The Milking Stool

In the past year or so I have taken on a few refinishing projects.  My first big project, which was also my first BLOG POST (yipee), was so much fun and very rewarding! 

I'm definitely an instant gratification type of gal - so, getting to make a new looking piece in just a few hours work totally WORKS for me. 

(I actually just laughed a little at my word play there...I know, LAME)  

My mom had purchased this old milking stool sometime last summer at a yard sale.  She had an idea of what she wanted to do with it but just couldn't seem to find the time.

Of course, I'm all "Let me do it, let me do it!!"

She finally gave in!  

YES!

She wanted:

White

Black detailing

Distressed

Easy Peasy!

I began by sanding off the old stain and poly.

In true 'Ashley' form I was too excited to keep working and completely forgot to take pictures of the priming stage.  Oopsy!  

When my mother mentioned the black detailing I didn't really think to much of it.  

That all changed when I realized that I definitely didn't own a brush tiny enough to paint these lines. 

UGH!  

I had to fill in the teeny tiny tiniest of all detailing with a tooth pick!  

What the what?!  This took hours!  

Ok, not really hours but it certainly felt like HOURS.

Please pardon my horrible camera skills.  All I have right now is the camera on my phone and it's pretty much guaranteed to never take a decent pic.

Also, don't go getting all distracted by my circa 2010 Tom Brady newspaper either!

  

I threw a couple coats of poly on over the slightly gray-white paint.

I kind of wanted to keep it!   

TADA!  All finished and I think it's looking pretty snazzy!

Since I procrastinated a bit on this project, I actually finished it on my mom's birthday and brought it to her that night.  

Um, happy birthday!  Here's your own stool back!  Haha

I'll have another redo post up soon. 

I just received the matching chest to the dresser in my first post.

  

Stay Tuned!

I'm linking up to the following AWESOME parties.....

18 Varieties of Beige

Ever since Ad and I got our new couch about year ago my hatred for the throw pillows that came with it just keeps growing & growing & growing.  

EWW!  

See what I mean....

So not only is our couch brown but the pillows are a whole mess of brown, the hardwood floors are light brown, the coffee table is also stained some version of brown....I'm drowning in brown over here!  

This was an EMERGENCY.  

Something had to be done.

So, a couple weeks ago, I got some gorgeous & COLORFUL fabric and have been debating what types of pillows to make ever since.  

However, my lack of patience is EPIC and yesterday, once I realized that I needed new pillows, I decided to stick with something simple. 

First step...get rid of all evidence that the ugly pillows ever existed...

I cut those suckers up and was left with the filling inside.  

Kind of GROSS, right? And might I add....MORE BROWN!  

I only had a couple pillow forms so I need to recycle some of the filling for the new pillows.  There was no choice...the yucky filling had to be used.  

For the large pillows I reused the filling from the old ones and for the small ones I had 16 x 16 pillow forms.  

I am HORRIBLE with my finish work/hand stitching.  My mother usually gives me that sour-taste-scrunchy-face look when she sees it.  

Then kindly recommends I re-do it.  (YEAH RIGHT!)

  

So, I avoid it at all costs.  

It was a necessary evil for the large pillows but I think they look pretty good!

Very basic but I wasn't quite ready for handmade welting and other fancy additions.

And for the small pillows I found a great tutorial online for making an envelope back.  

(Of course I can't find it again today to make a link but I will put up a 

tutorial tomorrow with directions)

It was the EASIEST project I think I have ever done.  Each pillow took me maybe 25 minutes, maybe!  

And look.....they are pretty!

Here is a back view of the little guys.

So, the livingroom isn't perfect, but it's a work in progress and 

my NEW throw pillows definitely help.

Happy Monday!  

Cheers

Wordle

I have a new favorite art project!  

Word Cloud Art  

Beware my friends...I think all my loved ones are about to be inundated by Word-Cloud-Art galore!

I discovered this website, 

called Wordle. 

It's so FUN because you 

just put in a bunch of words and 

up POPS your word art.  

You can change colors, fonts & layouts.  

The only catch is that you can't save your work to your computer.  

So, you either have to print it right then or save it to the public gallery. 

(if there is a way to save it I just don't know it!  Not all that shocking. HA) 

Here are a couple of my projects:

Armstrong's

This one was a little gift for my Sis & Bro-In-Law. 

It just was something for their family to hang on the wall and I used words that were relevant to their life.  

I absolutely LOVE it!

Adam Birthday

This one was a completely different color scheme, much more neutral.  

It's so adorable.  

He hung it up in his office!

Wordle is not a reaganGrace sponsor

I've made a couple more but I can't show pics just yet as I haven't given them to their rightful owners yet!  

Has anyone else ever used Wordle for some cool wall art? 

I would LOVE to see your projects!

OH YEAH, did I mention that it is FREE?!

Have a great FRIDAY

Cheers

Today is a GREAT day!

You may not know it BUT today is a VERY special day.......

You see, today is the celebration of the day this little guy was born!

He's SUPER cute, huh?

So today, my birthday message to my favorite guy is this...

I love you because....

You are incredibly sweet & thoughtful

Because you are REALLY silly & don't mind embarrassing yourself 

(hello awkward hugs!)

Because you LOVE your family.... 

(miss you brother BEN!)

and MINE.  

Even though we are a CRAZY little bunch!

But mostly because...

You make me try new things...even if I'm scared. 

 You ALWAYS support everything I do.

My girl friends love you

You are the BEST doggy daddy ever!

And lastly BECAUSE

you are my best friend and an amazing man!

Happy Birthday, Ad.

I LOVE YOU!

A beauty of a GIVEAWAY over at Love Stitched

There really isn't much I love in bloggy world more than a GIVEAWAY of another crafter's beautiful items!  

This is Brittany:

And she has an awesome blog called Love Stitched!  You should definitely pay her a little visit to see her awesome products and posts.  She recently re-did her kitchen and it's gorgeous!

This week she will be celebrating her ONE YEAR Blogiversary with bunches of fabulous giveaways!  

You can check out today's giveaway from Barn Owl Primitives HERE!  My favorite item is this gorgeous sign:

I'm pretty sure I will be the winner of this giveaway (wink, wink) but, just in case I'm not, you should hurry on over and enter to win the $50 shop credit to use towards your very own 

Barn Owl Primitives 

sign!

Cheers

Going Green

I don't know about you but sometimes I find it REALLY hard to get all of my leafy greens in each day.  

Oh, you don't find that difficult?  

Yeah right!  

I think we all do at one time or another.   

So, about a year and half ago I had someone introduce me to the Green Smoothie.  I was terrified because it looked like SLIME and I figured it tasted about as good.  The weird thing is I'm a total vegetable lover - i mean I don't discriminate, I like them all.  Even the oh-so-underestimated brussel sprout.  

I tried it anyway.  I was like two seconds away from plugging my nose and doing the down-the-hatch thing but thought better of it.  


I didn't want to be rude.  


Of course, my facial expression, which I'm guessing looked something like this:

totally wasn't rude at all.  

Right?

But then something happened....it was delicious!  

Ok, ok, let's get to the point.  

I now love them and I'm going to show you how I make one of your very own.

PS - to make this even MORE appealing I will add that even HUSBAND likes them!  
Also, I'm totally not a nutritionist or anything but I'm pretty sure this is good for you and it's yummy.  

Here's what you need:

This week I'm using Kale but I've used spinach or even collard greens.  Really, any leafy green you like.  Then you want frozen, unsweetened, fruit. I like mixed berries, strawberries or peaches.  Fresh lime juice, flax seed, banana and juice.  This is my first time with the Trop50.  I like it because it's just juice no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.  

- 3 to 4 giant handfuls of greens

- 1 cup juice

- 2 T lime juice

- 2 T flax seed

- 1 medium banana

- handful frozen fruit

Add water as needed for it to blend 

This is enough for two glasses so you can share or drink the whole thing yourself. 

Blend until smooth!

That's it!  It might look something like this:

Don't you feel better about yourself already?!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

   

Awkward & Awesome

Hey all!  So, I've become just a little bit obsessed with this amazing blog called 

The Daybook.  

This is Sydney:

She's pretty awkward.....I mean awesome, right?!  

She's super funny & stylish too.  Jealous yet?

Anyway, she likes to 

document her 

awkwardness & her awesomeness

and I'm ready 

to follow suit. 


Here goes........

disclaimer - i recently went for my checkup and was traumatized by the awkwardness hence why there is def some doc related moments in here

Awkward

-getting up off the doctors table and having the paper stick to your naked bum

-having a casual health convo with your brand new doc while wearing nothing but the thinnest of all thin johnnies with nothing underneath!  I mean seriously!  

Thanks for mortifying me while you sit down there without paper stuck to your bum while fully clothed!

-having the doc ask you what your diet consists of followed by you making a joke that you eat pretty well but OBVIOUSLY love french fries, chips, regular coke, and ice cream…hahaha….but no hahaha from the doc….I think she may have actually gasped…..COME ON you're killing me here!

-standing outside the ladies room telling another woman it's occupied only to have someone else walk right up and open the door to….TADA….a multi-stall bathroom!  Welp, I'm a loser!

- i may as well include an awkward pic while I'm at it....

my new LLBean union suit...it even has one of those flaps in the back over the bum.  I'm still not exactly sure why it's there.  Anyone? Anyone?

don't worry.  I don't mind embarrassing myself at all.....I'm totally fine with it

Also, I just realized 

I mentioned 

my bum like 

85 times 

in this post. 

So, yeah....now it's even more awkward.

Awesome

-'awkward hugs' with husband which always end in fits of laughter 

(I think only husband will get this one but I'm writing it anyway)

-sending husband a picture of the dinner I made last night and his first response being….

"Oh, I think that is blog-worthy" Best hubby ever!

-seeing my sister's baby bump sprouting

-chatting with a neighbor I haven't spoken to since October (we tend to hibernate a bit up here in ME)

-playing 'cuddle game' with my Nephew. This is where you simply cuddly under a blanky on the couch.  

Whomever is the inventor of this game….you are awesome!

Did anyone else have some awkward & awesome moments this week? 

Cheers!