A new tabletop

It's taken me a week to stain my kitchen tabletop.  

I quickly found out that I had a lot to learn about staining furniture!

I posted here about painting our kitchen table/chairs a cream color.  I've been happy with it, 

but decided I'd like to break up all the cream by staining just the tabletop with a color that 

would go with our kitchen cabinets.  Easy, right?  Just a little sanding and add the stain.

 This is the product that I used, Minwax Stain & Polyurethane in 1 Step.

 I painted the stain on using a foam brush (1st mistake) - DO NOT USE A FOAM BRUSH.

The stain was darker than I wanted and really thick, so I thought I would take some off by wiping/blotting it with a rag (2nd mistake) - DO NOT TRY TO WIPE IT OFF.  

I ended up with this.  Ugh!

 I had to wait a good 6 hours for it to dry thoroughly, before I could sand the table again.  

I began staining again with a 'foam brush' (when will I learn?).  I went back and forth with

good spots and bad spots.  The stain was too thick in some areas, so I'd try to wipe it off 

with mineral spirits.  I could never get a clean look.  FINALLY, after doing a little research

and talking to friends I realized that I needed to be using a regular paint brush, duh?!  

(This is the table in the middle of my crisis!)

I sanded again, but was never able to get every spot of stain off.  

I decided I would accept a distressed stained look?!  

I even sanded the edges to complete my now distressed look.

Here's how it turned out.

 I like the stain color with the bottom of my curatins.

 See the darker areas where I gave up on sanding.  

I think it gives it a bit of an aged look (that's what I'm telling myself)

I actually have another staining project in mind now that 

I know have a better idea of how to do it!

I'm joining the following parties:

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Greenery Adds So Much

I'm a huge fan of accessorizing with greenery.  I love seeing random branches cut for display, plants on coffee tables/shelves and plants/herbs in kitchens.  I think the color and texture adds so much to a room.  I've never been a fan of fake greenery, but have to admit I use it here and there (especially in high places that I can't reach to water).   All of the following rooms have some form of greenery - it's usually one of the first things that catches my eye in a room.

cottage living

 

cottage living

 cottage living

elle decor

elle decor

lonny

lonny

cottage living

southern living

southern living

Some of the greenery in my house.

Do you use greenery to accessorize?

Another attempt at organization

Do you have a kitchen counter or tabletop that looks like this? 

(this actually looks pretty good)

 In our house, the kitchen counter is the place where all the mail 

and 'stuff' winds up.  Drives me crazy!

I recently purchased this wall hanging file system from Storables, 

and labeled 'mail slots' for my husband and kids.

I printed their names on scrapbook paper and attached the labels to the baskets.

The labels attached easily to the basket with these.

(can't think of the name of these?)

Now the baskets look like this.  They're right by the back door that we use all

the time to come and go, so they should be reminded frequently to check their 'mail'

I'm linking to the following parties:
100 ideas under $100 at Beyond the Picket Fence
Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans


Thanks for hosting such fun parties, ladies!

The Home Goods Gift Card winner is ~

 Thank you to everyone who entered my Home Goods Gift Card Giveaway!

 I appreciate the support of my blog and always enjoy touching
base with old and new followers.

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Sugar & Spice in the land of Balls & Sticks!

Have a great day all!  

It's finally sunny today in the NW and that puts a huge smile on my face :) 

Thrifty Finds

 ~Hope you'll stop by here and enter my 

Home Goods Gift Card Giveaway.  The

  winner will be announced Tuesday, July 19th.~

On with the post...

Last month my husband and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  He took the day off 

work so we could go wine tasting to celebrate.  While in wine country, he was kind enough to 

stop at Schoolhouse Antiques in Lafayette to let me browse.  This antique mall is a 1912, 

3-story vintage schoolhouse with over 100 antique dealers. 

These are some of the goodies I picked up.

 Is anybody else having trouble with vertically rotated pictures STAYING vertical when you post?

(Please excuse this shot)

 Love this silver tray.

 

Bad Habit or Guilty Pleasure?

 ~Hope you'll stop by here and enter my 

Home Goods Gift Card Giveaway.  The

  winner will be announced Tuesday, July 19th.~

On with the post -

Tweak: (verb) - to make a minor adjustment to; to make a minor alteration; 

to adjust something slightly

Tweaking is a bad habit guilty pleasure of mine.

For example...

Before:

(I posted here about what this wall hanger started as...)

After:

I decided to tweak the knobs on the wall hanger for a little more pizazz. 

Here's a close-up of each.

Aren't these fun?
(They're all from World Market)

Are you a "tweaker"? 

I'm linking to the following parties:
Flaunt It Friday at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Inspiration Friday At the Picket Fence

Thanks for hosting great parties, ladies!
~Happy Weekend ~

Closet Re-vamp

~Hope you'll stop by here and enter my 

Home Goods Gift Card Giveaway.  The

  winner will be announced Tuesday, July 19th.~ 

Closet Re-vamp

Does anybody else feel like they're organizing closets every 6 months? 

This is my downstairs entertainment dishes-party goods-accessory storage closet! There's a little bit of everything, and things get shifted around with weekly tweaking around my house.
(It's a guilty pleasure!)

This is how it looked before being organized.

 Some of these pieces were wedding presents...15 years old!

 Candle holders galore!  (I have to figure out a way to reuse these.)

There are so many other cool ways to display candles these days, that these seem outdated?! 

 And, colored candles....I think I'm done.  

I'm pretty sure Nate Berkus suggests only white or ivory!

 These 'over the door hangers' have been great storage for everything 

from toothpicks and napkins to kids craft supplies.  They were originally used 

10 yrs ago in the playroom for my kids VCR tapes, remember those?

The primary colors make me cringe every time I have the closet open.

This is the re-vamped closet.

All the white wire organizational pieces were purchased at Storables or The Container Store.

I kept a few of the colored candles.

I moved the other 'over the door hanger' to an upstairs closet.  This clear one was originally for shoes, but I'm using it for my "napkin habit" :) and other party goods.

Much nicer to look at than the primary colors.

And, this is where the primary color door hanger ended up...

An upstairs closet with, again, a little bit of everything.

 I'm beginning to look feel like a hoarder!

Do you have this much stuff in your closets?  

How do you keep it all organized?