Pretty in the making

I've been gathering vintage wooden salad bowls for some time now. My plan is to carve quotes in them, well because I'm fond of quotes on everything. But for now I'm going to revel in how beautiful they look with the wooden insides and painted outsides. 

PS. That is my paint-your-own pottery coffee cup. Caffeine Wingardium Leviosa. Can you tell I'm a wee bit of a Harry Potter fan? Remind me to tell you about my Quidditch kitchen. :) 

Dreaming of the Garden

It's freezing in the Pacific Northwest right now. And by freezing I mean it's been like only 40 degrees, which is close to arctic standards. Being in the mild Oregon climate has spoiled me. I remember when I first moved here I laughed at those people burning up when it hit 85 degrees. HA! They didn't know heat. 40 degrees, HA! They didn't know about wind chill and 10 degrees below zero. Now I understand. My body is used to the nice weather. Any variation seems extreme. 

I'm dreaming of spring plantings and all the things I want to do in the garden. Last fall I found some interesting wood donated to our local Habitat for Humanity Restore. I sanded, carved and painted it to dress up my plain fence posts. I still want to change my garden gates to a prairie style stained glass like design. But for now I'm just dreaming....and putting on another pair of socks. 

New life to an old dresser

We are geeky board gamers. Ever since being introduced to Settlers of Catan by my brother in law a few years ago, our collection has been growing. It has also been making my serene living room look rather cluttered. I knew I wanted some closed storage and a dresser seemed ideal. I looked on craigslist, thrift stores and antique shops before I happened upon this beauty. It is a 1940's waterfall style dresser with the original handles. The insides of the drawers are even laminated with birds eye maple. I used homemade chalk paint that didn't quite work as well as usual. I don't know how the paint was different, but it took 8-10 coats in some places. I don't typically distress anything I paint but I wanted this to look a little more handed-down than my typical modern pieces. I love the way it turned out and that it is so light it doesn't seem like a large looming piece of furniture in the room. All of my games and half of my photo albums are now stored behind closed drawers.

Read Books

Bold, graphic words on vintage objects.  I love the look!  This project was VERY difficult. I knew in my mind how I wanted it to turn out but I didn't know how to accomplish it. I used a LOT of x-acto blades to cut out the "read" portion to let the text of the book show through. I still need to figure out how to make this project easier because I've been purchasing great vintage books at the thrift store with the intention of doing more of these. Maybe my dremel? A wood burner?

This book is now available in my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/120702410/carved-vintage-book-reminder-to-read

Bigger than a bread box

I recently fell in love with Chalk paint (not chalkboard paint) when I was researching ways to paint my kitchen cabinets. The previous owners decided to upgrade the doors to the cabinets with costly cherry. Unfortunately for them, I couldn't stand that the cabinet boxes were white while the doors were wood so I painted everything white. I decided to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint since it promised no sanding, stripping or prepping of any kind. I wanted to use chalk paint on everything after that! I found a homemade recipe online for chalk paint and this was one of my first projects. I love the vintage look with the simple lettering. If you can't tell I love things with words and a past. Thus Life ReWritten the name of my Etsy store and this blog. 

You are loved beyond measure

Kids grow so fast.  People told me, but I didn't listen.  Now, I know!

I keep a small journal with inspirational quotes, pictures, magazine cutouts, any little snippet that speaks to me. Since long before Charlie was born, I've loved the quote, "You are Loved Beyond Measure" and waited for the perfect project to come along.

Since our first child was born, we've lived in 5 different houses. So marking their growth on any sort of old fashioned door or something wasn't ever an option. I love the graphic look of this oversized ruler and I happened to have the wood sitting in the garage waiting to be cut down for my compost bin doors. After it was finished I went back through the assorted doctor visit pages I had kept for the files and found heights for my three littles and marked them. From now on I plan to put a mark on their birthdays!