Flowers

My husband surprised me with a Canon T3i this past Christmas! I cried.  I love photography, I love taking pictures, I love editing them.  Don't get me wrong, I'm no photographer, meaning the most I know about photography is from the class I took my Junior year in High School which was about, wait, let me think...22 years ago! So, I started to play with my camera and quickly started pinning Photography tips on Pinterest.

I also use my iPhone 4S and Snapseed to edit pictures.  The iPhone takes amazing pictures for being a phone!

I love taking pictures of nature, the sky, flowers, anything outdoors.  I love a beautiful sunset and try to capture them when I can.

Here are my flower pictures:

Macro shot of a Garlic Plant

Macro shot of a Mini Rose

Macro shot of a Rose

You can find my pictures for sale at:

http://instacanv.as/mydastouchphotos

What do you like taking pictures of?

Nightstand Turned Bookshelf

I received 2 of these old nightstands for free.  I didn't need 2 nightstands, or even 1 for that matter.  I decided to make one into a little bookshelf for my room.  I used Annie Sloan Chalkpaint in Graphite and Duck Egg.  I wanted a contrast color for the shelves so they were painted with the Duck Egg.

Before

After

The table from a previous post is in the background.

Now I have 2 drawers that I need to figure out what to do with.  Was thinking of make a table out of one of them and a shelf for the wall out of the other.  What do you think?

Old Side Table Livened Up With Annie Sloan Chalk Paint In Graphite

I had been seeing all over the internet, pictures of furniture using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I wanted to try it!

I quickly got on the computer and searched Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I thought "Oh maybe Lowe's or Home Depot carries it."  Not!  Only certain stores carry her paint.  Lucky for me, there was one store in town that carried her paint.

I went over to Old Town Temecula where the store is located and dragged my family with me.  As soon as I walked in I was so excited! The furniture, the colors, the EVERYTHING was amazing!  I fell in love.  There was a whole corner in the store dedicated to Annie Sloan Chalk Paints! With samples of furniture for sale in the store painted with her chalk paint. Oh my! Such beautiful pieces!  If you get a chance head on over to The Vintage Begonia in Old Town Temecula.  Here is their website:  http://www.vintagebegonia.com/

Annie Sloan's paint is expensive at about $40 a quart.  Yes, I said a quart.  I read everywhere that it would go a long way though.  So I bought a quart of Duck Egg, because I immediately fell in love with that color and two sample bottles $15/each in Graphite and Antoinette.  I wanted to paint my daughter's furniture in Antoinette but she was digging it so I got a small sample of it to test it out. You can see how that furniture turned out here and here.

I started with the Graphite on this small side table I had.

I was reading everywhere that one coat would do but I wasn't seeing that here.

You could still see the oak underneath and that's not what I was going for.

I went from leg to leg and after the fourth leg, I was able to start the second coat right away.  The paint dried pretty fast.

I was really liking the matte finish this paint gives.

I have never used chalk paint before so I didn't know what to expect or really what brushes to use.  I didn't want to use a roller brush so I used a paint brush I had laying around.  You can see the paint is still drying above.  I then took Annie Sloan's Clear Wax to it and scuffed up the edges a little and rewaxed.  I like the way it turned out!  Perfect for my magazines in my little corner of my room.

Have you used Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint yet?  What was your experience and what colors have you used? I'd love to hear about it!

~Myda

White To Pink

White To Pink

In my previous post, I showed you how my husband and I converted a tall dresser into a bookshelf.  Click here to see it.   My sister in law gave my 10 year old daughter all of her old furniture.  I found out over the weekend, that even my sister in law was not the original owner.  I was told that the furniture was close to 50 years old! 

If you notice, there's a lot of posts right now, where old furniture is in! 

As part of the set, she gave my daughter a desk and hutch.  I saw some great potential with this set! It would be perfect for my daughter to do her homework on, write letters to friends and keep her little chapter books on, along with some homemade stuff of hers.

I wasn't digging the color though. 

My daughter had been begging us to paint the walls in her room pink but since we are renting, I didn't want to do that. So I promised her we would paint her furniture pink and I'd even let her choose the pink she wanted! Yikes!

We headed over to Sherwin Williams and this is what she chose!  Vivacious Pink!

I didn't have to do much prep work.  I sanded the desk and hutch down after a quick clean and got to work!

I left the bottom of the hutch untouched because I was going to put cork board there. After I went to Hobby Lobby though, I wasn't happy with how the thin the roll of cork board was. So I found some thicker cork board that came in a rectangle shape and bought two.

They weren't big enough to cover the whole space so I ended up painting the white part pink.

After the pieces were painted I then waxed them with Annie Sloan Clear Wax, mixed with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Antoinette.

Below are some pictures of the end result. The pictures do not do this piece justice.  It is much cuter in person and even my husband loved it when it was done, and he was very hesitant about the Vivacious Pink! The wax gave it a softer and whimsical look.

I painted the knobs with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Antoinette then touched the edges a bit with the Sherwin Williams Vivacious Pink.

I love the curves on this set. Beautiful!

You can see where I had to space out the cork boards to fit evenly on the hutch.

Don't mind the messy mattress on the ground there...that is a future project as well. ;) 

Oh! I also redid the chair.  I actually did the chair in reverse.  I painted it with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Antoinette then waxed it with her clear wax mixed with the Sherwin Williams Vivacious Pink.

Here are some pictures.

Before

During

After

I took some left over material from my daughters favorite blanket and added it to the chair. It's an easy fix and I think when she gets a little older I will change it out to something a little more elegant but for now that's what she wanted.

I hope you enjoyed this post!  I'd love to hear about any furniture you've redone! Which way would you have done it? Would you have chosen the Vivacious Pink or Antoinette as the main color?  I wanted it all to be like the chair, but I also wanted my daughter to be happy in her room. :)

~Myda