Never a dull moment

Hi all...I know it has been awhile since I have posted and I hope this post finds all well in the blogging world. To bring you up-to-date (in a hurry) all is well here. It was kind of a lonely, but busy, Christmas this year because none of our children were home but they promise to be here next year. My son and oldest daughter are both serving in the U.S. Air Force and were unable to get leave to come home. My son has only been in the Air Force since last year and is stationed in Montana since July and did not have enough time in. My oldest daughter has been in the Air Force for 25 years and is currently stationed in Washington D.C. and did not put her request in on time. She was alittle upset about spending Christmas alone so our middle daughter ask if I would be upset if she flew up to be with her...well I told her I was upset but that her Dad and I would be fine and I did not want my oldest alone. I missed them but my hubby and I went out on actual dates Christmas weekend and spent time with my family on Christmas Eve and his family on Christmas Day so we were very busy!

The second thing that is going on is since I painted those few pieces of furniture I have become very interested in expanding my techniques! Must be the artist in me...I was going to get an art degree many years ago but got the MRS degree instead! So...I took some classes for decorative painting/faux finishes at a studio in Sugarland and I am hooked. With that, I have started another blog (to not fill this one up) for folks who might have an interest in this type of furniture. So if you get a chance, hop over to my other blog http://candccollectiblecreations.blogspot.com/ and give it a quick look if you have time. I hope you become a follower on that blog also.

Well...that's all for now.

Painting furniture

It was such a beautiful weekend this past weekend and with the weather being not in the triple digits I got some furniture painted. There are a few ladies at the antique store that have been selling shabby chic furniture so I decided to give it try. Actually I have been collecting "practice" pieces for awhile and my OH wants his garage back. The final push was the fact that I got a new booth in Galveston and needed a locking cabinet to display small items. I didn't want new furniture (plus did not want to pay high prices) so my first piece was a old buffet top that had seen better days many, many days ago. I wanted 3 doors to open and to be able to lock. Of course the piece I had found had 1 door that opened and the two others were stationary. Enter my wonderful husband who can do wonders with woodworking. He cut the doors so I could have 3 doors and added locks. Then it was my turn. I have been wanting to paint furniture for awhile and was afraid to start, afraid to mess things up, just afraid to try something. But I needed the hutch so with brush in hand I dove right in. I didn't think to get a before picture but here is what we came up with.

We had to add glass to the centers of the shelves and all in all I am pretty pleased with the results. There wasn't a bottom so my OH also built a simple bookcase that I painted white and stained the top a golden oak. I wanted alittle more for the bookcase so I added blocks and put cutouts stained on the top. I think displays well in my Galveston booth.

Well...since I got over being afraid (my OH says he doesn't know why I always doubt myself) I can't seem to keep my paintbrush dry! Over the weekend I also completed a sweet little octagon table. Of course I didn't take any before pictures of this project either but hey...I was busy painting! Anyway, for both pieces I used primer first, then painted a light grey color latex paint. I then used a sander to add the distressed used appearance. After that I used a blue wash followed by a brown wash. Here is the top of the table after the brown wash.

The door of the table has great details which really show up after painting.

Of course before painting I removed all the hardware and while I had the items off the furniture, I spray painted a dark brown and highlighted with a copper metallic paint. The contrast is so pretty.

After everything was dry, I put a water based poly coat on the table since this piece would probably be used and I wanted to protect the paint.

Not too shabby if I so say myself...wait...I mean pretty shabby blue table!

Ok...now I am working on a twin bed that yes I remembered to take a before picture! I plan on shabby chic white for this piece. I really like painting old furniture and changing old, damaged, needing work pieces into new useable pieces.

By the way...I am having trouble posting comments on some of the blogs I follow...is anyone else having that problem and can anyone tell me how to correct that problem?

That's all for today...come back soon.