dresser redo's and a bed

 z didnt really have a good bed set.  when he moved down stairs, we got my a bed set from my sister.  it served its purpose, but i wanted something that he could eventually take with him....  some LONG distant day down the road.  i got a pretty good deal on these 2 dressers.  the top on 1 was a bit rough, but i thought i could maybe fix or paint it.  best part is they are real wood and pretty solid and sturdy. 

 apparently i didnt get very many before pictures.  but this is what the tall dresser looked like with a few drawers sanded and original.  there were some wood decals on the front of the smaller middle drawers that werent complete.  i ended taking them off (with a little muscle and a putty knife) so i had to sand all the drawer fronts.  at this point i wasnt sure if i wanted to try to fix the tops or paint them.  

but i liked the color that came out when i sanded, so paint the tops it was (i know i DONT paint wood.  this was a once in a handful of times it will probably ever happen to furniture) 

had i known how hard it can be to strip off veneer, i may have decided to fix the tops.  it was NOT fun.  took LOTS of muscle, a few different putty knives and a warm wet towel.  once i finally got all the veneer off, i did like the wood.  but i only stripped 1 top and i wasnt about to to the other, no matter how neat the wood underneath was.  

here are the drawers after i got them washed up.  beautiful color!!!

and the finished result!  i like the 2 tone wood from sanding the drawer fronts and just resealing the sides.  i did use a chalk paint fro the tops, but wanted a more rustic feel to them, so i used my palm sander to remove some of it.  

now you must be thinking i said i wanted z to have a bed set to take with him someday. but you have only mentioned dressers.... i had to have a headboard, foot board and frame made.  blake did an awesome job taking my ideas from pinterest and making it come true.  i love how the boards are all different widths.  and its very sturdy.  

guest room

don't get me wrong, i love my guest room.  but i REALLY miss little a:( 

she is awesome.  my 1st big girl.  everyone thought i was nuts when i said she was moving here.  but i knew in my mommy heart it was going to be fine.  and it was.  we both gained so much.  

me-a daughter & friend.  

her-knowledge, courage & faith in herself.  

but when she moved out, i knew it was time to repaint her room. 

(sorry little a-dad-maybe all of us-were tired of the pink) 

my talented father in law painted us this far off barn sunset picture.  it was the starting point for the room, drawing colors and a theme.  

 for christmas my uncle had given us all a photo of mom & papa's big red barn.  it was taken from up on a dirt road behind our house.  we used to play in there for hours when we were kids.  unfortunately mom had to burn it down, it just wasnt safe anymore.  but she did take some pictures as it was burning. 

i had gotten this cool old window a while ago.  but didn't have it when we were hanging stuff in the main living areas.  and i didn't know how to hang it when i was working on our room and i may have forgotten about it.  but i knew the perfect new home for it. 

the mirror came from one of the dressers in this room, but i never could figure out how it was supposed to attach.  then little a broke the frame.  so it hung out in the storage room for a while.  i had my father in law make a barn wood frame for it.  the table came from grandma bert's.  if any of you knew her, she is probably where i get my love for antiques from.  i had painted it (i know how could i???) but i stripped it back to it's original beauty.  

what time is it??? its time to craft!!!

i had a really hard time finding a clock for the craft room.  i wanted something big cause i had the wall space & so that it could be seen from anywhere in the room.  i was going to have a craft friend paint me something, but i couldn't even decide on what to have painted.  

but then i was looking for a whisper clock.  i have a thing with the tick, tick, tick of clocks.  i have been called captain hook before.  i cant sleep when i hear that tick.  when i was in the hospital after having z & p, i took the clock off the wall and covered it with crap to quiet the sound.  crazy i know.  

so when i was looking for the whisper clock i found those BIG family clocks.  and a light went off.  i could have the kids paint some pictures for me & use those as my numbers!  it was interesting trying to find the canvas' that didn't cost me an arm & a leg.

  then z didn't want to paint.  so it was just p & e.  then e got tired of painting...

i really love my clock.  art work with meaning.  i can look and see how both girls have grown with their art.  

baby doll clothes

my awesome friend talked me into making some doll clothes for her little girl.  miss a just loves the diaper bag and accessories i made for her a while back.  but she mom says she needed a few outfits to dress her babies in.  isnt that part of the fun?  changing the clothes.  i know i loved doing that.  

lucky for me miss has the same size baby as my girls.  i made 2 tops, a skirt, some pants and a dress.  

and if miss a is anything like my baby, we have to have a blankie to cover and wrap baby in.  hope you enjoy them miss a!

color quiet book

sorry for the photo overload, but this is just too cute to NOT share a picture of every page. 

t & two of my nieces were all born in the same year.  for some reason that makes me think that everything i do for one, i need to do for the other two.  i made each of them a doll.  and this year for their birthday's its going to be a dolly diaper bag & supplies & this color book.   

this is the cover.  

and the back. 

i loved making these for the girls.  i did have some pictures/patterns to follow, but for quite a few of the pages i ended up coming up with my own idea.  t loved playing with the ribbons & buttons on the pages.  

its supposed to be spring

i thought it was sping.  that's what the calendar says, and how its kinda felt for the past week or so.  but apparently mother nature has different ideas.

i would guess we around 6" of snow.  our poor ornamental apple tree always buds out and blooms early.  he wont look very pretty for the rest of the year.  

it was pretty windy last night and yet into this morning.  my snow covered shed. 

and our trees doing their job, stopping wind and creating drifts.  i miss my big tree line!!! i didnt notice the north winds unless it was blowing over 50 mph.

to help us think happy warm spring thoughts, i thought i better share my new bunting.  i used a little help from walmart with the carrots.  they were on a shorter hemp twine.  and i wanted some bunnies for easter. using glitter felt and buttons left over from b's baby shower, i sewed two bunnies together and then added the buttons.  

1, 2, 3 little mermaids

e was very into mermaids last summer.  so into them in fact, we had to have a golden pink princess mermaid birthday party (sharing a party with big princess sis who turned 20 on the 20th)  i had wanted to get these mermaid dolls done then but life happened.  

i think part of the slow process was that i wanted to make a doll and then a mermaid skirt.  but turns out the girls didnt want legs.  if only i would learn to ask, it would save me headache & time.  e wanted her mermaid green.  

p wanted hers with the multi colored minky fleece.  i dont recommend trying to make your mermaid from this.  it just wasnt as much fun as regular fleece.  

and since t couldnt really tell me she got the next girly fleece scrap that i had left.  i embroidered each girls eye color.  (it was hard to get p's dark green and e's hazel) 

i love how the hair turned out.  i used 4 different yarns and some silver ribbon that i had left over from another project.  the different colors and textures make it seem like they are underwater, hair moving with the currents of the ocean.