One thing we knew we'd need for the nursery was a changing table/dresser. I wanted to get a combination of the two because our nursery is not huge and I figured it would be more practical. Plus, I just really like the look of a long dresser used as a changing table.

For months I scoured Craigslist looking for just the right dresser. I found a set that was really cute and drove 45 min to take a look at it. It was at an antique shop, so the prices were just too high for us. We wanted something we could redo, but this dresser needed work AND was still a bit expensive. I was sharing my lack of luck with my supervisor at work when she mentioned, "I have a dresser we were thinking of getting rid of, you can have it for free if you want it." Well only an idiot would say no to that! I told her we'd take it. It wasn't until I saw it in person that I was really pumped! Look at this beauty:

Yeah, I have the best supervisor ever, basically.

I knew I wanted to do an ombre paint feature on the drawers and figured it's a girl, so what better colors to use than soft pinks? I painted the main part of the dresser Behr's Vermont Cream which is an off-white as I wanted everything to be soft and not a glaring white. For the drawers I chose three pinks beside each other on a color swatch and ended up with Valspar's Brushed Rose, Salmon Bisque, and Snow Pa. We just bought a sample pot of each to keep it cheap.

For the knobs I chose these really pretty glass rose petals from Hobby Lobby. I waited until they had a 50% off sale and then snatched up 6 of them for just under $26 with shipping and tax. I am really happy with the finished product! Here are some before and after side-by-sides :)

We are so happy with how it turned it! It's exciting to see the nursery come together and we can't wait to fill the drawers with little girl clothes and have our precious angel with us to wear them. Here's one final photo for the road :)

Final cost:

Dresser - Free!

Paint - $5 each for a total of $15 and $20 for a gallon of the off-white

Knobs - $26

Total: $61!

EDIT: Apparently this dresser is a rare McCobb Planner Dresser and multiple people have felt the need to email and tell me how horrible of a person I am for destroying a piece of art. Honestly, we had no idea it was a rare piece of furniture! So for anyone else who feels the need to cut someone down for recreating a piece of furniture for her daughter's nursery when she had no idea of it's value, you can save your time... I know! But thanks for your kind words :)

Happy New Year...and a DIY

It's hard to believe it is already 2014! There were a lot of changes in our lives this past year and we are so thankful for God's provision and leading. This year we:

• Celebrated our 1 year anniversary
• Moved from Singapore to the US
• Found out we were pregnant with our first baby
• Ended up settling in my hometown because of an unexpected job offer for Clarence
• Bought a new car

2014 will bring the biggest change to our lives yet, the arrival of our baby girl! We are so excited (and a little terrified) about all the changes to come. And how does someone who enjoys crafts and DIY cope with the coming changes? Throw myself into making stuff for the nursery, that's how!

A few months ago I was in Ollie's and saw a big canvas for $8.99. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, but figured I could come up with something nice for the baby's room.  It was too cheap to pass up. I considered a few different things, but when I saw this pic on pinterest, I was sold.

I was even more sold when I found out how easy it was. There are LOTS of blogs out there who give the steps on how to create one on your own, but here is one that I followed. It's super simple! 

I used leftover paint we had from the dresser/changing table makeover (reveal to come!) and the nursery wall paint. Just slap it on the canvas until you're happy with how it looks, place painter's tape in a herringbone pattern overtop leaving spaces between each one, get your husband to take it outside and spray paint the whole thing to save you from the fumes, and then remove the tape! It probably took me a couple hours tops. I'm so pleased with how it turned out! 

The nursery is horrible to photograph and gets no direct sunlight throughout the day, so this is the best I could do. Anyone can make this, so if you're thinking of creating some cheap art, do it! Not bad for $8.99, I'd say :)

Merry Christmas!

From Me, Clarence, and Baby Wong....

We are trusting you enjoy celebrating with loved ones and are filled with joy over the amazing gift we were given 2000 years ago...the birth of a Savior!

DIY Ornament Wreath

I've never stepped into the handmade wreath world, but this year figured I'd like to make the journey. I always see photos of cute wreaths all over my FB feed or Pinterest and, gosh darn it, I felt left out!

The first one I saw and absolutely LOVED was this:

via

I was a bit overwhelmed at the thought of all that hot gluing on a wreath and also questioned how well it would stay. Then I found another tutorial where you use a wire hanger. It seemed way easier and had less chance of me burning my finger off with hot glue. I can't find the tutorial I used, but here is a link to a similar one. 

And here is my finished product!

It was super simple and took only about 1 1/2 - 2 hours from start to finish. It cost me about $15 in ornaments from Dollar Tree (I bought around 100) and I had about 20 left over that we put on our tree. So in the end, I probably could've saved a few more dollars, but I'm still really happy with it! 

In case you don't want to follow the link above, the basic instructions are:

1. Hot glue the tips onto the ornament themselves so that they don't fall off later
2. Bend a wire hanger into a perfect circle
3. Start stringing the ornaments onto the hanger, alternating sizes and colors and overlapping them so that all gaps are filled in
4. Once all your ornaments are on, hook the two sides of your wire hanger together at the top
5. Hang and enjoy!

Alternative to Pottery Barn Wingback Convertible Rocker

Who knew the search for a rocker/glider for the nursery would be such a pain? I cannot believe the price of chairs out there! I thought it would be relatively easy to find a chair that I liked at a reasonable price.

Mothers around the world scoff at my naive and optimistic outlook.

There was one chair that I absolutely fell in love with during my search. The Pottery Barn Wingback Convertible Rocker. Take a look at this beauty...

Sigh.....

At over $800 I tried to justify purchasing it but just. couldn't. do. it.

So the search continued. There were a few I thought might work, but nothing seemed to be right. I just wanted something that was nice to look at, comfortable, and wouldn't break the bank. Well, I think I might have found a good alternative, and from Walmart of all places. Now, granted, I haven't received the chair yet and things from there are always a crap-shoot, but I'm willing to take my chances for this:

Despite the hideous metal glider base sticking from the bottom, it definitely has great possibilities! And pretty similar to the chair that I love. We are even considering waiting until it arrives and seeing if it's possible to add rockers to it instead of using the glider base. If not, we can always stick an ottoman in front of the chair to help cover that unfortunate eyesore. The price?

$289!

That's pretty much the cheapest chair I've found anywhere while still maintaining a decent look. Not to mention a savings of about $600 over the Pottery Barn option. Here is link for anyone else who has been looking for a nice chair, but doesn't want to go into debt to get it. I'll be sure to pass along my review once it arrives and we test it out. One final side-by-side comparison:

UPDATE: Since this is the most viewed post on my site, I figure that there are quite a few people who also love the Pottery Barn version, but are searching for something less expensive. Now that we've been using the chair for awhile, I'm happy to report that we really like it! The back could be a little bit higher to make it easier to rest your head back while rocking/feeding a little one, but that's really the only negative. It looks nice, rocks great, and has gotten the job done for us. I would recommend it to anyone who wants the look for less! 

Dining Table Makeover

Ok, so we technically finished this weeks ago, but there's been so much going on I hadn't had a chance to blog about it.

Have you seen the pedestal table makeovers in pinterest/blog land? I've seen a ton of people turn a hum-drum table into a thing of beauty with just a little paint and stain, so I figured I could do the same. When I was still living in Singapore last year, I spotted a pedestal table on Craigslist here in Lynchburg for a mere $60. My sweet sister was willing to go and pick it up for me and her in-laws held it for me until we returned. Gotta love family.

Well, what is a dining table without chairs? Besides a catch-all for junk...really nothing, cause we had nowhere to eat for the first month in our new place. I wanted to find 4 chairs that had an upholstered seat that I could change out and Craigslist came through again for me. I got a set of 4 for only $30! Here's what it all looked like before:

Ahhh, gotta love that orang-y wood tone :) And the fabric on the chairs? Please, take a closer look...they are amazing!

Yes, 70's! They were really appropriate for the kitchen with the all mushrooms, onions, and asparagus goodness, but alas, I decided to change them out for more updated fabric.

This is a photo I snapped after finishing the first chair. I was in love :)

Now, this was the first experience I had with Annie Sloan chalk paint. I'm not sure I would use the white again. After four coats, the coverage still wasn't very good, but I honestly just got tired of painting. Maybe it was the wood tone underneath, but I think if I paint white again, I'll probably prime and then paint with a different type of paint. Personal preference.

We sanded the top of the table and stained it a darker color which turned out perfect! Here is the finished product:

I'd say this was a successful makeover on our small budget!

The only thing I would change is the color of the walls, but considering I've made my husband repaint every room in our townhouse except for the dining/kitchen area...I've gotta let this one go. It may not match the blue in the fabric, but that won't matter in our next place.

Up next: Projects for the baby room! Here's a glimpse at my mood board:

It's a girl!!!

Well it's been almost a week since we found out we are having a little girl. It's still sinking in. Who am I kidding? The fact that I'm pregnant is still sinking in.

My siblings have basically been a male baby production line. The first grandchild was a girl...and that was the last girl we've seen. Since she was born, we've had four boys come along. And my brother Evan found out a few days before us that his wife was having a boy too! So needless to say, I think there were a lot of people holding out hope that we'd pull it out a baby girl win.

Of course I consulted the Chinese gender predictor months ago, which said I was having a girl, so for months I've been thinking that's exactly what we were having. That thing is freakishly correct! But once Evan and Christina found out they were having a boy, I started having my doubts.

We went to the ultrasound on Thursday and I told the tech that we didn't want to know. When the baby first came up on the screen, it was a full-body shot, but I swore I saw something "wiggle" in the bottom half. I quickly thought "Was that his thing?". Obviously I think in very adult terms.

Then I was SURE it was going to be a boy. Even the ladies in the office saw the ultrasound of the face and said it looked like a boy. But THEN someone mentioned it was probably the umbilical cord I saw. Duh.

So basically by the time the reveal rolled around, I had NO IDEA what it was going to be. And honestly I didn't care. Baby Clarence or Baby Girl Clarence....both are fine with me, as long as it looks like it's daddy!

We had my parents and my sister and her boys come over along with Clarence's parents on Skype for the big reveal. My best friend, Amy, was passed the envelope with the big secret inside and went to get us two cans of silly string. We just didn't know if it would be blue or pink, but we figured we might as well have some fun shooting each other.

In case you missed it, I've posted the video below. We are both so excited and can't wait to meet our baby girl! Now we just have to agree on a name. I've already vetoed Clarence's first suggestions of Eunice. Yikes. I think we have a long road ahead of us :)