Remember that adorable baby, Owen, that my friend Gwen made? Well, he just keeps getting cuter. I asked Gwen if I could take some newborn photos of him, and she agreed. Of course, I need to share how they turned out!
I know typically newborn shoots are done within the first week of the babies birth, but we were a little later than that. About 4 weeks later. What can I say? We are a little delayed when planning these things.
So, without further ado, here’s baby Owen…
And, of course I had to get some photos of the new big sister, Sami!
Just try and tell me she is not the prettiest little girl you have ever seen! We would have a serious debate if you don’t think so.
Her birthday was just around the corner, so we got some great shots of the “birthday girl”.
Thank you Gwen for having such photogenic children!
This beaut was another Craigslist treasure. That Craig and his crazy list sure have a some hidden gems. I got this tall antique dresser from good old Craig for $40. Sure, it needed some work, but the $40 was money well spent. Here’s a side view, just in case you didn’t get enough of the lovely dull yellow paint…
I went a different route this time, then 
I have heard some harsh things around the interweb about paint stripping agents. Apparently, they can have some pretty rank smells, and be damaging to many materials, including skin. This stuff was rated highly because it has a nice orange scent and it is safe enough to use indoors. And, although, I had the option to work inside, I still chose to take this project out to the garage (thank goodness, it was a filthy job). I, also, used a good pair of gloves because this stuff will still harm your skin.
Then, I just used an old paint brush to brush the Citrstrip on every painted surface of the dresser. It took me about 30 minutes to cover all of the surfaces. 
See all that rippling and bubbling? Typically, this is not considered a good look for a dresser but, I was happy to see it. This meant it was working, and faster than I expected.
Here is what it was looking like after I had scraped all of the surfaces…
It took about an hour of scraping to get it to this stage.
Pretty good. Don’t you think? But, still not good enough. There was still some paint and a layer of lacquer left. So, I did another round of stripping. All the same steps again. And, I had this…
Do you see that top center drawer? Ya those are flowers. Pretty inlaid fowers that were covered up by paint. Oh people. Why do you paint over things like this?
I think it’s a pretty detail, so I was thrilled to find it.
I, then, stained the all surfaces with the same Minwax stain in English Chestnut that I used on the 
I know! You are totally doing this right now…
I get it. I do. I was doing the same thing.
I, also, bought a new higher quality paint brush, just to avoid any paint strokes. When applying, I made sure to brush the sealer on in very thin coats. I did two coats, some people suggest three, but since this piece wouldn’t get too much action, I figured two would be fine. If I were working on an end table or coffee table I would probably go with three coats, since they would more likely have more traffic on their surfaces. I let everything dry for a day, then added the knobs I had picked out. I needed ten knobs! TEN! That’s a lot of knobs, and at the usual $5 a pop I was looking at $50, just on knobs! Even though that would only bring the total cost of this dresser to about $100, I wasn’t digging that price. So, being a cheapskate at heart, I googled around for some other options. I knew I wanted them to be white and something that would look okay with the antique look of this dresser. I came across these guys on Amazon (have I mentioned I love Amazon?)…
The stain and polyacrylic really made a huge difference. I am stoked about how it turned out. 
And, in case you are wondering where this old girl is going to live. 
I totally dig it and am so excited to have these big drawers for added storage. 
For fun here is slideshow of the process…
The Mace Place 