what I have been up to the last four months

I haven't blogged in almost five months, so I thought I would catch you up on what is going on with me (Serena) these days.
 Since I was little I have had a passion for interior design and making old things into new beautiful things. This is what I have been doing everyday the past four months. Luckily, Giana is still napping well so during that hour to hour and a half, I work.

I have been so fortunate to have LOTS of family and recent new friends give me old furniture and things I can work with for FREE or a small price. I have a whole new circle of friends and acquaintances both young and old who have been so great to me!

Here are a few pieces I have refinished:

2 chairs

My wonderful Grandma gave me her antique chairs to refinish.

 desk and end table

cork board and end table

Before&After of a coffee table and end table

antique end table

Antique coffee table

bought this huge mirror for five bucks, painted and fixed it up and sold it for $40!

got bread box for three dollars and painted it with paint I already had!

Before&After for this rolling antique chair. I bought three of them for 10 dollars each and sold the one above for $45!

 

I loved these chairs so much I decided to keep two of them.

They are my absolute favorite!

(my famous clock wall in the background)

 Got this 91 inch tall armoire for FREE and fixed it up and sold it before I was even finished for $180!

sold my old entertainment center for $90 and bought this dresser for $60, painted white, distressed and fixed up with paint I already had.

another armoire. It looks white but it's a light blue!

Giana's picnic table :)

entry table

I have sold one black coffee table, three end tables, entertainment center, lamps etc that have not been pictured.

I also make wreaths and sell them:

so as you can see I have been pretty busy and I will probably continue to be busy up until Christmas, but I absolutely LOVE what I do! 

Projects close to finish: my kitchen cabinets, my bedroom and headboard

NEXT projects for clients: a coffee table, 2 entertainment center and shelves.

I am so grateful to have a wonderful husband who supports me in doing this and for Giana for being so patient. I have made enough money to completely redo most of my home AND pay bills AND pay for ALL Christmas gifts. I feel so blessed this holiday season to be able to do this and help my family!

Calling for Dad

After Giana and I woke up we went downstairs and she noticed daddy was not there with us so she started yelling for him to come down. She kept saying "Dad" or sometimes even would try to say "Brian" hahah oops

fun random projects

For the last week or so I have been in major crafting and project mode. It's been way fun. Last week I made pillows for the family room.

my $5 lamp project Before & After I put burlap on the lamp shade and I made the flowers with material I already had and added lace.

Before & After of my old kitchen knife set.

Dressed up an old bookshelf. ♥ Next week I am making a corkboard for the Loft/office, and later starting on painting the kitchen cabinets! Can't wait!

Georgiana's First Birthday!

My sweet Georgiana turned ONE yesterday, and we had a blast! We celebrated with family and friends on Saturday and Sunday we celebrated as our family of three.

It was a Minnie Mouse theme birthday party! all the little kids wore Minnie/Mickey Mouse ears. Giana had two different birthday hats, one I made and one Auntie Samantha bought her. She also had three different birthday outfits, the tutu dress I made, one for church and the other a birthday girl shirt. haha

I love planning parties so I really enjoyed decorating for this one, I may have gone overboard, may be not :)

I made all the desserts. The cupcakes and cookie suckers turned out great. I made "G" and "1" cut out shaped cookies that were more hard to look nice but they turned out okay. We had about 50 to 75 balloons on the floor and Giana was having the time of her life with them! She hit her head on the wall having so much fun with them. My mom helped with alot of the food. I love my family, they are so awesome.

Chase and I made the game "Pin the Bow on Minnie". Chase drew Minnie for me and I colored it in and made the bows. The kids loved it!

I have never seen so many presents at a child's party before. She got at least 25 new toys and 50+ outfits! She is wayyy too spoiled. oh well.

Georgiana tried her first hot pink birthday cake and the HOT pink ended up everywhere!

She wore the outfit above to church. simple and so adorable. I am so grateful for my baby girl. She is my life, my everything. I cannot even imagine my life without her. I never want her to grow up. I want to cuddle and protect her always. :) My purpose in life is to be a mom and I knew that the second she was born. Happy Birthday Georgiana, I love you more than you will ever know. oh P.S. my youngest sister Savanna had two seizures on Saturday and Sunday, she has been in and out of the hospital getting alot of tests done but they don't know what is causing them so please keep her in your thought and prayers. I love her so much.

Meet Yeti/Sherlock

Georgiana is turning 1 in almost a week so for an early birthday present we got her this:

a puppy! He is pretty cute, and for the most part a very easy puppy to train and take care of. Georgiana loves him. She loves to say "HI pup pup" and "buh bye pup pup" We named him Sherlock and then the next day I started calling him "Yeti" (from the Backyardigans). So right now he goes by: Sherlock, Yeti, Pup pup, and sometimes "BAH" when Giana is yelling at him. hahaha. and yes my life just got even more crazy. :)

Cierra's graduation

This past week we went to my sister's graduation from Mesa High School! Talk about the most perfect weather! It was amazing, I was expecting super hot hot weather! Although I was sneezing like crazy from my allergies we had lots of fun! I am so proud of you Cierra! What a hard worker! She graduated with honors, worked everyday after school, did sports at Mesa High, did service learning, graduated from seminary and made alot of great friends the past two years after switching from Dobson. Great job Cierra!