striped furniture complete and an awesome recipe from the Pioneer Woman's punk a** little sister

Here we go:

I love distressed furniture. The kind of distressed with multiple layers of paint, where you can take a hammer to a piece and paint outside the lines and sand it down until it looks just right. But I admit, sometimes distressed can be a lot of work....because it has to be done right.

You know the kind of furniture that has been "rushed distressed" and made to look old, but really it just looks like a made in China particle board table with a slap of paint on it? Yeah, not a fan.

Soooo....this latest project put me to the test to see if I could do it myself. The right way.

I have these two random cabinets...the diamond one was actually in my room in high school and was originally solid cream until I painted it.

And the green one came from good ole' Edward and Edward in downtown Frederick when they were still in business. (How they are missed!)

painted them each a soft blue first....mixing the color and then adding about 3 tablespoons Plaster of Paris...1 tablspoon per cup of paint

Then distressed them...

Then painted a layer of bright aquaish color....

taped off the stripes...pain in the butt!

before and after dristressing....

Here's the final product with a layer of SC Johnson wax applied and buffed out....it's super smooth and super distressed.  What do you think?  I hope it's not too Cheshire Catish : /....I'm liking the bright, happy colors and it adds an element of surprise to our kitchen!

So, between:

A) repeatedly asking Leila to sit down on her sweet little tush while jumping on the sofa

B) Needing to get my behind to the gym

C) Wanting to make this AMAZING recipe again from the always trusty Pioneer Woman, which my sister sent to me a few years ago via e-mail with the subject line: For My Punk A** Little Sister (click on the above link and read what TPW had to say about her sis)...

here is the Pioneer Woman's little sis btw...doesn't she look nice :) ?



photo courtesy: The Pioneer Woman....Penne a la Betsy!


D)  Working on the above pain in the butt stripe project

WHEW...and last but not least...

 E) Dragging my butt to pack for our first plane trip with toddler to visit my big sister in less than, uh...let's see, 18 hours....yikes!  There has been a lot of back talk in the house.....

We are off to Rhode Island for a week where I hope to see several mansions like these on the coast of Newport:


photo via beach island.net


Hope everyone is having a lovely first day of June....have a great weekend, see you when we get back!!