DIY saves a lot of dough (Subtitle: why my parents are awesome)

Dressers made of real wood and not wood veneer are expensive.

These two are over $1000. each. Who can afford this?

Answer: not us.

So we had to get creative. Inspired by my Dad's recent refurbishment of an end table, we set out to find one man's trash to make it a treasure. Many antique and secondhand shops later, I stumbled upon a large, real wood dresser that was in desperate need of some love and attention (only $49!).

I forgot to get a good picture of the problematic spots. There was some water damage, and the top of the dresser was pretty fargone. So staining was not an option because we were replacing some parts with other pieces of wood.
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We removed the ugly hardware:

Sanded, sanded, sanded.

We wood-puttied the holes left from the old hardware and any other blemishes, and my Dad affixed a thin piece of birch to the top- making it functional again.

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To finish the piece, we picked out a nice off-white color (to coordinate with the bedding). And painted it and some wooden knobs (only about $1 each at Lowes) in a light robin's egg as an accent color. Here is the finished piece:

After releasing my inner DIYer, I wanted to start on another project! For this one, I tapped into my MDIH (Mom Does It Herself) for my next project :)

This toile pillow is $120.00.

We found a sale on toile that made the cost of fabric used for one large pillow about $6.00. (We already had the pillows laying around.) My Mom sewed each in about 5 minutes flat. I should have timed her. We are also going to make some curtains for the same room out of toile.



So the house is coming along, bit by bit. I hope to get some actual room shots soon- but the next post will likely be on our puppy. Or is it puppies? We'll just have to wait and see!

Drew's first weekend in town

After many weeks, Drew finally arrived here in Florida! It didn't take him long to figure out Southern living:

Fishing after church

I say "after church" to explain why I am casting a line in a dress and cardigan.

Drew got a chance to check out the house we will be renting; he started on some painting and projects, so there's not much to show right now except the back yard. We've got a little deck and planty of fenced space for our new puppy:

Speaking of, here is our puppy at 3 weeks. Her name is Lady Mae Mitchell- Drew came up with the middle name- we figured she was born in the South and needed to be named accordingly!

She is teeny-tiny right now. We can't take her home for another 4 weeks.

Drew knew right away that the one with the white nose would be ours. I'm glad he was there, because I would have taken all four home. But he picked a pretty darn cute one, didn't he?

And on Labor Day, we went to the FSU football game against Miami. In a nutshell, it was nuts (I'm such a loser). Now I know what people from Tallahassee do for fun!

A family of Garnet and Gold

The "Marching Chiefs" are apparently one of the best in the nation-

some of my students are involved.

I'm happy to report that Drew has already made a best friend. She has four paws and is pleasantly plump. She has taken such a liking to Drew that she pretty much follows him everywhere:

Next up: Projects for the House