Free Stuff and $20 Coupon!

Hey! Did the title grab ya? 

Giveaways and coupons are some of my favorite things, so let me fill you in on how you can score some of this action too:

I've been playing with My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Suite and am loving how easy it is to create scrapbook pages. And you know what? I've got a giveaway going on and you can still enter to win a copy for yourself! The complete review is here.

Forgive me for being excited about this, but it's my first giveaway and this is an awesome product.

Here are three pages I whipped up just today:

Here are the details again, in case you missed them the first time around (or didn't click on the link above...)

Here are the details on how you can enter to win this software suite and start making projects the same day; do one or do all for your chance to win! (Make sure you leave me a comment for each one - just to make sure I catch all your efforts! Please make sure I can get to your email address to contact you.)

1. Go to www.MyMemories.com and tell me in a comment what your favorite digital paper pack or layout is
2. I would love it if you would follow me on my blog, but it's not necessary - no pressure here :)
3. Leave a 'Make Me a My Memories Maven' comment on this post
4. Blog about this giveaway and link back to this post
5. Follow My Memories on their blog,  on Facebook, or on Twitter
6. Write a post about the giveaway on Facebook and link back to this post 
7. Tweet about the giveaway and link back to this post
8. Check out their videos on YouTube and comment on one here

That's 8 ways to win your own My Memories suite. They are also offering for all my readers a $10 discount code for the purchase of My Memories Suite Scrapbook software...in case you don't like giveaways (??).

Plug this code in at checkout:  STMMMS72079 

And there's even more to love: once you've downloaded the software, you'll get another $10 good for the MyMemories.com store! That's a $20 value - pretty sweet, huh?

The giveaway goes until Oct 3rd at noon and I'll be announcing the winner on Oct 4th. Good luck!

Love the Second Time Around

I've been busy, busy, busy lately...but still managed to find some time to fall in love all over again with furniture rehabbing. My first project at 16 was an old painted desk that had been painted and wallpapered (yes, wallpapered) that I stripped and stained and was oh so proud of. No pictures, sorry! This was waaaaaayyy before my blogging started.

Since that project, there have been a few furniture projects off and on over the years. Recently, some curbside finds have re-sparked my love of refurbishing and reinventing furniture. Here is a look at some of the before-and-afters, with links to the full posts. (Warning - photo heavy post!)

These curbside finds were fun to play with:

a set of cheap drawers and a nightstand remade into a sofa table,

a poor, neglected table remade into a fun table for my hubs,

 and a cheap lamp table all gussied up with ORB and vintage sheet music.

Now that I was in the groove, I bought three pieces and rehabbed them. The first was a dresser for my brother:

Then came a dresser for myself:

And my latest was a not-so-awesome desk that turned out to be my absolute favorite. Here's what I started with:

A desk that had been sitting in a wet, moldy basement for probably 30 years and had something sitting on it that caused some damage to the top:

Lots of detail, a curvy top, and pretty feet hooked me immediately. The even better news was the missing handles were in one of the drawers, if I chose to use them. There was some veneer damage to the top, but a little wood putty took care of that. This desk was going to be black, and Martha Stewart's Francesca turned out to be the perfect choice. It's a soft black/darkest gray that's sooooo pretty! It's so pretty, the desk is now known as Francesca :)

After tons of sanding, the paint was rolled on with a foam roller and brushed out. A little distressing on the edges was all it needed. Then Francesca sat in the garage while I pondered the hardware issue. I just had to try to use this hardware but didn't want to spray paint it. That would look too new and perfect, and perfectly new doesn't work for Francesca. So I took some steel wool and baking soda to the hardware.

The photo above shows some of the detail this brought out. Well, since steel wool worked a little, what would a wire brush do?

Check out that hardware!! I'm in love and so glad I took the time to scrub them down! The original finish was so tarnished that none of the original silver showed through...and to think it almost got replaced.

Ok, Francesca's looking good...too good to go into this bedroom:

Hooooo-weeee! Look at that color! This room's color was a boo-boo that's been like this for 4 years :| The decision was instantly made to change all that in order to make my newly refurbished desk look spectacular. The color was one I had already tried out...in my office that is STILL in Gator colors:

It's the color on the right and left covering up the white/blue/orange. I have a remodel project holding up the repainting of this room...such a tease ;)

I used a primer/paint all-in-one, and since I knew it would cover that blue already, one gallon was all it took for the whole room - YAY!

Much better - even with the horrible light in this room.

NOW, my beautiful little Francesca could come into the house. The room is in-progress, but it's looking much, much better:

The light is so horrible in this room, no matter how many lights were turned on, lamps were lit, windows were opened, a good picture was nearly impossible...but every time I look at this desk, it makes me smile.

This has been a fun few months giving this furniture (and me) a chance at love the second time around. There are a few more furniture rehab projects in the works, but with the days getting shorter and colder, we'll see if any of them get done before winter.

What do you do when it's too cold to spray paint/paint outside??

Linking up here:


Junker Newbie's Would You Buy It Party
Knick of Time Tuesday Party