It's almost garage sale time

Next weekend it will be time for our neighborhood garage sale. 

Oh my word! I forgot how much of a headache a garage sale is!

Part of me just wants to sell everything in the house and start all over. But that wouldn't be reasonable...right?

This is what I have so far.

 

Explain to me why I still have vhs tapes when we haven't had a vcr for a couple of years? Plus some random dvds we got as white elephant gifts during Christmas time.

I have also decided to get rid of all my blue and white pottery.

Trust me that container is full of blue and white stuff. A platter, candlesticks, bowls. Whatever. 

Then I decided that it is time to update Wild Man's room and the boys bathroom. 

So no more trains in the bedroom and firetrucks in the bathroom. 

I am also working on 8 projects at one time!!!

What is wrong with me?!

My goal is to have some of my pieces in the garage sale...although not at garage sale prices. 

Sorry to disappoint.

My goal is to get the word out about what I do in my local area so we can start to cut down on our delivery miles. 

I am not completely done with...well...any of the 8 pieces. But I really, really hope to be. 

So if you are in the Chicagoland area and wanna come to my garage sale. 

Let me know!

I will tell you when and where.

Happy Easter!

 

Living He loved me, 

dying He saved me, 

And buried He carried my sins far away 

Rising He justified freely forever 

One day He is coming, Oh Glorious Day!

except from Living He loved me from Casting Crowns

There’s a reason why the Resurrection of Jesus is the single-most attacked tenet of the Christian faith…because if it’s false, then everything we believe falls apart. But, if it’s true, then it changes everything! 

I hope you all are enjoying this time with your family. 

I wanted to share a video from one of my very talented college friends. His name is Jeremy Cowart and this video is called "Portrait of Christ"


A Portrait of Christ from Jeremy Cowart on Vimeo.

Happy Easter everyone!

What I did today...

WAS A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!!!

So I am going to use this time to complain and whine I little bit.

I guess my children are rubbing off on me.

Today during precious nap time/ mommy time. I started working on this dresser.

Yep, that is a bad picture. But it was cold outside and was too chicken to open the garage door.

I decided to strip the top and was going to stain it, since I am on a roll of doing that lately.

Then I realized I should get the mail and get the bills and all, so I opened up the garage.

Here is a better picture without the top drawers.

So I started stripping the top and could see the previous owner had primed the dresser before painting it brown. Then underneath the paint I could see the wood grain. 

Yay!

Then after supper I ran out in the garage again while Mr. Genius was playing with the boys. I had put another layer of citristriper on and was going to clean it off real quick. 

That is when I noticed this dresser has leprosy.

The wood grain was stripping off with the paint!

 

The dresser isn't real wood!

Grrr!

If I knew that, I wouldn't have stripped the top. I would have just sanded.

I am trying not to think about the fact that I would be halfway done by now.

Sigh.

So is there a way to tell if a dresser or any furniture for that matter is real wood or not when there is paint on top of it?

That would save me some time.

Rhinestone Mustache

Silhouette sent me the new Rhinestone Kit!

But I was a little worried, since I do have boys and all. 

I haven't seen too many boys with rhinestones on their shirts.

I did see some Major League Baseball players who had some bedazzled tshirts on the airplane on our way to the Dominican.

But I am not ready for my boys to wear big gold chains around their neck yet. 

My wheels started turning.

Then the one day that is was above freezing here my boys ran outside to play with their friends. 

Then quickly ran back in because they said that they forgot to put on their costumes. 

My boys ALWAYS wear costumes!

I don't think our neighbors think my boys wear real clothes. 

So then I got an idea costumes with regular clothes....and mustaches.

Just bear with me for a sec.

So I found some mustaches on the Silhouette online store.

The Silhouette did its thang. 

Wild Man was totally mesmerized with how it worked. 

When you get your kit it comes with a page of detailed directions as to what to do.

Brushed those little rhinestones in the holes.

For some reason I didn't get a picture of the pick me up tool. You NEED the pick me up tool! Seriously! It makes a world of difference.

Then after transfer paper and ironing it on the boys shirts in a inconspicuous way.

 Wait where are the staches?

There they are.

it is a costume in regular clothes!

So the neighbors will see one shirt the boys wear. 

So here’s the sale this month!

The sale runs April 21st-26th

Use code PATIENCE at checkout and get…

The Silhouette SD

2 sheets of rhinestone template material

2 sheets of rhinestone transfer tape

2 rhinestone backing boards

1 rhinestone placement brush

1 CD of rhinestone images

1 pack of clear 10ss rhinestones

1 pack of clear 16ss rhinestones

1 pack of clear 20ss rhinestones

1 pack of pink 10ss rhinestones

and

1 Pick-Me-Up tool

ALL FOR $229!

And for those of you that have a Silhouette and want the great rhinestones…

Use code PATIENCE at checkout and get 30% off the rhinestone starter kit!!

 Actually I just got an email and they are doing a site wide rhinestone sale for 30% off with my code.

Hello Mother's Day gift!

To go directly to the bundle click HERE!

Make sure you use the code PATIENCE at checkout to get the great discount!!

Oh wait, I really do need a logo

So my ADD took over my blogging brain again.

Sorry you had to witness that...

Today I posted about all my projects and also in the title I wrote how I need a logo.

Then the post got insanely long and my small attention span went on to other endeavors and I forgot to tell you about the logo I need.

So here I am now...telling you about the logo I need.

So I am calling all people who can make logos or if you know someone who can make logos.

I NEED YOU!

Here is the dealio.

I have been selling all my furniture on Craigslist. I would love to get my name out in my little local area.

My neighborhood has a HUGE garage sale every year the weekend before mother's day.

So I thought that along with getting rid of all the extra crapola that I have accumulated, I could also have some of my furniture out to show what I do. I don't expect to sell too much since I will not have then at garage sale prices. But I can get people interested.

I thought that I could hand out business cards.

But this is when I realized a problem. Impatiently praying for patience is not exactly the right name for a painted furniture business. Don't ya think?

So the brain storm for a name began.

I wanted a name that gave a nod to my dad since he is the reason I got started in all this anyways. So I came up with SPOTTED WOOD INTERIORS or just SPOTTED WOOD.

Some may think that is a strange name, but some of you that know me in real life will know that the name is a warped version of my maiden name.

So here's where the logo comes in.

Anyone got any ideas for a logo with that name? I am just blank when it comes to that.

So my plea is... please help me my faithful friends.

My latest projects and I am in need of a logo

As promised, here are my latest endeavors.

I got this cute little child's bedside table, and I was almost a really bad blogger and almost forgot to take a before picture.

See how I was mid taking off the knobs and begin sanding when I realized...OH crud a before picture.

Notice the heater too. It was freezing that day.

Here is the after.

I found these cute knobs at Hobby Lobby. They are polka dots!

In a house full of boys, we do not see too many polka dots. So it was fun to have them here for a little while.

Next I found this sofa table on the side of the road coming home from church.

Thank you Lord!

Mr. Genius was so embarrissed that we were picking up furniture on the side of the road in our Sunday clothes.  My response was...that is $150 just sitting on the side of the road!

And this is when I was not an almost bad blogger...I was a bad blogger. No before pictures.

Sorry guys.

I used cloudburst...oh how I love it right now.

Anyways, while I was painting the piece I saw a paper stapled underneath that said it was inspected in 1984! This is in great shape considering it was popular in the time I was wearing side pony tails, air brush t-shirts, and tight rolled pants.

Then the really crazy thing is that is was made in Gordon's which is in Johnson City, TN.

For those of you that are new here. I moved from TN to Chicago a little less then 2 years ago.

I thought that was interesting.

Here are some detail shots of the piece.

I distressed it and then glazed it.

Then I thought it was time for a little change. I have been doing a lot of pieces with color and I thought my next pieces would look good with a stained top and white bottom.

So I thought I would show you how different three pieces can look with the same colors just by changing the finishes.

First we have another sofa table.

I bet this one was around the '84 era too.

I stripped the top and then stained it with minwax dark walnut.

Here is the finish.

I also used the dark walnut stain to glaze the piece, rather then my usual ralph lauren tea stain glaze.

I also used the wax that Miss Mustard seed talked about on her blog. The Fiddes & Sons clear wax. I have to say I really like it!

Now for my next piece. It is a dresser. When I went to pick it up the guy selling it was like, um ma'am you are the only person who even acted interested in this. Are you sure you want it? It is really ugly.

I love me some ugly furniture! ;)

Let me just show you the detail of this piece.

There I go again jump started on a project before taking pictures.

But look at these doors!

And these drawers!

The details were a bugger to get the dust out of. I had to get my air compresser out to blow the dust out of the little cracks.

Oh and I wanted to tell you all what kind of stripper I use, before I get emails asking that very thing. I use citristripper.

I just brush it on and let it sit for a while. I usually work on something else while the stripper is doing its thang. Then I use a putty knife to scrap it all up.

Here is the finish product!

Oh those drawers. I love them. I even kept the original hardware. There were too perfect for the piece. Nothing else would have worked as well.

Then I painted the inside of the doors and the drawers Misty mourn. A blue/grey color.

Now for one more piece. This one is totally different from anything else I have done...It is mid century modern.

Again no real before pictures. But I can show you what bad shape it was in.

This dresser has been around the block... if you know what I mean. ;)

It has been painted ALL sorts of colors. Just look at the side of the drawers.

Then when I got it, it was painted a crazy golden brown color with finger nail polish all over the top of it.

So I used the same colors as the other dresser and sofa table but went a different route with it.

I painted the outside white and stained the drawers the dark walnut.

I got these handles from ikea. They are called Bastig and they are $5.99 for a pack of two.

Isn't it a fun modern piece?

I again used the wax on this piece and no glaze. So that is the true color.

I didn't get to stage those dressers cuz Mr. Genius has been really busy and I can't pick these babies up by myself.  Oh well. They still look pretty good though, don't you think?

So here you go. Three pieces, same colors, three different finishes, make three different styles.

This one with stain over the white paint.

This one with ralph lauren tea stain glaze over the white.

And this one just naked white.

For those in the Chicagoland area. All items are sold except the big ornate dresser. The Cloudburst sofa table and the modern mid century dresser sales are pending.

If you have any questions, just email me.

My secret weapon and I am already thinking of winter

First of all I came on to check my blog yesterday since I got emails from photobucket that there are some issues (which they still are). But I didn't notice them for too long because what stuck out for me was the fact that I have 1000 followers! WhooHoo!

Welcome new followers! This blog started four years ago just simply to share stories about my boys because I am not a scrap booking type of mom. Then when my dad very unexpectedly passed away on December 2 of 09. I needed an outlet. I wasn't really able to mourn...the way I wanted to...because I have two little guys to care for that didn't want me to lay around in bed all day.

So to get rid of some stress and to have an outlet I started doing projects around my house.

Here is the first one and then the second one. After a lot of projects in the house I started doing furniture and from there I got the where I am now, which is to sell furniture....along with projects in the house when I have the time.

I mean really does projects around the house ever really end? ;)

One question I get asked a lot is how do I find the energy to do all this work when I am keeping up with the boys? Mostly people I know in real life ask me that since well they see my boys and how crazy active they are.

To do my projects I work during nap/quiet time and then after the boys go to bed for the night. This is also the time I blog...which is why it is hard for me to blog everyday. Especially when I am working on projects.

But the middle of day is my drowsy time of day. A lot of time I am ready to lay down and take a nap when my boys do. I needed to find a way to get some more energy but I do not drink cokes.

Now remember I am from the south, so every carbonated drink is a coke ;) Pepsi=Coke, Dr. Pepper=coke and of course Coke= Coke.

I can see why people get a little confused when talking to me...

So I guess it is time to show you my secret weapon.

A while back I noticed that Shaklee had this pomegranate flavored tea mix that helps to give you energy.

It is a natural way to give me a little pick me up. I have been using it when I needed it for the past 3 months. It totally works! Love this stuff! It tastes good too.

The tea is $29.95 but I see if you are a member it is $25.45.

On a side note... Debbie told me that this month Shaklee is running a earth day special where with a $30 order you can become a member for free! Meaning you can get the discounted prices and other special promotions.

If you have questions Debbie is a wealth of knowledge!

So that is what I use to give me that extra energy to sand, strip, and paint my furniture while still keeping up with my boys.

I have been working on quite and few pieces that I plan on showing you soon!

I am really enjoying the warmer weather so I can redo all this furniture. I get such a high when the piece is finished! I feel so much happier when I have this outlet.

Even though it is FINALLY warming up around here...still jacket weather, but warmer. I am already thinking about a way to work in my garage over the winter.

Am I sad or what?

I keep thinking is there a way I can still do this in the winter?

I ran across this website called earthwhile that sells high quality products that help save energy.

When I hear save energy, I hear...holds heat in your house! So I went searching along the site and saw that they have garage door insulation!!!

Oh earthwhile garage door insulation, you had me at hello.

For some reason it wouldn't let me copy a picture from their site. So you will have to check it out for yourself.

OH and they also have this chimney balloon...has anyone else heard of this? It keeps your chimney from being drafty. Um, yes please. Is it getting obvious that I am not a fan of Chicago winters?

Hope everyone is having a beautiful day like we are.