Gone Fishing...See you soon.

Some new Jewelry for my "Ugly" Buffet

This little depression era buffet is one of my favorite pieces. When I found her and her little brother "China Cabinet" at the Goodwill 8 years ago they were ugly brown, sad, chipped and 50% off. Even so, I could tell they were sturdy and they reminded me of my Grandma. When my hubby and brother in law went to pick them up for me I think they were a little repulsed. When they moved them in for me they asked "are you sure you want these?" "Yes I want them. They are going to be super cute with a coat of paint." I replied.

Since they have been with me they have been white, red and black. They have been moved, bumped, sanded, chipped and pretty much abused. They are not fancy but they are strong. I love them.

I was at Hob Lob (again, I know, I know) yesterday and I found these great chunky ceramic knobs in a bunch of fabulous colors and shapes and I thought my beloved buffet would look so cute, maybe even a little fresh, dressed in these. So I bought three sets of different shapes in black and cream. They look great with the toile shades.

Aren't they sweet?

Doesn't she look proud?

Maybe now I'll finally paint the dinning room. I am still not sure if I want red or tan. What do you all think?

Antiquing Mirrors Altering Clearance Finds

I found these scrolly mirror thingys at Hob Lob in the 80% of section. They where not the right color but for six bucks I figured I would use my trusty black spray paint to fix that problem. After I sprayed them and hung them in my room something still wasn't right. The mirrors where way to shinny and where disrupting some sort of Fung Shway. (see how much I know about Feng Shui, I can't even spell it) Bottom line it looked bad. My hubby who pretty much says nothing (smart man) about what I do to the house, even asked "whats up with those mirrors?"
I knew then something had to be done.


I started researching ways to antique or age new mirrors. Surprisingly there was very little free info online about easy ways to do it. I did find a couple of expensive kits. But I wasn't willing to pay $60 dollars and the kits where huge! Tons of steps and chemicals. Not my thing at all. So I decided to use some things I had on hand and see if I could come up with a easy cheap solution. I also wanted to share it with you because frankly I think this is a way better idea than the $60 kits (sorry kit makers) for small decorative items.

This is not an entirely new idea, I've seen glass Christmas ornaments altered with alcohol inks that are gorgeous. I figured the technique would work well on a mirror, after all it's just glass with a reflective backing.


Up There^^^^ is a picture of the things you will need.

1. Tim Holtz Alcohol inks These come in a pack of 4 coordinating colors for about 8.00 Hobby Lobby carries them and they do go on 50% off quite often. I used Black, Mushroom and a Silver metal Mixative. This is fun stuff! Tim Holtz has a cool blog if you want to see the wonderful things he does with his inks.

2. Tim Holtz Blending Solution (plain alcohol works too with a somewhat different effect)

3. Paper towels

4. Old Toothbrush

5. Some felt for application (I had the Tim Holtz stamp felt holder thing so I used that but anything disposable with work for this) Cotton balls work as well.

6. Something to protect the surface you will be working on. This can get a little messy.


Randomly drip your alcohol inks on the mirrors surface. Think random. Don't be scared this can be wiped right off if you don't like it.


This is where you get artistic!
Pounce with paper towel to move ink around and remove some of it from your surface. I like to put a little of the blending solution on my paper towel. Keep adding ink until desired effect is achieved.



Now add some ink to your felt or cotton and pounce kind of like sponge panting. This is where the "faux oxidization" is added. Again just keep adding until it looks right to you.


Squirt some of the blending solution on an old toothbrush and use your thumb to spray the mirror.



It will give you a molted effect.

I went back and added bigger blobs of blending solution with a bit of felt.
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The case of the garishly shiny scrolly mirror is now solved!






Here they are back in the room .


Much better.

New Paint!

The new Sherwin Williams Artichoke paint is on the walls and I really love it. It totally changed the whole room! So here is a quick tour. I'm still thinking I will paint the bed and armiore, there is a chandelier to paint and hang and the print for over the bed is on it's way. I'm on the hunt for a new chair for the corner. Lots of little things to finish!

Another Ugly Art Re-Do and "It Doesn't have to be Perfect to be Beautiful" Challenge ala Nester

So I have been redoing my room. I painted and re-did the "Mis-Treatments" this weekend. I ordered a print for over my bed ( for all of you that guessed in my last post you were all SO WRONG!! hehe! I went with the black and white tulip) so I needed to unify the rest of the art in the room. I'm all about re purposing, sure I love to shop and could have gone out and bought new art, but there is something so much more satisfying about a can of black spray paint 3 dollars worth of scrapbook paper from my stash, imperfect frames and a little elbow grease. Call me weird.

Check out Nesters imperfectly perfect challenge and play along you even get a free blinky out of the deal.

If you don't have a weird thing about having brown paper backing all of your art you can do this too! Heck, if you do have a weird thing about brown paper backing just buy yourself a roll of brown paper and hot glue it to the back of the frames. For me it just takes to long (the extra 5 minutes). If I catch anyone peeking behind the art in my house they are officially no longer my friend. Harsh I know.

So take down your art and rip off the brown paper . It feels like Christmas morning. Promise.



Now lift up all the staples holding the cardboard into place and pop out the glass and all. Take them out to the garage and shoot the empty frames with a couple of coats of your favorite black spray paint. Or brush them if you are a brush girl/guy.



Pop your paper and glass back in and you're in business! For some reason this is incredibly exciting to me. Possibly because I am actually using up some of my horrendously large scrapbook stash. I also like that you can't buy these in the store and that they are far from perfect. The brown paper is no more...






***Click here for info/where to buy the paper I used***

What do you think of the green paint? I love the way it turned out it really warmed up the room. I'll post lots of pictures when I get it all back together.

I decided to buy a new print for the square frame above my bed. AllPosters.com has an amazing selection, but if you are anything like me you get overwhelmed with 37 bazillion choices. I narrowed my search by using their advanced search feature. A floral or botanical 28"x28". Ahhh much better, only 3 bazillion choices.




So which do you think I picked to go in my new Black and White Master Bedroom? The black and white tulip or the red tulip with the black and white scrollies?

I Have Decorating A.D.D and a Can of Black Spray Paint

and I'm not afraid to use it...

I'm pretty sure I have some sort of decorating disorder. I never stay on task. Yesterday the family room, today my sons room and my room at the same time, tomorrow who knows.





Anyways... I need some help. Not so much for my decorating disorder, but for the two little thrift store 1.99 shelves I hung on either side of my window in my bedroom (another work in progress the bedroom...sigh. Things to Do: pick a color and paint the room, paint the bed, find new art for the frame, paint frame black, find gorgeous and cheap black chandelier to replace fan, new chair for the corner, on and on and on)

What should I put on them? The shelves. Symmetric? Yes? No? Tall? Black or a pop of color? Floral? Wreaths? Tell me! Show me! I bought two orchids but they didn't fit. I'm at a loss.

And while I'm at it I'll show off my Mistreatments I threw together on Sunday, in about an hour with a few yards of black and cream toile, that I still want to fiddle with to make right.





Saturday's yard saleing was a bust. Oh well, there's always next week.

Junk Sale Season

I'm not normally a Yard Sale girl. I have hang ups about it I guess. I rather like the anonymity of thrift stores and the fact everything is in one place, no haggling, yadda yadda. Well I think I may be changing mind mind set.


The area of town called "Old Farm" is having their community yard sale this weekend complete with hot air balloon rides starting Saturday. It's an lovely older established area. I ran over there this morning to see if anything struck my fancy, and boy oh boy did my fancy get struck!


I found this vintage red ladder for my porch. 4.00.


This vintage Tulip quilt 10.00.



and this crock for 3.00.


This was only one sale. I also found a pair of vintage glass lamps with shades of 4.00 and all kinds of other goodies that I will have to post later. Guess where I will be going first thing tomorrow morning.