happy weekend!

 two of my favorites are now blooming in the gardens! 
 have a great weekend!

now this is a barn sale!

A couple weeks ago, we came upon a fantastic barn sale!

This was the type of barn that you would see on American Pickers!
It was piled deep and high!  
Who knows what lay beneath the layers in this barn!  
My hubby and daughter started digging!

Here is my daughter making her first deal.

My hubby pulled out a pretty good stash!

ugly duckling ....

 ...turned into a swan.....
Another craigslist find....

Painted her a pretty french grey and changed her seat cushions...

here she was before....

This set was painted the old way (no chalk paint here)
Usually I recover my seats with french linen.  For these I used drop cloth material!  
Same look, WAY cheaper and easier to get!!

pretty french amoire redo

Here is one we got on Craigslist.
We used chalk paint on this one.  Paris Grey and Old White.  
I really like to layer the colors.
Here is what she looked like before...  
Pretty details but she was scratched up and her finish was really dark.

I sent a picture of this to the lovely lady we bought this from on Craigslist so she could see what we did with it.
She was like "WOW!"

flying solo...

So, my daughter has been helping me paint and I finally decided it was time for her to do her own piece!
She really loved this color Emile.  Its a pretty dusty lavendar color.  
She liked the color and the name!
So, she got to paint this one all by herself.  This illustrates how simple the chalk paint is.

 We decided it needed some really pretty hardware.  
I feel like the hardware is the finishing touch, the jewelry that really makes a piece. 
In this case the hardware cost more than the piece did!
We chose to put really special pulls on the first drawer and then a simpler pull on the rest of the drawers.  
They all matched in the color of the glass . 
(Yes we are missing the last pull- I have to find it over at the barn!)

I think I have mentioned before, Hobby Lobby is THE place to get your hardware. 
 Just watch the ads and buy it when it is half off.


I think she did a pretty good job! 

yard sale find

So, if anyone was wondering what I have been doing the past few weeks while recuperating. Here is the story....  
Once I felt good enough to get up and around, I was very limited in what I could and couldn't do. 
My dear hubby set up a wagon in the driveway.  He would put a chair out next to the wagon in the driveway.
He would pick a piece in the morning and put it up on the wagon.
If I felt up to it, my daughter and I would go outside a little everyday and we would sit and paint.  
What I couldn't reach from where I sat, my daughter would take over and paint. 
She has become a very good painter! (and a very good helper!)
My son would help us by moving the wagon around with the 4 wheeler.
This was the only way I kept from going stir crazy!
We have a whole barn full of yard sale junk we have accumulated over the years.


This one started real ugly, broken and wobbly.

But you have to look beyond the ugliness.  
When I brought this home this spring, my husband was like "what did you pay for that?!?"
But I thought she had pretty lines.  Pretty legs.  Nothing that a few coats of paint can't solve!

I used my french grey paint and some glaze on her.

Again the importance of jewelry.  I put a great big crackle ceramic knob on this piece to be a focal point.
I think the knob makes this piece!

chalk paint

I'm sure everyone had heard of Annie Sloan's chalk paint by now.  
We finally had to try it to see if it truely was the best invention of all time.
the verdict is in....
Our opinion is ....
YES! it is one of the best inventions in a long time!!
  
Our usual painting process consists of the following:
Degloss (or sand the piece)
paint one coat- let dry overnight
paint second coat if needed- let dry over night
sand piece
glaze piece - let dry over night
poly piece- let dry over night
sand piece
poly again-let dry overnight
sand again
poly again-let dry overnight


10 steps. It takes days to complete a piece.


This chalk paint is AMAZING!  
Cut the steps in half and takes about 8-9 days off the process.
We are still getting the hang of working with the waxes, but I think we will be very happy with the outcome.
The paint is a bit expensive.   About $35 for a quart.   Plus shipping costs.
It doesn't go as far as I thought from what I read, but it really depends on the size of what you are doing!
But, cutting our steps in half and our time to one tenth, I completely feel it makes up for the expense though! 
If you are selling your pieces - you will have to figure out which is more important- your time or your money :)
I also really love the wax finish compared to the poly finish I am used to.  
It started raining while we were working on a piece and the water just beaded up on top!
There are some pieces that we will still do the old method to.  
There are some colors she doesn't have - like black.  
She has a graphite color that looks black on the card, but it is really a slate blue grey.  
So, some colors we will be doing our old method.

this one was done in Louis Blue...here is what it looked like before...

Below are a couple of other pieces we have done with the chalk paint...

 This one is Paris grey with Old White trim.  It is fun layering the colors.

The island we showed before was done in Cream with dark wax.

Here is one my daughter did in Emile.  A really pretty lavendar color.

I'll show some more pictures when we unload the pieces off the truck and I can get some snaps of them...

So if you are interested in Annie Sloan Chalk paints, I recommend 

www.diluccadesign.com

Michelle has been really great to work with! 

She ships super fast, you can track your order so you know what day the mailman will be bringing it to your door.

I recommend trying it, I think you will like it. 

One thing you need to make sure of - you need BOTH the clear wax and the dark wax.  

I made the mistake with my first order and only ordered the dark wax, but you need to put a coat of clear on first!

island transformation

hubby's latest project....
started as a major ugly duckling.  
ugly blue work bench. 
mismatch drawer pulls.  
ugly plywood sides.

 he sanded the top.....

added some bead board.... 

.....painted her pretty, matched up the hardware (she even came with her own bottle opener!)

She will be for sale at the Fall Sale!

pink at night, sailors delight....

...pink in morning, sailors warning.
My dad used to always say that, and it always is true... 
These are pictures from last night when the storm blew through.  
It should be a glorious day today!
ENJOY!!

favorite summer treat

My kids favorite summer treat is fruit pizza.  They LOVE it!
It is so simple.  
My daughter made and decorated this one. 
We always have to take a picture whenever we make one,  because each one is so different depending on what fruits we have on hand!


It's really simple:
ingredients:
sugar cookie dough
8 oz cream cheese (i use low fat- like it really matters with this!)
2 cups cool whip
1/2 cup sugar
fruit


Spread cookie dough on round pizza pan.  (I usually spray a little cooking spray on the pan)
bake cookie for 20 mins, let cool.
mix cool whip, cream cheese and sugar together.  (I usually let cream cheese sit out for a few minutes to help it mix better) 
Add fruit!
Be creative - add fruit - strawberries, raspberries, bananas, grapes, banana, kiwi, pineapple, peaches, blueberries...whatever you have on hand...
Delicious!

grandpa's cabin

As I mentioned in my previous post, we took a trip to Grandpa's hunting cabin.  
It's located in a very remote area of south-eastern Ohio.
It was nice to get away with the kids.  
No cell phone reception.  No computer.  
So, no Facebook and no texting :) :) :)
Just family time.  Quiet time.
The cabin is simple and beautiful.   On 89 acres of wooded land. 

During the Fall, it is occupied with Grandpa, my hubby and son and a bunch of Grandpa's hunting friends.
Unfortunately, Grandpa wasn't able to join us :(
But it was still very nice.....  just us....




....well... and all these guys....

......and these guys too!......

But ....my favorite is the one across the room smiling at all of them!

the thrill of the hunt!

For anyone looking for a fun thing to do this summer while traveling try geocaching!
geocaching.com
It's a modern day version of treasure hunting.  
It combines todays technology with the fun spirit of treasure hunting.  
It costs nothing to sign up! 
We recently had a long trip to Grandpa's cabin and it made traveling with the kids so much fun!
What it is -  there are over  a billion of these little treasure caches hidden all over the world.  There are 5 million cachers and they have hidden their caches all over.  
You would be amazed how many are right near where you are right now!  Who knew?!!

The technology piece is in using a GPS (or your phone) to find them.  
You are given the coordinates and a couple clues and then it is up to you to find them!
Part of the fun is you have to do this without being seen by muggles (geocachers have their whole own language - muggles are non geocachers- the rest of the world that is unaware of this whole thing!)
They range in size, from tiny (pill box) to large (tupperware container).  

We plotted our trip and had about a dozen caches to find along our 3 1/2 hour trip to grandpa's cabin.  
We found all but 2!
When you find the cache you can take something from it as long as you replace it with something.  
Most are filled with all kinds of trinkets that my kids loved.  
We brought along our own stash of trinkets, foreign coins etc to replace what we took.  

Each cache has a little log book that you sign to show you found it,  as well as you can log them in on line too.
We had so much fun!  
Whether its antiquing or geocaching - its all about the thrill of the hunt!!

The other nice thing is you stop and appreciate the beauty of places along the way.  
We stopped at places we never would have known about (or stopped at) had it not been for this.  
Most are places fellow cachers live near and think others would enjoy seeing.  
Little unknown parks, cemetaries, historical places, natural wonders. 

These are a couple of pictures of our discoveries along the way.
(I apologize for the quality of these pics they are from my iphone, i forgot my camera!)