The teal bed

There are a few types of furniture I would love to find and old wooden beds are one of them. I have wanted to paint one for ages. I ran across this bed at an estate sale but had to leave it behind because it was too spendy. I happened by on the third day of the sale and the bed was still there. I got it at a fraction of the original price.

I wish I had photos of the headboard being tied to the top of my car with baling twine. Priceless.

Before

I love the rustic carving.

I painted a couple side pieces to complete the set. If I'd had time to paint a dresser before the Tie Days show i would have. Hmmmm. I still could, i suppose.

I didn't do any glazing because I felt the details were strong without it.

I used a teal DIY chalk paint mixed from all the teal samples I had in the garage. Then I ran out of paint. Mr. Bad had more paint matched for me but .... it didn't match. I had to mix mix mix until it did. Lesson learned - always use the Benjamin Moore dealer. They get it right.

Added bonus, here is Inspector 22 hard at work on his first assignment.

Linking to:
miss mustard seed
be different act normal
nifty thrifty things
shabby nest
funky junk interiors
domestically-speaking
the dedicated house

Serious count down!

The 3 day countdown before my first outdoor show.

Was I ready? Hell NO!

Was I stressed? Not by then.
I was way past stress and seriously into numb.

I wasn't even fazed by the little annoyances:

Paint pulls off with the tape. Thank you Delicate Surface Frog Tape.
Prep work goes hideously wrong. Ohhhh. Wish I'd just left that alone.
The surprise from left field. I'm sure there was more of this paint the LAST time I used it.

And the biggest time-stealer:
Hobbling around on a broken foot!

Time ignored my whimpering and just marched on.

Here's the mess I had two weeks ago. Mr. Bad Rabbit has been pretty patient, understanding, resigned about this.

And it looked pretty much the same until I pulled everything away that wasn't going to make the cut and took stock of what was. I'd been worried about filling the booth and it turned out I had too much stuff. Well, that's a good thing. I could fill in as things sold.

I staged the furniture to see what kind of fit I'd have in a 10 x 10 booth.

Thursday
The trailer got loaded, ready to go to Shady Cove, which is about an hour from here.

Friday
We set up and my poor foot really rebelled.

Saturday
The Tie Days show begins!

This is the booth set up and ready to go. It is very true to my practice staging.

We had a HORRIBLE turn of events. My friend Sioux, whom you know from other adventures, was in a serious car wreck on her way to the show. Mr. Bad drove out to help her and be her advocate with the first responders and THEN, because he's a saint and all (just ask my girlfriends! I'm always being told this), he volunteered to give up his weekend plans and run Sioux's booth at the show. Sioux is going to be fine, by the way, but she is really banged up. Her car, unfortunately, is going to the great junkyard in the sky.

Sioux's booth was next to mine but with my broken foot it would have been difficult for me to hobble back and forth helping customers. Mr. Bad Rabbit would rather eat a bag of hair than attend an antique show so I felt very grateful for his help. He did manage to have fun, helping people, delivering donuts, chatting with customers. He even saw guys he knew. Plus, we got to be together all weekend!

Sunday morning before the sun even came up and I'm already texting.

Mr. Bad bought donuts and went around offering them to the vendors. He was everyone's hero. Another vendor made coffee for everyone. Are all shows like this, where there is such camaraderie among the vendors?

And then it was over and we were packing up. My broken foot was grateful. I'd been elevating it and applying ice whenever I could but it still looked like a swollen cartoon foot.

Today, unpack the trailer. Oh boy.

Update
Which is worse? Before Loading or After Unloading. yikes
There's a song lyric about
"the woe of aftermath"
I totally get it.

Linking to
miss mustard seed
nifty thrifty things

a simple before and after

When we were in Portland for my last appointment with the Clinical trial people I took advantage of Portland's craigslist. I bought a couple dressers and really wished I had more time. We were in a time crunch to get home because Mr. Bad Rabbit had to fly out first thing in the morning.

Oh, and we had to spend some time buying this:

Purdy, huh? But I can't sand and paint it.

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So, furniture. This was dresser #2.

Notice that "V" shape on the top drawer? In the craigslist ad it looked like it was raised. I was so bummed when it turned out to be just darker stain!

I debated taping it off and saving the design. I debated adding an applique. In the end I fell asleep in my chair and did nothing.

Another peak at my staging for the show this weekend.

See the rustic dresser back there?

I went rustic with my paint. It was slap-dash-slish-splash. Let's see if I can remember what I used.......

On the sides I splashed on American Paint Sackcloth, AS French Linen, American Paint Plymouth Rock and American Paint Home Plate. I didn't wait for anything to dry, I just smooshed more paint on. Then I sanded. Then I glazed. The drawer fronts and top are essentially just Plymouth Rock and Home Plate. The pulls were sprayed with Dover White.

Have I mentioned I've been hobbling around on a broken foot? I rebroke an injury from early summer and this time it hurts like a bear. And it's just my luck the Tie-Days event is this weekend. Maybe I'll be able to spend most of my time sitting down nursing a Gator-aid.

Linking to:
miss mustard seed
french country cottage
be different act normal
domestically-speaking

I know! Let's dive into this before doing any research!

I've skipped over a dozen posts on other blogs regarding how to paint laminate. It didn't apply to me at that moment and I didn't plan on buying laminated furniture.

Then lo and behold! At an estate sale this french style furniture was set out and soooo reasonably priced that I just had to buy it. Missing pulls didn't matter. One leg falling off the dresser barely registered. It was cheap!

But look! Laminate. Only after I sanded the sides a little too much did I go to my laptop and take a little look at the How To's. I didn't know the sides of the furniture were essentially covered with wallpaper. You can see above where I sanded down to white. Oops. I fixed it and used No-Sand to finish deglossing.

Those slippery tops took a little more ooomph, as in Palm Sander, but I got it done.

 There is potencial here. I pictured the set in a pretty gray with white trim.

The yellow faux finish looked so tired.

A fresh coat of gray changes everything. I mixed CeCe Caldwell's Beckley Coal with American Paint's Home Plate to get the gray. The white trim is American Paint Navaho White. The pulls were sprayed with a 20-year-old can of mystery gray blue. See? Sometimes it does pay to keep everything!

 

A very little dark wax to bring out the detail .....

A graphic on the top ......

A couple more graphics ....

And I was done.

Here's a peek at prepping for my first show. More on this later!

Someone will love this set, right?

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UPDATE: Both pieces sold on the first day of the show!

yay

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 Inspector 22 had a big day!

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BLOOPER!!!!

Argh Matey! I am a pirate with a lace eye-patch and I am BAD! Har!

Linking to:
miss mustard seed
french country cottage
be different act normal
nifty thrifty things
shabby nest
funky junk interiors

You have to start somewhere - a new hobby

Ever since I first laid eyes on the little hopping needle-felt bunny that I put on the bottom of a few of my posts, I have wanted to learn needle-felting.

I am in LOVE with this bunny!

I thought it would be complicated and require taking a class, that is until I saw some how-to books. Then I saw a kit at the fabric store. Whoo Hoo, my little mind said, Now we're talkin'!

I picked the hedgehog kit and headed home to get started. First: take the wool and make a smooth egg-shaped body. Roll roll roll, stab stab stab OUCH stab stab OUCH stab DAMMIT! stab stab OUCH!

My smooth egg was actually looking more like a brain. stab stab stab. And I really didn't want a hedgehog, I wanted a rabbit. stab stab stab. So I veered off-course and made a smaller brain ball for the head. stab stab stab. Now I had a snowman.

Then the one and only needle broke. grrrrrrrrr

I drove to Medford, to the only yarn shop. Oh? Out of needles? You don't say. I have to drive to Ashland? Really? grrrrrrrrr

In Ashland the ladies at the yarn store were really helpful. I learned about making wire forms as a base. I also learned about wadding up wool and tying it up in panty hose, then machine washing and drying it. The result is nice felt balls without the finger stabbing. I picked up another kit, this one with 4 'real' needles, decent THICK foam and helpful tips. YAY for tips! I left loaded with wool and a brand new plan.

Above are two foam pads: the left is from the yarn store kit and the right is from the hedgehog kit. Is it no wonder I stabbed myself repeatedly? What were they thinking with that tiny piece of foam?

Before I go on I want to say this is NOT a tutorial. This is just one of my misadventures from which you might learn from my mistakes.

Stage One. The brain-snowman becomes a very roughed-in rabbit but his ears are too short.

Oh look. A kangaroo rat.

A kangaroo rat with mumps.

Bunny butt! Oh. Sorry.

Stage Two. I started adding body parts and lengthened the ears.

Good lord. Now the ears are too long.

The rabbit is looking a little creepy but I think he's getting there. And, I have an idea of how to finish off the paws but I'm going to google it first. I think botched paws would be hard to fix.

Stay tuned for Part Three in which the bunny is completed. Meanwhile I leave you with bunny-bum.

Linking to
my uncommon slice of suburbia
coastal charm
elizabeth and co
flamingo toes