Temporarily Out Of Breath...and Commision

Just a short message to say I am temporarily out of commission due to yet another lung collapse. I woke up the other night with a sharp stabbing pain in my left chest and ended up in the hospital again.

This is nothing new for me, unfortunately I have had this happen several times before on my right side. Back in 2006 I was diagnosed with  Lymphangioleiomyomatosis; or LAM and it has messed with my well being most of my life. If you'd like to learn more about it please visit www.thelamfoundation.org

In the words of my surgeon, "your lungs look like they got in a gunfight and lost". I am a 'cup half full " kind of girl though so I will be back at it as soon as my leaky lungs let me be.

A chair, a chair, a bench!

From the minute I saw these two chairs many, many months ago at the Salvation Army I knew what I wanted to do with them. Through my many late night sleepless Pinterest perusing sessions I had come upon a super cute chair bench of sorts...I don't remember whose it was, but I knew I wanted to make one.

These chairs had some fabulous roses carrved into their press back design. They had originally been cane seated, but the caning was long gone. They also had several what I call "owies" that would need some nailing, some clamping, and some gluing.

After making the necessary patches and repairs, I placed them upside down on a large sheet of paper and traced their basic shape to create a template for the new common wooden seat. I purchased a large piece of crafters pine at Lowes and cut out my traced pattern with the jig saw. My husband helped me to route a nice smooth edge around the perimeter. I attached it with wood glue and screws from underneath.

After a good sanding I applied two coats of primer followed by two coats of ivory white. I never wavered on my color choice...it was always going to be white. Then it was time for my favorite part; the distressing! I just love how a piece comes to life with the simple use of sandpaper.

I always knew I wanted to find a cushion fabric with roses on it to tie in with the chair backs. I originally intended to make one large cushion, but I just couldn't get it to fit right with the hip rests. After many failed attempts I cut it in half and made two cushions in the perfect ivory and rose pattern.

I think it would be a beautiful addition to a little girls room, the entry of a cottage home, or out on a covered porch. In fact, I think I might create another more rustic version for my own back porch.




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Follow Me Ladies, Come Paint With Me!

Today was the day. The day I tackled teaching my third furniture painting class at The Wade Creek House. I have taught two previous classes where each student completed monogrammed, distressed chairs. This time I decided to be a little braver (or maybe crazy) and collect a menagerie of vintage case pieces and let the students choose which one they wanted to work on. In addition to the basic painting and distressing, we also worked with Scotch Blue painters tape and stencils.

Before the Transformation

I limited the class size to 8 since we had pieces that varied in size and scale. I knew it would add to the stress factor a little since they were all taking their projects in different directions...which it did, but just a little.

Genelle did a fabulous job with her chevron



Marilyn created this sweet "beachy" striped table

I must admit, there were times I felt I had little to no control of what was going on. However; it was all good in the end. They all seemed just thrilled with the pieces they created and had as much fun sharing amidst themselves as they did learning new techniques.

 

Linda worked magic on this little Mersman table



Dianne accented the back of her chair with this darling damask inspired stencil

I will let the pictures do most of the talking here, it was a great way to spend an otherwise dreary Oregon Saturday. My back needs a day to recover....and then I'll be back at it. Next weekend is The Plucky Maidens Junkfest with my friend Deb of Marionberry Cottage and I am nowhere near ready.

Linking up to these lovely ladies:

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Trash 2 Treasure Room Divider

I'm sure I am not the only one who draws inspiration from pictures in magazines and newspapers. However, my process to getting there may different than some. I am a self declared cheapskate. I think it began out of necessity, and has continued simply because I consider it a challenge.

So when I came upon a photo of a room divider in a catalog, I tore it out and set it aside. Now the average person may shop high and low until they find one, but I knew I would make it. Here is where the weird part comes in. I collected a pile of random things that I thought when compiled would come together into an even better version of my beloved screen...and for way less money.

I started with some Craigslist bi-fold doors...free, what I think was part of an old broken shoji screen...free, two old antique spoon collecting racks...free, and a collection of botanical images from 'the most fabulous place on earth', The Graphics Fairy....free! Are you keeping count? I've said here before that I can look at a pile of things and picture it finished. When I try to convey my ideas to my husband he gives me that "she is crazy" look, you know the one? They don't think like we do.

Anyway, from that pile I reconfigured the door hinges to zig-zag back and forth. I was able to make due with the existing hinges by just using two on each union instead of three. My husband helped me to rip the shoji on the table saw into four strips, one for each door. I hammered the sides off of the spoon racks and attached the curvy pieces to the top of each section. It served almost like a moulding, but cost me zero. I primed all the pieces and then painted the doors bright white and the shoji frames a pale gray. My brad nailer worked fabulous to attach the completed pieces together. I gave it all a good distressing and then it was time to make the magic happen.

I found twenty images of flowers, birds, and butterflies that I loved. I simply printed them out on parchment, covered their fronts with clear contact paper, and trimmed them to size. I chose to use spray adhesive and attach them to the centers of each framed opening. Originally I planned to use decorative tacks on all the corners, but I had a container of tiny binder clips that I decided to use instead. They gave it that finishing touch and added to the "specimen" botanical look.

Now I don't often "toot my own horn" so to speak, but I am pretty proud of the finished product. Most of all the fact that it only cost me about $3.00 for the binder clips....and of course the paper and ink. If I had a more feminine house, I'd be keeping this one for sure!

Linking up to these lovely ladies:

www.savvysouthernstyle.net