Signs of spring at Sage Farm
Posted: April 14, 2014 Filed under: Decor, Home and Garden, Sage Farm | Tags: Antiques and Collectibles, decor, Easter collectibles, How to display it, Royal Copley birds, Sage Farm, Vera towel Comments Off on Signs of spring at Sage FarmSage Farm’s April show was titled, “A Hint of Spring,” but that was completely misleading.
There were no hints. It was SPRING ALL OVER, baby! Everywhere you looked.
Lots of green, like this fun shelf. Its leafy color really pops against the perennially popular white ironstone pieces.
Month of Makeovers Day 2: Start with a clean slate!
Posted: October 2, 2013 Filed under: 31 Days, Decor, Makeover | Tags: 31 days, Annie Sloan, chalk paint, crafting, decor, makeover, painting Comments Off on Month of Makeovers Day 2: Start with a clean slate!Two weeks ago I scored a stack of antique roofing slates from a renovation down the street. The roofers had shoveled the slates right onto the ground . . . from three stories up. Most of them were smashed. (The slates, that is. Maybe the roofers were smashed, too, who knows? Imagine it: thousands of pieces of fragile, hand-cut stone survive 110 freezing New England winters and then a couple guys take turns throwing them on the ground. Luray pulling her curly hair out>) I picked through the trash piles a bit and pulled out a few that, amazingly, had made it down intact.
Hmmm, what to do with them? (That’s right, rescue good stuff first, then figure out how you’re going to use it. Junking 101, boys and girls. There will be a test next week.)
How about dressy little chalkboards? I selected some likely-looking slates from the stack
and started them off with a bubble bath.
Just kidding about the yellow ducky. I used a real scrub brush. And promptly broke the first slate because I scrubbed it while it was propped against the side of the sink. Too much pressure for that skinny slate! The second one was laid flat in the sink for its beauty treatment. No breaks. Yay!
Okay, we got ourselves the proverbial clean slate here! Now it’s decision time. Since I’m using Annie Sloan’s chalk paint, I could paint the entire slate for a completely nontraditional chalkboard. Or I could paint just a rectangle in the center, for a reverse-chalkboard effect. Or I can go with a colorful border. I decide to play it safe and go with the color border. After all, there are 19 other slates to experiment on.
Frog Tape, which I’ve never used before, helps mark off the edges. I wonder if it’ll work on the uneven surface of the slate? I trim the tape with an X-Acto knife, very carefully to avoid scoring the soft stone.
Paint time! I choose Barcelona Orange, a hot color that’ll look awesome in my laundry room. It takes three coats to get an opaque finish on the dark stone.
I decide to skip the wax finish. I’d rather see the paint age and chip off a bit over time, just like the slate. So once the paint is dry, off comes the tape. Nice straight edges—the Frog Tape worked! I’m adding this stuff to my bag of Favorite Tools. Then I rummage through my sewing stash for a leather bootlace. A weaver’s knot through each nailing hole and I’m done!
Nineteen more to go!
See the entire list of projects for our Month of Makeovers HERE.
Month of Makeovers Day 1: Mirror makeover makeover
Posted: October 1, 2013 Filed under: 31 Days, Decor, Makeover | Tags: 31 days, Annie Sloan, chalk paint, crafting, decor, makeover 4 CommentsYep, the headline isn’t a typo. I thought redoing this old mirror would be a quick and easy Day One project to get started on our month of what-have-I-got-myself-into. HA! Joke’s on me.
It came home with me this summer after it hung in a dark corner of my parents’ basement for ages. The exposed copper wire on the back didn’t look very classy. It had to go. But when I went to remove it both decorative side hooks cracked off. How did hardware with the strength of graham crackers hold up for so many years? This mirror should’ve fallen off the wall in 1972.
Once I removed the broken hardware bits there were two gaping holes in the wood. I plugged them with Elmer’s wood putty. (No photos. Sorry!) It got a couple coats of Annie Sloan Emperor’s Silk chalk paint finished with a buffed coat of Annie Sloan wax. Then it went to the Vintage Bazaar. Not one person picked it up. Not one! Guess no one likes red as much as I do. Or maybe it just wasn’t a good weekend for mirrors. Or maybe it just needs to have a makeover makeover.
This time I decided to go green. I used Annie Sloan chalk paint again because it doesn’t require any prep. No sanding off the wax that’s already on the frame. Cool! This jadeite green is my own custom mix color. A stockist in NJ graciously and kindly agreed to try to create the color for me more than a year ago. What I got from her was so dark I had to keep mixing it with off white to get a light jadeite green. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Actually, there’s no reason to use such fancy schmancy paint on a tiny project like this. Craft store acrylic paint in a small, cheap bottle would work every bit as well. I only used the paint on the lid to cover the entire frame with a thick coat. After the paint dried it got another coat of wax.
Another thing I claimed from my dad’s former workshop was a jar full of vintage plastic tacks. I assume they were used for upholstery. Who knows? They’re all different sizes and have wonderful textures. They’d be kinda lost on upholstery. On a mirror you might actually notice their detail.
My original plan was to hammer the tacks in, but the wood on this frame is so stinking hard the metal pins bend over without making a dent. Ack! This is not the optimal outcome I envisioned. Instead of a couple minutes of hammering I now have a choice. I can drill a hundred tiny holes or snip off the metal pins and glue the little plastic buttons on. Snipping and gluing seems easier than precision drilling, but it totally defeats the purpose of using tacks. I could have raided my button box or gone to a craft store for some doodads. Sigh. Maybe it’s for the best. Me + hammer + mirror would probably end up with a broken mirror. I get ManRay to find snipper thingies. And I wear glasses so flying bits of metal don’t end up in my eyes.
The next step is Amazing Goop. Somehow it seems more serious than hot glue, and better because even though it gets all over your hands it doesn’t burn. It just stinks. We open all the windows while I carefully gloop the back of each bead and lower them into place. And then the best part–we go out to dinner because we have a gas stove and the fumes from the glue would be terrible if I cooked. (How’s that for awesomely accidental outcomes?)
When we get home from dinner I polish the glass and hang the made over makeover mirror on the wall. Not bad. And it’s not midnight yet! Day One done under the wire!
See the entire list of projects for our Month of Makeovers HERE.
Month of Makeovers
Posted: September 30, 2013 Filed under: 31 Days | Tags: 31 days, crafting, decor, recycling 5 CommentsWelcome to our very first Month of Madness…er…Makeovers! For the entire 31 days of October 2013 we’re joining the fun with hundreds of other bloggers at the big link party hosted by The Nester.
It’s junk transformation time! How could we pass up the ultimate opportunity to start–and finish!–all those projects we thought we might complete someday? Someday is NOW. We’ve got all sorts of interesting vintage things stashed away that need just a little magic to become extra special–or just plain useable. We might even have a decorating project or two up our sleeves. We hope you’ll stick around to see what we’ve got in store. Links to all the month’s posts will be listed below.
Day 1: Mirror makeover makeover
Day 2: Start with a clean slate
Day 3: The sum is greater than the parts
Day 4: And there was light! Um, sorta.
Day 5: When life gives you placemats
Day 6: Vera meets shady hardware
Day 7: Curvy, chrome-y, Cosco love!
Day 8: Hey, hey, it’s a monkey!
Day 9: Fear of fabric and other lies I tell myself
Day 10: It’s our Thursday Hack Flashback!
Day 11: Five ways to use Very Large Clear Glass Beads
Day 12: The rust of the story
Day 13: A record breaking experiment
Day 14: It’s happy hour!
Day 15: Painted furniture FAIL
Day 16: Veggie makeovers
Day 17: Thursday Hack Flashback with Crullers
Day 18: On Halloween Pins & Needles
Day 19: Furniture FAIL redemption, maybe
Day 21: A purse goes wild and woolly
Day 20-1/2: I’ve got mail!
Day 23: From trashy hardware to flashy centerpiece
Day 24: Thursday Hack Flashback: Old Joe Crow perches on my porch
Day 25: I get by with a little help
Day 26: The lingerie model gets a makeover
Day 27: A craftsman remakes a worn out jacket
Day 29: iPad goes primitive
Day 30: Lucky charms
Fun things we saw near Pettengill
Posted: September 23, 2013 Filed under: Decor | Tags: Color, decor, fun, oddball Comments Off on Fun things we saw near PettengillA blue house with a sea serpent swimming around the foundation.
A concrete garden with a stream of glittering glass beads.
A Crayola colored bicycle in front of a serious colored house.
An outdoor dining area in the bed of a truck. Could they take you for a traveling dinner? Might get a bit messy!
And a super duper vintage Ford pickup truck in Amesbury.
Wish these people had been around to meet!