Things I Found

I have a problem.  If I see an Estate Sale sign I have to go.  I just can't help it.  I think it is the thrill of digging through someone else's stuff.  It is like Facebook only hands on.  I am always sure that there will be some amazing treasure waiting for me.  It's the thrill of the hunt, and as far as estate sales are concerned, I am Ted Nugent(probably not the best comparison, but seriously, what other famous hunters can you think of??).

Any way,  let me show you some of my latest finds:

Are these baby shoes the cutest things EVER.  I mean really, how could I pass them up!

This typewriter is tiny.  It is so stinkin cute!  It is like the mini me of typewriters.

Heres a look at the whole stash.  That mirror is so cool too.  You can't really see it from this picture but it isn't a regular mirror.  It has kind of a copper pink undertone to it which makes me love it even more!

All of the books and that Bible are from the 1920s and that silver plated tray just makes me happy.  

So there you have it, my latest and greatest finds.  Happy Thrusday everyone:) I hope you had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas:)  Hope you have an absolutely wonderful day!

Christmas Crafts

I thought I would take a little break from my crazy adventures at Shena's house, aka "Free Labor", to show you some of the VERY few Christmas crafts I did this year.  Last year I was all: "Make a cute ruffle tree skirt", and "handmade gifts for EVERYONE".  This year I was all "Making dinner counts as a craft right?" and "I am buying EVERYTHING cause I have no time"

Although I was SUPER lazy on the handmades this year I did manage to bust out a couple of cute crafts:

An old beat up globe painted white and a little Peace on Earth.  I also ended up adding some fabric flowers around it to add some flair but it sold so quickly I didn't get to take a finished product photo.

In the background you can see the beginning of the next craft I did:

JOY TO THE WORLD... Sung in my very best opera voice.  

My friend Amanda sends me some awesome inspiration photos for my shop sometimes.  This was a product of one of the photos she sent me.  And yes Tori Spelling... I did hot glue that rope on there!

Hope you all have a happy holiday weekend!!

Free Labor Part 5

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Like I said, this is a long story.  We busted our butts and in 5 days we were able to accomplish a lot.  

This project is close to my heart in 2 ways.  First, because it is for my little niece Stella.  She is the sweetest thing you have ever seen.  She is so cuddly and a little bit naughty.  I love that about her:) Second, because this piece was originally my grandparents.  When they died my grandpa left his bedroom furniture to me.  Unfortunately he lived down south and I wasn't able to go pick it up... thus, my sister inherited it.  I am actually really glad she has it, and that Stella gets to have a piece of it.  I think my grandparents would really like that.

This huge dresser was in rough shape though.  There were some broken parts that my dad and Kyle fixed for us, there were chunks out of the top that we had to wood fill, and the finish was not in great condition.  So, of course, we painted it:)

Stella's room is purple and green, so we stuck with that theme and painted the body white and the drawer fronts purple.  

Shena wasn't fond of the brass knobs so we sprayed them silver.

I absolutely love this piece.  I hope it stays in the family for a long long time:)

Free Labor Part 4

Holy moly we have made it to Part 4!  Did I mention we did all of this in just 5 days???  

You can read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you want to catch up.

So, lets keep going with the furniture.  Shena got this SWEET table at Pottery Barn a while back but she needed some chairs to go with it.  Let's face it, most of the budget for the dining room was blown on the table, so she got resourceful and headed to Goodwill for the chairs.

We sanded them, painted them and reupholstered them.  Have I mentioned that I hate doing chairs??  I always love the way they turn out, but the are kind of a pain in the you know what to do. All the curves and crap make it hard to sand.  Thankfully we had a paint sprayer to help us do the finish work.

We did the 2 armed chairs in a really pretty fabric you might just recognize from Part 3.

The rest of the chairs we did in a really neutral outdoor fabric.  They can be wiped down or changed easily, which is good because Shena has a one year old that might just get a little messy:)  Let's just say, no kids are allowed at the head of the table!

(If you look really hard you can see my adorable niece Stella in the background.)

I am SO happy with how the chairs turned out.  They look fabulous with her amazing table.  

Free Labor Part 3

This is kind of a long story... and we have made it to Part 3... Stick with me here folks, I promise it is worth it:)  If you want to catch up on the rest of the story you can read Part 1 here and part 2 here.  

Today I want to show you some of the furniture we busted out.  Lets start at the entry way. It only seems like the natural place to start right??

The space is fairly narrow so we had to improvise a bit to find a table skinny enough for the space.  Shena found a cool headboard at Goodwill that fit the space perfectly (thrifting is in our genes).

All we had to do was add a few pieces of trim to the front, paint it, and add some fabric to the back.

What do you think of our headboard turned entry way table??

The fabric is my favorite part... and you might just see it again in the next post;)

Free Labor Part 2

If you stopped by on Tuesday you know that my Thanksgiving week was... well... less then relaxing.  It was however EXTREMELY productive.  If you want to read the beginning to this story hop on over here.  

Not only did my dad and Kyle build a SWEET custom wine shelf, they busted out 3 more custom shelves for around Shena's TV.  Let me tell you, my dad is a huge perfectionist.  I am not.  That being said, in this case, I am glad he is a perfectionist.

Did I mention that Shena is a minimalist??  (I am SO not a minimalist:)  It was hard for me to do but decorating to someone else's taste can actually be kind of fun.  Not to mention, my sister is GREAT at decorating so doing this together was really fun.  I did manage to sneak a little picture of Luci onto those shelves:)

Next week, I will show you some of the AWESOME furniture we busted out.

Free Labor

This post is going to have to come in a series.  You see, over Thanksgiving week I went to visit my sister in Wichita Falls, TX.   She just recently moved there and after a grueling house hunt, they decided to build a custom home.  It was such a cool experience.  I mean, obviously I am living vicariously through her but it was still a cool experience for me.  My sister had me fly out there back in May to help her pick out... EVERYTHING.  We took 2 days and picked out paint colors, flooring, trim, lighting, appliances, etc.  You know, all those amazing little details that makes your house unique to you.  I will show you all of the cool details about the house in a later post, don't worry.

They finally got to move in on November 1st.  3 weeks later we all (my parents, Luci, Kyle and I) flew out there, rolled up our sleeves, and got down to business.  We started with landscaping. We planted around 17 trees and bushes and a million little ground coverings.  Next we tackled the furniture.  There was a king sized 4 poster bed, a dresser, entry way table, shelves, mirrors, and 6 dining room chairs.  Yes people, we tackled all of this in just 7 days.  Technically we did it all in 5 days since 2 of the days were for travel.  I will get to showing you all of these projects over the next month... there are just WAY too many to show in one post.

(Just a little sneak peak at the chaos that took over her garage.  I am exhausted just looking at it.)

So, let's start small.  This baby may be small but it sure does add A LOT of charm.  My dad and Kyle built this custom shelf for Shena's dining room.  She is a bit of a minimalist so this shelf was perfect for the space!

I LOVE the wine glass rack underneath.

Don't even get me started on that chandelier.  Shena was really nervous about it... I practically forced her to get it, but I think she is happy I did:)

There will be more to come soon, I promise!