The cutest teapot you'll ever see (and it was a thrift find!)

THIS BETTER BE GOOD EMILY. NOTHING FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS???
Apologies for not posting the last two days! Every time Annie's napped or gone to bed, I just have had too many other things to do and nothing to post about! Plus last night we went to watch Hairspray, the free show at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Houston, and I lost my smart phone. So that didn't help things. Of course because I hadn't posted in 2 days or called my mom back last night, she called my husband to find out if something happened to us. I think the thing that worried her the most was the lack of updates on my blog. Hilarious! I guess she is my biggest blog fan though!

Anyway, today's post I'm going to make it up to you 100%! It's my best BEST thrift find EVER. I bought this a month ago but was saving the post for a special day. Can you guess what it is from this picture? (I'm going to guess yes since once again I used the item's name in the title of the post...:D)

It's a teapot! The CUTEST one ever. It's a square Burleigh Ware Burslem Staffordshire Ironstone teapot in the red Charlotte Basket of Flowers pattern from Burslem, England. It's amazing isn't it? Yes, I know.

No chips, cracks, or damage. I can't believe someone donated this! And you will absolutely hate me for the price. I got it at my local Salvation Army that typically has NOTHING for only $2.99. Remember in this post when I said I missed out on really great stuff? Well this more than made up for that day. This is something I will never sell! Hopefully something we keep in the family for a long time. I love love love it!

And on a crafty note, I've decided I suck at sewing stuffed animals. I made a little monkey head to go with the big one, and this time I sewed instead of hot-gluing the felt on, but it turned out really weird. The monkey has a giant forehead and I'm too lazy to sew the last piece on top of it's face. It's funnier this way anyway.

Happy Saturday! And happy yard sale-ing everyone!

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Thrifty Painting and Yardy Jar

I LIKE THE SOUND OF THAT PRICE.
I feel pretty lucky today! I was browsing a nearby Goodwill for a desk fan for my husband and of course, I also looked around to see if there was anything else that was interesting. In the wall art section I came upon a small oil painting of a large tree in a field of flowers. It was pretty, but the price was even prettier. $2.99! Where else can you get a nice oil painting already matted in the frame for that price? Well thrift stores I guess. Anyway, I snatched it up immediately.

The wood frame is slightly dated, but for now I'm going to leave it like it is. And no, it's not a print. You can see the strokes of paint on the canvas. What do you think?

I love it! And it's husband approved so this is definitely a keeper! And yes, I did get him a fan too. Also, I forgot to mention last Sunday on Annie's first bike ride we stopped at a yard sale and I found one of my favorite things. A blue mason jar! Ball brand. Thankfully I didn't get any of the Ball blue mason jars at Round Top (I bought Atlas ones instead) because I got this one for $2. Zinc lid and all.

If there were great finds and deals like this everyday, I'd have to rent out a storage space!

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Stripping and staining a dining table

SOUNDS LIKE FUN. JUST GLAD IT ISN'T ME.
I know I said I wouldn't get to work on the dining table until this weekend, but I ended up spending the entire day at my parent's house and got a headstart. Stripping the finish and stain off of the table was a huge pain. I had already used Motsenbocker's Lift off the week before but it didn't do much to the tabletop. I think it's because the stain went so deep. The Lift off helped take a thin layer off the finish, but it still took me about 3 hours and to get everything else off.

Here's what the table looked like last week.

This is what it looked like after an hour with the electric sander and 80 grit sandpaper. Halfway there! And of course I forgot to bring a camera, so these poor quality pics were taken with my cell phone.

Here's where I was at 2 and a half hours later. Stripped down to the bare wood! At the end I hand-sanded the areas of stain that the sander refused to get to. And I didn't walk away from all of this unharmed. I have a huge bruise on my left palm where I kept pushing down on the sander. And has anyone else sanded so long that their hands tingled, itched, and swelled up? Lucky me! I could barely get my rings off.

At this point, there was dust everywhere. Thank goodness for ventilator masks! I wiped down the tabletop a few times with a dry rag, then got out my Minwax dark walnut stain and applied it to the tabletop with a foam brush. I applied the stain 3 brush strokes at a time (from the bottom to the top of the table) going with the grain, then wiped the excess stain off with a rag.

Midway through the first coat.

And here's what it looked like after 2 coats. I had to stop there because Annie was getting sleepy and we had a 45 min drive home ahead of us.

I'm planning to add one more coat of dark walnut stain, then a few coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly this weekend. I can't believe how good it looks already. So excited to see the end product. And I just want to say, thanks Mom for helping me watch Annie while I was working on this beast!

p.s. For this project, I followed Miss Mustard Seed's Dining Room Table tutorial. She always gives the best tips and you'll notice all of the products I used were mentioned in her post. 

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Chair transformation almost complete

HURRY UP! WE WANT TO SEE THE COMPLETE "AFTER".
I'm still working on my "Blue Boy" chairs and should be done in a couple days. All I have left is to cover one seat cushion and add the front and back trim to 2 chairs. Soon my beauties...soon.

I haven't been working on as many projects lately or getting things done as quickly because of course, real life happens. I was busy celebrating Annie's birthday, bringing her to playdates, cleaning the house, and doing family stuff on the weekends. Also I've been trying not to buy any new furniture until I'm done with the dining set. I think most furniture lovers try setting a restriction for themselves on finishing projects before they even think about others, but they usually give in when they come across a deal they just can't pass up. Luckily for me, or unluckily depending on how you see it, I haven't seen any great deals so I've been good at keeping my word. I'm still scanning the Free section daily in Craigslist though. I think we can all agree that free stuff doesn't count!

By the way, I'm not the only one in my family that loves thrift shops. My mom has been hitting the stores lately. She works for one of the charity organizations near her home and they have a little shop that she checks out every time she volunteers. Last week she saw this cute Johnson Brothers teacup, saucer, and two little bowls on sale for $1.75 (if I remember correctly). She kept one of the bowls and gave me the rest. I displayed it on Annie's little white chair that I bought at an estate sale a couple months ago.

It's an Annie sized teacup! Now that I have this one, I'm thinking about collecting a few more small teacup sets for future family tea parties. I may not be buying furniture right now, but I didn't set a restriction on everything else!

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Teapots and tables and birthdays and bicycles, these are a few of my favorite things

I BET I CAN GUESS WHAT SONG YOU HAVE STUCK IN YOUR HEAD.
We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Annie's first birthday. Yesterday my family came over to play with her, open presents, and eat birthday pie and cake. Today my husband and I brought her on her first bike ride. She loved it! I think we really wore her out though because she fell asleep an hour earlier than normal. I guess she wanted to give us a little gift too!

So after waiting 24 hours for the superglue on my duck teapot lamp to dry (from this post), I attached the lampshade and voila! Just a little fix and my unique little lamp looks brand new.

I think we're going to keep this one for our bedroom. I considered selling it but my husband really likes it, and when he shows interest in any of my pieces I'm happy to agree to add it to our collection!

And here's what I've been working on lately.

It's my "Blue Boy" dining table! In these pictures it's standing up because I couldn't bring it down by myself. That thing is super heavy! When I bought it, the table had a couple large white water stains and scratches all over the place so I decided to strip and re-stain it. Right now I'm in the process of stripping the top using water-based paint/varnish remover and an electric hand sander. Unfortunately, I've only had the opportunity to work on it once a week because it's at my parent's house, but I'm spending a whole day this weekend at their place and hope to have it done by the end of this week. After that, it'll be on it's way to a nearby consignment store. And from there, maybe a new home!

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