Pretty Scary...

... or don't do projects in front of a mirror...

I have to do the vast majority of my 'projects' outside because we share our basement with the landpeople and are relegated to one room for laundry and storage. This wouldn't be a problem aside from the fact that A) Our laundry abode doesn't afford us any windows for ventilation and B) Mr. Pretties doesn't so much love having pink spray paint on his work uniform... so mostly I go outside. This morning Mr. Pretties helped me haul out the LP's big dresser, a little dresser, and my washstand that weighs more than both combined, I swear! I was ready for some work during naptime!

As you may remember, the LP's dresser has a swing mirror on top. I decided not to remove the mirror because it's a pain to put back together. I got the pink drawers all distressed and put back in and started working on the little dresser beside it. here I am all sanding away right, into it when I think I hear something, maybe someone coming up behind me. I'm a paranoid person by nature (Mr. Pretties can attest, he never comes up behind me because I scream like a banshee every. freaking. time.), which is made worse when I can't hear what's going on (believe it or not, a sander does not allow for good audio control...) around me. So I turn around to see if maybe the landpeople have made their way into the backyard when my gaze is met by the most ungodly looking girl with wild greying hair, pasty looking face and horrified eyes. Needless to say an accident of bathroomical proportions nearly took place.

Until, that is, I realized that the frightful girl I was having heart palpitations about was actually my reflection. My reflection in which both my hair and my face are covered in white crap from sanding. I'm such a huge dork it's unreal. If that weren't bad enough, five minutes later I did the exact same thing again...

What's the old saying?

"Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me"?

What does that say for me? Shame on me squared because I'm scared of my own reflection!?

I think I've finally reached the toxic level of breathing in lead paint particles...

Dresser Love

It's been so long since I've used my sander that I forgot how to put the sandpaper on... resulting in me spending half an hour swearing at it for being such a cheap piece of crap... obviously I am the cheap piece of crap in this story, that's what happens when you get rusty!

I found the girls' a new dresser for their room last week. Did they need a new dresser? No. Is it a bigger dresser? No. But is it a better dresser? Hells yes! So I sold their old one, and bought this one. Please note that it had just been sanded down and will turn into a sweet concoction of dreamy pink and white with oval glass knobs shortly.

See the sweet little details that makes it special?

As I was emailing my girlfriend to tell her about this sweetheart (she's probably the only other person I know who loves furniture, antique markets, and sanders as much as I do) I realized what a freak I am, and that I should share it since I've been lacking blog fodder lately ;)

Firstly, I absolutely adore the mustly smell of well aged furniture. As soon as we had this in the house I opened the first drawer, stuck my head in and took a giganitic whiff of musty well aged goodness. Mmm... heavenly... Mr. Pretties pretended not to see this taking place, things like this make him worry about my sanity ;)

Secondly, as you can see this dresser has two litte drawers. I love little drawers, they are so adorable there aren't even words to describe how adorable it is. So I took one of them out and gave it a hug. Seriously. A hug. Mr. Pretties simply responded with 'You're sick...' which may or may not be true... sometimes I'm just so over come by the absolute adorableness of a piece of shabby furniture that I can't contain myself. This piece came with bubbled veneer on the top, rusted paint (wth?) spots, and a really crappy super shiney sponge painted paint job that was in dire need of redoing. It also came with gorgeous spindled legs, wonderful original appliques, dovetailed drawers back and front, and that fantabulous smell. I think the good out weighs the bad 20 fold. My old disappointment is I bought it for the Pretties' room instead of mine ;)

I'll show the after pictures when it's done, which may be a while as I'm waiting for glass hardware to come in for it, it's already ordered but international mail is slow, snail mail to the max.

Cuteness...

I think we all have come to realize that I have a soft (as in mush) spot for chairs. Chippy, shabby, beat up chairs in particular. Obviously. So in my Kijiji travels (I really need to stop...) I came across this:

It's an old canned nursing rocker. Fortunately the caning is in fabulous shape (Thank goodness for that, I am no caner let me tell you!) and all it needs it some loving, some painting, and some wax rubbing, shabby chic style ofcourse. It will then require an adorably delicious shabby frou frou pillow to keep it company. Which I have the technology for. Just look at those legs? Aren't those the most adorable chair legs ever? And that little crown on the top of the back splat? Total sweetness. I may invest is some wood appliques for this piece, I think the back splat needs a little something, but not too much because it's just so sweet all on it's own! Mr. Pretties even likes it, even though we need to drive over an hour away to pick it up... I'll definitely be sharing the end result (seriously, don't be surprised if it's the same as the starting result, I have a tendency to like it a little too much the way it is...)

I was thinking I'd love to do something like 'Makeover Monday' each Monday, and show the end results of furniture we've done, but that would mean we would need to do a piece a week, and by extension buying a piece a week... not sure I could hook Mr. Pretties on that one. Not saying I wont try though ;)

I Have A New Hero...

... And she lives at BeTasseled. My new favorite blog. Seriously. I am so giddy that I found this tutorial I feel like calling Mr. Pretties at work and requesting he come home immediately so I can go to the fabric store and purchase some most excellent fringe. I could so very easily develope a fab fringe fetish. Mmm... I'm kind of getting that rolling around in a pile of sweet, sweet fringe need again, you know, like with the ribbon pile... I'll resist though, because, again, I am not a cat. That doesn't mean I don't wish I were right now...

Anyways... now that my weirdness has reared it's bizarre little head again let's take a look, shall we? She makes these adorable tassels like this:

And like this:

And she was even sweet enough to make a tassel tutorial with step-by-step instructions on how to create your own tantilizing tassel! How great is that? Talk about sharing the wealth! How much do you love that?!

I lurve me some tassels, and that blog actually. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a little tassel pie on the side! Yumilicious!

Now if you're not into the DIY scene Nester makes some amazing tassels too and sells them at her Etsy shop that you can reach via her blog. You have to move fast though, they're a hot commodity! She also has a great post today about all the many, many uses of a tassel to pretty a place up, so if you're not sure why you'd ever want a tassel, let alone need head on over and check it out!