Simple Valentine's Day Wreath

Just a quick post today to share my new Valentine's Day wreath! This was super easy to make and took very few supplies.



I started with a cheap straw wreath that you can find at the craft store (or even thrift stores), and I didn't even bother taking off the plastic. Wrap the wreath in strips of burlap, hot gluing every little while to secure it.

I chose to embellish my wreath with some pretty felt flowers (using this tutorial) and some felt leaves.

Loop a ribbon through the top to hang and it's ready to go!

Granted, it's not all that Valentine-y, but we've been over that before. Hope you'll forgive me.

Before and After: My daughter's dresser

This dresser project stemmed from the very same problem as the last one I wrote about- growing children need bigger furniture. My daughter had outgrown the sweet little dresser I'd redone for her a couple of years ago, so while scouring the thrift stores and Craigslist for a replacement, I found this beat up old thing and decided to make it hers.

(It also has a mirror that goes with it but I was too lazy to put it back on for the "before" photos).
I loved the shape, size, details and hardware, but the paint job was AWFUL! Not only was it chipping like crazy and had tacky sprayed-on blue accents, but do you see all those little specks on it? Yeah, that's glitter. Who GLITTERS a piece of furniture??






I started with the top and stripped it down to bare wood. I think this was after two out of four applications of stripper. It took a LOT of work to get all of the paint off. It was almost like it'd been painted with plastic, it was sooo hard!

The drawers were next to be stripped and were much easier to do (thank goodness). The body of the dresser and the mirror got sanded to remove any flaking paint, then were given a couple of coats of lovely grayish blue paint-and-primer.



As happy as I am with how this dresser turned out, it doesn't really "go" with my daughter's other furniture. Everything else in her room is white, which makes the dresser kind of stand out. I'm thinking soon it will be time to upgrade her other furniture as well.

Still, she really needed a bigger dresser and this one fit the bill nicely. While it has fewer drawers, it still has way more space for her clothes than the other one provided. No more stuffing and shoving and/or leaving clothes in laundry baskets because they just don't fit.
(Please excuse the messy shelves. The girl's a pack rat, just like her Mama.)