Free Easter Chalkboard Printable

In church today, we sang the song "Jesus Paid It All," and in our version at least, we have the tag that says "Oh, praise the ONE who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead."  It really resonated with me this morning, and since Easter is only a few weeks away, I thought I'd incorporate those lines into my decor.  After all, that IS the main reason we celebrate!!

The fonts I used were Bergamot Ornaments, Sketch Nice, and Chalk Hand Lettering Demo.  I'm pretty sure I found all of them at www.dafont.com.  LOVE that website!!

Anyhoo, here are the links to the printables.  I put a PDF and a JPEG.  I printed both as a 4x6 borderless and they look about the same to me :)

Easter Printable JPG
Easter Printable PDF

And here it is on my mantel.  Not sure how I feel about the green background paper, but at least it's up ;P  It may be changing sooner rather than later, though.

Enjoy!!  Oh, and remember, these are for personal use only, please.  No selling, no claiming as your own artwork, etc.  Let's be kind, folks :D

My Little Leprechaun

This time 4 years ago, I was in labor with my third child - my first son.  Green is my favorite color and I've always loved St. Patty's Day, but now I get to love it for another reason all together :)  Happy birthday, my sweet little lucky charm!  In honor of your big day and the fact that you are my little leprechaun, here are some pictures from an order I did.  These guys just remind me so much of him, with his crazy, fun personality :D

GIrls' Bedroom Dresser

WOO HOO!!!  I FINALLY finished it!  I can't even tell you how good it feels to check this project off of my list...and move it out of my unfinished dining room ;P

We knew that we wanted to put the girls together in the same room, but we had a dresser with 3 drawers between the two of them.  If you have girls, you know that this is absolutely not enough for both of them ;P

So, we started looking for something inexpensive because we also knew that we couldn't afford to buy something brand new.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I LOVE the Facebook Buy-Sell-Trade pages.  I just threw it out there that I was looking for a dresser, and within a day, we had found this beauty:

It had great bones, was SUPER sturdy, and at $150 for an 8 drawer dresser AND mirror, I couldn't pass it up.  Originally, I wanted it to be less than $100, but I realize now that for something as high quality as this, that was pretty unrealistic.  

I started by using a sanding sponge and scuffing the surface.

I wiped it down really well, then primed it with the waterbased Zinsser primer - I think it's called Bullseye 123.  I did 3 coats of that - only because I decided after the first 2 that I wanted to buy new handles and had to fill in the old holes with sandable/stainable wood filler and drill new ones.  I can't remember the brand, but it came in a tube and I just squirted it into the holes and scraped the excess off. 

I started out with Sherwin Williams ProClassic Alkyd Enamel - I'll be honest.  I wasn't that impressed.  It was supposed to be sturdy like oil based but with a water cleanup.  I thought it was really watery in consistency and I just didn't like its coverage.  So in the end, I switched to my usual Behr semi-gloss that we bought for all the trim in our house...and I LOVE IT!!!  Once it dried to the touch, I  put the drawers back in but didn't close them all the way so that the paint can fully cure for the next week or so.  I put the handles on and they are so much more amazing than I thought.

I bought the top handles at Hobby Lobby, and the bottom handles from the etsy seller Violette Slippers.  They came distressed with off-white chalk paint and I loved the look, but really needed it to be white to match the dresser.  I just painted some of the Zinsser primer over top of it and used a damp paper towel to wipe off the majority of it.

Original 2 on the right. left 2 with primer

And for the big reveal...

I just feel like it's smiling at me :D

I don't just love it - I LURVE it!!  Ha ha!!  YAY!

Lamp Revamp

So, we were desperately in need of some new table lamps for our living room - my kids had knocked one of them over with a shoe and completely destroyed the shade - and beyond that, I was just tired of the ones we had.  But lamps are EXPENSIVE!  I am a regular on those Facebook Buy-Sell-Trade pages.  If you've never heard of these, they are AMAZING!  Like Craigslist, but I feel like there's a greater level of accountability and less scamming because everyone's personal Facebook page is linked to it.  Anyhoo, I found 2 matching lamps with shades for $10.  Yes, you read that right - 2 for $10.  They had an awesome shape and the shades were great, but they were bright yellow brass.  Ugh.  

See?  Not pretty...at least not yet ;)

I took one of those sanding sponges and scuffed up the surface, then wiped it off with a damp paper towel and dried it off completely.  I taped off the bulb holder thingy at the top (yes, I'm being very technical in my description.)

Then I spray painted it with some oil rubbed bronze spray paint.  Ah, the magic of spray paint.  It's my favoritest thing ever :)

Ahhh, now that's more like it :D