New year, finished projects

Happy 2012! Yes, I know we're two weeks into it, but this is my first post of the new year. I started class last week and am slowly transitioning to waking up early again and getting back into the grind. The school days are longer, but i'm excited about this semester.

This break was not only restful, but productive in terms of getting some projects done. In addition to the Christmas stockings and tree skirt I made, I finished a couple of other things on my list.

The first to tackle was our dresser. We bought this off craigslist because it was the perfect size that we were looking for in our bedroom. The problem: it was red, silver, and black....not attractive. A couple of months ago we did the sanding, and it took forever. Lesson learned: sanding is not easy/possible on a dresser with 3 coats of paint and has lots of small grooves and surfaces. But we did the best we could.

Then we primed and painted the dresser, and added new knobs. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, and proud of the sweat equity that went into it.

Did you notice the awesome bicycle mirrors hanging that my hubby made? Just wanted to brag on him again, they rock.

Next, I made a rack to organize most of my jewelry. I have been wanting to do this for a long time. David had recently bought some screening to fix holes in our back porch, so I snagged some and stapled it to this regular, cheap picture frame. I then added hooks at the bottom to hang my necklaces. It's worked out really well so far!

Please ignore the awful coloring of the photos, our closet is painted bright pink...what can ya do

And even though I completed this project several months ago, here is a before/after shot of our dining room chairs I recovered, but never documented. I love recovering chair seats, it's just so easy and makes a huge difference! Before: awwwwful dark floral-ness. After: burnt red color...the photo makes it look more orange than it actually is.

The next project I plan on tackling is to make a painting to put above our bed. We're lacking artwork on that wall and I finally found the right size canvas I was looking for...it's pretty huge, definitely one of he bigger pieces of art i've done. I'll let you know when that's completed, although with school it might be a while.