15 Minute Face Lift

I remember when we were first married, we'd watch "What Not to Wear" and the Makeup Artist, Carmindy, had this technique that she would teach battered-looking women, called the 5 minute face (essentially, how to apply the bare minimum of makeup and still look good), and at the time, Jackie was working as a makeup artist, and she'd freak out, because Carmindy was a little too "hands on" and would run her fingers all over the contestants' faces, and wasn't very sterile in her approach, especially when she'd apply makeup on her hand first like a palette, and then apply it all over their faces, and Jackie would point out all the grease and oil and dead skin that was lurking on that hand, and I thought it was hilarious, and I also appreciated her professionalism about the whole process.

Anyways, this is a story about a face lift. It took a little longer than 5 minutes, but was definitely a long time coming:

I bought this drawer to accompany my JERKER desk from IKEA (...does that word make anyone else feel a bit awkward?) years ago- 9 years ago, to be exact- right when my IKEA obsession began. And it's definitely served its purpose over the years, housing everything from College Term Papers to wallpaper samples, to various sketches done by yours truly. It currently has found a home in our closet on top of my dresser. I mainly use it for wallpaper samples, scrapbook pages, and other papers that are a bit over-sized.

But our newly renovated closet has a very specific color scheme about it, and silver foil finished objects just don't seem to go!

And, I came across a sample of wallpaper at work the other day...

It's a beautiful bold floral print that reminds me of my white cosmos that bloomed like crazy this summer...

...and I got to thinking that maybe, just maybe, some magic could happen if we cover the drawers of that drab old set of drawers...

And right I was! Although the pattern is bold, it flows seamlessly with the rest of the closet. It gives a well-needed punch without being too over-the-top. I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and it was sooo easy to do. I simply removed the drawer fronts, cut the paper to size, and Mod Podge-d like crazy!- although, I technically would've been done in half the time, had I not originally put the paper on upside down... which is pretty typical of me when I get all hands-on...- And voila!- an item that I potentially would've thrifted has become new again! I'm beginning to see the world with new eyes- or at least items in my home. We have boxes of items that we're considering donating or selling through a garage sale, and I'm starting to look at our old junk and asking myself: "what can this old piece of garbage become?". And the results are starting to excite me. There's a whole world of beautiful treasures waiting to be restored with new life. I think that if we all opened our eyes a bit, we'd see that our junk could potentially become our greatest treasures.