Crazy,crazy week

First off, my youngest had school on Memorial day?!? Yes she did. Sigh. Second, the big kid in my family, aka my beloved husband, is out of town until late, late Saturday. My mother in law came home for a couple of weeks, she is aka Blingy. This necessitated a moving of bedrooms require my oldest daughter, messy, to move in and share a room with my youngest daughter, ocd clean freak. Oh the humanity of it all. Since the big kid is gone the little one, yang to her sister's yin, moved in with me; in my room(fellow ocd neat freak), what will happen when hubby returns? One word answer DRAMA.

Yin(oldest daughter): I am displaced
Yang(youngest daughter): It's my room!
Yin: At least you have a room!
Yang: You've been in here for five minutes and it's already messy!
Yin: Freak
Yang: Messy Meany

And so it will go!

In addition Yang is in a school play on Friday, a Melodrama requiring pinafores and prairie skirts! Thus I pulled out the sewing machine I received for Christmas and preceded to learn how to sew quickly! Now, to just get through the next few days. Plays to attend and chaperon, awards ceremonies to go to and a husband to pick up in the middle of the night on Saturday!

This week I swear the squirrels are winning.

DIY project

I have antiqued/tea stained a number of pieces of furniture in my house, coffee and end tables, bar stools, a bench and a buffet. These were not in a set but all did start out with either raw wood or butcher block wood as a base.  The above is the after picture of my buffet.

Well this is the before. Simple white buffet with butcher block wood accents. I did the shelving half first and then the bottom half. I sanded the entire piece and painted the white with two more coats of flat white paint. I then used Ralph Lauren's tea stain and painted it on using a basic paint brush and then wiped it off. You can only wipe once with this treatment so in some areas I did do a second coat to get the desired effect. I stained the natural wood on the top of each section with Minwax's Provential stain, using two coats as well and then used Minwax's polyurethane on the entire piece to give it a shine and protect it. The butcher block top has been give two coats of polyurethane as it is the most likely part of the furniture to have a cup/soda or who knows what else set on it without a coaster.

As I said I have done this to a number of pieces in my home and have created a cohesive look from very different types of furniture. It is really pretty easy and just requires some patience while waiting for the number of coats to dry. I hope this explanation is understandable and if you have any questions feel free to put them in the comments. Happy DIYing!!!

Why hearding squirrels

Why herding squirrels? There is a T-Shirt that every member of my house has(except for me) that reads: I don't have ADH..oh look a squirrel. I have one that reads squirrel herder.  That's me the only person in my family without ADH...squirrel. Me? I have my own letters, as in just a wee bit OCD..really just a tiny bit, which is probably a good thing when you married a man with a short attention span, birthed two daughters with even shorter attention spans and then inherited a mother in law with the shortest attention span of them all. I spend my days keeping everyone on track(kinda), cleaning up after them, running people all over and learning to refinish furniture, to sew, to crochet and any other kind of diy project that strikes my fancy. This is and isn't a "mommy blog". It is and isn't a diy blog. It is and isn't a "how to live surrounded by short attention spans". It is and isn't all of these things. I hope it will be fun though and I hope you will laugh with me at things that probably shouldn't be laughed at.  Now the first post is done and I am back to herding squirrels.