Distressing the Dresser...

Ok, so after the novel that I wrote for my last post, I thought that I would give you guys a nice and easy DIY project for this one. I am currently head-over-heels in love with the shabby-chic style and I want every room in my house to have a touch of it. Once I saw how easy it was to distress some old frames and turn them into jewelry holders, I figured that a dresser would be no problem at all. However, I am new to this game of do-it-yourself decorating…well, let’s just say that it wasn’t hard, but I definitely learned a few things. Anyway, here is the before picture of said dresser:

I bought this dresser when we lived in Denver off of craigslist – it smelled like smoke and was the original medium-stained wood. So, I painted it with kills, then white paint. This was truly my first DIY furniture project 3 years ago. Anyway, I wanted to fill in all of the cracks and make sure that there was an even coat of paint. That sounds easy enough, right? Not really, I might have put like 10 coats of paint on there so that whenever you set something on it for more than 5 minutes it would get a little stuck…even 3 years later. I also did not have the heart to paint over this little gem on the back of the dresser, if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know, I’ve always been a little curious.

Ok, so what I have learned from the picture frames is that the details are the most important part when shabby-ing it up. And this dresser has some pretty awesome detailing.

So, I started with the same sandpaper sponges that I use for the frames and they worked pretty good for the details, but then I moved onto the sheets of a rougher grain sandpaper for the top of the dresser and for the front of the drawers.

I then proceeded to get a little carried away and thought that the front of the dresser drawers needed some wood showing through. However, once I finished the top drawer, I didn’t like how it looked. That’s ok, I covered it with a little extra white craft paint that I had lying around. It didn’t cover it completely and to be quite honest, I still need to get some truly white paint that matches the dresser to fix it, but in the meantime, it’s not that bad.

I previously had some modern-looking silver drawer pulls on the drawers, but what really helped to transform this dresser was some glass (or really plastic) knobs. I got these at target for $6 I think. Then I wanted to add a little bit of color, so I decided to change out some of the pulls with fabric bows.

To do this, I cut one-inch wide strips of fabric, then tied a knot in the center. I then fished the ends of the fabric through the hole for the knob screw from the back to the front so that the knot was still in the back of the drawer and the ends were hanging through the front.

Once the fabric was in the front of the drawer I tied it in a bow. This is nice too because if I ever wanted to change out the colors in the room, it would be very easy (and cheap) to change out the bows with a different colored fabric .

So, all finished-up, here it is. It still needs a little work on that dang top drawer, but that will have to wait until my procrastinating-butt can get to home depot…

A Love Story...

Last week Jeremy and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary together! It feels like yesterday that we got married, and at the same time it feels like we've been together for a lifetime. It's hard to put into words how much I love my husband. But, in honor of 3 WHOLE YEARS TOGETHER, I thought that I would tell you all the story of how we came to be here at our House of Hansen...

In the summer of 2004 I was Elizabeth Arand. I was a very happy, content young lady who was turning 22. I had just graduated college and had moved from Durango to Denver, CO to start graduate school at Regis University. I thought that I was an adult, who knew a lot about everything, who had her entire life planned out, who would be the smartest girl in her class, who would meet the man of her dreams and he would be completely impressed about her fancy-pants job as a Physical Therapist. I was dead-set on not dating anyone in my class, because that would just be too weird to date someone who did the same thing I did. Hmmm, what's that saying about telling God your plans? Oh yea, do that if you want to make Him laugh. I'm pretty sure that 18 to 24 year-olds are the equivalent to God's comedy central.

Anyway, I spent the summer golfing with my dad and playing around Denver with Suzi before she had to go back to school. The weekend before school started, my PT school mentor told me about a BBQ get-together to meet some of the people in my class. He gave me directions to a house on 63rd Place in Arvada. It's funny to look back on that night - I got lost getting there and ended up parking 2 blocks away and wandering aimlessly through the streets until I figured out where the house was - little did I know, I would end up practically living there and would drive to that house probably a million times throughout my time in Denver. I bet I could have done it with my eyes closed if wanted to. Anyway, I got to the party slightly nervous and shy. I still to this day can vividly remember walking through the living room to the dining room and sitting at the table were a bunch of people playing cards, Aaron (my mentor) introduced me to 2 of them who lived at the house - Ryan Gum and Jill Zagozda, I immediately thought that they were second-year students because they seemed to know everyone and were relaxed and having fun, not nervous like me. Again, little did I know, these people were to become my family. And little did they know what was in store for them (aka, Jill you should start your own blog and tell your story…) Anyway, I stood there looking around at everyone, wondering where they were from and how I was going to fit in with everyone and hoping that I wouldn't be the youngest person there. I remember looking over and seeing a guy coming up into the living room from the lower level (or Jon's room) and thinking - oh, thank God I'm not the youngest one here!

This pic wasn't taken that night, but it's almost exactly where I was standing

Unbeknownst to me, that was the moment that I set eyes on my soul mate.

I didn't really talk to Jeremy much that night, just the general, who are you, where are you from, what was your major...blah blah blah. The first few weeks of school were a blast, everyone was trying to get to know everyone else while still squeezing in time to study (except for me, I was just being a social butterfly). October 1^st, 2004 was a Friday and every year in Denver the Great American Beer Festival comes to the convention center. This is F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C, especially when you are young and like to drink beer. A bunch of us from school decided to go, but we would meet up at someone’s apartment first. I got there and was chatting it up with this girl Jill, who I was shocked to see the first day in classes because I thought that she was in the class ahead of me, but it turns out she had just moved there from Omaha and had moved into 63^rd place with 4 guys that she hadn’t met before – Jeremy, Ryan, Jon and Luc. We started to head over to the Convention center and I realized that I had forgotten my ticket at home (a 45 minute drive away), I was bummed, but I figured that I would go back and get it and just be a little late. Well, Jill felt sorry for me and told me that she would go with me and keep me company. On our drive, she told me about all of her roommates, but what I remember is her telling me what a nice guy Jeremy was, how he had just gotten out of a very serious relationship, how goofy and funny he was and how much everyone liked living with him (There also might have been some mention of how great Ryan was too). We made it to the beer festival shortly after everyone else and Jill and I ended up hanging out most of the night. Throughout the evening, I found myself wanting to talk to Jeremy and spend some more time with him. By the end of the night we were sitting next to each other and without any hesitation, we had our first kiss.

This pic was taken that night at Beerfest just a few hours before our first kiss

Needless to say, when we all woke up the next morning with headaches, kissing each other in a bar didn’t seem quite as glamorous – from either perspective. I thought he was such a nice guy, he was so courteous and fun and I honestly figured that was a little mistake and we would just be good friends. However, over the next year, I kept finding myself in the same situation: out in Denver…a couple of drinks…and a kiss from Jeremy. Then I started to look for him - in class, at lunch, at get-togethers. I liked talking to him. I liked his goofy, carefree attitude. I liked how comfortable I felt around him and I started to get feelings for him. However, every time we kissed, it was followed with “I think we should just be friends” from Jeremy. I didn’t like it, so I moved on and quit paying attention to him. Then he didn’t like it…

At the end of May that year, I thought that I would have a fancy, Frank-Sinatra-themed wine and cheese party. That was an interesting night to say the least, but by the end Jeremy had consumed a few too many rum and cokes, so I went out onto the deck to give him some bread and water. He asked me to kiss him and I said no. This is a big deal for me, I was not letting myself become just a friend with benefits – it was also fairly easy to say no because he had just thrown-up… Nonetheless, he called me the next day to apologize and to tell me that he had begun to have feelings for me as well. My response was that he was a few months too late – man, I’m tough, didn’t you know! He didn’t waver. He says now that he knew that he wouldn’t stop pursuing me until I fell in love with him, but at the time I had just turned him down and he still invited me to come out that night with him and his roommates, so I decided to go (I didn’t want to hurt the guys feelings too much, right?). Anyway, Suzi was in town, so she came with me. We went to some stuffy night club and there was a guy dancing all over the place and my funny Jeremy was right there, practically in a dance-off with this guy and Suzi leaned over and said (in reference to Jeremy) “I like that guy. You should date him.” Well, if you know what high regard I hold my sister’s opinion; you will know how much that threw me for a loop. In the cab on the way home, Jeremy reached over and grabbed my hand and we sat there like 8^th grade sweethearts secretly holding hands. I went home with Suzi and told everyone that I would see them the next day at their Memorial Day BBQ. Well, the BBQ got rained-out and everyone decided to go to a movie. I said I was going to go home, but invited Jeremy to come with me to watch a movie. We sat at my parent’s house nervously watching the movie and when he went to leave I gave him a hug and he kissed me and * I’m not lying, this is not a cheesy movie * I knew 100% at that moment that I was going to marry him.

I’m not going to lie, we had our ups and downs that first year and a half (and plenty more after that…). We lived in Salt Lake City for an internship for 8 weeks, then when we got back to Denver, we moved in together to the cutest apartment EVER. A few weeks after starting our last internships I started to get antsy and dropping some very-not-so-subtle hints about getting engaged. As in, when are you ever going to propose to me? To which he responded, “You need to quit pushing me or I am never going to do it”. Well, I thought that I had really screwed that up and it would be at least another 6 months until he would do it. Two weeks later was Valentine’s Day and when I left for my internship on Friday I had a note saying to pack my bags because he was taking me away for the weekend. I might have definitely called my mom and asked if Jeremy had asked her anything important lately and my worst-liar-ever-can’t-keep-a-secret-to-save-her-life mother said, “I haven’t talked to Jeremy in weeks”. Liar. Anyway, the entire drive up to Winter Park, I kept reminding myself that he wasn’t going to propose and that I couldn’t count on it because I didn’t want to be disappointed if he didn’t propose and ruin this really nice Valentines Day surprise that he was doing. So, when after dinner the little Jazz restaurant that we were eating at began playing Stevie Wonder (our song – I Believe) and a desert that we hadn’t ordered came with a big shiny engagement ring on it, and Jeremy dropped to one knee, I was more than surprised. So surprised that I don’t think I said a word, I just nodded yes through teary eyes.

This was taken about 60 seconds after Jeremy proposed, I was just a *little* excited...

On July 5^th, 2008, Jeremy and I were married in the same town we were engaged. It was hands-down the best day of my life and more than I ever could have expected. He’s more than I ever could have expected. It’s still amazing to look back on how we became to be husband and wife, and I wouldn’t change any of it. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have Jeremy to grow old with.

If you made it through all of that, thanks mom, and I promise to have some fun – not so sappy – decorating/arts and crafts to post in the near future.