Custom Gray Antique Dresser Makeover and a few words about my Blogging Anniversary

Welcome back my Beauties.

I know my posts have been few and far between lately, but I just seem to be in that stage of life. 

I still don't seem to be able to get into a normal routine and I am starting to accept that I may never get back into my normal schedule; at least for a few years. 

I heard the best quote the other day (said in an IRISH ACCENT it makes it sound so much more profound) "when you don't have a time table you can't be late, when you don't have a destination you can't get lost." It struck such a chord with me at this stage in my life. 44 still grieving my mother, 7 year blogging anniversary that I didn't even remember. I decided I was PUSHING against life to much..and now I am going to let LIFE do a little more of work now. I am going to see where Life leads me. It pushed me to be an artist and pull out my oil paints again and a blogger out of my comfort zone and sell in a shop. I don't know why I stopped and started pushing back against it; but I am finally starting to feel a little more excited to where life is going to take me. 

One thing that hasn't changed is my love for doing makeovers.

Even if I got out of the habit of writing posts about them.

So today I will show you one of the pieces I recently sold 

that I had fixed up.

I grabbed this baby at the local thrift shop.

It called to me because of its odd shape.

I knew from the bottom that it had at some point been cut down.

The legs were kind of MISSING but it still looked cool.

The only issue was the TOP was a mess.

So that's where I started.

This post is a sponsored post or  uses affiliate links to help you find the products I trust and love

For the top I just used my Rockwell Orbital Sander to make short work of sanding the top

I sanded it down to take out all the gouges and "STUFF" off the top to reveal it's beautiful grain. Since I loved the grain as it was I didn't even stain it. I just used

Minwax Wipe on poly in Satin to seal it.

For the base I created a custom color using General Finishes Milk Paint

Driftwood Gray as the base with a touch of Emerald green and Sommerset Gold to warm up the gray and give it an earthy and more mineral color.

The reason I wanted to do a more earthy gray was to match to my 

Ceramic Stone finish Knobs that I bought just for the piece.

I love how the new hardware helped to transform the whole piece. 

It gave it a bit more of an industrial feel!

It got lots of compliments at the store and I know part of that was the simple paint with the fun earthy knobs.

I hope you enjoyed this latest makeover,

and thanks for listening to me kind of spill my heart guts a little.

Now I am off to work on some more makeovers

and see what life has in store.

Until next time,

Have a BEAUTIFUL day.

Art is Beauty HOME~ Summer Edition

This post uses affiliate links to help you find the products I trust and love

Welcome back my Beauties.

Today's post won't be along the lines of my normal posts.

You see, here at my home, its SUMMER VACATION time.

Being from Michigan this is the time of year when we SUCK EVERY LIVING MOMENT out of the Season.

you can read more about our rescue dog SMOOCH here

In a place where we are trapped for months at a time in a mountain of snow and gray clouds we tend to go to extremes in the spring and summer.

We know it can't last forever so we make the most of the time we have before Old Man Winter

starts turning his head toward us again.

That being said this is a post to let you know that I will STILL be showing you projects, (all though not as frequent) and still be around on FACEBOOK and Instagram showing those projects, but also showing what we are doing to suck the life out of SUMMER.

Now every year we take a big hiking trip and last year we did Acadia National Park.

I NEVER got around to showing you.

I feel terrible because the plan had been to post about it when we got back.

But life happened. We got busy. I forgot!  :) ...(more of the latter than anything) :)

So in the next few days I will showing you some tips on how get around Acadia.
Which you can NOW see Here!!

(If you have never been, its one of the MOST Beautiful National Parks, but also one of the CRAZIEST to get through) I have tons of tips for how to navigate this BEAUTIFUL but BUSY park and town. 

You see out NEXT hiking trip is in 3 weeks and that is what reminded me that I never showed you.

So hopefully I will be a little better and maybe have some tips for Glacier National Park written up this summer too. (Or maybe at least a post with pretty pictures like I did for Ireland)

Anniversary trip to Ireland


We tend to even DIY our vacations so I figure this fits right in with the whole DIY theme and the sites we see are some of the most BEAUTIFUL, which fits right with my Art is Beauty theme as well.
So if you want to virtually suck the life out of summer like we do, be sure to follow along.
Until tomorrow,
Have a Beautiful Day!

Update on the Art is Beauty House

 

 Good Morning my Beauties.

I figured this would be the best way to update you guys

for those who follow on my Facebook page on what has happened since the

whole Electrical fire incident.

First off let me say we are "SAFE" and that is all that matters.

For those who don't know the story I will sum it up for you.

After a long day of working on painting the house and every other thing we have going on 

here this summer (you can read that post HERE)

We had finally sat down for the night. 

We had taken the kids out for a break for us and for them and had been home maybe a few hours.

We were all getting settled; the twins were in bed, the girls were winding down one upstairs and one down, and Russ and I were on the couch.

FINALLY....we were sitting..:)

All of the sudden Russ asked "whats that noise"

The TV was making a horrific noise, and I thought maybe it was something at the station

and they were having technical difficulties.

But then everything started to POP. The two light bulbs in the living room blew up.

The TV was still making that noise so we quick turned it off...but it continued to make popping sounds.

We ran into the kitchen and the outlets were all making what we call AUGER noises.

Like someone was turning on a gas auger in our house.

All the kids came running from where they were yelling that their lights, their bulbs, 

their outlets were all screaming.

Maddie came running up from the basement and yelled that one of the rooms down stairs had smoke 

coming out of it.

Russ quick ran downstairs while I grabbed the phone.

Now let me just say this...THE kids were smarter than us.

They were adamant we get out of the house.

Us being adults were over thinking and thinking we will "figure this out"

Luckily Russ saw that a TV was smoking in that back room and quick grabbed the plug and pulled it from the screaming socket.

I THEN called 911

The dispatcher calmly asked what was happening and I told her..

She said "GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSE"

The kids were already outside.

I will tell you, my foot was barely on the threshold of my front porch before I could hear 

the whole battalion of firefights sirens SCREAMING 

flying to my house.

It was at that moment when I realized NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

I always had imagined if we ever had a fire if I would have been one of THOSE people that tries 

to run back in to get STUFF.

But I didn't...There were no flames shooting out of the house

But the only things I cared about were crying on my front lawn.

I prayed in my head thanking that whatever happened

my family was safe.

Moments later about 30 firefighters were gearing up and moving into my home.

Halligans ready (pick axes)

My heart waited...I kept expecting FLAMES to start shooting out the top of my roof.

about 15 minutes later they came back out.

They had NOT had to destroy anything.

SO far so good.

They then went to the garage.

The main breaker to the house is in there.

They went to shut down all the electricity.

NOPE...The power surge that had happened had fried the main power.

So we had to wait...and wait...and wait..

The firefighters would NOT be going back in. 

When they had been inside, they said the house was still making the same noises and

our circuit breaker in the basement was popping and crackling.

They would not risk their safety till the power company came and cut the main line.

at Midnight he got there and cut the line.

It had been a ground neutral in their line that had frayed and touched the two other wires

sending massive amounts of electricity to our home.

This....was our meter box. TORCHED....all our circuit boxes TORCHED...

NO power but also NO flames in the house.

Luckily, the power was shut off before it started to burn.

The scariest thing was the fire chief telling us. 

Had we been sleeping...

Had we been GONE....

Our house would have burned.

Russ pulling the plug, stalled the fire.

We had just got back from vacation....

we had just got home that night from taking the kids out.

WE WERE SO LUCKY!
Thank GOD we were safe!

Everyone kept asking how I was doing (and by everyone, I mean our ENTIRE neighborhood block)

It was like a street party. But then no one was gonna be sleeping with 6 fire trucks lights flashing and screaming sirens. 

But I was fine...I really was....I was kind of NUMB and it was surreal, but I was actually strangely 

calm and fine.

The kids were safely now at grandma and grandpas and Russ and I were just WAITING..

waiting for the firefighters....waiting for the power company...just waiting..

When he finally cut the power the firefighters went through to make sure the house was safe.

We could go back in...

The whole house smelled like burnt plastic.

at 2am the power company told us he couldn't hook us back up cause it was fried.

We would need to call an electrician in the morning.

I honestly barely remember going to sleep that night..

We both slept here in the living room.

We were safe and we were exhausted.

But we wanted to be here so that first thing in the morning we could make the calls.

We called an electrician and he was out in mere hours...

He and his Boss worked tirelessly in the Heat and Humidity 

to get us hooked up with all new Electrical...

They did it in a DAY...seriously...I was in disbelief.

So if you ever need and electrician.

KOOLE Electric is your people.

I am overwhelmed with how amazing they were.

Just a local small business guy, younger than us.

Bustin his tail to get us back to normal.

They got us hooked back up and the power company came back and put in a new meter and

got us up and running so we could see what fried.

Believe or not SURGE protectors really DO work..

I always wondered...

the TV that was POPPING...still works...

our Stove and Refrigerator... still work..

OUR BOSCH dishwasher...RESUMED washing when the power went back on...LOL

It had been running when the Electrical power surge happened.

I am FOREVER sold on Bosch.

The microwave however...Bit the dust as well as the Keurig coffee maker..

The hot water heater transformer blew..but the electricians came the next morning and fixed it.

(I told you they were awesome)

There were many other small electronics and air conditioning units that didn't make it

but we are seriously considering ourselves so LUCKY..

We have our Life, we have our Home.. We can still sit in our home

and be a family.

So that is where we stand so far....

Blessed, Lucky, Thankful and so much more.

I just wanted to write it all down, so that I can thank you all 

so much for your care and support.

Again and Again, life teaches me the genuine goodness of people.

So many people have reached out and offered so many things.

I won't name names of some blog business buddies 

but you know who you are.

Thank you so much for your generous offers.

I am thankful that I didn't have to take you up on it.

So there you go.

So far...So Good!

Now you guys go out and make someones day BEAUTIFUL

mine already is! 

Until next time.

Karin