new project

I just spent the last 3 weeks doing a full-time temp job and I had to dress like a grownup every single day. Wow, that was hard. So this is the picture I took on Saturday morning rejoicing in the fact that I finally got to be me again - lace, jeans and a hat. What a relief.

I'm sure the whole grownup/job thing will happen again soon (I'm not fond of temping but there doesn't seem to be much interest in my resume these days) but for now I have a few days free to hang out at home and that means it's time for a new painting project.

I got a pair of these awesome cabinet doors at Camp Vintage this year. I plan on repurposing them into jewelry organizers. At first I thought I wouldn't paint them at all because I love that mint green color but I have a couple of different ideas now.

Over the weekend I asked Mr. T to help me move this table over to the patio so that I could set up a nice workspace with plenty of room.

I've got all my supplies together and can't wait to get started!

Charlie, on the other hand, would prefer it if I would stop moving around and just hang out on the couch with her.

i'll be shuttered

Welcome to a brand new month - Happy June! I've got to admit that my May was a bit of a roller coaster - some good, some bad, some terrific, some...well, bad. But the month is over now and it's time to look toward the future.

I have a bunch of blog posts planned for this week because there's lots to talk about but I need to do it in order so hang on, it's going to be a thrill ride!

 Remember that shutter that I bought at the Fancy Flea in late April? I had great plans for using it as a jewelry organizer but first I needed to make a few changes to make it more "me" so it became my first Florida project.

Before I could begin painting I had to set up a workspace. I drug an old, broken table out of the garage. This was a leftover from when we rented out our house to vacationers. See how nicely they took care of it? This was a beautiful painted table for the entry hallway but one day it became a crash site and it's been relegated to the garage ever since. I'm quite handy with repairs, see how I fixed it? Ok, it's not pretty but it worked!

hey look, I painted the shutter blue. Didn't see that color coming, did you? 

I do have other colors of paint (as you'll see in my next project) but blue was what I really wanted for this project plus I was missing my blue benches in California. 

It took 2 coats of white primer to hide all the dark burgundy (and keep it from bleeding through) and that part seemed to take forever but finally I got to start with the blue.

The great thing about having a dedicated craft space (rather than using the dining room table the way I did in California) is that I could take my time and leave everything out while I waited for the paint to dry completely. 

Oh who am I kidding, it's not like we ever ate at the dining room table in California but it sounded good, didn't it? I'll bet I had you fooled for at least a minute or two.

And voila - the finished product!

I am thrilled with the way it turned out, exactly as I pictured it on that hot April day at Fancy Flea. Not having much experience with painting or crafting in the past, it's a real victory for me to be able to say that. Plus it really helps to keep my necklaces and earrings in order rather than having them all jumbled together in a basket.

yay me!

I had so much fun, I couldn't wait for my next project. More on that tomorrow.

jonni

fancy flea

Greetings from the Sunshine State!

Jasper's Cottage is all boxed up and in storage for a while as we settle in for some time in sunny Florida. Sunny and warm - just the way it's supposed to be.

Mr. French is busy working during the week but we've been trying to have new adventures on the weekends by visiting places we've never been before. Not too long ago we went to a fantastic vintage market called The Fancy Flea which is held a couple of times a year. I actually planned my arrival so that I wouldn't miss it this year and I'm so glad I did! 

Doesn't it look awesome? As you can see, it was full of all sorts of pretty treasures but the best part of the day was getting to meet up with a friend from the blogging world. I was so excited when she said she and her husband were driving up for the show. I don't know how we found each other in the crowd but it was great to meet in person and walk around together. She has great advice about how to navigate this DIY world that I'm so new at. Thanks, Victoria, for hanging out with us! I hope we can do it again sometime.

Being surrounded by so many beautiful things, it was hard to pick just a couple of treasures to tote home. Right away we saw a cute sign which was perfect for our French-inspired living room but after wandering around for a couple of hours, I hadn't found anything else that spoke to me until, there it was on a table in front of a booth I'd walked past at least 20-hundred times. How had I missed this diamond in the rough?

Isn't the sign cute? As for the shutter, I admit, it doesn't look like much now and I really didn't like the color but in my mind I instantly saw the perfect jewelry organizer for my dresser...once I got out the magic paintbrush and worked a little DIY magic, of course.

But that's a story for next time.

in conclusion

I'm sure you've been asking yourself all week "what else did Jonni do to spruce up her little front stoop?" Ok, humor me and pretend that has been your first waking thought each morning. 

Here's a reminder of the way my front stoop looked originally.






















Then I added some fencing

What was I going to do next? I painted something, of course. 

Yeah, yeah, I know that to some of you crafters out there, just slapping a coat (or four) of paint on something isn't anything to get all excited about but for me, it's a pretty big deal. I don't have endless amounts of artistic creativity and most projects I've tried end up in the garbage so the idea that I can take something rather useless and make it pretty once again, well that's pretty darned exciting in my book. 

Enter the mini bench.

This had been buried in our backyard for years and was looking pretty drab after spending so much time out in the elements. I still had a whole lot of that blue paint leftover from my first painting project and it was just going to waste so I decided, why not?

Plus I had a "new" toy to play with because we'd uncovered the mouse sander in a box in our garage. I was just itching to sand something!

So I gathered up all my favorite supplies and got to work sanding and painting. 

This was a fairly quick job, pretty easy because I didn't prime anything and used a mostly dry brush technique to keep some of the original wood showing through. All too soon the fun was over and I had a much improved little bench on my hands.

And then it was time to put all the pieces together.

Keep in mind that I would dearly love to get rid of the water-stained green rug but that's not my call. Besides that, I think the whole effect is pretty cute and welcoming.

I really get a kick out of walking up to my front door now and the best part is that I can take all the pieces with me to the next Jasper's Cottage and recreate the look.

picket fences

I've always loved the idea of a sweet cottage surrounded by a white picket fence so you can imagine my joy when I moved into my own little picket-fence cottage a few years ago. It was like having a dream come true.

But I've never been particularly fond of our front entrance, it just needed a little something to spice it up. Inspired by my love of picket fences, I came up with a brilliant plan at the beginning of summer - I wanted to attach a miniature picket fence to the wall right outside the front door. The man of the place took a little convincing but soon enough we were off to the local home renovation store and found the perfect little edging fences. There was a large selection to choose from but eventually we chose the real wood ones even though they might need maintenance from time to time, mostly because they were the perfect price - all the materials we needed for under $10.

Before we got a chance to attached the fencing to the wall, we learned that it wouldn't be in our best interest to make any alterations to the house so my project was on hold. Every day I'd go in and out of the front door and think how empty that space looked.

Then, one day, I got another brilliant idea - I am just full of it brilliance, I tell ya! Why couldn't we nail the fencing to a narrow piece of wood that could stand on its own right next to the exterior wall? That would serve 2 purposes, no walls would be harmed AND we could take it with us when we left. Perfect.

 

We found a perfect board out behind a shed in the backyard and the man of the place got right to work sanding it. We measured the front and, low and behold, it fit perfectly in that space. A nail here and there and, voila, my little picket fence was ready!

Isn't that exactly what the space needed? 

But wait, there's more!

Operation Porch wasn't finished quite yet, Check back next week!

watch this space!

So this was my front "porch" at the beginning of the summer. 


Boring, right?

I had a whole bunch of plans to transform it based on ideas I'd gotten while reading some of my favorite blogs. After all, this was going to be my forever cottage so I wanted to really fix it up cute and put my own mark on it.

And then, in a stunning blow, we learned that this won't be our forever place after all. Oh, we're not moving out right away but by this time next year I wouldn't be surprised if Jasper's Cottage had a brand new address. It's taken me a couple of months to be able to think these thoughts without a few tears but I'm ok with it now.

But even though it was now impractical to make any changes to the actual exterior of the house, I still wanted to un-bore-ify this front entrance...without spending any money or making holes in the walls or make any changes that couldn't be put back to the original immediately. Sigh.

Does that pique your interest? (I had to look that up to make sure I was using the correct word )

Tune in tomorrow (same cottage time, same cottage channel) to see if I was up to the challenge!

Clothespins - not just for laundry anymore

Don't everyone fall over in surprise but I've been creating and crafting lately and I've actually enjoyed it. Believe me, it shocks me too!

I've fallen in love with the idea of painting things. I love to take something old or merely functional and with a little bit of paint and embellishment, make it pretty as well as practical.

That was the idea behind my recent clothespin project. Really it all began when I couldn't find any plastic clips for my potato chip bag. I had some extra clothespins around but I wanted something with a little more flair so an idea was born.

All I needed was a quick trip to the craft store for some supplies and I was off and running.

Note the very sophisticated drying rack, nothing but the best for me!

I finally found a use for scrapbook paper!

Once the scrapbook paper is cut to the right size, I Mod Podge the heck out of it...covers a multitude of sins, love that stuff.

and voila - the finished product ready to adorn a chip bag near you. Put a magnet strip on the back and they're great on the refrigerator for holding notes or pictures. I'm kind of in love with them.

The Bench, part 2

My lovely bench was all ready for color but what color would I choose? Originally I had wanted to paint it a soft pink and stencil something on top (yay, a future project) but then I saw a turquoise bench on a favorite blog and I knew how I was going to proceed. I adore the finished product!

The Bench - my first painting project

It has long been established that I'm not particularly good at crafting projects. I long to be an artist and CREATE but somewhere between my head and my fingers that desire gets lost or confused. The fact that I might suffer from a wee bit of laziness probably doesn't help...not that I'm admitting to anything. I really want to make things but I want to know that what I'm doing has a purpose or can really be used in some way. I don't want to use projects as busywork.

You may remember the big kitchen cabinet project of 2013 (here and here) and you may think that was my first painting project. You would be wrong. I did a lot of sanding on those cabinet doors but Mr. French, the perfectionist, did all the painting. He did a great job so I'm not complaining but I was kinda looking forward to painting and I've been itching to get my hands on a painting project ever since.

Enter THE BENCH.

Pretty, ain't it? It's been hanging around our yard for years now, left behind by the previous owners. I've always considered it a bit of an eyesore with all that moss growing on it and cracks here and there. But then I looked at it with new eyes and realized 1) it could be a thing of beauty and 2) it wouldn't be the end of the world if I screwed it up since we didn't pay anything for it. Yes folks, I had that much confidence in my ability.

I first had these thoughts about the bench back in August and I was so excited about the idea that I waited 7 whole months to get started. But one day it just hit me that I really, really wanted to paint something so I might as well go ahead and give this a try.

Step 1 - clean and sand  I really enjoy sanding and I got lots of experience with those kitchen cabinets so this part was fun...actually the whole project was fun but I really did enjoy seeing all the moss and dirt come off the bench so all that was left was rustic beauty.

Step 2 - primer  Since the wood was quite weathered, I figured it was a good idea to put a primer coat (leftover kitchen cabinet paint) on to see how the wood reacted to the paint. I also figured it was a good way for me to get some practice. I fell in love with the distressed look that I got with the first coat of white. At that point I actually wished I had started directly with the final color because I didn't want to accidently put too much paint on the finished product and cover up the distress. But I also knew that having some white show through would add texture and dimension in the end. Mr. French has never been a big fan of the distressed look (once when I bought furniture in a distressed style and it was delivered when only he was at home, he called the furniture store to complain about the dings and scratches and they had to explain that it was done on purpose which was a concept he never could wrap his head around) but he loved the way the bench was turning out at this point.

Step 3 - pick a color  I already had a basic color in mind but wow, there are a LOT of turquiose-y blues out there. I visited more than one paint store and had a bunch of color cards but in the end it came down to these choices.

At this point I had to wait a week to finish things up so this gives me a good stopping point for today. Tune in next time to see the bench in all its glory!