My latest show-n-tell...Safari Cedar Chest

I use to love show-n-tell as a kid, well truth is, I do as an adult too.  I like sharing what I love and listening to other's do the same.  I may not share their same passions, but I do try and take an interest especially when it means something to those I care about. We are all here to learn from one another and if you have a skill or talent and care to share, that's awesome.

I am in a phase in my life, a repurposed phase.  Having had the identity of a stay at home mother now for 18 years and my oldest is getting ready to graduate high school there seems to be this brewing feeling of , "Now it's my turn."  Not that I am no longer going to stay home with the two still here at the house.  I'm still engaged and involved, but now that my youngest is 10, I can carve more chunks of doing what it is I need to do, as Michelle.  

Finding something discarded, beat up, or unwanted "treasures" and giving it new life is bringing about a great sense of accomplishment.  Whats an even added bonus is that others are liking what I am putting out there!  So I am keeping things out of the landfill and creating beauty.  

This next piece I actually finished within this last hour and I absolutely love it.  It was a beat up cedar chest that I found at my favorite thrift store about six months ago.  It was a diamond in the rough.  The outside was dated and had a few scratches, but the inside was lined with this beautiful cedar.   I don't do furniture pieces that often and frankly love to keep let my very talented friend Michele Rivard at Knot Too Shabby do her magic with them instead of me, but every now and again a piece will speak to me that it needs my attention as well.  This was one of those pieces.

I started it by using the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the shade of Coco that I bought at Knot Too Shabby www.knottooshabbyfurnishings.com. I painted and distressed it and covered it with the Annie Sloan Soft Wax and then used bits of the Annie Sloan Dark Wax to make the color richer and have more depth.

For the lid of the piece I cut on the table saw three pieces of fence boards and nailed them on top.  I painted them with a primer and paint combination for the transfer process and then adhered the transfer on top. After the transfer was completely removed of all its paper I used a wood stain for the rich sepia color I like my photos to have and then sealed it with a Varnish for a finished look.

The photograph was taken on safari in Samburu National Park in Kenya.  I absolutely love giraffes and their diet consists of the needles of the Acacia trees.  This is one the many photographs I took on that trip.

Here are the pictures of my latest piece... I hope you like it!  I'm debating whether or not to sell it or keep it!

Here's the view from the top

May you thrive in all of your creative adventures!