Guest Post & Giveaway: Nest Building 101

First off, thank you so much to Jenny for letting me invade her space today! ;)

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My name is Carlia and I'm the voice behind Nest Building 101. What started out as a way to journal and vent my frustrations about dealing with infertility (after 9 years, we finally have our baby boy!) has since turned into my creative outlet and sanctuary.  I blog about thrifting, DIYs, photography, tutorials, my continued battle against infertility (trying for #2 very soon), my family, and random things here and there.  One of my favorite things on my blog is the great 100 day challenge, in which you set a goal of something to work on for 100 days (anything from fitness to reading - whatever you want to work on) to better yourself.  The first challenge is ending this month and the next is starting october 1st.  Be sure to join us!

Anyway, today i'm going to share one of my favorite thrifty transformations. I bought this sad guy for $30. needless to say, he needed some major work.

Over just one weekend, i brought him back to life!

It was really simple, too! here's what i did...

I painted the body black then painted the drawers white.

Then i used my Silhouette SD (similar to a cricut) to cut out several stencils using a really heavy cardstock. (you can also purchase stencils at your local craft store.)

Next, i used a spray adhesive, just on one side of the stencils, let it air-dry for a few seconds to make it tacky (not too sticky, so that it would work as a temporary adhesive), and lined them up on the drawers, being sure to press down firmly.

After that, I spray painted the drawers black.  The outline left by the stencils was great, but needed some touching up, so I decided to go ahead and go over all of it with some white paint and a very small brush. (Sounds worse than it was.  It actually didn't take that long and was something I could do while sitting in front of the TV.)

I replaced the old handles with knobs that I bought at lowe's for only $2 each.  I wanted to go with something simple, but that would also accentuate the retro feel of the pattern.  I think these accomplish that perfectly!

The whole thing came together so well and i spent less than $50 from start to finish!

Be sure to check out my DIY series called cheap tricks!  There are several more that I'll be adding soon, too!

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Isn't that dresser gorgeous?!  I need Carlia to come over to my house and decorate for me...I am seriously lacking in the cute house department!  I'm so glad to have Nest Building 101 as my featured sponsor this month...I know you will love this blog as much as I do, so make sure to go say hello and follow along!  Plus, today Carlia is giving away 2 beautiful handmade necklaces, which means there will be 2 winners!  Make sure to enter using the Rafflecopter widget below.  The giveaway will be open until September 22nd and is only open to those with a U.S. shipping address.  You must be a follower of Modern Modest Beauty to be eligible.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Manicure Monday: Pretty Serious "Nightmaren"

I very rarely wear red nail polish. I'm not really sure why, because it is such a classic color and looks great with everything! Today I am wearing a gorgeous red polish from Pretty Serious, called "Nightmaren". This color is a part of the new "In the Night" collection, which Pretty Serious launched just a couple weeks ago.  It has a golden shimmer that looks stunning in the sunlight.  Because of the gold tint, I think that this is the perfect shade of red for Fall!  

There are 5 other lovely colors in the new collection.  I think the gray color "Dream Delight" looks really fun (of course I would think that...I love glitter!).  Pretty Serious nail polishes retail for $9.95 AUD and they ship internationally.  You can purchase them directly from pretty-serious.com.

What color is on your nails this week? Oh, and be sure to enter the Cents of Style Giveaway!

(Product was sent for review)