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?

Earl Gray MarTEAni

I like tea. I like booze. Until recently, booze and tea has never mixed in my world. I was minding my own business, looking for something to drink with dinner and WHAM the drink menu at Sip (on Granville in Vancouver) has Earl Gray MarTEAni listed on it. I read the ingredients, make a confused face, show it to Sara who returns my confused face and ask the waitress what she has to say about it. She gives it a favorable review. I ask if you can taste the gin. She says no. I ask what the Egg Whites are all about and she says volume and frothiness. I want to ask her about salmonella but don’t dare, she is snotty enough as it is. I order the drink. It gets delivered and I tentatively take a sip. DELICIOUS. I let Sara take a drink and she makes yummy noises as well. It tastes like boozy, frosty, lemony, sweet cup of earl gray tea. Those adjectives don’t even do it justice. It is nothing you have ever tasted before. Shockingly, the gin doesn’t taste at all ginny. I always associate gin with the smell and taste of Christmas trees but this drink had none of that.

I was haunted by this drink for the next few days so I did some research. The Earl Gray MarTEAni was created by Audrey Saunders at NYC’s Pegu Club. It is super simple to make.

I realized I would need a special occasion to make it so I immediately went to work convincing my sister that she should make it her feature martini at her housewarming/engagement party. She agreed. I was ecstatic. This is how the process went:

We poured a 60 pounder of gin into a large glass pitcher. To that we added 16 earl gray tea bags (Twinings) and let it sit over night. We purchased the rest of the ingredients we would need for the concoction and on Party Day we premixed almost everything we would need into a pitcher. We made a test martini before any of the guests arrived and we proclaimed it Delicious. I continued to taste test these drinks all night to ensure quality control. We had everyone drinking the EGMs and yummy noises were coming from every camp. I did hear a few exclaim they were a bit on the sweet site, but they are probably just complainers by nature so I ignored them.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 1/2 ounces Earl Gray Gin Infusion 
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1 ounce simple syrup
• 1 egg white

Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full of ice and add the gin infusion, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white. Shake for approximately 15 seconds. Strain into a martini glass. Drink. Exclaim delight. Repeat.