My Memories Give Away winner

Laura from Whimsical Perspective won the Give Away! Congrats! You'll be hearing from the My Memories folks soon!

The buffet that ate my house

First of all, let me say I'm embarrassed by the awful pictures. This buffet is so huge i had to paint it in the livingroom, smashed between the bookshelf and the couch. We had snow so painting it in the freezing cold garage was out of the question.

There is no natural light behind the couch. And there is no room to take decent pictures. I tried standing on the couch but I wobbled too much, plus I was afraid of falling to my death.

This is my first gigantic piece of furniture and it taught me a lot. The most important lesson (after, like 5 coats) was to use WIPE ON poly. Hours could have been saved. Hours!

Here is the Beast before:

A dog tried to eat it.

Six-inch pulls meant I had to use wood filler in the holes and drill new ones. Actually, Mr. Bad did the drilling. He gets all kinds of freaked out when I use power tools while he's away.

Want to see the half-a-dead-mouse my cat left for me while I worked? No? Okay. How 'bout the 2 birds? Gopher?

My cat must have thought I needed rewarded for
working so hard.

The finished buffet, along with Morgan, Battle Cat.

I did very, very light distressing and glazing.

Whew, finally finished. I was on a deadline with this one. I thought I had all the time in the world - a week and a half before my new booth opened. Then Real Life struck. Mr. Bad Rabbit was stuck in Portland due to snow so I was without heavy-lifting muscle. Then, surprise, I had to go to town every day for transfusions and those wonderful Shots-In-The-Belly. That was an entire 5 days KILLED. Plus we went to the Vegas Gift Show, eating up another 5 days. So the pressure was on! Maybe my cat sensed the stress level and brought me the dead stuff as encouragement.

While I waited for paint to dry, I busied myself cleaning blood off the carpet. Not exactly soothing.

This buffet cost me $35 at a local thrift store. I was beyond thrilled! I'm normally the person who arrives just in time to see the really good stuff being pushed out the door by someone else.

I used Annie Sloan Paris Gray mixed with Milk Paint Sage; Annie Sloan Old White; and Milk Paint Lamp Black mixed with Paris Gray. (I was out of Graphite)

Linking to:

my 1929 charmer
under the table and dreaming
the gunny sack
between naps on the porch
miss mustard seed
home stories a to z  
tip junkie 
domestically-speaking
crafty scrappy happy
diy show off
kammys korner
coastal charm

Share the Memories Update

My first ever give-away!

UPDATE
I extended the deadline because I have run into problems since Google discontinued Friends Connect. I've lost all the contact info for my followers and haven't been able to get the Give Away word out. I'm scrambling to find a fix!

Even though my blog is just a baby compared to others, I was honored to be asked to try the My Memories Scrapbooking Software Suite  and, oh my gosh, was I ever impressed! It was so much fun and so easy! it is intuitive beyond belief!

You can do so much more than scrap-booking. You can do greeting cards, printables, multimedia and more. I did a two page story of snow here on the farm to test it out.

I am a complete novice at paper scrap-booking - meaning I never do it, I just look at all the pretty things at Michaels. But this digital scrapbooking software is so versatile that it will solve my "what to do with digital photos" dilemma.

You pick your own fonts, embellishments, picture effects, background papers and so on. You can use backgrounds provided or use, as I did, one of your own photos. You have full (and easy) control of opacity, cropping and size.

Have I said how easy? And did I mention fun?

 There is even music, but I haven't got to that part yet.

You can experiment. I did the following sign using my own graphic just for fun, as well as to see what I could do in the scrapbook software. The background I used was one of dozens provided.

I used graphics provided for this invitation. There is so much to choose from but I love the
corrugated industrial pattern.

To top it off, they give you the most beautiful pages FREE! Take a look at these. I know you want them!

Aren't they awesome? 
You caught the word "FREE", right?

I've been having all the fun but now here’s your chance!

 I’m giving away one complete My Memories Scrapbooking Suite to one lucky winner:

REQUIRED FOR ENTRY:

1. Follow bad rabbit vintage

2. Like bad rabbit on facebook

3. Like My Memories on Facebook.

4. Go to www.MyMemories.com and choose your favorite layout or background.

Please leave me a separate comment for 
each that you do.

FOR ADDITIONAL CHANCES TO WIN, YOU CAN FOLLOW MY MEMORIES: 

Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

JUST BE SURE TO LEAVE ME A COMMENT 
EACH TIME, BECAUSE EACH COMMENT 
COUNTS AS AN ENTRY

If you do everything, that's 7 entries!

Contest entries close at 11:59 PM, Friday April 13, and I will announce the winner on Monday!

Good luck everyone!

A good freshening up

When I first got this Lane cedar chest it was stained maple and screamed 1960s Early American decor. Or Colonial. Or whatever they called it in those days. It finally occurred to me that I'd painted just about everything else in the house that couldn't run away, so why not paint this chest and turn it into something I liked?

So I painted the chest Barn Red, which was my favorite furniture color back then. And I sanded and sanded and sanded. I had no idea what I was doing because this was the first piece of furniture I'd ever distressed.

And I added checks to the top along with new hardware. The original was a brass Early American
not-to-my-liking style.

I was satisfied for a few years, then the urge came. That irrepressible urge to paint something a different color. Barn Red had long ceased to be my favorite
furniture color.

A new idea emerged.

(Inspector 19)

Kind of a polar opposite, huh? Ahhh, the wonder of paint. Nothing has to ever stay the same.

Linking to:
my 1929 charmer blog
under the table and dreaming
the gunny sack
the girl creative
keeping it simple
its so very cheri
mod vintage life
my uncommon slice of suburbia
coastal charm
miss mustard seed

Doctor to me: "You're not sick, you have cancer."

Wait ..... What?

I was still puzzling that one through when he went on to say my blood counts were so poor that I couldn't have chemo. I need another adjective. I'm too _____ to have chemo, but I'm not sick.

Quick, someone, find me an adjective!

This is the Catch-22 of cancer. You can't have chemo if you're too, uhhhhhh, where's that adjective?!? Of course, now that I'm away from the doctor's office I have all sorts of questions. 

Seriously though, we have reached the long-dreaded point where there is nothing more they can do for me. At this time. What I need is for the FDA to approve a new drug or for a clinical trial to open for a Myeloma drug. Apparently there are 2 drugs out there that would probably work for me but the FDA is dragging
its lead feet.

So, I paint! Art is a great healer. Passion and art. I've believed that all along.

The specialist (we call him The Big Guy) that I see every 6 months told me the reason I'm doing so well is because the illness isn't the main focus of my life. He's right. I have many things more important to me than cancer. I pretty much ignore it, actually.

Who says denial is a bad thing?

Now, quick! Find me that adjective while I go out and do some passionate junking!

The stand-in

I love vintage industrial furniture. Love, love, love it. I have hanging cage lights, metal baskets and lots of cool rusty goodness bits and pieces. But I REALLY want this industrial console table from Hudson Goods. 

Unfortunately, $1300 is out of the question, so I researched DIY industrial tables and found some terrific ideas. But, since Mr. Bad Rabbit is doing a lot of traveling right now, making a table won't happen any time soon.

Soooooo. I impulsively decided to make a stand-in. I thought it wise to really make sure I'd be happy with the metallic look before investing time and money. Plus I just had to do something about the bland, outdated table I've put up with for years. I couldn't take it anymore.

I didn't take a before picture, but this is the basic style of the 1980s sofa table I was so desperately tired of.

Boring. 

So I grabbed 3 different silver craft paints and some flat black and got to it!

So much better! Finally, some visual interest!

To achieve the rust stain look, I used these finishes:

They work together to produce a chemical reaction creating "rust." You never know what you will get.

After a quick spray of poly it was ready to make it's debut as an industrial table.

 

Oh, I do like me something shiny!

Wasn't Mr. Bad surprised when he came home from his trip? He really likes the look and is looking forward to doing a DIY table. Meanwhile, I'm content with my stand-in. For a while anyway.

The added bonus is how it shows off Hubby's Olympic Torch, which he carried in 1996. Before, it was lost in all that wood. 

Linking to:
common ground
young an crafty
sassy sites
the girl creative
chic on a shoestring decorating
shabby nest
the gunny sack
a stroll thru life

Ghost table - the rest of the story

I've been getting numerous comments asking how I did the image transfer on my ghost table.

To make it easier for everyone who is interested in the process I updated the original post with a more detailed 'How To'.

You will find it here, just scroll down.