Junkin' Luncheon

When you a begin a new adventure you never know what is around the corner!

When I decided a few months ago that the old kitchen table out on my patio would be fun to paint, I didn't realize at the time it was opening me up for new adventures, new interests, new places to visit, and most of all LOTS of NEW FRIENDS!

Deciding to paint that little table led to me researching online about painting furniture, and THAT led me to all kinds of creative and beautiful blogs by women who are doing the very same thing--in many many different ways and styles and colors and paints!   Speaking of PAINTS...who would have thought PAINT would lead me to MEETING some of these extremely talented and fun women that I only read about in cyberspace!!!

Last Thursday, a great lady named Jessica who has a blog named http://stellarjunk.blogspot.com/ organized a get together of women who all live (somewhat) locally to meet up at the oh-so-FABULOUS store belonging to Robyn Story in Tampa http://robynstorydesigns.com/ and gather around some great food, great conversations, great sharing and most of all GREAT PAINT!!!   After having a tour of Robyn's totally cool studio where she gives incredible workshops (I can't wait to take one once my boys are back to school) we all excitedly grabbed paint brushes and wood pieces and got to PLAY with all the fun colors and waxes of ANNIE SLOAN!   It was fun to see what colors people went for and what they did with them!   It was amazing to see how diverse and different lots of little wood pieces could turn out all because we all have our own style and creativity!!

It was so much fun, and our hostess Robyn is always so gracious and sweet!   The best part was making new friends--Kathy http://www.facebook.com/pages/Junk-Drawer-Diva/222694241078241?sk=wall, Jessica, Deena http://highfalootinjunk.com/, Elizabeth http://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Things-Work-Together/101739616550504?sk=info, and Michele http://stiltskinstudios.blogspot.com/!

And, while meeting NEW friends, I got to spend time with a good friend who has decided to take this journey with me, and is now my new PICKER PARTNER!   Watch out, because when our boys go back to school you might see us cramming all kinds of TREASURE in to my van from all ends of FLORIDA!!!   It is fun to have a friend to share the passion with me --so HERE's to CHRISTINE, my fellow hunter of all that need to be redone and made lovely!

Seeing that a bunch of women can be doing somewhat similar things, can be supportive of each other and cheer each other on is so awesome!    We all have our own ideas and love of what we are doing in similar but different ways!!!!   WE ALL NEED EACH OTHERS ENCOURAGEMENT and SUPPORT and I found that in these new friends !  HOORAY!!!    All because of some pots of paint...

WHAT FUN WE ARE ALL HAVING!!  If you want to join in the fun too and win some of Annie Sloan's fabulous paint... CLICK on the LINK below to JOIN the FUN!
Robyn Story Designs and Boutique: "EVERYTHING ANNIE SLOAN" GIVEAWAY

I am Woman, Hear Me ROAR!

Ok its not really THAT big of a feat, but I just got this:

and it's an "antique"...but when I got it home I noticed a corner of the top was peeling off---ARRRGGGG---veneer!  YUCK!  I didn't look that closely when I bought it...I guess I was noticing the hardware was in good shape and it has good bones...so I pulled on a corner of the veneer--and a whole piece stripped right off!!!   I peeled and peeled and got that whole darn veneer off the top of the vanity/desk!   YIPPPEEEE!   It was pretty easy, except for sweating my tail off in my garage. 

Now the top is bare and ready for some fun!!

See the hardware is kind of funky!  I should have stopped at www.robynstorydesigns.com  for some new paint!   Oh, well, maybe it will be country gray just like everything else! 

To be continued...

Antique stores, craft fairs and Craigslist--Oh my!!

So I scoured some antique stores, went to a craft fair and spent endless hours on my computer looking at furniture on craiglist this weekend ( I was on a mini-getaway with hubby so I wasn't ignoring my children during these endless hours).  Oh and I also visited a delightful shop called Blue Dahlia's in Clearwater.  She has the most incredible things, and is a very sweet lady.  Besides many fabulous furniture pieces she sells all kinds of interesting jewelry-most handmade by designers, a line of dresses and clothing with the most amazing lace dresses  I have ever seen!   Oh to be young and/or thin again!  I would snatch up one of those dresses for sure!  Anyway, an interesting thing I noticed was that a lot of the stores I visited had distressed, antiqued and handpainted furniture as their displays--not necessarily for sale--but as part of the decor of the stores.  It is a very popular and useful thing!  I only wish I could figure out how to get people to buy my furniture for displays!   Hmmm, that's something to explore. 

I am also MADLY on the search for a french daybed/settee/couch like this one:

This is for sale at the Blue Dahlia in Clearwater...

OMG if I can be head-over-heels in love with a piece of furniture, this would be it!!!  It makes my heart go pitty-pat (much as a 5 carat flawless diamond ring would do)

If I had the $$ I would buy it and chuck out all of my living room furniture and have that as my couch.  Or maybe even chuck my guest bed for this...WOW.  So now I can only hope I can find one somewhere to make my own.  Of course I would have to have that luxuriously insanely beautiful cover/upholstry on it too!!! It is kind of gauzy and off white.

OK, back to reality...whew..I did actually have an out of body experience just thinking about it...

These are a few of my finds this weekend:

I can't wait to get started!  And Marley is excited too!!!  

Ta-Ta!

Gave up on the stripes

I gave up on the stripes and finally just repainted my chair all one color.  I actually like it a lot better now!  I need to find the perfect little pillow for it, but the one I used in the picture is ok.  I need to go hit some stores this weekend!   My hubby and I are taking a little "staycation" and going only over the bridge from Tampa to Clearwater for a little R & R...I am secretly hoping for rain so I can spend most of the time shopping!  I am dying to go to http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/bluedahliamarketplace  to check it out with no kiddies to whine or break anything!   I took them to a thrift shop  yesterday and you would have thought I took them to juvenile detention!  Oh, it was just the worst time for them, and oh so booooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrring....I guess I need to look for my fun finds on my own!!!  Here is a picture of my chair, with the temporary pillow!

My bathroom cabinets are all done too!   I am really excited how great they turned out!!  I used Caromel Colors paint, which has a wonderful country distressed look!  I think they look fabulous!!!  Now only hoping my husband doesn't see the black spots on the wall where I let my boys help me paint!  OOPS!   These things are better left to when he is out of town!!!

I am going to take a break this weekend from painting, but I am sure I will wake up in the middle of the night thinking of my next project!!   I have 4 more chairs to paint just like the first one!

Adios!