Vanity Refinished & The Weekend ReCap

I'm finished with the refinishing! Now all I need to do is immortalize the story of this piece and this project in Times New Roman, in the blogosphere, so it won't be forgotten.

I ended up with this vanity after it didn't sell at a garage sale fundraiser. I had been eyeing it during the whole sale, making commments of the, "if that doesn't sell, I'll buy it," variety. Lucky for me, there wasn't a single interested soul, and the garage sale host dropped it off at my doorstep later that evening.

I didn't pay a penny for it. If I had, it would have been one penny too much, in Nate's mind. When I told him we'd better hurry and bring it in from the porch so it didn't get stolen, he gave it an apathetic and disdainful once over and said, "I think theft is the last thing we need to worry about with that thing. Not many people have the same 'vision' that you do, Em. We'll bring it in tomorrow."

"Well, if Danielle, (my most imaginative and potential-seeing friend,) lived in the neighborhood, I'd be worried about theft," I quipped back.

"Well, she doesn't. So it'll be fine."

We left it on the porch for a few days. It sat through a couple of rain storms. And I decided that I'd take it to the dump rather than deal with the headache of scrubbing, sanding, and painting. But a few mornings later, the woman who gave me the piece was bringing her little boy over for babysitting and I thought it rather embarrassing and rude to have her see the vanity that I had coveted so overtly, still sitting out on the porch, carelessly left to the ravages of the elements, so I insisted that Nate help me bring it in. It sat in our spare bedroom for a few more days, awaiting its dim, dumpster fate...and then the creative beetle bit me. Her name was Danielle, and her bite felt something like this, "it was free (the vanity), so you should at least try and refinish it and just see if it turns out cute. If it works out, you'll be so glad you did it. If not, no loss."

Thus inspired, I went to work. Removing stain. Wiping away cobwebs, many of them. Scrubbing. Scrubbing. And scrubbing "the hell out of it"-- just like the Lowe's man told me to, with a Scotch Brite pad. And then the painting. Oh, the painting. And painting. That thirsty old wood slurped up many coats of my watered down paint, which paint is still clinging to the dried up ends of my hair, even after two shampooings. I bought two new baskets at the Hobby Lobby (on a 30% off sale!) to replace the unsalvagable drawers...and...Voila! Ta-Da! Behold:

Pretty Darn Cute, I say. P r e t t y D a r n C u t e!

Lesson Learned: It feels mighty good to turn a rickety old vanity into the crown jewel of my spare bedroom. (Though I must admit that it's pretty easy to be the crown jewel of a room when you're competing with the drying rack and some blue Steri-Lite storage tupperwares.)

We also celebrated Mother's Day and Nate's Birthday yesterday. Yes, they both fell on the same day. He and Henry made me breakfast in bed, because breakfast is my favorite meal.

That's a big stack of French Toast, no? We shared. The fresh fruit smoothie was my favorite part. Nate makes a mean smoothie. Many thanks to my favorite misters for such a lovely morning surprise!

And I made him dinner, because dinner is his favorite meal. We had whole wheat pasta served with an herb and cheese white sauce (thank you Costco,) with Balsamic Chicken and sauteed fresh vegetables atop. Since it was a special day for both of us, we both got a "You are Special Today," red plate.

And then we went for a very hot and sticky family walk and Henry wrestled to get out of his stroller the entire time. It was charming. And then we came home to eat our last serving of fruit to meet the Food and Drug Administration Recommended Daily Allowance, which fruit was served in the form of strawberries atop a heavenly helping of a special recipe yellow cake and whipped cream, in the new pink bowls that I found at Goodwill on Friday for ninety nine cents.

I love eating my fruit like that!

Lesson Learned: it is quite tricky to make two people feel special and celebrated on the same day. But Henry managed to pull it off by wishing Nate a "Appy Birt-Day" and me a "Appys Mudder Day!" All in all, I'd say it was a very "appy" day. And I think Nate would tell you the same thing.