Dresser before & after

I wanted to redecorate an area of my living room and knew I wanted a dresser-like piece of furniture there. That's was all I knew for sure. So I set out to find a real, solid wood dresser, at - where else? A garage sale.

This is the dresser as I purchased it - for $35 at a garage sale. It's solid wood, it's made extremely well, and it's heavy as hell. It's actually a changing table/baby dresser and wasn't what I was looking for, but since it was the only dresser I saw at over 12 different garage sales, I purchased this one (at the last one I went to) and decided it would do.



I've painted furniture before, but since I actually cared how this one turned out (lol), I decided to follow a tutorial on how to best paint a dresser. The one I found and used, was this one here. I didn't follow her instructions to the letter, but I did do almost all of the steps as she did. I gathered all the products on the supplies list, rolled up my sleeves, said a prayer, and got to work.

This is what the dresser looked like after 3 cans of primer, which I was at least smart enough to do outside. I primed it so I wouldn't have to strip the varnish it, thus speeding the process along at a brisk pace. I thought it would be easy to work with since it was spray, but it was a bit of a pain... let's just say there was a little sanding involved AFTER I primed it.



My intention was to paint the whole thing the light mustard color but while painting, I decided to paint only the front panels and then go back and paint the strip around them - but when I took a step back, I decided I really liked the white trim edge... and went the next day to buy off white paint for them! (the white you see is actually just the primer that hadn't yet been painted)



... and this is the finished product! I *LOVE* how it turned out. I purchased drawer pulls on eBay for $4 each - amber glass pumpkin shaped knows with an aged brass trim on them. Total knock-offs of something fabulous, but they work for me. I finished the whole thing with two coats of a clear coat to protect it. THAT was a pain. But all in all, this turned out to be THE BEST dresser ever, and it has *BOATLOADS* of storage in it. I heart my new piece of furniture. ♥



And the before & after side by side (drumroll please....)




This is the before picture of what one of the walls in my living room looked like, and the after, with my new garage sale love :)

Roasted Butternut Squash

So, you split a butternut in half & scoop out the seeds. Chop 2-4 cloves garlic (depending on your love of garlic & how big the squash is) and place 1/2 in each cavity - secure it in place with a sprig of rosemary. Drizzle oil in each cavity - and rub on flat surface. Generously salt/pepper.


Carefully place each half on cookie sheet, give exterior skin a nice olive oil rubdown - and salt/peppering. Pour about a 1/4 inch of water in the cookie sheet. This will add a bit of steam to the roasting process & keep your squash from drying out. (Can you see the bit of water in this pic?)


Place in 400 degree oven for about an hour. You should check in every now and then to see if you need to add more water. This is the look that you're going for - just roasty enough on the outside, a weensy bit caramelly on the pan and easily pierced by a knife. You'll love how the fragrance that this process creates will fill your kitchen.


Let cool a bit (& remove rosemary sprigs - they are quite pungent & have already added quite a bit of flavor) before scooping out the flesh. If you've properly babysat the water at the bottom of the pan & it hasn't burned too much - pour the caramelly roasting juices in with the scooped out squash-flesh.


Salt - Pepper - Butter to taste. Enjoy!

Yep - trying to win a lens again! lol!

Just so you know, the more you enter, the better your chances of winning - so consider me an entering fool!

You can win a Tamron lens by checking out Clicknmoms here... go ahead and check them out, I love clickinmoms!

I really, really, really want a new lens

... so I'm posting a link to MCP Actions in hopes I win one.

I have her actions, and they rock. Go check her out. And say a prayer I win a Tamron lens, too :P

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | Winter Wonderland

The theme this week at iheartfaces is Winter Wonderland. With the weather we've been getting up here in New Jersey, this theme couldn't be more timely! lol! The picture I'm submitting this week is a beauty - it's my oldest daughters first outing into the snow! She was having a great time, thrilled to death to be out and playing in the white stuff, but when it came time to come back in the house... well... you can see her reaction...lol!

Go on over to

to check out more frosty cold pictures!

I Heart Faces - "Smiles"

This week in the i heart faces challenge is "Smiles". I must say, I *LOVE* this picture with all my heart. It's just such a perfect shot of my daughter Georgia doing something she loves to do and enjoying it so much. It also doesn't hurt that it shows off her inch-deep dimples :) The smile on her face is just one of pure joy...

To see more gorgeous smiles, go over to

... you'll be glad you did!

iHeartfaces - Best Face Photo of 2010

I've had a ton going on this past year and have been meaning FOR MONTHS to get back to blogging, to photography, to, well, everything I haven't been able to do due to the enormous amount of stuff going on the past few months (or more like the entire year).

I can't even remember where I left off on my blog, but it's possible that I mentioned I was pregnant. Well, I'm not pregnant anymore - and I have another little girl to prove it :) My pregnancy was tumultuous and difficult, and riddled with problems from the start. I ended up being an insulin dependent gestational diabetic who eventually had to go on early disability and be admitted early to the hospital as well. My baby was born a little early and ended up in the NICU for a few days too, which isn't something I wish on my worst enemy.

In the end though (and now 5 months away from having had the c-section), I can now say everything ended extremely well, and this years Christmas card shoot turned out to be awesome, being that I had not one but two beautiful little girls to shoot now - and I also used our Christmas card to announce the addition to the family, which I'd done with my older daughter as well when she was born. So here I will use my "first blog post back to reality" with her announcement picture, which I keep going back to over and over again as my best face shot for 2010. Besides the fact that I brought her into this world with both of us ending up healthy being the best possible outcome I could have ever have hoped for, it's sincerely such a great image - and the post-processing I did actually makes me proud, because when I started out I used to over process everything to death...lol.

Here it is, my best face photo for 2010:

Introducing Charlotte Grace
born at 8:34pm on 7/17/10
8lbs 11oz, 20.5" long
110% kissable

Now go on over to

and check out the rest of the entries!

Merry Christmas!

Week 40 - “Excited!” Photo Challenge

This week over at I Heart Faces, the theme is "Excited!!!" I have a bunch of pictures of Georgia where she's excited, but sadly, no time to play with them. But I found one from a few weeks ago that I just LOVE and thought I'd share it with you all! This is a pic taken on her first birthday, when we were carrying the cake to her and singing Happy Birthday to her. She was so surprised at everyone singing and this glowing giant thing coming at her...lol. But she loved the attention and couldn't stop staring at the candles. so this is the pic I took of her while we were all singing, and I love it! I used a few MCP actions on it as well to give it that retro/pastel feel, and out of all the different variations I did with color,this ended up being my favorite by far.

So go on over to I Heart Faces and check out all of the other fabulous entries this week, or submit one of your own!!!

Week 24: “Let's Hear It For The Boys!”

It's week 24 at I Heart Faces and this weeks theme is all about boys! I'm not sure but I think this is the first time I'm entering in both the kids AND the adults categories, simultaneously. I was only going to enter a kids pic, but since it's The Mister's first fathers day, I thought I should give him a shout out... lol.

Don't forget to scroll down to the kids entry, because it's a good one - specifically because of how gorgeous the subject is. This is my nephew Mason - the cutest kid (besides my own) that you'll ever see. Yes, he's modeled professionally before... I mean look at him, right?

Happy Father's Day, handsome... I love you!!!

To see more fabulous boys, visit www.iheartfaces.com and check out all the incredibly talented photographers there!

I {Heart} Faces, Week 23 Kids Category: “Sepia Toned”

This week at I {Heart} Faces is the sepia tone theme. I had a really hard time picking the right picture for this week because I had so many good ones to choose from. But since I'd done this one in sepia before, I knew that it would work really well. I did tweak it a bit differently than the first time I'd done it and I think I like the outcome this time even better. This is my little Belly Monster, Georgia, at somewhere between 3 and 4 months old...

If you'd like to check out more sepia toned pics, go on over to www.IHeartFaces.blogspot.com and take a look!

PS - I'm in the running for the Readers Choice Award!

Holy crap I'm a winner!

I can't believe it, but I am one of the winners in the I {Heart} Faces amateur Blurb Book contest!!!!

I don't even know what to say, other than this is a huge sign for me in regards to some life decisions I've been holding off on making... Thank you SO MUCH to Amy and Angie, the women who created the I {Heart} Faces blog, and to all those who had to sort through hundreds of GORGEOUS photos and decide which to choose... I have no idea how you managed to do it and decide on so few from so very many beautiful pieces of art...


Here is the photo I entered, and the original blog post that I entered it from:






Holy Crap!!! Thank you again and again!!!

I {Heart} Faces: Week 20, Silhouettes Category

The I {Heart} Faces photo challenge is in its 20th week, and this weeks category is "Silhouettes".

I'm gonna be totally in-your-face honest here: my entry blows.

Ok for starters, I took it a few years ago at a BBQ I was hosting. I took a bazillion pics that day, and the majority of them turned out FABULOUS... this one however, didn't come out exactly as I'd hoped. The background isn't bright enough, the silhouette isn't crisp enough, I didn't get enough of my sisters face in view, and, well, I just plain am not impressed with anything I've done here. So then why am I entering it? Well, because it's the only silhouette I had, and I didn't have time to take any (lies... I was too intimidated to even try) so I had to scrounge up something I'd already done. This is my nephew, Mason, and he's actually quite the gorgeous boy so I'm hoping to share some fully-lit face pics of him with y'all in the future.

If you'd like to see more pics (that are much better than this one...lol),
go on over to www.IHeartFaces.com and check them out... you'll be glad you did ;)

I {Heart} Faces: Week 19

This weeks contest at www.iheartfaces.com is a Blurb Book Photo Contest! You can enter your best pic and if you're lucky, they might put it in their Blurb book :)

Here is my entry in the beginner/amateur category. This is a pic of my niece Allie, taken two years ago. I adore this pic, because it captures her perfectly. Shockingly, even though I had no clue how to use my camera or what the heck I was doing, (and here's a shocker, I still don't...lol), this crop is SOOC. I did play with it a little using a few of the actions at MCP Actions (like Eye Doctor & Dentist, Magic Powder, High Definition Sharpening, to name a few) and I really like the outcome. But I SO wish I knew how to use my camera. It's a Canon Rebel EOS SLR XT. Hell, I don't even know if I wrote out the name of it correctly. The most frustrating thing to me right now (besides my 9 month olds sleep habits) is the fact that I have this awesome camera, and yet I have no clue in the world what to do with it. Some can read manuals and figure everything out - not me. I'm more of a "get in there and get your hands dirty" kinda gal, but even after trying, it seems I'm still left walking around with a huge question mark hanging over my head each time I press the button and hear *click* on my camera. If anyone knows about a "Canon SLR for Dummies" type of tutorial, please point me in the right direction!!! lol...

Do I think it's the very best picture I've ever taken? I'm not sure... I just know I love the pic and the person in it :)

Go on over to I {Heart} Faces yourself to see a gagillion more great images in both the amateur and professional categories!

"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."