A few of my favorite things

It's the end of the year and time to reflect. I'm reflecting on past posts - my favorite pieces of furniture. It's nice to remind myself of different pieces and styles I've done. Some I feel like I'm the only person who appreciates them. Others fly across the internet with a life of their own.

My crazy passion and obsession - the Union Jack.

This post really surprised me. I didn't expect any huge excitement over an olive green Union Jack. Seriously. But it had the most views ever! It holds the record. I was googling Union Jack furniture just for self entertainment and there was my dresser at the top of the page! I felt like I was A Big Girl of Blogging. It puffed up my sails. You can see the post here.

Is that the same cabinet?

What can I say about this pie safe? I loved it. I wanted to keep it. We have an open floor-plan style home, so there aren't many walls.
No walls means no individual rooms to furnish.

I have a friend who was faced with this problem in her condo. So, before she moved in, she had walls built. Now she has places to display her antiques. Mr. Bad Rabbit would grow another head if I suggested that. The original post is here.

To sell or not to sell

I love my tuffet but the livingroom is getting a little crowded. For a brief moment I thought I could sell the tuffet in order to declutter but no. I got the Screaming Hebee Jebees just thinking about it. The post is here. 

I am planning to make more tuffets now that my schedule has eased up. Bwah hahaha. Plans! You gotta love them!

Painting against type

This dresser was lots of fun to paint. It's something else I want to do more of - illustration. All in due time, all in due time!  The post is here. 

Have you ever had one of those pieces?

Be still, my heart. An empire desk. At the time, I thought I had no place to put it, so off it went to the booth. It sold before I could change my mind. This was the first mahogany piece I'd ever tried to paint. I felt like I was being Punked. No matter how many layers of paint and two different primers, an ugly pink color bled through. Arghhh! I consulted my friend Google and got the solution to the problem but I'm not over the trauma. Mahogany still makes me think twice.  You'll find the post  here.

Details, details, details

What a surprise it was when this post got almost as many views as the Union Jack dresser! To start with, the sewing machine table is a beauty. I'd not seen that kind of detail before. The painting style is very primitive - I slapped chalk paint on willy nilly and sanded with about the same care. What I did do carefully was the dark wax, and it made the details scream. I still have this piece in my home but its days might be numbered. I have some hard decisions to make.  You'll find the post  here.

 Trunk Love

 The following don't have their own post. They are just two trunks that I love and hope to do more of some day. My Old Sign Trunk was one of the first pieces I ever did so I was really attached to it. The Circus Trunk I did for myself but had to let it go due to that pesky space issue in my home. sigh

There you have it. Some of my favorites up to this time. I'm looking forward to what's coming next!

Happy New Year!

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under the table and dreaming
diy showoff
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southern hospitality
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i heart nap time

Most unusual request

Just about anything can be painted and given a bright new life. 

This past week I was asked to paint an antique hand truck - once used in the pear orchards that proliferate our valley.

This monster of wood and iron must have sat in an orchard for years, judging from the petrified mud stuck in it, to it, around it. yeesh. Oh, plus old grease. Yessir, this beast was a pleasure to clean. Three of us worked for hours on it. One of us watched football. You know who you are.

Pears have long been a symbol of the Rogue Valley. The orchards are shrinking, giving way to wine grapes, but there was a time pears ruled!

 

The 'Naumes' name has long been synonymous with orchards.

This old hand-truck was to be a gift to a member of the Naumes family. It was only natural that pears be painted on it.

 

Picture all that iron encased in rock-hard mud.  

Old farm implements really are works of art. They have a beauty that just isn't found in the shiny new products.

I love the the textures of the old wood and rusty metal together. To my eyes it can't be beat. One of my upcoming projects is an old ladder that has seen better days. Working on the hand truck has made me anxious to get started on it!

Linking to:
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my repurposed life
be different act normal
home stories a to z
miss mustard seed

COMING SOON!

Watch for the announcement of my second etsy shop! I will have it up and running by the end of the year. Meanwhile, I am taking pictures and weighing things like crazy.

Here's a link to the new store - a work in progress!:

I love industrial stuff! Now I have an excuse to find more
Awesome Rusty Goodness. 

YAY!

Toyland Christmas Vignette

I haven't been on top of it at all when it comes to Christmas decorating. I took all my lights and ornaments to work and decorated my cubicle. And I pretty much left it at that. Then a couple days ago I acquired this old rocking horse glider. I carried it around the house until I decided it needed to go on the card catalog, then one thing led to another thing getting painted red and I had a holiday vignette.  

The horse seems so Christmas-y to me. I can picture some 1950s kid finding their Davy Crockett horse on Christmas morning and squealing with joy. Heck I almost squealed with joy when I got it!

Stage One.

For a few years, when I had no energy but we didn't know I was ill, I was so used up by my job that I didn't put up a tree, I just decorated an appliance. Yep. You read that right. I put lights and ornaments on a box fan, on a floor lamp and ..... hmmmm, a chair ... I don't remember after that. Then, as I got worse I gave up completely and we were lucky to have a single ornament taped to something.

I still have an ornament hanging off our binocular tripod. It's been there for three years, I think.

It has a battery so the little stars blink when it is turned on. Festive!

Toy Story!

 I guess I'm back in the Christmas decorating mood after years of nothing. (I shouldn't say "nothing." We had the little Limoges tree ornament, after all.)

That was then and this is now. We have some holiday festiveness in the house once again!

  

The little wooden train is from Relique.

And to all, a good night.

Update: Just ran across this photo from the Ashland Daily Tidings showing our little town of Jacksonville as a winter wonderland!

Linking to:
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under the table and dreaming
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boogieboard cottage

Little Christmas Tree Knock-off

I know just about everyone who is going to have a Christmas tree already has it by now. But maybe you want a little tree for the office? And you're in the mood to make your own? I wasn't in the mood to make a tree until a co-worker showed me the Olive and Cocoa catalog. We visited the website and saw this:

For me it was love at first sight. This tree is adorable in its rustic goodness! BUT. But with shipping it comes in at $102. I knew the craft store had these LED branches so I thought I'd save some money and make my own tree. 

I had no idea what I was doing but hoped for the best. I bought 2 different types of LED branches, some floral tape and a few little ornaments. Then I went home to try and bend my newly purchased Willow branches into a fir tree. Good grief. I had no idea I was so floral tape challenged. Talk about fighting the good fight. sheesh. I didn't think I'd ever get those stems wrapped. Seriously. But I did and here's how my tree turned out.

Not exactly like the original but you can tell it's a tree! For the longest time it looked like The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was bending twigs and wrapping tape and getting it all tangled and having it break, then it would unwrap at the bottom and so on. Then I ran out of twig. I had my second box of branches but they were battery operated not plug-in like the ones I had just taped. Oh well, how bad could it be? I taped the battery stem to the electric one and continued bending and wrapping and bending and wrapping. Repeat.

Other than having to turn on the bottom and top separately, it worked fine.

The tree unlit. It needs a few more ornaments. I would love to find some minis made of mercury glass. Oh wait! I can faux paint any old mini ornament. Duh!

And at night. 

It's sweet in a rustic way.

This is what I used but the results would be far better if you had two of the same kind of branches. I used what I had but it certainly wasn't ideal. My little tree cost $30 compared to $102. I could have shopped around and found a better price on the branches but I think over all I did pretty good.

Now I have a tree for my cubicle!

Angels grieve.

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common ground
under the table and dreaming

The Chairs Have it

I guess this is chair week. I have 2 more chairs that are worlds apart ready for new homes.

After the art project chair I decided to finally finish a simple yellow chair with blue ticking. Just a simple kitchen chair .... with a duck.

 And a little bit of texture.

And a duck. 

I'd been meaning to paint 3 duckings on the back like I did with my Chick Chair but never found the time.

I never found time to paint even one duck much less three! Mod Podge to the rescue. I decoupaged the cute little duck on there and went over him with dark wax. Mission accomplished. Now, after months of sitting in our office the yellow chair can go to my booth.

 Before. Ick. REALLY ick.

After. A much cheerier chair! Like a little ray of sunshine.

• • • • • • •

The third chair this week is completely different. This chair was given to me to paint and I was hesitant because of the missing parts. And the warped parts. And the no longer fit together parts. But my client wanted it painted, retaining the original turquoise paint as much as possible. So, paint it I did.

The Kaleidoscope Chair

We're talking a lot of color here.

A whole lotta color.

 And some missing parts.

Again, I used my favorite green scrub pad to distress the paint. I don't care for latex but since that was what the original paint was, I went with it. I used the cute little paint pods from Ace Hardware.

 

When the paint had cured a couple days I went over the entire chair with Dark Walnut stain twice.

Most of the chair didn't need any more distressing.

 

 

Finished, with all its flaws. Two spindles are missing as well as one of the seat supports. And the right leg support won't stay connected for love nor money. None the less it's a happy, cheerful chair, perfect for the gray days ahead.

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