Merry Christmas!

And I'm only a day late!  But in this crazy, whirlwind time we live in I don't think it is ever too late to wish you and yours Good Will and Peace and the Love of Christ!  The tragedies weighed heavy on my mind and heart as I muddled through the month. I think the only answer to those moments is prayer, and trying to treasure the moments I have with my family and friends.  Here is just a snapshot of what we have been up to here in Nebraska.

An elf named Trixie came to visit and kept us on our toes with her antics.

She is mischievous and added some lovely giggles to our troop every morning.



I think she may have a slight crush on Woody!

There were programs galore to attend.

And when the blizzard and power outage changed our Santa visit plans we made do with the Mr.'s favorite character Mr. Grinch, whose heart surely grew 3 sizes that day!  3 Lovely Ladies:  Madison 14, Michaela 16, and Ellarie 7. 

Every year the Mr.'s company in VA has sent us the year's White House ornament as a gift. We all look forward to seeing and hanging the newest ornament. This year's ornament features President Taft and the one of the first automobiles made by the White Sewing Machine Co. They are all so lovely.

 

I even managed to finish this piece while watching "It's a Wonderful Life" this week.  It's such a nice sized Coffee Table.

At first when we sanded down the top and refinished it I was quite dismayed by the lighter and darker shades that showed up.  After some consideration though I really loved it as it reminds me of a piece made with reclaimed pieces maybe off of a wine crate.  (Always go with your imagination right?!)

A visit to the Graphics Fairy blogspot provided me with a lovely French advertisement to adapt to my table top.  Now it is perfect!

I also found this Bassett Furniture beauty and had planned to paint her with some very modern graphics on her.  However, that wood, oh help me that wood, was just too lovely to cover in paint! Look at those original pulls.  This piece just needed preserved as best I could.

So, I hope she'll find her home with someone who enjoys her clean lines and lovely walnut wood that has all been reconditioned to bring out her glory!

These pieces were done at the same time that I finished 2 dining room sets that took up the remainder of my month.  The weather has turned frigid here and it is hard to do much out in the workshop even with 2 little heaters going.  I'm hoping the weather turns soon as I have more custom work to get back to in 2013 and plenty of my own pieces for my house and to sell in line for work also.  It's a blessing to be so busy with something I love! 

Merry Christmas!  And here's to a wonderful New Year, full of Peace, Health, and Prosperity for ALL!  God Bless!
Deb

Listening to Tracy

Hello again from the long lost painter who can't seem to get her blog groove going.  Or maybe it's just keep it going...

Regardless, I'm back today with another recent finish to show you.  In addition to forgetting to blog I've also had a bad habit of forgetting to take photos of everything that I have completed.  I have worked on several custom pieces and sent them on home with nary a photo.  I've been finishing things to take down to NJ & Co. and forget to take photos.  So, last week I tracked down one of my items and managed to take some really horrible photos that I'm going to show you today.  Lucky you!

Isn't she gorgeous...or she would be if she didn't look rather blue in this photo.  Poor photography skills aside she is a pretty deep black.  You see, one of the other vendors that is part of the Co.  at NJ & Co. has been requesting some true black (not the chalk/milk paint versions).  She has told me several times that she could have sold this piece or that piece if only it were in black.  I've drug my feet for awhile because black can be so hard to work with (IMHO).  So I'm going
to go with her on this one and see if the folks who were seeking black furniture pieces come out to take this baby home.  You rock Tracy!

This buffet is so solid and the storage in this piece is AMAZING!  In addition to the dining room I can definitely see this piece scoring big time in the family room to house the games and DVD's  The top was an easy refinish with some new stain and antique oil finish.  I tried out Benjamin Moore's Advance Waterborne Interior Alkyd in Black on the body.  I will tell you that I've had mixed results with Alkyd type paints in the past.  Some don't level well, some don't cover well.  I've never been asked to, but I would recommend this paint whole heartedly.  It went on beautifully and I got great coverage with 2 coats.  The down side of the paint is the dry time.  It is recommended you wait at least 16 hours before gently sanding, wiping down and painting your 2nd coat.  I'm thinking this is what I'm going to be using on my kitchen cabinets when I finally get the nerve (and energy) to paint them.

The downside to black, as I've told Tracy, is that up close (or in photos) you can pick out the wear and tear a vintage piece of furniture will have on it. (though I will say I don't even see these creases in person).    But even those she's a bit time worn she wears her bling proudly!  Aren't those gorgeous knobs?! 

You can find this lovely piece for sale down at NJ & Co.  If Tracy is working tell her "THANKS"!  As a matter of fact NJ & Co. is having their monthly "Ladies Night Out" this Thursday evening.  They stay open until 8, serve wine and snacks, and most of the vendors are there to help and meet you!  You ALL are invited to come join us.  There are some wonderful new things all over the shop to fill out your shopping list!  I'll be there to help you load any furniture purchases, wink, wink.

Deck the Halls!
Deb
Linking to:
http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2012/12/poww-117.html
http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/12/be-inspired-features-and-link-party-48.html

Thanksgiving!

A wee break from painting and all the other things that have been keeping me busy to say "Happy Thanksgiving"!

I am thankful for:

My Lord and Savior and ALL that he provides.

My supportive and loving Family.  You all have no idea how much it means to have you here with me every step of the way on my journey.  I LOVE you all more than you can ever even imagine.

My Country. where I enjoy freedoms, rights, and privileges many others do not have.  May I never take it for granted.

My Friends who grant me unconditional acceptance and support and love and laughs.  I could not live without all those laughs girls!

My Business, each step has been a surprise and a great joy!  And meeting new people, clients, and other Bloggers has been the biggest bonus of all!

My Church, my Community, and our Schools...we are so very blessed!

And for Ellie, who told me last night, "I'm thankful to God for giving me the best water in the world to drink!"  I hope you will always remember to be truly grateful for all the graces in your life.

Blessings to you all as we celebrate another Thanksgiving!
Deb

MMS Milk Paints: Lucketts Green

You all know I am older than dirt right?!  Well, not dirt, but certainly older than most of the "up and comers" in the blog world.  I actually remember helping my Grandmother white wash an old building with milk paint back in the 60's or 70's.  I was familiar with the properties that make it both great, and kind of difficult to deal with.  It's probably what has drawn me to try and fall in love with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints, and CeCe Caldwell's Clay and Chalk Based Paints.  Now there are more new products to try!  Yeah, for all of us that are eager to experiment with all these options on our projects.  Miss Mustard Seed has developed her own line of colors in Milk Paint, Absolute Vintage (Sisters of the Wild West) have a new milk paint line also.  And those are just the bloggers that I know of out there with the milk paint lines.  If you google Milk Paint you are met with a plethora of options out there.  I tell you this because I am not a spokesperson for any developer or supplier, just a great consumer of all kinds of products old and new.  An equal opportunity consumer as I remind my long suffering spouse all the time!

All that to tell you that I finally got around to trying out MMS new line.  I was feeling green that day I guess because I ordered both Luckett's Green and Boxwood.  I've only got the Luckett's on anything at this point, and here's my experience.

 I LOVE this color.  I chose to work without the bonding agent, because I wanted to see how this whole chipping thing worked.  I happen to love old chippy furniture, though I admit to being scared enough of the whole lead paint issue to feel like I have to pass on some furniture out there OR be willing to strip the entire piece and start over.  This paint gives you that "been on there forever" look and feel without the danger involved.  Love that.

You can totally see where the paint just wouldn't adhere well, for whatever reason.  For me, this was exactly the look I wanted.  Chippy, but not totally devoid of paint.

Now, the mixing of the paint myself and the lumpiness is going to take some getting used to.  I wasn't ever completely sure that I had the right consistency, both thickness and lumpiness.  Such technical terms I use huh?!  I will say even the thinner batch (I eventually added more powder to it to pump it up a bit) adhered nicely. 

I used 2 coats of the paint, carefully used a putty knife to remove any flaky areas to get my chippy look, and sanded lightly to remove any rough areas.  I don't think you would need to sand at all, but I've gotten so used to that silky smooth finish after using Chalk Paint. 

I think the sanding gave me even more variations in the depth of color which I actually like.

Sorry about the photo quality, the sun was starting to drop a bit low.  This was so fun to play with.  I love having another product in my arsenal of paints.  I know the chippy pieces are not for everyone, but hey, if I like them, there's probably a few more folks out there that will like them too!  This piece is for sale if you are reading this and one of those people ;-)! 

Now, I'm off to complete a custom piece and another in the works piece.  I have several custom pieces in line to work on and I've got tons more that I have picked up to keep me busy and out of trouble for a while!

Have a great, great week!
Deb

Linking up to:
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/11/furniture-feature-friday-favorites-a-link-party-13/

NJ & Co. special event notice

Hi Local Omaha area friends!  Just thought you might want to check out this fun new NJ & Co. Special event.  Follow the below link for details.  There's still time to get into the shop and fill out your wish lists!  And don't forget to enter the facebook contest!

Go to:  http://conta.cc/Tcl15B and
http://www.facebook.com/#!/njandcompany
to see all the information  and "Like" NJ's page

As many of you know now I have a small furniture booth in the shop. I rotate items in and out quite regularly to keep it fresh looking.  So if you saw something in there a few weeks ago and it's gone now it may or may not have sold.  Always feel free to contact me to check on the status of a piece of the furniture! 

Coming up next:  A Reveal!  Finally, it feels like forever since I put something new and fresh up here for you to see.

Have a great weekend!
Go Big Red!
Deb

Still Kickin'!

Hello Friends!

Yep, I'm still kickin'.  After a bout of back issues that has taken me out of the workshop for a bit.  Though I do hope to have 1 reveal of something that I limped through (or almost through) last week.
Anyhoo, I did want to let all of my local followers know that I bit the bullet, so to speak, and put a lovely, lovely buffet up for sale at NJ & Co.

That top turned out soooooo nice.  It is a Drexel and in lovely condition, and I battled myself to let her go.  We'll see what happens.  I need to get some better photos of this gal, but I really didn't think I would be letting her go.

I've also used the whole sore back time to finish up some little projects that just didn't get done before PM.  There is always more on my list than I end up having time for. 

I made a TON of these little sweater pumpkins.  Mostly just because they are so much fun to do.  I don't have those TONS of pumpkins to show you photos of because I hauled them down to NJ & Co. too.  So I guess you'll just have to head down to the shop and, well, shop! :-)

 



I've been embellishing these little, and some big, babies with my collection of vintage buttons, and vintage jewelry.  Lots of bling, and sparkles, and neat old buttons and broaches. 

This is the one my Ellie ended up with (after I pried the other 6 out of her little hands).  She often covets whatever my latest project is.  Flattering, but sometimes hard to keep the merchandise moving in the right direction.

I also managed to complete 2 wool mat projects that I had started last winter and never finished.

This is a Jan Goos pattern, www.goosnest.com.  I have lots of her patterns I want to work on!

This is a Maggie Bonanami pattern.  Maggie is another talented lady with several books and patterns that call to me frequently!

The 2 primitive mats are mine, mine, mine.  But someday I'd love to be able to design some of my own to make up and sell at our Prairie Market.
Don't forget that NJ & Co. has their monthly evening Ladies Night Out shopping event with refreshments this Thursday, Nov. 1st from 4:30-8 P.M.  It's always fun!  And it would be a great time to see the selection we have at the store and fill out a wish list.  Then send your Mr. in for the Men's Holiday Shopping Event!  It's on Nov. 8th, from 5:30-8P.M.  with Guy type refreshments, gift wrapping, and lots of help in shopping for the Mrs.!! 

NJ & Co., that's where you can see the Buffet, and the desk, and the Omaha Subway Dresser, yep, there were 2, and all the TONS of pumpkins!

Have a great week!
Deb

Thank You!

Thank you!!! We had a fabulous time seeing old friends and meeting new ones!  It is beyond gratifying to hear your kind comments.  Like I said to some of you "it makes the sweat in July more tolerable".  We truly appreciate your support of our little group, and we hope to continue bringing you something new and exciting each time.  Feel free to let us know if there are certain items you'd like to see more of next time.

Here are the rest of the photos of the Prairie Market all set up.  For those of you who were only made it on Saturday you can see how packed it was on Friday when we opened. 

 

 

Each time we grow bigger and better!  Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Deb

Sneak Peeks!

These photos won't show it all.  I didn't even photograph the garage area and driveway full of furniture, but here's a sneak peek of a few of the items that are for sale this weekend!!  Enjoy!  I'll see you tomorrow.

Opening at 9:00 A.M.
Deb

2 Days from now

2 Days from now we'll be in the middle of an amazing time with old and new friends as they check out all of our hard work!  It's an amazing thing to watch grown women almost racing each other down the driveway to be the first inside.  We LOVE it!

So, I'm down to the very last items to price, just 2 more thank heavens, and getting the house ready to go.  I thought I'd share one more item with you before I get too busy, or too tired to think about a post.  (Though I might just post some staged photos for you on Thursday night.)

Here is a HUGE trestle/harvest type table that my family used for many years.  We moved, the table was too large for our new space and the rest is history.  Here it is in it's new paint just waiting for a new home.

The base is painted black, and the top, well lets just take a look.

I had every intention of just staining it, but I just wasn't happy with it.  So, I remembered a tutorial post by Shelley of The House of Smith's on creating a weathered barn wood look.  Following it loosely game me what I think is the perfect "new do" for this table.  What do you think?  Look closer.

Pretty cool how all that dry brushing gives you the texture and look of an aged piece of wood.
I liked it so much I said to my long suffering husband, "you know maybe we should just keep..." at which point he fixed me with a look and I slapped a sale tag on it.  You'd better come buy it before I change my mind...again!

It does not include chairs, we used 5 family antiques with it when we had it in the kitchen.  It does have this really long bench that can easily seat 3 to 4 people.  I think it would be super cool with an eclectic mix of vintage wood chairs! 

Hope to see you on Friday or Saturday!
Deb
Partying here:
http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2012/10/poww-110-furniture-link-party.html
http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/10/be-inspired-features-and-link-party-41.html
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/10/furniture-feature-friday-a-link-party-5/

Two Tone Dresser, Husker Chair, & PRAIRIE MARKET!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here on the ranch, ok cul-de-sac.  Final touches and less running of gratuitous errands for everyone in order to complete MOST of the pieces that I wanted to.  Whew!  Since I've been MIA for so long I'll give you more than 1 lookie-loo tonight. 

I just really thought I'd never purchase Annie Sloan's Empire Silk Chalk Paint.  How could I have been so wrong?!  It's beautiful, and yes, this is straight on with clear wax.  I've seen what the dark wax can do for it too.  Hmmm, I see more fun projects in my future with this paint.  I live in Nebraska, I am a Husker fan, this chair when I inherited it immediately brought to mind the Cornhuskers, and since I'd had so much fun with the Omaha subway dresser I had to try a twist on it.

There is an ASCP Old White base coat underneath, except where you see "Blackshirts".  That's what we call our defense, so of course there is a black base under that section.  It turned out well with it's key Nebraska football phrases.  And it sold almost before I could tag it!

Here's another version of the sorority dresser.  I had 3 of these, and I think I forgot to show you a photo of the first painted in Paris Gray before it was delivered to it's new owner.  Drat it!  I'll have to get one off of my phone.  This one is in the Versailles green that I think is such a soothing shade.  Perfect for a bedroom and this is one of those dressers that actually really holds clothing.  Big deep drawers made for sweaters and t-shirts and more, more, more...Bwah..ha.ha..ha....It could be the stain fumes are getting to me, sorry.

 

Finally, I think you'll like this one, it actually resided in my home for the last 18 years.  We purchase it from an antique dealer in Leavenworth, KS.  It's been through 6 moves since then and survived them!  

I thought the drawers were just too gorgeous to paint, but the sides had there little blemishes so I opted to go with the 2 tone effect.  Along the way the top had been replaced with a large oak piece that matched well enough that I didn't notice it for several years.  At any rate, I wanted to pretty it up a bit and added a stenciled pattern to it.  Fun for me to stencil again, it's been years and years really!

A true beauty, do you see the lions claws on the mirror harp?  Sigh.

Now, I'm off to get busy because THE PRAIRIE MARKET will be here in a few days!!!
Make sure you stop by and say hi if you are anywhere in the area.  I promise you won't regret it!!
9 to 5, October 12 & 13th

Have a fantastic fall week!
Deb
Linking up to these parties:
http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2012/10/poww-109-furniture-link-party.html
http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/10/be-inspired-features-and-link-party-40.html
http://staceyembracingchange.blogspot.com/2012/10/creative-inspirations-linky-party.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FXbDDH+%28Embracing+Change%29