Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A Treat For Me!



I splurged last week and bought myself a little shoulder bag from Katie's Rose Cottage. I've been watching Lori's blog and website for new ones to come up for sale but I always missed them! By the time I would see one I wanted it had already sold. Finally last week I lucked out and found one I loved and it was available. Whoopee! I'm planning to use it this weekend when we have our antique festival. While I'm manning the booth I'll use it to carry any "must have one me at all times items".

BTW~Katies Rose Cottage Designs was great to work with. I was quickly given updates on the bags status and I ordered it on a Friday, it was shipped out on Saturday and arrived on a Monday. I would highly recommend ordering from Lori and Kristin, their things are beautiful to boot!

I've been busy the past few weeks with things for All That Jazz and our annual Antique Festival we have downtown. Wanna see pictures? I knew you did!



Lots of chalkboards for the taking.



I've been working with some techniques Rosemary from Villabarnes uses and was kind enough to share with her readers. You use gesso over gray paint to get the whitewashed effect. I'm not sure if I am liking it or not. Rosemary's pieces look so much better than mine! She is a master!



This pair was originally a gold/bronze color.




This sign was U.G.L.Y. Green with yellow, brown and pink flowers.



ASCP~ Old White and Coco


Furniture is always a must. It seems I am painting one piece after another right now. I am still using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint mostly. It is rather spendy but I just love it and you can whip out the pieces so much faster than with latex paint.  I've been having fun mixing colors and have painted pieces in a pink, lavender, antique green and beachy green~colors that ASCP don't offer. I still need to get brave and try some color washes and mixing color into the wax.

I am wanting to try a few other paints I've been reading about, the Cece Caldwell line which is completely natural and non toxic and I'm dying to use Marion of Miss Mustard Seeds' new line of Milk Paint she has coming out next month. I've also been seeing a paint line called La Craie. It seems to be a lot less well known but they have absolutely beautiful colors. I have had a bit of a hard time finding an online site to order from that is easy to navigate though.



Provance with gilding  accents.




The beachy green color I custom mixed.



Old white and Coco.



Hope you are all well and having a wonderful week!


Sunday, July 1, 2012

Latest Furniture Makeovers



Do I EVER blog anymore? Hardly. It's been almost a year and I still can't get my blogging "mojo" back. Hope it's not gone forever!

This is a recent piece I finished. I found it at a thrift shop and fell in love with it. I decided to paint it pure white. It also has a mirror that isn't shown in these pictures.





A new trend I've been seeing online is the painting of the inside of the drawers. I used ASCP Provance Blue for the drawers.





Here it is in place at All That Jazz with the mirror attached.





A close up with a stool I found at a garage sale and painted and recovered to match. Last I heard the vanity was placed on layaway for a customer who is giving her daughter's room a  makeover.





This second piece I found at the Goodwill. It was a little scruffy and I had to remove all the veneer from the drawers but it's a very solid and well built little piece of furniture.




I tried out the freezer paper/printer method I've been reading about from fellow bloggers and it actually worked pretty great. I had to do the lettering part on the fold down desk twice because I got it on crooked the first time. Brilliant I know. It's a good thing I used ASCP so I could just sand it off.  I'm excited to try it again. The ASCP was a special mix. I was going for a vintage pink but didn't quite attain the color I wanted. Sorry I couldn't get any really good pictures, the lighting was wonky.





The inside is painted a gray/khaki color I had already. Regular latex satin paint. I wasn't up to the task of waxing and buffing all those cubbies!




In place at all That Jazz. Again, another bad picture. The graphics just don't show up. The desk in person is super cute and the pictures don't do it justice. I didn't paint the drawers inside on this one,  just lined them with zebra print paper.




This table I found at a garage sale. My Mom and I had no sooner gotten it to the curb, on the way to the truck when someone stopped to see if it was for sale! Nope, not until I cleaned her up, painted her and sealed her up.




I wanted a cottage feel for this drop leaf table. I chose Behr's Reef Green in satin. First the whole thing got a coat of ASCP Pure White. I knew it would stick great and give me the undercoat I wanted when I shabbied her up.




After painting 2 coats and then distressing, I gave the whole thing a coat of water based wipe on poly. the table top got 3 coats. It's still waiting to go to Jazz. Soon, I think!