Valentine's Day, Another Makeover and a GIVEAWAY!

Happy Valentine's Day! Actually, Valentine's Day is almost over and I should have written this post 14 hours ago.

My sweet hubby surprised me yesterday with flowers, a singing card and the cutest little Hallmark bear angels that make smoochy sounds to one another. Magnets sewn inside their heads actually do make them "kiss", then her wings flutter. Sooo cute! We went to dinner tonight at our favorite local Mexican restaurant - another treat for me, since I didn't have to cook!

Trust me, I know I'm a lucky gal!

Today, I'm making good on another promise to you. I told you I was working on two wall cabinets and showed you the finished results two posts ago. It's now finished (okay, with the exception of putting the knob back on) and I thought you might like to see the process this one went through. Or, the process it put me through, whichever way you want to look at it.

Here's the "before" picture:

It wasn't a bad looking cabinet but looked a bit too country for the shop that it's going to. My intention was to paint all the shelves and the surrounding walls a sort of vanilla, or off-white, then paint the exterior black. The first problem quickly emerged - the wood was very dry and just absorbed the first coat of white paint. So, I dragged out the Kilz and gave the shelves another coat before re-applying the off-white. This picture is of the inside AFTER giving it one coat of regular paint AND a coat of Kilz!

Here it is after one coat of paint, a coat of Kilz, and the final top coat.

I had much better luck with the black paint. Oops, forgot to mention that I first had to wood putty some deep gouges on the wood. If you have ever done this, you know how important it is to make sure the wood putty is completely dry before you even think about sanding and painting.

Immediately after I applied the black, I changed my mind about the colors and decided to keep the shelves behind the door white but that the side shelves needed to be black. I like this look much better and think that, after I put the original white glass door knob back on the door, it will have the touch of class that I wanted for it.

I've been doing a lot of blog-surfing lately and have decided that it's time for me to have a giveaway. This revelation came to me after I realized I had never really had a true giveaway. True, I did have a contest some months back. But that was a contest, not a giveaway.

I'll be giving away a cute little trinket box designed by yours truly. It may not be this box, but it will be very similar:

And inside the box will be tucked some surprises that will include some vintage buttons - oh, darn! I told you about the buttons! Now I have to put some other surprises in with the buttons, since the buttons are no longer a surprise. The winner will end up with a nice stash of goodies!

Entering is simple: Just leave me a comment on this blog before midnight next Friday! If you mention this drawing on your blog, you will automatically be given two entries. (Be sure to let me know that you've done this so I can put your name in twice.) If you have more than one blog and you mention the drawing in all of them, you'll have one entry for each of your blogs.

It's now after 11:00 PM and I'm heading off to bed. I'll see you again soon. Until then, happy blogging!