Flashback Friday: Dresser Makeover

In an effort to revive Flashback Friday at Beauty 4 Ashes, I dug up a dresser makeover I blogged about a little under a year ago. I was very, very pregnant and was working on this nursery. (BTW: if you click on that link you can see how the usurping dresser and vanity look in their current home instead of the brown walls they're pictured with below.) Hope you enjoy--whether it's your first time seeing this makeover or if you saw it way back when.

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You know how you always feel prettier in a little black dress? Or pants... Or stretchy maternity pants and a tent-like top, as in my case. :) Something beautiful happens with such a striking color. 

Case in point:

Here's the before:

We got this very well-made dresser from craigslist two years ago for $20. It had a white-washed finish with dull brass knobs on the top four drawers and the same color handles on the bottom. I spent hours sanding this thing to get that wash off! I wasn't a blogger and didn't care about 'before' pictures, and I hadn't been introduced to spray paint and its amazing ability to change ugly hardware into something pretty! I used a light stain and poly'd the dresser and new wooden knobs, then moved it into my second son's room. It worked perfectly as a changing table for almost two years.

Then I met this pair...

So... the other more practical and better made dresser had to go! But not without a makeover.

Love the new black dress(er)!

10 Things I Hate About My House

Let me just say before you pass judgement on my bad attitude and ungrateful heart that the things I love about my house far surpass the things I don't like.

Whew.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way...

Did you see that movie? "10 Things I Hate About You?" Loved it! Modern (late 90s) high school take on The Taming of the Shrew, full of sarcasm and awesome one-liners that I still quote.

I happen to like being a princess, thank you!

Ahem. Awkward!

So, in no particular order, here are 10 things I hate about my house.

1. It's far!!!!!!!

There's a whole lotta this before you get to town. Ok, city. There are several little towns between here and there, but the city--my husband's work, our church, the stores, many of our friends--is 45 miles away which is about an hour of driving time. You don't just run to the store. Evening meetings are a commitment!

2. Storms.

Storms are bad. Storms can do this:

I live in fear. I know God is bigger than the storm and He will protect me. But I hate storms. I wrote about storms shortly after this happened last summer.

3. My kitchen.

I promise you, it looks better in photographs. What doesn't show up is the cracked, chipped, perpetually dirty (no matter how many times I clean them) floors, awkward cabinets with layers of someone else's grease, no dishwasher, no vent hood, lack of storage and lots of money needed for a reno. Still. 3 1/2 years later. That's life, eh?

4. Projects, projects, projects.

The furnace is on its last leg. The roof needs new shingles. There's a leak in the basement that needs to be properly fixed. There's no landscaping, some trees need to be cut down, the house needs new siding and our barn is falling apart. Not to mention the above kitchen, finishing the basement, adding a garage and a deck...

5. Winter.

There's a lot of this going on in Iowa. Yeah, cute kids, happy smiles, fun snowman, but the snow probably blew in on stiff wind with dangerously low temperatures that trapped us in the house for days on end. Repeatedly over several months.

Did you know that Iowa has two seasons? One is winter; the other is road construction. 

6. Bugs.

This guy was inside the other day. I know all homes have spiders and whatnot, but here in the country the bugs could seriously take over. Centipedes in the basement in the spring, spiders all through the flowerbeds, crickets, fireflies, mosquitoes, biting flies, ticks... Must stop now!

7. One bathroom.

Sure, most parents of small children don't get much uninterrupted time in the bathroom. But no matter how big our boys get, there will be one bathroom on the main level. We do plan to add a complete bathroom to the basement, but there's no hope of an en suite master bathroom.

8. Herbicides/Pesticides.

Sure, crop dusters are fun to watch. So are tractors and combines and spray rigs. But it's not fun to wonder where all that spray is going. I'm not getting all enviro-friendly, and I don't wish farmers would do it differently--that's someone else's soap box. What I'm saying is that the crops are sprayed several times throughout the growing season and I just wonder what we're breathing sometimes. We also have a shallow well. Hmm...

9. Expensive Travel.

Ah... The Pacific Ocean! Ventura, California, to be exact, with a view of the Channel Islands. This is where I grew up and where my mom still lives. I don't particularly want to live in Ventura (expensive housing!), but I'd like to be able to see our California family members more often. I know right now isn't a time for finding cheap flights, but it seems like it's more expensive to fly from the Midwest. Who knows. It takes three days to drive to California--add three more days getting back and there went a week's vacation, not to mention gas + hotels + food = expensive travel!

10. Feeling Isolated.

This is the view East.

This is west. Of course these are particularly gorgeous sunrise/sunset views which doesn't help my case here. Scroll back up to the crop duster picture and that's the view South. North is our barn and garden (pictured in the house collage). I know--I'm not complaining!

But even the most beautiful views and great home makeovers aren't worth much if you can't share them. I have an amazing family, I adore my boys, I'm not ungrateful! I do wish I had a handful of really good friends to share this with. Girlfriends to hang out with that aren't an hour's drive away. Couple friends who could come over for supper on a weeknight just because. Play dates at local parks with my boys and their friends. A sense of community.

So there you have it. Ten things I hate about my house. Do you hate your house sometimes?

No?

It's just me?

Ok then...  

Wordless Wednesday: Birthday Boys

DIY Hand Scrub ~ Mother's Day Gift Idea

Before I got married, quit teaching, moved to Iowa and started having babies, I thought I lived on a budget. 

I didn't.

I relied a little too heavily on retail therapy at times and sadly brought some credit card debt into our marriage. I wish I hadn't, but I did. 

One of my favorite splurges was a trip to a certain overpriced store full of lotions, soaps and scrubs. Oh, how I miss it!

Now I make my own hand and foot scrub. It's super-easy!

It takes just three ingredients. Oil, salt (sugar works too!) and essential oil. Here's how: 

 

That's it! Now add it to a cute jar, tie a piece of raffia or a ribbon around the top and you have a great little gift for your mom! Or yourself.

 
I keep a small jar by my kitchen sink. It works great to get funky odors off my fingers when I'm cooking (like garlic or onion), and it helps restore my hands after I work in the garden. My hands are very clean and moisturized and smell great too! 

Try it!
 

Inspiration Files: Fuel Your Creativity

You may or may not have noticed that I've lost my posting groove. Does that happen to you? I like to justify everything I do and I'm aiming to make more lists (see below), so here are a few reasons:

• Dude. I'm busy! Three kids. Enough said.
• All three of those kids have birthdays this month.
• There's a combined birthday party next weekend that I need to finish planning. Ideas need to be easy, practically free and able to withstand windy Iowa weather. (Hopefully it doesn't rain! 30 people will not fit in my house!)
• I finished cleaning out the basement (YAY!) and now have about 15 listings on craigslist.
• All of the things I'm hoping craig will take care of are in the guest room.
• My in-laws are coming on Thursday (for the birthdays!)
• The above-mentioned party is outside and we've done zero landscaping in 3 1/2 years. Lots of reasons, but I'm trying to at least fix the beds by the front of the house.
• My garden is over-taken with weeds. If the weeds were gone, I could have what's called a volunteer garden--onions and carrots and garlic from last year, cilantro, spinach and lettuce have re-seeded themselves! And strawberries!!!

Throw in the normal cooking/cleaning/laundry cycle and there's no time for blogging!

So. My goal this week in addition to all of the above, is to spend some time with the list below. I need to focus on me just a little bit. Do things I like just for fun. Be creative. Paint something. Write lists of what I have accomplished and forget about that never-ending to-do list! How about you?

Source: blog.freepeople.com via Lauren on Pinterest

 

Barns of Benton County: Character

Alternate title: The one with so many pictures!

This barn-spotting happened on the same day as last week's cow barn and is just a couple miles down the road from those happy cows. 

You can tell by the pictures that this was another drive-by. It also doesn't have a home on the property and I felt comfortable taking more pictures. :) 
 

The field in the foreground was freshly planted! If you saw this field today, it would have tiny green shoots coming out of the ground.
 

I love red barns the best. Don't you? This one hasn't been painted in years and has lots of chipped paint. Probably not the best for preservation purposes, but I sure like how it looks!
 

The front of the barn faces west, where 99% of the weather's abuse comes from. Rain, hail, snow, sleet, wind, season after season, year after year. 

I wanted to state for the record that these pictures are not edited, save for my watermark. It shows the real contrast between the weathered wood and the bright barn-red paint.

 
 Zooming out, you can see a few other buildings on the property. I particularly liked the small shed in the back that looks like a miniature barn. 

Notice all of the small windows on the barn? Love them!
 

Several are broken or missing--that happened to our barn too, just due to the weather.
 

Don't you just love the variation in the wood? How the knots held onto the paint while the rest of it chipped off?
 

I wonder if these three windows are staggered because of different levels inside?
 

We're almost finished with our drive-by. I would have loved to get out of the car and walk around this place!
 

Here are some of the other sheds and buildings on the property. 
 

Must have water from the well!
 

The last look is of the corn crib on the property. Looks as though it used to be red too!
 

I hope you enjoyed our barn-spotting drive-by today!