The Cream of the Crop 2013

Happy New Year!  I hope your Holidays were everything you hoped for.  Mine were perfectly enjoyable.  Now that we have them behind us it is that time of year again, time to look back.

Drum roll please......

Top three most viewed:

First:  The Charak Table was the most viewed & the most comments.  Oddly enough, we chose not to paint it.

Second most viewed:  Vintage Windows.  This is also one of my personal favorites.

Third most viewed: My Wedding Chairs. This also had the most features.

MY PERSONAL FAVS!

1.

This antique phone table was so fun to do.  I love the color & the graphic was just perfect.  

2.

My French Laundry vintage ironing board.  I had a new stencil to play with & used a technique I learned years ago when I did Faux Finishing.

3.

This Sweet Waterfall Vanity turned out beautiful.  The vanity & the mirror were both roadside treasures, but what was so surprising was that I found them separately but in the same week. They went together perfectly. Love it when that happens.

4.

The Cornbread Yellow Cabinet was a team effort.  Loved the Chickadees.

5.

This Shabby Lamp Makeover was a challenge but so worth it.

6.

Chippy Blue Dresser was another project we chose not to paint. We loved the color so we just waxed it.

7.

The Medallion coffee table.  I used one of my all time favorite stencils on this.
8.

Gate leg table.  This turned out amazing! It belongs to my vendor sister, Lena.  It's for sale in her booth now, if your interested.

9.

The Serpentine Dresser.  I just realized I have not posted about this beauty.  I will have to do that in the near future because it's worth talking about. 

10.

My Shabby Fireplace is a keeper.  Another roadside treasure!  I plan on holding on to this one a little longer. It looks so nice in my booth as a prop.

It's been an exciting year.  We started teaching paint classes & brought a chalk paint line into our booth at Collette's Vintage & Antique Mall.

This is an amazing paint & very user friendly, it's called The Vintage Farmhouse Distressing Paint.
We also started a Facebook page so you can see what we're up to between posts.  For my birthday my Mom gave me a new camera, so my New Year's resolution is to make the time to take better pictures. 

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this stroll thru my year. I want to thank you all for your kind words, inspiration & encouragement.  
Thanks for visiting me.  I hope you all have a happy, healthy & prosperous year ahead.  Dee

A Custom Window

Has it really been almost a month since I last posted anything?  Where has an entire month gone!?  Christmas is just five days away,  Gulp....

My only excuse is I've been very busy, you know how it is this time of the year.  I had a few custom jobs to do & that's what I want to share with you today.  

My sister called me a few weeks ago & wanted to know if I had any ideas or anything special she could give for a Christmas gift to one of her clients.  We discussed a few ideas & decided on a window.  I had several to choose from but they were all to big.  The one that would work perfectly was already painted. This is what it looked like before I started:

It's actually an old cabinet door.  It was in my booth all summer & I had pulled it out to re-paint it anyway.  It's the first time I have stripped any of my graphics & I have to say it was painful to do.

After I scrapped the graphic off & sanded the coral paint I wiped it all down & started over.

I painted the wood black first, then painted two coats of white.  Before I painted on the white I rubbed a little Vaseline on the edges, so it would distress nice & chippy.

Next it was time for the graphic.  You can read my tutorial on how I put the graphics on the glass here.  It's a tedious process but so worth it.

This was a quote the client had on a wall in their home already, but they are moving & my sister thought they would love to have it in their new home.  

Now it was time to make the special gift wrap.  I sewed a "slip cover" for it out of drop cloth.  I tore it so it would have frayed edges.  I have to admit, I am not a seamstress.  Simply sewing up the two sides took me forever!!  I am sewing machine illiterate.

Once I finally had the sides sewn up I added the graphics.

Made the matching ribbon, hand stamped & so perfectly shabby...

All wrapped up....

And here it is in it's new home.  They loved it.  I think I like this version better too.

 Thanks for stopping by & don't forget to check us out on Facebook. I hope everyone has a safe & very Merry Christmas. 

Shabby Fireplace

Can it really be Turkey week already?  I can't believe how quick it got here.  

It'll be Christmas in the blink of an eye. Now that I've totally freaked us all out, I want to show you what I did with another Roadside Treasure.

I know, I know... the Roadside Treasure fairy has been really good to me lately.

During one of our delivery days we passed this small fireplace someone had set out to the curb. 

It is such a cute petite size. It looked like it had been one of those electric fireplaces that you plug in.
I thought it would be a perfect display in my booth.
I had an old antique four pane window that worked perfectly for a back.

I spray painted Krylon's Mirror paint on the glass & screwed the window to the back side after painting the whole thing shabby white.

How cute is that?

I added some Birch log candle holders to the inside & put it in our booth.

It's so pretty when the tea lights are flickering & reflecting off the mirrored window.

If I had a bigger house, this would have stayed with me.

Here are some pictures of a few Christmas items I've got in my booth at Collette's Vintage Mall. 

Cute Chicken wire burlap Christmas trees.  I am displaying some ornaments I made with Plaster.

Burlap Bird on a Wire.....

I just love the pop of red sprinkled around the booth.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. 
Thank you so much for stopping by, don't forget to check us out on Facebook for some more inspiration.
Have a great day!  Dee

Shabby Lamp Makeover

During one of our after dinner walks this summer my husband & I noticed one of our neighbors putting a floor lamp out to the road.  Well you know me,  these are my favorite finds.  I was told it still works, they just didn't need it anymore.  I let him know we would gladly take it off his hands.  He was happy to oblige, he always thought it had potential.  I couldn't agree more. 

Here is a picture of it before:

I knew just what I wanted to do :)

I had seen some french paper online that was waiting for the perfect project for an excuse to order it. 

This paper is translucent & would make a perfect lamp shade.  I found it on Etsy, here is the link if you want to check it out for yourself.  I know, the wheels are just spinning aren't they?

I painted the lamp shabby white & stripped the wicker off the lamp shade frame.  Then I waited patiently for the paper to arrive.

I was NOT disappointed!  This paper is lovely.....

I saved the panels of wicker to use for a pattern.

Whew!  With only one roll, I had just enough for this shade.  I cut each panel out, making sure I would have enough to overlap the edges. I used Modge Podge to glue the new panels to the frame. 

Here it is all put back together......

I just love the end result....

It's so pretty when you turn it on. These pictures just don't do it justice.

I even tried taking a picture outside to see if I could get better lighting.

Here it is in my booth, all dolled up for the Holidays.

Well, now I can scratch that one off my "Dreaming about doing" list.  What would you do with this beautiful paper? I would love to hear your ideas.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Check us out on Facebook to see what we're up to.  Enjoy your day,  Dee

Cornbread Yellow Cabinet

A couple of weeks ago I went to our local flea market at Collette's Antique Mall,  I found a couple of nice things on that beautiful day.  The captain's desk I showed you last week, you can see it here.  I also bought this cute little cabinet.

It's child size & had seen better days.   It looked like it had been used as a display at some point,  there was a sign still stuck to it. There was also a drawer missing.

We had envisioned using chicken wire somehow inside the drawer opening but, that proved to be impossible.  We went with the easy fix, a false drawer front.  So much easier & in the end looked so much better.....

This is what we came up with. We painted it with  "The Vintage Farmhouse" chalk paint in "Cornbread" Yellow.  Then to break it up we added white to the false front & top.  It still needed a little something, so I added a couple of sweet Chickadee's on a Wire.

Here's a close up:

Soooooooo Cute!

Some little girl will be in Shabby Chic heaven with this.  I could even see it in a Bathroom or Entry way.

Here it is in our Booth:

Sorry for the fuzzy picture.  I had to take it with my phone & had a little trouble keeping a steady hand.  It gives you a better idea of the scale of this cabinet. It's small but so cute.  I love the pop of color it added to the booth.

Now we are working on Holiday pieces.  It won't be long before we are decorating the booth for Christmas. YIKES!!!!

Now that I've scared the dickens out of you, make sure you check us out on Facebook.  Thanks for stopping by.  Dee

Captain's Desk

It's been a beautiful warm fall, until 2 hours ago.  This morning it was almost balmy, now it's cold, rainy & blowing like the dickens.  Well, that's typical of Michigan, wait 5 minutes & the weather will change.  Luckily I have worked very hard these last couple of weeks on getting my garage cleaned out so I can park in there again.  That is a huge deal here in the north.

Last weekend was one of those perfectly perfect warm fall weekends. The kind you dream of when you live in the north & so much of your day depends on the temps & sunshine.  We went to the best flea market in our area, Collette's Vintage & Antique Mall, & I scored yet again. 

I bought the most adorable Captain's Desk.

 Have you ever seen a desk like this?  It has four drawers on both sides & the top lifts up for more storage.  It's petite so it can go anywhere.  I just had so much potential.

I decided to paint it "Garden Gate" Green. It's one of the colors in my new chalk paint line from The Vintage Farmhouse.  I painted the drawers in "Dairy Cream".  Then it sat for a couple of days, I had a graphic block.  Ever get that?  I was trying to think of the "Blow your mind" kind of graphic & it just wasn't happening.  Sometimes you just have to go with the familiar.  

This is what I ended up with:

My all time favorite French script stencil.

I know you are all probably getting bored with this one, but I love it!

I plastered it all over this baby.  The top, the sides.....

And the front.  So pretty....

I paired it with a petite chair painted in the same cream.

Here it is in my booth.  You can see the chair peeking out from behind the desk.  I just love how much storage you get with a desk like this. The petite size with that kind of storage is a perfect combination.

Stay tuned, I will be posting about that cute yellow cabinet next!  Check us out on Facebook to see what we're up to.  Love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by,  Dee