Night Stand Makeover

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been working on redecorating my room for a while.

I found this picture on Pinterest and decided I wanted to do the same thing to my night stand.

I didn't want to repaint night stand, because I liked the finish.  So since I am on a budget of like 6 cents, I spent a long time browsing Craiglist.
One day while studying for boards,  I was lucky enough to run across this beauty for $10!

The white roses weren't really my thing, so I didn't feel bad about painting over the finish.

When I was inspecting my purchase I came across a very nice surprise when I opened the drawer.

Ethan Allen furniture.  HOLLA!!

I wanted to replace the handle with something more modern, so I started by removing the hardware and filling in the holes with drywall filler. (You are probably supposed to used wood filler, but I already had drywall filler so I just decided to use that.)

I filled the holes, let them dry, and sanded them off.  I did this twice to completely fill them.

The handle holes filled

The handle holes sanded

I then sanded the entire night stand so the outline of  the stenciled roses wouldn't show through the new paint job.  (I did this out on my patio and got many weird looks.)

After sanding, I primed the whole thing.

I wanted to do something special with the drawer so I decided to paint the sides gold.

I finished painting the entire night stand and drilled a hole for the new knob.

And here it is:

I have to admit I was a little worried at first, but I love it!!

Now just to decorate it!

DIY Pom-Pom Stripe Pillow

I am currently blogging from the Omaha airport.  I was supposed to fly out to DC at 1:00 this afternoon, but my flight got delayed (surprise, surprise).  I wasn't going to make my connecting flight in Chicago, so they put me on the only nonstop flight to DC.  (HOORAY!!) Unfortunately, I'm stuck in the airport for 3 hours.  Luckily they have complimentary wifi.  (Reason #758 that Nebraska is the best place in the world)

Anyway, here is a project I recently finished that I wanted to share.  I am in the process of redecorating my room.  You may remember my coral and gray color scheme I had when I lived in KC.  I decided to change it up a bit and decorate with navy and cobalt blue.

I found this pillow in Anthropologie.

I knew it would be perfect for my room.
All you need is:

-6 yards of pom-pom strands
-1/2 yard of fabric
-matching thread


I cut 2 squares of my fabric to measure 18"x18"
Then I cut 12- 18" strands of the pom poms.

Lay out 4 pom pom strands evenly spaced out on 1 square of your fabric.  Pin.

Sew the strands to fabric.  I used my zipper foot to sew them so the poms wouldn't get in the way.
It is very hard to get these perfectly straight when sewing them down, so don't worry about it being perfect.  Do this for all four strands.

After you've sewn the first strands on, sew the next strands onto the fabric with the zipper foot.  Sew the pom poms all in the same direction so they don't get in your way.
To complete the stripes, sew three strands of poms to complete one stripe.

And you should have something that looks like this:

Now pin the right side of the pom-pom square to the right side of the other square.

Stitch around the pillow.  Leave an opening to turn it inside out.

Turn the pillow right side out.  Fill with polyfil and stitch the opening closed.
Easy-peasy!

And here it is on my bed along the with pillow I made in this post.
I guess I have an obsession with Anthropologie pillows.

P.S. I'm going to post a tutorial for the tassel garland soon!

Now excuse me as I google image Nebraska government officials to see if there is anyone familiar on this flight.

Something Old

I have an odd obsession with antiques.  Not that my apartment is filled with them or anything, but I could spend hours and hours in an antique store just looking.
A few weeks ago my dad and aunts were cleaning out their mom's (my grandma's) house and I went along to help out. Let's just say I had a hayday.  If there is anything better than just plain old antiques, it has to be when those antiques have some family significance.  Dad was fine with me taking whatever I wanted because it was less for them to sort out.  I just have to share some of the treasures I found!


This is an old stereoscope my grandparents had.  These were all the rage in the early 1900s.  You place the picture in the holder and look through the viewfinder and you see a 3D image of the picture.  It's pretty much just like having Netflix.

Here's a close up of one of my favorite pictures.  

Here's a gorgeous mirror and brush set that used to belong to my grandma.

These are old jello molds.  Are they adorable or what??  I will have to find a really cute way to display them.

Here is an old coffee maker.  It's currently part of our coffee bar at the apartment.

The replacement knob on it is even adorable.  

After I pointed this out to my aunts I got the lecture of, "They never threw anything away during the Great Depression.  They just fixed everything when it broke.  Not like us now."  

And I was all like, "Yeah I know.  I read the whole Kit series of the American Girl books."   But of course I just nodded and smiled politely and played along.  

And these are my favorite parts! 

This is a letter to my great grandma from our parish.  Note the price of a stamp was 1 1/2 cents.

Also note, all you had to do was write the name of the person and the town they were from to mail a letter.  Nice.

This letter contained a list of contributions from all of the parishioners of Heun.  I guess pew rent was a big deal back then.  There were sure a lot of Brichaceks on this list!

We found my grandpa's old gas ration cards from World War II.

There were letters of receipts of when my great grandpa brought livestock to the Omaha Stockyards.
It is dated 1932.  He sold 19 hogs here.

In another envelope, there was a letter from one of his sales.

May 24, 1932
Mr. Anton E. Brichacek
Clarkson, Nebr.

Dear Mr. Brichacek:

Herewith account of sales covering your 6 cattle received and sold today.

The cattle market was 25 to 50 cents lower yesterday, with a great many left unsold and today the heavy cattle showed a little advance, but the light cattle were very hard to sell and a great many of them still unsold.

We worked your cattle out with all buyers, and sold the 5 heifers at 4.50 to an order-buyer, and the one steer to a packer, and feel that we got out in good shape compared with the way other cattle like them sold here today.  

Thanking you very kindly Mr. Brichacek, and hoping to hear from you, we remain

Yours very truly,
STOLINSKI L. S. COM. CO.


And this is probably the coolest thing I found.

This is the Omaha Daily News from "Thursday, November 7, 1918." 

At first I thought this was the front page from when World War I ended.  Then I talked to my history buff fiance about it and he found out something very interesting.  

The date here is November 7, but Armistice Day is November 11.  The Omaha Daily News mistakenly reported that the war was over.

An excerpt from the Memoirs of Fr. William F. Rigge, S.J. that Patrick happened to run across on his many days in the Creighton archives: 

At noon on November 7 all the whistles in town tooted for an hour or two at the most 

welcome news that the great war was over. This rejoicing was, however, premature. It was 

caused by the Omaha Daily News which said it had learned it from its Ouija board. For a 

long time after, this paper had to put up with the teasings and pleasantries of the other papers 

in regard to its Ouija board. 

  

I wonder if they just reprinted the same story 4 days later.  haha 

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!