Monday 23 April 2012

Photo Shoot

Brrrrrr 
We here in Ontario are hitting a cold spell. 
After some amazing weather over the last while, it turned cccccold! 
Yesterday we were involved in a photo shoot :) 
I'm so pleased and honored to be asked to show off some of my furniture. 
 Obviously these are not the "professional" pics, These were taken by my daughter.


 We had so much fun, but by the end...we were frozen. I can't imagine what our model felt like. All the outfits were paper thin! 

We didn't just take pics here. My daughter was amazing and found lots of things to take pics of on the way there and on the way back. 
 I believe this is an old road scraper. It sits beside a gas station. I LOVE it!

 Daughter did quite a few barn pics, I think she knows where her mothers heart is :)

 And Old houses..If this wasn't so much to keep clean, I would love to live here.
 Self portrait of my daughter...love you hun :)
 Waiting for this portion of the photo shoot. Brrrr it was cold!
 I swear this place we did the shoot at could have been on Canadian pickers...or for you Americans..American pickers. So much stuff in the out buildings along with this amazing Ferris Wheel.
 I have no idea how long this has been sitting outside, but the colours really amaze me in how clear they are, and it really inspires me :)

 This was in one of the out buildings. I think they used to do family rides (or so one of the signs said).
 Some of the props. Suitcase and stool are mine. The license was sitting there. Strange since this is Ontario.

 I grabbed the camera for some fun pics of Daughter. This one was approved for the blog...lol

We finally got home after dark, but we did stop to take a pic of this amazing sunset :) 
Perfect ending to a perfect day :)
 Sharing:
How To For Less 

Friday 20 April 2012

Built up from the Bare Bones!

I need to get some family pictures on here. Ones my family won't kill me for posting. :) 
 This is a pic of me (in the middle) and my two sisters. The one on the left is my older sis (Mary Ann) and on the right is my younger sis (Liz). 
I have to say I have the best sisters in the world. They are super supportive of what I do and love me, even if I do tend to neglect them from time to time. (Sorry guys, I'll text the min I get off this computer...I promise) 
My sisters don't live close enough for us to get together very often. Most of the time I only see them one at a time, so when we do all get together it really is special. 
My sister Liz lives much closer (within two hours..depending on traffic)
So she often spends time looking for furniture pieces for me to redo. 
She happen to pick something up for me a while back. And I'm so glad she did. 
 This was after getting it home and starting the fix up process.
 But really...with details like this, it was certainly worth it.


 This really is the way it came to us. Bare bones! 
Other than wood..it was bare. 
BUT......... in some ways that just made it so much easier to deal with. I didn't have any yucky material to remove, and I didn't get tired of pulling out nails and staples etc. 
So that's a good thing right?
On the flip side though. I had no idea how to upholster it. I didn't have a pattern to follow. So I was going to "wing" it. 
I tend to go out and find the material first..and then pick paint colours from there. 
Which is what I did here. I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted..and was lucky to find the perfect material pretty much right away. 
And this is what I ended up with. 
 I'm SUPER happy with how she turned out :) 
Doing a happy dance.
 Those details really pop now!



 I'm such a sucker for this sort of thing.



 So once again. 
From this.......
 To this.....
 Are you as in love as I am? 
I got this done just on time..
Will share more next week, but shhhhhh this old baby is heading to a photo shoot on Sunday, lets hope the weather is great! 

Sharing:
The Shabby Nest 
Miss Mustard Seed 
French Country Cottage 
Be Different Act Normal 
Tatter Tots and Jello 
Two Sasters 
Funky Junk Interiors 
The Charm of Home 

Monday 16 April 2012

French Provincial Makeover

A while back a friend of mine (mostly online, but we have met in person) contacted me with an offer to buy her dining room set from her to make over. She wanted something smaller that would fit her dining room better. 
I said I was interested, but then totally forgot about it. Well time passed and she contacted me again last week wondering again if I was interested. I just happen to have to be close to her later in the day so I said I would come and look at it. 
YEAH...I don't know why I waited so long! 
The set was perfect for a makeover! 
So I paid her and she helped me load it up :) 
I should have taken pics of it before we tore it apart to load in my truck. But we didn't...so these are the best "before" pics I have.
 Good bones right?
 So they were a little beat up...no big deal :)
 A few nicks and scratches. I don't mind that kind of "love" :)
 Great curves!
 And of course...LEGS! :) 
 This is the original seat covers..so 1970's! 
Actually it was stamped on the bottom that said it was built on January 19, 1972.
I wanted to lighten it up...completely. 
I seldom paint anything white, but this was screaming for white. 
But I also love wood and wanted to see if I could bring the top back to natural. 
So that is what I did. 
 I seem to be having an issue lately with my formerly favorite stain (dark walnut) So I have switched to a dark ebony stain. It just gives a much darker, richer look to wood.
 Everything else received a couple of coats of white (home made) chalk paint, then distressed of course. 
The seats were covered in this wonderful damask fabric.

 Honestly...I picked out the fabric first. I needed to know what colour to pick for paint.




 I love love love the curves on this whole set. Who would have thought that simple black table and chairs could turn out so wonderfully :)