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Antique Victorian Oak Eastlake Spoon Carved Vanity Dresser Chest

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This piece?  SWOON!  1800s.  Astonishing.  Look at the finish before I started working on it!  

How amazing is that transformation????????  I only used Howard's Wax-N-Feed once I'd done the repairs and sanded out the insides of the drawers, followed with a quick dry rub of stain.   I used Brasso on the drawer pulls and man...it is soooooooo gorgeous to me!  LOVE.IT!!!!!

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Cavalier Cedar Chest - FINISHED!

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Remember that cedar chest I bought and bragged about HERE?  

Well, I finally got around to it.  I was scared because it's so awesome and I didn't want to screw it up.  I found out about these AMAZING products and, with some 0000 steel wool and a whole lot of elbow grease after the repairs were done, it looks amazing.  

I tell you what...of all the crap I know how to do and do pretty well, this has got to be my favorite thing to do.  It is just so soothing to put on an audiobook and have at it!

Speaking of audiobooks, have you added the Overdrive app to your phone yet and synced it with your library card?  I'm telling you...it's the best thing ever.  That and Hoopla.  LOVE.THEM!

Oh yeah...the products I used?  

1.  Howard Restore-A-Finish, Cherry:  I applied this with the steel wool.  I just REALLY got into it and it worked so well! 

2.  Howard Wax-N-Feed:  This product is my new favorite thing in the EN.TIRE.WORLD!  All of my stuff will be waxed and fed by this stuff from now on at least once a year!  This stuff is amazing!   

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My new FAVORITE thing! OXO Good Grips Soft-Handled Garlic Press

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If you're like me, you buy something and use it until it breaks and then you replace it.  You're not out and about thinking to yourself...hey...I need another garlic press even though nothing is wrong with my current garlic press.  It's just not done.

My garlic press broke.  I've probably had it for 20+ years so it had a good, long, life.  So it broke and I went out looking for a new one.

You never think you can improve on things like garlic presses ya know?  They are all pretty basic.  Um...WRONG!  

I got this one:  OXO Good Grips Soft-Handled Garlic Press  

You press the garlic, flip the handle over and it pushes out the skin.  *BLINK*  No...really...*BLINK*  Now...those of you who have garlic presses which do this...I bow down to thee because my life has changed.  I just pressed a while bulb of garlic, three cloves at a time easy peasy.  This is seriously my new favorite thing.

I'm a simple, simple girl.

Does your garlic press clean the skin out for you too?  WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?????????????

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Create a Mirror Gallery with $30 Worth of Vintage Mirrors

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I've wanted to do a mirror gallery for a while now.  I considered doing it along the stairs but didn't have all the mirrors I needed when I was ready to do the gallery along the stairs so I used the typical pictures in frames there.

But I still wanted a mirror gallery and decided it would be awesome in my woman cave, which is coming along quite nicely and is the perfect place to read and surf when the other human in our home watches all things sports related.  LOL!

So I've been buying cool and interesting mirrors whenever I saw them.  This entire lot cost me about $30.  

Some needed more fixing than most but most just needed to be painted, details highlighted and then distressed using Annie Sloan Dark Wax.  The large one had a big chunk out of it and it was almost broken in two at the top so I had to glue it and then use some Lightweight Filler to fix the big missing chunk.  I used antique gold paint and dark wax and made the "new chunk" look like the rest of the frame.  GO ME!  That was really cool.  I find that I'm really enjoying fixing stuff that other people wouldn't even try to fix.  Tomorrow I'm fixing a broken leg spindle on a cane seat chair...but hey...another post.  

MOVING ON!

I put some Mod Podge in matte over the paper to give it a more finished look since the paper was faded.  I considered replacing the paper with something else but I liked how it was faded in some spots.

I decided to paint two of the mirrors white which made no sense to anyone but me.  Hell...didn't even make sense to me at the time but I wanted to do it so yeah...that's what I did.

Then...I played around with placement on the floor until I had it like I liked it.  

When I was ready to hang them, I measured from end to end and put the measuring tape down in front of the sofa at the measurement.  Then...I hung the big one first and next...the bottom right one.  I filled out the far right column first and then the middle and worked the rest in.  I only made one change from the layout that Dr. Punkin approved.  Don't tell her I said that though.  She'll get the big head.

So yeah...for $30, I got a pretty cool mirror gallery.  This room is coming along nicely.  Just need to frame some art that I plan on hanging in here and decide on window treatments.  I want another chair or two but only if I can find the exact chairs I want.  I'm crazy about these chairs:

That chair is SO.SICK!  I need two of them.  PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE UNIVERSE LET ME ROLL UP ON TWO THAT I CAN REUPHOLSTER TO PERFECTION!

Okay, okay...oh...wait...that's it.  LOL!  

Yall like my mirrors?  Do the white ones throw you off?