This sad little $5 record cabinet had been sitting neglected in our home for a few years now. When I found it sitting in a lonely corner of an antique mall, I had grand plans for refinishing it in some fun way, but of course- never got around to it! Mostly I was intimidated by the track that the two doors slide on, because I didn’t know how to paint it all without getting the doors stuck closed in the process. I’ve been seeing a lot of paint-dipped style furniture and home accessories floating around the internet for the past couple of years, and figured that would be the perfect way to paint the cabinet, without worrying about painting the track. I was a little hesitant to refinish the record cabinet in this graphic paint-dip style. Is it too trendy? Is the trend too “last year?” But then I figured, hey, it was just a $5 cabinet. I don’t have to hang onto it forever. And I’m pretty sure the internet public is the only part of my life that actually cares if home trends are passé. And besides. I was too lazy to figure out painting the track and doors any other way!

Of course, as soon as the paint and varnish dried and I brought this puppy back inside, Phil looked at it, tilted his head a little, and said, “Why did you only paint half of it?” Oh dear.

• 1 spray can of white primer
• 2 spray cans of white satin finish paint
• 1 spray can of clear satin varnish or polyurethane
• masking tape for hard-to-stick surfaces
• 180 grit sandpaper
• masking paper or newspaper
• tape measure
• damp cloth

1. Lightly sand the surface of every area to be painted or varnished, going with the direction of the grain. Then clear off all of the dust with a damp rag.
2. Open the doors to the cabinet and tape off the edges of the opening. Now cut pieces of masking paper a bit larger than the opening and tape in place to block the inside of the cabinet from any paint overspray.
3. Measure down from the top of the cabinet to the point you want the painted area to end. Mark each corner with a little pieces of tape, then connect the pieces of tape with longer strips of masking tape to create a line all around the cabinet. Be sure to tape each door separately from the cabinet itself. Using your thumbnail, press into the edge of the tape to make sure there are no little cracks that paint can sneak through.
4. Now cut pieces of masking paper and tape them along the masking tape line you just made, making sure every part of the cabinet that won’t be painted is completely covered in paper.
5. Begin with several very light coats of primer until the paint can is empty. When the primer is dry, move onto the paint itself and spray in light coats, going left to right and top to bottom for each spray.
6. Before your last two light coats of paint, let the surface dry for a day and then lightly sand down the paint with the 180 grit sandpaper. This will smooth out any little bumps or drip spots that may have occurred during previous coats. Then wipe it down and spray with the last of the paint.
7. Remove the masking tape and paper and finish with two coats of varnish of polyurethane over the entire cabinet. Make sure you allow the paint on the cabinet to cure for at least a couple of days before setting anything on top!

When my computer died, I spent some time delving into my old external harddrives, an experience which I quickly discovered is not unlike browsing old family photo albums. I had photos backed up from 2007, and some from even earlier. What particularly kept my interest were the photos from the days when Phil and I lived with my brother. Yep, the three of us shared a tiny roof of an old Ohio bungalow, and even better than the excitement of renovating the house was the fact that we all actually got along really well. It was lots of fun! For the most part. As much as people joked about it, I don’t think our two years together in this house would be exciting enough for a sit-com, but who knows? Maybe someday I’ll turn it into a novel!

Right now Phil and I live in a small ranch, and have been working on making changes as our budget allows. (Check out some photos of our living room here and dining room here.) Probably the last room we’ll really touch is our bedroom. It’s pretty awful right now. We actually have sheets tacked up over our windows! It’s difficult to remember what it was like having a pretty bedroom all those years ago, but I’m so glad I stumbled on the photos! It’s great inspiration to make a few easy changes to the bedroom we have now. After all, when you’re a married lady, you definitely shouldn’t neglect the bedroom, eh?

Working at home is certainly the life for me. Filing taxes for four different jobs, keeping detailed inventory records, wading through piles of receipts, and dealing with a bottomless e-mail inbox for three different accounts. Oh, what fun! Seriously, though, freelance is very fulfilling work, and it’s definitely worth all of the extra burdons that nobody really talks about. But I’m beginning to feel the strain.

For me, being an entrepreneur and a freelancer means my work takes over my home, and essentially, my life. In my living room, I stash away craft supplies and materials where most people might store treasured collections or media equipment. The bottom of my dining room hutch is packed full of papers, and an entire bedroom is packed with Fine & Dandy Vintage inventory. My office is also the dining room, and my break time is filled with baby talk and Fisher Price toys.

I recently filed my taxes, and after promptly rewarding myself with some chocolate, I began to evaluate my freelance life. You guys, as Mikey Burton so aptly screen printed, freelance ain’t free. It’s a lot of work, and can cost a lot of money to even get things started. For me, I don’t think it will never be super rewarding financially, and it’s difficult to stick with it when I’m being pulled in many different directions with my family life and work life. I’ve been considering cutting back some, but I don’t want to give up anything. I love everything I do! And I find it very fulfilling.

It’s stressful at times, trying to balance so many little jobs here and there, along with my family and social life. I try to keep my mind straight by only working on certain jobs on one day, and not even acknowledging that the others exist until another day when I face their duties. I’m not sure if that’s good, or a bad thing, but it’s helping to keep me sane. Some days, I admit, I feel like I’m floundering, but others I feel like I’m on the top of my game. But more often than not, I am amazed that I made it through another day and wonder if I will be able to make a dent in tomorrow’s to do list. My days are flying by, and I seem to look at them more as another list to conquer than another day to enjoy and feel fulfilled. And that realization has made me really think about cutting back.

So where do I draw the line? Do I decide what to stick with based on what brings in the most money for our family? Do I cut out vintage-selling and win back some square footage for our home? Do I quit doing wedding photography, and focus more on the quality of this blog? I know I won’t give up on design, and I’ll probably never stop blogging. But somethin’s gotta give. And as a lot of new mom’s who’ve gone before me have discovered, it’s going to take some time to figure out.

(Pssst! See me wearing Mikey’s Freelance t-shirt here!)