very hard not to have a voice when you have little children.

I wanted to show you a sneak peek of something that will hopefully be finished and in Shop Modern Cottage by this Friday.

Can you guess what these drawers go to?

l i b r a r y    t a b l e

I have to start out this post saying thank you to everyone that emailed me about the blue dresser. It did go to a very good home and I am working on more projects right now. I am trying to balance painting furniture with "life".

 Last week my son was sick and now it is my turn to be sick. I gave myself a day off yesterday and today to have a "sick day" which I never do. I am they type of person who never sits down and relaxes. Partly because I am a mother to two young kids, and partly because I always feel like I need to be doing something.

My voice was totally lost yesterday, and my sweet husband is in France for work. Because I could not go with him, I decided to watch the final season of the Tudors ALL DAY. I dropped the kids off at school, got a tea, went home put my jammies back on {yes I call them jammies, I have two kids} put season four of the Tudors in the dvd and watched tv all day until I needed to pick up my kids. I haven't done this for ages, and you know what, I felt so much better when I woke up this morning. I am taking it easy again today. I will not get out into my garage office until the end of the week.

I did want to show you a fun little library table I found. I am not going to tell you how much I paid for it, that would make you mad {it was a STEAL}.

I am going to keep this piece and put it in my family room. I know some will be upset at me, but I am going to paint it, not sure what color yet. Aren't the drawers cool? I am going to keep the drawers out and use them for storage somewhere. I just like their shape and they would be hidden under the desk.

Ok, that was a long post for me. I need to go rest before I pick up my kids and the we are off to baseball for the next three hours. 

s h a b b y    c h i c    d r e s s e r

I had this dresser for my daughter when her room was shabby chic {pale pinks, all white furniture, you know the look :)}. It used to be painted it white. 

Now my daughter is more of a "tween"and needed a larger dresser.

I sanded the piece, added two coats of Benjamin Moore's Covington Blue Aura Paint {primer already added in}.

I waxed it, distressed the edges, then waxed again.

Wouldn't it be cute in a baby's room? Maybe as a changing table?

Very sweet. I on the hunt for some cute paper to line the drawers.

This dresser can be purchased. Please check out Shop Modern Cottage for more info.

Ok, now back to my office {the garage}.