Projects of 2012

It seems odd that we will be starting a new year in just a few days.  2012 has flown by.  So what did we do this year???  It is nice to look back and see. (click on the photo to go to the actual post)

Sewed some dresses.  All scrap material I had on hand, cost: a few hours of my time. 



I spruced up a couple chairs with paint and roses.  They now reside in front of my sewing table.  Cost: zero, the chairs came with a table I had bought at a thrift store eons ago and I just had them in storage. 



I crocheted a cardigan that I still love out of bamboo cotton yarn.  Cost:  $30



We made our straw bale mini greenhouse garden.  It worked fantastic last Spring and now I need to toss in some lettuce and spinach seeds to get started.  Cost: 6 bales of straw at $7 each.  The lumber was scrap we had on hand and the plastic was too.  Total = $42.00



I bought an incubator to hatch chicks.  My first batch of Swedish Flower hens.  This was so much fun I did it again with Black Copper Maran eggs.  Cost for incubator about $150 (which worked great!), the eggs ran about $50, this is a new breed to the US so the hatching eggs are pricy, but a hen alone if $50 to purchase so the eggs were the way to go. 



We built a faux pew bench from plywood. 



One of the most popular posts this year was this on of the old buckets stacked and planted.  I did enjoy this all summer.  I think I would like to make a real fountain out of buckets this next summer.  



Another highly popular post was this one on How to Paint a vintage saloon sign.



I also shared tons of signs I shipped out to my wonderful customers.   Now I am working hard on a new website, trying to improve and make it easier to navigate.  

I am looking forward to another productive and exciting year!
Have a great day. 

  





 

How To Paint my Vintage Saloon sign!

Before I get started on my sign I wanted to share these.

I wish I could take credit for making these but I cannot.  These were done for the Vintage Marketplace.  I have wanted to attend this show/market for over a year now and it just never seems to pan out.

The show is tomorrow and Saturday.  Sigh, one day I will get there, maybe I will even get to be a vendor. Now that would be a dream come true.  I hope whomever gets to attend will share lots of photos of the fabulous booths so we can enjoy it vicariously. 
Now down to business…back in July I shared a sign I created for myself.



And I promised a tutorial.  I am finally fulfilling that pledge tonight. 

This is the sign I will be showing a tutorial on. I have had a lot of customers from Texas so this sign is for them.



First, find an old board or boards in the size you wish your sign to be.  I wanted something large enough to make a statement.
 
To see the rest of this post please click on link...Vintage Saloon sign tutorial.. or on the photo of the sign.
Happy Painting.
Pamela

Chairs and Roses

A few months back I started on these poor old things



And I did a post of chalk paint vs Rustoleum on them



Then I took it further and decided to paint a motif on the seats.



I did not care for it at all and I could not figure out why.

  I know the rose on the back had to go, so I painted over it with the white.  And I like it better.  But still the seat was lacking. 
I was just going to strip them down and reupholster it with some old ticking or something but have not been inspired at all to do a thing. 

I have been using them as is in my sewing room and after awhile I started to like the roses on the seat but felt it was still missing something.  Too bland or sedate..
So I took the other seat (still unpainted at this point) and put a little bit different design on it and added a bit more color. 



I think it needs some daisies still but I know adding a bit of a darker pink and the lavender helped a lot, at least to my eyes.

To gussy this one up more I will add some other flowers and maybe go over a rose or two with the darker pink .



Here they are together in my sewing room, please forgive the less than stellar photographs, it was dark in my sewing area and I was in a hurry.



They already dress up my rather chaotic sewing space.  I hope to get better shots of them once the sun shines again.

Not to shabby for a couple of thrift store cheapie finds.

Cramming too much into a day.

I have a bad habit..putting too much on my daily list of “to do’s”.  I have failed to get into a routine, a schedule that helps me keep my brain straight though I keep telling myself that is exactly what I need.  But in my own defense I can’t really have a schedule as I never know what tomorrow will bring.



I could get a call to go to work cleaning or someone needs me to come pick their garden clean (that reminds me I had a friend call me that needed me to get a bunch of veggies out of her garden for her…see…slipped my mind).  With a garden it does not wait until you have time, it is now. 

Plus the shorter days do not help.  During the summer I would go out to work in the garden after dinner and enjoy a good couple of hours doing what was needed.  Now it is dark after dinner. Boo, Hiss!

(a rose that I started from a cutting, photo taken with my iPhone)

Monday morning I woke up with my mind whirling with what I wanted to get done and what I needed too.  Monday is supposed to be my cleaning and housework day, get the week started right.  But the weather was so fine and that will not last long so I decided I needed to get my garden ready for winter.  I transplanted strawberries that have cropped up all over the place, shoveled chicken litter from the pen and poured it into flower beds, managed to do laundry, paint our woodbin, did the grocery shopping and worked on a few signs.  And in between I did clean on the house. 

Sometimes I have to stop and think about what I have accomplished instead of what I have not (being that half the time the things accomplished were not on the list that day).  That being said I have finally gotten one of the chairs painted I started back in July.  Nope, I just went and looked, it was the end of June. 
Here is what we started with.  Some vintage chairs needing some TLC.



I did a post on comparing a couple paints on them..

A comparison…chalk paint and Rustoleum heirloom white.

And to the finished product…for some reason the pink of the roses washed out. I need to take some different ones.



I am not quite sure I like the rose climbing up the back…I may have to paint over that and leave it white.   I do use these chairs in my sewing room.  Despite the paint making the material stiff it is not bad to sit on.



Now to get to the next one.   One project started long ago that is finally done. 
Today I have worked in the garden, making the most of the 70 degree days to prep the garden for next Spring.  I got many of my English Delphiniums planted.  Photos next post.

Until next time, I wish you warm sunny days!