Wow, I'm so sorry, its been way to long since I've posted. But I do have an excuse, I have been so busy, buying up all sorts of things and getting them redone that I seriously have had little time to get online and post.
I'm going to try to get you all caught up on my finds and what I have done with them. I've also been under a bit of pressure because almost all of the things I've been doing have been for customers. Finding what they need and doing what they want to each piece.
So here is my latest piece, and just something fun for me.
A friend of mine has a daughter that just recently moved out and took with her their coffee table. When I showed her one that I had just finished for our cottage she mentioned her need.
This is the before and after of the one at our cottage.
Isn't she just the cutest thing?
She is sitting in our cottage now. :)
So anyway, the day after I talked to my friend, I went to several yard sales. I found this table. It wasn't the round one she was looking for, but when I sent her a pic, she said it would "do".
After running home and grabbing my husbands truck, I lugged this home (plus a dresser they threw in for free, I'll show you that as soon as it's done)
I called my friend and described what I pictured this table to look like after I was done.
She was very enthusiastic. So I immediately stripped it, removed the legs, cut some off, added some details, stained it, primed it, painted, sealed....you know, all the fun stuff...lol
And this is the end result. I love it, and she loves it more.
Now for that fun item. :)
While garage sailing with my daughter and her boyfriend, he found 20 cents on the ground. He handed it to me and dared me to find something for myself but told me I could not spend more than that 20 cents. Then he winked and said he was completely confident that I could do it..lol
How well he knows me.
This is what I found.
After using some steel wool and scrubbing off the rust, I spray painted it a smooth black.
Cute eh?
I think it is for making apple sauce and my mother in law thinks it's for something else. What do you think?
So now I've got more work to do...off to finish yet another project.
Two weeks ago I came across this adorable table and fell in love! Seriously, there are a lot of tables out there that I really like, but love? This was love!
Isn't she just the cutest thing you've seen? I love that she opens up on the sides for storage and the lines and details are just so much fun! She sat in the garage for less than 24 hours before I decided to strip it down and paint it. I used a Lowe's "oops" paint after priming it. It's almost a baby blue.
Isn't she just so cute now? I stripped, primed, painted, glazed, and distressed it. LOVE IT!
Sigh... hubby wasn't in love. :(
He's watched me transform a ton of stuff (furniture included) and hated this!
He tried, I have to admit he tried, he sat out there for over an hour each day looking at it and trying to convince himself it wasn't all that bad. But finally he broke the news to me. He said it just wasn't him and he didn't like it. I was heartbroken.
Sooooooooo I told him I would sell it. Secretly I thought it would take forever to sell and didn't worry about it. BUT a friend came by today and I showed it to her to see if maybe I was really off on this one, maybe it really was ugly and I just couldn't see it. I knew she would tell me the truth.
So I took her out on the back porch to show her. She GASPED! Fell more in love with it than I had. I offhandedly told her it was for sale and she bought it instantly!
What was I thinking? I let her go!!
No worries my friend said, you can come visit her.
Sigh...I hope her husband likes it more than mine did.
On to the next one.
Not sure about you, but this weekend was the best on Friday, it was wonderful weather and I was able to pull a lot of things out at the cottage and get our small plants (that we started from seed) into the garden. I also started and finished a small project.
Remember the crate I picked up at a yard sale last weekend? Well it's done and I'm really in LUV!
Here is what it looked like before.
Now I did take a few really nice "before" pictures, but my camera died and I don't have replacement batteries here :( So the next few pics are done on my phone, sorry for the lousy quality.
First I sanded down the top lightly so that all the really "rough" edges were no longer dangerous, and no small child would ever get hurt running little hands over it. We often have friends with little ones over and the last thing I would want is one of them hurt.
Then I planned out a design. I wasn't sure if I was going to go with a coffee or wine theme. I really love both ideas, and hopefully I will be able to find another crate so I can choose a second design involving coffee as I chose wine this time.
This is what it looked like after I painted the letters on it as well as an established date.
Again, sorry for the lousy quality.
Then I picked out a stain, I used or experimented with a gel stain. I wanted to see if I could use it sparingly to create an aged look by making it heavier in some areas and lighter in others. I love the end result.
So what do you think? I have no idea where I'm going to display this, but I sooooooo love it!! Something I'm going to keep forever! Especially since it has my last name on it :)
I thought I would share a couple of things I've been working on in the last little bit. Just a bit of a photo diary of the last couple of months.
This little table I picked up off of kijiji for only $5. We desperately needed something on our back deck for extra space to set drinks etc.
So I sanded it down, primed, painted, distressed, stenciled and finally glazed it. Then sealed it with some wipe on poly. This is the end result...do you like?
Just as I was finishing this project my second son sent me a picture from his blackberry.
He then asked me if I was interested in taking on a project for him. Ummm "how well do you know me son?" LOL Seriously, its for my son and it's free..you just can't beat that can you?
So of course I took it on.
First I wiped it down, sanded it, stained the top and asked DS (dear son) what his favorite colour was, you know that changes from year to year right? His answer..ORANGE. Ummm ok, but I don't have any orange paint, and I was doing this one on the cheap. So I suggested he might like red? He thought that would be just fine and he trusted me to make him happy.
I had taken the back off and covered it with textured wallpaper, then painted it the same colour as the rest of it. I re used the hardware after spray painting it black.
I distressed it and did a bit of black glazing on it then sealed it with a few coats of poly, sanding lightly betweeen coats.
And here is the end result!
I added that shelf in there as the previous owner had taken one out and removed the doors. I thought of adding doors again, but my son didn't want them on.
Soooo
What do you think? I really really like this red, and can't wait to find another use for it.
Happy mom, happy son :)
Happy Belated Mothers day! Hope you were all spoiled and blessed to at least have a phone call from your children. (note, my children are all grown, and with the exception of my daughter, have moved out)
Please bare with me as I get used to this blogging thing.
We had the most incredible weekend! Yard sales were AWESOME! I hope you were as lucky as I was.
These are just a few pictures of things I managed to obtain.
This little baby cost me all of $5! I'm not sure what I"m going to do with it yet, but I see something in white.
The lamp I just needed for extra light in my workshop. And for only $1 I'm very happy, although I do see a few changes coming to that one.
The crate came with both handles still firmly attached, and only set me back 50 cents! As did the feed bags!
Now for the really fun stuff. See this secretary and blue pot? FREE! The drawers were removed for moving purposes. I can't wait to get started on this one. I have some really Ontario ideas for this.
The desk is for my daughter who is moving out come September. It was also FREE from the same guy who gave me the secretary. He was tired of standing in his driveway selling his stuff and just wanted it out of there! How awesome is that?
These pottery wine glasses were made by a local artist and sell for $30 each. I snagged them for $1 each. They are signed and numbered on the bottom. Even if they weren't I just fell in love with them instantly and knew they had to come home with me!
This antique double bed is also for my daughter. $15! Yes I have to have slats made for it, but what a great deal! The window was $1 at the same yard sale as the crate.
I found this pretty little number at the last yard sale I went to. I picked it up to have a look at it and the woman who was running the yard sale asked me to just take it for FREE! SCORE!!
I've been looking for something exactly like this for two years to hang at the cottage on the back porch! Now to get some candles for it. :)
I did pick up a few other little things, a couple of books and a table cloth with 12 matching napkins, some with the tags still on them for $1. All in all I'm very pleased with my finds this week. Should keep me busy for a little while don't you think? Although, that pretty little desk is already done :) I'll show some after pictures once my wonderful daughter had picked out some new hardware, I suggested cute little glass knobs, she likes my idea :)
So how did you do on the weekend? I would love to hear about what you got and how great a deal you got.
If you didn't get out last weekend, well there is always another one just a few days away!
Happy shopping!
