finished project

The vintage cabinet jewelry organizer is finished, don't you just love it?

This is how Charlie feels about my painting

I think it's beautiful just like that but, of course, it needs to fulfill its destiny, right?

This part of our bedroom now feels complete. 

Thanks for stopping by!

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.

it's Camp Vintage time

It's that time of year again - time for the Camp Vintage antique show!

Camp Vintage debuted in September of 2013. It was also the first time I ever attended a vintage show so I wasn't quite sure what to expect but what I found blew my socks off...if I had been wearing socks...which I probably wasn't.

Love is not too strong a word for the emotion I felt when I entered my first Camp Vintage. I felt like I had come home. All the booths had something I wanted - an old window here, a rusted wagon there, a bunch of shutters, old luggage, a door from an old truck - big freakin' sigh of pure ecstasy!

Mr. T, however, wasn't as enthralled. All the words you and I love about shabby chic - chippy, peely, vintage, rusted, distressed - are words that mean only one thing to him. O.L.D.

But now he's watched me take several old, broken down pieces of furniture and, with a little paint and love, turn them into something beautiful for our home so for this year's Camp Vintage, he was actually looking forward to finding something fun to take home and junkify it.

There was so much going on at this spring's Camp Vintage, I actually forgot to take pictures. I think that's a good thing. I mean, I was having a great time and had several things that were under consideration to buy but it kind of sucks now when I have to put together a blog post.

So enjoy a couple of pictures of pretty flowers...cuz that's about all I've got from this year's show.

until I found exactly what I wanted to buy

I bought a couple of old cabinet doors with a really unique wicker design at the top that would be perfect for hanging earrings. I miss my jewelry organizing shutter back in Florida so it's time to make another one. I don't even have to do much painting with this, I love the minty green color and the 1940s styling. love.love.love.

Of course, it's been a couple of weeks since Camp Vintage and they're still sitting, untouched, in the living room but let's not think about that right now. Let's just keep looking at the pretty pictures and count the days till the next Camp Vintage in September.

purpleliscious

Do you love thrift stores?

I never used to visit them but now I can't pass one by; it's my favorite thing to do these days. Not only is it a bit like a treasure hunt, you never know what you're going to find, but I love going up to the checkout counter and seeing the final, low total. I mean, what could be better than getting a bunch of great stuff for a low price?

In California we had a wonderful Goodwill in our little town and I found several treasures there, all sorts of fun painting projects for the future. On a trip a few months before moving away I found a metal hanging basket that I instantly fell in love with...except for the color.

 It's not a bad color but I just imagined it could be even prettier with a little paint. 

But I'd never painted metal before and somehow that intimidated me so it just sat around and sat around while I ignored it, occasionally feeling guilty that I hadn't gotten started yet.

So when it was time to move I threw it into a box and shipped it straight to Florida because I figured I would have more free time there, at least at the beginning.

Basking in the success of my jewelry organizer, I felt confident to tackle this so I decided to start with a coat of white paint inside and out just to cover up the green.

I really liked the way it turned out, there was such a neat texture with just one coat of paint. I considered leaving it this color and then I, briefly, thought about painting it blue (I had a lot of blue paint left over) but I decided to throw caution to the wind and go wild. What could be wilder than soft lavender...am I right?

There was just one problem with this plan.

I've been using really inexpensive line of paint and the color selection wasn't extensive so the only paint I could find was a deep, dark purple which was not what I wanted at all.

I was hesitant to mix my own color because I was afraid I wouldn't make enough to finish and then wouldn't be able to ever match the color again but I gave myself a little pep talk and off I went to mix up the perfect shade of lavender.

I think it turned out perfectly, I just love the soft pastel shade. After all my worrying about having to color match, I ended up mixing enough the first time especially since I chose to only use one coat of paint so that a little of the white shows through.

I still think it needs something around the top, maybe some lace, so it's a work in progress but other things have demanded my attention so it's hanging up on the wall of my bedroom just like this and likely to stay that way for a while - perfect as it is.

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

painting...again

The other day I was rummaging around at work and I found a wooden coaster in the back of a rarely used cabinet. Of course my first thought was "I can paint this!"  Yep, I may only have one skill in the crafting world but I'm going to keep at it until my fingers fall off.

 That's the back of the coaster...forgot to take a picture before I started painting. You can see that it was just a basic, light-colored wood.

I painted 2 coats of light pink to serve as primer and undercoat. It was really pretty and I almost left it right there but I had another idea in mind.

I used a dry brush technique to paint a very, very light coat of Caribbean Blue so that a lot of the pink would show through. I got exactly the look I wanted, it kind of reminds me of faded blue jeans.

Since I'm new to this painting world, however, I do have a question. If I'm going to use it as a coaster, would it be best to paint some sort of clear coat on top to keep out moisture? Is there even such a thing?

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.

the kitchen project - one year later

A year ago I came up with this great idea. Wouldn't it be fun to spend days and days, including a holiday weekend, sanding and painting our kitchen cabinet doors? Ok, I never really thought it would be fun but I was so tired of looking at our VERY orange kitchen.






The only thing I liked about the kitchen was the pink tiled countertop but I kinda hated the way the pink tiles clashed with the orange that ran rampant everywhere else.

So we sanded and painted and installed new hardware. I may have complained one or two tiny little times during the process but I knew we were creating something wonderful even after the first day.



And now, even after a whole year has passed, I still get a goofy grin on my face when I walk into my little cottage kitchen. It's still absurdly small with almost no counterspace but it's bright and light and cozy and cute. Best of all, what was once just a vision in my head is now a reality.