Fenner Nature Center ROADSIDE RESCUE Hand painted FERN dresser

Re-Sharing one of my most popular posts today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WHEW!!!!!! That is the first thing I have to say about this baby!
The second thing I should tell you is the BACK STORY....
A couple weeks ago, my Niece contacted me about donating a piece of my furniture for an AUCTION
for Fenner Nature Center for whom she works.. I of course said...
"HECK YEAH"...:)
I said," I have some small pieces", but I told her that if she came upon a dumpster dive
or a ROADSIDE RESCUE that would be cool. Seeing as it was for a Nature Center, I thought it would be poignant that we saved something from the landfill. She said she would keep her eyes peeled.
Well, no more than a few days later, she sends me a picture of THIS!!

A SOLID mahogany 4 drawer dresser just sitting on the side of the road...WHAT THE HECK!!! Some girls have all the luck...:)
We got to scheduling a date when she could come stay for the weekend and we could knock out this project.

And knock it out we did!~ (here she is making me laugh at the fact that she had no sooner backed up her truck and I was attacking the dresser like a PIT CREW in a Race)
I don't like to waste time.....

We stripped off the old worn and broken brass pulls and filled the old holes.

Here is my Niece Katie getting ready to sand the top. (I don't mind telling you that I loved having an ASSISTANT to do this job!)

Here is the solid mahogany top stripped bare

and here it is stained with a nice mix of cherry and walnut stain.

Now for the fun part. We were really trying to keep our "footprint"
as small as possible on this project. I KNEW what paint I wanted to use.
Even better, the color I had pictured in my head was an exact match
to Ce Ce Caldwell's  MICHIGAN PINE....If you have not guessed yet,
we are from MICHIGAN...It doesn't get any better than picking an
Environmentally safe paint, for a rescue project, for an auction, for a Nature Center, IN MICHIGAN...
and its named MICHIGAN PINE.......are you hearing angels singing yet????? :) I was.

So here we were...only about 3 hours in and we are already painting the dresser.

This is how we left it for the night...It was waiting for its...."BEAUTI-FI-CATION"

When Katie and I had gone back and forth in emails talking about what we wanted this project to LOOK like...we had finally decided on a FERN...But we didn't want the regular Fern that
everyone thinks of..We wanted something STYLISH...
So I had researched some ferns and this is the one we decided on.(I am not a botanist and I KNEW artistic license would be used..so we have NO IDEA what type of Fern this really is..:)) We drew it on in the morning and got to painting!!

I can't tell you how much FUN I had working on this project. Having another artist to work with and being able to have your idea come to fruition on the canvas (in this case the dresser) was amazing.
Even though it took us 6 hours combined, just to paint on the Fern. :)

Here I am distressing everything that we had spent all our time painting...LOL!!

and HERE is our mess!!! LOL!!

But it was all worth the MESS for the finished product....

With her new crystal knobs,

and the fern gracefully flowing along her body, she is back to being a BEAUTIFUL
part of Nature.

Here is Me and my Gorgeous Niece Katie...all cleaned up trying to look as BEAUTIFUL as this dresser..

Which will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Going from Ugly Duckling to BEAUTIFUL Swan!!
To find out more about the auction you can visit
Fenner Nature Center.
The  auction goes straight to Fenner Conservancy to help them meet their mission of connecting people to nature!
Thank you all, and thank you so much to my Niece Katie Woodhams, for allowing me to be a part of
this!! We both didn't know if we could let our baby go..but we know its for a great cause.
I hope you all have a BEAUTIFUL day!!

TREE OF LIFE Fenner Auction Dresser

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

Good Morning my Beauties!
I hope you are ready for this Post.
It is FULL of  lots and lots of  pictures
and tons of information about the reason my niece and I do these
pieces for Fenner Nature Center.

The upcoming Auction is for the EARTH DAY EXTRAVAGANZA.
I thought, what better to celebrate Earth Day than with the
TREE OF LIFE,
all the while RESCUING a tree that was made into a dresser that was going to
be thrown into a landfill.
I have been wanting to do a "tree of life" piece for a while and when the
opportunity presented itself for another Fenner Nature Center Auction
I knew it was meant to be.

This is the rescued dresser. We had planed on using
another dresser but time did not allow us
to not only FIX the dresser to the point of being usable,
and to paint it. So I just traded one dresser for another.

This is my Niece Katherine and I getting ready to get started on our
Auction dresser. We had sanded and prepped the whole thing
to get ready to paint.

We mixed up our CeCe Caldwell's all natural clay based paint
to the colors we wanted for the piece and got to work.

Katie drying the drawers in front of the furnace

Scientifically measuring for our center

Here we are working hard on getting the dresser base coated so we can begin the fun part.
You can see our very scientific way of making our template for our center piece.
We were laughing walking around trying to find 2 round objects so make our circle for the center
of our tree. A Weber grill lid and round tray saved the day!

Now we could start filling in our circle with paint.

and then changing it cause it was tooo dark...

Now the really fun part. Free hand drawing on our TREE OF LIFE!

Making a mess as usual.

Katherine had a great Idea as usual to add a pop of stripes to the side of the dresser
to bring the sides together with the yellow on the front...
So while I worked on striping...

She worked on shading..

Then I worked on highlights.

Here she is in all of her GLORY.
Waxed and distressed and full of life!

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out and how something once again,
headed for a landfill was transformed and brought back, like a tree that goes dormant in the winter,
it comes back more BEAUTIFUL than ever in the spring.

Just in time for the AUCTION.

A huge thank you to my Niece, the smart and BEAUTIFUL Katie Woodhams,
who believes in me enough to work on these wonderful projects
for such a great cause.

The SPRING SOCIAL at Fenner Nature Center

an Earth Day Afternoon Fundraiser!

 Lansing, MI –

Beginning at 3:15pm until dusk, on Earth Day 2013, Saturday, April 20th , Fenner Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the Fenner Nature Center, in partnership with the City of Lansing, will host their SPRING SOCIAL.  This fundraising affair will take place at Fenner Nature Center, following the Earth Day Extravaganza event there.

Tickets for this fundraiser are $50, and the event will include:

•Live music

•Cash bar and buffet-style dinner

•Live and silent auctions

•A keynote address by Margaret Holtschlag, Michigan Teacher of the Year and finalist for National Teacher of the Year in 2000

(More details coming soon!)

Tickets may be purchased online at, www.mynaturecenter.org, by phone, 517 483-4224, or in person, at Fenner Nature Center, located at 2020 E. Mt. Hope Ave. in Lansing.  (At the corner of Mt. Hope Ave. and Aurelius Rd.) 

These Earth Day events at Fenner are an opportunity for families, individuals and groups to experience this urban oasis and Earth Day in the midst of nature.  For more information visit www.mynaturecenter.org.

Attendees are encouraged to ride their bikes and park in the Mid-MEAC Bike Valet in order to reduce their carbon footprint!

Fenner Nature Center Hosts

the 2^nd annual Earth Day Extravaganza
*and Spring Social!

WHO:   Fenner Nature Center!

WHAT:  The Fenner team will be hosting their second Earth Day Extravaganza, in collaboration with the Michigan State University Fisheries and Wildlife Club, and The Nature Conservancy.     This free event is an opportunity for families, individuals and groups to experience this urban oasis and EARTH DAY in the midst of nature!

April 20^th,  7am - 3pm, these activities will be offered for FREE family Earth Day fun:

·         bird banding

·         reptile and amphibian surveys

·         pond-dipping for tiny aquatic creatures

·         Wildflower identification hikes, and more.

Visitors can also assist with habitat restoration efforts throughout the day.

Activities will include:

·         Trail maintenance

·         Working in the newly restored Butterfly Garden

·         Removal of invasive plant species (including the 2013 Garlic Mustard Pull Challenge!)

·         Prairie restoration, and more.

The Nature Conservancy, a Sponsor and Partner again this year, will be conducting the

“Picnic for the Earth.” From 11:30am-1:30pm the Nature Conservancy will offer a global Earth Day picnic/outdoor lunch for foodies and families to enjoy sustainable lunches in nature! 

WHERE:  Fenner Nature Center, located at 2020 E. Mt. Hope Ave. in Lansing. 517 483-4224 www.mynaturecenter.org

WHEN: Saturday, April 20^th, 2013

WHY: To celebrate the conservation of nature by engaging in Earth Day activities!

Schedule of Earth Day Extravaganza Activities:

Mist Netting – 7:00 am – 9:00 am

Guided Bird Walk – 9:00 am – 10:00 am

Wildflower Identification Hike – 9:30 am – 10:30 am; 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

Small Mammal Trapping – 9:30 am – 10:30 am

Garlic Mustard Pull Challenge – 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Pond Dipping – 11:00 am – 3: 00 pm

Picnic for the Earth – 11:30am -1:30pm

Herpetological Survey – 12:30pm-2:30pm

*Spring Social Fundraiser – 3:15pm-dusk  *[In the afternoon, on April 20^th, Fenner Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the nature center, in partnership with the City of Lansing, will host their Spring Social.

Highest bidder for the AUCTION painting announced.

Thank you so much to the BEAUTIFUL Barbara Bussey who
had the highest bid of $150. It will go to the Sandy Hook School Support fund.
I am so grateful to all of you who took the time to share and comment on this.
I am hoping this small gesture will go to show there are still wonderful people in the world.
So many people came forward to bid on this that I was in disbelief.
Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

Auction for the Victims of the Newton School shootings

The auction is closed! Thank you to all who bid!

I had decided from the moment that I heard about
the school shootings that I NEEDED to do
something. I hate sitting around
and feeling like I should be doing something
yet too far away to go and actually help out.
So I have decided to auction off
My Birch tree oil painting.
It is an original Oil painting on a 12" x 16" CANVAS panel.

I don't know how I will do it yet
and if you have any suggestions I welcome them.
I had a reader who gave me the address of where to send the money
once the auction was done.
 I have $20 bid already..I guess I will take the bidding over on the blog and highest bidder by December 23 gets the painting and the money will go to the Sandy Hook school support fund
C/o Newtown Savings Bank
39 Main Street, Newtown, CT. 06470
Check or Money order only. 

Please...when you leave your bid...please leave your email address...
if you are a no-reply commenter I can not get a hold of you 

So Please share this and lets see how much money we can raise to send
to help the victims.
And any ideas on how to set up the auction
since I am not set up to take credit cards.
Thank you so much.
Karin

>http://bloomdesignsonline.blogspot.com/

http://www.foxhollowcottage.com/2012/12/power-of-pinterest-pinning-party.html