Project: Refurbished Dresser

 I was feeling kind of handy and energetic so I stole an old dresser from my parent's house and decided to refinish it. Here is the dresser before I had my way with it:

I gave it a light sanding as it had been previously varnished. Sanding is the reason I don't do projects like this often. If i ever have kids i will punish them by giving them furniture to sand. I was quite happy to sand off this little flowery design, what an eye sore.

After sanding I used a candle to wax the edges so that I could scrape the paint off some places later to give it a vintage look. Then I slapped two coats of primer on it.... slapped is not really an appropriate term- I put the primer on with love and care. Priming is a very important step.

Supervisor Watson kept an eye on me during my project. After the primer had dried I put on two coats of white paint. What kind of white paint you ask? The only kind i had in my house i reply. Ceiling paint!

The drawer pulls were originally brass or something that looks like brass. I primed them in hopes they would look okay white. They did not. I painted them dark gray after that and they looked even worse.The drawer pulls are a non standard size so at this time they have been replaced with ribbon until such time as I find a pull that measures 4 1/4".

Luckily the top drawers are just knobs so I replaced them with adorable crystal ones.

Lastly I scraped up the edges to give it a vintagey look. The polyurethane turned the stark white paint into a subtler white that looks worn and was begging to be distressed. This total project cost under $30- 10 for the knobs and 20 for the polyurethane. Here's what I ended up with:

Cute right?

My Kitten Kit.

I probably check my mail two or three times a week. On the weeks that I check it three times, at least one of those times the mail box is empty. I am always very excited when there happens to be mail in the box. There are three types of mail i get- 1. stuff from the government 2. junk/flyers/coupons/free stuff I've ordered online 3. actual awesome mail that is meant for me. Yesterday when i opened my mail box it was FULL. I squealed in delight and ran up the stairs.. okay ran up the first flight and walked up the rest. I sat down at the table and started in on my STACK of mail.

Now you'd think this blog would be about #3, awesome mail. It is not. Although, come to think of it this item is kind of #2 and #3. It's awesome and free. THAT makes it a twofer, which instantly brings up its awesomeness rating. It could probably get its own page in the 1000 awesome things book.

I will delay no longer.  The snail mail i received was something I had ordered off the Purina website ages ago and had forgotten all about. "My Kitten Kit" they call it. Please see that it was addressed to Michelle & Watson! Adorable? I think so.

In this kit was a Owner's Manual type thing that covers everything you'd ever need to know about owning a cat. There was one Did You Know blurb i found especially interesting. "Cats are the only mammals that are unable to taste sweetness." I thought it was weird that Watson licked all the icing off my cupcake if she can't taste sweet. It must be the butter in the icing that she likes. or the pink. or maybe the sprinkles. It had lots of helpful information that i could have used weeks, if not months, ago. How to make sure she uses her litter box, how to keep her from scratching the furniture and my entire body, how to get her to sleep at night and not annoy the crap out of me. I skimmed through the book and filed it away if future reference is necessary. There is lots of information about if they get sick and about keeping her a healthy weight and basically stuff i don't care about at this point in time. Oooo! It also came with this cute little charm to go on a collar.

The thing i was most excited about, OBVIOUSLY, was the free coupons. Included in the package: a free bag of kitten chow, a free can of wet food and a free container of kitty litter. Like no joke, best deal ever. Watson didn't care much for the charm, coupons or manual, but she really loved the cellophane that the package was wrapped in. That's all for right meow... uhh i mean now.