Mon...day

Is it FRIDAY yet?

When you walk in the door and

want to crawl right into bed, and the idea of having cereal for dinner sounds perfect, it's a Monday.

When you'd rather be forced to walk backwards, upside down, for a MILE, than to have even ONE more conversation with anyone, you know its a Monday.

But hey, tomorrow is Tuesday, and as Scarlett says, "After all... tomorrow is another day."

I think it'll be great.

~ Bethany

A new life.

Sooo things have been a tad on the crazy-busy side, but now I’m back and better than before.

Recently, I was "commissioned" (ok, maybe "asked," but I think commissioned is more fitting) to make a nice chair for my nieces bedroom that they share, so they could sit at their desk in their room. The motif in the twins room was already black and white zebra print with pink accents, which just so happens to be right in my wheel house. This would not be difficult for me to create!

I am quickly realizing when you have a good quality canvas, in this case solid, well-built wooden chairs made in Virginia in the 20's, ANYTHING is truly possible. These chairs were scooped up from the side of the road, when I rescued, err SPOTTED them being thrown out.

One interesting note: The pink paint I bought for this project was 'Watermelon' by Krylon, and unbeknownst to me at the time of purchase, this paint had a "helpful" twist nozzle. Great, I thought, It's helpful! That will be perfect. Except it wasn't....not for me anyway.
The "helpful" feature meant you could move the spray nozzle horizontal or vertical, allegedly allowing one to be more precise about where the paint goes and...smoother?? I guess?

Well, I did not appreciate the "helpfulness." It only ended up spraying literal lines down the arms, legs and back of my chair. I did not want lines of paint, I wanted a smooth base of seamless color.
Tantrum, whining, and hands thrown in the air, and melt-down may have incurred...until my partner in crime swooped in and said,

"Ohhhhhhh-kay, everything's wonderful, let meee finish the pink paint portion and yoooou

work on something, anything else....and then..... WAHLA! It came out looking stellar!

So, I am not sure if this brand of paint and my dislike of it was user-error, or product-error but I still am not sure about this special feature, though, upon drying it all looked perfect. I'll probably still use my tried and true, typical nozzle, cuz' what can I say I am a traditional girl like that.

In the end the chair came together looking even better than I envisioned, with the help of a great partner and a Mom who has an unmatched ability to solve just about any re-upholstering obstacle. ;)

Before and After pics below: (sorry the pics aren't bigger and better, still working the kinks out of this blogging thing)

Till the next adventure....

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall

Project #2: A beautiful, antique, shabby-chic style mirror. I fixed it up, put on a fresh coat of paint, and it's true beauty came out. Seeing as snagged this at an estate auction, it's a pricier item going for around $125. It measures 27.5 X22. Email or comment if interested.

Exhausted...but look at my chairs!

Well, here are the almost lovely chairs in progress, just a little naked...
and woolaaa! Here they are! There are 4 of these lovely beauties, ready to make a home with a nice dining room table. I am exhausted, and need a Memorial Day Break, Happy Memorial Day!

The Beginning, like the start of the beginning.

Well, it's the end of day one for this adventure I'll call The beginning of Colorblocking...the very, very, early, beginning of ColorBlocking.

Let me get right to it-

Today, I started on 3 of the 4 dining room chairs I snagged for free from some friends who were cleaning out their basement. Well, it was a LOT harder and took a LOT longer than I had anticipated. I mean how long does it take to throw some High-Gloss, Ultra White paint on some chairs?!

Well, for me, 2 hours a chair.

So there's a slight learning curve to refurbing (a term I use to refer to any item I am making prettier) ie. catching dripping paint before it dries into a permanent drip which is definitely not the look I am going for; or remembering to paint, everywhere, everything, even ALL the underneaths.

(See before picture above)

Then, after I spent the better part of my day with some old chairs from the 60's and painted them right into 2011, I decided to break out the paint in a can, also known as spray paint!!

Nothing was safe from my spray. Compared to paint with a brush, this stuff is EASY!!!

I spray-painted a gold (some might say gaudy mirror) white. Then I figured while I had the spray paint in hand, I might as well paint this empty picture frame I snagged at an antique store in New York, lovely I do think!

(Pictures to follow)

It's a bit overwhelming thinking of all the projects I have in mind, all the items my BF and I have acquired, but I suppose I should focus on the ones at hand, and figure it out as it comes.
Like life sometimes, I suppose.

See the BF and I have these grand ideas of taking over the world one chair, one coffee table at a time....well not exactly. But we are taking some small steps towards our own little company of sorts, taking old, beat-up, in need of a little TLC *things* and giving them a new life. Right now a lot of the things we are finding, at our very happy shock, are things people are giving away for FREE or things we come across at a bargain because they need some help. We plan on taking these things and refurbing them and then selling them online.

Easy as pie, right?!

Except as I write this, I think, how are we going to find time to work on these things, when we both have for-real day jobs, and how are we shipping these things to people who order them online, and how are we going to design a website for these things, and how are we going to get people to our website...just a glimpse into the many questions dancing in my head.

But again I tell myself, do what I can do, with what I have today, and we'll figure the rest out later. (fingers and toes crossed)

I look forward to your thoughts, comments, suggestions, and especially of all, compliments!