I paint furniture because my real job is hard!

I paint furniture because my real job is being the mother of four boys!

I love being a mom. I love being the mom of four boys. God knew exactly what He was doing when he gave me boys. I love that I start and end almost every day exhausted, but with a very full heart. There is always something going on and some place to be, some days I don't do it very well at all. My oldest is 15, so I have been at this for a little while. But, I am often unsure how I am doing as a mom. Unfortunately, there is no quarterly progress report or notes home from the teacher. My assurance comes in other ways, when I see the kindness they show to others and their generous hearts, I know that things are going well. Other days, when they can't keep their hands off of each other and are annoyed by the sound of mere breathing, I wonder how I am doing.

DISCLAIMER  1) I did not take this picture 2) this was several years ago and he is still alive :-) 3) they have gotten MUCH better at cleaning the toilet and their aim is better now! 4) I painted that vanity and it looks approximately 4,000 times better.


Beyond confidence in my own abilities as a mom, I have the ultimate confidence that these are children loved and fearfully and wonderfully made by the Creator of the World! That, though my husband and I do play an important part in the men they will become, they were made in the image of God. It is our job to encourage them, point them in the right direction and pray hard for them. And to break up the fights before they become deadly. Sometimes, that is a BIG job.


So, I paint furniture. Because I can see results quickly. In a matter of just hours, "potential" is reality and I am finished. I get to be a little creative and, if it's awful, (and it has been at times) who cares? It's only paint! I can have a do over! It is not like I am warping a child! When I can make someone happy with a piece of furniture, that is confirmation that I did alright. And then I am done. Painless really.


I am anticipating that as I navigate through the rest of the teenage years in this home, that there will be much more painting of furniture to come.


As we go from here

To here

There will be a lot more of this

Because, after all, painting is cheaper than therapy!

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Liar, Liar.

I am a liar, although an unintentional one.

In my first real blog post, I announced that I had found "The One That Was Staying". Ummm, yeah, not so much. I missed having a tall hutch. However, I think this may be the revolving wall in my kitchen. I have had too many things to count in this spot. Here are some of them.


First there was this...

Then this...

This one was the next, and I thought the last one...

Which leads us here, to my newest love. I think I will keep this one. It fits the awkward little space on the wall. Here is the before. I didn't hate it, and we lived with is like it was for quite a while. But, my husband mentioned a few times that he would like it better in a lighter color. He kind of lets me do my own thing with this furniture-ing, so I thought I would be a nice wife and honor his wishes too!

And here is the after. I painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen and Old White. I love the gray/green/taupe of the French Linen. It is a great color. And Old White is pretty much my go to color. If it were up to me, the world would be painted Old White.

And this little dish thing I love, it was a dollar at a thrift store. I can't bring myself to clean it.

Is it funny that I like every one of them? How could I possibly choose? That would be like asking me which of my children is my favorite. I love them all.

Linking up here...

Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday

French Country Cottage

My Romantic Home 

Redoux Link Up Party 

Funky Junk Interiors SNS

Savvy Southern Style WOW

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This ones for the birds!

This sweet little dresser got its color completely out of fear.

Fear that the mahogany color would bleed through whatever light color I might paint it. It seems like most of the pieces I have worked on lately have done that. It is frustrating and time consuming to say the least! I thought that, worst case, if the "red of dread" showed up, I could distress and wax it until it looked intentional.

Because I have had a crush on grey/yellow combos, I painted the base coat in Annie Sloan Graphite. Then I whipped out my stencil collection and chose a bird and branch stencil. I wish I had real art skills, but I don't, stenciling is about as artsy as I get!  ASCP makes such a great "primer" coat for other paints so, I just pounced on some lemon colored crafty paint and here ya go. A bird dresser.


I think it would look great in a nursery, or an entryway, or maybe upstairs in my house.


With my current paint color, it wouldn't work. I am really feeling the need to paint my living area something other than what my realtor calls Martha Stewart Taupe. But we have an open living area with what seems like 40 foot ceilings in the entryway. When I painted the last time, I had to rent a ladder to get to the top. About 1/2 way through, I got scared (I seriously hate heights) and suggested that we hire someone to finish it. My husband reminded me that, I got myself into this mess and that the ladder had to be back in 2 hours. So, I finished it. And promised myself that I would never do that again. But, now I want to paint it some shade of white. I am in love with the Urban Farmhouse look and taupe just ain't cutting it!


Oh wait, I was talking about a dresser! Let's just say that I love this one and would consider painting my house to keep it.

Linking in the BEST places!

Piece of Work Wednesday

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Mom, I love the cross-dresser!

"Mom, I love the cross-dresser in the basement!" 

Those are the words that my youngest rushed up the basement stairs yelling the other day. I panicked for a minute, thinking first, WHO is in my basement? How am I going to get my kids out of the house safely? And then, how on earth does he even know what a cross-dresser is? I mentally moved out of this neighborhood. Those other kids are terrible influences on my baby!


Then, I remembered that I had just started a Union Jack dresser and had only painted the center "cross section". Whew, that was a big relief! I am not really in the mood to move! But, after the "Is your mom a stripper" incident and then this, I was a little worried! 

I was inspired to paint a Union Jack dresser because my husband is Norwegian. Like 100%, proud Norwegian. His family knows their history, and came over on boats. I have no idea what my family heritage is, except that, someone, somewhere used to live in England. I have decided that I am British. They have great accents, call their mom's "Mum", and eat figgy pudding. I don't know what figgy pudding is, but I wish someone would bring me some! 


I painted this dresser a base coat of ASCP Aubusson Blue and the white is Old White. I sanded these two colors before applying the red. The red is crafty paint, because I remembered Miss Mustard Seed saying that was a good idea to prevent the white from turning pink when sanding. Because I did not want to defile the flag of my people, I used Folk Art paint.

If I ever do another one of these, I will actually measure it out but, I couldn't find a tape measure and I wanted to get started, so I measured it with my laser beam eyes and a scrap piece of fabric (don't ask). I think it turned out swell. Did you hear my accent when I said swell? I am British you know.

So here is Jack. Just Jack. And I love him.






Showing Jack off here this week


Piece of Work Wednesday 

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