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

So Much Potential

Hello everyone, I hope you are all happily exhausted from painting/crafting like I am right now. I am trying to get some autumn smalls done for my booth. I think they take as much time as a full size piece of furniture. Plus I am flying solo for a little while. Although the hubby did take pity on me  help me out & painted a chair for me & waxed a few pieces ,as I was getting to grumpy to "Keep Calm & Carry On!".

A couple of weeks ago we were returning home from our weekly delivery & stumbled upon a roadside treasure. I don't know about you, but when my Mom & I travel we never take the same route there as we do home.  You never know what kind of treasures are waiting to be saved on the ride home. This particular day we found a few treasures.  Here is one of them:

It is big & solid wood which mean it's heavy. I loved the big top on it. It just had so much potential. I knew once I had it painted, I would have a nice large space for a very cool graphic. We painted it Old White, now I had a blank canvas.

I went to my favorite site for graphics, The Graphics Fairy. I have used this  graphic a few times on cushion covers for chairs. I love vintage wine graphics (maybe because I love wine) & this time I wanted to give it a punch of color.   Here is the graphic:



Before wax. 

 

Close up of the grapes.



 Using my overhead projector, I painted in the words & the outline of the grapes first with a black paint pen. I wanted the grapes to look like a watercolor painting so I took my time painting them in. I have painted grapes several times before, so this was like riding a bike. It felt good to do some actual artistic work again.



I used Paris Grey for the "Specialite" & craft paint for the grapes. After getting the graphic painted on, I applied a coat of ASCP clear wax, then I did a generous coat of dark wax. I just love the way the dark wax added so much depth.  It just adds the vintage look I was going for.

 

After wax.



Here is a picture of the whole table. 

    

 

I just love the way this one came out.  It has that cottage shabby chic look with a french twist.  



Available at Sassy Fabrics in Grand Blanc, MI



So functional with the large drawer & the storage underneath.  Perfect for a large family room or a Great Room.  Can you believe what people throw out?  I'm amazed every week. 

Have you had any roadside treasures lately, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks for visiting & have a great weekend!  Dee