Something Special

Monday, May 27, 2013

Adventures in Chalk paint

My husband and I aquired this antique buffet about 25 years ago. We were so thrilled to get it because it was a family heirloom. I was told it came from Sweden on the boat with the first Askeroth to come over in 1880 It had been painted in a gold leaf type finish and the top was left to the oak finish. There used to be lead and cut glass in the curved sides, but that got so broken up that it had to come out. Then in the 90's when everyone was tole painting, I put the little scrolly touch on the bottom drawer. Just last week, I decided to finally paint it again and give it a little update. I used Annie Sloane chalk paint color "Poloma" and the result was exciting. I then put a layer of the cream wax on it and lightly sanded it off. I know if I put the dark wax on and rub it off, it might change the color. So for now I am going to leave it as is. I love it! And I would love to have some input here on it too from my blogging friends.
Here is the before. . . . . . .

. . . . and the After with the chalk paint finish. The Poloma color is grey with a lavendar tint to it! Almost all of the hardware is original to the piece, and I spray painted it with Rustoleum "Hammered Iron" and added a carved element to the bottom drawer to give it a little bit more drama to the buffet.

I am thinking of maybe putting a dark vintage wall paper in the back behind the dishes. Any thoughts on this?

and in April I did my first chalk painted project, from a cabinet I bought for $5.00 at a yard sale. Here are the before and after pictures of that cabinet. . . . . .

It was quite dirty and the glass was broken out of the door.

I did my chicken wire treatment on it and added some braided molding on the drawer. this chalkpaint is some that I made myself useing unsanded grout powder in the paint. I sold it for $55.00 so that was a good profit with that one.

Have a new chalk paint project coming up, can't wait to see how that one turns out.

Happy Memorial day to everyone!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

New for the Etsy shop and some new cards

I have been in a blog posting slump. So I have gotten together some photos of projects that were recently done for Mother's day sales. I have had some strange and crazy things happen in the last little while. I hope to get out of the slump I have been in.

I have been taking vintage dishtowels and turning them into something else. This embroidered one took on new form of a swag for a retro kitchen style.

I made some cards recently. They are all different with some being for thankyou and some just because!

some of the cards were already in celaphane ready to sell.

A very Country French one

I made some burlap bags for the Country store too.

Framed shabby French pieces

Lots of cards

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Fairy Children Inspiration!

Well it is long overdue, as my involvement with the Clark Co. fair has caused me to put this so cute post off. Last week or so, I recieved my 6 tags from the Fairy Children tag swap, hosted by JoAnne at Vintage dragonfly.

It was great fun to see where they came from. All but one came from people I have swapped with before. Here are the tags I recieved. They are all so exquizitely made and envoke the feeling of spring so well! Just beautiful!

This beauty is so layered and just gets me really excited. It was made by the talented hands of Mercedes Scott of mercedesscott.typepad.com

This gorgeous one comes from Lorainne Beaumont at rainebeau.blogspot.com

This sweet one was made by Kimberly Laws at artjoystuff.blogspot.com ( have several of her things scattered around my craft studio)

This pretty one was the work of the talented Jo West of mypaperplayhouse.blogspot.com

This cool one came from Sandi McLean at scrapbookinwithg.blogspot.com I love the textures she used!

This very lovely one comes from Jess Moore of scrapsavings.blogspot.com

And this is how I have them displayed in my craft studio, so I can see them all the time. I bought this antique carpenter's ruler from Kimberly's Etsy shop last year and unfolded it to hang my favorite tags on. A few of the tags here are from previously.

Now I will show you the tags that I made for the swap. I had fun doing them up. It is funny how it just evolves, and when you start putting them together, you are sure what you are going to do, but one thing leads to another. I was so happy with the color palatte on these.

and if that wasn't enough fairy stuff, I just had to play around a bit more and came up with this fun little poster. It will hang in the craft studio too.

I hope that everyone is having a most wonderful April and SPRING!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Selling my Wares at the Clark County Fair

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted, simply because I have been so busy getting ready for the Clark County Fair's Country Store. I live here in Logandale, NV where the Clark County fairgrounds are. Las Vegas is part of Clark County, so it is quite a large fair that lasts 4 days. I helped set it up and worked there during the fair also. Whew, I am glad it is over! The following photos are of my wares and my section in the Country Store.

First off this is the black satin covered dress form I got for $5.00 at an estate salea few weeks ago. It smelled reallly bad of cigarette smoke, so I got the most flowery bottle of Febreze and dowsed it about 6 times. The odor came completely out and it smells so fresh. I have other plans for this dress form, but for now it was beautiful covered with an antique dickie and a vintage collar. It was perfect to hold all of my necklaces I have made that are for sale.

Next up at the same day I found this little gem of a cabinet. Broken glass and very dirty, but there was a vision and it turned into this. . . . . . . . . .

Love I added molding to the drawer and painted it with a Robin's Egg Blue chalk paint that I made myself.

Here is another tray that was in an earlier post from the same day of yard sale finds. I love chalkboard art, so thought it would be fun to do some on the chalkboard I had for sale.