Sold!

Lots happening lately.  It's been crazy around here.  I know I always say that, but it always feels that way. 

Furniture Update:

So I sold my first piece!  I got impatient, and eventually dropped the price to $60, but it was a start!  I got an e-mail about it on Saturday and set up a pick up time for Sunday.  From Saturday until Sunday, I sat around rethinking the entire thing.  Did I "over-distress" it?  The antique wash was too uneven.  She was gonna take one look at it and change her mind.

The lady couldn't come get it herself, so she sent her husband.  He showed up on time, basically grabbed the dresser and left.  No feedback, nothing.  Kinda leaves you feeling weird. 

This morning when I got up, I had an e-mail from the lady who bought it.  She said, "My husband brought home the nightstand today and it's so beautiful I almost cried!! To say I love it is an understatement!"   She said it didn't quite match the bed she had just bought, and she wanted to know what I'd done to get the antique color. 

Thanks to Handsome and Red's good advice, I told her a small bit about what I did, but offered to refinish it for her or to refinish the bed I have that actually matches the side table.  She wants quotes for both options!!!  Hopefully I'll get some more business off this, but if not I've got lots of other projects to keep my super busy! 

Hoping to get the rocking chair going this week!!  I found the perfect fabric for it.

The seat and the back are both cushioned. and need recovering desperately.  I'm planning to paint the arms white, and distress them a little.  I think it will be really cute.  Hoping to make a little profit on it. 

I've really got to get started on bigger pieces to make some realy profit, but we're getting set up in the garage, so I'll be able to work at home.  :)



Adventures in Furniture Refinishing

My super cool, ultra hip friend/cousin's wife (aka Red) has been refinishing furniture in Atlanta and making a nice profit.  We've been talking about it for a while, and since the job hunt is not going well, I've decided to dabble in it myself.  Here's pics of my first project:

(Notice the nice shot of my brother-in-lawl laughing at me in the backgound)  It's a bedside table that we've had at the house for a while.  The drawers didn't open very well and the only thing being stored in it was junk Curly had decided to put in it.  It's kinda non-descript and boring, so I thought it would make a good place to start.  Plus I didn't have to buy it, so that saved us some cash!! 

I went with Handsome to our local home improvement store.  He's ALWAYS handy to take along for a couple of reasons.  #1  He gets a 10% discount because he's a veteran.  #2  He's really good at getting a great deal.  Reason #2 came in especially handy this time, since I was having to purchase all my initial supplies that can be used again (i.e. paint brushes, sand paper, scrapers, etc.).  After a nice chat with the sales dude, we found a great 3/4 full, used can of white paint that we were able to get for $5 (usually $25) and some brown that was 2/3 full that we were able to get for $1!!  Our total costs were about $30!

My sweet mom kept my kids for me so I could work on the project at Handsome's office with no interruptions.  It took me all day, but I'm sure as I figure the process out, I'll get faster.  Had a few hiccups figuring out how to get it done correctly, but overall went fairly smoothly.  Thankfully my hubby is a painting expert, so I was able to get some great tips from him.  The distressing part was particularly tricky.  It had been pretty humid around here lately, so the paint was dry but not "dry."  I had a few problems with paint coming off in much bigger chunks than I really wanted, but overall it turned out ok. 

I went on an intensive search for affordable, pretty knobs or handles to put on the piece.  Handles were non-existent, but knobs were plentiful if I wanted to pay $6 to $10 each!!  Fortunately, I found some at World Market for $5 each and I had a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $30, so I got all six of them for $20.  That brought our entire investment into the piece to $50. 

Here's the finished product:

I listed it on craigslist on Sunday for $100.  After some thought, I dropped the price to $80.  I'm still making a few amendments to the listing, so hopefully it will sell soon.  Thankfully Red has been giving me some great tips on how to list it effectively. 

This weekend I went on the hunt for more furniture to work on.  Apparently no one sells stuff at garage sales anymore.  I drove around for over an hour and didn't stop at even one because the didn't seem to have any furniture at all!  I stopped at a resale store owned by a friend of my dad's but they were WAY out of my price range.  Good will had a pretty dressing table for $50 but it had A LOT of damage.  I almost bought a dresser at a thrift store, but $50 still seemed a little high for my next project.  Gotta sell something first!!

On Monday, I drove down to Angier to a little place called Rusty's Furniture.  It was a little thrift store run by a family who owns a small moving company.  Apparently they end up with a lot of furniture.  I had a great conversation with the lady there.  Their prices were reasonable.  She gave me some tips on where to find some other pieces that I plan to follow up on soon.

I bought a child's rocking chair for $7.  The seat is upholstered and needs recovering, but it's in really good shape.  I think it will be really cute.  Pics to come.

I'm picking up a vintage 1940's/1950's dressing/vanity table today that I found on craigslist for FREE!!!  So exicted about the possibilities for this one.  Here's the pic the lady put on craigslist:



I can't wait to see how this one turns out!!



Pretty much everybody knows I'm looking for a job.   Due to a series of unexpected events, I must go back to work.  Not my first choice, being away from my babies, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?  Anyway, we've worked out just about all the details with child care, communting, new budget, etc.  Just one small problem:

I HAVEN'T BEEN HIRED YET!

I started my search back at the very beginning of February.  It's now almost mid May, and I still don't have gainful employment.  It makes a girl question her abilities!  It's been almost 5 years since I've held a traditional job.  Since I was about 6 months pregnant with Curly, I've been lucky enough to be at home, taking care of my family.  Before this job search, I thought I was pretty hirable (in the small niche that I'm qualified to work in)!  I have a good education, strong experience and excellent recommendations.  Apparently, these days, that's not enough. 

My search started out pretty good.  After sending out a ba-zillion resumes, I finally got a call back in March for a couple of interviews.  The first one was with a very large, well know organization for a pretty important local position.  It was a phone interview, and I knew during the conversation that it didn't go very well.  It took them over nine weeks and two email "nudges" for them to tell me they weren't intersted.  Fine.  I can handle that. 

My next interview was with a local chapter of another large organization.  It is a position that I've done before with a similar group, so I'd think I was an easy hire.  I've had 2 interviews with them, the 1st on March 21st and the second about 3 weeks later.  Well, it's May 12th.  Still no word from them.  It's a job that requires A LOT of travel and the salary is low, so I'm not anxious to hear from them too much, but you'd think by now, they'd give me some sort of news. 

The next interview was with a large, internationally known canine membership organization for a position in their foundation.  The interviewer told me at my second visit to their offices that I was their top candidate.  Somehow, I didn't get the job.  My guess is that my salary requirements were too high.  Apparently I'm expected to work for peanuts and warm, fuzzy feelings.  Unfortunately I don't have that luxury anymore. 

The NEXT interview was with a large electric coop for a position doing outreach and public relations.  I've totally done this exact job before and the salary range was perfect.  I REALLY wanted this one, but I have yet to hear back from them.  It's been 2 weeks since the interview, and the lady told me they were going to hire someone quickly.  I'm guessing that one isn't in the cards for me. 

Today I had another phone interview with an non-profit focused on farming.  It seemed to go well, but now I'm thinking my "it went well" gage is broken.  The lady said that she was certain she'd be calling me in the next few days to set up an in-person interview.  We'll see.

So I'm still in the running (as far as I know) for 3 different positions.  And I'm still sending out resume's hopefully someone will want me.

In the mean time, to try and earn some extra $$, I've just started refinishing furniture to a "shabby chic" look to try and resell on FB.  My WONDERFUL friend, who I'll call Red, has been holding my hand through the entire process.  She does this regularly and has been making a tidy little profit on her work.  My first piece should be done tomorrow.  I'll post pics later.  I invested about $50 in materials (many of which can be used on the next project) and I'm hoping to sell it for $100 to $125.  It's a small bed-side table with two drawers.  It had been sitting, broken with a boring finish on it in Curly's room for almost a year now.  I painted it white, and will be distressing the edges and putting an "aging wash" on it.  I also bought new knobs to replace the non-descript handles.  Hopefully someone will buy it and I can get started on another, bigger project and get better at it.  :)  We'll see!

A Weekend Full of Opposites

This weekend was a bit crazy.  Buddy woke up at 5:55 on Friday morning.  He and I watched the Royal Wedding together.  He was more interested in his sippy cup of juice and his graham cracker than the wedding, but it was nice not to view it by myself.  I thought it was lovely.  Such a happy occasion, with two people that seem to genuinely care about one another, despite all the craziness surrounding the wedding.  The bride was gorgeous.  The ceremony lovely (although a little stuffy).  The hats were hysterical. The images from the wedding made me smile throughout the weekend. 

On Friday night, the mom's group from my church met up for a "Mom's Night In" where we planned to watch (or re-watch) the royal wedding.  We got started at 8, but somehow managed not to even start the DVR until midnight.  We had SUCH a great time together, laughing, sharing our struggles, praying for each other, realizing we're not alone in this crazy journey of motherhood.  I didn't get home until almost 2 am.  SOOOO worth it!

The rest of the weekend proceeded pretty normally for us.  We ran errands, did some projects around the house and spent time with some friends.   Sunday we went to church in the morning and choir practice at in the evening. 

I woke up this morning, turned on the news to see the headline that Osama Bin Laden had been killed last night by US Special Forces.  While I couldn't help but feel a small sense of relief at the announcement, it just seemed so opposite to the happiness that was embodied by the royal wedding.  It was like a shock back into reality. 

I've seen so many scenes today of people celebrating over this death.  There were literally parties in the streets of NYC.  I can understand the sense of justice being served, but my first instinct upon hearing the news wasn't to celebrate, it was to pray.  While I understand the necessity of what our forces did, I still can't help but feel a little scared, knowing that retaliation will be imminent, and our troops are definitely in more danger today than they were yesterday. 

The other thing that struck me is a little bit of sadness that another soul is spending an eternity in hell.  Many say "he deserves it for what he did."  But isn't all sin equal?  Doesn't the bible tell us that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God?  In God's eyes, my own wretched deeds are just as bad as those of Bid Laden.  

I've heard this verse in several places today:

"Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
   when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the LORD will see and disapprove
   and turn his wrath away from them."
-Proverbs 24:17-18

I'm really reminded today of how undeserving each and every one of us are of the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf.  I'm so blessed to have a personal relationship with the one and only God, who loves me more than I can ever imagine.  He loves each one of us.  Jesus died for Osama Bin Laden too.  God loved Bin Laden just as much as he loves me.  Too bad he never realized it. 

Libraries Still Exist??

Last night at bible study, we learned some shocking news.  One of our ladies didn't realized that you really could check books out of the public library for free. Crazy, right?

It all happened while we were discussing a book that one of us had read.  M, our tech savvy, youngest member of the group who reads the Bible off her i-pad, piped up that the book was only $8.78 at Costco right now.  I replied that since I'm notoriously cheap, I'd rather check it out from the library, where' it's free.  The rest of the conversation went something like this:

M:  Shut up!  The library is still around?!

me:  Uh ...   yes.

M:  And it's free?!?!

me:  Uh ...     yes.  You've basically already paid for their services with your taxes.  It free as long as you return or renew the books on time.  They even have audio books, dvds and books for your e-reader.

M:  Shut up!  I've seen them on tv and stuff, but I didn't realize they were still around!

KK:  You can even check out more than one book at a time.

M:  Shut up!  So it's like Netflix, only free?  What??

We spent the next several minutes laughing hysterically and explaining the intricacies of the library system to her.  She was amazed that you could reserve a book online and that they'd have it waiting for you once it was ready.  We heard the phrase "Shut up!" (used in the Stacy & Clinton tense) numerous times.  One of us almost convinced her that there was a $5 monthly fee that she could collect and pay on her behalf, but we didn't let her fall for it. 

I love these ladies and I love that we can laugh together, cry together, say ridiculous things together, share our prayers together and most importantly grow in our faith together.  So much fun!

Easter Egg Extravaganza Pics

Here are a few pics we took during our various Easter excursions:

With her princess crown, so graciously provided by the face painter lady.  Mommy vetoed the lipstick and eye-shadow in the original design.

 

Buddy, just waiting for egg time at Phillip's Farm.

Run, little man, run!

More running.

"Mommy, I promise, the butterfly went that way!  Why can't I follow?"

 Loading up for egg time!

 Cheese!

 "Mommy, there's nothing in here!"

 BFFs

 "See!  I ate it!"

 Always the little mommy at her preschool egg hunt.

 She got to be the door holder that day.

 I asked him to pose for a picture.  He froze in this position for a good 45 seconds waiting for me to take it.

 Buddy with our ever-helpful friend, Miss K!  Love that girl!!

The Great Food Lion Ice Cream Show Down

I had one of those mommy moments today.  The kind you know are coming, but really don't want to face.  My daughter tested my will power in public. 

She's done it before, but it's been quite a while.  She and Buddy are usually very well behaved when we're out and about.  So much so, that sometimes I pretend I have perfect children.

It all started when Curly started talking about ice cream on the way home from my parents' house.  We'd been there for a brief visit, and she and Buddy had been really sweet and pretty well behaved.  We had to stop at Food Lion to pick up a couple of odds and ends.  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Curly asked where the ice cream truck was.  I told her it wasn't there, but they had ice cream inside.  She asked if we could buy some, and I said sure, since they had been so sweet this morning. 

We got in the store and they both immediately ran for the dreaded "mini carts." You know, the miniature version of the real cart that some stores have for children.  When I only have one child with me, the "mini-cart" is managable. With both of them with me, the mini-carts become tiny missiles, endangering any ankle that might dare get in their path, as my children run crazily up the aisles with me shouting their names in vain behind them. 

We'd had a very uneventful run through the aisles by the time we got to the ice cream.   Curly had asked me where the ice cream was approximately 4,327 times.  Buddy hadn't assaulted anyone with his mini-cart.  It was at this moment that they both decided make a b-line for a display of wind chimes.  (Smart idea Food Lion, place a display of wind chimes exactly at toddler/preschooler height level.  Colossal FAIL!) 

As I calmly called them both back, I told Curly that if she needed to come pick out her ice cream.

No response, except the loud banging of every wind chime they had hanging there.

I said the same thing again.

Same response.

Then I stepped it up to no ice cream if they both didn't come back right this minute.

Same loud banging.

I finally marched myself over, grabbed them both by the arm and placed them back in the main aisle, skipping the ice cream completely, and scolding them for wondering off and disobeying mommy.  Buddy was unphased.  Suddenly, Curly realized we were headed for the check out, but without ice cream.

She gasped.  "Mommy!!  WE FORGOT THE ICE CREAM!"  I calmly explained that she'd made her choice not to listen to mommy so no ice cream. This is when the meltdown started.

She immediately turned on the waterworks, whining loudly, "But Mommy, you said we could get some ice cream!!"  I explained about her choice again.  She continued to scream and cry, very loudly.  I then told her that if she didn't stop her fit, I'd call the Easter Bunny and tell him not to come. 

Yes.  I went there.

She let out a loud "Nooooooo!!"  By this time every eyeball in a 30 ft radius was staring in our direction.  One of those moments you want to dive under the nearest display.  I quietly told her to stop screaming and crying.  This time, she obliged.  She let out a few loud sniffs, but we made it to the check out and back to the van (in the rain) without further incident. 

It was one of those moments I just wanted to go back and grab the ice cream, just so she'd quit screaming and people would quit boring holes in my back with their eyes and thinking "what a horrible mom."  But then it would set a precident.  Curly would think "All I have to do is throw a fit, and then I'll get my way!"  Her "monkey-see, monkey-do" brother would get the same idea.  We can't have that or life would be intolerable with my kids! 

So I had that moment.  I threatened to cancel the Easter Bunny.  I was that mom.  Hopefully, in the long run, it will do her good.