Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone is having a SWEET Valentine's Day so far!  Nothing like a little chocolate for breakfast right?  What?  Everyone doesn't do that?!

 This double heart wooden bowl was a fun GW find a while back.  I used some chalkboard paint inside so I can change out the messages. 

A while back my parents showed up with a little gift for me.

This was my Dad's when he was little.  A way to practice spelling and on the back a way to practice basic math skills.  I "heart" this! 



I keep it out on a shelf and change the message seasonally.  Right now it's beside my Mom's old marbles in the gum ball machine. 

Happy Valentine's Day! 
Love, Deb

Checkmate

Now if I were really clever, or well rested...whatever, I would have had the Queen up here when I did the photos for this post.  But I hadn't thought of the title at that point, and I didn't drag up all the pieces, and, and, and.  Gads I'm tired today!

Anyway, I bought this table at a thrift store after having been on the lookout for a small coffee table that might make a cute chess table.  This one really fit the bill.  Square, quality made, good condition, recessed top, perfectly square 24x24 recessed top.  Which makes all that math so nice and easy when you need to create a chess/checkerboard top!  Whew, what a break.  It took me forever, mostly because I hemmed and hawed about color.

I ended up using Annie Sloan's French Linen as a top coat and based it in Annie Sloan's Arles.  I knew that I wanted to distress it back and really let an unddercoat show through.  I am loving these two colors together I tell you.

They play nice.  So, lots of tape, a smidge of math, bits of sanding, and both clear and dark wax made it all come together. 

This cute fabric is lining the drawer waiting on it's chess and checker pieces.  Isn't that fun fabric?

I did bling up the wooden handle with some gold Rub n Buff to make it stand out a bit.  This piece had such clean, classic lines I think it worked perfectly for my chess table plans.  I see many a game night in it's future! 

Thanks for stopping by, more coffee table and side table finishes to come!
Have a super weekend!
Deb
Linked to:
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/02/furniture-feature-friday-a-link-party/
http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/02/features-and-be-inspired-link-party-6.html
http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2012/02/piece-of-work-wednesday-furniture-link_14.html

A Feature and ...Winning!

First I want to give a huge shout out to Sharon at Elizabeth & Co. for featuring my buffet today as part of her new weekly link party!!  Sharon is so sweet and she has been instrumental in helping out my group here in NE figure out how to best set up occasional sales that mimick their fabulous events.  She is such an extremely generous person and I am so lucky to have found her out here in this vast blog universe!  Thank you Sharon!

And.....WINNING!

You heard that right.  Last week Cassie at Primitive & Proper held a giveaway for the new ebook,
Welcome Home by Shannon Acheson.  It is full of tips, tricks, and ideas for creating a beautifully cozy home.  And yes, yes, yes, I won a copy!  Woo Hoo!  What a wonderful gift!  I have already been skimming through my copy, and I can't wait until all the kiddos hit the rack tonight and I can sip my way through some herbal tea and page through my book.  Thank you to Cassie for hosting another amazing giveaway.  You are forever inspiring me with your projects, and I just love how you so joyously "share the love" out here with giveaways, sweet comments, and helpful tidbits!  The content of your blog is amazing and something I hope to one day aspire to!

And thank you to Shannon, {aka} design, her blog is amazing and I will be a regular reader there.  I am so impressed with all of the work and insightful ideas you have in your ebook!  I am sure I will gain some great inspiration (desperately needed here) to get some problem rooms completed soon.  The timing couldn't have been better.

Ah, despite the "terrible, malingering crud" that seems to have invaded all the bodies in my house this week, it has been a good day!
Stay well everyone!
Deb

Gotta light?

Or gotta lamp or two?  A while back my friend Lesley from The Homeless Finch updated one of her treasures, Sylva, in the most spectacular fashion.  I immediately decided I had to be a copy cat and try that too.  Guess what?  I had an owl much like her Sylva that I did not like in her new white glory.  I also had a lamp I thought I'd try to update.  Both got the beautiful silver spray job, then I had one of  my short helpers haul them up for a bit of glaze.  There was an unfortunate incident in the process and the owl didn't make it.  These things happen so I just had the lamp to work with.  Here it is silvered up.

I love it now in it's fresh new color.  I also love how the glaze makes all those flutes and the beading really pop out there.  Thank you Lesley for sharing such a wonderful idea!!!  Now, of course it needed a new shade.  What to do, what to do?  I thought I might just go with something in burlap, but I ended up with a plain heirloom white shade.  I have coveted the Anthropologie shades for a long time.  All of them.  They're amazing.  I'm just not willing to pop for their full price though.  So I tried to do a knock off.  Here is what I came up with.

I used some ultra fine pigment pens and just tried to draw the flowers similar to the lampshade I loved.

The original lampshades have embroidered butterflys but I just chose to colorize mine with some paint markers.  This requires a pretty light touch as they like to "bleed" quickly. 

This is just what my new silver base needed don't you think?  Now, of course I had more than one lamp that I had picked up to restyle.  Here is the other lamp.

I have not repainted the base like I thought I might when I found it.  It has a neat patina with both a silver and gold mix on it.  What do you think, leave it alone, or slap some paint on her?  Well, in the meantime I also reworked her new shade with a little help from The Graphics Fairy. 

To get the spacing on these correct I actually printed off the free graphic and taped it inside.  With the lamp on I traced the outlines of the birds and branch, then pulled it off the lamp and free handed in the details.  Not perfect, but heh, I'm ok with how it turned out. 

I have to say these were fun, really quick little projects.  Lesley continually inspires me to run around gathering materials and recreate something she has come up with.  I just love that about her!
If you go to visit her now she is working on a Sweet Valentine's Day series of projects. Most of which are now in my que to do!

"http://thehomelessfinch.blogspot.com/search/label/TheSweetestDaysSeries/"

You just never know when someone will inspire you to try something new!
Have a great weekend!
Deb
Linking to:

Liebster Blog Award version 2.0

Good Morning!  I wanted to publicly thank Cyndi at Blue Star Antiques for sharing the love and presenting me with the Liebster Blog award.  This is the 2nd time I have been so honored this year and it is no less humbling this time around.  Isn't it always wonderful to know that when we're out here typing away there are real, live, interesting people out there who read it?!  Amazing!  Cyndi is a relatively new blogger and just like a snowball rolling down a hill she is quickly gathering steam and a huge following of great folks.  She is a super talented lady, with a great eye for color and style.  If you haven't visited her blog before I highly recommend you do so today and see her beautiful apple green table.  I heart it a lot!

The RULES are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your five or six picks for the award and let them know.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers.
5. Finally and the best rule of all.......have fun and spread the love!
   

So here are so other fabulous places I think you should visit today too!

Patty at My Mountain Blessings
Amanda at Mommy is Coo Coo
Lori at Bleak 2 Unique

So, thank you Cyndi, and everyone go make some new friends today!!!
Deb
P.S.  If I get some decent light today I hope to get photos of a recent finish and will maybe have a 2nd post up later.  I know, that would be a first!!

Chasing Squirrels

A friend and I have a joke we share.  It never fails we'll be chatting and we'll notice something shiny or pretty, aka a squirrel, nearby and off we go on a different conversational tangent!  Sometimes we'll even shout "squirrel" just like Dug the dog from the Up! movie.  I actually thought about naming my blog "Chasing Squirrels" due to the fact that I have something of a tendancy to be headed one direction with a project and off I go in a different direction or sometimes on a totally different direction.  Will there ever be enough hours in my life to accomplish every thing I want to do?!  Lately I've been working on a few projects around the house that are just for us!  Today's post is one of those projects.  Sadly I forgot to take a before photo of this buffet, but I will tell you that it was pretty sound and not in too bad of shape when we got it.  Other than some sticky drawers that needed work it wasn't bad.  It also had hardware on it that were not to scale for this piece.  You know that Burger King commercial with the guy that won't go get the Whopper because his hands are just so small?...  Yeah, the pulls were all really tiny and this piece is substantial.  Here she is ready for her debut.

I painted her with Old Ochre and Old White on the details.  For this space I wanted to kind of keep it light and neutral and those two paints together gave me just the look I wanted. 

Look at that pie crust trim, pretty huh?  I loved the many different trims from the minute we brought this one home.  The top was in perfect shape and after sanding I added the Jacobean stain and antique oil finish. 

I found some really large bronze oiled knobs that look so much better on her!  I think she can feel better about her assets now that she is balanced!

Here are a couple of recent finds too, pretty little silver bowl and heavens but I love that peacock feather!  Check this out...

wonderful little horse head I sprayed white and the pretty, slightly tarnished pitcher.  The "finding" has been good lately which is just so much fun!

So, do any of you end up chasing a squirrel in the middle of a project?  I do hope to eventually have a Master bedroom reveal for you, but please don't hold your breath.  There are just so many pretty/shiny things out there!

Hope your week is wonderful!

Deb

Linking to these parties:

http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/01/be-inspired-link-party-3.html

http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2012/01/piece-of-work-wednesday-furniture-link_24.html

http://missmustardseed.com/2012/01/furniture-feature-friday-favorites-a-link-party-4/

Belated Thank You!

I must thank Karen at Redoux for the feature on my buffet last week!  I love everything that Karen shows us on her blog at Redoux, so I am beyond flattered that she liked something that I did!  Who, Moi?  Merci Karen!  And that is pretty much the extent of my French, but Karen knows french, and she knows french furniture as well as lots of other types of furniture. I want you all to stop on by, say hi and check it out.

I have no great photo reveals today, though I have been keeping busy.  Hopefully I'll have a post up later this week with one of the projects I finished for my home.  I've been fairly selfish lately and working on projects for the home front.  Heaven knows there is plenty to do.  I'd also like to find some time to "purty up" the blog.  There isn't much that intimidates me for long, but the thought of accidentally pushing the wrong button and totally losing everything I've put on here scares me into inaction!  I'm working on it though. 

I hope you all have a lovely, lovely last half of the week! 
Deb