Chest in Distress

Well, life in Florida is back in full swing now.  I've worked at the Thrift Shop, stocked my booths, unpacked, got a few house things done, hung out with neighbors, and just finished our neighborhood dinner share.  Yes, reality has come back to me, or I guess rather I have come back to reality.  So, that means it's time for me to share projects...one of the parts of my life I love the most...working on furniture!

Here's a little chest that I picked up at a local flea market.  Makes a good bench or storage chest and it looked like it would be great for toys.  Here's the after:

 Here it is in the almost beginning.  Why is it that we forget good before pics??? I remembered after I started priming.

 To get started, I sanded this piece down with a 120 grit paper using my orbital sander and then I wiped the entire piece down.  I used Smart Prime from Benjamin Moore for the base coat.

 I then used some oops paint I had picked up at Lowe's months ago and only did one coat, since I was going for a heavily distressed look.

 The lid was not attached when I started with this piece, but luckily my Dad was here visiting at the time and he got the hinges attached for me (Wal-Mart cheap hinges) while I painted the hardware with my trusty ORB.

 The entire piece was waxed for protection and durability.

 And here is my model showing off our handy-work.

This piece quickly sold from De'France and that makes me one happy camper!

Linking here:
 
Domestically Speaking

Dump Diving

We just got back from a long (and much needed) vacation home to visit our families.  We didn't do anything fancy, but we got to see all of my family and Justin's family...his parents, my dad, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparent's, and the list goes on.  I guess that's one nice thing about being from the same little-bitty home town; everyone (but us) still lives close.   Obviously I haven't posted in a while, because I took a break from all of reality while we were home.  I think I got on the computer once in 10 days...crazy, I know.  Now, it's back to the real world.

While we were home we relaxed, ate Braum's ice-cream (it's purely wrong that we can't get this in Florida), ate lots of tex-mex food, played with nieces and nephews, practiced shooting, avoided the tornadoes, and worked just a little bit.  Oh, and how did I forget to mention that we went dump diving.  No, not dumpster diving....DUMP diving...the real deal.

These are some pics from at dump on my in-laws property.  We always raid the dump for treasures when we're home and this trip was no exception.  We loaded up the back of the truck with all kinds of good ole' barn wood and other rusty goodness.  Can't wait to get started on some new projects!!  I'll be sharing lots this week, so stay tuned!  Just to give you a little taste of dump heaven, I snapped a few pictures to share:

I like everything in these pictures except for that watering trough to the left in the picture above.  That trough and I are not on good terms.  That thing took $400 dollars from me back in the day...let's just say we're not on good speaking terms now.  I may or may not have decided to use it for a swimming pool many years ago.  Then I may or may not have pleaded with my wonderful husband to haul it from his folks house to my dad's house so I could swim...(yeah, we're redneck, but we grew up in the sticks so it's permissible).  Then once he loaded it and was about to haul it over, we may or may not have ran into his dad's truck breaking the front bumper...enter new $400 bumper.  You can see why I might now be on good terms with this piece.

Here's a few other pictures of the family.  This is my Dad and sisters and I on Easter: Heather, Holly, Dad (Ricky), Hilary, Hannah:

 Lovin' my nieces and nephew: Avery, Heather, Aiden, Jordyn:

 The donkey of the family that thinks it's a dog, Harley:

 One of the other family members that also think it's a dog:

 More of the fam:

 And lastly, Gauge enjoying the country life and getting him some good ol' country pond water:

I have some pics with Justin's family, but I have to get them from his Mom's camera.  Now you can say you've had a little glimpse into our corner of the world in southeast Oklahoma!