TLC...and the magic of TV!

Don't believe everything you see on TV! I love TLC, HG-TV and all those home improvement channels, but I think they may have given me an overambitious take on decorating. This, along with my thrifty budget (call me cheap if you want), made Di and I think refinishing some dressers would be a great project. So, Di and I found some "solid pine" dressers on craigslist for $25 each...what a bargain! We hunted down a friend with a truck to help us move them to our new house (after attempting it ourselves in Di's Civic...and failing miserably!)


To our surprise, the dressers were laminate particle board, definitely not solid pine. We had driven a half hour to get them, and we were going to pay $40 for a tupperware dresser, so we decided they were still our best option, real wood or not. Here's the before, notice the unaligned knobs...NICE!!!

We got the dressers back to our house, which we thought would be the hardest part...WRONG! We bought all the paint supplies the good ole' Home Depot man told us we would need...a can of primer, some sand paper, a couple cans of black spray paint some new hardware, and some putty to fill the old unaligned knob holes, all for $60 bucks...perfect, or so we thought! We removed the knobs, filled in the old holes, drilled new holes for our cute new knobs, and sprayed on some primer.

Di and I decided to test the spray paint on some night stands we had purchased at Bed, Bath and Beyond before attempting the larger dressers...good idea! Our little nightstands each took a full can of spray paint (and yes, the Home Depot expert had assured us one can would cover a WHOLE dresser without a problem) and the paint didn't go on very evenly, although our night stands did look okay. Unfortunately, we used all our paint and our dressers were now primer gray...

We took our sweaty, painted selves back to Home Depot (our third trip) to get more paint and of course, we ran into some boys from our ward...which never happens in Virginia (unless your looking your worse). These expert boys told us to forget the spray paint and use the real stuff, so we dropped another $40-buying a can of paint, paint brushes and paint supplies, along with more spray paint to finish off our nightstands. Talk about a mess...

We finally got our dressers painted...three days of hard work, $150 later, and we have BLACK DRESSERS!

Ta-Da! Here's the finished product...they look better right?!? (that's what Di and I keep telling ourselves to make our Labor Day weekend project worth it!)

So, the next time you're watching "Design on a Dime" and you think..."hey that looks easy!" remember the "magic of TV" makes everything look easy!

Good Read...

If you have a few extra minutes (and you haven't been sucked into the "Twilight" series yet) check out "A Thousand Splendid Suns." This book is amazing! A coworker recommended it to me, and I read it in about 2 days (and considering I am on month 7 of trying to finish "1776"-2 days is quite an accomplishment.) Be prepared though, because as soon as you finish reading it, you'll probably cry...and wish that there was something you could do to help the women of the world more! Just a little background information, to peak your curiosity...it's about 2 women in Afghanistan, one born in the 1950's and the other born in the early 80's, and how their lives are changed following the political and social changes in Afghanistan and the subsequent civil wars that follow. It doesn't focus on the war or the politics of Afghanistan, but mostly the everyday lives of these two Afghani women, and their struggles and hardships. Read it...you'll end up crying in your closet, but it will be a good cry and if nothing else, it will make you realize how blessed you are to be a woman in America.