Six Lions and a Peacoat

White. Mountains of white. Blowing around. Reflecting the sun. Making it hard for Duke to find somewhere in the backyard to do his thing, if you catch my drift. And there are lots of drifts. HUGE drifts. Looking out the window to the front of the house right now, I see a car buried, a patio table heaped halfway to the tip of the umbrella, and a tree that must have strong limbs. I cannot, however, see my shoveling husband, due to the large pile he has created on the side of the driveway.

Yep, snow. We got more snow. Oklahoma is very confused. They don't know what to do. This time, however, I agree with the snow day J is enjoying. There is no way we could have gotten out of our garage, let alone our driveway this morning. And if we got that far, there is no way the streets would have permitted us to get anywhere.

Duke is loving it (well he was loving it, until he had to come inside because there was another dog outside that he just needed to play with. So now, he is under my desk crying. Thus the blog writing, instead of working. Don't really think I need to make a phone call to a photographer with a crying puppy in the background).

J is loving it. And shoveling it. :)

I am loving it. From inside for now, but later we'll head over to the park for the whining, crying puppy.

And it just so happens that I was ready for this. Oh yes, blog readers, I am prepared. Let me tell you what my husband told me when all the stores were having great sales on winter coats last year at the end of the season...

       "Don't buy a new winter coat, you won't need it where we're going. Everywhere we could possibly go does not get snow."

Ha. Good thing I'm a coat hoarder. And I still have my coats from high school. Who cares if they are a little big and old? Well actually, I do, so I fixed one. Check out this before.

Yes, I left the dog/cat hair on that coat to make a more dramatic before & after.

It's not horrible. It's not. I wear it, and its fine. It's just a little boring like that. Don't you think? So imagine my excitement when I received a package full of these in the mail last week:

 

Gorgeous! I'm in love with buttons! That lion even looks a little bit like the lion in the Recor family crest. If only it had two tails. So with a pair of scissors,  a needle and some thread, I preformed a little coat makeover. Are you ready for this??

Okay, its not super dramatic, I know. And the coat is still too big for me, which really just means I can wear a shirt, sweater, and a sweatshirt under it to stay warm. But its a bit updated. A bit more Mallory circa 2011, rather than American Eagle circa 2004. Who doesn't love a little bit of gold and navy? Almost as good as navy and white...

So whose running to the fabric store on the way home from work to pick up some buttons? Really, it was an awesome (read:cheap) way to update my coat. To take a coat I had and turn it into a coat I wanted. And it was very, very simple. Maybe not precise, but I'm the only one who will be wearing it, so who cares. Thoughts?

A Place to Dine: Part III

Remember our table? And more importantly, remember those ugly chairs?





They appear to be handmade. Nice, sturdy wood, a few small flaws in the craftsmanship, and no labels anywhere. We bought them from a garage sale for $25 (or was it $20?) and they threw in our table for free. The seats of the chair were looking a little rough, and the rest of the chair was no Georgia peach.

So we fixed them. Sort of.





And then we roughed them up a bit. Because, lets face it. We don't live in a perfect world. We have a cat who will use these chairs to propel himself toward the squirrel outside, scraping them with his sharp nails. And we move, a lot. And I'm not saying they don't care, but sometimes the movers don't really pay too close attention to what they are doing...

(Yes, that door stopper was knocked off by a couch.)

But anyway, we distressed the chairs a bit to add a little texture, dimension, and interest.



It's not quite done, I still need to make a few seat cushions, and if we're going down that road, I still need to find a rug for under the table to make this area a bit more of a dining room, but at least we have chairs again! And they match! And they're pretty! And they match!

So? How are you feeling about the dark table/white chair situation? Have you ever considered refurbishing a dining room set? It takes time, but so far, I think it was worth it. What do you think?

A Place to Dine: Part II

Finally. I know I talked about this table a while ago, promising pictures of the finished project. Well, I have learned two things from this post.

First, never promise a post of a project until it is done. This took quite a bit longer than expected, due to weather, polyurethane issues, and life. Next time I promise a post for the next day/week, I will already have the project done.

Second, finishing wood takes a REALLY long time. Especially when its cottonwood season in Colorado. And its hot. And you can never tell when its going to start raining.

But, its done, and its moved in to our house. We even had dinner on it last night, but more about that later. First, lets do the grand reveal.

You remember the original table we got for free when we bought our chairs? If not, I'll jog your memory.



We gave it quite the makeover. But, before I show it to you, you have to make me a few promises. First, don't judge us for our chairs. They were J's and they were cheap. I am working on painting them all white right now. Second, I know we don't have any artwork in there. We did. I promise. A big black and white picture of a canal in Amsterdam. But we're moving. So don't hate. Third, we don't like the legs of the table either. We're working on it. Okay, so you promise? Check it out.

First, we gave it a coat of wood conditioner:



Next, we stained it about a million times (okay, maybe only 3 or 4) with Minwax Ebony:



Last, we poly-ed the heck out of that thing:



And then it was ready for eating:



And if you want a close up of that pretty wood grain:



Oh, and in case you wanted a close up of those beautiful flowers I got for my anniversary:



We will just pretend that luck had nothing to do with the fact that J picked out flowers JUST LIKE my bouquet from a year ago.



Oh, and wondering what our first dinner was on our brand new old table??



Anyway, what do you think??? It's taken us forever, which means I am SO excited to share this with ya'll, but that also means you cannot say anything bad about it. Isn't it beautiful?? Anyone else have some awesome furniture makeovers you want to share?

A Place to Dine.

When we moved to Colorado, we brought a lot of hand-me-downs (read: junk) with us. We were poor college kids, so it didn't feel all that wrong to have mismatched couches, silverware from 20 different kitchens, a cinder block under the bed (yes.), or this former garage dwelling table.



Now that we are young professionals (being a nanny IS professional), it feels a little sad to hold on to these college digs. Our wedding took care of the mismatched couches (we now have a wonderful L-shaped sectional in our living room), the silverware (one set!), and the cinder block is gone (we won't even go there). But, we still have THAT table.

Now, don't get me wrong, the table served its purpose. And to be honest, it really wasn't bad. But I'm a grown up now, and I want a grown up table. Is that too much to ask?? (Oh, and thank you MIL for the kitchen table! We totally loved it, and used it every night for dinner. We'll be so sad to see it go!)

Remember this?



It's our old refurbished NEW table! Well, almost. We found it at a garage sale when we were looking for kitchen chairs, oh, two years ago. The lady gave a great deal on the chairs ($20 for five chairs!) but only if we took the table too. DEAL.



When we walked away from that garage sale (well drove... we weren't about to carry five chairs and a table home walking) we had visions of a beautifully refinished table. We were going to do it all ourselves. This was going to be our first furniture project together. And we were going to do it now.

(Could someone please go kill those crickets???)

Well, like I said, that was two years ago, before I found my passion for all things DIY, and right in the middle of life, school, wedding planning, and working. So it sat in the garage for a year. Then we moved it into our new garage, where it sat for another year.

But finally... we are done (almost). We are going to have a beautiful kitchen table that we worked on together. Are you ready to see it??

You'll have to tune in next week. (Cue: maniacal laughter)