Family Lovelies

This past year, we (I use that term extremely loosely, as my contributions were highly limited) cleaned out my paternal grandparents' amazing historic home in preparation to sell. They've reached another stage in their lives of needing more attentive care, so the monumental task of going through family heirlooms and decades of pack-ratted junk of questionable value took a while.

In the terrifying basement, we came across this woebegone little desk. It had, in its glory days, belonged to one of my aunts. Years of neglect and moisture damage had left it to be passed over by most eyes.

I didn't think the original top would be able to be salvaged...

With it being a family piece, I wanted to keep it in the family. So when a cousin was looking for a nifty little number for her room, I showed her this jewel in the rough.

She needed something that would coordinate with her amazing bedding. I WANT:
http://www.zappos.com/echo-design-jaipur-comforter-set-queen

So this is what the little desk turned into, after extensive structural repair for the moisture damage:

As I started prepping the top to apply a new surface, I realized the original top might be able to be restored after all, which is always groovy. It came out pristine.

I kept the original hardware and matched it to her bedspread, and added a crystal knob to the top drawer that was devoid of a handle.

The desk itself was treated in a creamy white and then glazed with a gray tobacco glaze before being poly-coated. 

And, of course, fun paper for the drawers. That makes everything better when organizing, right?

(Doesn't work for me...)

I'm so happy this piece has a new lease on life while still being a part of the family. Here's to making old things new!

Thanks for stopping by!

Family Gatherings

A few years back, when they moved, my aunt and uncle generously gave us a bunch of their old furniture, including a dining set. We used that set for a long time, despite the fact that the chairs were a dark hunter green and the stained top was worn through and marked with crayon in short order by grubby little hands. It was a godsend for us.

Until we found the ornate 1930s dark veneer table and chairs that are currently in our dining room. It suits our style better, at least until I find my elusive Hollywood regency mustard yellow velvet dream number. In the meantime, my mother-in-law expressed an interest in the old dining set, with an update. So for Christmas this year:

The hunter green turned black, and the cushions were updated with a classy country check that my in-laws picked out together. It looks great in their new kitchen.

The maple top gave me fits. I'm still learning my staining technique. On this project, I learned that you can't apply a dark stain to a light, domestic wood. Even with wood conditioner. Probably some of you wood pros could have told me that. 

Each stain pass, the top ended up blotchy and mottled. I ended up sanding it all down and starting over, after exhaustive research on shellac techniques and cutting. After a shellac half-cut and a reapplication, the stain went on like a dream...

And now I have a ton of shellac and alcohol, if anyone needs any.

It's got a handy drawer on the end for silverware or whatever. The knob got a glamor update, of course.

It's got such warm tones for fall, and it works in their country kitchen so well. 

We got to use the new table for Thanksgiving dinner when extended family was in town. Lots of people can fit down the sides and on the nice wide ends. 

Thanksgiving happened to also be my mother-in-law's birthday this year. With all the regular Thanksgiving pies, I opted for a mini cake for her. Because you still have to have a birthday cake, even if your birthday is overshadowed by pumpkin pie...

Also because cake always looks better on jadite

I'm thankful for my in-laws who opened their home for us to enjoy Thanksgiving together, and I'm thankful for my own two munchkins!

Hurricane Hazel

 

Our Amazon

A belated happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for stopping by!

First Celebrations

Back in August, we celebrated our second daughter's first birthday.

I went with a Beatrix Potter garden theme, as the girls' room is all Beatrix Potter and we are big fans of all of her precious literary endeavors. Also because I could get and grow a lot of gorgeous produce at that time of the year to keep costs down, and I'm a cheapskate like that.

So check out the adorableness of these invitations. Unashamed plug here. You have GOT to check out Shortcake's Signs custom invites and have her work something up for you. Granted, it might spoil you for anything ordinary from Vistaprint from here on out, but here's my area of choice to splurge on.

She does custom lettering in any type of font that you wish, and her drawing and art is unreal. She recreated this iconic Peter Rabbit scene for these invitations. Also, she's my sister, so that's where this degrades into pure nepotism. Believe me, it's entirely to your advantage here...

Fall Fruition

Some things take a long time to come about.

I started upcycling furniture quite by accident. I couldn't find a coffee table I liked, and in browsing internet pictures, I happened across a picture like this.

A little wild, I know, but I loved the vintage vibe. And I found a similar table on Craigslist and started my learning journey on the coffee table we still have and use and climb on daily, and in the process I started messing around with other pieces of furniture:

But it didn't come with a hexagon end table. They are hard to find, apparently. I drove all the way out to Anderson one day to look at one, only to discover that it was molded plastic and not wood. I came across plenty of others that were too plain, or just too pricey for me to spring for. So I was ecstatic to finally snag this little pair at an auction recently...

I wanted something with plenty of detail and ornate design that would stand out with all of the glazing goodness I had planned. So, finally, three years after my original inspiration, I finally have my vintage end table.

In peacock blue, of course. Put on your surprised face. 

Raise Your Glass

I LOVE sewing machine cabinets. I have two in my living room right now, one as an entry table and one as an end table. The variety of styles and the versatility of function never fails to please my heart.

This particular table had a non-functioning machine unit that I gutted at the beginning of this transformation. The original hardware was just peachy, though I gave it a face-lift with a hammered copper paint job. A couple of coats of poly are in place to keep this piece pretty for the long haul.

This particular shade of a pale bluish green, called "Irish Eyes", is perfectly soothing and sedate under that lovely espresso glaze--don't you agree? I'm loving Irish Eyes right now. This transformation also got a moderate distressing, especially along those lovely legs.

But that's not the best part. This piece is hiding a secret. Underneath that quiet, sedate exterior lies a wild party animal just waiting to burst forth. This end table doubles as a frivolous drink station!

OK, maybe not that wild...

With a little rigging on the inside, a heavy-duty rubbermaid container sits sturdily within and can be easily removed and replaced for ice removal and cleaning. It sits just below the surface so that with the top closed, you'd never guess the crazy secrets lurking beneath.

Wedding Bells

My cousin tied the knot over the July fourth weekend, and as I was remiss in actually sending a wedding gift after I had placed a selection in my online shopping cart (I don't want to talk about how often that happens), he and his lovely new wife got a custom Hazelnuts piece instead.

My new cousin-in-law (is that a thing?) has a great vintage-chic taste, and her inspired wedding decor reflected that. I can't wait to see the pics. She also has a strong eye for envisioning potential, so when she bypassed all of the eye-catching French-provincial, shabby, and mid-century pieces I showed her and dug out this chunky vintage end table I've had lying around forever, I was so excited. I love this piece.

Having been around from the 70's and having seen a lot of wear, it needed plenty of love to get it back into a state fit to grace a newlywed home. But I think we got there.

Celebrations

The son of one of my dearest friends turned one this past weekend. Baby Z (who's not such a baby anymore) celebrated in style with a fantastic circus-themed party that his clever mom planned up.

The stage was set early on when these fantastic custom hand-drawn invitations arrived. My friend commissioned Shortcake Signs for the invites (ok, I may have sung the praises of Shortcake Signs since she happens to be my sister), and they turned out so cute!

My friend thrifted a great old, slightly rickety cherry high chair that she envisioned in antique white for Z's first birthday party. After a lot of sanding old cherry stain away and tightening old screws and adding new ones, here's the chair ready for the center ring! 

I used a soft ecru white with a dark espresso glaze over some pretty heavy distressing. It's a piece that won't mind seeing a lot of wear and tear!

This was a project that was so special and meaningful to work on. Happy birthday and much love, dear Z!

Living

We are turning vaguely crunchy around here. Not much, mind you--just whiffs of it here and there. We got chickens, but they aren't exactly organic. They end up with plenty of stray graham cracker crumbs and leftover cheerios along with their kitchen scraps...

Though Brian fought getting chickens for two years, he went chicken-crazy within a few days and we soon ended up with a pile of these:

 

Which have now grown into gangly teens:

Hurrican Hazel holding a Rhode Island Red

We adopted a rescue kitten, which is slightly crunchy, and we named her Molly, which could maybe be somehow construed as crunchy, if you wanted to try hard enough. She's a darling, except when she poops on the dining room rug. If I were super crunchy I would probably find a way of turning it into all-natural leather moisturizer or something, but like I said, we are only borderline...

Here's our second baby. We fondly call her the Amazon. We are not very crunchy when it comes to parenting. We use disposable diapers and regular mosquito sprays (have you seen the mosquitoes at our house?), and we eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch almost every day...

We are still constantly messing with our house. This is the pantry Brian built in to the kitchen a couple months back. Now we have a place to put all our (non-organic) food. Again, vaguely crunchy.

Our garden is coming along with lots of heirloom tomatoes, squash, peppers, lettuce, kale, spinach, bok choy, onions, herbs, brussels, beans, and cucumbers. That's plenty crunchy for me, but Brian wants an excuse to buy a tractor with attachments so he can dig up a huge garden for next year. Someone stop him...

I've been doing furniture for our house, which I'll show soon, and I've been working on each room little by little. We are loving giving each room a feel of its own with the art and accessories that we fit there. This fabulous beetle pillow reminds me of my childhood pets in Cambodia and was hand-drawn by my friend Rachel from over at the Hippie Homestead. She does all sorts of creatures from the insect kingdom...

So you see, I'm still alive--just busy living, with my little girls, and my hubby, and the dog, and the cats, and our sweet little house, and all the things that fill life up and don't leave a lot of time for updating blogs. But still, thanks for stopping by=)