What a Year!

Well my one year blog anniversary came & went without being noticed. I knew it was fast approaching but didn't realize I had let it slip by without mention. I thought I had started my blog in Jan. 2012, but I actually wrote my first post in the middle of Dec. 2011. So without further ado....

It has been one year (actually 1 yr. + 3 weeks) since I started this little blog. As I am looking back at the years projects I am amazed at the number of pieces we were able to do. Prepare to look at a lot of pictures! I'll begin with your favorites

MOST VIEWED:

# 1 Most viewed was Butter Yellow with a Hint of Chocolate.
What's so funny is that this post was the most viewed yet, I had to finally repaint the base of this piece (in cocoa) before it finally sold two months ago.

#2 Most viewed was Little French Vanity . This also happens to be one of my favorite graphics, I can't tell you how many times I've had to duplicate this look. 

#3 Most viewed was Re purposed Window.  This post was also the Most Featured.

 

#4 Most viewed was So Much Potential .  This table took me back to my artists painting days. Hard to believe this table still hasn't sold.

Most Featured:

 

#1 Most Featured was Re purposed Window.

 I had a lot of fun creating these windows & wrote a tutorial so you could create your own. Fun stuff!

#2 Most Featured was Color of the Week Duck Egg Blue.
The cabinet with the chicken wire was by far the most challenging of the year. When we bought it, it looked like a puzzle.

 
 #3 Most Featured was Corner Table Roadside Treasure.
This table was one of my favorites to paint. 

My Favorites:

  # 1 All time Favorite of mine is the Charming Chiffarobe.
I loved this piece even before I painted it. This one was so hard to part with but in the end I had to let her go before she was damaged beyond repair. 

#2 All time Favorite of mine is My Clock Face Obsession.
If you follow my blog you know about this little obsession of mine. I seem to repeatedly paint clock faces on table tops. 

  
 #3 All time Favorite of mine is Queen Anne Nesting Tables.
I love how these came out. These are also still available.

#4 All time Favorite of mine is Americana Bench
I purchased seven of these benches. Two were painted Americana style & five of them were painted French Country:

  

Best of all though was when I happened to catch a glimpse of my bench on TV during the "Sunday Morning" program.
 

 

Yep! That's my bench you see over Kid Rock's shoulder. 

You can read about that here.

I thought it would be fun to show you some "Never before seen" pieces that I never had a chance to post about thru the year. So here we go:

Never Before Seen:

Wow, as I'm scrolling down thru these pictures I realize just how busy we really were this past year. I would like to thank my Mom & my family for all their help, love & support. I truly would not be able to accomplish all this without them. I would also like to thank all the wonderful people who follow me & the people who leave such encouraging comments. It really helps to keep me focused & motivated.

I hope you have enjoyed a look at my year. I hope to keep up the pace & be able to share with you more posts of our work. As always, thanks for visiting & have a great week!  Dee

An Eventful Week

Hello everyone! I hope you all have recovered nicely from your long holiday weekend & are settling in for a busy Christmas Season. I know I am.

This week started out pretty eventful. On Sunday morning I'm sitting at my computer surfing thru the linky parties, enjoying my morning cup of coffee while my husband is in the living room watching the "CBS Sunday Morning" program. All of a sudden he starts shouting "That's your bench!  Dee your bench is on T.V.!!, Kid Rock has your bench!". I'm totally confused. I get up & go into the living room to see what he's yelling about & can't believe my eyes.  There's Kid Rock being interviewed in the Living Room of his home & over his shoulder in the background is my Flag bench.

you tube video

 I'm freaking out! My mind in saying "It has to be my bench, no one is going to duplicate it & off center the back like mine was when it was built. If they were going to duplicate it they would have corrected that." So I pull up my pictures of this bench & compare them to what I see on the T.V. & they look exactly the same!  A couple of days later I make a delivery to Sassy Fabrics in Grand Blanc, where this bench was sold & I ask Karen (who sold it) if she seen this program? She says no, but that is your bench. It was confirmed! She sold it to Kid Rocks interior designer. She explained that celebrates were very private & she couldn't tell me who bought it when it sold. Woo Hoo!!  You see this bench at the top of my blog.

 So I am already on cloud nine when on Monday I check out The Graphics Fairy & there, being featured, is my "Menu" Dry Erase Board I posted about a couple of weeks ago.  I made it out of a Cabinet door, you can read about it here.  Everyone really seemed to love it because it was featured not one, not two but THREE times!! How awesome is that!? So I have some serious Thanking to do.

First, let me thank Karen at  The Graphics Fairy. She shares the most amazing graphics with us everyday. This is my go to graphic source.      

  

Secondly, let me thank Claire at The Rustic Pig. She has done some beautiful windows herself. 

And Thirdly, let me thank Karen at Redoux. She does some awesome re purposed pieces.

I think that makes for a very Eventful Week don'tcha think? I hope you all have a pleasant weekend & thanks for stopping by.  Dee

Repurposed window

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you all had a great week & are looking forward to an even better weekend. I know I am. We are having Deer Widows Ladies Night at Collette's Vintage & Antique Mall tomorrow where I have my booth.  I have been super busy getting all stocked up for this event.

A few weeks ago I found a couple of nice roadside treasures in my neighborhood. Four cabinet doors, two were all wood & two had glass panes. I decided to start with the glass doors first. Here is what I started with:

 After a good scrubbing & scraping, I gave it a coat of Black, followed by a coat of Old White. Then I did a wet sand (with a scrubby sponge) & rubbed on a couple of coats of clear wax. Now it was time to decide exactly what to do with this little treasure. There are a 101 things you can do with an old window, just look on Pinterest if you need some inspiration.

I knew I wanted to do one of those cool "Menu" boards, so I went to my favorite graphic site, Graphics Fairy. I printed it out in the Mirror image in the right size & taped it to the front side, turned it over & painted it in with a paint pen.

Graphic taped on the front side.

Here is a picture of the back side.

Then I painted in the Graphic with a paint pen. After the paint was completely dry I took it outside to do the next step.

Frosted Glass Spray Paint. I sprayed right over the graphic on the back side

 of the window.  I gave it four coats, just enough to give it that nice frosted look.  Give it a good 30 min. between coats.

Here it is after about two coats.

 You can see how opaque it gets the more coats you apply.

I let it dry overnight, then put the original knob back on. I love how you are able to see the wall color thru the Frosted glass. Now I have a very cool Dry Erase Board. All the artwork is on the back side so you are able to write on the front side & just wipe it clean.

I always wanted to use this graphic. I just love how it turned out.

Sold

I attached a Black Dry Erase Marker on the side with Velcro after I took this picture.  I have one more door just like this one, I think I'll try a different color on that one.

Here is another window I painted using the same Frosted paint.

Table is available at Collette's Antique Mall in Burton, MI

This window sold quickly, but I have another one at Sassy Fabrics (V Trading) in Grand Blanc, MI. Now I need to put some finishing touches on a couple of things for tomorrows sale. Wish me luck!

Have you done a cool window repurpose lately? I'd love to hear about it. Have a great weekend everyone & Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  Dee