Milk Paint Renovation

A couple of years ago I found a vintage cabinet that had been a built-in in an old home.  I loved the authentic shabbiness of it, bought it, and put it in the booth.  It sat there for a year.  I put it on sale 1/2 off.  Still didn't sell.  I finally came to terms with its issues.  

It was missing a piece of molding and didn't have a back. 

I should have dealt with that when I bought it!

So I got the hubster to cut some bead board for the back and replaced the missing molding.

Now I needed to paint it.  What a great piece to try out Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint! 

I bought some Flow Blue at an antique mall and have been waiting on the right piece to try it on.  This would be great!

Now I've never used milk paint before and there was definitely a learning curve on this one.  I watched MMS videos on how to mix and use the paint, then dived in.

Here's what I learned along the way:

1.  Use HOT water to mix the paint.  On my first batch I used warm and it didn't dissolve all the mix and I ended up with paste at the bottom of the cup.  I used hot tap water the second time and it mixed much faster and easier.

2.  It's hard to figure out how much paint to mix, but you want to mix enough for the project.  I didn't mix enough and had to mix a second batch and it didn't have the same color properties, almost like a different dye lot.  I ended up having to mix a third batch and repaint the whole thing so the color was consistent.

3.  Use a drop cloth and cover anything you don't want painted.  This paint is runny and I found myself making a mess with drips, which I normally don't have problems with when painting with regular paint. 

Otherwise, I love the rich, saturated color.  

Kinda hard to tell in these pictures, but it's almost a peacock blue color.

Of course the best thing about this paint is its natural chippiness.

At first I was afraid it wouldn't chip, but it did!

MMS Milk Paint turned this ok piece into an ahhh piece!

I topped it off with a coat of clear wax and it's now back in the shop.  

And now it's not embarrassed to be there!

Showing off at these parties:

Planning Central

Sometimes it's hard to keep a secret.  This little project was so fun to whip up, but it was a Christmas present so I couldn't share it until the gift was given.

Now the cat's out of the bag, so I want to show you what I put together for my daughter.  She's a wife, a new mom, a teacher, a coach, and a bible study leader.  She's busy.  Can't remember where I saw a piece that inspired this one, but here's what I created to help her stay organized.

I found a 4 piece 8x10 frame set at Kohl's.  All four frames are connected so it's one big piece.

Megan's color scheme is red, black, and gray, so I selected scrapbook papers to follow her color scheme.  Then I used my Silhouette to cut and create the words and borders for each frame.

I put a blank calendar in place so she'd have a place to record upcoming events.  

I also gave her a place to record things on her To Do list.

Every busy mom needs a place to plan for meals.

Which means she'll also need a place for her shopping list.

All of the pages were assembled and placed under the glass.  Now she can use a dry erase marker to record her needs and erase as needed.

The beauty is that she can swap out pages if other needs arise.  I suspect I'll need to make a Babysitter Notes page soon!

And the winner is...

Such sweet friends I've found in blogland!
Thank you for sharing my first year!
The winner of the ironstone mold is....

Enter a lower limit:
Enter an upper limit:
Random Number:

Miss Charming @ Charming Zebra!
Congratulations!

Three Crates Doth a Shelf Make

My hubster has skills.  Seriously.  I can say "Honey, can you do..." and he does!  Love that man!

So yesterday I was looking a three wooden crates that he brought home from a garage sale.  They're all wood and have great typography on the sides.

So he started off by screwing the three crates together.

Then he put swivel wheels on the bottom.  He got this set of 4 for $5 at Harbor Freight.

Voila!  I've got a sturdy, functional, portable bookcase!

Yep, mad skills!