Mommy (me): Okay Chacey, now remember, it’s a secret. This is a special project for Daddy. It’s Father’s Day tomorrow.

Chace (my 3 year old): okay mommy (excited giggle).

Kevin (Chef Kev) – from the hallway: Send Chace out, I want to give him a kiss goodbye. Heading out to do some errands…

Mommy: Ssssh, don’t tell Daddy. Let me wipe the paint off your hands first.

< door open and close as he goes to Daddy > 

Daddy: Bye buddy. Are you having fun doing your special secret project?

Chace: Yes Daddy. I painting. I PAINTING ROCKS!

< Daddy laughter > 

Aaand there it is.

Want to be let in on a little secret? Chace made Daddy a special rock for Father’s Day.

I bet you can’t tell that he painted it himself? Well he did. But mommy might have helped with the tag and string tying.

We had so much fun that he made one for Papa (my dad) and Pop-pops (Kevin’s dad) too!

The idea was set in motion after reading this over on one of my favourite blogs – and Chace put his own spin on it… with a bit of help from Mommy.

First up I lightly sprayed the tops of the rocks white. I didn’t coat them entirely as I wanted some of the rock to still show through but thought the white would be a nice base colour. In the end I don’t think I really needed this step though.

Once those dried, Chace and Mommy went into seclusion and the real fun began. I had thought that sticking to a colour palette for each rock would be good idea so that it didn’t just become a sea of swampy brown on each rock. Mix a bunch of colours together and that is what you get… So, started with the idea of an orange rock, a green rock and a blue one. Chace chose which colour and which rock Daddy, Papa and Pop-pops would get. The fourth rock was there as back up incase we messed up or I needed to show him what to do.

But nope. My kid is a pro and got straight to work.

There it is – the tongue out. Concentration at it’s cutest.

This was serious bidness. Brushes needed to be rinsed and wiped between each colour…

Sidenote: How cute are those P.J.’s? They are surfboards but for some reason Chace thought they were popcicles.

Double-dipper.

And then we had our three rocks painted.

So Chace moved onto the fourth and said he wanted to do it for himself.

And went to town…

I didn’t bother policing any paint mixing because paint + 3 year old = what’s the point.

But then I noticed it made some pretty funky art in it’s own right.

Speaking of artists, my little Picasso was having a great time being neat and tidy.

And yes, that is blurry black paint on his nose and lip.

almost done…

Assessing the situation once he finished his rock, Chace decided that Daddy, Papa and Pop-pop’s rocks needing some revisiting.

“more paint mommy, more paint”

Satisfied with his rockin’ (ha. get it?) creations Chace started helping Mommy clean up.

And the finished trio looked like this! I wrapped coloured string around each and tied a simple knot. No girly bows for Daddy! Mommy made a tag, cut it down and punched a hole for the string. Chace was so proud. And so he should be. Mommy is too.

The rocks were a big hit. And Chace’s little boulder was just as successful.

So what about you? Any budding artist stories? Rock painting? Spilled secrets? Dish. You know Chace would have (worst secret keeper ever). But he’s adorable so forgiven before he even opened his mouth.

Happy (belated) Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there.

Chace has a pretty awesome Dad and now Daddy has the rock to prove it.

Okay, so I kind of love shoes… I mean who doesn’t right? I don’t think I quite qualify in the fetish mode category…  but I’d definitley be considered a connoiseur.

What I don’t love however, are ugly shoe racks. Or piles of shoes in the middle of the floor as you walk into the house. Or piles in the garage right in front of the door (ahem.cough.ChefKev.cough)… but that’s for another post.

As you enter our house from the garage you open into a small hallway that leads to our rec room. To the right are stairs that go to our main floor (where the main entrance is) but to the left is a (rather large) bathroom. Since the rec room is carpeted and I don’t want to track dirt on it, my shoes end up getting removed as I enter and side-kick-shuffled (patented move) into the tiled bathroom.

Exhibit A:

Obviously we needed a shoe storage solution here.

Let me show you where my shoes live NOW (hint: it’s the big yellow dresser).

Allow me to back up and fill you in on how this ray of sunshine entered my life.

As I mentioned earlier, this bathroom is quite large. It’s actually outfitted with plumbing for a bath to go along that back wall but as the fourth bathroom in our house, and being located off the rec room, it just didn’t make sense to have a tub there.

I had always wanted to get something to go in that space (wasn’t quite sure what) but the project just never made it to the top of the priority list.

Enter Craigslist and their FREE Classified section.

I saw this and (believe it or not) I had a vision…

Yes, it was straight from the 80’s (hello, Mrs. Max Headroom is calling and she wants her dresser back), had chawesome pulls and knobs and was wearing 25 years of scuffs, dings, dirt and dog chewing, oh, and the front of one drawer had fallen off… but I could see it… SHOE STORAGE THAT I COULD TURN INTO SOMETHING PRETTY!

And so it was mine. For zero dollars.

What a pretty flower.

Funny side note – my mom called me the other day and said when I got my first desk for doing homework the first thing I said was “I’m going to change those knobs!” Ha. I guess somethings never change… but taste sure does. Apparently my dad was highly unimpressed with the cost of the ones I chose as a replacement. And yes, they had painted flowers on them.

But back to this.

I did a lot of research in deciding how to make over this piece. I’ll explain my process below.

First up was to patch the dog chewed corner. To do this use some wood filler. Start by applying a layer,  letting it dry and then applying another layer and so on until it builds up to the level of the surface you are working with. Then you sand and contour the filler to match your existing drawer. My dad did this part (thanks Dad) as he had taken the drawer to fix the broken front (he had the clamps and wood glue needed). So no pictures of these last two steps but here is one of the rebuilt corner before priming.

Next up I sanded the whole dresser. The key here is to LIGHTLY sand with the lowest grit paper you can. Since the dresser has a veneer finish you want to take off the sheen without sanding down to the particle board. This step is uber-important. Of if you are italian, uber-importantico.

Next was the priming step. I chose Kilz from Home Depot. You can see it here on the left.

Apply both your primer and paint with a mohair mini roller. I didn’t use a brush at all for this project. The mohair roller is key – do not use foam. A mini mohair roller holds and distributes your paint evenly and really gets it into your lighty sanded surface. It’s basically a small version of a good quality wall roller. Anyone who has used a foam roller for a project like this will know what I’m talking about. A foam roller will just push your paint around on your surface. Slicky McSlickerson.

Now the fun part – paint! The colour I chose is Benjamin Moore “Sun Kissed Yellow”. I had seen other dressers done in yellow during my blogland and Pinterest travels and loved the graphic punch they add to a space. For my small and windowless room I thought this colour would look great.

The paint I chose was Benjamin Moore Advance paint in a high gloss finish (seen above next to the primer). My research said this was the product for the job so I took note. It lived up to expectations and dries to a strong finish, is self levelling, easy to work with and very durable, but one thing that surprised me was how thin it was. You absolutely need to use a primer with before this product and may even want to tint it.

After some drying time and knob installation we were done. I may or may not have bought the wrong amount of knobs and had to back and get more. Seriously. It’s only 12. Not a high number to count to. Ridiculous.

Ta da!

You can see how the damaged corner turned out below. For reference it is the bottom left corner of the bottom left drawer in the photo above.

The thing that really drew me to this dresser was that the top two drawers were divided in to six quadrants with bevel detail between each section.

For the knobs and pulls I chose some that I thought would look good (found at Home Depot here and here). I chose this style because I like that it was a nod to the traditional but was going to be used on a piece that had been given a modern glossy yellow twist.

Since these were the front runner after my searching, I actually had a photo of them on my phone for a few months (shows how long this took me to do). One day while in the bathroom I noticed something about the existing taps. Ummm… match much?

It was knob fate.

Here is a different view of the room where you can see how the dresser fits into the space.

See the towel reflection? I picked those for my birthday back in March. Obviously I was planning on getting to this… just took awhile.

I love the layering of the charcoal and white chevron inspired towel paired with the bright yellow and crisp white.

One of my favourite parts of this project is that now I have a drop zone for my jewellery when I come home from work.

And of course, a new home for my shoes!

So there we have it!

What about you? Refinish any Craigslist finds recently? Did it take you months or is that just me? Hopefully you weren’t carrying around photos of knobs on your phone like I was. Um, dresser knobs people. That came out really wrong.

My last post was all about my rockin’ Carlos Bakery cupcake (yes, THE Cake Boss)! And this post is about the favour I did that brought that little cupcake into my life (oh cupcake, how I miss thee).

My favour was … well favours! At least the tags anyway.

During the cupcake carnage Natalie tied the tags to the suckers and these suckers were done!

Sweet success (get it… chocolate, sweet…. ). Stick to my day job?

Anyway, the shower was a great hit and mama-to-be was very surprised. Here are a few detail shots of the night.

I love how Natalie made ‘wine charms’ out of ribbon that matched the theme. So simple yet so pretty!

… again with the cupcakes…

I loved this pattern on the napkins. I want drapes made out of it. But fabric please. I don’t think paper napkin drapes wash well.

Loved the little onesie garland. They were hung on a ribbon attached to her mantle.

no shower is complete without tissue poofs 😉

This little baby happens to be due on my birthday. I can’t wait to meet him – I’m already one of his biggest fans 😉

Speaking of fans – are you a fan of the favours? If so, you may like these too if you missed them. A sweet tea party themed favour for a special little baby girl.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some chocolate with my name on it. Well, not MY name but know what I mean.

I have a tray table – let’s call her Sally. Sally and I go way back, about 10 years or so. She used to live on the deck in my old condo but moved inside once we moved to our current place about five years ago. She hangs out in the ‘family area’ off the kitchen and is used daily. That Sally, she’s a keeper.

But she wasn’t a looker. Maybe once, but not anymore.

The grass cloth inlay was in okay shape but a closer look at the wood and it was easy to see that Sally’s years were showing. Read that as wrinkles and sags (sorry Sally).

source

My task? The favours. And what better favour for a tea party than some tea!?

Pink and girly? check. Tea bag holding? check. Tags that look like the end of tea bag? checkity check.

Interested in how I made them? This could serve as invaluable information should you ever find yourself lunching with the Queen or hanging poolside with Wils and Waity Katey KMid. What? It could happen.

First off was the contents. One of my other shower planner gals picked up the tea and chose a nice assortment of a great brand. We wanted to give them a tea that could be as good as what we had at the shower and this variety is Mighty (ha, get it?) high on the yummy-scale.

Each guest got a selection and they were placed in to the pink pillow boxes that you see in the top pic. Which, by the way I found for steal. $5 on clearance at Michaels for a pack of 20! They were in the wedding favour section but I think they work just perfectly to celebrate a pretty baby girl.

Next up was to design and print the label tags. I designed them to look like the ends of tea bags (the part at the end of the string that hangs out of the cup). On them they say “Thank you for attending Julia’s first tea party” along with the shower date.

For those wondering, I designed the tags in my graphic design layout program – Adobe Indesign – but I’m sure you could mock up something similar in your program of choice.

Once printed, I began trimming. First the flat horizontal and vertical cuts on my small cutter. A cutter like this can be found in the scrapbook section of a craft store.

And then I simply freehand cut the little notched edges with regular scissors.

Then I was on to creating the ‘string’ part of the tea bag tag (say that five time fast – tea bag tag. tea bag tag. tea ba…). Knowing that I wanted the ‘string’ to have some life (more on that later) I used pink wire (again, found at the craft store for $5 – deal!). Yes, you read that right, pink! And it must have been meant to be as I got the last roll. Somewhere Molly Ringwald is smiling down. Did I just date myself? “Pretty in Pink”… anyone? <crickets>. Dang.

To create the hole I needed something small. It was at this point I decide that in the future I was going to buy a teeny tiny hole punch because this project marked the 537th time that I wished I had one. But I don’t so I came up with ‘plan B’.

Yes, cardboard and a picture hanging nail. And a very complicated trades skill known as “poking nail through paper in to cardboard”. True story.

After my highly technical hole making I needed to loop my string wire in to the tags.

I used to make jewellery so have some old tools from my teenage bead days. To make a wire loop you:

a) start by bending your wire at a 90° angle (with pliers is easier than by hand)

b) grasp the end with some round nose pliers (like the ones here – I got mine at a bead store) and begin rolling in towards your bended angle (you will be rolling counter clockwise). Only roll the pliers, hold the wire still.

With your loop almost closed you will want to slip in your tag and then tighten up your loop by gently squeezing the outer edges with your pliers.

Now, back to the part about giving the string wire some ‘life’. The reason I used the pink wire was so that my string wire could have some curl and ‘flow’ to it. I didn’t want it to lay flat on the pillow boxes but rather have a little flair – as if the tag had just floated down and landed on the box.

To do that I stole the wooden dowel from one of Chace’s toy flags (What? He was sleeping. I returned it before he woke up) and twisted my wire up the dowel.

Then I slipped the dowel out and pulled/loosened the curl so it wasn’t so rigid and uniform looking.

Then I used a ‘glue dot’ and stuck my tag to the top of my pillow box full of tea. For those not familiar with what a glue dot is you can see some here. They are basically little strong adhesive dots of glue that roll on like tape from a tape runner.

I placed the tag off centre and on an angle.

Then I simply bent my string wire and tucked it in to a corner of the box.

And faster than you could say ‘orange pekoe’ we were done!

The tea party was a great success and everyone seemed to really enjoy the favours.

However, no matter how cute they were, they paled in comparison to the whole reason we were gathering to celebrate…

HOW CUTE IS SHE!? adorable. … squishy, sweet, serene, breathtakingly adorable.

It was a great afternoon.

A few more shots of our fancy little tea party.

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday and are gearing up for some fun for tomorrow night –  New Year’s Eve! We’re off for a quiet(ish) night of drinks and games at a friend’s and looking forward to ringing in 2012!

With Christmas having just passed, I’d like to share a few of the touches that made our Christmas day dinner extra special. We hosted this year and Chef Kev took care of our amazing meal while I got busy making sure the house was festive and beautiful.

Here is the table centrepiece that I designed… and how I did it!

First I started with a bunch of grocery store bouquets. I really like designing my own arrangements and find these bouquets fit the ‘bill’ as they are cheaper then nursery or florist cut flowers. Plus by doing the arrangement myself I get to do something fun and creative!

The best part about this year was that my little ‘punch card’ at the supermarket was full (where they punch your card every time you buy some flowers and when your card is full you get some free) so this whole arrangement cost me $6! $26 if I didn’t have a full punch card.

My table setting was going to feature red and white so I wanted to reflect that in my arrangement. I came home with some red carnations, white dahlias, baby’s breath and some green tiger grass.

Then I chose my vase style (low and long for this project) and added my floral preserve. I like keeping my centrepieces low so that when dining it doesn’t distract from, or impede seeing and conversing with my guests!

Next I added in some cranberries since they are so Christmasey and look so pretty ;)… plus they actually do have an added benefit when designing your arrangement. The cranberries hold your flowers in place so there is no need for foam, frogs or a tape grid (sounds like a bad 80’s band name – “the foam frogs and tape grids”) but I digress…