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

Obsessed with Pillows!

I've seen sweater pillows floating around out there on blogland, so cool.  When I saw Kate's at Centsational Girl I knew that I had to make some also.  We bought a new sofa last month and the pillows it came with were hideous, huge, and uncomfortable.  I thought for a nice little winter touch I'd make some sweater pillows.  In theory it will buy me some time until Spring/Summer when I will buy or make something for the rest of the year.  Don't be totally surprised if you still find these sweaters decorating my sofa in July.  Just keepin' it real.

And you know how this goes right?  If you buy a sweater at GW to make a pillow and it turns out kinda cute then you must go back to GW and buy another sweater.........

You knew this was coming right?   I.Can't.Seem.To.Stop.Making.Pillows...  These are the winter white collection.  There will be other themed collections joining these.  How many pillows are too many in a room??  I suppose I'll weed them out and rotate them around to some other spaces too.

I do believe this one is my favorite so far.  Want to see those flowers up close?

I used wool for all of my appliques on this set of pillows.  The flowers are 1/4 inch strips left over from one of my wool rug hooking projects just rolled up and tacked down on the sweater. Some rughookers refer to them as "wooly worms".   I left the sweaters zipper intact.  I guess so I can get in there to retrieve the form if I get tired of massive amounts of sweaters on my sofa.

This pillow is pretty plain and simple.  I sewed a single vintage button on the other side to give it a tuft and then pinned a vintage broach on this side.

Another felted/dyed wool applique.  I just machine stitched around them. A very simple design that will remind me that spring is just around the corner.  ha! 

The pear is another wool applique piece.  For some reason I just love the look of pears right now.  Maybe it's that particular shad of green.  Yummy.

This sweater had a nice bronze zipper so I found my Great Grandmother's Rose Broach and thought I'd use it to give the pillow just a simple little statement. 

There are more pillows, believe me, more in the works and some other practice pieces out of sight.  I just thought I'd show you my take on the sweater pillows.

Hope your day is full of bright sunshine!

Deb

Linking to:

http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/01/be-inspired-link-party-1.htmlhttp://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2012/01/wow-us-wednesdays-48.html

Once in a Blue Moon

Once in a Blue Moon I paint a piece that is just for us.  I've taken some time over the holidays to devote to some projects for our house.  I'm not finished here by any stretch of the imagination, but it feels good to knock out a couple of things I've wanted to do for such a long time.  This buffet piece is one that I searched very patiently for at all of my regular haunts and on Craig's List.  It actually made me nervous when I finally found it while I waited for the owner to contact me, because I really, really didn't want to lose out on this piece.  It was perfect for my space, and a beautiful style.  After some debating I pulled out my favorite Annie Sloan chalk paint, Duck Egg, and went to town in between decorating for Christmas and finishing the shopping.  Here is the result.

I do so love that duck egg blue.  Isn't the harware pretty?  I reused it because frankly I don't think I could have found anything more perfect for this.  I opted to highlight a few features with Old White.

She sits behind my new sofa.  I'd love to show you the full room, but it's not actually finished yet.  The story of my life..."almost done".

I actually pulled out my Annie Sloan dark wax and felt really good about the results.  I don't know why that dark wax intimidates me so!

This was just the storage I needed for this space, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  But she's not too lonely, oh no, I'm also working on another buffet piece that will sit in our formal dining area that is currently being used as a piano room/mud room/library space.  Hope to show it soon, just the buffet though, cause that room isn't finished yet either..."almost done". 

Here's my little Jack Frost, waiting to see if we'll actually have any snow this year.  Though after a 60 degree day I should probably shove him in a closet so as not to jinx us! 

Linking up to: 
http://redoux.blogspot.com/2012/01/friday-link-up-party-37-and-les.html
http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/01/be-inspired-link-party-1.html
http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2012/01/piece-of-work-wednesday-furniture-link_10.html
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/01/furniture-feature-friday-link-party-3/
Have a great end of the week everyone!
Deb

Get Your Cowgirl On!

I've really said very little about my children here on my blog.  In great part because I originally started the blog to be just a way to communicate my new part time hobby turned part time business of restyling and upcycling furniture and other vintage finds.  But I'm beginning to feel that the blog is a continually evolving, living breathing extension of me.  So, I'm going to start sharing a little bit more of the living, breathing me!  Are you with me?  So, let's start with the fact that I'm married to a really, really great guy, Dennis!  Truly the best husband ever!  I'm also the Mom to three wonderful, beautiful, inside and out, girls!  I'm a blessed woman.  I've been slowly, almost sloth speed, working my way through decorating the girl's rooms.  Two years ago we sold our house on the golf course, because I tired of sending my children out to play in the backyard having to wear their bike helmets to avoid dropping, poorly hit golf balls.  We now live in a quiet older neighborhood on an acre...heaven on earth.

I'll feature the other girl's rooms sometime soon because they need a little more picking up of all the teenage accessories cleaning and tweaking.  However, I'd like to show you my 6 year old's newly completed room!

Much of this decor is a holdover from her Nursery days, and yee haw it's a cowgirl theme for Ellarie!

When we moved to this house I used the exact same paint and virtually set the room up to be identical to the old house.  I wanted our transition to be smooth and her surroundings to be comforting.  Didn't happen.  To this day whenever we drive down the street near our old house (which can't be avoided since it is on the way to her school) she never fails to tell me how much she loved the old house.  Sigh.
A friend stumbled across some cowgirl fabric that was identical to some I had been looking at online and I snagged up all the yardage I could.  The coordinating bandanna fabric was hung to resemble a giant bandanna over the window.  The corner posts we tied it to are actually branded with both of my grandparents old branding irons that my parents now have.  Ellarie got a little bling with a new chandelier that adds so much more light and a great deal of sophistication that should grow with her.  If not, I'm dibbsing it for me!  Doesn't her name look cool swirled out in the rope?

Here's Ellie's nursery cowgirl quilt.  I have another quilt with the cowgirl fabrics that will eventually sit at the foot of her bed.  It just needs quilted...and bound...I have an issue with completing quilts it seems.

The pillows were fun to make.  She loves the fringed horse pillow.  I love the ruffles and the faux tooled leather pillows. 

The boot lamp was something I had always wanted to do.  Luckily another friend spotted these pink cuties at a resale store and picked them up for me.  I just used plaster to weight the boots and hold my metal tubing in place. A basic light kit was all it took.  I covered the metal rod with more of the sisal rope, screwed it all to a flat base, covered the lampshade with the cowgirl fabric and fringe, and made it a little bandanna of it's own. Voila!  Cute little light.

This dresser, Dolly, so named because that wood piece on the bottom has always reminded me of the placket on a western shirt, was just moved in since it saved us some floor space.  Truth be told, she's also called Dolly because of her buxom bow front voluptuous curves on the bottom.  The name just stuck.  I'm beyond delighted she'll be staying with us.

This is the wall opposite the bed.  Ellarie has a bookshelf jammed full of good reads, and a nice little play trunk for some of her favorite stuffed friends.  The picket fence is an idea I stole borrowed from my friend Suzanne.  I think she said she saw it in a Better Homes and Gardens publication.  But it is a fantastic place for all of Ellie's many creations.  She is a very, very prolific artist and it was getting way out of control before the picket fence.

To complete the tour around her room I'll show you the cute little hook set I found at Target 3 or 4 years ago.  Above it hangs the primitive wool hooked rug "Don't Fence Me In".  Yes, I know it looks like the horse is standing on the fence.  Maybe he is.  Or maybe it's just a primitive rendition of a horse, fence and a tree.  One never knows with art, right?

So there is one of my non-furniture projects that has been keeping me busy.  As I always tell my husband, "it's cheaper than therapy".  And so much, much, more fun!

Linking up to: 
http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2012/01/wow-us-wednesdays-47.html
Hope your 2012 is off to a fantastic start!  I can't wait to see how it all unfolds!
Deb