A dresser for the girls

About a year ago, my father-in-law showed up at my house with a trailer full of furniture. He was moving and has asked my husband to pick out a few things we wanted that they had decided not to keep. I was really excited to get this dresser! The knobs were what made me want it the most. Anyways, he dropped of the dresser {along with quite a few other items that are mostly still in the garage} and I had every intention of painting it right away.
But, life happens and here I am one year later finally getting it done.

Here she is:

(don't mind the paint all over my patio...this is a public apology to my husband...}

And do you want to know what she looks like now?

Super cute. At least I think it is anyways. I'm pleased with the color I chose, it matches really good with the girl's stuff, and I'm even more pleased at the way the pink knobs turned out. I didn't have to spend any extra moolah on purchasing new ones. Love to make old, new. :)

I ended up having to prime this baby after sanding it, I like to use the Kilz brand from Walmart, I think it does a great job. I also really like the Kilz brand of paint, in fact I picked up the paint for this project from Walmart, too. I used Seacrest Spray {it's the "Colorplace" brand color, but mixed with Kilz paint.} I spray-painted the knobs with the only pink spray-paint there was to choose from, but it ended up perfect. The color matches the walls in the girl's room.

This dresser was one of my less labor intensive projects....and that's a good thing because I was really needing to get something, actually anything, accomplished. It seems like life is so busy and there's never time to get my hands dirty and focus soley on a project. I need that! Picking this to do the past couple of days was perfect becasue a couple of days was all she and I needed. Anways...I was telling my husband that I would rather re-do something or build it myself than purchase new. Is that sweetness to a man's ears or what? I save him gobs of money!

So..we have a nice dresser for the girl's clothes. Their clothes had been stowed in those plastic drawer things we got at Target almost 6 years ago. It was time.

Happy New Year!

I have really {and I mean, really} been enjoying my little vacation. I literally did nothing but enjoy the season and gain 6 pounds. Yes, 6 pounds. And its all in my tummy! Sheesh.... I resolve to loose 5 pounds every year this time. If I could just resolve not to add it... Oh well. Starting next week, it'll be back to the same ole, same ole. I am working on making framed signs, I'll let you know how those turn out. In the meantime I'll be working on getting out of my fat jeans...

Happy New Year!

Since you asked...

{you can see what it looked like before here}

Here's how I did it...

elbow grease.

I also ignored my family for a few hours,
let the kids trash the house, & the
husband had to feed himself--
oh, and I used these things...

All the way from Walmart, Dutch Boy semi-gloss Oriental Red.
I didn't have to sand the piece because there wasn't really much of a finish on it. Maybe a professional would sand it down or put some expensive stuff on it before they painted it, but I'm an impatient non-professional. I did not sand, I just wiped it down with a damp rag and went to town. I let it dry all of about 3 hours before I started giving it the black antique glazed look. You should probably wait longer, but like I said...I'm impatient.

I have a soft spot for these bad boys. I paint everything with a foam brush. I know there will eventually come a day when we must part, but for now I love the little 3 pack for .89 at Walmart.


..for the stained look, I used a little bottle of acrylic paint, you could use non-glossy, but this is what I had--it's black...

Eventually ever rag in the kitchen gets turned into one of these--a painting rag. I wash them all together about once a week. Just don't wash them with a load of clothes...I've only made that mistake once...Anyways, you just wet about 1/2 the rag, leaving a dry spot. The wet will help you blend the paint into the creases, etc.

Dab on a little bit of paint in the wet portion of the rag. When I did the actual amiore I used a larger dab of paint on my rag. I didn't wear gloves, which was stupid because my fingernails were black for a couple of days afterward. So, wear gloves. Oh, and take off your rings.

Then take the part of the rag with your dab of paint on it & work the paint into the creases, holes, etc. You'll just keep adding more paint, & wetting your rag until you get the desired look. It's kind of scary if you've not done this before. Since the rag is wet, you can use that part to soften the look of the dark. Since part of the rag is dry, you can use that part to wipe off excess paint, water, etc. I'm probably not clear on this...it's not an exact science. But, it is kind of scary if you are a virgin at this sort of stuff.

If you look close, I accidentally rubbed a little too hard and the pine shown through. But...I liked it and I left it. I got lucky.

Yardsale Finds

I did this post a while ago...

This past weekend I did the yard sale thing. Even my man went, which is amazing because he doesn't care for them. I don't know why though? What's not fun about rummaging through someone else's junk? We had a good time...until the kids started crying. They each had some change, and I might say they did pretty well. For .50 cents Q got a new Transformer and P got a little pink toy {don't really know what it is...}.

Anyways, yard sales started on Friday afternoon when picking up Q from school. This guy had one in the afternoon! So I stopped. I got a frame {which I re-did and posted pictures below} and an armoire. I didn't get the armoire at first, but it was only $40!! I really liked it and had seen a picture of one the exact style on this blog I frequent called The Nesting Place. I thought about it all afternoon, then decided to go and get it. My man helped me bring it home, then I got to work. {I might add that they yardsale was over...leaving me to knock on the dude's door...but he sold it to me anyways...it's that normal?..I'm not normal...}

I just wanted to do this post to show what I did to the thing. I was really proud of myself, and even my hubby liked it {until I asked him to put the doors back on a t 10pm...which he did...thanks, babe!} It was made in Mexico, and had too much of a Hispanic/Old West look for me, but I am happy with the way I was able to change it to my style.

So here's the frame and the armoire. :)


This is what the frame was before. It is the perfect size for an old calender print. I purchased a Liz Lemon Swindel calender last year when it was 75% off with the intention to frame the prints, but I never did it. I was happy to find this frame for $3, mat included.

I painted it black, sanded the edges and bumpy looking things, then replaced the picture and put it back together. I think it turned out great. Not professional and don't look close...but good enough for me.

And here's the big ole armiore. I thought I would paint it a creamy color and put it in the girl's room, but stupid me didn't measure it first. It wouldn't make the squeeze into the room...just too big. So I called my mom to see if she would buy it off me, or better yet...give me an idea of where to put it. She said she would take the finished product off my hands if it didn't have a home, but after it was finished I had to find it a home. Here. At my house. {and with the help of my man, a place was found.}

And here she is dressed all in red. I really like it, but I don't know if it's because I'm aching for fall & winter to come and the color is just perfect for that or what. It was about a 3-4 hour project, halted by a quick sand-storm, a game of croquet and some running through the sprinklers.


I have so many projects to do--the garage is full of otherwise useless junk {just ask my hubbs...I take over ever space in the house...poor guy...}. I take a lot of satisfaction in working with my hands to make something that once was ugly or un-useful, pretty and useful for me. I get most of my stuff for free or nearly free. In this case it was $40. It wasn't always this way though. It's only been over the past few years that I've learned to see things in a different way. There are lots of blogs and idea websites full of these kinds of projects! I love seeing before/after photos of how to make things better than they were. It's all a work in progress.

Oh...and I got my fall decorations up on Sunday afternoon. Here's a quick picture of that buffet hutch I re-did a while ago...all dressed up for Halloween. I'm still so in love with this piece.

Help my sister win this stroller...

Okay, here's your good deed for the day:

Click on the stroller below, find my sister's name {Heidi Joncas} and hit the "VOTE" button by her name. It only takes like 2 seconds, no registration or anything. Just a simple couple clicks on the mouse.

The contest ends tonight at 10pm EST. She's currently in first and I would LOVE for her to get this! Who wouldn't LOVE to have something like this! I know my sister would love it if she wins!

Thanks my friends! I owe you one....in fact...mention the stroller's name in your next purchase from my etsy shop and I'll give you 20% off!!

Do it yourself.

I know times are lean for lots of people right now...but that doesn't mean we don't want nice things anymore, it just means we can't have them right now. That's a bummer! But it's life...so... I'm always looking for ways to make my house cute on my budget so that I can take part in the fun now. Bad? Probably. So...unless you are willing to purchase new things on credit {which I don't recommend & have never done} sometimes the only options are to do it yourself or go without. I wanted to do this little post to {1st} show you an example of how you can have nice things with just a tiny bit of $ and {2nd} show you how to do it for yourself if times are lean {and even if they're not}.

If there's one thing I really enjoy, it's re-doing furniture. I love filling my home with cute things, especially cute things I made! That feeling just doesn't compare to purchasing something new! {Don't get me wrong..I LOVE new furniture, too!} My hubby just has to deal with our overflowing garage full of "projects" yet to be done...poor guy....but not really when you think about how much moolah {$} I save him! I know girls, you can go broke on good deals...but seriously...with furniture--this project was a GOOD DEAL!! Whenever you have the opportunity to receive furniture for little or nothing--take it! There's always something that can be done with it. {well, I take that back...sometimes there's not..and sometimes there's no place to put it...} But don't pass up a chance to even just "drive by" that yardsale....you never know what you might see....

Anyways, this is from back in August when it was 110 degrees outside. There was a house being built behind us so all of the workers could see into our backyard where I spent the mornings doing this piece. Other than that, I did it entirely alone. It was that easy!

Here's the furniture before: {it's in my mom's friend's garage}



It's really not my style, but I thought since it was pretty much free I would try my hand in re-doing it to try & fit my house...

Here's my inspiration:

This is a page from the Country Sampler Magazine. I saw this piece a few months before & loved it. I have a thing for that color of green. I think black furniture looks soooo good up against it.
I remembered how much I liked it and thought I could do something sort-of like it with my new found stuff.

Here's the after:

Here's how I did it:

I am in no way a professional. I've refinished some really UGLY things. Just ask my husband. I'm not patient and I have a hard time waiting for paint to dry! I want to do projects that only take an hour. Put the baby to bed, a movie on for the kids and go to work. Never does anything take me an hour....it takes me days. I have high hopes of getting things finished quickly....but being patient is the key. Easier said that done, I know.

This project took me 3 days.

I started by taking off the tack-paper all over the inside of it. I HATE hot weather, but thanks to that heat the tack-paper came off super quick. {The furniture had white tack-paper all over the inside}. I then wiped it down to see how much I needed to sand it. I also dislike sanding things. Takes SO MUCH TIME! But I did sand this baby down. Really good, and too good in a couple of places where the wood veneer was thin. Oops.

I sanded it with a little electric mouse sander with a fine sandpaper. I didn't want to rough it up too much.

Oh...I tore off the top thingy. I have NO idea what those are called, you know..the little curly things on top in the "before" picture. Not a fan of those babies. At all.

I painted it with a sponge brush. I don't know if that's what professionals use, but that's what I used. It's all I had. This went on super smooth, but needed a couple coats. Good thing about this paint....I didn't have to put on a top coat. Yay...less time to wait for paint to dry. I purchased it at Home Depot, but Lowes has it too. Don't look at Walmart..it's not there..

When it was finished and dry, I made my husband drag it in for me. I put the hardware back on inside. I also put the doors back on. {Yes, I actually took them off...usualy I would try to figure out a way to keep them on, but I wanted it to look good and took them off.} Then I sanded the edges. I should have done this step outside--black paint dust everywhere....but, lucky for me the finish underneath was still a little redish! When I sanded it the red shown through. I've found with painting my signs that I can achieve this look with all finishes, all I needed to do was use a little bit of a stain. You can get wood stain in little tins from Walmart.
I love the way it turned out. I put out all my Fall decorations in it. Its funny because this project seriously only cost me about $8. That's how much the paint was. I kept all the hardware. The only crappy thing about the whole project was how HOT it was outside when I did it. Oh well.

My goods

So I love to make signs! {Family Name Signs are my favorite!}. I absolutely love it. Actually...that's a lie. There's lots of things I would rather do than make signs, but for a way to make money from home--you just can't beat it! I'm proud to know I make something people openly display in their homes. Really. I love knowing my name signs are hanging in the homes of people living in Mississippi to Alberta, to the UK and even some in Australia. It gives me the chills! I've made sooooo many of these babies! It's awesome!



I also love making frames! I'm not so good at working with power tools and it's a miracle I have all of my fingers. {you think I'm joking} My husband is a very patient man, teaching me over and over again how to use and maintain my very own woodworking tools. The latest in my endevor to create are these frames. LOVE making them. I can do three {3} different sizes and about a gazillion color/font/quote combos. Don't you love the word gazillion? I do. Gazillion. Gazillion.



I make blocks, too. In just about any appropriate phrase.

To shop for my goods, just email me {offwoodlandlane@gmail.com} or you can shop at my etsy store {www.offwoodlandlane.etsy.com}.

Background Colors

I can paint the sign's background in just about any color I {or you} can find. It's that simple.

Antiqued Classic

This sign measures 8'' x 24'', is painted gold with a black antique wash* and has YOUR FAMILY NAME written in black lettering. The sign is distressed to look aged, and comes ready to hang.

$35 + $11 shipping to continental US
{Shipping is usually between 10-14 days upon receipt of purchase.}
Please contact me about rush orders.


*This sign may be made in other colors to match your decor.

Click here to find this sign to purchase.

Lavishly Yours

This sign measures 8'' x 24'', is painted black* and has YOUR FAMILY NAME written in beige lettering. The sign is distressed to look aged, and comes ready to hang.

$25 + $11 shipping to continental US
{Shipping is usually between 10-14 days upon receipt of purchase.}
Please contact me about rush orders.

*This sign may be made in other colors to match your decor.


Click HERE to find this sign for purchase.