a labor of love

I was sooo excited today about this completed project, and then life got in the way, and I nearly forgot to blog about it!

I must admit -- this is by far my favorite nursery project (even though I was involved in it the least!). I will give you a little background about why ...

In the late 1980s, Matt's father constructed a small dresser that went on to be used in their home and eventually moved on with Matt when he got his first apartment here. That dresser migrated on over to our home after we got married.

After we selected Natalie's nursery furniture, I came up with the great idea (great for me, since I didn't have to do the work, ha!) to strip and stain the dresser to match the cherry wood color of Natalie's stuff. Neither of us were quite sure how it would turn out, and I think Matt gained several new gray hairs throughout the process while I sat back asking him (constantly) when he was going to work on it and/or finish it.

But alas, it is done!

Here is the journey:

 I don't have a good before shot of the dresser because I forgot to take one, but you can see pretty much what it looked like in the picture to the right.

First, he stripped the dresser and drawers with mineral spirits to remove the wax coating.

 

 Then he had to sand everything to give it a smooth finish and ready for staining.

 As with most projects, the daddy-to-be came back into the house wearing the remains of his hard work!

Once the dresser and drawers were smooth, Matt stained them a lovely cherry color.

You may recall a blog post back from August about drawer knobs. Well, I decided to try painting some myself to save some bucks since I couldn't find any I liked at a cheap price. So after looking around at some of the ones I liked on Etsy.com, I came up with the design to the right.















So after this part was completed, they were ready to be attached to the dresser! More work for the daddy-to-be!  And finally, the finished product!! Great job, daddy-to-be!!

So this is why I love this project so much! It turned out better than I had expected, and it makes it so much more special since Natalie's grandpop constructed the dresser, her daddy refinished the dresser, and her mommy hand painted the drawer knobs for it. Furniture made with love!
  
After many corny (and therefore, rejected!) blog title suggestions from Matt, I finally selected the blog title to this post as he suggested.

another crafty adventure

Oh September, where did you go?

Penny, the dust maker!

The end of the month is nearing, and this is my first post of the month! Total slacker, right? Actually, September has been a busy month for us! It all began with a mega-cleaning event that was highly necessary after all the neglect the house received during my many sick weeks of pregnancy. I think Penny (our fluffier feline) is to blame for the amount of dust, kitty hair, etc. that accumulated on and in every little thing! This cleaning adventure resulted in allergies and triggered daily sinus headaches. At least the house looks much better!

After that, we had family visiting back-to-back. My parents came to town to redo the shelving in our master closet and to spend Labor Day weekend relaxing by the pool (after all the hard work was done!). Their visit was followed a few days later by my sisters-in-law and parents-in-law! It was a mini family reunion since we had not all been together at the same time since Matt and I married last year! Matt's mom made a turkey and ham with all the fixings while they were here. Thanksgiving in September! They also brought lots of awesome gifts for Natalie!

Besides that, September has been filled with doctor visit after doctor visit. Natalie and I are both doing well -- they're just keeping a closer eye on us since we are nearing the finish line in case any problems arise. Better safe than sorry! We haven't seen her in three weeks, but we expect her to be over 3 pounds by now. We'll see our little girl on Thursday, though! She is still a mover and a shaker, and she gave me two good kicks while her daddy was playing guitar in the church service Sunday morning and several kicks while he was talking to her through my belly last night. I think she likes hearing her daddy!

Before shot of shelf after the four
pegs had been removed.

We have also been busy working on Natalie's nursery. I am so happy with its progress! I wanted to share with you one of the projects we recently completed that was a mommy-daddy team effort! (I must admit, mostly daddy, though!) It all began with a $5 unfinished wooden shelf we found on clearance at Michael's. The wheels started turning from there.

Matt used an orbital sander to
smooth out any rough places.

First on the list - whip this cheapy shelf into shape! Here's where daddy came into play. He used an orbital sander to prepare the shelf for staining and to get rid of any rough spots on the shelf. And since I can't use staining products, Matt took care of the next part too -- making the shelf a nice dark cherry color to match the rest of Natalie's furniture.

Staining shelf.

Supplies to finish the shelf.

Attaching paper to shelf with mod podge

Once the shelf was stained and a coat of polyurethane was added, it was time for a crafty touch! We needed a way to hide the peg holes since the butterfly hooks we planned to add to the shelf wouldn't hide them without having to space the butterflies unevenly. The easiest and quickest solution we came up with was to cover them with scrapbook paper. I selected one of the light colored patterns I used for the name letters I made earlier for her room. This gave a nice contrast between the dark butterflies and wood and solved our problem! I used my trusty old mod podge to attach the paper to the shelf after cutting the paper to the appropriate dimensions. And mommy's brief role in the shelf transformation was complete!

Shelf with scrapbook paper attached.

Finally, we could attach the butterfly hooks! We found these at Hobby Lobby and purchased them for $5 each when they were on sale for 50% off. Nana had to come to the rescue when our local store only had one. She found two more for us at her Tennessee Hob Lob (as Matt likes to call it). This was the biggest expense for the shelf ($15 for all three), but it was worth it! Matt attached the butterflies with some epoxy glue (after much warning from the over-the-top preggo maniac wife to make sure he spaces them evenly). And here's the finished product ...

Done!

Let me tell you, it looks GREAT in her room! Every time I turn around, I am so impressed with all the work Matt has done for the nursery and continues to do. Natalie will hopefully appreciate it one day when she is old enough to understand how much love has been poured into her room, not just by her parents, but by all of her grandparents and aunts! She is one blessed little girl!

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about Matt's biggest nursery project! It turned out beautifully, and I cannot wait to share!