Nothin' Says "I Love You" Like a Dremel

Most ladies get flowers or chocolates for Valentine's Day from their sweethearts.  My sweetheart knows me all too well...he knows that I'm a "project" kinda gal who doesn't mind pulling her hair back and getting sweaty and dirty.  Well, this past Valentine's Day, my sweetie surprised me with the most romantic gift a man has ever given a woman...a dremel!

For the past month I've been refinishing an old china cabinet and hutch that I bought for $95.00 at the Habitat Resale Store.  It is beautiful, but definitely needed a little TLC and a fresh coat of stain.  I've been working really hard at stripping the old stain off, but was having trouble getting to all the little nooks and crannies of the detailed wood work.  Come to find out there is this little tool called a dremel that is made just for that specific purpose...detailed sanding!  I can't wait to see how the china cabinet turns out!  And...thanks sweetie for the dremel...you are so romantic ;o)

Any Given Sunday

Any given Sunday our house could look like this...

Project central.

Spray paint is usually my weapon of choice...it can cure anything.  I learned this trick from my mama ;)  She spray paints everything.  This past weekend, however, I decided to put away my spray can and tackle something a little more....um...challenging...restoring an antique dresser!

The banged up dresser.

This summer I bought a beat up ol' dresser from an antique store in NC for 70 bucks.  Y'all, it looked awful.  It was beyond banged up and had more dimples in it than a golf ball.  Even though it needed some serious TLC, I decided to buy it anyway because of its oh-so-beautiful french drawers.  They were curved and had the most unique hardware I'd ever seen.  Needless to say, another project was quickly born and I was going to do my best to restore the dresser to its original condition.  If the restoration failed, I knew I could always paint it :)

Here's the step by step process...

Sanding with my mouse sander!  It worked like a charm!

Sanded top.

I love this little hook on the top...it adds so much character ;)

Sanded drawers.

Red mahogany stain.  Should have used gloves.

Stained dresser.

Stained dresser with semi-gloss polyurethane.

I filled in all the bumps and dings with wood filler prior to staining.
You can see the difference if you compare this picture to
the first picture of the dresser up top.

And I still love the hook!

And its curvy drawers!

We put the dresser in the front hallway and added decorations ;)

The project took 1 full day to finish.  I love how it turned out and I'm already organizing the drawers with all my knickknacks!

We Don't Have Any Drawers in Our Bathroom

We don't have any drawers in our bathroom.  We have Jack and Jill sinks with those silly false drawers underneath.  A drawerless bathroom is a pain.  Whenever you want to do the simplest thing, like brush your teeth, you have to reach under the cabinet and pull out the shower basket that you bought when you went off to college.  Ultimately, items get left out on the counter because you're tired of reaching under the cabinet to get your basket.  It's a vicious cycle and one that has yet to be rectified in the Porter household. 

After getting fed up with our bathroom looking like this (above), I did a little research and did something about it.

1.  I bought these cool tip-out trays and hinges online from The Hardware Hut.  They were a little more expensive than I wanted to pay, but let's face it, something needed to be done and I was willing to pay the price.  $35.00 including shipping.

2.  I bought some pretty decorative hardware from Target. 

3.  I hired a cute Clemson grad to do all the work for me.

4.  I served him lemonade when he got hot and sweaty.

Now my bathroom is completely functional and I don't have to use my shower basket any longer!  The finished drawers look like this...

And my bathroom will stay clean like this...

A Little Plastic Surgery at Minimal Cost

Last year was the first year that I really started getting into gardening.  My mother is a wonderful gardener and her mother was a wonderful gardener.  So naturally I should be a wonderful gardener too, right?  No quite.  I'm attempting to be a wonderful gardener...but I've had many trials and tribulations along the way.  I've forgotten to water, watered too much, and killed plants with Miracle Grow and Clorox...yes...Clorox.  (The great Clorox incident of 2008 is another story I will share with you at a later date.)  We've also battled deer, aphids, fungi, mole crickets, slugs, grub worms, and spring tails, not to mention the unseasonable cold and wet winter that just about did us and our plants in.  (I was wishing I lived in Florida every time the temperature dipped below 30 degrees.) 

Lee Anne in mother's vegetable garden (age 4)

Despite all of my failed attempts at keeping our yard as beautiful as my mother's, I still try...sometimes with success and sometimes with failure.  Let me share one of my success stories with you.  Read on and learn how a little plastic surgery to your garden can go a long way at minimal cost.

My mother has the most peaceful porch you've ever seen.  Her porch was actually featured in Better Homes and Gardens in 2000 for being so cozy and inviting.  One thing that makes her porch so peaceful are all of her plants and hanging baskets. 

Mom's Front Porch

Mom's Back Porch

Don't you just want to curl up, listen to some James Taylor, and sip some sweet tea?  I love that her porches make you feel that way. 

Last year I was trying to spruce up my front porch and thought that maybe I could try and be like my mother and add a few touches of potted plants and hanging baskets.  My mom was actually visiting me in Charleston and we went to Lowe's together and bought two hanging baskets filled with beautiful purple verbena.  I made Brad shimmy up on that porch and attach two hooks to hang the plants from.  I promised Brad that I would care for those verbena...we were not going to waste our money yet again on plants.  I was serious this time.  Well, I did keep my promise...for about one month.  Little did I realize that caring for a hanging basket is hard work!  I'm barely 5'3" and I had to stand on my tippy toes, balancing on top of a chair, just to get those suckers down to water them.  Since they were in direct sunlight, I had to water every day!  I was pretty good for a few days, but soon my everyday watering became every other day, and then every few days...and you can probably see where this is all going.  Yes, they died.  I let them die.  Another 40 bucks down the drain.

As spring came around this year I saw all of my neighbors putting out their hanging baskets.  Some neighbors were hanging beautiful ferns, others were hanging petunias, and some were hanging purple verbena...that darn purple verbena was the bane of my existence.  Every time I looked at their hanging baskets I sighed.  I wanted to put my hanging baskets back out too...but did I really want to waste another 40 dollars for (realistically) 1 month of beauty?  Did I really want to stand on my tippy toes and nearly break my back watering them again?  After going back and forth in my head several times about what to do, I came up with the perfect plan.  A plan that would save me from having to stand on my tippy toes and would save us money in the long run.  I performed a little plastic surgery. 

I went to Michael's when all their greens were 50 percent off.  I bought 8 plastic fern stems.  Originally $6.00 each...I got them for $3.00.  Total spent $24.00 plus tax.  When I got home I dusted off my old hanging baskets that were crammed in the corner of my garage, waiting to be thrown away because surely they would not be used ever again.  In each hanging basket, I stuck four fern stems in the left over dirt from last year's neglected verbena.  I walked out to my front porch, stood on my tippy toes for the final time...and presto!  I had hanging baskets...that didn't look fake and were just as beautiful as my mother's.  If you've ever neglected your hanging baskets and you want something quick, easy, and cheap, you should perform a little plastic surgery too!  Here's the play by play if you're curious as to how my plastic ferns turned out...

If the sun starts to fade the color of the ferns, all I'm going to do is pull the stems out, spray them with "Moss Green" spray paint and they'll be new all over again.  My mother does this with her silk wreaths and it works great.  You can buy this spray paint at Michael's or Hobby Lobby (don't forget your coupon)!

My List

So, I'm a librarian and I LOVE to make lists and organize things...anything. A few months back, I made stickers to put on the tops of all of my spices so I could easily read them as soon as I open the pantry door. It's helped save at least 1 minute of time hunting and pecking every time I go searching for a spice (or when Brad goes searching for a spice...he does most of our cooking!). You can do this project yourself in less than 10 minutes if you want to save yourself 1 minute a day too!

So, yes...I love to organize. School's officially out and today's my first day of summer vacation! I have the whole summer to organize and make lists. I can't wait! Today I'm going to share my first list...my list of summer rules. I need these rules so I don't become a bump on a log and veg out in front of the TV all day. These rules will help keep my summer productive and purposeful...here goes nothing!

LA's List of Summer Rules:

1. No TV until after 8:00 pm (minus morning and evening news...Regis and Kelly and Talk Soup do not count as news)
2. Always be reading a book
3. Get to know my neighbors
4. Work out 4 times a week
5. Memorize scripture (new verse once a week)
6. Call my Grandmother every week
7. Keep my fingernails painted at all times to keep from biting them! I stopped biting them in November and have had my first relapse this past month!)
8. Start a blog [check]