Hello again, friends! I'm back and with something a little different than paint today! Hubs, my lovely mom and myself are taking upholstery class from Bill at The Crafted Cow. 

I can't even tell you how excited I am to be learning how to upholster. It's something I've been interested in for quite some time now.  Bill is very good about working around our crazy schedules for evening classes. He runs a small class to insure everyone gets a good deal of time with him - something that is very important when learning a hands on trade like upholstery.
Mom, hubs and I picked out 3 different types of projects to spread our learning around. We thought it would be a good idea to learn how to do a variety of pieces.

We are going to be taking classes for 10 weeks, so I'll do my best to post our progress along the way. In the meantime, here are some more pictures from our first class.

Thank you for stopping by! I'm really excited to share our progress with you guys!

Happy day, friends! It's been a couple of weeks. Again, I find myself apologizing for taking so long to post.  We have had family in town for a week and my work (yes, I still work a "real" job) moved to a new building last week. It's been super hectic. 

While the hubs folks, sister and her kiddos were in town, we managed to sneak away to the auction here in town. We are lucky to have an auction house 2 minutes from our home.  It's pretty great - dangerous, but convenient and FUN! If you haven't been to one, you should definitely Google auctions in your area. Even if you don't purchase something, it's a blast! Go in with a budget, though. It's tempting to try to out bid that jerk, ahem, I mean nice man, with loads of dough! Don't do it!

Hubs and I "stole" this box of frames for ten bucks!  Actually, the picture of the box above is short about 5 frames (I had already taken them out to work on when I took the photo).  Some of them were old, some not so much. Actually, I guess some were probably vintage 80's, haha, I guess for some of you, that might be old. Anyway, Everyone loves a good frame, right?  They were mostly wood, but there were some metal ones in there too. 

I painted these up with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, waxed them and added some pretty scrapbook paper. I know the 4 together are a little crazy as far as color combinations go, but I try to mix it up a bit when thinking about what will go in the shop. What floats my boat might not float yours!

Thanks for stopping by, my friends! I'm hoping as summer winds down, I'll be able to post at least once a week. Who knew that working full-time, painting AND blogging could take up so much time, haha!
Until next time...

Hello again, Friends! I'm back with my latest project -  a cute little corner hutch I picked up from a friend of a friend. She purchased it with the idea of fixing it up, but never had time, so decided to offload it to me.  I've been wanting to do another piece like the "Happy Accident Hutch", that I could sell in the shop. I thought this one would be perfect! 

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. I'm excited to see if it will sell in the shop. Speaking of the shop, things are going great there! I sold my first piece of furniture a couple of weeks back and cannot even begin to tell you how exciting that was for me! Hey, what can I say, it doesn't take much to make me happy!   My mom and Kristi are having success there, too!
Thank you for stopping by and visiting Aurora Patina! Your support and encouragement is always very appreciated!

Hi again, friends! It's good to be posting again! I can't believe how quickly time is passing by. I have been so busy with work, the shop, weddings, painting and family schedules... all I have to say, is it's a good thing my head is attached to my body, haha!

As you can see, I just finished up a pair of these tables I found on Craigslist. I only took pictures of one, but I do have a set of two. I LOVE the lines. The curve of the legs and the edges on the bottom shelves give these beauties a French feel. The carvings are so pretty, I thought accenting them in a different color was a perfect idea!

Unfortunately, in the craziness that is my life, I forgot to take before pictures of the tables. However, for your entertainment, I did get the above shot of cat prints on my fresh paint! Such are the dangers of working with 5 animals in your home. I've been painting in my dining room on items that are small enough because my garage is LOADED to the gills with projects.  I walked in to the kitchen and 30 seconds later came back to this mess. Animals!

I used a very small paintbrush to hand paint the doodads on the legs and sides. I had hoped I'd get away with one coat, but it required two, so it was a little time consuming, but well worth it!

I found this table on Craigslist and fell for it right away. It's not often you find a table with such interesting lines. I love the detail work. When I first saw it, I thought I'd definitely be using dark wax on it. However, I decided to do a wash on it and liked it so much, I just stuck with a clear wax and called it good! 

You can see from the picture below that the painting technique on this piece is very rustic. I wanted it to look shabby chic and am really excited about how this finish gives it that look. 

Hi Friends! I know I've been slow posting lately. It's not because I don't want to, it's because my life has been a whirlwind lately! I had to go in to production mode to get enough furniture ready to open up the space. Phew! What a crazy month!
First off, I'd like to introduce you all to my mom, Kathy and one of my BFF's Kristi! These two beautiful ladies are partners in the space with me.   They have both helped a great deal in making this chapter happen.

My mom has been an interior decorator for a number of years. She has her own business, K.A. Wilson Interior Design. She's been all over France with clients on furniture buying expeditions (yeah, I'm a LITTLE jealous) and completed "Parade of Homes" houses a couple of times.  Mom has a great eye for decor!
Kristi has a business, Trashy Designs, doing a variety of different projects surrounding salvaged goods and "trashion". She has made some amazingly beautiful pieces out of what most people would consider garbage. She is a pro at turning unwanted items into things of beauty.
I'm so excited the shop is officially up and running. It was quite a challenge getting ready and moving in. I had a sinking feeling when monsoon worthy rain came down the second the first piece of furniture came out of the garage to be transported. I haven't seen crazy rain like that in ages. It poured the entire time we moved.  Even now, I'm sitting here shaking my head in disbelief. However, we powered through it and it's official!  
Thanks a TON to everyone in who made this happen!  Especially to Hubs, the love of my life, who supports me in all things, whether he thinks it's crazy or not! 
I'm looking forward to this fun adventure! If you are in the Portland/Salem/Vancouver area, come check us out. We're at the South End Antique Mall, in Aurora - 21128 Pacific Hwy E, Aurora OR

Hi Friends! Happy Mother's Day to everyone!  Especially, to my mama, the best mom a kid could ask for! 
Today's post is a going to be a quick one. To say my life has been complete insanity the past few weeks would be an understatement! My mom, my dear friend Kristi and myself are in a mad rush to get everything together for our shop. Yes, I did say our shop! Yaaayyy! We have leased a space in Southend Antique Mall, here in Aurora, Oregon. I have my fingers crossed this is going to be a success for us, but of course, I don't own a crystal ball. I'm just taking a leap of faith! I think it's going to be a lot of fun and quite an adventure, I'm really excited about it!

Ok, so hopefully I will have a little better post for you guys mid-week. I am working on a little waterfall side table and finishing up some frame projects.  Have a wonderful Mom's Day!

Many things about this hutch were what I would call Happy Accidents. I had a few troubles along the way, but the final result is gorgeous and looks pretty great sitting here in my breakfast nook. I found this hutch on Craigslist from a nice lady who was moving to Florida and couldn't take it with her. It was a LONG drive to get it, but definitely worth it.
When we got it home, we realized it had a pretty strong odor. Not gross, it was like she had kept herbs and spices loose in the drawers.  Hubs decided to put cedar chips in it for a couple of weeks. It helped quite a bit!  I could have used some Kilz on it and would have if the smell had been terrible, but I didn't think it was necessary.

I do love how pretty natural pine is and did contemplate stripping and re-staining it. Originally, I had planned to strip it, stain it gray and then do the aqua wash over the entire thing.   Even though I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted until I was done with it, I knew natural wood just wasn't what I wanted in my nook.