the perfect beach

We were lucky enough this past weekend to be invited by dear friends to an amazing place.  Amazing, as in, my most~favorite beach ever.  Gorgeous, quiet, lots of amenities, friendly folks, living beaches. 

Seabrook Island. Oh my.

  How I love you.

Sunsets... 

Lakes & golf courses across the way, so that we could all wave to the daddies as they drove by.

See all of the people on the beach?  No?  That is because there aren't many :) 

This is our view at dinner one night.  The kids were able to play in the sand while we waiting for our food to arrive.  Bliss. 

And then there was this guy.  The family has affectionately named him "Chompers".  Hmmmm.  I was very grateful for the black wrought iron fence that you see in the bottom of this picture.  All we had to do was appear in the yard/deck area, and he surfaced to greet us.  Friendly, I am sure!

But, best of all was this... happy children.

Happy fall, everyone!  Thank you, P family, for the best weekend we've had in a long time!

kathie

table & chairs

Remember this day?

I've been working hard to make this a dining room set with 8 chairs (the set we bought came with five chairs, and then I found another set of three).  I painted all 8 chairs together, and recovered the seats in matching fabric.

The bottom of the table is actually the same color as the chairs ~ they just look different because of the different light.

I did the bottom of the table first, which is unusual for me, but it seemed to work this time.  The top of the table had some damage, although you can't see it from the picture.  So, I got to work sanding (decided to skip the stripping this time, as the finish didn't seem that thick).

Down to the bare wood, on to wood conditioner & stain.

Below are pictures of the chairs with my own dining room table, which belonged originally to my husband's maternal grandmother.

Here is the table without the leaves...

And the table with the leaves, and the new 'set' of 8 chairs (two of them with arms).  I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

Thanks for visiting!
kathie

antique dresser

This gorgeous dresser came home with us a few Saturdays ago along with the matching vanity & mirror, and bed (footboard & headboard).  It collected quite a bit of dust in the garage while it waited for some attention!

I gave it a good sand ~ it appeared that the piece had been refinished at some point, but it was poorly done & the finish was clumpy/lumpy/textured feeling in lots of places.

After the sanding, I primed it - twice - and then painted.  I did completely strip and sand the top to add some interest to the painted portion of the piece.

And, here she is!  Love!  I didn't care for the hardware, which I don't believe was original (but maybe I'm wrong about that- thoughts?) but I love the glass knobs with it.

Don't you love the details?!

The current resting place is in our dining room, but this piece deserves a better home than that!

Have a great long weekend, everyone!

kathie

Remember this?

Remember this??

I asked you to guess what you thought it was going to become... I found it at My Favorite Place.  Yes, although it is one of my favorite places, the name of it really is My Favorite Place.  Its a furniture/knick knack store in Chamblee Ga.  Some people call it a Junk Store, but we know better, right?

Tonight, the lamp found its way to my husband's shop.  He's been gone all week, and don't you just know he was itching to do some projects for me :)  I could have done it myself, but I love it when he gets involved.

Now do you know where this is headed?  Doug says this was a moonshine jug.  Fun story, but I'm not so sure.  Any thoughts?  All I know is, it is now my most-favorite-piece!  You'll find it living on the free-to-me piece (thanks, W & J!) that I made over a few months ago, in our front hall.

There are some initials on it.  See?  Hard to read through all the rust!  I took the original can, cleaned it up, gave it a good sand, and then painted it this turquoise color.  Sanded some more, added some RL tobacco glaze, and presto chango!

I am so tickled with it.  I keep walking by, and turning the light on to stare (and then my husband, our energy conscious half, comes behind me & turns it off!)

Thanks for visiting!  Don't forget to become a follower (left sidebar).  I'm having a giveaway next week (all you have to do to enter is become a follower of this blog)  and it might or might not involve a huge piece from my previous post :)

kathie

Linking to:

Sassy Sites Trash to Treasure Tuesday!

command central

Do you have a "command central" in your house?  I sure do.  It is right in that crucial spot where our mud room/ laundry room, kitchen & garage door meet.  For years, I had searched for a huge magnetic board to accommodate all of the adorable cards, invitations, reminders, mementos & school work that we need to have front & center.  For years, the only options I had found were small.  It seemed 24" was as big as I was going to get without blowing my budget completely.

Then, my DIY streak took over.  Last spring, I started calling metal suppliers.  Well, who am I kidding? I started and then stopped... the first place I called was more than willing to do what I was looking for (cut 3' X 4' sheets of metal) for a reasonable price.  I placed my order, and asked when I could pick it up, expecting the gentleman to say a few weeks.  "2:00 today" he said.  SOLD.

So my handy dandy dad (you're the best, Pop!!) got to work building some frames, I got to work covering the metal with some different fabrics that I had sitting around the house, and before you knew it we had some beautiful, durable, functional magnetic boards.  

See?

The first board, as I said, is our command central.  I got the trim pieces at Michael's ~ I think the trim adds a lot of personality to it.  You'll see I still have our family Christmas cards displayed (yes, it is September today!).  Also, you'll see my favorite birth announcement... ever.  Seriously, M, I can hardly stand it when I look at your beautiful twin babies, crying their hearts out!  Classic!

Here is the profile view.

Then we continued making more boards for the basement.  There's a story here... I am a picture nut.  Love them.  Love to decorate with them.  From the time my boys were babies, I had our favorite pictures of family, friends, etc., blown up to 8 X 10's and I framed them in black frames with white mats in our basement playroom.  They were adorable, and perfect for the space.  At one point, we probably had 140 of them up on the walls.

Then my boys got bigger.  And stronger (who knows where I'm going with this?!?)  And a picture or two got knocked down by a flying ball/swinging bat/ flung pillow/ etc.  Before we ended up with broken glass in our playroom, I made the decision to take down all the pictures.  No easy task, and also heartbreaking.  

So when the magnetic boards came into my life, the pictures came back up... and momma was happy.  Just to give you an idea of the size of these boards, all the pictures you see here are 8 X 10's.

And this picture below just had to make the blog... it is quite possibly my favorite picture ever.  This is my younger son, with very dear friends of ours who are twins.  As you can see, the sweet twin on the left has very little hair.  That is because when this picture was taken, as we were leaving story time at the library one morning, she was in the fight of her life against a ferocious malignant brain tumor.  By the grace of God, she is here with us today... healthy, happy, a living miracle to everyone who is blessed enough to know her.   Hug your children, mommas, they are God's gift to us.

And, while I'm at it (on the subject of deep thoughts, that is)... I know this is a blog about furniture, but I want to share this with you.  Our sermon this past Sunday morning (can you tell we love love love our new minister?!) was about how we treat one another.  About remembering that everyone is struggling in some way, shape or form.  And to try and remember that when we are dealing with other people.  We don't know where they are coming from in their hearts.  What they are facing, whether it is heartbreak, illness, loss... but if we assume the best in everyone, rather than the worst, wouldn't the world be a better place?  

It takes so much energy to be angry, mean or hateful.  And it is soooo easy to be kind.  To smile or share an encouraging glance with someone.  To offer someone your help or support, even if you're not quite sure why they need it.

I'll never forget when my sister's baby was born & then died shortly after, we were headed to the funeral home to make arrangements.  My sister, brother in law and I were backing out of their driveway and someone flying down the street just blasted their horn at us.  All I could think was "Don't they know these people's baby just died??"  And, of course, no- they didn't know.  They overreacted to us easing out of the driveway and completely frazzled our already frazzled nerves.  All for what?

If we assume that people are all doing the best that they can, with what God has given them, I think we'd all be happier.  And blessed by the experience.

And now I'll get off my soapbox, and back to our regularly scheduled programming :)

If you want to make your own board, and you live in the Atlanta area, contact me & I'll send you the information for the metal supply company- they're in Norcross.

kathie