Brooch Bouquet

I just wanted to share a few pictures with you from my wedding on my brooch bouquet that I amazingly enough made for myself. I am working on a couple of other ones, but this is mine, and my wedding! Some of the brooches in here are ones from people in my family, i had asked friends and family to contribute, and this is what i created! There will never be another one like this and it has a special place in my bedroom now!

 This is me in all my glory on July 23, 2011!

Enjoy-

Another fun filled weekend!

I had another great and exciting weekend, this weekend was filled with picking up some stuff I had won in a auction from a town on the Texas Oklahoma border called Sherman! I spent the weekend locked up in my house pricing items while it was 70-80 degrees outside! You have to love Texas! I even put on my flip flops once or twice to take care of somethings! 

I managed to get 3 pieces of furniture redone over the weekend, here is just a small preview with some better pictures coming later on this week. Let me know what you think about the before and afters. 

  

This desk was done in coco, and Louis blue. I like the way it turned out just perfectly feminine for whoever plans on purchasing it!

 This chair I knew I had to have, it had great structure, but it was horrible in color and the pad was messed up. The auction owner said "its not a sitter" needless to say that wasn't good enough for me!

So I grabbed a socket and tightened the chair up, slapped some graphite paint on her, added a 1" cushion to the chair and then recovered it in some great fabric i got off the internet!

This is a great looking curio cabinet, we really needed a solution in the booth to show off glass pieces, and currently only had part of a hutch that we were using. 

So I took off the clock, and some of the doors on the front, it is painted with Antibes green on the inside and old grey on the outside, I also added the cute and feminine rose knob to the front.

Sorry about the pictures, I will bring you some better ones later this week, the internet crashed at the house so we are waiting for a new router!

Preview of some Chalk Paint Projects!

 Hello Everyone! I just wanted to share with you some of the projects that I have been working on lately, some of these still have more things that need to be taken care of on them, some are finished. These are all going to go into the booth at Pickers Point hopefully this weekend! Then I have a load of furniture to bring down from the Sherman area this weekend as well! 

 

Here is a before picture of a chest of drawers I have had for quite some time. Kind of plain and boring.

Here is the after of these drawers!

 This is a "group" shot of some of the projects I have been working on! As you can tell I have been a busy bee! I am in love with Annies Antibes Green, and Emperors Silk!

 I am considering putting a chalk board in each of these frames what do you think?

This is just a small gold vase I found sitting on top of my project chairs. 

Hope you enjoyed the small preview! 

More Painting

Last night I decided to give the painting on the cabinets a break, and sat down and painted a few different things. I only have a picture of a cabinet, and of course its a cruddy cell phone picture. 

This is a chest done in Provence from Annie Sloan, I need to find some new drawer pulls for it, and i would like to stencil the front of it with something. I have decided not to distress it, because I like the blue that it is, it could bring a nice pop into our booth! I am also still debating on if it is going to go into the booth or not! 

What do you think I should stencil on the front? 

Here are a few of my ideas!

I am also considering a birdhouse or a tree....

What do you think? Click on the pictures for the sources :)

What a busy weekend!

Between bountiful basket pick up, a massive tamale party I put together and the arrival of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint my weekend was packed fuller then its been for a while. College starts back up in a week, so I am trying to knock out some home improvement things between then and now.

 This is the kitchen that we were given when we bought the house 2 years ago... you can tell from below a lot has changed!

First I decided to paint just the island to see how the Chalk paint took to the cabinets.... it didn't take but a few hours to decide that the bottom cabinets were getting a makeover. 

This is what I am currently dealing with in my house! Notice the several wine bottles on the counter! (I joke) While it is stressful I am tired of my house being so dark, so this is one of the attempts to lighten it up a bit. 

We have plans to take out the top cabinets, rip out the soffett that is above the cabinets. Put up open shelving all around the kitchen. Get a new butcher block counter tops, tile a back splash, get a new ventahood and of course do the floors. Sounds fun huh? Oh we will also eventually put up a new ceiling over the "pop corn". I will have to also get new base boards paint the trim of the current doors etc AND paint the cabinet that is oddly place in my kitchen! Wanna help? 

That's a lot! I am so sorry for the cruddy cell phone pictures but while I disappear for a few days I will be working on getting my bottom cabinets done and start pulling out the top ones!

The Master Bath Makeover

My bathroom is something that I have hated ever since we moved into the house. The tile needs to be redone in the shower, the shower head leaked everywhere, the color on the walls was a slightly mint tinted white, everything is white with some ugly tile and dark grey grouting. Old Manila toilet... and absolutely no storage for towels. 

What were my plans? To rip it out of course... but since neither of us have hit the lotto in 2 years I decided to compromise. After I put the grey paint up on the walls it just started to fall together. Two years later I can now shower in my own bathroom instead of the guest bathroom! Do you know how amazing of a feeling that is?

Here are the stock before photos of the house... I have never liked how sterile it was and had no idea how to get some more storage. 

 See Cracked tile in the shower bottom and old tiny shower head that would never even dream of doing much? 

Our house didn't even come with a bathroom mirror. This is something that I have struggled with for a long time... We have tried several mirrors have never had success! The light bar and those switches on the wall are just in the wrong place. 

There is not much to say about the tub being too bad... it is jetted and done correctly. 

This is after we moved in... no storage and nonfunctional. 

Now for the AFTER!

Old window frame + hooks = awesome towel rack

Do you see how much room I have between my shower door and the wall? There inst enough room to put a hutch in there without it being in the way. So the solution with the window works out very well for us! 

I stole this mirror out of my bedroom, and of course there is now a empty wall in my bedroom, but I think it belongs in my bathroom.

The tub, with some perfect pinup pictures and the grey walls! I think the Grey on the walls really helped to break up this room and make it become a lot more relaxing. 

Can I tell you how in love I am with this Faucet? It is a Kohler rainfall faucet and its AMAZING! I did patch the tiles in the bottom of the shower. I do understand it will need a new tile floor but I am ok with it now! First shower in my own bathroom in 2 years of living in this house.... amazing... I stayed in their way longer then I should have especially with 7 liters a minute....

I picked up this hand painted treasure at the Brass Armadillo in Roanoke! 

Here is a small view of the cabinet we hung to take care of the "beauty product" section. Now I need to find something to stick in the frame!

Well I didn't do a terrible amount of work... but it works and now it is functional and relaxing... and that is what i believe counts! What do you think about my bathroom makeover?

 

Annie Sloans Chalk Paint

Earlier this week I shared with you one of the best packages that I have ever received. 

Oh this very heavy little box was filled with such goodies, and so much creativeness that was still to be had! 

This week I bought 4 colors! Paris Grey, Graphite, Old White, and Louis Blue. I also received some clear wax and one of those funky looking wax brushes. 

I have been eager to try out Annie Sloans Chalk Paint, one reason why is because I have used her competition which is the Old Fashioned Milk Paint which comes in those cute little paper bags. The downfall is you have to mix it yourself. I have read so much about Annie Sloans I finally took the plunged and ordered them through my Aunt In Law that happens to be a stockist. You can find her over at TLC Vintage Collection she is the only stockist in Iowa and sells her paint at the Brass Armadillo!

With some free time to spare this week I decided I would redo a couple of chairs I picked up at a Antique Mall over the weekend.

I still need to recover one chair, wax both chairs and finish up the trim on the chairs, but I dont think thats a bad start for only a few hours worth of work. What do you think? Do you like the results?