2 Word Wednesday- 4/03/13

Meet Muriel!!

Happy "Everything-old-is-new-again" Day!

-Michele

Monday Makeover...

Hey friends! I hope you've enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. Me? I was sicker than a dog. (Where does that saying come from, anyway? Do dogs get more sick than humans? Do they have higher temperatures or require more bottles of Pepto or NyQuil? I'm guessing no) Ugh. I am so glad to have had an extra day to recuperate...

Here's a little makeover I did on a pair of chairs. My mother-in-law apparently has a whole barn-full of goodies waiting for some spray-paint love. (How did I not know this sooner?) I think she found these at a yard sale..not sure. They were just sitting in the barn like a lonely set of twins, begging for some attention...

When the man's mom asked if I'd like them, I thought for......oh stop. You know I took them faster than she could finish asking. I don't know where they are going to go, but one thing I'm sure of? They were free and Holy-set-of-wrought-iron!! Who loves "free" more than me?

Two super-heavy, bottomless FREE chairs..

          I wasn't going to do the measuring on those chair bottoms. I'm pretty sure people would actually like to sit on them and not fall through..The seats are what we in Utah call "skewampous." I think Utahns mean skewed or crooked, but I love that word....

The only thing I purchased for the project. The foam was 6 dollars for a two pack. Woo Hoo! Oh yes, only a teacher would use a fat Crayola marker to draw professional lines. I do what I can...

Upholstery fabric I had on hand for bags...

The fabric LOOKS even...

Until I get my spatially challenged hands on it.

Finally, some beautiful, left-over red paint that I bought for a bookshelf. The eldest helped me with the painting, but due to the 100 degree weather, no pictures were allowed of the process :) I promise, we DID paint them :)

C'mon...how cute are they? BTW, if you were thinking the same thing as the man and wondering why I didn't leave them yellow since I painted the last set that color...I say, "completely different shade, darlin'." Duh! .....Ahem. Just kidding. Were it not for the man, those cute chairs would have fabric bottoms only, and I can only surmise lawsuits galore..

Have a great short-work-week, friends :)

These little lights of mine...

I was only fourteen, but I'm picturing the lovely woman who lived in this house in 1984. I don't know who she was or what she was like, but I'm imagining a conversation between her and her man....

The 80's lady:  "Honey, I'm kind of tired of the macrame and brown glass hanging lamps hung everywhere we turn. What do you say we go downtown, have a nice dinner and pick-up some new lighting for the house? I hear gold is fashionable right now and I'll bet we'll be back in time for that new L.A. Law..."

Her man: " Hmm. I don't know. I don't want to miss CHEERS. Hows about we stop at the golden arches and get one of those new McDLTs? Since it's just down the street, we might as well just go to ACE. They're the place with a helpful hardware man."

And it was there, I'm sure, where it all went downhill. On an endcap. Aisle 4. Maybe on clearance. The woman's dreams of tasteful lighting would go by the wayside for the low, low price of 14.99. For an eight pack. Gold? No. But wasn't brass close enough?

The man : "See honey? I picked up some wrenches,  duct tape AND we found your lighting!  You can thank me later.  Plus, there are probably enough fixtures here for every light in our house. "

And guess what? There were. And they weren't hideous; at the time.....

But it is 2011. And everywhere you turn, you see the hopes and dreams of a classy lady gone wrong.... In the repetitive shape of an octagon..

Below is a pic of the man when we moved in wondering if we could afford to replace all those babies. Or maybe he was hoping I wouldn't mind. I do like vintage, right?

We are slowly replacing them. I'm sure the next owners of this house will wonder what in the world I was thinking when I replaced a bunch of brass energy-sucking lights out with lighting circa 1940.

The library used to be the first family's dining room. I've always wanted to have a simple chandelier hanging in there as both an homage to the family and as an excuse to banishing the brassy, glassy octuplet, kindly joining him with his others in the depths of the wasteland we call our garage.

I wonder if the man of the Reagan generation also was bribed into changing out fixtures with "pretty please" and  a bowlful of jellybeans.

2 down, 6 to go. We'll get there. Hopefully it will be before brass comes back in style. If you own those little octagon lights and happen to love them and their style, I am happy to give you any extras you might require to complete your set. 

What's the lesson here? Use what makes you happy. Use what you can afford.  Try not to match every single light with one another, Mix it up. Express yourself.

You rock the metal of your choice, woman of the millennium! If you can't get the exact lighting you envision, go and check out the clearance section at Home Depot or a resale shop. Wherever it comes from, own it like it was your choice all along.

Now. On to this baby...

I'm off to find some spray paint and a set of scaffolding.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, friends :)

Chalk it up to procrastination...

The world's worst procrastinator? You're reading her blog. I don't know what or why it is, but I've always waited until the very last minute to complete something that is required of me. Those things are  never finished late or are lacking any quality, but I absolutely walk the line of, "One day little lady, you are going to find yourself out of time and nothing to show for it!"

I usually do have something to show for it,  just not the "it" that is suppose to be completed. I like to call it "Active Procrastination". It means, "No, I didn't finish the assignment that's coming up, but look what I DID do!!"

A complete cop-out, I know. I have few projects on the front burner.  Not even difficult projects. I don't know. Something in me just shuts down.

For example, instead of completing a simple "expected" task yesterday, I filled the day doing a bunch of ridiculously random things. Instead of sitting down and getting to work on something that probably would have taken at most a few hours, I-

-made a cake
-mopped the floor
-started up a conversation with the Fed Ex lady (Who was delivering a package to a neighbor. Pathetic, I know)
-moved around furniture
-dusted (seriously, how desperate was I?)
-made a chalkboard.

While all nice chores/ activities, none of them needed to be done as badly as the aforementioned tasks. Ugh. And now, mind you,  I'm writing up a random blog post.

On one hand I have to now put my nose to the grindstone and get working. On the other hand, I have an awesome little chalkboard. Some days, you have to take whatever you can get...

So. Do you have a conference to attend? A project or paper coming up? Bills to pay? Phone calls to return? Me too. Let's get to it.......or I could show you how to make a chalkboard.... Yes, let's do that instead....

You need:

A frame with an attached backing (no glass) or an old cabinet door or a cute old calendar board that you bought at a resale store for say, 3 dollars!!
Paint brush
Chalkboard paint
Chalk
Sand paper
Painter's tape

                                          

1. Take your board and clean any dust or dirt off.

.

2. Make sure your paint is stirred thoroughly before you begin

3. Sand the edges of your project if you like an older, worn look. Tape off where you would like your chalkboard. If you like a clean look, you'll want to paint the outside border of the frame first.

4. After sanding, wipe any sawdust or residue off of the chalkboard area. Paint two coats, making sure to completely cover the area. You want to let dry about 45 minutes between the coats. This would make a perfect time to catch up on needed tasks, or say, bake a cake :)

5. When completely dry, use chalk to "season" the chalkboard. Completely cover the board and erase or wipe away with a dry cloth. Your chalkboard will now be ready to use.

6. Perhaps you could make a check-off list of all the things you're supposed to be doing or you could make a list to at least keep everyone else on track.  :)

Have a productive day, friends :)

Mini Redo-

On one of our "vintage" shopping trips, we found this adorable old mail center shelf. As much as I love to paint, I wanted to leave this one alone. First, I love the way each compartment has a simple white splash of paint with a stenciled number. Second, I would in NO way enjoy painting each of those little cubes....

In lieu of paint, I decided to back each cube with a piece of scrapbook paper. I went with pastels since it was going in the craft room. If I ever change my mind on color, (imagine!) I can always switch out the papers.

Now I have a neat little place to store my ribbons and things. Isn't it cute?

Happy Thursday friends :)

"You know, we can buy NEW things sometimes....."

This is in no way an endorsement from my husband to run down to Anthropologie and shop like there's no tomorrow. It's not even an invitation to stop at Target for a few things from the dollar section. Instead, it is a small plea for me to stop shopping at garage sales and resale shops. To stop perusing Ebay and the Salvation Army for that one item I didn't know I needed until I saw it.

I'm a little obsessed, I tell you. I love looking at something odd and seeing how it could function in our house. I love that it belonged to someone else a long time ago, and that they too probably smiled when they found just the right place for it in their home. I adore vintage and antique-looking things; items that just may have a story. Now- you will not find me spending hundreds of dollars on something just because it was built 150 years ago. I don't really care who the architect/builder was, or the exact period things might be from. I don't have a "dealer". (I'm not buying crack)  Instead, I want to feel something when I look at it. I buy old cookbooks because they have handwritten recipes inside the pages, old sewing patterns because I imagine the excitement some young mom had in making the newest dress of the season. I love finding pieces of milkglass because it's what my grandmother had as I was growing up.

Orphan stuff. We own a hutch that someone's Dad made, an end table from my mother-in-law's garage because I found the shape and color beautiful. (and it was free!) I have a soup tureen from one of my dearest friends. It doesn't match anything in my kitchen, but it is displayed proudly and makes me smile each time I pass it- because it belonged to a gorgeous woman who loved her family. As you can imagine, our house does not look like Pottery Barn or a showroom from Thomasville. But it is warm, comfortable and loved. There are a lot of odd little pieces in this house and I wouldn't want it any other way.

My husband interprets some of my purchases/gifts/rescues as used and worn; dare I say it, junk. Why would I want that old thing? I'd like to say that he's not snobby, but he does have a distinctive look on his face when he walks into stores that have certain odors of the past. He's been known to ask me if I really paid money for some of what I bring home. I can't tell if it's embarrassing to him or not. Does it reflect his ability to provide for us? Absolutely not. Maybe boys just don't get it. Remember, this man loves shiny new gadgets that have megabytes and codes and stuff....

Though I joke, I love him dearly for taking a deep breath and entering those resale shops with me. For smiling when I drag something in the house that might be missing a few screws or pieces. I understand that he can't always see what I do in these things, but man o man, he sure tries. Most of the time he'll nod his head, shrug his shoulders and endure; not only because he knows how much these silly things mean to me, but because more than likely, our next stop will be Best Buy.

"Hold me, Bob Villa...."

These are the words I imagine Martha Stewart screaming while witnessing any of my versions of crafting, sewing or home improvement. I picture both Martha and Bob hugging their knees and rocking in the fetal position, absolutely appalled at what lies before them.
"Why, why, why Bob, is she painting a perfectly fine sewing cabinet?"
"Did you see her nail that picture to the wall without using a ruler, level or a stud?"
"Did she really just sand and paint that piece of furniture without proper ventilation? Without removing all the pieces? Without a stinking drop cloth?!"
"Did she attach the hardware before the paint was completely dry?"
"Oh no, Martha.  Please say she didn't paint those drawers with stuff still in them?"

Yep. I kind of did. We bought the cabinet for 20 bucks over ten years ago at a resale shop. I wanted to paint it the day we brought it home. I know, I procrastinated a bit. But now it's done and I love it.

So, sorry Bob. Sorry Martha. I'm not the best rule-follower. But hey, while you're shaking your head at me in disgust, check out the chair I revamped too. Good news guys- I actually took it apart before painting it. Woo Hoo! I need my own show on HGTV ;)

sewing cabinet before-

 sewing cabinet after:

Chair before and after

Finished project :)