The Wreaths Might Go with Me!

 So Glad this wreath didn't sell for the $1.00 price tag I put on it, I think I will pack it and take it with me now. Here are some photo's along the way of making this a bit more festive with some added trimmings!   The only add on purchases this year are Ribbon Spools bought for $2.98 each (9 1/2 yards) and a couple of bags of scatter tags from the $1.00 store!

 

Started with this....

Added a few things here and there, played around with different ribbons and bows.

 

found some other "stuff" to add to it, a few pine cones slathered in red spray paint.

 

and finally settled on simple.

 

I have this red Pottery Barn shelf that didn't sell at our Estate Sale. So that fit in just perfect.  The little Angel was $1.00 from the thrift store. AND.......yea it is vintage "made in Japan"  what a bargain right? 

The ceramic church I painted about 22 years ago and never did like the colors I had it. So I spray painted it metalic pearl white and then added a bunch of epsom salt to give a "fresh snow" effect,

It looks much better now.

 

Christmas Past

Hello All You Christmas Elves!!!
I'm going to share a couple of pictures from the last two years Christmas,  because 80% of my funiture and belongings are already loaded into the POD in prep for my move.  Then I need to figure out how to make what is left, in the house work for Christmas!

 

family room

No Fireplace, so this is the Mantel, the white picture on the shelf was a great $4.00 thrift store find and I use it all year!

dining table centerpiece

 

I chose the teal blues, limey greens and browns as the holiday seasons colors. 

I added the white fake flocked tree for last year.  Bought it on sale for a great price but I don't remember now what that was, but I'm sure it was under fiftly bucks!

Okay,  Well when I get the estate sale stuff packed away, given away, and donated and a spot ready for the tree for this year, hopefully I will get some photos up.
Till next time....

Estate Sale Madness

If You Were Brave Enough to make it to our sale....

So I've been on a "Postponement" period from continuing my blog for three MAIN reasons.
 
First, because of My CRAZY life  right now AND because I'm still trying to learn everything about blogging, editing, gadgets, templates, google + tutorials, plus photo taking and editing (I'm at the very remedial level right now but planning on improving) and of course the 2nd reason being, I'm so busy reading other peoples blogs, and did I mention, learning?

But here's the REAL  and 3rd reason...I've been incredibly busy with an Estate Sale.  Oh Where At.... you may ask? Well right here in my house and Garage. It has taken weeks and weeks to prepare for this sale.  I hired my daughter and a good friend to help me prepare.  Now this was no easy task in any way because it meant MOVING OUT (into the pod) all the things I want to keep for my new place...wherever that turns out to be, and not soon enough by the way - I will explain that in another post...I Hope, but yes I'm moving!

The many many years of collecting and selling items in different spaces over the last 20 years have resulted in having too much to load into the portable moving pod (now sitting in my driveway). So the many weeks preparing; cleaning, pricing, displaying, etc. was done and we were ready to open our doors to the long line of folks that had informed us they were coming.

Here is some work in progress

notice all those nice clear tubs with christmas balls sitting there, well they're not out front  within easy reach anymore, they are all crammed into the back and have furniture up against them - that means christmas decorating will be done with whats been "left out" from the sale...hmmm..?

 We went to bed the night before completely exhausted but ready for a good nights sleep, and when we woke up early for coffee and our opening day, guess what we woke up to find in my driveway......?

 EIGHT INCHES OF SNOW...EEECK! 

But Then.... two hours later guess what we found again out on our driveway? 

YEP Lucky Us.....Another 6 inches to shovel again.  Actually...It was my fabulous daughter that did all the work.....thanks honey! 

Needless to say No line-up of people a mile long. But we carried on anyway and luckily there are treasure seekers out there willing to take the risk in a blizzard!

 

 

 

 

 

Here are just a few photos of finished spots after unpacking, cleaning, pricing, displaying, and cleaning up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Now it's time to pack it all up again and get some very simple Christmas decorations out, in order to prepare for the inevitable move that will be happening....someday soon...I think.

 

Thanks for reading, Till next time........

 



 



Little Ole Phone Chair

I Love these old phone chairs (they're also called a gossip bench) that pop up every once in awhile.  I've found quite a few in the past year that I've then painted and passed on to some happy chat.  I wish I would have taken pictures of each one.  I painted one in black and put Black and White Toile on the seat. I painted one Red.  Loved THAT ONE! (again...so which I had a pic)  Usually you can find them in antique/second hand furniture shops and sometimes yard sales.  Nevertheless, I always snag them up when I spot them because they are relatively easy for a face lift.  So here is the before and after of my most recent telephone chair.

 I painted it in creamy colored chalk paint. It was an oops latex paint from one of the big box stores.
And I used some beautiful red and cream toile for the seat. I havent glazed or antiqued it yet. I'm   thinking about one of those frenchy transfer labels that can be downloaded from the Graphhics Fairy http://www.graphicsfairy-diy.com/ for free. Ya know the ones that are all the craze right now. I'm loving reading and searching all the blogs that show all that great transfer work.  I'd really like to find or create one that has some relation to an old telephone company....Ma Bell maybe.  Anywho.....I'd love your ideas,  should I leave it the way it is or plunge into adding "something" to the top, what do you think?  Would that make it too busy?

gossip chair with Red Toile on a cream background

For only $2.00 a can I figured I couldn't go wrong, right? I buy just about every oops paint I find, especially if its under $3.00 a quart. And I'm loving mixing up some of my own colors with a little bit from this can and a little bit from that can!

I mostly use oil paints for furniture because it is so durable, and like chalk paint it adheres to almost anything without a primer.  A couple months ago I found a whole gallon of pure white for only $5.00 that normally retails for $28.00 - I was so excited and got busy painting a bunch of tables and picture frames for my living room.  I will share all that soon.

Very Sad Cane Chair



Here is a nice Cane Backchair I found at our local thrift store.  Actually I found a set of 4, Wow can you believe that.  I've had a great time painting them, but chose to do so in pairs of two. the first set I did in this creamy oil paint with a walnut stain to antique it (The other two I painted pure white, I will show in a future  post). So anywhoo with a little and a lot of TLC, I brought it back to life!

BEFORE

I covered it in a green velvet I bought as a small remnant for only $5.00 a yard, WooHoo what a Deal, right. And then glued some fringy trim all around the edge.  Now, Although I like the way it turned out, since I have painted the other 2 in Pure White, I think I will go back at some point and paint this and her matching partner also in the pure white.  Don't hold me to it of course I've been known to change my mind from time to time.



AFTER