My Weblog

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

 
I first read about this paint on Miss Mustard Seed's blog. Oh my....

No sanding, no primer, no nothing needed before you paint a piece of furniture. Seriously? Even over varnish? Even over varnish.

After watching this video on her blog about waxing versus using a poly sealer I placed my orders for a few cans of the paint, two kinds of wax and the special waxing brush you see in my photo above...on this link she talks a little more about the paint and places to order it.

 But even if you're not in the market to paint some furniture, her blog is very inspiring! You might even discover after visiting that you now NEED to paint some furniture.

 
As soon as I opened the box of paint, I could hardly wait to try it out. Right in the middle of my floor. [not recommended by anyone who knows better] Sanding the piece for distressing purposes in the middle of your house is an even worse idea. Naturally....I did this too. Just once....never again!!!!! 

 
One dining room chair down...

 
...seven more to go...not to mention several other pieces I plan to tackle. The bids to have everything refinished by a pro was going to be a lot...

 
But it was obvious something needed to be done... Let's just call this style of distressing "puppy love".... Most of our chairs look as if we raise beavers inside our house!!! Grrrrr.... But our little puppy has grown up now and no longer chews furniture....thank goodness.

 
The cream colored paint from the Annie Sloan line after adding some wax matched my corner cabinet in the kitchen just beautifully. I painted part of one chair to test it out. That's the beauty of this paint...even after waxing it {or applying poly} if you don't like it, just paint over it.

Sadly enough, puppy did a number on all of those chairs too. One puppy with sharp teeth left unattended for even three minutes can inflict unbelievable damage.

But somewhere over the course of last week in all of my decorating scheming, I decided to go another direction with the chairs.

 
I ordered these........! One meal of spaghetti with a pack of teenage boys will let me know rather quickly whether I made a huge mistake. The old chairs will find a new home and purpose in our basement.

Incidentally, you can use this paint to make chalkboards too....check out the Annie Sloan website to see all the colors available. Or mix a couple of colors for your own custom color.

Wishing you all a wonderful week of living creatively!

Online Classes

Sometimes I think about the impact of computers on our lives. Wow. Twenty-something years ago when working in corporate America, in a 75 story building, in the heart of a major city, our floor of maybe 50-60 people received "ONE" PC to share!!!

And one night I was in that building way past midnight ripping my hair out trying to load in data [to a flawed program] for a meeting the next day. For a client. Because my boss said so. We were going to wow them with our advanced technological abilities....NOT. Do you know how creepy it is to be in a skyscraper, in the middle of the night, in a huge city? Really creepy...especially for this scaredy cat!

If you had told me way back then that someday I would ENJOY being on the computer and even taking online classes...

 
 
...i probably would have laughed...and not believed you!

 
Fast forward to today: now I'd believe you. While my first attempts are fairly simple compared to how elaborate you can go, I am thoroughly loving stitching away in the evening hours on these two little pieces.

 
 

Specifics: Jude Hill's Cloth to Cloth: The Basics of Quilt Weaving online class.

First read about it here.

Of course, back then I never thought I'd spend time wiring vintage buttons together either. But I do that too...

 
Maybe the lessons I can learn from those seasons of frustration,

or when things aren't going right at all,

is that

 
And one of those POSSIBILITIES that I am anxiously awaiting is this:

 
Christy Tomlinson's She-Art class...the second round which will launch on April 11th. Thank you Cherie for sharing about this class so beautifully in your own creations! Check out her recent posts and be wowed! 

And very soon I will be sharing with you the YUMMY package that came my way from Cherie. Oh my. Lucky little me! 

Last but not least, another class that is in the works is another journaling class by Mary Ann Moss. I am so taking that class!  Meanwhile I am in love with her posts from Paris...it is a city that I so long to return to for a visit. One of my most favorite trips ever...

So wherever life finds you today...and esp. if you're in the heat of one of life's battle...just remember, tomorrow is full of NEW possibilities.

Xo, Sue

 
It's supposed to be delivered today. Months of searching...debating...she made a decision!

 
Meet my new family room coffee table.

Handcrafted of unfinished, solid reclaimed pine timbers from 100-year-old buildings in Great Britain (source) {love this store}

I've debated about it for a long time. More than I wanted to spend...but I love the casual feel, the ability to tuck some neat storage bins underneath...and you're welcome to put your feet on it. And my Mr. Fun {aka my dear husband} liked it the best of all the choices.

 

I think it will look wonderful with the new rug and the vintage blanket chest that I'll be using for a footstool with a chair. I've had my eye on this chest for a while as well...found it at The Queen of Hearts in Buford, GA. A favorite  antiquing haunt...

 

After a long time of having green being the more predominate color in my decorating, moving over to a softer blue, taupes/browns/neutrals is proving to be a fun change.

 
I've got a long, long, long way to go on this room. But I've always been one to sort of let things evolve [unlike Mr. Fun who gets it done NOW!]. However, the vision is coming together nicely...

As a side note, that soup tureen is one of my favorite pieces of ironstone. It is a discontinued Spode pattern called Gadroon. Replacements Limited has it for sale at an asking price of $339. I paid........$50 for mine. Scream with deeeee-light!

 
This is a sofa table I bought at least a dozen years ago. It was a fantastic bargain way back when, but more importantly, I loved it.

Which is something I've learned the hard way......whether it's furniture or clothing, ONLY BUY what you really LOVE {and can afford} and not because it was a good deal. In the long run, especially with furniture, you'll keep it forever. I've used this piece in at least 5 different rooms through the years. And now it's being moved into the new family room redo.

Working on lots of house things, being mom and wife, and a few other hats have kept me from spending a lot of time blogging. I keep up, so to speak, in my google reader, but very behind in leaving comments to so many amazing bloggers I so enjoy peeking in on. 

 And still waiting for Spring to arrive....lol! xo, Sue

Choosing paint colors...

 
The dreaded task of choosing new paint colors for our interior walls has come to visit me. I've saved notes, collected paint swatches for some time but the perfect shade of a deeper, richer taupe/brown/neutral is eluding me. Either too much of a pink hue, or too much green, or not dark enough, or....

And, no! None of the colors found on the ends of my old mill spools are in the running...I just love the looks of them all gathered together as they currently sit in my art room. I'm removing the vintage trims I had wound around them because I've come up with a different storage solution for those...more on that in another post.

 
One thing's for sure though...I'm going to need to repaint! Scattered throughout the house are swatches of paint colors I've slathered on the walls in gobs of places. I'm liking this color up close (and how it appears in the photo)...but from far away (and in real life), in addition to the combo of our high ceilings and lots of windows, it gets washed out. Just doesn't add the warmth I'm looking for... 

 
As and added bonus, I was lucky enough to have the oldest son spend some time sanding down our breakfast table chairs. Or chair. Several hours later, one done, five more to go.

 Take a peek at the chewed up rung on the chair to the right. "Puppy love"...woof woof! Since Sophie {our doggie} is almost two, and has "matured" beyond the I-must-eat-only-the-good-furniture stage, I think it's now safe to repair or replace the pieces upon which she's placed her chewing signature.

  Yes indeed, time to step it up from the beaver chewed look to something more along the lines of this...

 

 The corner cabinet in the photo is a recent nab at a steal of a price from a dealer at the Scott Antique Market that comes to Atlanta once a month.

 
A shot of the top of the cabinet...isn't the detailing wonderful?

Even hubby loved the painted look and the warmth that it oozes... so much so, that he is trying to convince me to have our {GULP} cherry kitchen cabinets painted out as well... 
What a job though...not one I'd tackle myself. I would hire it out. What do you think? Would you?! On one hand, it seems horrible to paint over cherry wood...on the other hand, as my DH answered that question..."Happiness is worth a lot too..."

He's got a point. Sort of. Happiness may not be the right word. But still....I think we'll sit tight for the time being and when all is finished with the other phases of this redecorating project, we'll take another look at it. In other words....mull it over. After all, I'm an expert at that activity!

Lisa's Art Challenge - "Outside the Box"

Ah-ha...now I know why she included the word "challenge"....

And a challenge it was on many different levels...

The first challenge was getting out of Target without straying from my short, concise shopping list. Suffice it to say, I didn't pass the first challenge. Nothing extravagant, but one of these and one of those begin to add up quickly, don't they?

Yet as I rambled through every aisle it was like taking a walk down memory lane of when my children were little ones.  Children crying--more pronounced {and did I mention louder} the closer I came to the toy section! Mothers giving "that look" to those screaming children and me pretending like I hardly noticed that child on the floor thrashing from side to side {professional courtesy from one mother to another} desperately clutching some much-needed toy...

Memories...they are known for showing up in the most expected, and even unexpected places.

{The flowers on the box were once the color of the freshly cut flowers!}

Our challenge was to take these little boxes that originally contained soap and give the box a makeover. After painting the box with a Martha Stewart paint sample called Sultana I began to adhere individual little blossoms of pressed verbena. It took way more than I had on hand and there was no time for pressing more so I even slapped ripe ones to the underside of the top cover and blasted them with my heat gun. Results...not bad.  

After hemming and hawing, staring into space, and staring some more, I finally decided to make mine a memory box.

 
  A few years back I purchased from this gal's Etsy shop two pieces of mirrors she had washed in acid and just like it was meant to be, the pieces were exactly the size of this box. The words were cut from an old novel printed in a large font I nabbed at Goodwill specifically for the larger font size. {Not to read it...but for artsy pursuits!}

 

The second mirror was used over the photo... a few more scratches were added using a file as to open up more peek-through area for the image. 

The photo is of my cousin Johnny and myself when we were wee little ones...fifty-one years ago with the sun shining in our eyes...{not a lot of camera tips floating around for the novice photographer back in those days!}

Our families were inseparable...we gathered together every Sunday if not more often during the week, every holiday including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many sleepovers, and so on.

Johnny and I accumulated hundreds and hundreds of hours through the years traipsing through woods, sometimes I was a passenger on his bicycle with the tiger banana seat, or on a mini-bike, snowmobiles, and even harrowing rides on his motorcycle hanging on for all I was worth. He grew up on a large dairy farm and any chance I got I loved to spend days at the farm. They had an old car we drove through the fields long before we ever had a real license.  Finally, a chance for me to give him a scary ride!

Sadly so, it will be five years in July since his life ended tragically. It's still hard to believe at times...I cherish the times I get to visit with my Aunt and we are able to share memories we each hold so dear. He had a brilliant mind, was an accomplished photographer who developed his own film, flew airplanes, motorcycled across the country just to visit places he'd never been before & surprising relatives in many states when he suddenly appeared on their doorstep {!}, backpacked across Europe another year...always looking for an adventure.

 
 It took me way longer to create this little piece than it should have...so many interuptions of getting lost in my thoughts and memories...

Yes, some memories are best never to be forgotten even if they make you cry.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.  ~Kahlil Gibran
**********

To view the creations of more participants in today's art challenge, head over to Lisa's blog, Tarnished and Tattered. If you've not been there before, take a peek around as Lisa is a talented Texas gal who creates some gorgeous stuff! She is also being featured in a soon-to-be-released Stampington publication due to hit the streets any day now! Thank you, Lisa for hosting this challenging event. Who knew one little box could be such a fun challenge {or make such a mess of my once clean workspace}!    

Where Bloggers Create Party

Don't ya just git giddy when something you've wished for, waited on, dreamed of, but mostly

WORKED HARD FOR, !!!finally!!! happens?

For most of my "creative life" which now spans decades, my creative space and supplies were scattered throughout our home in closets, bins, tucked under beds, and so forth. The dining room often became command central. And upon walking by such headquarters one would immediately receive the distinct impression that command central had been heavily bombed! Chaos reigned supreme.....
 

 But when I read that Karen, at My Desert Cottage was hosting her second annual WHERE BLOGGERS CREATE PARTY I knew this was the motivational spark I needed to get busy.

I inherited the bonus room above our garage several years ago, but as life goes, for a number of out-of-my-control-bumpy-mountains-in-the-road-of-life reasons, the room never got put together.

Until now....still have a little ways to go, but the hardest parts are behind me. NOTHIN' like company coming to set a body in motion, is there?!

I worked like a mad woman. Or perhaps madder than normal would be more appropriate...what is normal anyway, does anybody know? Stay on task Sue...

Jewels got sorted...

...dolls got hats...

...and with each little accomplishment I could feel the cobwebs that had taken my creative spirit hostage begin to release their sticky grip...speak nothing of the physical cobwebs in the actual room...

My rusty imagination began to awaken...it was all I could do not to stop what I was doing to follow the latest inspirational muse...but untrue to my given nature, I kept plowing through box after box, bin after bin, sorting, tossing, organizing...

Why, even fresh flowers were lovingly gathered from my garden and scattered throughout the room...they are such happy little creatures, aren't they? Not to mention that nothing, save a warm hug, says welcome friends more than fresh flowers.

Despite the fact that I am beyond blessed to have such a wonderful place to now work on a variety of creative pursuits, one major flaw in this room is the lighting. Although there are five windows, each is housed in an alcove which can be a real issue...especially at night. One thing I have invested in to counteract this challenge are Ott lamps. JoAnn's, Michael's, Wal-Mart, among others carry this brand and routinely put them on sale at 40% off.

The majority of my furnishings are hand-me-downs that were used previously in our homes through the years. Several pieces came from thrift stores and one piece was stolen. Yep. You heard it right. Theft. That would be the bin housing my stash of vintage wallpaper. It's original purpose was to house goober pairs of golf and other sporting shoes in our garage. The idea being that my family members would dutifully and joyfully place their shoes in the tidy little cubbies......NOT.

 

A year or so ago this vintage dress form came up for auction on Ebay. It is about three times the size of my other dress form I'll show in the next photo. She has been the perfect 3-D inspirational board, if you will, and I continue to pin new items to her daily.  And BTW, I was the only bidder and shipping cost me more than the dress form. Felt badly for the seller, but happy for me!

I've taken way too many pictures of my newly organized space...excitement about my new room and working with crummy lighting conditions most likely influenced my excessive photo snapping...

 

Here's an oversized spice rack I picked up at Goodwill for maybe $5 or so. I love making, giving, and receiving mail {handwritten letters....ahhhhhh....love 'em}. I used to be so much better at sending these personal greetings. Hence, I am hoping that having this little rack hanging on my studio wall will be a visual reminder to improve upon sending more snail mail to brighten someone's day.

 

Not withstanding the fact that I've rambled long enough, Typepad or my computer has chosen this point in time to go into total rebellion. Consequently, on both accounts, I'll bid my farewell and continue this tour in another post {or two+!} in the coming days.

Thank you for your visit and I'm anxious to head out to see all the other creative work spaces. But before I go, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Karen for what has had to be a monumental undertaking to keep an event of this size so well organized.

Warm wishes to all,

xo, Sue

Giveaway Winner and Where Women {collect} Want to Create

I'm still plugging away in "my room" which is the bonus room over our garage. Dragging boxes from the basement and sorting through my stuff. As someone who has collected and crafted for over two decades the stash I've accumulated is.......I can't think of the right word.

Ridiculous?

Awesome?

Hideous?

A Royal Mess?

Oozing with Creative Potential?

Perhaps a mixture of all of the above! All I know is that right now, my work area looks more like where a woman collects and wants to create as opposed to my goal of where a woman actually does create...but I am making steady progress.

 
However, as I rediscover stuff that has been packed away, hidden from sight, my mind begins to fill with ideas. Organizing Angel and the We-Love-Chaos-Demon begin to do battle. It takes every ounce of willpower not to stop the sifting, sorting, pitching and organizing in exchange for running off to chase the latest creative muse.

But I have a huge incentive....On June 19th, Karen, at My Desert Cottage is hosting her second WHERE BLOGGERS CREATE party! As of this writing there are 390 signed up to showcase their creative work areas! How fun! Everyone is invited. You can read all about it by clicking on the link to her name.

I can only imagine all the eye candy and inspiration that will be showcased during that awesome tour of work spaces!

Are you loving that little pink metal doll case? Maybe a year ago [or more!] I bought it from Janna who is now involved in a HUGE antique shop up in North Carolina that I am itching to go and check out. It wouldn't be a bad drive from where I live...it's on my wish list. Janna is a great junker, with a fun blog if you love old, rusty, and antique items. The name of her blog, Artsy Fartsy Finds gives a little glimpse into her witty, and fun humor as well!

Before I ramble any further, let me announce the winner of the book WHERE WOMAN CREATE....

Counting down the comment list, that would be Anne! Congratulations and I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed it!

xo, Sue
 

Living with a Perfectionist

 Or in my case, he is ME! 

More often than I care to admit I allow myself to let that horrible imperfection of perfectionism to stand in my way of JUST DOING IT.

 He is a rotten fella to have in your inner circle, let me tell you what. You'll have to trust me when I say that the best way to deal with him is to send him packing the minute he arrives. If you don't, he'll hang around making himself so comfortable that before long you forget that he ain't even supposed to be living with you, let alone telling you how to run your life! 

I can't tell you how many times I've had to kick him out. Because of that, today I decided to make myself a sign to remind me of this stinkin' fella and what is true concerning his nature.

He is not a good friend.

He doesn't make me better.

He prevents me from reaching my true potential.

He's a shameful jerk!!!!

Gasp! I even used the tin letters I've been "saving"...saving for what, I don't know. Double gasp! I punched holes in them!!!!! And by the time I'd strung quite a few together with wire I wished I would have looped the wire through more than once. But I knew I was making progress when I didn't go back and fix it!!!!!

 My poor craft room has been a miserable, disorganized mess because of Mr. Perfection. He kept sweet talkin' me, telling me things like "wait until you get all the right stuff before you try to organize this mess....don't waste your precious time on something you'll want to change later....blah, blah, blah." 

But today I ignored his dribble. I made some progress in the pursuit of getting organized. Still a long way to go....which brings me to a second thought...I think Mr. Perfectionist has an evil cousin named Mr. Hoarder.  

Never mind. I'll save that story for another day of TRUE CONFESSIONS.

 
**First and last photo images from the Graphics Fairy.

 
  
An on again, off again, rainy day in Georgia. Since hubby decided to work from home, I had the perfect excuse to skip a little housework in an effort to not make any unneccessary noise. Not that it takes much coaxing to do so especially when each new day outside holds some new surprise.

The hydrangea patches are so loaded with blooms this year. I'm wondering if it's because of the colder winter we had this year. Each day the newly emerging clusters change from their greenish-yellowy-creamy colors to their grand finale color of blue...

 Plucking armfuls of them, I bring them in and stick bouquets everywhere.

Just off our kitchen is a small upper deck we use for grilling. I've had my eyes peeled for years to find a reasonably priced, smaller-scaled table and chairs. Sometimes things just find you when you aren't looking. I just happened to be driving to the grocery store and there sitting outside one of my favorite thrift stores was this little white wrought iron set [table + 4 chairs]. At a fantastic price, no less... Needless to say, I was thrilled!

Let me also introduce you as well to my newest "dress form"...a man one! Paid $26 for him...did I pay too much? I've got some plans brewing in my head for him...

The base is painted such a great color and has just the right amount of shabby, chippy beauty.

What I'm thinking about is to mount a steel collar plate around the metal pole and to that attach a galvanized steel washtub, or an old oblong enamelware pan. In other words, use the new "manny" as a base for something purposeful. I also think you could mount a tabletop of some sort if you wanted as the base is quite heavy and could handle a little weight. Wouldn't he be a fun, unconventional, end table?!

 I guess we'll both have to wait and see who he grows up to be...

Oh and by the way, look at the one I found currently for sale on Ebay at an asking price of $1100+....yipes. Too rich for my budget, but still quite gorgeous.

 

xo, sue

More Freestyle Embroidery...

 
  Not sure how the idea popped into my head, or somedays if there's even much working up there in my head {please say you can relate} but I decided to cut one of my vintage feathered friends in two and carefully glue him to my sampler. VOILA! It worked!

Also added some more sparkles...a chandelier crystal and an old vintage rhinestone necklace that I sewed on using invisible thread. Love using that invisible thread for items where you don't necessarily want any thread to show.

Still have lots to add before I'm finished but here's a photo of my progress...

And speaking of stitching, some time ago I had bookmarked a webpage found here of a darling saying. Never did order it, but when JoAnnA at Moss Hill Studios did a post using this same darling saying, it inspired me to put the quote in stitches.

 
 

It's still a work in progress...haven't decided if the old victorian die cut of the birdies will be staying, but for now I think so.

I wish I could take credit for the creative idea of stitching the piece of notebook paper. But even more importantly, I wish I could remember the couple of different places on the web where I've seen it done and give proper credit. Unfortunately, I never wrote it down. If I find out, I'll come back and update my post. 

Oh, and before I forget {remember the head issue I mentioned earlier!} the fabric for this little piece is from an all natural cotton batting.

Wouldn't this be a fun anniversary card? Or even a birthday card for someone special in your life....