Yes, Spring is here!!!

OMG I have been waiting for nice weather for soooooooooooo long. Today was 70 degrees here and yes you guessed it, I spent all day out in my garage painting and finishing stuff.
So here is my most recent makeover, I got 2 dressers a while ago on KSL for $20, yes 2 matching awesome dressers.
I was not sure what was I going to do with them so I had them sitting there for a while.
Finally I took the plunge and I splurged on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, yes!!! And I LOVE it.
Yes the stuff is pricey but I was set on a nice look for my dressers, I got a quart of Old White for $38, a can of Clear Wax for $35 and a nice and expensive boar hair brush for $29, ouch!! But it was worth it!
Can we say fast and awesome looking finish??? This paint is amazing, first, no priming , you just slap it on any surface and it sticks. Then it dries in like 2 hours, so I was able to finish my dresser in one day, yep. Also one can goes a long way , I was able to give my dresser 2 coats, which covered nicely, with a small mason jar full of paint.
I was so eager to start my project with this paint, that I forgot to take before pics!!! ughhh!!!! But no worries, I will take pics of the sister dresser so you can see what this one looked like before.

Here it is, after I painted it with 2 coats of Old White, I waxed it with Annie Sloan clear wax and buffed it ( I got some muscles now!!). After that I wanted a tiny bit of gold accents on the distressed parts, so I used Gilder's Paste on German Silver . I love it.

There is the little gilder's paste can , you just wipe on with your finger to give it a nice aged and golden affect. I also sprayed the hardware with Rustoleoum's Hammered Gold, to match the paste.

I'm in love, and I will start the other one tomorrow.

I also got a chance to work on my boys' desk, I painted it and did the crakle effect and it turned out awesome!!!
Here is a little sneak peek. After this I will try and mod podge the map on top. Wish me luck!!!
Cheers!!!

P.S: My oldest daughter went to Prom today!

 

Isn't she a beaut?

25 random things

It's been a while, I have not finished any projects or cooked any new recipes.
Weather has been completely horrible and uncooperative and well since I work swings I spend my only day off cleaning like a mad ...maid.
I was on Facebook today and I saw this 25 random things post from years ago. I thought it needed an update, so here are 25 random things, facts,  about me. Enjoy!

1- People tell me I look mean and unfriendly sometimes, but that has helped me keep certain people at bay and the ones who made through the wall, are usually the ones worth keeping.
2- I always loved school, life and certain circumstances didn't allow me to continue, but I just registered for Fall semester at WSU and I am as giddy as a High School girl.
3- I have discovered I am quite creative, I never cared to develop that side of myself, but I am loving it.
4- As a young person I never knew how much I would love being a mom.
5- I identify with dark characters ( Snape, Loki etc), I think the ones whith a "dark" facade are often the ones who love the strongest, they just don't know how to show it.
6- I have an irrational fear of frogs.
7- I am a nerd. I have read over 1000 books and watched over 3000 movies so far.
8- I am very impatient, and I often make mistakes because I have to find a faster and better way...live and learn.
9- As a child, I always knew I would live in a foreign country and speak a different language.
10- I am an overthinker, but I find that doing tedious tasks, like sanding furniture, keeps my thoughts at bay.
11- I am a research addict, I can spend hours on the computer looking for info about something. I love information!!
12- I believe God always throws you a bone in dark times, you just have to know how to smell it out and hold on to it.
13- I love being alone, I mean I like friends, but I enjoy loneliness to a strange degree lol.
14- I love music, I want to learn how to play piano.
15- I am a great arguer.
16- I am brutally honest and no, I can't control it.
17- I have 8 crowns, no, not on my head...in my mouth.
18- Someday, I will go to India.
19- Life has taught me that food is not one of life's little pleasures...it has many consecuences lol.
20- I was born in Argentina.
21- I am ambidextrous.
22- I love to dance, I miss those awesome church dances in Miami!!
23- I really could care less what people think of me, I am who I am and if you don't like it well, keep walking!
24- I can't take compliments. ( yes I already had therapy for this lol, but I still can't)
25- I am glad this old note thing got restarted, I like to know more about people.


Cheers!

Rain, rain go away...

What a horrible day!!! I swear Spring Break is always like this, it either snows or rains.
Luckily, Sunday was a beautiful day, we were able to do our egg hunt and Dallin won. The kids had fun and we even went to the park with the dogs.
If you look closely you can see the eggs have religious sayings, my mom who has little idea of what things mean or say in English , got these eggs at Walmart, when my teen was helping me hide them, she was like " Mom, these eggs say team Jesus, and they have crosses, who would make Team Jesus' eggs??" LOL we had a good laugh. The important thing is that they were filled with candy, and that is all my kids care about.

Yesterday, the day started gray and rainy, nothing compared to our beautiful Sunday.
It was my day off since they were doing inventory at work, but of course it had to be yucky.
I was hoping I could get my first coat of flat paint on my boys' desk, but Mother Nature is being mean to me again ...
So I worked on my abandoned couch, yes the one I started like a month ago! I do not know why this project is taking me so long but it is done, now my mom needs to help me sew the pillows. Pics to come!
So I was confined to my kitchen looking out my window to a gray sky, and I thought what can I do ? I needed a chore system and I started looking .
I found many ideas but they all required a few items I did not have, so I stuck with the one I thought was easiest. I found this particular project at a blog I follow, you can check it out here Chore Jar .
My kids have always wanted to have paid chores, and I thought, hey why not, I have never been very good at keeping up with allowances so this would make me have a good paying schedule and hopefully a cleaner house.
The original chore jar was color coded ( which I did not do and I am regreting) and it was not a paid chore system. So what I did was come up with the chores and values and I printed my own, the blog I got it from has all the sheets with the color papers and blank ones to print your own chores. So helpful!
After printing all the chores strips, put a movie on and start cutting, yes if you want to have LOTR or Harry Potter marathon this is the right project for it!
What you will need:
Popsicle sticks ( the wide ones)
Mod Podge
Paper and Scissors
Printer
Big glass jar or a can
Number of tin cans or glass jars for kids names ( I got the tin buckets at Walmart for $1 each)

I even added bad behavior sticks with -$.25 and Memorize an Article of Faith for $.50 . You can totally customize this to what you want. Keep the prices low or you will brake the bank at the end of the week, especially if you have lots of kids!
Most of my everyday chores were $.25 or $.50, then I did some weekly ones for $1.00 to $2.00 and the odd ones like yard work, wash the car or clean the blinds for $5. Again you can come up with your own and fill these up however works best for your house and kids.
The original poster had the chores printed if you like to use them but they did not have money value so I just used the blank strips.
Once you are done cutting, just glue the papers to the sticks with Mod Podge and put a coat on top for the nice smooth finish and to give them some protection. And voila! It took quite some time but it was easy. I need to make some more of the " make bed" and "set the table" ones and a few other daily chores since I have 4 kids. So make sure you have plenty.
Here is it!

I must say my boys are totally into it, they are both very motivated by money so they tackled some of the most expensive ones and now I have a clean car, a very organized media cabinet and very clean walls!! Woot! My girls, well they are another story lol, Brenna is my rebel child and she does things when she wants to, and the ones she must. So she still gets paid but just for the stuff she deems necessary. Val does things but since she is much older I told her to not abuse the system and give her siblings a chance, she has been a good sport so far. Now they collect sticks throughout the week and pay day is on Saturday. They all gather up the sticks and add up how much they made.
It has worked very well so far. I'll let you know when they get bored with it.
Have a great week and lets hope this weather gets better! ugh!
Cheers!