Hi there, Bleeps!

(Okay, I couldn’t resist stealing Gwen from The Bold Abode’s pet term for her beloved readers.

Blog + Peeps = Bleeps…brilliant!)

A few things…

1.

I have yet to thank you for all your kind, encouraging, and super-sweet comments on our twin photoshoot from last week. It made me so happy to hear that you enjoyed looking at the pics almost as much as we enjoyed taking them!

2.

I also have yet to announce the winner of the free photo edit upgrade + framing.

And that is:

Renee Gabbard!

I will be in touch very soon with the details of where, how, and what, Renee!

P.S. Don’t forget that if you’re local, you still have a chance to book a FREE portrait sitting + FREE 8X10 print from Kelly just by shooting her an email to set up your appointment!: kelly_mcdowell{at}ymail{dot}com

3.

So far, the girls have ignored both the eggplant parm inducement (it was worth the two hours it took to make it, though; absolutely DELISH!) and yesterday’s eviction notice.

But even if I’m not recovering from twin labor/delivery, I’m still not exactly in tutorial mode (although…if you had seen the amount of painting—not by me—cleaning, furniture rearranging, and general upheaval at our house yesterday, you would have witnessed crazy pregnant-mama nesting at its most frenetic).

So, I asked the lovely and talented Ashley of Domestic Imperfection to step in for me and show you guys a few tricks from her brimming bag of DIY magic.

I’ve pretty much loved every single project I’ve ever seen Ashley do—partly because they’re all pretty, but mostly because she makes them seem so darn doable and accessible (albeit, ambitiously so), which is definitely my kind of DIY.

But enough blathering from me.

I’ll let Ashley tell you a little more about herself while I get back to thinking labor-ey thoughts.

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Hello everyone! I’m Ashley and I blog over at Domestic Imperfection. My blog is mostly about renovating our home, upcycling, furniture redos, DIY decor and other labor intensive cheap stuff. The project I want to share with y’all today is an easy one. A lot of the projects I do are pretty time consuming, either because they’re just big projects or I jack them up a lot and they end up taking forever. Not this one though. This one was finished in one nap time and I didn’t have to redo anything!

So here was my victim…a beat up, outdated, monster-sized coffee table.

And here is the finished product!

To start, the table was sanded down and I painted the legs Harbor Grey by Sherwin Williams. Originally I was just planning on staining the top, but as I was looking at it I saw a Union Jack in the wood grain. I knew there was no use fighting it… the table obviously wanted to be a Union Jack and I had to deliver. So we (my husband was my partner in crime on this project) taped off a Union Jack design using the wood grain to guide us. And yes, I am aware that it is completely inaccurate….I prefer to call it abstract 🙂

We used frog tape to do this and made sure to press down the edges really well.

Then we used different colors of stain to create the colors of the flag. We used Red Chestnut for the red, Dark Walnut for the blue and left the wood natural for the white (all stains are by Minwax).

Then we removed the tape, added two coats of polycrylic and finished just as the toddler was waking up.

Now you don’t have to make a totally inaccurate union jack either…you could do stripes or chevron or use a stencil…anything really. You’re limited only by your imagination!

(To read the full version of this tutorial go HERE)

Anyway, I hope that inspires you! If you want to check out more of my projects stop by my project gallery , which includes fun stuff like this…

 

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Umm…I’m sorry, but when you can crank out such a cool transformation in the space of a nap time (Ashley, fess up—did you give him Benadryl first?), who cares if it’s exactly accurate.

Serious props, girl! And thanks so much for bailing me out, since, even when I’m sewing like a madwoman, I certainly am not in the mood to attempt to explain what I’m doing to anybody (including myself; you know you don’t need to be pregnant anymore when you ask yourself—out loud—why you’re in the room you’re in and then, when you can’t remember, start wondering what color you should repaint the walls).

Back to thinking labor-ey thoughts.

Y’all have a happy Tuesday, now, ya hear?

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