slow progress – claw foot table

sheesh, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I don’t know how you guys knock off painted furniture so quickly!

I’ve sanded, primed and have my first coat of paint on, and it feels like I’ve been at it for weeks :)

I ran out of my go to primer, Zinsser oil base, and when I went to the store to get more, I found an odourless one! Thank goodness, because I am painting indoors. It really doesn’t have an odour. But, it still irritated my eyes.

The colour I chose to paint it with is Cottage White, in Behr premium plus. I am really liking it, and it was free at the recycle centre.

See that roller, I bought it at the dollar store and it’s FANTASTIC!  Smooth as butter.  Here is a shot with the paint next to the primer so that you can get a read on the cottage white.

One coat down, hopefully only one more to go.

Save a dollar – Pinterest inspired

When I was growing up, a box of tissues was a luxury. With six little girls running around in a northern climate, you can imagine how many boxes we would have needed. We used regular ol’ toilet paper to wipe our noses.
When on Pinterest a while ago, I saw an ingenious idea and had one of those ‘smack my forehead’ moments for not thinking of it myself.
Take a roll of toilet paper and remove the cardboard tube from the center. Find an old tissue box, open it up, insert tissue, pull from the center and glue the box back together.

Yes, I can afford a box of tissues, but I feel like a genius using this method :)

Joining in at

Cutting Edge Stencils winner

Thanks to all that entered.
The winner is

It’s Erin, from Where Beauty Meets Function.  Congrats Erin.
Please email me and I’ll hook you up :)

Thrifty finds Jan 18

I couldn’t wait to show you this fabulous chair I picked up today.  I was so anxious I didn’t even take the dust off of it :)

Here’s the reality. It’s a miniature

 

While looking through several of my plastic containers, searching for photos, I found this water colour that I had bought several years ago. Very similar chair, huh?

I love the robin’s egg blue of this candlestick

And this box will become a remote control centre for a friend at work.

I’m going to do something similar to what I did to my remote control holder/organizer made from an old cutlery box.

 

I seem to be having some good luck lately with my Junkin finds.

Claw foot round coffee table

Another fabulous find at my local GW!  It’s huge, it’s solid and it’s in pretty good shape.

  It’s obviously a reproduction, probably made in the 80’s, but it has so much potential.

And cheap too.

I bought it to redo and sell. I’m thinking of stripping the top and re-staining it, as I did with my other thrifty find coffee table.

Or, paint it all black and distress to expose some of the wood.   Or stripping the entire thing and re-staining a nice dark walnut. Decisions, decisions. I hope to get started this weekend. Feel free to weigh in.

Be sure to enter my Cutting Edge Stencils giveaway, going on until Friday.

Cutting Edge Stencils giveaway reminder

My stencil came today! I’m so excited and anxious to get started. I was surprised to see that they also included the roller and the stencil level. How very generous!

So far there are only 19 entries, so compared to some of those “BIG BLOGS” that are hosting the same give away, your odds are much better here :)

Visit this post to enter and good luck. Winner will be announced this Friday.

Just before Christmas I knocked my dining room light down and it broke and blew a fuse! I’m guessing that the wiring shorted. I still needed a light though, as there are no other lights in the room.

I came up with some things that I had around the house to make a new one. It still needs more crystals, but overall I’m happy with my “no cost” light fixture.

To this

 

Blooming flowers

My buddy gave me an Amaryllis for Christmas and it bloomed this week!  It’s so lovely to see flowers when it’s so miserably cold outside.

How beautiful is this!!!

She also gave me a hyacinth and it smells heavenly

This rose was from the spray at my sisters funeral; it’s still going strong

Also, I have a give away going on. You can win a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. Visit this post. 

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Cutting Edge Stencils Give Away!

Yee Haw! It's Friday.

Time for a give away from Cutting Edge Stencils!

Oh how I have loved all of the projects made from Stencils!  The curtains, the walls, the flooring and now with their craft stencils, the pillows! The possibilities are endless.

 

Casablanca Craft Stencil

Birch Trees on walls are all the rage now!

Birch Tree Stencil

Now is your opportunity to win a stencil of your choice (up to a $50 value) from Cutting Edge Stencils!  And, shipping is free!

You have three chances to win!

 - Visit Cutting Edge Stencils and leave a comment on what stencil you would like to have and how you  would  use it (mandatory)


 - Like  Cutting Edge Stencils on Facebook and leave a comment letting me know you are a follower

- Follow me via Google Friend Connect and let me know you are a follower

The winner will be announced on Friday January 19th.

You must leave a separate comment for each entry. If your email address isn't linked to your Google account, please leave your email address along with your comment so that I can contact you.
Disclosure: in return for hosting this give away, Cutting Edge Stencils have offered me a stencil of my choice - project to come soon :)

Thank you and a quick refresh

Thank you to all of you that left your condolences on the passing of my sister. Some of you have shared the heartbreak of losing your own loved ones and I am grateful for all of you.

The service was beautiful, just like she was. Remembering her bright smile is helping me get through the hours and days.

In order to get my mind off of my heart breaking sadness, I had to do something. I decided to brighten up the canvas pictures in my dining room with some water colour paint. I bought these at a thrift store ages ago for 4 dollars each. I think they are from Ikea and they carried them a few years ago.

for the lily I added a little green and some yellow around the stamen (I don’t even know if that’s what it is called, lol)

  The daffodil needed some yellow and I made the tulip pink, because I love pink tulips.

  

 

It didn’t cost a dime and I really needed some subtle colour in my dining room.

M.I.A.

Thank you to all of you that left such kind comments recently.

Yesterday turned out to be a very sad way to start the new year; my sister passed away in her sleep. This is not the sister that you sent your prayers for a few months ago, this is another one. Totally unexpected and shocking, to say the least :(

I spent today making funeral arrangements. I hope that I don’t have to do that again for a long time. If you have a sister, tell her that you love her.