chalk paint fail... and a little annoucement

Oh my, it's been a busy summer, and I fully admit to slacking when it comes to blogging.  I'd like to say it's because I've been traveling and having grand adventures, but the truth is I've been lazy.  I know, busy summer and lazy don't actually seem to go together, but if you are a stay at home mom and your kids are out of school for the summer then you know what I mean.  The days go by quickly, but you don't really get anything done.  Play dates, long lunches, swimming, and movie watching take up the days and before you know it there are only three weeks before school starts again.

Of course, now I'm feeling the pressure to get things done since summer is almost up, and because I have a little announcement... we are expecting a new baby!  After miscarrying a baby earlier in the year we have waited a while to share the news, but we are expecting another baby girl to arrive in January!  We could't be more excited and have started working on all things nursery, which leads me to my chalk paint fail.

With baby nursery planning in full effect I was on the hunt for a new dresser.  After several weeks of thrifting, craigslist hunting and facebook garage sale site scouring, I finally came across this beauty at Deseret Industries (in my opinion one of the best thrift stores in Sacramento) this past weekend.

The plan is clean her up and paint her and give her to my 8 year old daughter and use her old dresser for the new baby.  Since her current dresser is small and all of her clothes don't really fit in it and the new one has much bigger drawers, I think it will work out nicely.

I let Lily Claire (8 yr old daughter) pick the paint color and she choose Valspar's Falling In Love, which is a soft blush pink. Since the dresser is older and has some wear and tear the plan was to use my chalk paint recipe and then wax and lightly distress it.

Now folks, I am no novice to chalk paint.  I've painted a credenza, a media cabinet, a china hutch, several dressers, a dining table, a bench, a bathroom vanity, a set of kitchen cabinets, and probably more things that I can't remember right now. I have been using this recipe for years and I have never, ever, had this happen.

I'm not sure what caused it or why it occurred but what I ended up with was a container of pink sludge.  Has anyone else experienced something like this before?  Any ideas as to what caused it to happen?

So, what did I decide to do?  Well, I sanded the dresser lightly and decided to skip the chalk paint and just paint the dresser with several light coats and then distress it.  It's still a work in progress, but I promise to update you and share pictures when I finish.

So, now you know what we've been up to this summer!