Hi Again Friends! Hard to believe a week has gone by again! Here I am, going through my backlog of projects again. This one was 90% completed. I wanted to get this tutorial out there, so I decided I could post on it today. Besides, looking at it, I'm hopeful you don't know what the last 10% even is! Not to worry, I will get to that part!

This project started with a pretty gross old frame. These pics are after I cleaned it up. I got this at a barn sale and it was covered in dirt and grime.  I went with my old go to, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. You can use whatever paint you like. I like ASCP because it's a very forgiving and easy to use. Not much prep involved.  After I painted it, I used clear wax to have a nice satiny finish. 

Happy Easter Friends! I hope you are all having a great day with family and friends. Since it is a family day, I am just going to  do a super quick post about a little table I did today. 

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...

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. 

Hi Guys! I apologize for the delay in posting. I've been recuperating, but I am feeling pretty great today and thought I'd post a little more about our quick trip to Texas. 

Variety is the Name of the Game
So friends, I could talk until I'm blue in the face about the crazy variety of things you can find at the Texas Antiques Fair, but I think it would just be easier to show you! If you get a chance, this is a show I'd definitely recommend, even after only getting one day there! If you click on one of the photos below, a larger image will pull up.

Good Evening Guys! I'm sorry I was silent over the weekend. I was SO busy with new projects, I didn't have time to post anything. I'm working on a few pieces that I'm really excited to share with you, but they are still in the process of being made pretty again, so I'll get them posted as I complete them.  In the meantime, here's one I did last weekend. It was a super easy job and I'm really happy with how it turned out. 
I picked this frame up super cheap at the local Goodwill. I'm there at least once a week and I ALWAYS look at the frames, lighting and furniture. Sometimes I'll hit the dishware section if I'm looking for something specific, but I pretty much have my route down and am in and out of there in no time at all. I believe this frame was 3.99. It had a horrendously ugly forest green matte, that I took out after I painted on it. Actually, that was stupid, I could have reused that for something, but in my rush to turn the frame into what I wanted, I didn't think it through. Lesson learned! Anyway, I painted this with my go to paint, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (no, I am not paid to advertise for ASCP, i just really love her paint, darn it!). I did one coat, slapped it on a little thick, because I didn't want to do 2 coats. I let it dry and then I took a wet rag and rubbed it over the raised areas of the frame. The paint comes off and leaves a beautiful gilded looking frame.  I guess technically, gilded would be gold, this is more bronze. So bronzed? Heck, I don't know, but I sure love how it turned out!
Stay tuned for more projects to come!

I am in the process of turning our den into my craft room and was in dire need of a cork board. I couldn't find one I liked, though. They were too small, too expensive or too ugly. So I decided I was just going to make one from scratch.  It works great and is pretty handy. I'm not completely sold on this bicycle fabric, but for now, I'm sticking with it.   
if you are interested in making one of these for yourself, then click on Read More.