I can't believe i forgot to write a post about this awesome hardware i stumbled across a couple of weeks ago.  I think i need to hunt for more!!!

sorry for the dark pictures!  I really need to learn how to use my camera lol.



The celery green roses are already spoken for.... i met with a new client today (hi Denise!) to help pick out a colour for some window mirrors & frames (she has 4 of them).  She has a beautiful home which includes an antique trunk, some beautiful sewn cushions done by Denise and a very "large" guard dog lol - a tiny chihuahua who showed me her tiny teeth - it was so cute that she thought she was so tough. 

I will also be transforming a cute antique desk for her and the celery green rose knobs are a part of its makeover.  If i were this desk i would totally be excited, i mean who wouldn't want to wear 4 of these right?  And the best part is one package of 4 was $9.99 - can you believe it?  I was so excited i think i might have even skipped to my car lol.  I know.... small things amuse me.

So another funny story of how Linda looked like a bonehead... so i was putting a couple coats of paint on two dressers today and i was wearing a mask so i wouldn't be tasting paint all night - its water based so its not going to kill me but blah it tastes yucky!  So i finish up with that while Kevin is outside cutting the lawn and then we drive home in separate vehicles.  I had to go to Safeway to pick up a prescription and a couple of groceries and about 5 or 6 people where looking at me weird.  I didn't think anything of it.  I get home and wash up before supper and almost died when i saw myself in the mirror.  I had WHITE paint all around my eyes and on the outsides of my nose - i looked like a flippen Raccoon!  And ... Kevin did not say a word about it - i mean he could have warned me or told me i should wash my face before i headed to Safeway.  All he said was "oh sorry, ya i guess i'm just used to you looking like that" ummm hello??  What are you trying to say, that i look like a raccoon ALL the time.  I had no choice but to laugh it off and hope and pray i don't run into any of those people from Safeway again.  I may have to find a new pharmacy :)

I started on a new project the other day for a new client- hi Mel!  She has a garage that i'm totally jealous of!!!!  Hmmm maybe one day. 

I wanted to show you the before pictures.  These took a while for us to find because they had to be a specific size because of a small room.  These two are going in her bedroom as bedside tables.  I'm actually on the hunt for two more for myself.




the second picture, the one with the hardware  had some damage on the bottom trim - you can kinda see it in the picture so with some glue, clamps and some wood filler it should be good as new but i am going to be giving it a "shabby chic" makeover so that sort of thing just blends in anyway.

I have a funny story... In Canada "Shabby Chic" isn't as well known as the U.S yet but i really thought that saying something is Shabby Chic was self explanatory and it is growing to be more and more popular.  Anyway, I had a dresser advertised and received a phone call from someone that was interested in it - she went on saying "well are you flexible with the price because it looks pretty beat up"  i almost had to laugh but didn't want to be rude so instead, in my head, i was like ummm ya its shabby chic .... but said "yes it is supposed to look like that, i'm the one that beat it up and its called Shabby Chic" and she was silent and just said "Oh" and said goodbye.  Isn't that funny?  Having an ad with a title of Shabby Chic i thought made sense .... i had a good giggle anyway.  Thought you guys would get a kick out of it too.

As soon as the dressers are completed i will for sure post the after pictures!  I can't wait to finish them.  I find every project to be so exciting no matter how many i do - i love the before step because of all the thoughts and visions of what it could be and then i love the reveal because my vision has come to life and it is finally ready to go back home or to a new home.  Does that sound weird?  Hmmm oh well, i know some bloggers that have given them names, that will be next for me i think :)

Just a quick post today, i just couldn't wait to share this piece with you.  It followed me home ... honest! 

It came out of a really old house in Glenora, i guess it used to have 3 others matching it.  Boy i would have loved to take all four home!!!  For years its been hanging on the wall of this old guys house, not sure why he was wanting to get rid of it but who the hell cares right?  Its MINE!  woo hoo  It is huge - 7 x 2.5 feet!!! holy cow right.  Look at the old hardware on it.... do you think i should keep them on or take them off???  I'm leaning towards keeping them on because they give it some additional character and of coarse i am going to paint it white and distress the heck out of it - you can't really tell by the picture but its got several layers of paint on it so its going to look so awesome... i hope.  Oh and the plan is to get this big old ugly mirror of Kevin's cut to fit this window.  The mirror looks really old because its lost some of its shine so i think it will look really cool.

I am still on this huge high because of this little guy who followed me home... not sure i am going to be able to sleep and i can't wait to get to the shop and start on it but it has to wait for a bit because i have a project for a client (hi Mel) i have to finish first.  They are awesome dressers!  I will post about them tomorrow.  This gal has the most amazing garage i have ever seen.  I know, funny that i am so excited about a garage.  I just stared at it when picking up the dresser.  One day i will have a garage like hers...i hope.... then i can move my shop out of my dining room and into a GARAGE!!

After trying so hard not to spoil the surprise all week it is finally time for the reveal.  I really like how they turned out.  My new client, hi Cheryl, has a gorgeous home, i could have taken pictures and chatted with her for hours but Kevin was patiently waiting for me and she had dinner guests coming so that would have been kinda rude of me right lol 

So Cheryl picked out the Behr paint/primer combo in "raw cinnabar" and i was so excited to get started.  Since i have never used that combo paint before it was a learning experience for me that's for sure.  First i learned that it takes at least twice as long to dry (also extra long because dark colours take longer to dry - another thing i learned).  I was so excited to get to the shop the day after painting and then i couldn't sand because it wasn't dry, i was like what the heck?!?!! so i pouted the entire way home, actually only half way because i stopped and got a Slurpee from 7eleven and that cheered me up.  I know, small things amuse me.  So, the ........ next day i was able to start sanding and distressing and it just turned into a chalky pinky colour.  It looked like a pink/red chalk board so i freaked OMG what the heck happened now.  I switched to wet sanding which ended up basically getting the same effect when it dried.  All was ok though because when i clear coated it, the sorta wet red colour it was supposed to be came to the surface - yeah!!!!!  But then it took an extra day for the clear coat to dry for some reason, not sure why, but that's ok because they made it back home just in time for Cheryl's dinner guests.  When looking at the pictures please ignore the dust on the furniture from the drive over in the back of the truck - of coarse the camera had to pick that up right?

I am a tiny bit embarrased because since i have been sick i haven't been on here much and i just viewed my blog and was shocked by what i saw.  Highlighted in bright yellow were all my spelling errors.  Apparently when you request the spell check option you have to click on it a second time to make the yellow go away or press ignore on each highlighted area, so for 4 days i looked like a bonehead.  Well i'm sure my friends would say that i've been a bonehead way longer than that but oops how embarrassing lmao!

So, today i met a new client of mine, her name is Cheryl, what a nice lady!  I was so excited to get started on her projects that i was already sanding by the time she got to her vehicle.  I took some quick before shots to show you guys.  I am not going to tell you what color paint she chose, i'm going to leave that as a surprise for the reveal ( a couple blogs i follow do this secret thing and i'm not a girl with alot of patience so bamm some payback lol ) the only hint i am going to give is it is NOT white :)  I just have to say that at Christmas time i am horrible, i want to tell so bad all the time that i give hints and then more hints and then very soon the reciever knows what i have got them.   So what i'm saying  is that you have a very good chance of finding out the "secret" color BEFORE the reveal but i am going to try my best!!!  Here are the pics...

I feel so bad.... something has been missing in my life recently.... my blog buddies! 

I've had a crazy week so far starting with one of Kevin's daughters bringing her new puppy over for the weekend - the puppy will be here every weekend that she is.  I will introduce you to Lexie - Lou!  Oh and Jenna and Lexie on the left and Karley and Lexie on the right!  Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?  I nick named her pee pee puppy because she was peeing on the bath mats, laundry on the floor, my area rug and NOT her pee mat.  Jenna is supposed to be responsible for her dog but she is 9.  Is that old enough?  I don't know but i started working on miss pee pee puppy and by Sunday night she used her pee mat!!!!  Very exciting news right?

Monday i woke up really sick and just couldn't get myself out of bed (way harder than normal) - turned my alarm off and was woken up by Ki-adi (our 3 year old Maine Coon) meowing like crazy, he is normally a total talker and doesn't like it when my alarm keeps going off but on Monday it was crazy howling and he kept bonking on my head and arm with his paw... anyway so i'm like ok ok i'll get up and walk into the hallway and heard raining, like it was pouring bigtime, so in my sick daze i was like, wait a second, it wasn't raining in the bedroom Huh???  So i walk to the kitchen and our two other cats are sitting on the edge of the kitchen watching water pouring like big time pouring out of the cupboard under the kitchen sink, i open the doors and then i was soaked, i freaked out like really freaked out i was soaked from the spray of the water and my pajama bottoms were so heavy from being wet that i had to hold them up - would not have been a good situation if i had to deal with this with my pj's at my ankles. 

So i call Kevin and was screaming into the phone "its a flood we have a flood like a really bad one - its already filled up half the kitchen"  so lol he is trying to calm me down and trying to explain how to turn the water off in the basement.  Ok so first i have to paint you a picture of our basement...the basement is a work in progress so its dirt, drywall dust and some cat litter.  I normally just run down in my bare feet because NORMALLY i am DRY so in my panicked state i didn't think to put shoes on.  I finally with lots of instruction figured how to turn off the water (suggestion: everyone should know where and how to turn off your water) - i'm sure Kevin was frustrated but what the heck, its not even my house!  Hello??? 

So the water is off!!!  I run back upstairs and grab every single towel we own and start sopping up the water, but then i look behind me and all i see is mud!  Aaaaccchhh wet feet + dirt = mud!  Lots of it.  Kevin comes home from work to checks out the situation and it was worse than i thought.  I thought since only half the kitchen was full with water it had only been running for maybe an hour but nope it was longer than that... the house must not be level so it soaked past the pantry, past the bathroom and into the closet of the girls room so now the hardwood in that part of the room is lifting already.  The cabinets in the kitchen are swelling and we are thinking the ceramic tile might lift but were crossing our fingers.  Kevin goes to the basement and it was raining in the basement ... RAINING... oh boy what do you even say when this is happening?  So all the boxes in the crawl space (which is right under the kitchen) are i'm sure ruined - luckily most of everything is in Rubbermaid (suggestion: always store items in Rubbermaid bins) umm well all my stuff is in Rubbermaid bins - apparently Kevin has boxes of comic books that he collected when he was a kid that are worth hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands stored in cardboard boxes.   Ooops! Not going to say i told you so...well to you guys but not to him lol

Ok so Kevin goes back to work and sick Linda is left with the clean up!  Fantastic!!! Have you ever tried to pick up 40 large soaked towels to hang outside to dry?(the sink was already over flowing with sheets we were going to cut into rags but just left them under the sink until we needed them - so those were totally soaked too)   They are heavy, plus don't forget i had strep throat so i did not feel good and then what happens a couple of hours later, it starts pouring outside, just perfect now they were wet again and then yesterday morning i woke up to SNOW.... fantastic!!!  Why do i live in Canada again?  Here are a couple of pictures of our flood.  The pic with the towels is after i already hung up 20 outside.  Do you see all the towels and sheets piled up in the sink? lol





Ok now to some good news.  I have been doing some searching for a client, for a small dresser with specific measurements and style for a while now but haven't had any luck because they are usually gone so fast when they do turn up.  I found her!!  I picked her up today!!!!!!  woo hoo  Here she is...



Isn't she awesome!  I can't wait to start on them but they have to wait a bit because i have my magazine table and file cabinet to finish and since i've been sick all week i haven't worked on them at all.  Next week i pick up 3 bar stool chairs from another client... i might be painting them barnyard red but i have to wait to see what she picks out... they are totally going to be fun to work on since my recent love affair with chairs lol!!!!

One last question for everyone.... has anyone tried Oil of Oregano?  A good friend of mine told me i should take it and i probably would be all better by tomorrow morning so off we went to the health food store for this miracle oil.  You are supposed to put a couple of drops under your tongue and they warned me it would burn and it didn't taste good but i was like if it makes me better tomorrow than its worth it right?  Ummm not sure, it was the nastiest thing i have ever tasted, i think i would prefer Buckley's and i still hours later taste oregano.  All i have to say is that i better be in ship shop shape tomorrow!   If anyone has used this stuff tell me what you think and if it worked.  I will let you guys know if it worked for me.