Friday, August 29, 2008

~ Happy Holiday Weekend & Beau Bandito

Beau Bunny Bandito is making a new appearance in the Etsy shop
and I thought you might like to see him.

Beau always makes me smile, but this little rascal with his bandito mask trying to pretend he hasn't gotten any treats yet just cracks me up! I wonder if anyone will fall for it and forget that he already got a treat from them.

It will be a fabulous Autumn to have hurricane season over with this year. Watching the weather for us, it makes me so worried about the people where the storms will hit even if they miss us.

They will be putting the new roof on our house next week. Yes, fall will have to be quieter and less stressful!

Have a Happy & Safe Holiday!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

~ Black Glazed Finish for Painted Furniture & Cabinets







When thinking of writing this tutorial I was considering what the differences might be between doing this black glaze the antiqued white (mocha) glaze that I have written about previously.

A lot of people like wood cabinets rather than white. I love both. Some days I love one, then the next day I love the other look. And it can switch at any time.
In addition to changing your white cabinets into a richer more finished look with glazing, you can also do this for wood cabinets. If you look at cabinet doors, etc. at the stores you will see that they often have a black or brown glaze on them, as do many good furniture pieces. This is pretty easy to do once you get used to it. Although this is simple, it can be frustrating at first, but once you get the feel for what the paint does, it is really easy.

  1. Black Paint, one little bottle of craft paint will do most jobs.
  2. Glaze, either the same used on walls, or use a bottle from the craft store found either in with the artists supplies or craft paints
  3. Small art brushes
  4. Rags, lots of them.
  5. Latex gloves are quite handy to have, or you will have black hands most likely
  6. Small container or bucket of water to dilute and clean up as you go.
Start with a small container and mix some glaze and a little water. Just enough water so that the paint is thin enough to run into the crevices. (Although I have done this with just water to make it thin enough, water dries quicker than glaze. If you feel good with the technique you can do it with just water.)

Add black paint to the ratio of 1 part paint to 3 or 4 parts glaze & mix.
Add more glaze or water as needed to control the strength & thickness of the paint.

You will use a small artist brush to brush on like a pin stripe line beside the moldings or lines of the piece. As soon as you paint that area, take a damp rag on your index finger, angled away from the painted area and wipe it clean, leaving the glaze where you want it. (Sounds tough, but it gets easy!)

Carved areas or crevices: Brush on the glaze into all the deepest areas and along side any moldings. The black can stain a bit where ever it touches. So be sure to control it. Keep water and damp rags nearby to remove from any area as soon as you need to. (If it gets on the wood where you really don't want it, Comet will usually remove it right away.)

The smaller the line and the more detailed you want it, the smaller the brush to a certain degree. You will not be using any large brushes for this kind of detail glaze.

I like to splatter and speckle mine when I'm done. You do this by loading the brush with watered down paint, and tapping the brush on something hard over the area you want splattered, and it will splatter specks from the tips of the brush.
OR you can use an old toothbrush. Load it with watered down paint, and then use your thumb to splatter the paint by pulling the bristles back and letting them go. Some old paint brushes are short and stiff enough to it that way as well.

The glaze outlines the molding shapes and really adds a lot to ordinary cabinets. Lots of people have done this who had not painted much or at all before. Once they got the feel for it, they all did a fabulous job with it.



~ See Y'All Soon ~

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

~ Thank You!

Thanks for your notes and your advice, it is GREATLY appreciated.

Sue your information was very helpful.





A lot of Savannah looked like this not that long ago. It took the city a while to realize that old was good and they finally stopped tearing everything old down. A few little ol' ladies can make a huge difference!

I still see beauty in this old lady of a building. But when you see what has been done, and is being done to the city it really amazes you. The peeling paint might make an interesting picture, but it is a better place to live after it's fixed up.

Thank you again. See you soon!

Friday, August 22, 2008

~ Rain, Rain Go Away.. Rug Seller Info

It's a bit stressful down here. Sweet Daughter's new house has water coming in her bathroom and bedroom, like at the foundation or bottom of the wall. We have all been working non-stop trying to keep it from doing as much damage as it certainly could. I wish I could find someone else who has had this experience. The guy who inspected the house before she bought it is supposed to come out and at least look and see if he can give any information to help.

This was a "vacation week" for Sweet Hubby, so he has spent it digging a trench outside to divert water... which has helped. Who knows! It has rained non-stop since Monday, and is a a little light now. Thank God! But we still have more rain for days to come. I thought my old roof might be a problem, NOT her newer house. So no sleep for me and I'm dragging.

I am happy to share the information on the rug with you all. I know I spent so many hours over the years wondering who you could trust with a large purchase like that on Ebay. This seller has been good for me. I was looking for Chobi or Agra because I like the colors in these. He calls the Chubi. The ones I have purchased so far have been Indo, made in Indian and either Agra or Chubi (Chobi.)

The rug seller on Ebay is a pretty large operation. They go by different names. I think they are mainly out of Canada. When you view any of the rugs there will be a list of their other stores on the right hand side.
ECG USA
ECG Canada
ECG Europe
ECG Select
ECG Liquidation and a couple more.

The colors are usually pretty accurate. Mine have all been new rugs, I haven't purchased older ones from them.

Thank so much for the kind words and emails. Of course this will all go away. And I'm praying the cost will not be horrible to fix all this mess. It could be worse and we know it from seeing the 20-26 inches of rain just SE of us.

So, Thank You again for your concern, it is greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

~ Musical Rugs

Even with all the rain and wind of Fay, the UPS man still delivered the rugs I had purchased on Ebay. They came from the same seller that I bought the one in the living room from, which is my favorite rug. But the one for the studio might move to the top of the list. I really love it. The living room one came in 2006, so I was only hoping to find one something like it now years later. The new one is not quite as lime green, but still goes perfectly in the room. I was actually looking for one for Sweet Daughter's bedroom. But these just kind of popped up.



One of the rugs is for the living room. What? Well yes..it went like this...

The larger new one went in the living room so...
The one in the living room is now in the dining room and is perfect.
The one in the dining room is now in the bedroom. And it is really great there.
The one in the bedroom is now in the family room. :)

So where is the one that was in the family room?
On it's gone to Sweet Daughter's house. It has a little more brown in it, and it was a good buy on Ebay when I found the others, so it was an "in the meantime" kind of thing. It will be so pretty in her bedroom which is blue and brown.

A happy ending to the musical rug game. See you soon!

Monday, August 18, 2008

~ Mamma Mia & Fay, too?

I had not even listened to any weather or news in a week so when I said we were going to Renninger's on Saturday I had no idea that it was going to rain everywhere. Everywhere except where we were at the time, at Renninger's! Sweet Hubby said let's just go and see if it rains. Wow what luck. It has poured many times during past visits. But it held off in that location, even though it rained pretty good at home while we were gone. I'll show you some fun pictures, but first....



Last night Sweet Daughter and I went to see Mamma Mia which is on tour right now. It was simply fantastic! There was great simplicity of set design, so maybe they are all cutting back to keep the price of tickets from getting even higher. The whole place looked sold out and from the applause, I think everyone was thrilled with the performance. I've always loved ABBA's music through their high and low periods, and just never stopped. They have quite a loyal following it seems, and tons of new fans.
If you get a chance to see this, go for it. I haven't seen the movie yet because I wanted to see this first.


The cleaning and organizing continues in the studio art room to make a place to create.
That old pine chest of drawers got a quick coat of white paint, and is now the proud storage area of all my spools of ribbon. I am trying to use anything I can that I already have, not even to save money but to save the planet. :P One of those tree hugger ideas. I looked on Saturday for some drawer knobs/pulls but came home empty handed. However I came across my old ones that were on the kitchen cabinets at one time. Now this made me feel very good. More using things that might otherwise be tossed in the landfill.



In order to redo metal knobs, just make sure they are very clean first.
Paint with a metal primer. Any color is OK.

For these I did a base coat of flat black after I applied the metal primer.
I then used a "rub and buff" type product in silver on the raised, highest areas.
Then a touch of gold on the same area, and follow again with the silver if you are going for an aged silver look, which is what I wanted.

These will hold up pretty well if you make sure you start with a metal primer. In a kitchen they might show more wear, but otherwise it works well.

And Fay....
I hope she doesn't cause too much trouble. Sometimes it looks like her path is kind of similar to Charlie's, so we are keeping a very watchful eye on her. We never knew Charlie was coming at us with Cat 1 wind and rain until the morning before he hit that afternoon. Looks like a ton of rain from Fay, but I hope that is the worst of it.

See you soon!

Friday, August 15, 2008

~ Happy Friday

I really was considering this lovely mirror while shopping in Savannah. When I walked away from it, a piece of it fell off. Nobody was anywhere near it. I asked them if the shop was haunted. We had been on a ghost tour the night before, so it seemed logical to ask. I wondered if it was trying to tell me something.



But I will not buy anything that I don't need, or I just can't live without. An old mantra, but I hope to stick by it. I'm sure I could have found a place for it, but ....

Tomorrow we are going out to Renninger's Antique Market. I hope I remember my mantra. Although I don't need a thing, it would be fun to find some little thing while we are out on a short adventure together. It's always a great time when we go up there, just looking and maybe finding something special.
Maybe something from this fabulous booth. Love all her shabby whites.


Have a Great Weekend! See you soon.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

~ Sneak Peeks? Inspiration Board

I used to only do BIG reveals when I was working on large projects, especially a whole room. But I love sneak peeks when someone else doing things because I'm quite impatient. So, here is another little peek.



I've had a board of some sort for so many years, but I wonder if "inspiration" board is a new term. Artists & designers always have them to keep things to inspire them and to keep on schedule! It's nice to see how many people use them now.


This frame was black with gold accents. The more I looked at the tiffany blue color on the chest of drawers, I knew that frame was headed for a makeover. I still love toile. For a while it was tough to keep the love affair going especially when I saw pants made out of the patterns. But as others tire of the toile, many of us who have loved it for years can truly enjoy it again. Will it go out of the style? Not likely, it's been around for a long time and will be used in decorating for another 100 years at least.

Although I didn't plan to put the crossed ribbon on it, I did so for the color. And now I'm sure it will be handy too. You won't see much of the background once I start putting things on it anyway.

Lots more painting to do...an ugly, "old" pine chest, will be white. I need the drawers, so it will do for now. The black desk and black chair either need some added color or they might get moved to the family room. We'll see. I like evolution when decorating. And some days a room evolves and dictates where it's going. You just grab a paint brush and hang on!

Monday, August 11, 2008

~ Old Friends

My Old Friend, July 2008 - Savannah

I'm off today to see an "old" friend. Actually he isn't old and I've only know him a few years. And more shocking to me is the fact that I met him on the internet! Yep, my sweet hubby is fine with me seeing another man whom I met online. It's always fun to see him and catch up. We agree almost totally on politics so we vent about the state of affairs for a moment or two, and we sometimes mention somethings we have in common from being online, but mostly we just talk. He is a most interesting person although when it comes to decorating I tell him he definitely WTAW (Worse Than Any Woman) I've even worked with. Not totally true, I have had some doozies, but I like to kid him about how he can obsess over a color or whatever. I met him on a decorating site when he was still choosing colors for his new house, and he's a good guy.

I'm still turning pictures from being sideways in the camera but I came across another old friend.
If you were around here last August, I think I politely asked, or begged, anyone to save me from old houses. I adore them. But today I wouldn't take one on anymore. I know my limits of time and money, quite unlike the things I would do when I was younger and dumber and braver.


"405" House - Savannah, 2007

This is the picture of the "405" house from last year. I had no idea I had wandered back to her doorstep this year in Savannah. Although I had that nagging feeling you get when you've seen someone who makes your mind wonder if there is something familiar about them. You know when I took this picture I had such high hopes that when I saw her again she would be more loved and sporting a fresh coat of paint. I loved her anyway, but wish someone would come along and give her real love.

The work continues in the studio, art room. We got the shelves in the closet! Yipee, storage!
See you soon.

Friday, August 8, 2008

~ Doorways, Bookcases & a Pumpkin, too


Doors, gates and windows are fascinating. This is the door at the entrance of the St. Augustine cathedral. But any door sparks my imagination as I wonder what is beyond it. I also adore gates and windows and I took lots of pictures of these as well.


Painting is taking longer than expected. Maybe because bookcases don't appear to hold as much as they really do until you are done taking everything off of them! The piles on the floor seem so much more than what was on the shelves. But now they are all painted, waiting for the books to jump back on them. The walls are next and then hopefully this weekend we will begin putting the new shelves in the closet. How good it will feel to have a place of all these art supplies and books in one room.

We have used these simple bookcases in different areas. They will be staying here though! During the last redo in this room, we added the moldings and that made a big difference. You can find ready-made bookcases fairly cheap and add moldings for your own custom look. That's the new wall color which came from my favorite pottery pumpkin. It has been around for over 20 years. I love the colors in it, and the walls are one of the lightest shades. I haven't used one of these colors in years!

Hope your weekend is a wonderful one.
It was nice to see you as you travel through BlogLand.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

~ Old & White :)

Two things I love are almost anything old/vintage or antique, and the color white. Which brings us to what I am doing right now, painting the backs of the bookcases, and touching up the moldings, in the studio. Nothing is quite as wonderful as crisp white shelves. Everything looks good on them. Even though walking into a fabulous library with wood shelves can be rather pleasant, white is the choice today. The ones in the family room used to have the accent red of the room on the back of them and that got painted white a while ago. It was nice for a short time, but the total white look called me back just as it is in the this room.

In the meantime, here is a bit of old. A few shots from St. Augustine. More photos to crop and resize for blogging soon, after I get this paint stuff done.


The Old House Village Gardens


From their website: — the former Hotel Alcazar, built in 1887 in the Spanish Renaissance style. Railroad magnate Henry M. Flagler commissioned architects Carrere and Hastings to design the Alcazar and the Ponce de Leon Hotel (across the street). The two young architects later designed the New York Public Library and the U.S. Senate office building. After years of accommodating vacationing wealthy patrons, the elegant resort hotel
closed.

Lovely Garden Area at St. Francis Inn, for St. Francis of course.
(The best breakfast we have had yet at a B&B.)

I'm glad you stopped by. Come again.

Friday, August 1, 2008

~ Singing the Blues, Tiffany Blue

Ah, but singing the blues in a good way. I matched the little blue Tiffany bag perfectly and as stated previously...it was bright! Sweet Daughter came by for lunch and thought it was a bit too bright. So I knocked it down a bit with a light wash of white, after I thought I was done. :)

Some of my flea market/garage sale friends probably find old dressers like this one every other week for next to nothing. I was thrilled to find it at consignment store for about $100. It's the older, all wood kind and very nicely constructed with dovetails. It's been waiting patiently for its time to be transformed. I had no idea this was what I would wind up doing when I bought it. Now the whole room will have to take this piece into consideration as it becomes the new studio space. Those drawers are just what I need for storage.

BEFORE


AFTER

I guess I've been craving this color of so long, I didn't even mind it at full strength. But she was right. At night it was extra bright. If you search for a color match on the web, you will find a whole lot of people looking for that particular color. But none of the ones they listed looked quite right to me. But this did the trick. I wanted to match the bag.

In the before picture you can see that the hardware was really beautiful in design but dark. So I added a bit of the blue, then a touch of silver and lastly gold to finish them off. After all the heart on the bag is gold.


The next couple of pictures are of the murals of the icons in St. Augustine at the St. Photious Greek Orthodox Chapel on St. George. It was very small, but really outstandingly beautiful.

Those are our 2 little candles in the second picture. I hope many more people discover this treasure that seems so hidden in this old city.



Hope your weekend is fantastic.

(There is a girl bunny match to Beau Bunny, but she is not in the shop at this time. I'll post a picture when she makes it back there. Thanks for asking!)