Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Bedroom Reveal


Winter is a time to be indoors so I try to get my room makeovers done when it's 
stupid cold outside. This is the after (were you thinking, "Yep, sure does need it!"?

This was the before. I'm all about the color so I went wild on this bedroom a few years ago. Orange ceiling, purple accent wall and 3 dark green walls. Hey, it matched my duvet!

But I was tired of the orange ceiling (who wouldn't be?!) and I wanted to lighten everything up a bit. Houston was away on a trip (whenever he leaves, I paint) so time to move on. 

I had already done a few things, like paint that little pink tool chest (that is now my jewelry chest...best thing ever!) and re-did the shutter for my multiple necklaces. I ordered rugs from Overstock, bought new pillows and grown up lamps, got all the paint, so I was ready to roll (literally). I chose a light grey for the walls, go figure. But with such a neutral color, I can add pops of color.

Whenever I paint a room, I have to paint the furniture too. My husband had put his foot down on painting the bed. No way. This was an antique bed that he bought for us over 30 years ago. It loomed big and brown for all those years and I'm the boss of me...
 so I painted it.

And I like it sooooooo much better.

Love my new pillows!


These are our tiny His & Hers closets. They're a 'Look in' closet, not a 'Walk in'. At least I get my own though.

Love this little picture. These are the things I use everyday (besides scads of lotion)...smell good spray (known as perfume), glitter for my cheeks and sparkly eye shadow.

Since I'm always collecting frames for resale, I held out a few to make this simple arrangement.


Just got this cheery mug at TJMaxx and this lovely little bracelet from Jill Schwartz. Happy spring to me!

This is the only piece of painted furniture that I did not paint myself. Bought it at Chartreuse and love how cool retro it is.


I've joined the iloveowls craze.

And I'm turning into an old lady. I cannot help myself from buying these little French figurines. This is my 'Charbonneau' family. None of them are the same size but c'est la vie.



Houston's dresser. Haven't painted that one yet. He's gone again on another trip so better get to it. I 'staged' this dresser, as in I put all the junk that was on top, in his drawer.


So happy this room is done. Now if it would just warm up, I could go work in the garden!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Shear Fun

It's always nice to get shearing out of the way for the year. I don't usually shear this early, but Farmer Anne gets booked up with her shearing schedule so I wanted to get her while the gettin' was good. And my girls were very wooly and the wool was just getting dirtier.

Anne came with her drop shears, hoof trimmers, broom, her huge tool bin...

but my favorite thing is her Hobbit type shoes. She puts them on right before shearing. I don't know how they keep her feet safe with my big old ewes stepping on them.


I tell my sheep that it's 'Spa Day' but they can be pretty cranky. 

Flopsy came out to cheer them on.

It was chilly while shearing, but afterwards the temperature dropped so I put them in the barn, shut all the doors and their shared body heat helped to keep them warm without their winter wool coats. Unfortunately the next day, it snowed, rained and didn't get up above 37 degrees. They had to stay in the barn all day long. They wondered what they had done to be locked up all day. So sorry girls. But Flopsy kept them company and I kept going out to give them treats. Maybe tomorrow will be more like spring weather and they'll get to graze in their field.

Date Day


My Christmas present to my 3 sons was to take each of them individually on a date, shopping, lunch or dinner, or whatever they wanted to do. Finally got around to taking the oldest, Aramin, for our date.

He didn't have any plan in mind so I thought I'd show him what I do when I'm not dyeing fiber. We went to Ginger & Spice in Walkersville (where he found an awesome collage of old locks).

Then on to Stylish Patina barn because we were all set up for the sale this weekend. In between the stops I couldn't help but to pop into a few thrift stores. Glad he was game.

We really built up an appetite while shopping. We had a great lunch at Family Meal in Frederick. y.u.m.m.y!

Since I took Aramin  to the finished products sites, I thought I'd show him the befores. This is where we have all the furniture stored, ready to be made beautiful.

And this is our workshop, where we fix, paint, glaze, wax, buff, refresh, refurbish and repurpose all of our thrifty finds. Sure had a great time with #1. Now I have to pin down my other two. 

Friday, March 08, 2013

Done, But Not Done!

Krista and I worked every day this past week having fun with paint.

We painted chairs and stools

and more chairs cuz we have like, 50 of them!


Need a vanity chair or maybe a spare corner that this chair would like to live in?

It'll make you smile!

I call this my Civil War side table....blue and grey. 
I had done one just like it except in reverse colors.




A cobbler bench. We have to stage this but have so  many ideas. in the bathroom for hand towels, soap, q-tibs? for a bar-b-que with napkins, salt & pepper shakers, jars of condiments? in the bedroom for makeup, brushes, jewelry? Ideas?

I may just have to keep it!

ugh! This....

became this! So much prettier!

I have a thing for oval frilly mirrors.


We've sold so many of these frames with wire and teeny tiny clothespins. I'll keep makin' em...you keep buyin' em'!

And this! I'm trying so hard to bring these into one of our shops. It's in the truck right now. But I think it will be in my kitchen soon.  I adore them!

We're on a teal/turquoise kick. It seems like lots of people are because every time we paint something in this color, it sells. 

It's cheery and happy and who doesn't want to be cheery and happy?!!

We scored 8 of these fantastic shutters recently and we're having so much fun repurposing them. This would be great in a mud room to hang keys or scarves or in the living room as a magazine rack or as a jewelry holder.





Stay tuned for what we're going to do with this. Fun!

So that's just some of the things we gotten done this week (and lots more but forgot to take photos). But before we pat ourselves on the backs, we need to take a look in the barn....

 oh my!

where did we GET all this stuff?!

OK, I'm never going to sleep.

We have so much work to do!

Darn that we have so much storage space!

But I really am itching to get to all of this.

Krista's dog, Benny, is exhausted just thinking about all we have to do!