Finally! A finished project!

You must think I have dropped off the face of the earth. Not quite, but almost. I've been to the brink and back. Not just the holidays, which are always stressful (though fun - always fun) but an 11 hour car trip with the girls for 5 days to visit their cousin  and my sister, school vacation that brings out all of Blue's autistic flair, 2 flu shots for Ivy - each one complete with a scratch test and two separate shots over a period of an hour and a half at the allergist's office because she is allergic to eggs, a 3 hour car trip to visit my brother and his new wife for the weekend, and now my father-in-law and his new girlfriend are visiting us from Florida. My father-in-law is an 80 year old cradle robber. His lovely girlfriend can't be more than 65.

And amazingly? I am sitting alone in my relatively tidy house blogging. I'm not sure how that happened, but I am quite thankful.

I am a regular reader of Miss Mustard Seed's blog. Our styles aren't really the same, but I am always amazed at the wonderful change she brings about in old furniture. She has a link party every week, and I always want to participate, but I never have my act together. But this week I do. Hooray!

My brother got married this summer to a wonderful girl. She is a feisty, funny, Irish girl - the kind my brother needs to keep him in line. Because I really do like her, I always want to do something extra special. So for Christmas, I refinished a cabinet for her. I found it at the thrift store for $1. Here is the before picture of the poor, sad, creature.

And here is the after:

I used RustOleum Heirloom White paint for the first time, and now I understand why everyone loves it so. It's white, but not too white, and not antique-y and not yellowish. I put glass in and used etching cream for the monogram. The new knob is acrylic and from Target, and the fabric is part of a gorgeous set of fat quarters by Michelle Engel Bencsko I won from True Up and Michelle herself. I can't believe I didn't blog that. I received a fat quarter of each of her Shade Garden and My Happy Garden prints. My Happy Garden is a delicious organic line from Cloud 9 Fabrics.

I'm amazed that it looks so darn pretty. It was hard to take a good picture of the monogram, so please excuse the fuzziness. And here's hoping that I get off my duff a little more in 2010 and have more finished stuff to post.