What I've Been Up To...Vacation Day 4

Well, I lied and didn't post every day.  I just needed a break from social networks, telephones, people, etc.  Tonight is the end of my 4th day of vacation.  I only have 6 days left!  My how time flies when you aren't working.  What have I been up to, you ask?  Well, let me tell ya!

I have been painting my interior doors black!  It's something that I have been wanting to do for about a year now and I have had the paint for a couple of months.  I went to Sherwin Williams and told the sweet little clerk girl what I wanted to do and she suggested I use their All Surface Enamel Acrylic Latex in Low Lustre Black, since I was painting over white doors.  I trusted her, after all, she works there!

I started painting last night and ugh!  The first coat, I thought I'd made a big mistake, or that she had!  It was shiny and weird looking!  I was scared!!  Already committed, I thought to myself, I will just do another coat and check it out in the morning.  By the second coat, it was growing on me.  It's still a little shinier than what I'd imagined in my head, but it looks really nice!  The paint is thick and goes on really nice.  This paint is STINKY though and I highly recommend that you work in a well ventilated area.  I opened all the windows and had fans going, so it wasn't too bad.

I tried to take the door off the hinges, but it's just me and well, yeah, that didn't work out so well, so I just painted it as it hung!  I am really pleased with how it turned out!  Did I already say that?

I also took my brass door handles or levers off and primed and painted them with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze.  What a transformation!!

I don't know how they'll hold up, but it's just me and my pups here, and I really don't use the handles that much, except the closets and the bathroom, so we shall see!

I ordered some Rub n' Buff for the hinges, so they'll match up a bit better, since I can't get them off by myself.  I ordered Ebony and Spanish Copper.  The two used together look like oil rubbed bronze, at least that's the word in blog land!

I soldered a bunch of pendants and made a few necklaces to get ready for the holiday season and to finish up a couple of custom orders..

I was going to pour resin tonight, but I am just toooo tired, so I will fit it in tomorrow somewhere between grocery shopping and getting the carpets cleaned.  Woooo hoooooooo  What a vacation, huh?!?  What a wild woman you must think I am!!  Lol!!  I've had my wild fun, now I love putting my energy into productive things that make me wayyyy happier! :)

I also changed the hardware on my entry table to oil rubbed bronze and decoupaged vintage hymnal pages to the bottom of the drawer.

So, that's what I've been doing!   What have you been up to?

Chalk Paint Entry Table

My cute little entry table, which was originally a vanity table is complete!  I just love it!  What do you think?

I didn't have time to set it up in nice lighting or stage it, but this gives you an idea of how she turned out.

VACATION!!!

I don't have much to report today.  I was going to do a post on my kitchen cabinets, but I got lazy and didn't take pics, lol, so I am just going to ramble a bit before work.  I only have two more days of work left before I start my ten day vacation!  No planes, no resorts, just kicking it right here in Michigan.  The weather is fantastic today and the weather report says it will continue through the week.  YAY!!  I love fall in Michigan.  There's a nice breeze and the sun is shining!  My kind of weather!  I am spending my vacation with rock stars like Annie Sloan, Cece Caldwell and many religious saints.  I will be painting and soldering!  My 2 favorite things to do.

However, I may sneak off to Cadillac to our cabin for a few days and tire out, oops, I mean play with my puppies that have soooo much energy!  Until tomorrow.......

Chalk Paint Vanity Turned Entry Table

I found this cute vanity table at my local Salvation Army.  I wish I had taken before shots, because she was in ROUGH shape.  Nothing compared to what she is starting to look like now.   This table contains a lot of firsts for me.

I sanded the top down and filled the holes where the mirror was supposed to attach.  I used Cece Caldwell Simply White Chalk Paint on the lower portion and for the first time ever, I tried my hand at glazing.  I used Ralph Lauren Tea Stain Glaze.  Glazing is a lot more difficult than I would have thought, but I think that for my first time, it turned out okay.  Trying to avoid hard lines was the hardest part.  I waxed it with Annie Sloan Clear Wax.

Another first for me was using Webster's Chalk Paint powder.  I mixed it with Behr French Roast.  I was really happy with the way that it went on.  NO BRUSH MARKS!  I had to add a little more powder than the package suggested, but I love this color, so it was okay with me.  I distressed and waxed again.

This is what it looks like so far...

I am still waiting for the glaze to dry on the drawer so I can wax it and finish her up.  I am thinking of dark waxing the top as well.  Let me know what you think!  Thanks for stopping by!

Thomasville Tables Craigslist BARGAIN!

I found a sofa table and 2 end tables on Craigslist on Thursday.  The price was $50 for the sofa table and $50 for the 2 end tables.  I e-mailed the person and got no response.  I woke up Friday morning and the pieces were still there and better yet, they lowered the price!  It was $25 for the sofa table and $30 for the end tables.  I tried frantically to e-mail the seller ALL DAY!  Finally, I gave up.  I was getting dinner ready and while I was waiting for the grill to warm up, I finally got an e-mail from the seller!  I called her, set up a time, which gave me about an hour and a half to get dinner done, eat, and get cleaned up.

Off I went!  I stopped to get gas and then I got a little nervous.  A woman e-mailed me, but I talked to a man on the phone.  I had my pepper spray, but no one knew where I was going exactly.  So I called my son, in Denver, and told him where I was going unless I came up missing!  He laughed and called me a dork, but took the info anyway.  When I got there, to my relief, they were a wonderful, friendly couple in their late 40's that ran a day care.  I looked at her treasures and told her that I would take them.  As her hubby and I were loading them, she hollered to me, "You can have this one for $10 too, if you're interested."  It matched the rest of the tables and the varnish was peeling on top, but other than that, it was really nice.  I took that one too!  Four great solid wood Thomasville pieces for $70?!?  That's a Craigslist BARGAIN!

Excuse my messy house.  I swear, I haven't been home, except to eat and sleep, for a month or more!

I plan to use my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on these and I can't wait!!  I am not sure what color yet, but  I am on vacation next week and ya know what I'll be doing??  Painting and soldering :)  They are my joy!  My happiness!  Strange, but true!

Painted Upholstery Update

So after I already scrapped the idea of painting my chairs upholstery Robin Egg and started painting it with my black Yudu ink, a friend at work asked if I had tried to give the paint a light sanding to soften it up.  Hmmmm, I never thought of that!  Even after working 12 hours, when I got home, I did just that and ya know what?!?  It worked!!  Now I am having an inner conflict as to what color to paint the upholstery.  I love the Robin Egg and I originally imagined painting the frame of the chair in Old Ochre and the upholstery Robin Egg.  Do I continue with the black or go back to the Robin Egg?

These pics are not good, after all I'd just worked 12 hours, lol, but this is 2 watered down coats of the black Yudu ink and one coat of the Robin's egg.  I think that I may stick with the black this time, just because it might be really hard to cover that black up with the Robin's Egg.  I would love your thoughts on this!!

Time for this old girl to hit the hay!  Have a good night!! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Painting Upholstery

My new adventure for the day was to paint the upholstery on this cane barrel chair that I got at Goodwill for $4!  I love, love, love old cane chairs, although barrel isn't my favorite, it was $4 and I just couldn't turn it down!   I figured worst case scenario, I would throw it out or try my hand at reupholstery.

The upholstery was in great condition, just not my style.  I didn't have the supplies for painting it that I found on the internet and being the impatient girl that I am, I decided to use what I have.  First, I tried Design Master's Color Tool in Robin's Egg.  Ummm NO!  It's a cute color, but the spray made every little fiber stand out like crazy.  Then I decided to try my Yudu screen printing inks.  I would have liked to use a different color, but I had a ton of half opened bottles of black.  Once you open them, it's really hard to get that nice consistency back.  So, I went with the black.

I added quite a bit of water to them, but the paint was still a lot like cottage cheese!  No worries though.  I just dipped my brush in a container of water and then in the paint.  I painted in a sort of cross hatch pattern to get all of the fabric painted.

It went on really well, except where I had spray painted it with the Robin's Egg.  The fiber's still stick out like a sore thumb.  It kind of looks like black wool with blue fibers.  I will see how it looks after I put more coats on.

I hope that it dries fast because the clouds are rolling in and it looks like we might get some rain.  I hope not, this is my only day off!!

On a good note, I got both of my French typography tables done!!  If you need some great vintage images or just need some inspiration, check out The Graphics Fairy!

I am thinking of listing these on Craigslist later today.  I just don't have anywhere to put them.  Have a great day!  See ya tomorrow!

My Own Worst Enemy

Okay, I have been a bit ridiculous about blogging.  Months go by and I don't post a thing.  I haven't finished any jewelry or finished painting any furniture in quite some time.  I can't make excuses anymore.  I hold myself back.  I always have.  I really don't know why!  Is it fear of success?  Is it because I am comfortable where I am at?  Hmmm....

So, here's my plan.  I am going to make sure that I post SOMETHING at least once a day.  It may not be spectacular or even very interesting, but I have to dedicate myself to doing this.  I am also making sure that I do at least one thing toward finishing either a piece of jewelry or a piece of painted furniture. I have to hold myself to this and put it right in my schedule, otherwise I will just fall of the face of the internet again!  Holiday bazaar's are coming up and I need to get some inventory!

See ya tomorrow!

A Chalk Paint Epiphany!

I have been playing with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Cece Caldwell Chalk Paint for a few months now.  It did the job.  It had a decent finish.  Some of my pieces turned out mediocre and some turned out really good, but not good enough for me.  Small pieces, I have not had a problem with, they turn out great, but the furniture, I haven't had the best of luck with.  I have spent quite a bit of money trying to learn how to get the professional finish that I wanted, without traveling to an workshop miles and miles away.  In hindsight, it would have been cheaper to travel all of those miles, but eh, I am a diy girl!  I am self taught!  I can do this!

This is the first weekend that I've had off from everyone and everything.  I am determined to get some of this furniture painting done.  Tonight, while I was struggling with my Coco dresser on the deck, in the dark, with mosquitoes biting me everywhere and low lighting, I finally saw the finish I was looking for!!  I was so excited that I didn't even notice all that buzzing in my ears!  Finally!!!  I wish I could continue to work on it tonight, but those mosquitoes are really eating me up!  So stay tuned!