The Not So Empty Nest

Chalk Paint Class - August 29!

2013-08-20T10:59:00.000-05:00

We have quite a few Chalk Paint Classes under our belt and they have been a huge success. We were able to share lots of tips and techniques and learned some ourselves from the pro, Sonny Blaising. Sonny owns Cottage Supply Company (Benjamin Moore store) in Pelham where we hold our class and is working alongside us to enhance the class.

All of the ladies were so excited to learn how easy it is to apply what we taught them, to do their own furniture and even cabinets!

You will get to pick out a cabinet door to turn into whatever you desire.
This client painted hers with 2 coats of Benjamin Moore paint with Webster's Chalk Paint Powder.

Then she did 2 coats of chalkboard paint and chose to distress by using Fiddes Brown Rugger Wax. It's looking great!

Come join us for our next class on Thursday, August 29. We will have a 5:30 p.m. class and if there's enough interest, we'll open one up at noon. The class lasts about 2 1/2 hours.

During the class, you will learn the basic concepts of painting with chalk paint, distressing and waxing while upcycling a cabinet door. Plus, we'll share all kinds of tips and hints to make your experience even better!

The class is $44 and it includes the cabinet door, Webster's Chalk Paint Powder, brushes, Benjamin Moore paint - your choice of color, supplies and instruction. You'll also be able to use some of our colors and wax.

It's looking fabulous! All this in just 2 hours!

To sign up, just comment here or email us at notsoemptynest@gmail.com and we'll get you signed up. Classes are limited, so grab a couple friends and join us!

Remember that you can order Webster's Chalk Paint Powder & Fiddes Wax from us (just comment) or purchase it at one of our 4 locations at: Encore Resales & Marketplace in Pelham, AL; Past and Presents in Bluff Park; Peddler's Creek in Columbiana and Greystone Antiques & Marketplace in Greystone. We have a booth in all 4 of these locations.

An ENCORE Appearance!

2013-04-01T18:57:00.000-05:00

We just flew back home! We have opened a 2nd booth at Encore Resales. Since we are now selling chalk paint powder, we got a little space back at Encore. We are so happy to be back there. We will have the chalk paint powder and wax plus we will have small items you can purchase to paint yourself! Those are available now, so go check it out!

We have a little 3x5 space right now that is just perfect to sell our chalk paint powder and wax.

We'll be adding some small items like windows, frames, accent tables - and things like that.

We have secured a place nearby to hold classes. We just need to get a couple dates. We'll be holding two classes a month to start out, one in the evening and one in the morning. We are thinking of either Tuesday or Thursday. Let us know if you have a preference by leaving a comment and we'll nail it down soon. We have a great space at Benjamin Moore in Pelham. It's just about a mile from Encore.

You can also buy paint powder at our booth at Greystone Antiques & Marketplace. We have lots of small things to paint there, so now that the weather is fabulous, get those paint brushes out and get to painting! For directions to both of our booth sites, just click the picture on the right sidebar!

Webster's Chalk Paint Powder is here!

2013-03-24T18:32:00.001-05:00

It's here! We are now carrying Webster's Chalk Paint Powder at "The Not So Empty Nest"! Visit our booth at Greystone Antiques & Marketplace on Highway 280. Just click on Ayla's face on the lemonade stand on the sidebar for directions.

All you need is 1 bag of Chalk Paint Powder and water to add to ANY COLOR latex paint.

1 bag of Chalk Paint Powder makes a quart of paint OR 1 cup of 4 different colors!

The sample sizes you get at any paint/hardware store are perfect!

Many DIY mixes are toxic. Ours is all natural and not harmful!

The wax has a very pleasing vanilla smell and is the best we've used.

Chalk Paint Powder - $16.95
Wax comes in Light & Brown Rugger - $21.95

We'll be holding classes soon around Birmingham. For $25 we'll include a sample size of powder, cabinet door to upcycle, paint brush, container & lots of great ideas! Let us know if you'd like to sign up. We're looking for some good spots around town, so gather your friends and we'll come to you!

If you're not from the Birmingham area and would like to order, just email us at The Not So Empty Nest and let us know what you'd like.

Coming Soon! Chalk Paint Powder!

2013-03-11T22:41:00.004-05:00

We are so excited about a new product we will be stocking! It's Chalk Paint Powder. Our first shipment should be coming tomorrow so we'll get to painting and stocking it later this week!

You can mix this powder with ANY latex paint - flat, satin and even eggshell finishes. You can paint furniture, chalkboards and much more - all without priming and sanding! The colors are unlimited and it is very cost effective. We are the first dealers in Alabama and are very excited as this is another avenue God is blessing us with to help bring home another little girl from China.

We just wanted you to be the first to know and we'll have more details coming soon!

New in "The Nest"!

2013-03-01T22:06:00.001-06:00

We just put some awesome vintage pieces in "The Nest", and we are just itching to get our hands on them.

Lucky for you, the garage is full and our hubbies won't let us take it over this time. So what we're doing is putting our pieces in our booth, and passing them on to you for your own TLC. That way you can decide if you want to leave them in their natural beauty or choose what color to paint! These latest 2 finds could be absolutely gorgeous either way. The detail is fabulous! We love the hardware!

Here's a gorgeous chest of drawers from the 1920s. It has dove-tailed drawers; original, gorgeous knobs and even the backside is a work of craftsmanship. All the drawers work great! This is priced at $289.

Here's a matching vanity that has a mirror and stool. We are selling all of these separate since it would also make an awesome desk. The vanity is priced at $259.

This stool is priced at $39. You can choose to keep the vintage fabric or recover.

This mirror could be used on the vanity, as a hanging mirror or would make a gorgeous chalkboard. It's priced at $59.

Look at the detail in these pieces.

We did get a little painting done in this freezing weather and added this old ladder priced at $69. If you look to the left of it, you'll see a door turned message board with a chalkboard and hooks!
It's priced at $89.

Here's matching end tables priced at $89 for the pair and a really cute accent table

that is just dying to be painted!

We took a metal frame that hadn't sold (for $5) and brought it home and made a chalkboard out of it. Now it's $19. It's really a putty color with a patina rub and turned out awesome. So we gathered up a few more frames that haven't sold and will put our touch on them soon.

This chalkboard above sums it up pretty good! You'll have a few weeks or so to buy low before we get our hands on it and make it even more special! Of course, with a 2.5 year old trying to "help" bring her sister home, the painting takes a little longer . . .

When you visit Greystone Antiques and Marketplace just ask for "The Not So Empty Nest". We're in the very back left corner of the store.

It's Not Bye Bye Birdie . . .

2013-02-07T13:34:00.000-06:00

We flew the coop for awhile, but we're back in business Peeps! Since a cute, little 2 year old is running around, we don't have as much time to paint and repurpose furniture. We were actually going to shut down our shop, but since Ayla wanted a baby sister, it's back to work for us!

You might see this cutie at "The Nest".

So instead of concentrating on repurposing furniture, we are going to find some great pieces for YOU to redo. We have already found some great vintage pieces that are perfect as they are. We will do the picking on some great deals, so you can personalize your own pieces. We'll even give you ideas to enhance your project.

This vintage waterfall chifferobe is a gorgeous piece. It has a great cedar closet.

This secretary comes out too, but I love how this could be used as a desk!

This beautiful headboard and footboard match the chifferobe and dressing table below.

This set just keeps getting better and better! Buy all 3 and save $100.

Here's another vintage dresser. There's a matching mirror on the side.

We are going to put it in high gear again. We'll still do a little painting, so don't be surprised if you see a piece of furniture you're looking at this disappears for a few days and comes back looking even better and with a higher sticker price! So you better beat us to it!

If you're looking for a particular piece, let us know and we'll stay on the lookout for it. We have some great tables and chairs right now too.

Our booth has moved to Greystone Antiques & Marketplace on Highway 280 in Inverness. Come through the front door, take a left and go to the back of the store. We'll be on the right.

We're still feathering our nest, but here's a look at what we have:

This is actually a TV stand, but we think it could go great as a linen closet.
A little paint and a couple new "old" knobs . . .

Very nice, heavy end table. We could see this painted and distressed to make it pop even more!
Look at those details!

You better grab this beauty up! We just might have to redo for ourselves. It's a Thomasville in excellent condition, but don't be surprised if you see it repainted...

Here's our DIY Market. We have frames, shutters and more priced to sell for your DIY projects!

Some great pieces for sell, but not this cutie that photo bombed us!

How cute could this be somewhere? To paint or not to paint . . .

It's beginning to look like "The Not So Empty Nest" again!

We'll be on the lookout for even more mirrors and frames so you can turn them into chalkboards or use for your gallery walls.

Fly on over and visit "The Nest"!

We're back!

2012-05-26T09:18:00.000-05:00

Did you miss us? We took a little break, well, a long break...

I became a gramma in November (DeBe) and that's all I've wanted to do since then. Tiffany was nesting in preparation to get Ayla from China and getting her house all ready. They have been home for about 2.5 months now and are doing beautifully. She fits right in with us and we love her tons. If you want to see pictures and read all about her, you can go to adoptedeternally.blogspot.com.

Our booth at Encore was pretty bare, so I finally lit a fire under us and we have added some new items. We haven't hit a single yard sale this year, but we have enough in our garages to get us by for awhile. We just gotta figure out how to paint with a 2 year old underfoot.

We're a bit rusty, so give us a while to get back into the groove aka we didn't take a single picture of the booth the other day. We're just having too much fun with our little girls for anything else to matter.

Well, it's hub's birthday, so I need to go show him the ring setting I've picked out and the tractor "he" wants...

Christmas at The Nest

2011-12-03T18:14:00.001-06:00

In case you're wondering where we've been... I'm a Bamaw!

Meet Kali Elizabeth, born 11-10-11, 8lb 11oz and 22" long!

Take a look at The Not So Empty Nest all ready for Christmas. We have tons of chalkboards, large mirrors - and now even dry erase boards! Come visit us and do some Christmas shopping! All our proceeds will be towards getting Ayla home from China.


We have some window panes that look cute to display Christmas cards.

Wouldn't this vintage steamer trunk make a great Christmas gift? It's priced ready to sale at $399 and would be a great surprise for that special someone on your list!

All ready for Christmas at The Not So Empty Nest

We have these cute dry erase boards as well as our chalkboards!

More cuteness!


Vintage birdcage and sweet manger scene

Christmas Open House

2011-11-10T23:52:00.001-06:00

I just became a grandma today! I'll post pictures later, but I wanted to let you know we have an Open House at Encore Resales this Sunday from 1-6. Everything in our booth will be on sale! I'm having trouble uploading pics from my camera to laptop, and quite frankly, we're getting ready for the open house right now, so it's kinda on the back burner.

Come see us! Tiff & I will be there most of the day! I'll get back to blogging soon, but Granny is moving slower these days (not really, but it's a great excuse).

Look what we made . . . a play kitchen!

2011-10-01T15:18:00.003-05:00

We have been busy around here this week! We worked hard to get our first play kitchen done, hoping to sell these for Christmas and put a huge dent in bringing Ayla home from China. We had seen these kitchens on other blogs and we decided it might be a good thing to sell at Christmas. There's a LOT of TLC put in these, so they're not the cheapest thing we've ever sold. We spent well over 30 hours on this one, but hopefully we'll get faster. So instead of buying something "made in China" buy something "made for China"! The elves can probably only get around 10 done, so let Santa know soon!

Without further ado, here's the grand reveal of our Vintage Play Kitchen.

Isn't this the sweetest thing ever? There's a side by side refrigerator, oven, stove and counter space. Don't you love the retro feel of the appliances?

Debbie has 2 granddaughters coming soon, and can't wait to cook with them!


Close up view of the "tiled" counter and stove top. Cute little curtain helps make it even sweeter!

Loved the knobs! Hey, does anyone know how to make them turn without unscrewing them? Tiff's quite the engineer, but hasn't figured this out yet.

We are finding some great kitchen accessories at yard sales. But these aren't for sale, they're for my girls!

Here's a big view. So cute!

Here's some more items at "The Nest"!

Nice little chest of drawers

Love this end table!

The planters are from Anthropologie

Frames are a hot item right now, especially for gallery walls

Awesome antique buffet we painted. There's a drop-leaf on each side for even more serving. The chalkboard above is a great piece too!

Good look at all our goodies!


We re-purpose for a purpose . . . to bring Ayla home!

If y'all are in the Birmingham or Pelham, Alabama area, come visit our booth at Encore Resales. See the sidebar for a link to directions.

Meet our cutie pie from China!!

2011-09-19T22:51:00.000-05:00

Meet Ayla! Tiff & Steven finally got their match "Made in China". There's still more of the adoption process to go through, so hopefully she'll be home in about 5 months or less! We can't wait!! She is why we are doing "The Not So Empty Nest"!

Can you tell we've been a little busy lately? For the first time in 25 years, I've been baby shopping! Our son and wife should have grandbaby #1 or 2 (depending on who you're asking) delivered in November and that's another reason we're called, "The Not So Empty Nest"...

It's almost been a month since our last post - but we are back!! In the last month I (Debbie), along with the hubs, have been to Wyoming for a week with over 20 college friends and then a week after that we went on a 7 day cruise! In between trips, Tiff & I tried to get caught up in our booth. I'll share some pictures of our trips a little later, but wanted to show you what our "Not So Empty Nest" looks like. Actually, many of these items have already sold so we're working hard this week to resupply. We went to a neighborhood garage sale Saturday and hit about 50 sales!

These 2 nightstands sold really quick!

Tiff & Jocelyn made these. Aren't they adorable? These will be easy to ship, so we can take orders and do a different color scheme.

We always have something on sale!!

3 candlesticks that we distressed. They have pink undertones and look amazing!

Isn't this bistro adorable? Tiff's friend gave us this and we painted and restained. SOLD!

Great 48" table that we distressed with grey. It's only $129!

This is one of our favorite pieces ever! It's a 9 drawer Drexel dresser and boy is it heavy. We were going to change out the hardware, but once we painted and distressed it, the hardware enhanced it. We have it priced at $429 since it's so heavy and top quality. It's actually 10% off right now! We've also been told people are using these as buffets in the dining room. Hmm... I just might have a place for it myself.


We have sold the heck out of these distressed grey frames. We can't believe these shutters are still in our booth. They enhance it, so we're fine with them "hanging" around!

This was another great dresser we had. It sold in 1 day!

This is what it looked like when we left Saturday! We'll be adding more this Friday, so stay tuned!

Latest Nest Finds

2011-08-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

Here's some of our latest finds. Since it's been awhile since we've posted, many of these have already sold. We are busy getting some new pieces ready. We are having so much fun with our hobby turned business. Our "Nest" is truly blessed!

Our frames are very popular and we love this dresser

Take a guess at what the box used to house? It's bees!

We took this window that was missing a pane and made it into yet another chalkboard! We replaced the missing pane with cork!

This writing desk turned out great. We used gray and old white on this.

Love this distressed candlestick!

Don't you love the frame and this gorgeous oil painting?


I put a high price tag on this, hoping it wouldn't sell... but it did.

"Aged" cheese box

Found this great army locker to hold signs and put a high price tag on it - GONE!

We bought the birdie for .25 and got the mirror out of the trash. Not so shabby now, are they?

I love our banners! We are having fun with them!

If you're in the Birmingham area, come vising our nest!

Awesome Stain Remover

2011-08-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

Only 3 more Saturdays without SEC college football! In the state of Alabama, we are proud of our football!! In the last 2 years the National Champions and Heisman winner have hailed from here. No other state can lay claim to that. We are die-hard Alabama fans and love our Crimson Tide!

Here I am at Bryant Denney Stadium "posing" right after Mark Ingram got the Heisman. In fact, Coach Saban was supposed to be here for the event we were at, but instead was in New York for all the Heisman hoopla.

Here's Jocelyn, my daughter-in-law and me.

Don't be jealous, but we got a tour of the locker room. On the way out of the tunnel to the field, all the players jump up and touch this. My son, Brandon, did a great job making it look like I touched it too!

With that said, I have a great opportunity for all my Birmingham peeps! A former Alabama player, who played for Bear Bryant on yet another national championship team, needs our help to launch a product of his into even more sales. Below is what Steve Dean, has to say and it's where you can help.

"We have been given a fantastic opportunity to do a test “Road Show” sale event at the Hoover Costco store (Galleria/Patton Creek) on Aug 25 – Aug 28 (Thur – Sun). Costco will be selling our ESPRO SPORTS CLEANER Gallon Bottle and 32 oz Spray Bottle as a co-pack for $14.99. That is a tremendous price ($30 value) on a great product.

If you are not familiar with the product, check out our website (www.esproclean.com). It is not only the best athletic uniform cleaner on the planet (used by over 70 colleges and several pro teams, including Alabama) but it works great on everything you can imagine (carpet, car upholstery, furniture, food stains, blood stains, you name it). Read the testimonials on the website to see how passionate people are about the product.

Thank you in advance for helping to make this a successful event for us."

Steve is a great guy. He coached Brandon in Little League. Wish we had this product back then. I tried bleach once, but when it didn't work on all the grass stains and red mud, I just had to be satisfied that at least the stains were clean!

Hope you'll go by and get some (or order online)! Tell them "The Not So Empty Nest" sent you!

80th Vintage Birthday Party!

2011-08-08T08:00:00.003-05:00

We just threw an 80th birthday party for my in-laws, Dick & Peggy. Thanks to Peyton, a young 20-something year old friend, we copied her vintage theme. It was so easy and fun to do with mason jars, a photo booth and candy table. Everyone had a great time. We weren't sure if the older party goers would enjoy taking pictures, but as you can see, they definitely got into it and our photo booth was a big hit!

Outside, we used this "vintage" bike to direct party goers!

One of the biggest hits of the day was our photo booth. Isn't this a cute banner?

These were our centerpieces. We put a baby picture of each of them in a mason jar and added some hydrangeas. Don't you love the vintage microphone too?

Notice the chalkboard? We used these to let everyone know what we were serving.

We had candy invented in the 1930s. UMMM!

Since our party was from 2-4 on a Sunday, we opted for cupcakes and bite-size Texas sheet cake. Don't you love the camera? It was fun doing a vintage birthday. It could work for any age.

We also had fritos (Peggy's favorite snack) and a yummy dip. My son's collection of vintage cameras (that we got at garage sales for about $2 each) added just the right touch.


The banners were so cute!

Some of the party goers! We probably had between 150-200 guests!

Aren't they cute? Two of these ladies are in their 80s!! Don't they look fabulous?

We had the guests write messages or just their names, and this sign revealed an unsolved mystery. My father-in-law is a die-hard Alabama football fan and many Sundays he would find Auburn souvenirs in his pulpit. They were signed by "The Ultimate Eagle" aka our rival. After 25 years, he finally revealed his identity!

Aren't they cute as a button? Love those vintage suspenders!

These are some of the grandkids. Dick & Peggy have 17 grandchildren and 12 greats with 2 more on the way!

This is me, Debbie and the hubs, Rick.

Has anyone else that has turned 50 had the urge to commit a crime?

Here's Tiff & her hubs, Steven. It just occurred to me, we really need to get some good pics done.


Here's my in-laws, the party honorees. My father-in-law preached that morning and was still going strong! By the way, I wrote their sign for them...

A good time was had by all. One of the party goers who is well into her 80s said it was the best time she had in a long time and she felt like the party was for her! Young and old, we all had fun!

Back to School and it's Chalkboards Galore!

2011-08-05T21:55:00.002-05:00

We added some new items to our space.

We added even MORE chalkboards! We sell these like crazy! Did you ever get the job to "clean the erasers" at school? That was one of my favorite jobs. You got to go outside and you got to beat them against the building. I would take my dear sweet time too... Nowadays, they use more dry erase and high tech stuff, so they are just missing out on that good 'ole chalk dust flying around.

Before we added these to the shop, we used some of these chalkboards for "props" at a vintage 80th birthday party for my in-laws. I'll post about that later, but take a look at some of the cute pieces we have right now.


Here's 3 chalkboards along with a sweet little bird we helped out. Chalkboards are fun to greet company with, have a reminder list going or to put an encouraging verse on it.

Here's a sneak peek of the birthday party. These are my in-laws. They both turn 80 within a month!

This came from Pier One and was originally black. Well, we didn't get it from Pier One - we got it at a garage sale.


In addition to selling the chalkboards, they add warmth to our space. We are always on the look out for treasures to be turned into chalkboards. This one was from a friend that was moving. There's an oil painting under there (that's probably worth $10,000) that was already covered up with stain. So we didn't feel bad about adding our own flair. It's really lightweight.

We used this cute 5x7 frame at our vintage party.

Even a cheap "silver" tray bought for .25 gets a makeover.

We bought this little bird for a quarter and brought him up to date. He's so much happier now!


The round chalkboard is from one of Tiff's friends. All we did to this was change the verse. Look at those cute banners. We recycled them from the vintage birthday party.

This is a little 3 shelf cabinet (only about 12" tall). We're loving this yellow color too. It can brighten up any room.

Look how great some Old White paint and rubbing it off, made this Plain Jane black lamp a knockout.

Here's some more yellow. That poor little apple/potato peeler has been in our booth way too long. It retails for $20 and we have it for $10. Get it to make some curly fries!


These are adorable!!! We turned these wooden frames into a chalkboard frame to hold your child's art. My 30 year old did these pictures. I'm a proud Mom!

We have 2 of these gorgeous 8x10 frames.

I think this frames holds 2 5x7 pictures. Fabulous!

These repurposed frames will save you tons of "Is this sweet or unsweet". You can use them as place cards too...


This is a cool army trunk we found. We are using it to hold all our frames and chalkboards. We priced it high so we can keep it around for awhile. We made it look really old! It has a divided shelf inside. We have it open to hold our stash. I would show you a picture, but my battery died too soon.

And here you have it - "the not so empty nest" week 9!

I linked to:

More in our nest.

2011-08-02T22:15:00.003-05:00

We have updated our space once again. Come take a look at our latest creations.

We painted this nightstand and added new hardware.

We painted and distressed this picture and painted the mats. It comes with the whole alphabet to personalize.

The bottles, lamp and sconces are new. We also have a silver vase.

This was originally a mirror. We turned it around and made it a dual chalkboard.

This 4 drawer chest of drawers looks stunning. This is painted in Versailles - my favorite Annie Sloan chalk paint.

Isn't this frilly basket fun?

Not so empty, is it?

Great chalkboard for back to school!

Gorgeous silver!

If you're ever near Birmingham, come visit our space! See our sidebar for directions! We'll soon be featuring items before we put in our store. So if you want something, give us a holler.

More in our Nest

2011-07-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

We just updated our space at Encore Resales with some new furniture and lots of chalkboards and frames!

We went garage selling last week and had a very successful day. My daughter-in-law, Jocelyn, is expecting a baby girl in November, and we found a great 2nd hand crib and dresser/changing table.

Tiffany went to a neighbor's yard sale up the street and told her about her adoption and how we are painting furniture. God laid it on her heart to give us 2 dressers, a nightstand, a twin headboard and more! God has been blessing us with people with giving hearts. Take a look at our latest we just added Friday!

Tiff & Jocelyn started making these cuties on canvas! We will be making more of these for sure. One of these flew the coop while we were decorating!

We added lots of chalkboards in all shapes and sizes - just in time for school! These are great in dorm rooms, sorority houses, kitchens and mud rooms! Tiff even turned a twin headboard into a chalkboard and put in her dining room. It's really cute!

We added lots more signs too!

This is a cute end table and very well made.

Tiff's friend gave her this shelf and we love this new color we are using! Thanks so much Courtney!

This Queen Anne nightstand looks good in old white with dark wax.

Look how cute the frilly frame looks as a chalkboard. We sell this for $5.00. Cheap!!

Two new lamps and 2 "Old West" prints. The prints were from Mombo - who is moving and gave us some of her treasures.

Did I tell you we had lots of chalkboards now? It seems like whichever one we put adoption info on gets sold quickly!

Signs just for the picking! These range in price from $10-$25.

We also have some really cool frames - all 2nd hand and some vintage. We price to sell!

We have 2 of these shutters that we made into a chalkboard and also left the backside as a mirror so this can serve double-duty. This goes great with our Houndstooth Desk!


Here's our crammed - "not so empty nest"!

We are also doing custom pieces, so let us know if you'd like us to be on the look out for you. All of our pieces are unique and one-of-a-kind. When you go to Encore, make sure you tell them "The Not So Empty Nest" sent you!

Updated booth

2011-07-15T00:47:00.003-05:00

We just added some new pieces to our booth. Right now we are focusing on our college shoppers, but there are some great pieces for your home, beach cottage or lake retreat as well. We add pieces every week - usually on Thursday, so make sure you check us out often. Visit us at Encore Resales in Pelham. Just look at our sidebar for directions and to see why we repurpose with a purpose!

6 drawer dresser for $129. The paint color is Versailles, which is a greeny gray brown. We'll be using this a lot!


Tuscaloosa bound? We painted this desk gray and lined the drawer with houndstooth. At $99, it won't be here long! Roll Tide!

Do you love houndstooth as much as we do?

We have 2 end tables in the left corner priced around $50. There's a 3 drawer chest for $129 that is really cute!


This is a great buffet. We love it!

Some pieces that are coming in soon are a 48" table (pick your color and we'll customize), cottagey end table painted blue, nightstand in old white, desk... We just got some windows that will be coming soon and more chalkboard items.

We'd love to do some custom work as well, so give us a hollar! Since we are using this to fund Tiff & Steven's adoption in China, we'll also take your furniture that's taking up valuable storage space and put it to good use!

Linked to:
Southern Hospitality Thrifty Treasures

Reason #1: Why "The Not So Empty Nest" Name

2011-07-14T22:00:00.002-05:00

Take today for instance. The hubs was in England for 9 days along with my son, Brandon. After mowing our 4 acres and getting some veggies from the garden, I called my daughter-in-law, Jocelyn, to see if she wanted to come over. I bribed her with a meal, which I knew she couldn't say no to. She was also happy to take a break from cleaning. Tiffany called and she was alone too, so she came over for some girl time. We picked some lima beans to add to the meal and shelled them together. I told them about the time I used the excuse, "I'm shelling lima beans" so I didn't have to go on a date! Oh, and the reason you don't see our faces, no makeup!

Three limas in a pod

First lima beans of the season!

Our meal tonight was totally from the land. A friend's son, killed a deer earlier this year, and we had cubed steak with gravy and onions. Me and the girls also dug some potatoes and onions out of the garden and added to what I had already picked today. We were in hog heaven eating tonight. We sounded like "What About Bob". Enjoy our pictures of our bountiful supper tonight.

Squash & onions

Cubed steak with onions and gravy

I soak the okra & zucchini in buttermilk then roll in cornmeal and fry in my iron skillet

Tiff has become an expert at frying - a true southern girl

We ate 2 big iron skillets full!

My Yukon potatoes made yummy mashed potatoes. Pure goodness!

Jocelyn making Oreo BonBons - cuz we didn't have enough!


So rich and good! This would make a great addition when watching Miss America!

Our latest "peep". This was an actual potato we dug up tonight.

Does a garden conjure up fond memories from your childhood too? My dad planted a huge garden and I can remember shelling limas and stringing beans all day. Then we'd go to the cannery and have cases and cases of beans! My girls love to work in the garden too and food is all of our love language.

So reason #1: family coming over to share food and to make my empty nest full and alive again and that's why I'm "not so empty"!

My favorite kitchen gadget

2011-07-12T22:00:00.004-05:00

Do you have a favorite kitchen gadget you can't live without? I do! This was one of those "as seen on TV" and it looked great! So I waited for it to come to Bed, Bath & Beyond and used a $5.00 off coupon, making it $15.00. Sure enough, it was as fabulous as they claimed! And here it is!


It's the Chop Wizard! I loathe cutting veggies in cubes with a knife and cutting board . . . even pretending I'm on Top Chef doesn't make it any easier. But this makes the job fun! We had a little boy from Uganda at Thanksgiving and he cut the celery and onions for our stuffing. While he was working, he wished his mother had one of these too.

You'll want to cut your veggies in slices first.

It works best to do one slice at a time and then quickly do the rest. You just take the top part on the right and slam down. See how the potatoes are cubed now? Sometimes I just cube these red potatoes, boil and add butter & parsley. Love it!

It also has a measuring cup on the side so if your recipes call for a certain amount you can easily see how much you have.

One of my favorite things to do with this is to make salsa. I chop the tomatoes with the largest grid and then the jalapenos and onions with the smallest. All the juices remain in the bottom container. YUM!

The Chop Wizard goes in the dishwasher and also comes with this comb-looking thing that cleans the top. It's very easy. I bet I use it most every day I cook, which I admit, is not that often, since it's just the hubs and me most of the time. (I told him it's cheaper for 2 to eat out!)

I just bought 2 of these for wedding gifts. I actually helped with an engagement party Saturday and knew I would probably help cut tomatoes and onions for the taco bar, so I included this as one of my gifts to the happy couple - knowing full well I would break it out and use it myself! My friend makes the most awesome salsa and he had cut tomatoes for 1.5 hours. He almost started to cry when he saw how fast and easy my Chop Wizard made the job. I bet if I had 5 of these to sell I would have sold them all - and Laird would have probably paid a lot!

So that's mine, let me hear what your favorite kitchen gadget is!

Not Even Close to Being an Empty Nest!

2011-07-08T22:00:00.006-05:00

We have added even more furniture to our space at Encore Resales and have a few sales going on. So come see our space, "The Not So Empty Nest", soon! Make sure you tell them we sent you there!


3 drawer chest - a favorite! Chalkboard with 3 knobs

Nightstand

Magazine Rack - $15

Cute chalkboard

Another cute chalkboard for sale that's announcing a sale!

Cute half round table for $29 - a great buy!

Lamp

Cute chair that has 5 coats of paint!!!

We put this buffet in last week and it's gorgeous!

This truly is "The Not So Empty Nest"! Take advantage of our sale items!

Krispy Kreme Grand Opening x 2

2011-07-07T22:46:00.001-05:00

We have been waiting forever for a Krispy Kreme Doughnut to come to our side of town (which is still a good 30 minutes from Debbie), so when I got the scoop, I just couldn't wait for it to open!

My friend, Dawn, another food lover, told me it was opening Wed., July 6. Well all I heard was Wednesday. Tiff & I invited some friends to come to the festivities with us after Bible study last Wednesday night. To my dismay, the "Hot Now" light was NOT on! Huge disappointment filled my heart, but I was still excited and was going to make the best of it. And then, to my complete horror, they were not open at all. We were a week early!

So while waiting for my friends, I thought, "what the heck" and started taking pictures for our blog any way. And then, an angel appeared. I told him my dilemma and utter disappointment and he invited us into the store - to see if he had some doughnuts for us that they had done a test run on. He ended up giving us 2 dozen doughnuts!!! FFFRREEEEEEEEEE!!! Now, they weren't my personal favorite, the hot ones fresh off the glaze line, but they were assorted, and did I mention, FREE!

So, wanting to have some girl time (which was motive #2), we went to Starbucks instead...

Not a bad haul for being a week early!

2 boxes of love and goodness! I'd say those chocolate glazed are 2nd runner up!

At Starbucks drowning in our sorrow... really?

We made friends really quickly. We must have looked really cute that night!

And now, a week later, with much anticipation and just a little hesitation, we went to the Grand Opening of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts - Take Two!

Do you see the HOT NOW light? That gets me excited!

If you've never had the privilege of seeing doughnuts made, this is it!

KK started in Birmingham, Alabama!

I'm just a little excited - Tiffany, not so much...

I'm so sorry... I was so excited about my hot doughnuts I forgot to take a picture for you until after 4 were already gone!


We got there about 8:30 p.m. and the line inside and the drive through stayed long for well over an hour. I wonder if this is any indication why Alabama is always among the most obese states?

We hope you enjoyed our little tour of our brand new Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. You just can't beat the hot ones. I did have to train the hubs early on in our marriage on how KK is the very last stop and you speed back to bring home the goodness. He's a fast learner - and bless his heart, he's a diabetic now... so I'll have to finish the rest all by myself! Ten seconds in the microwave and it's yum yum time!

New Furniture in our Booth

2011-07-02T14:15:00.000-05:00

This is about 4.5' tall and a great cupboard

2 end tables, chalk board, shutters...

Notice what's for sale - chalkboard for sale too!

Antique coffee table we just added to the store

Gorgeous buffet we painted Paris Gray and distressed - $529


All signs like this are $5.00 off through the 4th

Thrifty Finds

2011-06-30T08:28:00.001-05:00

This is only our 2nd year of thrifting and we really love it. So much so, that we have turned it into a business as of June 1. last year we had fun furnishing my youngest son's first home. He was so cute. He loved everything we did. While it was thrilling to find a great deal or that perfect piece for him or ourselves, it's even more fulfilling finding a piece for others and repurposing it. And it’s WAY more fun doing it for a real purpose - to fund Tiff's adoption from China. And an added bonus, is that all our mileage and expenses are tax deductible!

I’ll tell you, going to garage sales and thrift stores, started taking on a whole new meaning once we had to fill a 7.5 x 10' space. We have been way blessed with selling our pieces quickly and have others waiting in line to take their place.

We found this sofa table for $5 at a yard sale. It had the typical brass handles on it which we took off and puttied the holes. Then we primed with Bull'sEye. Shortly after that we found out about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and were bummed we had primed. So Tiff decided to go ahead and use Duck Blue Annie Sloan and distress it to show the white underneath. To our surprise, with a little more rubbing, some of the brown came through as well. It turned out gorgeous!

Here's Tiff painting over the primer. We had also been using this as a work table so there were scratches, but with miracle paint, it's not a problem. We thought we were going to have to paint 2-3 coats and then poly. We are in love with chalk paint!

Isn’t this a beauty? We decided since the drawers were fake that we would just add one handle back. Of course we waited for Hobby Lobby to have them half off. It looks so great in our booth, but we don’t think it will last long, and it didn't. Do you see how the white & dark wood came through? Love it!

The suitcase below it was free at an estate sale and the other items were found at either garage sales or thrift stores.

Let us see some of your thrifty finds too! Don't you love a good deal?

Check out even more Thrifty Treasures! Southern Hospitality Thrift Treasures
Restore Interiors
Shabby Nest Frugal Fridays

More for the Store

2011-06-23T22:16:00.003-05:00

We spent a good portion of the day yesterday at our booth at Encore Resales bringing in more furniture and sprucing it up. Our biggest job was to take 4 plantation shutters we bought for $5 and make a wall. It added so much! When we left it was looking fabulous!

Here are some of our latest additions:

The plantation shutters turned out great. Love them!

Pretty cool vintage end table or nightstand

The flowers add so much! We think they sold today...

Here's a desk we repainted and stained. Wouldn't this look great in a master bedroom?

We love this sofa table

We added a little paint to these. Aren't they cute?

Antique table


Here's a mirror we repurposed as a chalkboard. We can see this going in a restaurant!

And here it is - The Not So Empty Nest! Come visit us soon!