Vintage Music

I love music. 

I love this time of year for all the wonderful Christmas music. 

And I LOVE old Christmas music, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and the likes. For those of you who have Sirus have a look at channel 4. It's a 40's station that has some wonderful Christmas music on it right now. 

A while back...ok a long while back I picked up this amazing phonograph. 

I know what you are thinking. It's not all that wonderful. I mean look at that veneer. It's ruined right? 

 And the doors. Veneer pulling away.and see the inside? That material is EWWWW!!

 But it's a Victrola!

 Everything was/is there. :) Well just about. It's missing needles and the spring is broken. But I don't care. To me it's a thing of beauty! 

Can't you picture a party happening in a home with tons of music being played on this while everyone is dancing or talking. To me it conjures up thoughts of simpler times. 

So anyway. I let it sit and sit and sit. Then finally pulled it out and started work on it. I ripped off the Veneer from the top and it was soooooooo dry all I had to do is pull a bit and it came off in one piece. I found some wonderful wood under it and sanded it smooth along with the edges, then stained and sealed it. 

I sanded down every inch of this baby..painted it, glazed it and sealed it. 

And this is what I came up with. 

 I re glued the veneer to the doors, switched out the knobs to something I consider period appropriate.

 Isn't that top wonderful? I do believe it's solid Mahogany. :)

 Behind that ewwwy material was this amazing speaker box. I really didn't want to hide it, so I simply painted and sealed it. Then replaced the wood screen.

 The details get me each and every time.

Now to find this the right home. Someone willing to continue loving it as it should be loved. It will come with all the old 78's that I have. 

Off to decorate the house now...ahhhh Christmas. Going to be listening to channel 4 on Sirus to keep me in the mood :) 

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At the Picket Fence
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Harlequin love

My daughter and I are both avid readers. Unfortunately I no longer have a lot of time to stick my nose in a book and often I really miss it. 

I always loved to read. When I was really little there were several books sitting on a shelf at home that I was not allowed to touch. They were my mothers special books. I knew one day I was going to read them. It became a goal of mine. 

Sadly when the day came that I could read them, I found I wasn't all that interested in them. 

But by that time, I was a teen and had found Harlequin books. Easy reading and it combined my dreams of romance with my love of history. 

I quickly outgrew the love of Harlequin..but kept my love of history. 

Why am I telling you this? 

Well when I discovered the Harlequin design on some pieces of furniture, it brought back some wonderful memories for me. So I set off to find the perfect piece in order to hopefully bring both good memories and a good design together. 

Now you know I suck at before pictures. I totally forgot this time as well, so please bare with me as I simply show you the final product. 

 I picked a soft and bold colour. This dresser came to me already painted white and I kept it as a base for this.

 I think you can see the white showing through the soft grey. Giving it a really worn out look.

 I loved these handles, but they weren't working for me in brass and white..so what is a painter to do but paint them :)

 Cute legs eh? Adding just a bit of light to heaviness of the design.

Ohhhh my other love...cars. I love the bug for the old fun factor, and the Benz for a new fun factor.

My husband and I have quite the collection of model cars, and every time we replace one of our real cars...we have to also go out and get a model. 

I'm still hoping one day to own a Karmen Ghia. Think if I sell enough furniture, I can get one?

Wait...that would mean I would have to stop buying more furniture. oyyy what a dilemma.

ahhhh dreams are good too right? 

Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We will be off later this week to do some Black Friday shopping. Anyone know of some good second hand stores in Saginaw? ;) 

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All about Chalk boards

For a while now I've been collecting (without thinking) some frames. They are fairly easy to sell and so I never really thought about it.

Then while walking through the paint section of a local hardware store I noticed a can of "chalkboard" paint. I thought, gee I should try that. 

Then I noticed the price and walked away. 

But like so many times...a seed was planted. 

And I became obsessed with the idea. 

So I started planning..and getting the "stuff" together that I would need to finish all the little projects I needed...and to get the nerve up to spend that $20 bucks on something new (the can of chalkboard paint) 

Not sure about you, but I hate to spend money on stuff I am not sure about. 

So I finally did it, and I love the results. 

Check out my chalk boards. 

I'm going to be doing a lot more of them. I really enjoy it. :) 

 This one was a mirror..obviously. It's already sold and will be going home this weekend. :)

 This one was made by using an old barn window frame.

 And again...an old mirror converted to a chalk board.

Now to try the whole magnetic chalk board thing. 

What were you afraid to try then after doing it, wondered why you waited so long? 

Have a great weekend everyone!

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At the Picket Fence
Miss Mustard Seed 
  

Union Jack, my new friend

I admit it. I'm in love with Union Jack. 

I saw a lot of these being done in the blogging world and always wanted to try it. 

But I was nervous. 

Then I tried one on the weekend. Check it out HERE

To refresh your memory I finally took some real "after" pictures. 

This was a great starting point. I was able to tape out the design without doing the drawers. EASY! I followed a pattern online. Please don't ask me to find it again..just google union jack pattern. 

Then because I was feeling the love of the piece...I thought I would attempt the front of another dresser. 

OYYYYY boy was I cocky. 

Getting that tape to sit right and do what I wanted it to do was not as easy as doing the top. My hat off to all of you who do more than this simple design. 

I grabbed a dresser that I had picked up two weekends ago. 

And I did remember to get "before" pics...and you have to know I suck at the before ones. 

 Simple but solid and no repair needed....or so I thought.

 There was this funky piece of pressboard screwed to the top...for what reason? I have NO CLUE

Easy enough to take off. Then stripped, sanded, stained...the whole thing so that when I distressed it, a dark stain would show through and not light wood. 

After a few curse words and a lot of tape...I came away with this. 

 I'm really like the handles. I was told that if you have an accent piece of furniture that you shouldn't have "loud" handles. They should be nice but not distracting.

 I'm not sure I will ever get over the love of a natural top with a painted bottom.

ahhhh eye candy. At least for me it is. 

Hope you guys all had a wonderful Tuesday. 

Now to get back to working on a "pile" of chalk boards. 

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Domestically Speaking
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Weekend projects

I'm really sorry, I just got so carried away that I didn't take official "before" pictures. 

Just a couple of projects I managed to do over the weekend and I wanted to share with you all today. 

First one is a dresser I picked up. 

I wanted to do something totally different. This one came from a local Re Store. It was already painted white and in really good condition. So I left the base white. It went really well with what I was planning on doing with it. 

After cleaning it up I started with researching how to do this correctly. I just love the internet for this sort of thing. 

Then measuring everything out I marked and taped it off. 

 See what great shape this was in?

 A closer look at my taping.

 After the first coat of paint. I'm sure you are getting the idea of what I'm doing.

I loved the fresh crispness of this design. But I wasn't finished. I wanted it to look like a worn out flag...so out came my sandpaper. 

 I always thought the red stripes that were off to the side were centered. But I was wrong. My brain is constantly wanting everything to be symmetrical. So doing it correctly was really hard for me.

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE the distressing and how it ages a piece. To me it just adds the right amount of depth.

 After taking these pics I realized I didn't have ones with the drawers put back in...so here it is, without the handles. The handles that came with it were aweful and didn't go with this piece at all. So this morning I'm heading to my knob store and picking something far more suited to it.

I did a bit of distressing to the rest of the piece before sealing it all. I love the way it turned out :) 

Then finished up something started on Friday. I picked up these bedside tables at my junk store on Friday. You can read about my junk store HERE 

Again, I so suck at before pictures. But I did get the after pictures. Do I get points for that? :) 

 This set is not for sale though as it is a custom order. A client has two daughters and each daughter will get one.

Aren't they just so cute? I hope the girls enjoy them. They picked the colour and are so excited to have them in their new home. :) 

Hope everyone has a great Monday! 

Back to work I go :) 

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I should be Mopping the Floor
Handy Man Crafty Woman
Primitive & Proper 
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Design Dreams by Ann 
Elizabeth and Co.