It's because it was 90 degrees and I wasn't wearing a hat.

I drove away from this yard sale wondering why? Why? Why did I buy this thing?

It's a wonder anything got done.

I'm showing these pictures with my teeth clenched and eyes clamped shut. It's my work room before and after. Although there have been minor changes to the 'after' as I add new goodies. (I came across a brass swing-arm industrial lamp that is now my sewing light.)

My work room is also the guest room. There used to be a queen size bed in there but I got inspired and decided to make changes. Exit real bed, enter airbed.

So, in the beginning, this is how I worked. It's a look into my addled mind.

You can't see it but all 4 walls had the most hideous beige fussy wallpaper. I spent a few weeks living with blobs of color until i decided on one taupe wall and 3 white. yay. Decision made.

This picture is blurry and awful but you get the idea.

When I grew tired of tripping over stuff and never finding anything, I got organized.

Ahhhhh, the joy of a relaxed mind. And I pretty much know where everything is. An antique stroller (that I refurbished) now holds my fabric. Tools are in tool boxes. The side of an old iron crib is my bulletin board. A really old window will frame whatever pictures I put up. There is string and miniature cloths pins to hang them from. Someday I'll finish painting chairs on the wall. And yes, I work on a child's card table and chair. :-)

Do Not Try This at Home

Or
How My Life Serves as a Warning to Others PART ONE

So I had this great idea; I would make my own paint! How hard could it be? Peasants and pioneers did it, right? So I searched the web for info and found some recipes for milk paint and some others I'd never heard of. OH GOODY!! Here I go! And here is the test subject:

My first batch of milk paint was not so successful. There were coverage issues. I wanted white but didn't know what to use as a pigment. More milk?

I decided to switch direction and make brown paint. What better for pigment than instant coffee? Well, lots of things, apparently, but I digress.

I diluted some coffee, added it to my mixture with a little olive pigment left over from fabric painting and the paint thinned out to an olive green glaze. SURPRISE!

Before and after:

Argh. It was pretty, but really, I wanted white. So, enter:

Yeah, I threw in the towel .... for the moment. This was the first time I'd used the canned version of milk paint so I was actually pretty excited. But it came with its own learning curve.

The milk paint fell off my home-made glaze. Fell. Off. I had to sand the entire chair. Again. And I painted it again. This time the purchased milk paint chipped and crazed but didn't actually LEAP off the chair. It was lovely.

And finally, the perfect chippy white chair before

  and after .....

Close up of the new seat - an antique canvas cement bag.

And one last word of advice: do not spray polyurathane on milk paint. Just don't. When you are least expecting it, it will LEAP off the piece of furniture and scramble for cover. It will especially time this for when you want to take pictures. And then you get to sand again. Then you apply wax like you should have from the beginning.

Am I finished trying to make paint? NO. Certainly not. I have purchased white pigment. I am woman hear me roar.

To be continued.........

My junking partners

It's important to have a good junking partner. One who isn't competing with you for the same stuff. Someone with either an eagle-eye for yard sale signs or mad driving skills allowing for a bat-turn when at the wheel.

I have a terrific junking partner but this is the only photo I have of her. She looks for marked pottery; I look for .... junk. Or, Rusty Goodness, as I prefer to say. Never will you find us rolling on the ground fighting over the same Find.

My other junking partner has no interest in competing for the good stuff. He's in it for cookies. And a chance to pee in new places. Too bad he can't share the driving - he's almost blind, I'm pretty sure all he sees are big fuzzy blobs.

 

So, every weekend we're out there, on the hunt. You never know what you'll run across so better get there early, before the good stuff is gone. Later I'll post photos of some of the more interesting items I've stumbled across.

What could it be now?

I went garage saleing with my father-in-law over the weekend and got some really cool .... stuff. So, what do we have here?

Yay junking!  Bless those FREE tables. They are loaded with possibilities. Stay tuned - this mass of cra.... I mean odds and ends, is going to turn into ... something. Just you wait!

More before and after

If I remember, I take pictures as I unload my car and the shots look like a police lineup. So, I guess I'm saying "Sorry about the lame 'before" pictures. Heh.

 This little stool was a test subject. It is painted with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint and it was given a coat of wax. The chipping is the result of using a blow dryer to hasten the drying time. It was a happy surprise!

Another Chalk Paint project. This little table was already in the process of being painted when I remembered to do a "before" shot. Oops.

Last up this morning is a fun little bench done with home-made milk paint as well as Real Milk Paint - the kind that comes in powdered form. I have a huge story, complete with pictures, of my adventures making my own paint. I'll be posting those when I get more organized. It's one of those "Let my life serve as a warning to others" kind of stories ......

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl, Baby Girl

That's how I feel sticking my big toe into the blogging waters. There are so many fabulous designer/bloggers already sharing and here I am, a newbie getting started. Just now, for instance I accidentally deleted an entire post with pictures. Good one!

So, starting over... I am posting some before and after pics as a way to introduce myself. I get wildly excited when a piece of furniture gets home and I grab my sander. I grab the stripper. I grab the primer. I almost NEVER remember to grab my camera. So, the before pictures are rather scarce but I'm learning, my dears, I am learning.

Here is the before and after of a trunk I did for my livingroom. FUN!

Later today I'll add more pics, but for now, it's time to hit the Saturday morning yard sales. Gotta look for more treasures!