Just a Little Blue!!

When I started this journey (painting furniture) a few weeks back I purchased a very old secretary off of Craigslist. I bought it from a girl who had just moved to Ocean Beach from out of town. When I saw the posting for this she was asking $20 for it, which was within my budget. I was so excited because I could tell it was a very old piece but when I went to pick it up my excitement fizzled. It was in fact old and but it showed. It had a separation of the wood straight down on the side (plus other stuff) and it was actually smaller then I had expected. The girl told me it was her grandmother's and that her grandmother used to pay her bills on it. I loved that history and for $20 bucks I decided to take it. For the last several weeks I have just stared at it wishing I hadn't bought it. It was pretty beat up for my skill level.  I spoke with a wood guy and he said the type of separation in the wood was not really fixable. So I just left it and got to work on my chair, and then my table. My table needs a few more coats of poly but it has been so hot that I haven't wanted to mess with the poly drying to fast. In the meantime I decided to do something with the secretary. I had a vision in my head and have really loved the French Images from The Graphic Fairy. I wanted to put a graphic on the front and on the inside of the secretary. The funny thing is when I went to check out her blog, there was a vintage secretary that did the same thing! Well, I had to figure out how to get that image onto the secretary and saw that it mentioned a Modge Podge technique. I printed my images, this one for the front and this one for the inside. I wanted to paint the outside of the piece Paris Gray and the inside Aubusson Blue (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint). I painted the inside first and then started on the outside but it wasn't looking right. The two colors weren't working that well together and the Paris Gray didn't look like I had thought. I continued painting until the whole secretary was finished. It was getting late and I had things I need to get done so I started to clean up. As I was cleaning up, I spotted a paint can and was like "which one is this" I took a look "uh-oh, Paris Gray, oh-no!" running outside "what have I been paint with??, Are you kidding me, DUCK EGG BLUE!!!" Yup, I painted the whole thing Duck Egg Blue, which would explain why Paris Gray just didn't look right. I AM NOT EVEN COLOR BLIND!! The crazy thing is, it wasn't until I read the words Duck Egg Blue that I saw it as blue... geez! It is a good example of how the brain can trick you. The next day, I got to work and re-painted again with Paris Gray. This time the Aubusson Blue looked beautiful! The two colors were working so nicely together... more work but I was happy! I left the desk to dry and waxed and worked on my images. I woke up this morning and well the Modge Podge thing didn't work out so well. The imaged is still on the inside but there isn't one on the outside anymore. I found Red Hen Home blog and she used a projector, my hubby has one so in the future this will be the technique I will use. I really wanted the modge podge to work because it seemed so easy. When I look at others who have used this technique I don't see any paper left but mine had paper still. Any tips?
I didn't mention it above but with the secretary I just filled in the split wood with wood filler and nailed it together where I could. You can see a line but that is okay.
Here are the pictures of my Secretary. I am still trying to figure out waxing with both clear and dark wax as well as the distressed look. I want it to look naturally distressed and in some areas it does look like that but in others not so much. I would love your feed back and tips. Currently I have Annie Sloan's clear wax and Fiddes and Sons Clear and Ruggar Brown wax. Okay while on that topic, I want to give a shout out to John Millen Hardware who I bought the waxes from on recommendation from Miss Mustard Seed. I ordered it and it was to me in 2 days!
I am still trying to figure out linky party etiquette so if you could also give me some tips on that I would appreciate it!

Paris Gray's feeling a little Blue!

Mommy's helper!

Thank you for looking!



                                                                         Linking to:

 

 

Stocking up!

New hobbies are incredibly expensive and time consuming! The problem with me, okay it isn't a problem per say but when I decide I want to try something I go all in. For instance sewing, I have sewn off and on over the years and I am more then a novice at this craft but still a long ways from being an expert, well since I  sewed I had to have a serger (Anniversary Gift). I like to make cards and do paper crafts so I bought a Cuttlebug and well since I had one of those I needed a Cricut Expression (also an Anniversary Gift) and lets not forget to mention the time my Abigail was  5 months old and I just had to have her wear bows and headbands. Yes, I had to go out and buy every e-book tutorial on how to make bows.. Do you see where I am going with this??? So here I am trying my hand at being a DIY'er and it started off easy enough (have I met me?) I heard about Annie Sloan's chalk paint and really wanted to try it out. I went to pick up Old White and Paris Grey and walked out with 2 additional colors. Now I found a really sturdy vintage desk on Craigslist but it is in great shape and I worried about messing it up, so I had to find a practice piece. That steal of a desk turned into a side table (which I actually sold !)  that side table turned into 2 chairs (1 finished), those chairs turned into a secretary desk (still shaking my head at that purchase, I may just give it away),  the secretary turned into a table, and well that table turned into 4 more chairs (1 is primed and it is sticky, what's up with that?).
Now each one of these items were purchased through craigslist and the most I paid for a single item was $25 or less. The little hiccup in my budget was that I had absolutely nothing, nada, zip, zilch, with regards to supplies. We rent, not much fixing up and painting going on here. So off I went since having blogs upon blogs of inspiration, Craigslist furniture and no supplies just wouldn't do. Yeah, supplies really add up especially since I had to buy an air compressor and pneumatic upholstery staple gun. (Did I mention, I jump in feet first, head first, etc.) I do have to preface the fact that I have really bad wrists and I gave it a valiant effort to use a manual and electric staple gun but I literally ended up with my wrists in my braces and Motrin for 3 days. I wonder if we could write those off as preventative medical expenses? Okay I digress, so I am armed with supplies and then there is the table fiasco (mentioned in another post, but bad stain job, stain weeping back up etc.) , which by the way has turned around nicely thanks to a nice man at Rockler Woodworking Store. I ended up taking the leaf of the table to this store and he told me hope was not lost. I just had to put on my "big girl panties" (okay he didn't say that!) but what he did say made me happy and I will post all about it in my Table reveal post.

So, I am not quite sure where this post came from, oh wait I remember now. So I am working on this table and I have 4 chairs. Hubby is really loving the progress on the table and asked how many chairs I have, well he wants 6 chairs and not mismatched. He said check Craigslist and if I find chairs in a set then we could just dump the table (I snickered at that!). This was actually music to my ears because I had my eye on a beautiful table and chair set on Craiglist for over a week, the table is very similar to Miss Mustard Seed's new dining table and the chairs were all cane back chairs. I had no money in my budget to buy this set with all my other furniture purchaseses but it was a good lesson, wait until it's just perfect, not because it's cheap.  When I saw the add for this table I really kicked myself because it was a beauiful table and was a full set whereas my table (it is a nice table) and the 4 little chairs is are not. The kicker, this set cost only $20 more, again I saw it as a lesson learned. With hubby giving the go ahead and look at Craigslist (he may block this site in the future!), I immediately checked and the table was still posted, I made contact and it is still available and they will sell it for $75 which is now $5 less then my original set. I am going to look at it tomorrow and most likely buy it. I will also be  faced with a dilemma. If this table is indeed nicer then the oak table I have pretty much poured my crafting heart and soul into, what do I do? I still have a ways to go on the current table, poly coating and painting the base. Maybe I will sell that one when it is finished. All I know is that I have never worked this hard physically, man it is hard work refinishing a table. I actually sweat (Carol Seaver "I do not sweat! I glissen!" Mike Seaver exit's room "Glissen like a pig!!" Carol Seaver Growing Pains..) when I am working but I truly have enjoyed it and when I wake up in the morning I look forward to finding time to work on these things. I will update on the new table and chairs as well as the old "new" table!

My First Reupholstery is DONE!!!

I don't know how all the DIY'ers do it. I am amazed at how many projects they have done and seem to do overnight. Me, well my little project turned into what seemed like forever. I painted, repainted, and then started the upholstery part but with my weak wrists stapling became a "wear your brace, take three Motrin's and check back in the morning" kind of  deal. My husband already had a manual staple gun but I knew I would need something with a bit more power so I purchased an electric stapler. For every 10 staples I shot, 8 of them had to come out. I also couldn't hold the fabric tight and hold down the gun very well. I was so frustrated after all that I have put into this project to come to this road. Hubby called me at the tail end of my discovering I just couldn't do it with the tools that I had. I broke down in frustration telling him my woes and the fact that I have discovered from various blogs that pneumatic is the way to go. Bless his heart, he said "well, I guess you will have to get one".  So with hubby's go ahead I went out and purchased a pneumatic upholstery staple gun and air compressor. I first purchased one from Home Depot (just a basic pneumatic stapler) but it had way to much power and shot those staples clear to the other side. That just won't do so I did a search and it seemed that upholstery guns need to be purchased online. I kept searching and actually found a local tool store that had one in stock. I immediately returned the first gun back to HD, and then bought the upholstery gun from Tool Up. The night before when I had the first gun I found this post about Upholstery Basics:Tool Time which walks you through getting your air compressor and staple gun all hooked up. I have to say the instruction manual for the air compressor scared me crazy and I feared I would get blown up. So see this post it took the scary away (sort of) and I followed those instructions again with my new staple gun. I immediately noticed a difference with this gun, the size was more comfortable and I could just tell this was the right one. The first time I shot a staple through the upholstery gun it was such a huge difference, it had just the right amount of power to drive the staple into the wood with out blowing through the wood. With in 10 minutes I had the back of the chair completed and was so happy, I had to run in the house and give hubby a big kiss!
I still needed to pull the fabric tight but no pressure on my wrists while stapling. The next night I worked on the base of the seat and it isn't perfect but for my first upholstery project I think I did really well. I used gimp to cover the staples and I burnt burnt the heck out of my forearm with the tip of the staple gun..ouch!! I do believe is going to scar. I have to say with all the trial and error my first project was a success. I do cringe at the fact that I have a whole other chair like this one to complete. The actual painting an reupholstery was not biggy compared to removing the original fabric. This was a big, big pain! I am trying to decide if I want to do the chair exactly the same or completely different. I currently don't have a spot for them in my house so these are just for fun projects.
I also have 4 dining chairs to start on, these will be a much easier project with just a base seat.
I wish I could update you with something positive about my dining table but this project has become worse and worse. It seemed like everything was going great but when I applied the stain it went from bad, to really bad. I talked with someone at a wood shop and they said I needed to re-sand the table. This is not going well at all. I will be taking the table leaf to the store to see if this is salvageable or if I just need to scrap it. Good thing it cost only $25 dollars. Of course that is not factoring in the cost of supplies.. I will update later! Here are the pictures of my chairs! I mentioned it in this post, but my inspiration was from Marian from Miss Mustard Seed, she is amazing and with how busy her blog is she was responded to my email so quickly. That made my day, well that and my finished chair!! Paint colors used: Old White as base, Duck Egg Blue all over, Paris Gray dry brushed, and clear wax

Dining Table Progress and a Sneek Peek!

I have two trains of thought right now. First is, if they can do it so can I and if I can do it anybody can do it! Let's add one more thought, "they make it look so easy and it's not!" The last few days I have been paint one of the Craigslist chairs I purchased. This chair has gone through quite a few changes. I first decided to paint the chair white, distress it, and wax it with both clear  and dark waxes. I only got to the clear wax and I kept looking at the chair with the "not sure" look. I love the white chair look however I felt like it need something else. I went hunting for more "drop cloth inspirations" and happened upon the fabulous Miss Mustard Seed blog and this french chair and the paint technique she used to achieve the look. I also found Little Place Called Home Sweet Home who used this same technique on a chair she had. What I really appreciated about LPCHSH's chair is she used what she had. She mixed a little paint here and there and came up with colors to achieve this look. I also posted a question on her blog and she responded right way, which really impressed me. So on to my chair, I invested in 4 Annie Sloan Chalk paints and really could not see my self spending any more money on paint. So working with what I had, I painted over the white with the Duck Egg Blue, let it dry, dry brushed Paris Gray, distressed, wax with clear, waxed with dark wax, showed it off to my hubby, kissed hubby as he headed off to bed, sat down looking at my chair for a half hour, and yes I picked up the paint brush again. It wasn't perfect! The dark wax gave it a more aged yellow look then the lovely antique look and the distressing had a hard look to it. So,  I opened up more Old White and dry brushed it, and wiped it off, distressed in some areas just until the white underneath showed, then sat back and knew it was finished!!!

Yesterday I started to work on reupholstering the chair. I have read many times over that any staple gun other then a pneumatic stapler is a waste of time, however after looking at some pricing on the whole thing (air compressor + staple gun) it didn't seem like an option. Plus, not everyone who does a reupholster job has a pneumatic, right? I went out and purchased an electric staple gun and got to work. Well for every 5 staples I shot, 4 of them I took out. Not only that but I couldn't pull the the fabric taut enough and get enough strength to staple. Now figure in the fact that I have weak wrists, I have tendinitis pretty bad (at times) in my left wrist, mildly in my right. I have been dealing with this for a couple of years and there really isn't much that can be done. Not only that but when I have gone into the Dr's. since my tendons don't swell up like the typical swelling they look at me like I am crazy. Top that off with the fact that the last flare up (the time before yesterday) I had was so bad they gave me Vicodin (can't take it) for the pain, something with that flare up did something and since then I have a constant dull (very manageable) ache and noticeable weakness in my wrists, who knew being a DIY required first-aid...haha! Okay I digress, but needless to say last night I started my regiment of Motrin, ice, and brace. So frustrated! I just can't handle the upholstering with weak wrists and a staple gun that needs strength and might! I complained to hubby, God love him and all is support of my various projects! Well, I think we will be getting the pneumatic staple gun. Until then my chair/s are put on hold, but I did want to show off a sneak peek of my paint job. I am pretty happy with the results and hope I can get to upholstering them soon.

What's a girl to do when she has the DIY bug and her project is put on hold? She starts another. I bought a table off of Craigslist for $25 dollars and started sanding it down, but I ended up putting a Varnish Stripper on it since sanding the edges has proved more difficult. With the sanding I got most (if not all) of the varnish off but wanted to make sure. I sanded the table and leaf on Friday night, added the stripper to the table yesterday (leaf today) and will sand and apply stain at some point this week. My older daughter has been on a mission trip to Israel since June 22nd, and comes home on Wed. (so happy!) so DIY will be put on hold when she is back.  In my search of table "how to's" I have found First Come's love and her table. I posted a comment and she responded right way. I am using her tips with my table.. Here are some pictures of my progress thus far.

Table top!

Leaf with Stripping Gel

My supplies!

Until next time!

We got the house, oh wait no we didn't!

One of the reason's I started to search out decorating blogs was because we put an offer on a house 2 months ago. Over the course of my marriage we have owned one home, sold that home, rented our current home, and have looked at a gazillion other homes. Honestly, all the "For Sale" homes should be a blur in my head, we have looked at so many. But it isn't a blur, it is very clear. We have looked at beautiful brand new model homes that make your heart race because of how beautiful they are.  Of course these come with a large mortgage, and some annoying thing that raises your monthly cost some $700+/month called Mello Roos (it should be illegal). These house are amazing, they are big, beautiful and there is nothing small about those homes except of course the yard. We have looked at more budget friendly houses, some needing just paint, some needing big updates, and I think one the houses even had the Swamp thing living in it's pool (green, yucky, smelly!) In the mix of all this we went to go look at a house that was in an area that wasn't even in our radar. We had decided to look because it was a good price and we figured "why not?" I wish we would have just skipped it all together because we loved it, we made an offer, (it is a short sale house) and 2 month's later the bank just accepted it! At this point I should be so happy right? Well, for about 1 day I was and now I am disappointed. You see the house we sold was sold on a short sale, this was a good thing for us at the time however there is a law that doesn't allow you to get a new loan for 4 years. We were aware of the restrictions but at some point in the last 5 months we were given misinformation and we were told it changed to 2 years, so we started looking for a house. Well, yesterday we found out that there is a clause for the the 2 year limit and we  don't  qualification. So now this house can't be ours. I am sad, my heart really was set on this house. It was a house we could see being our forever house and out of all the houses we looked at, it was the only one. Not to mention I could be a DIY decorator again. 
I don't know how long we will be in this house that we are renting. The truth is, I have been very happy in this house. It has a beautiful back yard, it is in a wonderful neighborhood, and whenever there is  a link we don't have to pay for it. If I allow myself to remember how I felt when my husband said we were going to start looking for a house to buy, I was not happy. I don't like change and that would be a change, not to mention I was happy (am happy) in this house.   I have however decided that just because we are renting it doesn't mean I can't decorate. I am limited in one respect, paint, hanging curtains, couches but there is a lot more I can do and will do.

So with that, I am an official Craigslist addict! The great thing about that is, i have scored some great pieces of furniture for a great price. Two days ago I purchase a round solid oak table. I am so excited about this table because of the plans that I have for it, white pedestal base and dark walnut stained top. I have seen this look all over and just love it. My current dining table is also a round wood table that I purchased along with two chairs for $25 off of Craigslist 2 years ago. It isn't anything special and it has served it's purpose it isn't the prettiest thing to look at. When I take a look around my house I don't really see "me" style. In fact there really isn't much style at all. I have simply gotten into a renters funk. The house we bought when we first got married (6 years ago come August 14) I spent months, painting buying curtains and making it home. I enjoyed that so much and I miss it. My thoughts with renting has always been, why invest when it might not fit in our new home. I am changing that slightly because if I pay $25 dollars for a table and it doesn't fit later that is okay. Today, I purchased 4 cane back chairs for $55, that's $13.75/chair. These chairs have ugly corduroy fabric but the frames are solid, heavy, and in great shape. One of the chairs does have a section on the leg that is missing wood but I can work with that. That chair is also an arm chair, while the others are not but again they match. I will be painting these white to go with my table. I have found a few blogs that have given some great tutorials and once I come back with my progress updates I will share.
I have been diligently working on my two cane arm chairs that I bought earlier this week and I really didn't realize how difficult pulling off upholstery would be. The base of the chair was quite easy, 4 screws off the the base of the chair, lots of stables and I have a base board (with mildew, yucky!), a piece of foam that has a dent ( I will fill it with something), and fabric to make a pattern out of. The backing of the chair took a lot of sweat, and might to get off. You will notice in the picture below, the chair has a groove all around the backrest, well the not only was the piping stapled into the grooves, but the backing as well. This was very difficult to pull up, I did it though. There are staples still in that I could quite get to. I will say, there has not been any tears but I bought two of these chairs!
I cleaned the seat board today with tsp, and Clorox and spay painted them, not mildew yucky anymore. I have been paint the chairs with Annie Sloan's Old White Chalk paint. Now, I am not a painting expert but I feel like I had to put on many more coats then others seem to have needed. I have put on  3 coats and in some areas, all I see is white but in others the darkness of the wood is poking through. I suppose it is the nature of the paint (best when distressed) and my inexperience in painting furniture. I started to distress the chair today but I am flip-flopping as to the look I want for it. Many of the blogs I have happened upon have a very distinct French Antique, French Country, or Shabby Chic style. I absolutely adore that style and there are elements of that I want to use, like the table idea I have, the drop cloth decor, the french stencils and many other fabulous elements. My struggle is merging that with the style that I have been gravitating towards, which is a Beachy Chic (not cottage), East Hamptonesque look.

I love the clean, crisp, bright white, neutral background, with the pop of color, and the dark wood mixed with white wood, swoon! I have googled search French Beach, Beach French, Beachy French, Frenchy Beach, well you get the idea.
I would love input into the little decor conundrum.
Well, I will say I am leaning towards either putting Paris Grey or Duck Egg Blue over the Old White and then distress down to the old white in some areas and then to the wood in others. My struggle which color? I will leave you with a few pictures of my chair progress, along with one of my newly acquired cane chairs. I am happy to say, these will be so easy to reupholster and I will be able to pull out my sewing machine to do it.
Thanks for stopping by!

Painted, and some distressing

Cane chair love! Look at the leg detail..

Duck Egg Blue or Paris Gray (side by side)

Dry Brushed Duck Egg, not loving!

I appreciate the indecision a $15 chair can affored me!

Upcycle, Thrift Store, Chalk Paint Bug!

I can't remember what I was searching for but about two weeks ago I happened upon a really great and inspiring blog: http://www.myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/
I spent 3 full days going over her blog, looking at all the projects she has completed and wishing I could do that. Then from her blog I was directed to other inspiring blogs and became determined that "I can do that!"  Now, the "I want to do that/I can do that" mentality is nothing new. I usually think that when I see something I like but at the same time I know there are certain resources needed. With these "projects" I need two things, an unwanted piece of furniture and then paint. I am happy to say I have just entered into the world of Annie Sloan Chalk Paints and upcycle furniture.
Now I tend to forget that several years ago when I moved into my first apartment I  purchased some black lacquer side tables and a coffee table. I also had cheap particle board hutch type book case/entertainment centers. I was thankful to have them but boy they were real eye sores. I ended up spending a few nights and a weekend painting and glazed them. This was 8 years ago and these pieces were very reminiscent of what I see on the blogs today. The great things is I turned those things into something pretty nice looking.

Well this past weekend I searched Craigslist and hit the swapmeet. I only found a side table at the swapmeet but currently in my den I have my said finished table ($10), $25 vintage desk and chair, $20 vintage secretary (I should have skipped this one on further inspection, the side I thought was a little crack is broke straight through), and a pair of $35 French like cane chairs, and 4 chalk paints. If you haven't guest it, when I decide to do something I jump in feet first! I am so so so excited about the chairs and as the picture will show I am in for a big project. I have never attempted to reupholster before so boy oh boy, google search commence!  Now I will need to work on my photo staging but  that will come with time. Well with out further ado, for the side table I used Duck Egg Blue, and Versailles chalk paint. I lightly distress, waxed, and lined the drawers with matching scrapbook paper..

Before:

and the finished table:

Lastly here is a picture of the chairs that are a work in progress. I have to say I really thought ripping off upholstery would be much simpler. The frame of the chair is in great shape but the guts are yucky! I took mesh fabric off from under the chair and found mildew on the wood seat base. I am figuring I will have to go to the hardware store and by another piece of wood to make a new base. Once I take the fabric off of the seat I will use the base as a pattern..easy right! haha..

I will be using the drop cloth that are so popular to reupholster the chair. Well, the chair is staring me in the face, so I am off to rip out more staples..

Rag Quilts for Two Little Loves!

 In the last week or so I have come across several blogs that have really inspired me. Most of the blogs are about decorating and furniture up-cycle projects. I was so inspired that I have purchased 3 pieces of furniture off of Craigslist and plan to try my hand at painting. That is not what this post is about but just wanted to say I am inspired, which will give me some meat for my blog in the future! 
Okay onto my quilt post!  My sister Tiffany had twin boys a few weeks back.Gavin and Landon are such a blessing and this Auntie wanted to put her crafting skills to good use.  I knew I didn't want to just go and buy a gift at the store but I had no idea what I could make. The thing with my crafting is I don't craft as much as I desire too. I sit and think about how much I would like to make a dress, make a blanket, play with my Cricut Expression but in the end I just don't do it. I think a lot of my problem when it comes to crafting is that I get intimidated by the whole process. I am self taught in most of what I do and well I am no very organized.. No matter I was determined to make something for my nephews and whatever I made I wanted it to be special and something that they could use long after their newborn days. I was searching blogs and came across this tutorial on a Minky Stripe Rag quilt. I looked at this quilt and just knew this was what I was going to make. I went to the fabric store and found a cute owl print fabric, came home and got to work. Not only that but I finally got my embroidery part of my machine working again (just needed a serial converter).  These are the first rag quilts I have ever made and I am so happy I went with the stripe quilt vs. the square. I ran into some challenges but mmainly getting all the fabric to be cut evenly. Overall I am so pleased with how they turned out. The blankets vary slight in size but you would only know this if you laid them on top of each other. I will definitely make one of these again! She sent me pictures of the boys (they live in VA) with there blankets, highlight of my day. Here are a few pictures of the finished blankets...

 Yellow Owl Print

 Blue Owl Print Both together

Both together