Just The Mays Family: Thank You, Pinterest....

I tried several projects from Pinterest this weekend, and all but one turned out great!!!

First, my Aunt and I have been working on re-doing some of the furniture I have been wanting to repaint and add to the house. The first of which was a dresser. MIL gave it to me because our last one was particle board and fell apart when we moved. The cool thing about the dresser is that it was Jessie's (and his brother's) when he was little. So, all we had to do was peel the contact paper off the top-don't ask, and then we sanded down the top. We were going to use stripper to take off the veneer, but unfortunately, the top part was not real wood, but pressed wood, so we couldn't do that. So we just sanded it down and painted it. And then we sanded and painted the rest of the dresser. There are three drawers that go in the middle that I wanted to keep, so we peeled the veneer off those, sanded them down, and painted them and then cleaned and put the drawer pulls back on. And then there are three big drawers on each side of the little drawers. Some of the drawers were damaged, so we decided to do shelves instead and use baskets (like I do now) for socks and such. Maybe put those at the bottom and then use the top shelves for decorations, books, magazines, frames, etc. I am very excited. It turned out amazing! Although, we have not put in the shelves yet. We will do that later on-probably in a few weeks. Until then though, I am taking it upstairs because I am just too darn excited to have a dresser in there instead of a nightstand to put the TV on. And also the fact that it is very stylish. It was sort of an ornate dresser to begin with and I liked the style, so that really helped take out a lot of the work for us. We were going for the country/antique/imperfect style. I go for that because I really like it and because it helps me to "justify" imperfections. I still have a lot of issues with that sometimes, so I know doing stuff like that helps.

Anyway, project #2 was the kitchen table. We bought it from MIL for $50.00. It is real wood and has all for chairs plus a leaf to make the table bigger if I want to. It was in amazing shape. The only reason I decided to redo it was because I didn't want black. So we started stripping it down to paint it white...well, it didn't go so well. The table was very black. We did like 5 coats and it still wasn't all off, so we decided to go for the rustic look. lol So far it is going well. I hope it looks good in the kitchen. I figure it will darken the kitchen a little because it is so bright. I still have to do the chairs first and get it just the way I want it.

Third project...was pumpkin carving. I was so excited to see that it turned out just how I wanted. First I used an apple corer to punch holes in my pumpkin. I took those pieces of pumpkin and dipped them in paint to make different colored polka dots and put them back in. And then I monogrammed it. SO CUTE! Turned out way better than I thought, especially with it being my first try.

Jessie and Sam did one too, well, they carved. Jessie's pumpkin is a "Creeper" from Minecraft. And Sam's, Jessie traced her hand and then cut out everything around her hand. It looks neat, especially when it is lit up.

The one that didn't work out so well was the original October project, which was the small chalk board for the front door. I am still trying to figure it out, what I could do, but it just doesn't look very good. You can see where I sprayed it and the edges are peeled...I may just stick with Welcome wreaths. ;)

So next month's project...hmm...probably cork boards on inside of the kitchen cabinet. I like that. I can do a grocery list and recipes and such. I also love to post Bible verses and motivational sayings and notes around the house on marker and chalk boards and notecards, and that'll be a perfect place to do it. Cheap and easy to do, so simple, but it'll be neat.

And I would also like to take some of the Rustoleum spray paint I got that is meant for appliance with rust spots and fix the refrigerator. (There is a little rust under the ice maker what it got wet and never got wiped up.)