Furniture Fix

Little Yellow Barn

2012-04-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed, I've disappeared from this blog! :) But for a good reason...

A friend and I have started a new blog, head on over and check it out! It's still the same concept- furniture refinishing, but with a lot more things going on! We're so excited about it and can't wait to see where it goes, so help us out and FOLLOW US, share us with your friends, GRAB A BUTTON, etc.

Thanks for your support!

Ashley

Little Yellow Barn

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

2012-01-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

That's right. I said it. Homemade. Oh wow, I used to make so much fun of my older sister for doing things like this (sorry Kim!) and today I found myself calling her for a recipe for homemade soap. My skin is so sensitive and she made some homemade soap over Christmas, gave me some, I tried it and w.o.w. it's fantastic. Anyway, as soon as I get that recipe I'll post it, but for now, the agenda for tonight is...

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 c washing soda
1/2 c Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

Fill a five-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover, and let sit overnight to thicken.

Stir and fill a used, clean laundry soap dispenser (or a gallon milk carton) half full with soap and then fill the rest of the way with water. Shake before each use. (It will gel)

Optional: add 10-15 drops of essential oil per each 2 gallons.

*For a front load machine add 1/4 cup per load

Yield: Approximately 640 loads

I'm not going to lie, I haven't actually tried this yet; tonight is a first. BUT I got it from my extended family website of a million chefs (not that you have to be a chef for this, but guess it can't hurt, right?) and everyone raved about it. Apparently it ends up being less than one cent per load and $2 per batch. Here was my cost:

Fels-Naptha Soap Bar: $1.79

Washing Soda: $3.59

Borax: $3.84

Total: $9.22

Ridiculous, right? The soda and borax boxes are huge also so this will last forever!

Where to Buy:

Fels-Naptha- I couldn't find it at Target, ended up buying it from Fry's, but I'm guessing any regular grocery store would have it. It was in the laundry section (obviously) in a white and green soap wrapper.

Washing Soda- Again, couldn't find it at Target, bought at Fry's. In laundry section. Made by Arm & Hammer. Yellow box.

Borax: Found at Target and Fry's. White box.

Obviously I'm super excited to try this. I'll keep you posted on what I think! :)

Aqua Spray Paint Before & After

2012-01-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

I refinished this cedar hope chest for my sister before I moved to Arizona last year, except I didn't have time to paint the handles and fix the missing lock hole. My sister promise she would do it, I even showed her how, yet every time I went back to Utah to visit the poor hope chest was still unfinished. :) Sooo, this past week I finally decided it was time. It had to be done.

Here's a little bit of the process. I primed with KILZ spray paint (I think 2 coats) and sanded lightly in between. Then spray painted a few coats of this...

After that it looked like this...

Then glazed the entire piece with a black glaze. This picture shows what exactly glaze does. The left side is bare and the right side has already been glazed. It makes a huge difference...

Glaze up close...

And another before & after...

It was hard to find a replacement for the missing lock so I decided to browse Hobby Lobby and see what I could come up with. I ended up with this cute little thing- I think I found it in the scrapbook section? I could be wrong though. Anyway, I just glued it on there and it ended up looking really cute..

Spray painted the handles with black(ish) metal spray paint...

And 11 months later she's finished! :)

Espresso Paint

2011-12-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

I helped my friend, Robyn, refinish a dresser before Christmas and it turned out awesome. It was so fun to have someone to paint with and definitely sped the process up a ton!! We had the thing sanded, primed, and painted all in 2 days. Here she is...

Before & After

I haven't painted anything this color yet- which is really weird, I know- so I was happy to try it out! The piece wasn't solid wood, so we:

1. Sanded

2. Primed with KILZ (we had Home Depot tint it cream color so it would show through once we distressed it)

3. Painted with Behr (if you'd like the color leave a comment)

4. Distressed with good 'ol sand paper

5. Rubbed a little stain over it (because I love how it takes normal cream colors and antiques them a little bit)

------------------------------------------

We bought the hardware at Hobby Lobby (of course) but knew it would be too dark...

So we brushed on some extra cream-colored primer with our fingers (really technical :))...

Super excited with how it turned out and SUPER excited about the pictures I MADE my friend take of it for me :) Finally a decent furniture shot... thank you Jourdan!! ....

I always hate seeing furniture go, but love getting ready for new projects! :)

Restaining Furniture

2011-12-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

My husband recently went to The Biggest Loser Fitness Ridge in Malibu, CA and was gone for an entire month so I thought it would be a good idea to finish my kitchen table while he was gone. THOUGHT being the key word. :) It was actually great timing to do it, but way too hard being a single mommy for the month AND trying to accomplish all these crazy tasks I set up for myself. I make life way harder than it needs to be... but it's fun, let's be honest. So here's the table project...

Before:

After:

Not the best picture in the world (especially with my sweet salmon colored walls I always complain about), but you get the idea.

THE PROCESS:

We bought our table at an outlet store and it already needed lots of help. THEN somewhere in there I may or may not have spilled wood glue on it and forgot to clean it. Ooopsies. This is how bad my table was before...

I, with help of my awesome friends, carried the sucker out to my garage, took it apart and slapped a coat of stripper on it. You don't HAVE to use stripper, but it's awesome and saves a lot of time sanding. It lifts the stain without you having to do really any work, and it's great for all the crevices, sigh... I hate that word, it's almost as bad as "moist" :). Read the directions on the can... you want to be careful applying it, just brush it over one time, let it sit for 15ish minutes, then...

scrape it with a putty knife. A few layers of nastiness should come right off. (If it doesn't you've probably let the stripper dry on there too long.) ...

Tip: Use an empty box to scrape all the goop into, it makes the process a lot less messy. And p.s. WEAR GLOVES!

The left side of this table has been stripped once, the right side has been stripped twice (just to give you an idea of what the stripper does). ...

I stripped it one more time, then sanded the table almost all the way down to the bare wood. Most spots were bare, I left a few just to give it a little character. And, well, I was sick of sanding. :) As you get closer to being finished with sanding you'll want to use a finer grit of sand paper. I started out using coarse because I'm impatient, but if you're smart, start out with medium grit, then fine, then super fine...

After that I cleaned the table really well, then SHOULD HAVE applied a wood conditioner, but didn't. If you're doing this yourself I'd for sure recommend using a conditioner. Why? What happened? Well, I'll tell you what happened :) ... I started brushing my stain on and the table pretty much turned black! I wanted it dark, but not THAT dark! I used Minwax Dark Walnut and have used it plenty of times before and it's never been that dark so the table must have been super dry. So... I just decided to brush it on everywhere and hope for the best, and after a few hours it still looked sooo dark. I looked online to find any kind of answers and the few answers I did find weren't available to me at 11pm, so I came up with a little something myself. Maybe don't tell anyone. And keep this off the record, because I'm sure any professional would tell me I'm crazy and I totally messed up... but ...

I totally Goof Off'ed my entire table. Yes, I said it. Goof Off. And did it work? Yes, it sure did! HA! Who'da thought!? The stain lifted just enough to make me happy. After that I ended up brushing stain on a few more times to get it just the color I wanted, waited for it to dry, then followed with a few coats of MinWax Polyurethane. Polyurethane (oil based) because I've read horror stories about anything water-based on kitchen tables - including this story HERE.

Then, and probably most important, don't use the table for 2-3 weeks. It may feel dry, but trust me, don't use it!

It's not a perfectly even job, but I like how it turned out with a little bit of the lighter color popping through! 6 years later and we finally have a nice looking table, phewsh!

Elf... and a Table

2011-12-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

I found this on a blog last year and LOVED it! ...

This is also a preview of my kitchen table I just refinished after a long 6 years of desperately NEEDING attention!! My husband and I bought it just after we got married at an outlet store for about $100, it just needed some help. Weeelll, 6 years and lots of table cloths later it's finally done. Here's the horrendous before (which, I'm actually embarrassed of now)...

Don't mind my son in the picture :) ... or my HIDEOUS salmon colored walls for that matter! If it wasn't a rental it would've been painted before we even stepped foot in the door :)

Anyway, as soon as I get some better pictures of it I'll post it. I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

North Pole Sign

2011-11-19T14:10:00.002-07:00

After I made my stocking sign, I still had PLENTY of wood left over, so I decided to make a North Pole directional sign as well. I've seen direction signs all over the internet and absolutely adore them, sooooo...

Up close...

Sooo excited with how this one turned out also. Can't wait to put it by my front door!

And don't worry, there's still a huge stack of this wood left, so there will be plenty of projects left to make with this. :)

For the HOW TO of printing on wood, click HERE.

And again, a HUGE thanks to my friends Jake & Jourdan for helping me with this!!

The Stockings Were Hung...

2011-11-18T16:17:00.002-07:00

In Arizona they don't have dumps where you can take all your large garbage to, they have this super awesome system where once a month you leave out anything on the street you want picked up by a truck. This works out great for two reasons. 1-You don't have to make trips to the dump- the dump comes to you. And 2- You get to look through other people's garbage to see if you want any of it! :) Last week as I was dropping my daughter off at preschool I drove by a house with a huge pile of wood to be trashed and immediately turned around and threw it in the back of my car. And don't worry, I went back twice more to get the rest. :) The wood is absolutely perfect and SO my style. Anyway...

We don't have a fireplace this year in the house we're renting, so I decided to make my own sign to hang our stockings...

Sorry about the background!

I LOVE how it turned out! Now I just need to add a couple holes and some ribbon or twine to hang it on my wall.

HOW TO:

Items needed:

wood

Citra Solv

Paint brush

Laser printer

1. Cut wood and assemble however you like.

A SUPER HUGE thanks to my awesome friends Jake & Jourdan for helping me with it! They have all the tools anyone could ever want, so I took it over to be cut and Jake totally cut and glued the entire thing for me!! So so nice of him!!

2. I found a way on Pinterest to transfer printer ink onto wood and it worked awesome! (click HERE for the full tutorial) This method I used only works with a laser printer, so make sure that's what you have before starting. I used Word to flip my letters because you have to flip the paper over to transfer the ink...make sense? If you're using Word also, go to create word art, choose lettering and use the formatting palette (the side bar) to flip your image. Press the rotate button and flip horizontal.

3. Once you have your image printed, line it up on the board and make sure it's exactly how you want it, then turn your image over, ink side down.

4. Citra Solv is a natural degreaser that can be found in natural food stores, I found mine at Whole Foods. Pour a small amount of Citra Solv in a bowl and using a paint brush, paint on just enough Citra Solv to wet the letters just slightly. Turn your paint brush around and scratch each letter with the handle of the brush. Don't scratch too hard, just enough to help the ink rub off onto the wood. Make sure to work in sections, I painted the Citra Solv on about 4 letters at a time. And don't use too much or the ink will bleed and not stick nicely. Hold the paper with your fingers firmly in place so you don't move the letters or ink around at all.

5. When you're finished, remove the paper and let it dry.

6. These knobs are from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE them, but they were a little too white for the wood...

So I rubbed a little stain over them to darken them up a bit...

Then I measured, drilled holes and put the four knobs in the wood.

That's it. Done. So easy and SO cheap. I think the knobs were $10 from 50% off, the wood was free, and the bottle of Citra Solve was $6.99 (which I only used about 2 Tablespoons of.

Click HERE for the tutorial of the stockings I made last year.

So sorry if this post is a little scatter-brained!! It's been a long week :)

Yellow

2011-11-14T22:09:00.001-07:00

My husband would probably tell you I'm awesome at starting projects and not-so-awesome at finishing them... eh... oh well. I bought this credenza back in Utah for $40 or $50, which, usually would seem like a little much, but in this case the thing probably weighs 300lbs and is SOLID so it was totally worth it. I wanted to use it as a dresser for under my tv (yes, I already have one, but why not switch it up already?) so eventually that will be the case. I'm still waiting to decide what to do with the middle part... You'll see what I mean....

Before

After

I can't decide if I want to cut out a section of the cabinet doors so that we can put our cable box, x-box, etc. inside and still be able to use the remotes with the doors shut. Make sense? So let me think about it for a few more months THEN maybe I'll finish it :) Ideas or thoughts anyone?

Love, love, love the handles from good ol' Hobby Lobby for 50% off...

I just noticed my daughter wrote on the dresser with marker the other day. Can you spot it in the picture? Yes, she got in trouble. Will it happen again? You can sure count on it.

Sorry for showing you, yet, another unfinished piece. But let's be honest, it might be a while before the thing is FULLY finished, so I decided to post it already. :)

Cutting Your Little Boys Hair

2011-11-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

So here's the thing... I'm not going to encourage you to do this, because I'm a hair stylist and that's what we do, but let's be honest, everyone does it. Soo ya might as well know how to do it if you're doing to do it anyway.

A while back my sister called me and asked if I would fix her little boys hair after their attempt to buzz it and it made me think maybe people might want a little advice before running into a screaming toddler that has to be held down to finish the job...

A Few Tips:

1. Get FULLY ready before you put your kid in his/her haircut chair.

2. Portable DVD players, TV's, laptops are always a great distraction.

3. Have snacks ready just in case. I don't like to start off with them though, just in case hair gets in them- the kid just ends up super angry!

4. START the haircut in the BACK... very important. You want to keep as little hair on their face as possible.

5. Do the entire haircut EXCEPT for close to the face first, then finish off with around the face and top of head. Make sure the top is nice and wet though (if you're using scissors). I can't stress enough how important it is to keep hair away from their face! :)

6. When shaving their neck and around their ears have someone help you hold their head so they don't move and end up with a bald spot... unless that's what you're going for.

7. As soon as you're done put the poor kid in the bath and wash off all that hair :)

Questions?

(Sorry this was TOTALLY off topic tonight, I just cut my son's hair a few hours ago and had it on my mind!)

Next Up...

2011-11-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

Isn't she pretty? :)

5 Months Later...

2011-10-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

HERE I AM!!!

Wow 5 months of no blogging?!? What is wrong with me?!? Well, I have no excuse, but a lot of them at the same time. We moved to Arizona and I guess my focus changed. Changed to what? Well... I started working out way too much (stupid aging bodies- can't keep up with them), started being (or trying to be) better at keeping a clean house, cooking more with different recipes- not the same ol' ones that circle your kitchen week after week and somewhere in there lost time for my craftiness!! So sad, I know. BUT in all of that I've still finished a few things here and there. To start off with, the vanity you never got to see completely finished...

Sorry, I'm pretty sure a few of these pictures were taken with my phone :( ...

It was my Great Grandmother's that she got for her wedding. My husband FLIPPED out when the set was given to us and said there was no way it could go into our home. Sooo this is the original set that started my love of furniture refinishing. I painted everything but the vanity until now because we never had the room, but my daughter LOVES to dance so I thought it would be fun for her to put her dance clothes in the drawers and be able to twirl around in front of the mirror. :) I was right, she loves it!

The mirror that you never got to see...

And the finished product ...

(well... with a few kid smudges that still need to be fixed!)

I L.O.V.E. all the detail...

Like I said, don't look at the kid smudges, but the knobs are from Hobby Lobby...

It turned out a little brighter than I would've liked, but I still love it. I wanted her room to be teals, grays, creams with a little pink so we're slowly making our way to that. SOMEDAY I'll have her room finished! :)

Sorry so short and sweet, but I'm making my way back to the blogging world, so that will have to do for now!

Love For Clara

2011-05-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

***PLEASE READ***

I don't even know where to start. The last few days have been rough, to say the least...

On Monday my brother's daughter was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer. Clara is 2 years old. It's very serious, she is now considered a high-risk stage 4 patient with such a long road ahead of her. If this doesn't sound bad enough, when their son was 18 months old (about 6 years ago) he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This is their second child with a tumor!

This has been incredibly heart breaking for our family as the bad news seems to never end. With each text I read or new post on Facebook I keep searching to find any bit of good news, only to discover something even worse.

Status updates from my brother:

"I don't normally do this, but I don't usually have anything all that interesting to say. Natasha is driving our two-year old, Clara up to the children's hospital in Spokane. She has had strep (maybe) for 2+ weeks and is getting worse. She can't walk normally anymore and is in constant pain. Her breathing is labored and erratic and she needs to see a specialist. Please keep her in your prayers."

"Now I'm begging. Natasha just called. Clara has cancer. I can't believe I just typed that. Please pray for her. I can barely breathe."

"Neuroblastoma on her kidney. bone scan in a few hours. minimum 10 days in the hospital. 2 or 3 days of tests, followed by chemo."

These updates were followed with news of the tumor being small but in a very dangerous area, the tumor being inoperable, spots found in her leg and spine, tumor linked to both kidneys through blood vessels, spots behind sinuses and eyes, very worried about vision loss, chemo, radiation, surgery... and finally, what we've just now learned, the cancer has spread throughout her bones.

I write this, not to bring you down, but to ask for your help. Your love, your support, your donations, and most importantly, your prayers. It's been amazing to me to see the generosity and sincerity that's been shown to them by so many friends and others whom they don't even know. It brings me to tears even thinking about how many of you have shown so much love to this sweet little girl. I cannot begin to tell you how much faith Brian and Natasha have. Their example has strengthened me sooo much it's unreal. I ask myself about 10 times a day, "how in the world are they handling this?" Natasha's blog is a true testament that our Heavenly Father is lovingly guiding them through this.

A fund has been set up to help Clara's mommy and daddy through this difficult time in their lives. Please, if you can help in ANY way, they would be so grateful. They live 2 hours from the hospital where Clara is and most likely will be there solid for 3 months, just to start off with. No amount of money can change their situation, but we hope it can make their burden a little lighter.

"We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support. Every comment I read, every message I get, every visit makes me emotional. I'm touched that there are so many people who care, even people we don't even know. I certainly wish I could reply to everyone, but you all know that is impossible. Please know that your thoughts are appreciated and that you are loved." - Brian (facebook status)

***********

**If you wish to read more about Clara's story, our friend has written a beautiful post about her HERE.

**If you would like to donate to their family, click HERE

Thank you in advance, this truly means the world to me and my family.

Vanity

2011-04-20T22:39:00.001-07:00

Furniture Tip: Don't bring your painted piece into your house before it's 100% dry when you have a 3 year old running around the house. :) ...

Ok, it wasn't that bad. I finished staining the piece, brought it inside the next day (stain on paint takes a while to fully dry) and my little princess thought it would be neat to climb on the furniture. She learned quickly it was not that neat :).

I half-way finished the vanity this week. The bottom part is done, but the mirror is still waiting for some love. Here are the before and half-way finished pictures...

Before (sorry it's not the best shot) ...

After...

If you look close you can see where my daughter stepped... That will be fixed soon :(

I still need 2 more knobs, but I'm pretty happy with how these ones turned out. I bought them a while back at Hobby Lobby during their 50% off knob sale and they happened to look pretty cute on here. Yes??

*Sorry again for the pictures, I'm still needing to get my nice camera fixed :( . Half the pictures make the piece look SO bright and the other half make it look blue. Really it's aqua... if you were wondering :)

More details to come when the piece is complete!

Sneak Peek

2011-04-15T23:52:00.000-07:00

This is what I've been working on.....

Sorry it's so small, it was taken with my camera on my phone.

It's a vanity of my great grandmother's that was given to her as a wedding gift and then given to me four years ago. I finished the bedroom set for my daughter (which is what got me started into painting) and never had room for the vanity until now. I'm so excited to finish it! It has a beautiful mirror that goes on the top, which I don't have a picture of yet, of course. Sorry :) This is a late night post so I'll get more details later. It should be finished soon!

Potential in Furniture

2011-03-26T07:20:00.001-07:00

Wow I'm terrible. We move and my world stops?? Hmm...

To be honest I've been trying to find the motivation to get moving again... painting, that is. I've been busy trying to find a preschool for my daughter--which has been ridiculously difficult by the way, doctors, dentists, insurances, etc... And as frustrating as that has been I've been trying to regulate my health issues at the same time. I won't go into too much detail, but I have a thyroid disease that affects pretty much EVERYTHING and every part of me. The worst symptoms for me have been tiredness and muscle aches so you can imagine trying to motivate myself with those issues. It's AWFUL, I'll just leave it at that so I don't bore you to death! :)

Anyway, I have two pieces sitting in the garage waiting to be finished and paint on the shelf to finish them. With a hubby away for a few days, I think I might actually get some work done! In the meantime, however, here are a few pictures of some bar stools I helped my friend refinish a little while ago...

Before:

After:

Nothing too crazy, I know, but I thought they turned out so cute and she did a great job! This isn't so much of a tutorial post, but more of a FURNITURE POTENTIAL post. I hope this helps you see what things CAN turn into. Whoever owned these was probably so sick of the old, outdated look, but throw a little paint on them and they're adorable!

So what do you have in your house that needs a little love?

Here I am!!

2011-02-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

I thought I should maybe wait a few more days to post anything just to hit my one month mark, but let's be honest, this site is getting no love lately! :( This, unfortunately is still going to be a quick post. Just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive, just in a different location now! We made it, our move was a success. And thank goodness it's over. So if you're wondering if I've been doing any crafting or painting lately, I gotta be honest, the answer is N.O. My house is almost completely organized, but the kids have been LOVING being outside so we go for about 3 walks a day + sometimes the park. And in my spare time all I've been doing is research on what to feed this little guy...

www.photographybyjocelin.com

We found out a little while ago that he's allergic to SO many things and found out I'm actually sensitive to most of those things as well. So it's been extremely difficult- to say the least- finding things we can all eat. It's a struggle every single day and I wouldn't wish it on any parent, but I'm slowly figuring it out. I've found so many useful resources and because of that I'd love to share with you things and products I end up coming across.

A little background on my sweet boy: He's had severe eczema since he was about 2-3 months old and was only ever given topical creams to "treat" the problem. And by treat I mean "mask". He would scratch his skin until it bled and wake up in the middle of the night to rub his back up against the bumpers in his crib :( At 6 months we found out he was allergic to milk, then a few months ago found out he's allergic to dairy, all grains (except rice), food dyes, peanuts, eggs, dogs, etc. I found out I'm sensitive to dairy, yeast and gluten so you can imagine putting all that together = we can basically eat nothing :) Anyway, he's getting MUCH better thanks to finding out all of this new information, but it has definitely occupied a lot of my time lately. So, as soon as I figure things out I will return to the painting and other random things ... which, I'm actually extremely excited about so I'll get my act together and hurry it up!

Thanks for being patient with me!!

PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!

2011-01-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

I debated on writing this post because, to be quite honest, I'm still a bit shaken up by it. BUT in the end, I decided if I can help ANYONE of you or anyone you know, it would be worth it. I know it's a long post and I'm sorry, but I'm sure it might be an eye opener to some of you.

Here's the story...

We're moving, you all know that, hence the lack of posts, so we've been cleaning out stuff and selling things we don't need or use anymore. We have this video gaming chair that had been on KSL for a while so when I got a text yesterday morning about it I was stoked. The guy wanted to come get it and said he'd be here between 1 and 2. My husband left for the morning to get Taya (our 3 year old) out of the house- she's been a little stir crazy with all the packing going on- so he was gone, leaving me home with just Dodger (our 15 month old). I jumped in the shower and when I had gotten out I had a text from the guy that read, "hear". Yes, it was spelled wrong :).... That's besides the point, but anyway I text him back saying I was upstairs and asked if he was still "hear", only I used the skills my English teacher taught me and spelled it correctly, "here" :). ~~Wow I'm a brat!~~ He said he went to grab lunch and he'd be right back. Oh, and by the way, this was only 11:00 so I was a little bugged that he came 2 hours early and honestly, didn't like that Cam wasn't home. Anyway, 10 minutes later he was "hear" again and knocked on the door. I had the gaming chair right in our entryway so the guy could just take a quick look and leave. He showed up with a friend and they both came in, looked at it for a minute and paid me for it. The one guy who was buying it from me was super nice, shorter, dark hair and looked like a descent person. The other one was pretty tall, dark hair and didn't say much. So, the shorter one starts asking me about our house, how much we're selling it for, where we're moving, yadda yadda yadda... He tells me where he's from, then he asks if our house has a basement. I'm holding Dodger and just so ready for them to leave by then. As the guy is talking to me I look up to see the friend checking out our front door. It's a pretty cool door, I'm not gonna lie. It's kind of a castle looking door with a window in it. So he's looking at it and all of the sudden starts touching the lock, then reaches his hand up higher to where the latch is. He mentions how neat the door is while the other guy keeps talking to me (at this point I feel like it's more of a distraction). I look back up and see the guy trying to latch the door. He tried again and my heart sank. Ya know that feeling when your throat drops into your stomach? I reached in my pocket to find my phone to dial 911 and it wasn't there. My first thought was 'what are they gonna do to me?' Then I start thinking about the other guy asking if we had a basement, and remember the taller one has the chair cord in his hands. I was trying to keep my cool, trying to figure out what to do, and notice the guy can't latch the lock. At this point I'm praising the heavens our latch can only be locked by pushing the door in tight. Honestly, I completely froze. It's all a blur what really happened after that, but they left, I bolted the door, turned on our alarm, started crying and called my husband. P.S. I'm literally shaking as I write this, that's how much it terrified me.

So here's why I'm writing this post... I'm usually a pretty cautious person. I never leave my kids outside alone, never let my kids out of my site in public places, USUALLY don't let strangers in my house when my husband isn't home ;), etc. BUT yesterday I was thrown off guard. The guy arrived 2 hours earlier than I expected and so I was put in a COMPLETELY VULNERABLE position. The chair had been on KSL for so long I just wanted it gone, which honestly was my biggest mistake. I was too afraid to lose the sale by telling the guy he couldn't come yet so I thought it would be fine. Plus I worry about stuff a lot so pretty much I told myself to just relax. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I cannot stress enough what a CRAZY, DANGEROUS world we live in. You cannot for ONE SECOND be naive enough to think that bad things will never happen to you or your family. I know that nothing ended up happening to me, but honestly I can't help but think my Heavenly Father was in my favor yesterday. I keep replaying the day and thinking how many things I could have done differently, so for anyone of you that sell things on KSL, Craigslist, etc. please please please do not let anyone in your home while you're alone. And better yet, meet the person in a public place for the exchange if at all possible. My husband made a good point yesterday, no amount of money is worth your life.

This experience has definitely made me more aware of my surroundings. I always think of things like this happening in the movies--- the music gets creepy, the lighting goes darker...--- but seriously, this was just an ordinary day, sunny outside, blinds open., 11:00 in the morning. And again, I know nothing happened, but it was definitely enough to scare me into being more cautious from here on out.

So yes, I know this is a random blog that doesn't fit into any kind of crafting category, but I cannot stress enough how careful we need to be. Please be safe. Please keep your kids safe. I've been pretty hard on myself for this one! I've never wanted to be that person that was too naive to think it was ok to leave their kids in the car "for just a second" or to let them outside without being watched. But, let your guard down for a second and bad things CAN happen. So learn a lesson from my experience (and thank goodness the experience didn't end up being more traumatic!) and be more cautious. Don't let this kind of thing happen to you. Be smart. Be safe.

Also, Mom, I know you're going to read this. Don't cry. And don't kill me. I'm fine. I love you. :)

WINNER

2011-01-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! And a special thanks to CSN Stores for offering it!! :)

And the lucky winner is....

k and p

said...

I love your style! Good luck with the move... :)

January 15, 2011 2:17 PM

Congratulations k and p!!! Please either leave a comment with your email so I can contact you or email me at ashleysfurniturefix@gmail.com.

(winner was selected through random.org)

Another GIVEAWAY!!!!!

2011-01-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

A special thanks to CSN Stores for offering a GIVEAWAY this week!

They have over 200 websites to choose from with items ranging from home bar furniture, to cookware, to shoes, etc. So, for this week's giveaway CSN is going to give one lucky reader a $15 gift certificate redeemable in any one of their stores.

To Enter This Giveaway:

1. Simply leave a comment

for additional entries you can:

2. Follow me - click the "follow me" button on the left side bar

*Be sure to leave an additional comment

and/or

3. Grab my button

*Again, be sure to leave an additional comment

The giveaway will close Tuesday, January 18th and the winner announced Wednesday, January 19th.

Good luck!!

So Much To Do, So Little Time To Do It

2011-01-08T22:04:00.001-07:00

We're moving in about 3 weeks and my first priority, you'd think, should be packing. But no. I'm more worried about getting my projects done before we leave so they're all finished before the move! :) Do I need to be set straight? Nah, I'll just procrastinate til the last minute I think. So if anyone wants to watch my kids in a few weeks I'm sure I'll need it! Ha!

Here are a few things that have been sitting in my garage for far too long! Cross your fingers I can finish them before we leave! ...

A credenza I found on KSL, with intentions of selling, but decided to be selfish and keep it for myself! The thing weighs probably 350lbs and it's not very often that you find SOLID wood pieces anymore. Speaking of which, if you ever look at furniture on Craigslist or anywhere else a lot of times the add will say "Solid Wood" but I'm willing to bet 75% of the time they're wrong. Unfortunately most people don't know what "solid wood" means. This credenza will be replacing the dresser that already sits below our tv...

before & after

I decided I like how chunky and massive the credenza is so it'll be fun to switch things around a bit!

Next up...

A chest I found - also on KSL - that I've been meaning to sell! So if all my projects can get done in the next little bit, this pretty little thing should be up for sale shortly!

*Apparently I forgot to take a picture of the last thing, but it's a vanity of my great grandma's that goes with the rest of a bedroom set I refinished for my daughter a few years ago. Her bedroom isn't big enough to fit all the pieces so it's been sitting in the garage for quite a while now. I'm excited to get that one finished, it has a huge mirror that I can already picture my daughter dancing in front of! :)

My garage will be the biggest nightmare to pack, I'm afraid. But yes, I will be dragging all my crafting things with me. :)

*****

So what's sitting in your garage?? :) Hopefully nothing but cars, because that would mean you're more on the ball than me and have finished your projects already! I would LOVE to see your projects and share them with everyone!! Please email me anything you're willing to share at ashleysfurniturefix@gmail.com.

Reviews

2011-01-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've decided I need to start doing reviews on products/things I can't live without. I'm the type of person that gets super excited about something when I've decided I love it and want everyone to love it as much as I do. Let me start off by saying I'm not being paid for any of the reviews I'll be doing, they're just things I'm SO happy about and I want you to be too! So, without further ado ...

Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer

Ridiculously Awesome.

We bought one a few months ago after watching a food documentary that suggested it and decided we should have bought one A LONG TIME AGO! Let me just tell you a few of the things I love about them:

-You can throw pretty much every kind of fruit and vegetable in them and it turns them into juice in about a second.

-They're super easy to use!

-Super easy to clean.

-Vegetables that you hate, once they're juiced with other stuff, you can't even taste them.

-You can juice lemons or limes, freeze them in ice cube trays and use them when recipes call for lemon or lime juice.

and my absolute FAVORITE thing about the juicer...

*MY KIDS ARE EATING THEIR FRUITS AND VEGETABLES!!!!*

-(Excited, I know :) ) But seriously, what kid doesn't love juice? It's a great way to get the nutrition in them that they need without all the sugars that go along with most juices.

We literally use it EVERY SINGLE DAY. My favorite is plain ol' orange juice, but we love throwing a ton of random things in just to see what it tastes like :). We've never had anything disgusting yet!

So if you don't have a juicer yet, go buy yourself one... or ask that special someone to get one for you for Valentine's Day, your birthday, Easter, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day... whatever it takes!

Trust me, they're worth it.

WINNER

2011-01-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

And the lucky winner of the giveaway is....

CHYNOWETH FAM

Congratulations!! You can contact me at ashleysfurniturefix@gmail.com to leave me your custom order! We'll keep in contact from there.

Thanks so much for everyone who entered and stay tuned for ANOTHER GIVEAWAY soon!!

(I used random.org to select the winner of the giveaway.)

LAST CHANCE!!!!

2011-01-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Don't forget, today is the LAST day to enter THE GIVEAWAY!!!!!! The winner will be announced tomorrow (Wednesday, January 5th).

Good luck!!!

A GIVEAWAY

2010-12-29T21:41:00.003-07:00

Ok, I'm a terrible person, it's been f.o.r.e.v.e.r. since I've posted! I've been taking a much needed break though! Our family went to Washington for Christmas, got home on Monday and the last two days you'll never guess what I've been doing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it's been great. And by nothing I still mean a little cleaning/laundry/packing on the side. But I still managed to watch a movie while my kids were napping, which was fantastic! Usually I'm a 'get it done NOW/ OCD' type of person, but this week I decided to take a break and not care. I think I've mentioned we're moving to Arizona the end of January, so I have plenty to do before then, but for now, since my blog has been neglected, I've decided to do a GIVEAWAY.

Remember this:

I made if for my sister, who is due in 2 weeks, and her baby girl, Indie.

I made another one for my sister-in law for Christmas, for her baby, Chloe...

...and had so much fun doing it that I've decided to make a CUSTOMIZED one for one of you. It can be for a baby, for your home, you pick the saying, I give you options of a saying, use the sayings in the pictures above, it can say your family name, ... you get the idea!

If you don't get the idea, here's a few options :) :

- "Smith Family est. 2005" (or whenever you were established :) )

- "Shhh... baby sleeping" to hang over a baby door

- Holiday sayings

- Names

-Lyrics to songs> twinkle twinkle little star

etc.

Here's how to enter:

1. Leave a comment (obviously ;) )

2. Follow me

(if you don't know what that means or how to do it, -- yes, people have asked-- on the left side bar there's a button that says "follow me". Click it. It will keep you updated on when I post new things on the blog.)

3. Grab my button, add it to your blog (left sidebar)

4. "Like me" on Facebook (click the link on the sidebar)

5. Tell a friend about my blog/giveaway

**You MUST leave a comment for each of the following things you do so I can enter your name in the drawing!!! And YES, you can leave more than one comment to be entered multiple times.

comment example:

comment:"Hi, I'm awesome" :)

follow: "I'm now following you"

button: "I grabbed your button"

...etc. you get the idea.

**And p.s. if you're already a follower, have "liked me", or have my button, add a comment!**

Good luck!! The contest will end Tuesday, January 4th 11:59pm and the winner will be announced Wednesday, January 5th