Refinishing a Sewing Table

A while back a friend of ours brought me a little table he found in our neighbors trash. Yup it was sitting out for trash day. Our friend knew I could probably do something productive with it so he grabbed it for me. The table turned out to be an antique sewing table. It looked like someone had started to strip it but then decided it was too difficult for them and gave up.

It looked pretty rough. After sitting in the house for a few months untouched I was thinking about just taking it to goodwill. While Geoff was in Houston for work I came up with the idea of using it as his nightstand in the master bedroom. Refinishing it would be a kind of birthday gift.

So I decided to take it completely apart and sand it down. I am really glad I did, this made it so much easier to work with. I sanded, cleaned and applied 3 layers of polyurethane to all the pieces.

The whole project took me about 3 weeks, working periodically at night. It should have only taken me a few days, but I was also repainting the master bedroom and all the trim in the house white (more on that later). I was a little busy trying to get all this all done but it was worth the effort.

It has been a perfect nightstand.

I have to admit that I am a little jealous of his new nightstand. It looks so great! I have about 5 other furniture projects left, this was a great start. 

Jewelry Organizer

Last year, I did a lot of projects and never blogged about them. No surprise to me. I just wanted my projects done and would move onto the next one. Or maybe I am just lazy about writing posts. Either way I have a few projects that I have finally decided to post about.

A couple of months ago my parents were getting rid of this old picture frame and I really liked the frame. I could not let them just send it to goodwill. so I found a place for it at my house. I decided to turn it into a jewelry organizer.

I took the frame removed the glass, the matte and cardboard backing.

Spray painted the frame a fun teal color. 

Pre-drilled holes for the hooks.

Hand screwed in each hook. This took a bit more time and muscle than I was expecting.

Once I had all the hooks screwed in, I hung the frame in place and organized all my necklaces. 

I have really liked the way it looks and it has been very functional. 

Fall Begins

It is the beginning of fall now and I just returned home from my month long trip in York, PA. (More on that later). A week ago when I was travelling home I was under the impression that my courtyard and all my flowers would already be dead. Boy was I ever wrong..

Not only has everything seemed to get more massive but my day lilies are actually blooming for the first time! They are lovely! I had bought these from Lowes earlier in the year, they were in the clearance plant section for $2 each. When I bought them I was convinced they were going to die and here they are all the way into October and blooming!

We even had a nice little crop of green chile to pick when I returned. I cannot wait to eat them!

The front yard is also looking amazing. Everything is still blooming and going strong. I cannot believe how big all of the plants are.

Under the tree looks pretty good, even though some of the plants are definitely starting to die from the cold weather.


While I was gone, Geoff was a sweetheart and finished up the front yard. Now that all the gravel is finish and the stone walkway is in place we realized things look a little bare. We are not sure yet to do about this, so realize there is still room for improvement. It does look a lot better though, thanks Geoff!

What do you think? Does the front yard look bare now or unbalanced? Have any ideas how to remedy this issue?