Radio Silence

We wanted to give you a little heads up on what is going on around here.

I know that I have some new readers that may not know that my dad passed away this past December.

It has been a rough 10 months.

You can read about it here, here, and here.

Actually, dad's death it is what got me the courage to start all these DIY projects. I haven't really been able to mourn since I have two crazy boys to take care of. The projects have giving me a chance to...escape reality.

Anyways, on Sunday I will be starting a trip to head toward the Dominican Republic. In LaRepresa my dad's church will be dedicating a wing of a school that they build in his honor.

Why a wing of a school in the Dominican Republic? Well on the day of dad's death the pastor and other ministers were at the school discussing adding a wing to the school. They wanted to do something to honor my dad and thought it appropriate to name the wing after him.

Here is a link from the church where I could find a little bit of info on the school.

I would appreciate your prayers. This will be an emotional trip for me, my mom, and brothers. Plus my Mother in law will be flying in to help Mr. Genius to hold down the fort. They will need your prayers too.

With all that said, I will be get back to making projects when I return.

That, you can definitely count on.

Before I sign off, I wanted to show you some pictures of the boys from today.

I bought their Halloween costumes and they are absolutely thrilled to be Batman and Robin.

So thrilled that they will not take the dern things off.

But then again, I can't really complain because they totally crack me up with them on.

But I do wonder if I should work on their manliness. Maybe it is a good thing that I will be leaving for a little while so they can learn to be a little more macho.

This is what I got when I said...Show me how tough and strong you are.

Then I said...Show me your muscles!

Well, atleast they are cute.

Table drama

Who knew that a coffee table could cause such drama in this house?

Trust there was almost a murder here last week.

But let's start from the beginning.

There was a table on craigslist that I just had to have.

It had great bones, but the beige and gold had to go.

Not to mention how bad the top was.

Lesson #1 learned from this table drama

In doing this table I learned that when you have white water stains, they can be removed by a white tshirt laid on top and then a hot iron.

Out like a charm!

I tried to take pictures but they just wouldn't show the results. But trust me it works! It didn't even take of the finish!

Lesson #2

Do NOT use a circular sander to sand a wood top.

Sand WITH the grain!

As a result you will have millions of little scratches all over the top. It will look like little mice just ice skated all over the top of your table.

 Lesson #3

Learn to bring in reinforcements.

At this point I emailed my new friend Christa at Stories of a House. This girl knows her stuff! And Christa was so sweet and kind to walk me through all the steps to get this table to its true beauty.

Lesson #4

Do NOT try to avoid stripping the table when you know it is inevitable.

There was a scratch on this table that I tried my darndest to get out. Unfortunately that meant that I over sanded a part of the wood.

The ONLY cure for this was to strip the table.

 If I just stripped it from the beginning, I would have saved myself a weekend of work.

Once it was stripped and started to stain, it looked beautiful!

Once it was all stained, I put on the Poly. Christa mentioned once the poly has cured for 7 days to do a techique called wet sanding. Which is starting with 400 grit sandpaper wetting it with soapy water and then sanding it down. Then move up to 600 grit paper, then repeat with 800 grit. You can go all the way up to 2000 grit, but I was good with going to 800 grit.

After all the sanding you are to rub on some rubbing compound.

I did this and I couldn't get the top to not look cloudy.

Then last week I got sick.

Which brings me to...

Lesson #5 When divorce isn't an option...Murder could be.

I could barely breathe and felt like crud so I went to bed early.

Mr. Genius thought it to be a nice gesture by seeing what he could do to the table to help it get finished.

I told him to lightly sand with the 800 grit sand paper and make sure to wet it so it wouldn't scratch up the top too much.

After some time I went downstairs to take some medicine and went out to the garage to check on his progress.

The first thing out of Mr. Genius' mouth was "This 80 grit sand paper is really scratching up the top."

Me "Wait, you mean 800 grit...right."

Mr. Genius, "We don't have 800 grit, I used 80 grit."

Yep he really used 80 grit instead of 800.

The picture is blurry, due to my angry shaky hands.

Now for my final lesson.

Lesson #6 God's gifts come in mysterious packages.

Mr. Genius' gift that night was the fact that I couldn't breathe.

You see there is this one thing that you need to do in order to talk...breathe.

When you can't breathe you can't talk.

I am sure you see where I am going with this.

There were many words...that were not Godly, encouraging, or uplifting by any means that were going through my head to say to my husband right then, but I couldn't say a one of them.

Now body language says a lot my friends.

All I did was pick up the 800 grit sand paper...that was right on top of the other sand paper... and proceeded to throw it at him.

See...a gift. My not breathing was a gift.

After this fiasco, we had to restrip the table, then restain it, then repoly it. I say we, but Mr. Genius really did it all. Looking up the table brought up too much anger in me.

Which may be why I painted the next table red.

So with all of that. Here is the table that brought so much drama to our house.

 The top now looks great!

 Here is the before again.

 And now the after.

 I am so glad that this project is over with.

Now to just sell it so I don't have to look at it anymore.

Red accent or entry table

I have heard it said that every room could use a little red.

I love red, well I use to LOVE red.

Everything was red.

It was a little overwhelming. I had a red dining room, red and gold bedroom, heck my boys nursery was (is) red, black, and tan. So I still do LOVE red, but I love it better now when it is just a little punch of red.

A punch of red makes it more special.

I found this table and it was in bad shape. It must have been left out in the rain or maybe they had a 4 year old that like to just pour water all over it periodically throughout the day... everyday for a year or so.

In other words, I will have some tables that will be in this condition in a little while.

So here is what she looked like before.

Just a sad simple table. I had already started sanding down the wavy top.

Then I primed and spray painted with some candy apple spray paint.

Holy Cow that is bright!

Next I got some Ralph Lauren glaze that I already had tinted "tea stain" and put some in a cup and then mixed in some graphite paint with it.

Just mixed it together and then brushed it on then wiped it off.


I have to say I REALLY like how it turned out.

See? Just a perfect punch a red to a room.

The red makes the details on the side pop out. I didn't even notice it before.

I got the handles at Hobby Lobby.

So go forth and make a punch of red in your room. You will love it!

I am posting to these parties.

I am also selling this table for $60 Chicagolanders!

Curly Q Designs Winner!

To find out the winner go to my giveaway page

HERE

How to paint a mirror frame...Impatient style

I can BREATHE!!

Breathing is such a wonderful thing, I didn't realize how much I love it until I couldn't do it.

Thank you all for your sweet comments!

Remember to wear your masks people!

Your sinuses will thank you.


Now I want to show you how this impatient girl paints a mirror frame.

Remember the mirror that came with the bedroom suite I just painted?

When it came time to paint it, I reached for the painters tape and I was just NOT IN THE MOOD to put on painters tape.

I wonder what color that would be on a mood ring?


You know what I mean, you wanna do the project but not the work to actually do it.

I am not only impatient, but I am lazy.

It is a bad combination.

I was just frustrated because when I have painted frames before that I could never get the painters tape just right under the mirror. There would always be a couple of spots where either the tape went up on the frame or was a little too far away from the mirror. Which resulted in paint in the mirror at some point or not on the frame.

Either way, I was frustrated.

So I decided to just paint the mirror!

I made sure that all the frame was painted, even the part that is right next to the mirror.

Then after I glazed it and let it all dry, I got my handy dandy razor blade out.

Then in a lot less time that it would have took to put down painters tape, I scraped that paint away.

And it worked beautifully!

So next time you are going to paint a mirror frame, put away that painters tape and pick up that razor blade!

Turns out I am not invincible

Lately I have been doing a lot of projects.

I have been doing a lot of this.

and this...

and I HAVE NOT been wearing one of these...

As a result today I feel like this...

Have been doing A LOT of this...

and even this...

That would be a Neti Pot people. And usually this has been my lifesaver. I have been able to stop taking allergy medicine because of it.

But today....it is not working for me.

I am so congested that when I poured the neti pot water in one side...NOTHING came out the other. So I have a gallon of water stuck in my head at the moment.

Now don't you feel better knowing that little tidbit about me? :)

So people PLEASE learn from my stupidity.

Wear a mask while sanding and spray painting or you too will have a ocean in your sinus cavity.

***************

Now I also wanted to thank everyone who told me what my junk find cabinet from last week.

Without you guys I would have never known what a barrister/lawyers bookcase.

You all are the bomb!

Thank you!

Since you all are so awesome I have another question for you.

A while back I showed you that I got this desk for free from Craigslist.

I think I am finally ready to do something with this desk. The problem that the top of the middle drawer has been sliced off.

Where there is usually a lip from the cabinet front to the drawer it is flat.

I put my finger there to try and show where it is flat.

Is there something out there that can help me form or mold a lip on this drawer?

Can't wait to hear what you all have for me with this...although I am a little more excited about breathing out of my nose again.

Curly Q Designs Giveaway

To find out about this giveaway go to my giveaway page

HERE