Piece of Work Wednesday Furniture Link Party Number 75 and a Little About Cora

Happy POWW!  Happy Valentine's Day!!!  Hope you are all having a great week so far!  It's been cold here and I haven't been working on too much (besides my bathroom!), though I do have a piece to share with you.  My good friend , Heather whom you all know as Cora's mom,  was cleaning out her garage and had a dresser she was going to part with and thought I may want.  I of course took her up on it, and arranged for Chris to pick it up while he was in her neck of the woods.  Of course, I was insanely jealous when Chris returned with the dresser and told me he was able to see Cora and told me how big she has gotten!!!  You see, Heather and Cora are still pretty much under house arrest.  I am thrilled that I get to go see her in a few weeks to help with some colors in her house and just hang out, and I will get to see Cora, too!

So I wanted to share a little Cora story with you before I head into the dresser.  It's appropriate for the holiday today.
As you can imagine, since Heather has to constantly stay home with Cora, it's very hard to find time alone with her other two kids, Grace and Andrew (who was the bone marrow donor).  When Heather is able to get time alone with them, she has tried to make it special, and this past weekend she took them to a Milkshake Valentine Spectacular concert.  While at the concert, Heather was unexpectedly called onto stage to help sing Cora's favorite song, "A Happy Song."  What Heather did not yet know was that her husband had written them an email the day before with a special request.  And she might kill me for publishing this, but I cried last night when she sent it to me, and I had to share what Jeff wrote.

Hello Lisa, Mikel and Milkshake Band,

I have a special request for you to dedicate a song tomorrow at the Valentine Spectacular.  My wife, Heather, has played "A Happy Song" for our youngest daughter Cora (2 years old) more times than anyone could count.  Cora is recovering from a bone marrow transplant and cannot be at the concert on Saturday, but Heather is taking our other two Grace (8 years old) and Andrew (6 years old who donated his bone marrow to Cora).  If you could dedicate "A Happy Song" to my wife Heather, it would make her day and then some.  Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday.

Thanks a whole bunch - your music helps my family have more fun together and for Heather and I to keep our sanity.  Rock on!

Having a sick child in one's family can be so tough.  It takes a whole lot of love, and caring about one another to be able to hold it together.  It takes a team.  And sometimes it takes little surprises to remind you of the love you share with your spouse, the love you shared before your children were even a glimmer in your eye.  I just wanted to share this story with you guys today because I thought it was special and worth sharing, especially since today is Valentine's Day.  You never know when you will be faced with adversity in life- a sick child, an accident, an injury- and it takes the power of love, the power of togetherness to pull through.  I am sure you have in your life had a small wound or injury, and sometimes when it heals it grows back together differently than when it started.  But that is ok, because the point is that in order to heal, it worked and grew together.  So now that you are done reading this story, do me a favor and remember that sweet little surprises go a long way.  Remember that even if you are having a tough time, a little gesture of love goes a long way.  Do all the little things that let your spouse or partner know how much you care.  Make every day Valentine's Day.

Ok, now that I am crying, and perhaps you are, too, let's check out that dresser I was telling you about....

So here it is in its before state:

So it was a little rough, but I sanded it down and cleaned it up.  I also used wood filler where the paint had chipped and peeled (as on that front drawer) to smooth out the finish.  Now, Julie and Sharon had sent me a sample of CeCe Caldwell's Smoky Mountain Gray, which is a gorgeous color!  I wasn't sure if the sample would be enough to get two coats on, but thought I would try... Sadly, it wasn't, but because of it's amazing adhesion it worked beautifully as primer and dried super fast so I was able to paint it very shortly after.   So it still worked to my advantage!

Here it is with its coat of CeCe's.  Where you see the darker spots is where it was still wet, which shows you just how quickly it dries!  And that it dries much lighter, but when waxed is darker again.

So since I didn't have enough of that paint, I used a Benjamin Moore paint I had on hand... slate teal.  Now, when we changed our address Benjamin Moore sent us a coupon for two free color samples.  We were lucky enough to get two of those coupons because we changed our address twice since we had to stay with my parents in between houses!  So lucky us!  Of course, I was nervous the people at the store would recognize me and not allow me to use the coupon a second time, so I sent Chris in with the second coupon and color choices... he he.  He picked up nocturnal gray, and slate teal for me.  I put two coats of slate teal on, distressed the edges, waxed it, and then added some sparkly faceted acrylic knobs.

 Oh, and the best part??? I picked up several (like al 10 they had!!!) rolls of this awesome wallpaper at Goodwill for $1 per roll.  It is PERFECT drawer liner for anything in the blue family, and it's map inspired!  I love it!

 And Heather emailed me and wants her dresser back now! ;)  But if you like it, it is currently for sale at Wild Rose in Walkersville, MD!

So let's see what you have to share!!!  And please abide by the rules or you won't be featured.

RULES:

1. Your project must be a furniture build or redo.  NO CRAFTS.

2. Your link must be new to my parties- never before linked here in the past!

3. Place my button or text link in your post or sidebar.

4. NO Etsy shops.

5. Please leave others some comment love!

Now let's see what you've got!

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