Happy New Year !

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I borrowed this picture from my friend, Kim May Johnson's, facebook page.... So lovely.... Here is hoping 2012 is lovely for each and everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day!

Texas Road Trip

I can't even begin to tell you all the projects I have worked on since last posting months ago. I hope to get some posted in the future. I kept thinking I would post as I went along turning our Florida Beach condo into a home. Alas, as soon as I completed one project I dove into the next and so it went for the last few months.
Last week I went on a roadtrip. I have taken this trip many times in the past and each time it brings some delightful memories. One of my friends who accompanied me, Dianne, has a blog and she took many pictures during our antique adventure in Texas.
The picture above shows the restaurant where we ate lunch many a day! Yum! Dianne has started posting about our trip. If you hop over to her blog you will be able to see many more pictures of the glorious sites we saw! 

In Memory of My Daughter, Kelly Amber DuPriest

This is one of my favorite pictures of Amber, with her son, Chandler.

It was a year ago today that my daughter, Amber, was killed.
It was a year ago tomorrow that is on her death certificate, as she did not reach the coroner's office until after midnight.
It was a year ago day after tomorrow that I received the call that gave me the news.
I have had darling emails expressing thoughts of me on this anniversary of my daughter's death.
One of them prompted me to think about the old thoughts about sound...
Is there really any sound if no one is around to hear it... the tree crashing...
For two days Amber was dead and we had no idea of the event....
Until that call it wasn't real...there was no sound...
To honor her memory, as she was the best Interior Designer and DIY girl I have ever known...
I am posting my latest makeover project...
Dining Room Chairs for the condo..

I mentioned in my last post ? I believe it was my last post, my bestest friend, Suzanne and I hit the jack pot at Good Will a week and a half ago, in Destin, Fl. Furniture that had been at the store for a week was 25% off. Furniture that had been there two weeks was 50% off. The chairs were in the latter category and cost me $7.50 a chair!!!! I don't know what made me think to even sit in one as they were NoT my style and, in my humble opinion, were screaming UgLy.. not cottage at all!  I wish I had taken a picture of them before we painted them.. I was at the condo working on one thing and my husband offered to spray paint for me. I forgot I had not taken a before picture. I did take a picture of a piece of the metal that did not get covered with the first coat. You will have to use your imagination to see the entire chair in this goldish copperish color... ugly, ugly, ugly.

But, comfort being a high priority for this small condo, I ventured over and sat my butt down and took a load off... then the wheels started turning.... O.K. spray paint the chairs, recover the cushions with drop cloth fabric and sew on some doilies ( I brought lots with me from AZ.. somehow I KnEw I would be needing them )

so they will tie in with the table.....

                                 If you missed my post about this table you can see it here.                


 Heck, for $7.50, let's give it a try!  I had brought with me a vintage Singer featherweight machine I inherited from my husband's aunt.... so cool... she even had a little note about the year she bought it and where it was purchased.

 I had it serviced in TN before coming on down to Florida so I thought it was ready to go....I also thought it would be a work horse since it only straight stitches, is all metal, etc.etc.etc.... WrOnG..... could not handle heavy sewing, AT ALL.......     My head starts to hurt....... have to buy a sewing machine? Oh No!!!!!!!!!!!!! Years ago, and I mean YeArS AgO, my husband wrapped up a picture of a sewing machine for Christmas, for me. He wanted me to pick out the one I wanted. I never bought one. Why? Because I researched and researched and researched and could not decide which one was the best!  Now, here I am in Florida, and I am going to be forced to buy a sewing machine to work on slip covers for all of these Good Will finds. Panic is running through my head... I started researching again and all of a sudden I decided this was ridiculous...more than one person had recommended Kenmore to me...Their machines are made by Janome but are priced much more friendly. I looked at the models online.. found the closest Sears store that carried it and asked my husband to get in the car with me.. we were going on an adventure. Bought a sewing machine, went out to eat supper at a new restaurant and came home and started sewing. So far, I love this machine.

This is the machine that made the covers for the chairs. I am keeping my fingers crossed it continues to get the job done!

I still plan to paint the little circles of wood you see with the grey paint and then I might just glue a vintage white button over the little dot in the center...

Hope you turn whatever is ugly in your life into a thing of beauty!

Latest Project and Funny Story

We are hanging out in Miramar Beach, waiting on our condo to be finished. As with most construction projects, this one has had it's challenges. We have been quite busy and I always hate when I haven't posted in awhile as I get so far behind in what I should be sharing. The latest happening though, and a husband napping, has prompted me to tell a cute thing about the above dresser. This dresser is going to house the sink in the hall bathroom. We picked it up in TN and brought it down to Florida. I, of course, brought all my stash of chalk paint, as well. This past week, on the deck of our condo, I stripped the top and stained it again with Special Walnut stain. I then painted the body of the dresser with Old White Chalk Paint and I used dark wax on top of clear wax. I did discover, when using white paint, I should mix some dark wax with the clear. I like the look better. After a lot of elbow grease I got off enough of the dark wax, where I had applied it on the side, to be to my liking. Then I started sanding to distress the piece. At first I just sanded the edges, but as I sanded, the piece just kept calling to me to sand more. The more I sanded the more I liked it.  Look at the pictures below to see the finished project. I still need to buff the top. My cute little tale is after the last picture.

When we went by the condo yesterday to check on progress, we talked to Tommy, the foreman. We took him outside to look at the piece for the bathroom. He looked at it, then at us ( me inparticular ) and said, " Are you going to paint it or anything?"....Randy and I looked at each other and grinned ear to ear. Of course I told him I had just finished painting it..

I don't think it is to his taste!

:)

He was really cute about it though.

He told me I did a really good job if the goal was to make it look old!

He also tried to talk me into letting him pour on some kind of top...

"No, No, No, I replied...it is just how I want it!"

I will take pictures of course when it is installed to share.

Lots more projects are in the works...

Hit the jackpot at Good Will one day last week!

Yesterday I bought LoTs of drop cloths!

Hubby up so off to work some more..
I am linking up with Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday!

On The Road

Please forgive my tardiness for saying I am on the road. I am not sure of my posting schedule, as I am not sure of my schedule in any regards right now! CeCe

The Latest Chalk Paint Project

     Another shipment arrived last week-

the third one

This is serious stuff folks-

I am ordering colors for which I have no present use!

This shipment brought

Louis Blue

Cream
Henrietta
Country Grey

2 more cans of Old White

Dark Wax

Another Wax Brush

Another can of Clear Wax

This dresser will go in the guest room of the beach condo.

It is one of the ones I got for $60.00 at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago.

This is the mirror...

sorry about the flash...

Truly I am so sorry that I have not even learned how to turn off my flash...

I 

KnOw

it 

is

ridiculous!

I also forgot to take a picture of the finished mirror..

I will do that later.

Let's move on, shall we?

The first thing I did was strip the top of the dresser..

I had been admiring the way Miss Mustard Seed leaves the top of many of her items stained.

By the way, my husband stopped to pick up some stripper for me at Home Depot. I gave him no direction on what brand to purchase because frankly, I have never used a brand that I thought was worth the money..

BUT

that has changed.

He bought

and I must say it worked like a charm.I also had him purchase some 

Minwax Dark Walnut stain.. another product Miss Mustard Seed uses.

Upon reading the back of the can I saw they recommended using a prep product for the wood to prepare it for staining.

DrAtS

I didn't want to go to stop and run to the store..

Soooooooo

I proceeded..

Big, Huge Mistake

Streaked.. looked awful

I decided I would just paint it..forget the stained top.

But I told my friend, hair dresser, Lindsey about it and she advised me to strip it again or I would be sorry down the road.

I took her advice to heart and stripped it all over again.

Now, here is the pathetic part. 

I found the suggested product for preparation not at the store but on my shelf of supplies in the storage room! I couldn't believe it. I don't ever remember using it before but obviously I purchased it for some project... or maybe it is like me buying the chalk paint.. I just thought I might be using it some day!

This time the stain looked much better!

Don't skip this step when you strip and stain!

Soooooo

now the top is stained..

What color to paint on the dresser?

I started out painting it Versailles

I liked it.

BUT

I wasn't sure about what color I really wanted to use in the condo with the Duck Egg Blue I already had going on so I decided to repaint..

I used Duck Egg Blue not diluted.

I then outlined the accents with Old White.

I hated it.

I wished I had left it Versailles.

Now What?

Paint it again?

I decided to white wash over it with thinned down Old White.

O.K.

this I could live with!

But wait, I got Dark Wax with my new delivery.

Let's see what that does to the piece, shall we?

You can see on the side and corner the difference from the drawers that have not been waxed.

I finished putting Dark Wax on the entire piece and then attached the original hardware which I had painted white. Looks pretty bad, huh? But wait...after Dark Waxing....

Beautiful

All Finished

I LOVE IT

I LOVE IT

I LOVE IT

I am linking up with http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Stenciled Doily Table

I have always loved doilies. I just like the look of them. They are lacy and just plain fun.

I probably started loving them in grade school when we used them to make these...

It is hard for me not to buy them when I see them in a store even when not presented in the doily form. The shelf edge below is an example.

My love of them is what inspired the below window treatment. Simple doilies folded over a curtain rod.

My love of them is also what inspired my

 Doily Table

First I ordered some vinyl stencils off the Internet. I simply googled vinyl doilies and went from there choosing a design.

I had already received my first shipment ( yes, I have had more... three total, to be exact )of Chalk Paint.

I mixed two parts Paris Grey with one part Old White to use for stenciling.

I can't get over how blue this grey looks in pictures. It does not look this blue in person!

When I started the table looked like this.

I had already done a makeover on the table. It is the one below that I got at an estate sale a couple of months ago.

First I painted the entire table with Old White Chalk Paint and let it dry.

Next I took the mixture of Old White and Paris Grey and stenciled the doilies around the top of the table. After I stenciled the first one I went to the opposite side and stenciled another one. Once I had stenciled two, I started measuring the distance in between the doilies so they would be evenly spaced. Below is what it looked like when I had finished all the doilies. I did eight of them around the circumference of the table.

Once I had finished stenciling I painted the rest of the table top in the Paris Grey/Old White mixture.

The first two doilies I stenciled I used way too much paint on my brush. I was happy with it until on the third doily I used the stenciling principle I had learned years ago... you don't need much paint. The third stencil looked great and so it went around the table.

I thought I could live with leaving the first two alone but I just couldn't stand it and I decided to fix it before I went any further and sooooooooo

out came sand paper.

I simply hand sanded the area where the stencil was..repainted in Old White and did the stencil again.

I was very glad I fixed the two first ones.

After everything dried I waxed the table with Annie Sloan's clear wax.

And here is the finished product!

I love it..

It will be going to Florida in the beach condo cottage.

I am not sure yet what kind of chairs I will be using with it but I do plan to make seat cushions similar to the ones shown in the picture above... with doilies, of course!
I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday.

Exciting News

I was just featured on Better After!

You can visit here!

The Chair In All It's Glory

The Chair

The chair during deconstruction..

I thought I had taken more pictures...

I am sure I did but I cannot find them so you will have to use your imagination. It took a long time just to get the nail heads out of this chair. Afterwards I started ripping off fabric.

At some point, I went to my computer and googled upholstering...

What in the world was I thinking?

Just because I had been able to slip cover one couch sort of successfully, I now thought I could upholster a chair??????

H-E-L-L-O

Well, sometimes my brain does not work properly....

Maybe I should be saying lots of time my brain does not work properly!

O.K., so the advice I got, from reading several tutorials, was to take lots of pictures as you disassemble the piece. I did this, I know I did this! Also, the first piece you dissemble will be the last piece you put back on.. 

Also suggested, was trying not to cut up the different pieces so you could use them for a pattern.

OOPS...

I had already cut into a couple of pieces. 

Soooo... back out to the garage I went and started once again taking more pieces off the chair.

Then I got to

the pleats on the front. Oh My..

each one of those little pleats is a roll of batting in and of itself. Also, do you notice the buttons? It was at this point that I was ready to scream...

My husband advised me to let him take it to the trash and give up. He said I got the other furniture pieces at such a good price, to just let this chair thing goooooooooooo

Do any of you look at the site Better After?

I was taking a break and checking on blogs and there she was.

Lindsey, of Better After was posting about starting a new section on her blog. I think it was going to be called 

Better Before.

It was to be pictures of disaster projects.

I couldn't believe it..

I started laughing..

I was a pinch away from taking the pictures and sending them to her for maybe the first post on the new feature.

BUT

every time I thought about putting the chair in the trash I could just picture some other crafty female stopping out front, throwing my chair in the car and taking it home to turn it into a treasure.

Soooooooo,

I started over.

I got muslin and stapled it back on all the places I had removed the upholstery. I took more batting and put it over all those little tufts and pleats.

My husband said the chair looked like it had just gotten out of surgery! Smile...

I went to a local shop that sells all kinds of fabric and upholstery items and had a new cushion cut to go in the seat.

The chair seat was very low to begin with and the springs were old so the new seat fit right in with the remake plans.

Then

I started my slipcover.

It took two whole drop cloths

 ( because of cutting a couple of pieces twice)

but now I have myself a GrEaT new chair,

if I do say so myself!!!!

I LoVe it!!!!!

I am so PrOuD 

of the results!!!!

So, with no further ado

I give you...

My New Chair

Isn't her pleated little skirt cute?

The seat looks gigantic here for some reason..

just ignore it and admire the little pleats...

on the skirt..

not the back of the chair

:)

I have a feeling those pleats on the back of the chair are for a VERY ADVANCED 

Upholstery Class!

Side view.. the panels are one of the things I cut twice.

The first go around I tried having the sides cut as one piece..

didn't work..

so I started over and put piping around the back side panels.

For the back of the chair I used buttons rather than putting in a zipper.

I even made bound buttonholes,

something I have not done in years and years..

They aren't great bound buttonholes if one examines them but they look great just looking at the chair. :) 

Isn't the carving on the arms and legs great?

I made little ties for the arms.

And this sassy lady does not mind lifting her skirt one bit to show off more of her legs!

One last look...

I can't help myself..

I smile every time I go by it..

My husband told me he was wrong about throwing out the chair...

He teased me and said he's been wrong before and he will be wrong again.

We both think the chair is very comfortable and will be great in our Master bedroom in Destin!

And just wait till you see my latest project!

I best get back to working on it.

Oh and by the way,

I am back on the new blogger and now, for some reason, it is allowing me to upload the pictures.
Yippee!

Happy Easter Everyone!