Turning the Old Into New...or Old

I have been in need of a project.  Don't get me wrong, I love taking care of my sweet baby but I needed something to do that had nothing to do with baby talk, diapers, or spit up.  My husband acquired an old china cabinet from his Great Aunt Carol. 

It was a simple cabinet that did the job but it needed a makeover...I needed it, it needed me, perfect!
I scoured the Internet for ways to give this cabinet a new look and I decided to make it look older and give it the distressed look.  Thankfully a long weekend was coming up and my husband owed me for a golf game that required him to be away from home for several hours so off to Lowes I went!
First I sanded the entire thing.  I was a little disappointed to find out it wasn't completely made of real wood.  Well I guess technically it was, but not the type that I could use liquid sandpaper.  That would have saved a lot of time but I really needed a good arm workout so I did it the old fashioned way.
On went the primer. 

Now let me just let you know that if you are going to do a project like this then you can skip the primer if you are working with a good wood piece and use the liquid sandpaper.  It will wash the wood out a bit doing a similar job that the primer would and you get to skip a step!
While the primer was drying I spray painted the inside.  I decided to go with a dark green. 

Word to the wise, if you spray paint anything always use a mask, particularly if you are spraying the inside of a cabinet because it will all come back at you.  Oh an wear protective eye wear as well.  I am in need of new sunglasses so I just wore my old ones!  Because this cabinet has glass I used painters tape and some plastic from my drop cloth to cover it so I would not be scraping paint off glass for weeks.
After the primer dried (which takes forever because it is sticky and a pain to work with), I added my first coat of paint.  I was a little worried because the color I chose seemed so bright but I figured I would make it work somehow.  I put on one more coat and the let that dry overnight.
The next day I got out the sandpaper and roughed up the edges and a few other random spots.  The sandpaper I used was made to strip paint, anything finer would have taken forever.

I also chose to use an antiquing glaze in some of the grooves.  If you are painting a piece a bright color DO NOT try to antique the whole thing.  It will look awful and dirty.  I tried it on the sides of the piece and wound up using a third coat because it looked terrible!  Stick to the the grooves for a bright piece!

Once it was all done I used a light wax to give it that finished look.
Here it is!  I am so proud of this project!  I have my eye on a few other smaller things in my house that I think need a new look as well!

Here are the links to two of my favorite websites with tutorials on giving furniture new looks
http://www.theyellowcapecod.com/2011/08/tutorial-how-to-achieve-potterybarn.html

http://movitabeaucoup.com/2010/07/19/how-to-antique-and-distress-furniture-with-paint/
This one is a great one on using an antiquing glaze.
http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/2011/01/glazed-but-not-confused-glazing-101.html

Christmas Part 2 and New Years

During our little vacation we took a little trip to the Wichita Mountains.  Now, I have to use the term "mountains" loosely.  These are mountains to a Texan, but as I soon learned after moving out of the state, most people consider them only hills!  Anyway, there is a little restaurant near a wildlife reserve that serves huge longhorn burgers!  It is one of those hole-in-the-wall type places that has great food.

We decided to take John for his first longhorn burger!
Here is my dad and step-mom showing off one of the big burgers they have.

Ryker wasn't sure what to think about this skull!

Afterwards we drove around to see if we could spot a few buffalo or longhorn roaming around.  We certainly found some.  Although I was strongly opposed to it, my dad and John had to take Ryker out of the car to get a few pictures.  I wish there was one of me yelling at them to get my baby back in the car!

One night we took a stroll through The Fantasy of Lights, a Wichita Falls Christmas tradition.

In the 70's these Christmas light displays were donated to the university and every few years new displays are added making it one of the largest Christmas displays of its kind.

Of course the night we chose to go was one of the coldest nights we were there, so we walked though very quickly!
Have you ever gone back to a place that was so cool when you were a kid, then as an adult you saw it wasn't as you had remembered?  This was a prime example.  Some of these displays were from the 1920's and were weird and very random!  We still had fun enjoying the lights!

New Year's Eve is my step-dad's birthday and we celebrated with a nice dinner and then John and I went to bed at 11pm!  My how times have changed!  Ryker had fun sitting on his first saddle!

We flew back home two days later.  It was hard to say goodbye. 

Living far from family is difficult, but having a baby makes it so much harder.  I am not sure when we will be able to visit Texas again, but I hope it is sooner rather than later!

Christmas...Playing Catch Up

I am a little behind on posting the happenings of the Franklin clan, so here is the rundown of our holidays!
We took Ryker to Texas and he got to experience his first plane ride. 

It wasn't horrible.  The flight was not very long so he did well for the most part.  We had a rough time on the way back, but I think he had had enough traveling for a while!
The day after we arrived, we went to my nephew's 4th birthday party. 

He is a Christmas Eve baby so his parents like to make sure his birthday is special.  At the party Ryker got to meet lots of family, and he finally got to meet my dad!

My Grandma was also there so we had to take a picture of four generations!

Ryker's first Christmas was great.  He got lots of toys and we were able to just relax and spend time with family.
He are some of my favorite pictures:
Meeting his cousin Titus (my cousin Liz's baby boy)

He hung out with his cousin Cade.

And more cousins...

My best friend Courtney stopped by with her son who is exactly one week younger than Ryker

Me with my dad and brothers

And spending some time with Grammy

More to come in part 2!