Still Playing Catch Up

This past weekend, I worked on a TV cart and a cedar chest.  Neither of them are finished.  So, I thought I would add pix of some of my latest finds.

I found these at a yardsale.  I had not planned to stop, but I saw these at the edge of the street.  The legs are metal and look like they are in good shape, so I think I will leave them as is.  I plan to cover at least on of  them in a deep purple velvet that I have on hand.  I can't decide if I should cover both the same or do the other in a different fabric. 

I found this at a thrift shop in Nashville.  It would be pretty with some vines growing on it, but I can't figure out how to get it in the ground. 

I also got this in Nashville.  Although I got it for the booth, I'm thinking about keeping it.  I don't know why, but frames are my weakness.

These are at my front steps.

 

In closing, today is my mother's birthday.  She would have been 100 today!  She was the epitomy of a Southern Belle.  Happy Birthday to the prettiest girl in Monroe County.

WELL SHOOT!!

I had hoped that I would be able to reveal my craftroom, but I'm still putting finishing touches on it.  My daughter's friend, Leila, helped me SO much to get things organized.  I'm still moving some things around.  I also have to build 2 drawers that go in the cabinet.  I DO, however, have the pegboard up!!  That was NO easy task.  Of course, it seems that ANY task I take own SHOULD be simple and then it isn't.  When I was all ready to put the pegboard up, I found out that I first had to put up furring strips to attach it to.  This keeps the pegboard from being flat against the wall, thus allowing room for the pegs to hook in.  The furring took longer than I anticipated.  Again, what should have been simple...

Since I can't show the craftroom yet, I've loaded some pix of other things that I've been doing.

This is a letter box, I guess.  I found it at the thrift store.  It was in 2 pieces.  I guess that is why the tape is on it.  I found some screws in my stash and put it back together.

This is how it looks all put together.  I hung it in the craftroom.  I still need to prime and paint it.  Oh look!  You get a sneak peek at the craftroom!!

This is a mirror I got a few years ago when I lived in a house that was more of a Victorian in style.  When I moved into my craftsman bungalow, I didn't really have anywhere to put it, so my daughter used it at her house for awhile.  When I got it back, I decided to paint it a fun color and put it in the booth.  Once I finished it, I realized that I wanted to keep it for my study.  The study is my next big project, as soon as I finish the craftroom.  The walls are lime green and I'm going to use pink with a small pop of purple.  Anyway, below is the finished product. 

Up close

Hanging in the study

I have several booth projects going on, as well as a baby afghan that I'm crocheting.  Hopefully I'll get the booth foofed this week!!  Until next time!!



ENOUGH, ALREADY!!!!

I've spent so much time this entire year on projects for the booth, that my house is SADLY lacking.  It is a total WRECK!!!  I have several booth projects that need to be finished, but I REFUSE!  I am going to devote all my time and energy on my home. 

The first home project is to re-do and organize my craftroom.  I have been boxing things up and taking them to the study so I can bring in the cabinet that I bought to put in the craftroom.  I decided to wait until I get it inside before I put the top on it to make it lighter.  Last night my daughter and her friend helped me to get it inside. I was a little worried because there were several corners to turn to get it to the back of the house.  Now that it is in, I'm going to put the plywood on top and then tile it.  Yep, I said tile it.  No, I've never done that before.  But I have several tutorials on it and I feel confident that I can do it (which is probably my FIRST mistake!).  I'm going to build a shelf inside it and then I need to build 2 drawers.  I have a neat idea for drawer pulls that I'll share later.

After I get my craftroom finished, I plan to put bookshelves in my study.  I had originally built some bookshelves in a former house, but this time I'm taking the easy and cheap economical way out.  I found 2 tall bookshelves at an estate sale. Well, actually, I found one.  When I went back to load it up, I found the other one AFTER the poor man had helped me load and tie it down.  Anyway, I got home with both of them.  I didn't have anyone to help me unload them, so I said a BIG prayer and God helped me get them out and on the front porch.  They are made of particle board and the bottoms have gotten wet.  I've got to figure out how to handle that.  In the meantime, I found another bookcase that I'm going to get next week.  That should be enough for one wall of the study.  Then all I'll need is 2 more for the other wall.  It's not easy to find those 7 "footers"  Most of them are 5 or 6 feet.  I also have an old iron bed that I am going to make into a daybed to put in the study.  I MIGHT even have an idea for a window seat.  More to come on that.

When those 2 rooms are finished, then I'm going to do some much needed sewing that I have put off because, once again, I've been working on projects for the booth.  I want to make some little curtains for my kitchen and a valance for my bedroom. 

You know, I have tried and tried, but for the life of me, I can't remember what I did before I started junkin and selling.  Really!  I must have done SOMETHING with my time, but I can't remember what it was!! It looks as though I just don't care about my house at all!  This couldn't be further from the truth. I have had the nesting instinct from a very young age.  I love my home and decorating it.  I just haven't done anything in a long time. 

So anyway, here are some pix of the latest projects that I finished and put in the booth.

This is a "before" picture of a little footstool before I recovered it.

And this is after getting recovered in vintage chenille.

This used to be a cabinet door.  Now, it's a message board.

The following pix are some of the booth that I took on Sunday afternoon after I finished fluffing.

 

I'm BAAAACK!!!

I fell into a deep funk back in the Spring. Not sure what happened, but I sort of lost interest in everything. Nothing seemed to sell at the booth, so I stopped working on projects. Well, July was a good month and I'm back to working on projects again. Sweet, sweet Jamie Williams, who is an artist and professional photogapher, did some rearranging and merchandising in the booth and after that, stuff was just FLYING out the door!! My main focus for the next month or so is to get my craftroom in order. My daughter's friend is going to help me do that. I bought a kitchen base cabinet from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. I'm going to put that in to have, not only storage, but a good work surface. It came without doors, so I'm going to just put "curtains" in place of the doors. It has one working drawer and 2 panels like you see in front of a sink. I'm going to make drawers and then attach the panel. I went to a couple of cabinet makers to see how much it would cost to have one more panel made. The first place I went wanted $65 and the next place wanted $50. I can't make one, because it would require a router, which I don't have. After I get the craftroom done, then I want to tackle my study. I wanted to build bookshelves in there, but I've decided to just buy ready made bookcases. I will paint them, attach them to the wall and save some money (as well as blood, sweat and tears). It's difficult to find ready made that are tall enough (7 feet), but I did find 2 last week. I'll just keep shopping Craigslist, yard sales and estate sales until I find what I need. Also, I'm trying to not get anything new to work on. Right now, I have 8 things to work on and I intend to finish those before I drag anything else in. I also have SEVERAL old windows that I have a project planned for. It has been SO difficult to not go to estate sales, yard sales and thriftstores!! I mean REALLY difficult!! Oh well, below are the chairs that I got MONTHS ago. I finally finished them. One of them sold in 3 days!! I also finished some tables, 2 of which sold in about the same time!       OK, that's all for now.   I've got to work on  projects for the Anniversary sale at the booth.  I have a bench, blanket chest, & TV stand.  I have finished a footstool and another vanity chair.

draft

THE BIG REVEAL

I have been working on THE BEDROOM SUITE since January.  Because of the cold weather, I wasn't able to paint outside much.  I brought the first piece inside and that 's when I found out that I shouldn't be painting inside, at night.  My eyes are just too old to do that anymore.  That meant that I could only paint on weekends.  Anyway, on Sunday, I put it all in the booth at Urban Suburban.  SO glad to get it finished. 

First I'm going to show the BEFORE pictures

This is the headboard.  The mirror is not the one that goes with the suite.

One of the nightstands

The dresser

The nightstands and headboard after

dresser and mirror after

Close up of the dresser after



 As I said before, it is SO good to have all of this finished.  Hopefully it will sell.

Until next time,

Vicki

Everything Old Is New Again

I've seen a lot of blogs with framed skeleton keys.  I've even seen them in catalogues.  I want to share mine with you.

What do you think? 

The thing about this is that it's over 35 years old.  The frame has been painted about 3 times. I think it started out as an avocado green.  I didn't know anything about glue guns back then, so I used florist's wire to hold them on.  The background is burlap.  I need to straighten them up and repaint the frame.

So, here it is.  If you've made one, hang on to it.  It will always be in style.

Vicki

OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN!!

OK, this is how it happened.  Yesterday, I woke up to a leak in my kitchen.  We had torrential rains Tuesday night, as well as yesterday.  I left work at lunch to meet with a contractor.  He was going to look at it and give me an estimate.  When I was almost home, he called and said that he was having car trouble.  We were going to meet on Saturday.  As I was turning around to go back to the office, I passed by one of my favorite thrift stores.  Now, I have not been there since around November.  I have really shown restraint.  But...  Below is what I found.  They were stinking cheap!

Isn't this adorable?  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it, yet.

But I know EXACTLY what I'm going to do

 with this one!!  It's VERY shiny, so I'll have to sand it

and then prime it before painting.

So, between the tables, and the chairs and the bedroom suite, I should have PLENTY to keep me busy this week-end and the next and the next and the ...

Vicki

I HAVE NO WILL POWER WHEN IT COMES TO JUNKIN!!!

Well, so much for not getting anything new.  I ended up buying 3 little tables from Craigslist the same night I made my last post.  I got a good deal and they are SO cute and have SO much potential and... OK, so I'm trying to convince myself.  I'm feeling guilty.  Without further ado, here they are.

I think this may be my favorite.

Or is this my favorite?

 This one has a little repair work needed, but still good clean lines.

Well, those are my new purchases.  It's suppose to rain ALL day tomorrow.  That means I will have to bring stuff inside to paint.  I don't really like to do that.  This is what happened the last time I was painting inside.

This is almost a whole gallon of black paint.  Since it was latex, I decided NOT to try and clean it up.  I just let it dry for about a week, then I just peeled it up.  Easy Peasy.  And it left no tell tale signs. 

Have a wonderful weekend, no matter what the weather is where you live.  Do something creative.

Vicki

I'M SUFFERING FROM JUNKIN WITHDRAWAL

Since the first of the year I have declared a moratorium on junkin.  OK, I know I went to that one estate sale, but that has been it.  Today, at lunch, with my purse on my shoulder, I walked out the door to go to a little thrift store close to my house.  When I got down to the lobby of my building, I realized that I just could NOT do it.  I simply have too many projects to complete before I can bring anything else home.  It's as though the warmer weather has given me Spring Junkin Fever.  Oh well, maybe by the time I get my big project completed, the yard sales will start and I will feel that I can go shopping.  What is my big project?  The 5 piece French Provincial bedroom suite that I'm working on. 

Since I don't have any finished projects to show, I'll post some pix of my house.  Most of them are a couple of years old, but it hasn't changed too much.

I'm waiting to have my TV installed over the mantle.  My daughter got it for me for Christmas.  The mirror that is there now has been moved to another wall.

I had this chair reupholstered a few years ago. I belonged to my parents.  It's in navy, red and gold.

My "coffee table."  Someone gave me 4 or 5 old suitcases.  I used 2 of them to make the base.  Someone in my neighborhood was getting rid of the glass top, because their toddler was starting to walk and it had sharp corners.  I just drove over a few blocks and the guy loaded it into my car. 

I absolutely LOVE my halltree.  It belonged to my aunt.  See the purses hanging on the left?  She made each one from scratch.  She was born in 1881.  I have 2 beaded evening bags sitting on the marble part with evening gloves on top.  The umbrella is very old, too.  My brother-in-law found it in an apartment building he owned and gave it to my mother.   See the pictures on the left?  Those are pictures of Tarrytown, NY, which is one of my favorite places on earth.  I decided to take them down and move them. 

 I put these there in place of the 4 small pictures.  I absolutely LOVE frames!!!   

That's all for now!

Vicki

So Tired and Not Much to Show For It

I did a LOT of work this weekend, but it doesn't show on this post.  I'm working on a French Provincial bedroom suite.  It's a headboard, dresser, mirror and 2 night stands.  This weekend, I finished the second nightstand and primed the headboard.  I don't want to post the pictures until the whole thing is finished.

I did get 2 little wooden necklace holders primed, painted and distressed.  I've had both of these for a while.  I got each one at a thrift store.  I have had a mirror in my booth for 6 months that just wasn't selling.  The frame looks like bamboo, but it's actually some sort of plastic.  I don't know WHY it is so heavy if the frame is plastic!!  Anyway, I brought it home, got some plastic paint and sprayed it black.  If it doesn't sell in a month or 2, I'll bring it back home and make it into a message board.

Here is the pink necklace holder.

And the white one.

 This is a wicker screen that my daughter got for me several years ago. 
I just don't have room for it anymore, so I took it to the booth yesterday.

This is the before picture of the mirror.

This is it in black.  Not a very good picture, but you get the idea.

 

Maybe next weekend I'll have more to show.  The good thing is, daylight savings time will start in a couple of weeks.  At least it will still be daylight when I get home.  I have discovered that I can't paint at night, in the house.  I did that with the first nightstand that goes with the bedroom suite.  When I got it out in the daylight later that week, it looked like a drunken monkey had painted it!!

 

Vicki

 

 

So Much to Learn!!

I was having some blogging issues, but thanks to Gail, I think I am well on my way.   She's so sweet!!  I ask her about everything from chair legs to blogging. 

So, I went to an estate sale on Sunday.  I waited until then, because most estate sales around here, put everything at half price on Sunday.  Well, I'm not sure how much this was an estate sale and how much it was "just trying to get rid of junk" sale.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE JUNK!!!  But they were PROUD of their junk!!  Anyway, I just got a few things that caught my eye (and were cheap).

A wooden wine crate.  Not old, but hard to find.

An iron thingy.  Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

A round mirror to make a sunburst.  I saw a really cool one on http://mamiejanes.blogspot.com/ that I want to try.

This is the house that the estate sale was in.  Although it is in terrible disrepair, it was so BEAUTIFUL!

 

That's all for now.  Got to start making "the list."  I make it on Fridays for the weekend projects.

Here We Go!!

This is the first post of my new blog. I've had the blog set up for several months, but just couldn't seem to get it quite the way I wanted it. I guess it will be an on going process for a while.

I'm pretty sure that I won't blog everyday. I'm amazed at people who can work an outside job, refinish or repaint furniture, take pictures of it and then post EVERY day!!! Of course, I have to admit that I am disappointed when one of my favorite bloggers misses a day, but everyone deserves to take a day off from blogging.

Mostly, this will be a venue for me to show the projects I am working on. I have a booth at Urban Suburban and I spend almost every weekend working on projects for that. I never seem to be at a loss for something to work on.

Here are a few of my past projects.

This was a little bench that my daughter found in a dumpster (I've taught her well).

This is how it looked after paint and recovering the seat

This mirror just refused to sell.

So I decided to turn it into a message board. It sold in less than a week.

This was a curbside find that my daughter discovered one night.

And here it is in the "after" picture. It lookes like it has 14 drawers, but there are only 5.

This is my lastest project. I bought this at a yardsale.

And this is the "after." I used a silver paint pen to outline the little flower on the drawer. The knob is just an old one I had in my craftroom and spray painted silver.

This is a door from an old armoir that was not salvageable. Makes a great message board, though.

That's all for now. This weekend will be busy. I have an entire bedroom suite that I am working on!

Vicki