Saturday 28 December 2013

Last Blog of 2013


At long last I have started painting again. (and blogging!!!)
After accepting an offer on our house at the end of August we started packing when we got back from our big holiday in the US. We rented a house to move into, and arranged a date for the removal firm. 


Unfortunately, 2 days before the big move, our buyers withdrew their offer. We were totally gutted. They would not give a reason, strangely, but we were told it had nothing to do with the house. We lost 3 months of potential buyers with our house being on the websites as "sold subject to contract". We are now back up for sale and had to unpack a lot of our stuff to stage for selling again. Fingers crossed we get a sale soon.

Now that Christmas is over I have decided to get back into furniture painting as I have been really missing it. I also plan to go car booting tomorrow to see if I can find any nice pieces to transform. So today I unpacked all my paints and brushes and decided to start with some projects using my old favourite Annie Sloan Old White. I also placed an order with Dovetails for 2 colours I have not tried before (used my Christmas present money). The first is Annie Sloan "Provence"


I love how you can change the look of this paint by dulling it down with dark wax. It's also gorgeous on its own with clear wax. The second colour I chose (as I wanted to try something completely different, is "English Yellow"!!


I am loving all the stunning grey bedrooms on Pinterest at the moment, and I think this yellow would look amazing with this colour scheme, with crisp white bedding of course!


I am thinking that my bedside cabinets might look nice in this shade, and a matching chest of drawers would look stunning!


I can't wait till we move into our new house and I have loads of ideas for decor.     So exciting!!
Anyway, back to what I have been working on today. I decided to start off small (one reason being I can't get into the back of the shed as it is full of boxes ready for the move). I managed to get a nest of 3 pine tables, and some pine shelves out so here are some pics.



I also started to paint a pair of curtain hold backs I bought at a car boot sale for 50p (These will be going in my new bedroom)


and a small pine spice rack that also cost me 50p


Just feels good to get back to my hobby again, and I am looking forward to trying out the new colours I have ordered


I will try to get these finished before I go back to work on Thursday. I will post some update pics next weekend.

Only 3 months now till I fly off to New York for my son's wedding. The wedding will take place at The Liberty Warehouse in Brooklyn, overlooking the Statue of Liberty :0)


Wishing you all the best for 2014!

Monday 14 October 2013

10 Weeks Until Christmas!

Haven't posted for a couple of weeks as I have just been busy with clearing out all my stuff and selling things in eBay. I sold the Dolls House and it was collected by a courier, Bit of a pain as I had to wrap it in 2 pieces, but at least the lady was pleased with it, and she got it for a great price.


I sold all the items of furniture I listed and everyone was delighted with their purchases. Also sold my set of golf clubs and my boxing gloves! (don't ask!!). 


Nice to have some money in my Paypal account to use for things for the new house or for Christmas presents. Can't believe it is only 10 weeks till Christmas. Hope we get an entry date set soon and get settled into the rental property well before then.

Really excited about the new house, and have been adding lots of ideas on colour schemes, decor etc to Pinterest. Also been shopping for my wedding outfit and think I may have found a dress from Phase Eight. Just need to get myself a fancy hat to go with it. I have emailed a local hat hire company so just waiting to hear back from them about whether they will allow me to take one of their hats to New York!


Sorry I have no shabby chic painting news, can't wait to set up my new workshop at the new house. I am taking over the garage and it will give me loads of space for storing paints and furniture, and for working too :0) Looking forward to setting it up.


My husband, Russell, has just started a blog on wordpress called RUSSTHECOLLECTOR
Check it out if you like comics, figures, statues, movies, superhero/sci-fi stuff 

Sunday 29 September 2013

Sunny Sunday!

What gorgeous weather we have had again this weekend. Hard to think we are into Autumn now and October is only a day or two away. Great day for clearing out the shed and listing my set of golf clubs on ebay. I took lessons when we lived near St Andrews but only used them once before we moved down to England.


Lady came this morning as arranged and collected the welsh dresser. Very happy with the profit I made without having to paint it! I also finished off the two shelf units and the small table today and they are now listed on ebay.




Painted them all in Old White. This seems to be the most popular colour and I hope to get them sold nice and quick.



Popped over to Newcastle to check on the progress of our new house and it has windows now!!
Won't be long before they will let us inside for a look :0) and we did get to choose our kitchen, wall tiles and flooring when we were there yesterday. Gone for a white gloss kitchen with wood worktops, almost the same as we have now, but we both really like it, and white always looks so fresh and clean.

Big weekend for my boys as they are in Amsterdam for Barry's stag do. I love Amsterdam, so picturesque, but not sure how much sightseeing they will be doing??


Have a great week, and hope the hangovers weren't too bad boys!!

Sunday 22 September 2013

Just a quick one!

Well, I did say I was going to start work on painting the big welsh dresser this weekend, but I had a good idea, and it paid off. I decided to list the dresser on ebay and just flip it (flipping something is selling it on without doing any work to it first). I listed it on a buy it now with best offer, and sold it for £99. I am very happy with that and it gets it out of the house so we can concentrate on packing.
I had a look through the stuff in the shed and there are lots of nice things in there.


I finished off a couple of items I had started before I went on holiday, and also painted a nice corner unit I was given for free at the end of a car boot sale :0)

First coat of Old White

 and 4 nice picture frames that turned out really nice and I have decided to keep for the new house. I can always sell them later if I don't need them

2 x shelf units and small table
Detail on picture frame
So just used my trusty Old White in everything today, and it was nice to get back to painting again. I will try and get all these items finished off through the week, but it starts to get dark around 7pm now so not much working time after I get home from work at 5.15.

Can't remember if I showed you this nice frame I got at the car boot sale, nice detail. I have it up for sale just now on ebay but I was tempted to keep it for myself.



Got rid of our old double bed this week. Couldn't get it taken apart fully so just freecycled it. Also gave away a big pine mirror I bought ages ago that was damaged at one corner. So handy that people come to pick the stuff up at the house.


So just a quickie as I also posted through the week. I will post pics of the items I have painted today once they have been waxed and are ready to be listed on ebay

Have a good week :0)




Wednesday 18 September 2013

Vegas/Florida Vacation

Hi, Sorry I have been off the Blogosphere for a bit. So much change this year!! and have just not had time for crafts for the last few months. Seems like ages since I sold any shabby chic furniture. Also started my new job last week at Keele University after our big holiday in America !! It was FAB!!

Fremont St, Las Vegas
This was one of the best trips yet! A week gambling in Vegas, 3 nights chilling in the Florida Keys, and our last 4 days shopping in Orlando! We didn't even go anywhere near the strip this time as we found it overpriced and too touristy. We had a much better time off strip and stayed at The Eastside Cannery about 6 miles out. What a fantastic hotel! We were upgraded to a high floor corner room with views of both the Strip and the mountains ! We had 2 visits to Fremont St which is the best place to see the old style original casinos and easier to actually win some money there as the machines are "looser".

Beautiful chandelier at The Plaza Hotel (where we parked for Fremont St)

I won enough to pay for a couple of meals when we were there :0) and the buffet meals in the hotels were the best we have ever eaten, and so cheap!! Our favourite was the Feast Buffet at Boulder Station Casino (off strip). We had a 4 hour flight to Miami and picked up the rental car there. I had been so excited as we booked a Mustang for driving round Florida.When we went to pick it up from the parking garage the attendant told me to have my pick of a whole row of different coloured ones. Took me about half an hour to choose!!! We had a red rental car the first week so went for this lovely gun metal grey :0) Wish I could have brought it home with me.

Shopping in Tavernier, Florida Keys
We stayed at the same resort we visited last summer and it was even better as we were upgraded to a suite closer to the waterfront. It had it's own kitchen and living area and was also very close to the pool. It was lovely and peaceful, especially when most of the guests checked out after Labor Day weekend!

Waterfront at Atlantic Bay Resort. The water was so clear!

Lots of iguanas and peacocks walking about the resort
It was so relaxing sitting at the waterfont watching all the private fishing boats mooring and unloading their catches. Some of the fish they caught were over 3ft long! 
We also found a fantastic restaurant that was our favourite on the trip - Mrs Mac's Kitchen in Key Largo, which was just a few miles up the road from where we were staying . The interior of the restaurant was amazing! The lights over the tables were made from license plates, and the tables were glass topped with lots of holiday type souvenirs, shells etc under the glass like a display case. The light in the entrance was like a big octopus!!

Octopus Light in Mrs Mac's Kitchen

We had an amazing meal of broiled dolphin fish, prawns and scallops, followed my their world famous Key Lime Pie! It was out of this world, and I can't recommend this restaurant enough. Russell bought me one of their mugs to bring home :0)

Mrs Mac's Coffee and Key Lime Pie, so yummy!!
We were going to  drive all the way down to Key West, but it was scorching that day so we only went half way. On the way back we got caught in a tropical storm.They are something to see!!

Mustang in the Keys :0)
We had about a four hour drive up to Orlando where we also stayed at a hotel we had used before as it was so handy for everything, and included a free buffet breakfast. Marriott Fairfield Inn at Lake Buena Vista. We had 4 days there and enjoyed visiting our favourite shops at The Florida Mall, the best mall by far!
On our last day we had a wander round Celebration, a town built by the Disney Company. It was very picturesque and clean and the houses there were to die for. A bit on the pricey side though. There was a nice Farmers and Crafts Market we had a look round, and some nice shops. They even had a bakery for dogs!!!!

Celebration bakery for dogs!

Main St in Celebration
Our flight back to Manchester was a night flight and we didn't manage to get any sleep. The food was so bad we had upset stomachs, then we ran into turbulence !!! Were glad to get home and into bed for a sleep.

Other news is we sold our house the day before we left, so we have started packing. Trouble is, I have a shed full of lovely furniture still to be painted. I know I wont have time to get it done before we move, so a lot of it will have to go into storage until the new house is ready in January. I do however want to get the big heavy welsh dresser painted and sold before we go, so work will be starting on that this weekend.


Can't believe we are into the second half of September, and it is turning very autumny already! Before we know it it will be Christmas, then in March the big wedding in New York! Loads to do before then so I'd better get cracking!! It feels good to get back to my blogging again, and I will  post pics at the weekend of the dresser transformation. Looking forward to our brand new house too, which will be a blank canvas for decorating and styling.

Have a good week!

Tuesday 20 August 2013

5 Days Till Vegas !

It's been a weird year of good and bad news, and lots of change.
Another relative passed away last month, my Uncle David. He was a wonderful man and lived to see 91!! We will all miss him. I travelled up to Edinburgh for the funeral and it was a really lovely service at the graveside. The funeral spray was made up of beautiful flowers from South Africa, where he lived most of his life.


There has just been so much going on with having our house on the market, applying for jobs, trips to Scotland etc that I have not painted any furniture for a couple of months and I am not only missing the transformations, but also the extra income it provides. Once we are back from holiday in September I will be getting back into it again. I have a shed full of items to paint now thanks to the wonderful Nantwich Car Boot sale, which I have still been going to most Sundays. Here are a few of my recent purchases.





As you can see I have loads of cool projects to get started on. I also still have the big pine dresser to paint !


On the good news front, I am now officially a Keele University employee, and start my new job as Receptionist/Administrative Assistant when I get back from my holiday. This post is a lot less stressful that my last Senior Administrator post, but I have had to take quite a big cut in salary, so the furniture painting will help out a bit.


We are on the final countdown to our summer holiday and we are so excited. Busy washing ironing and looking things out to pack this week, and we have a second viewing on the house this Thursday evening. I may post a blog from the US if I have time, just to show you some pics of the places we visit. We are having a week in Vegas and a week in Florida, and plan to visit as many shops as possible in our 2 weeks!!

Take care, and I promise to get back into blogging and painting very soon!

Sunday 7 July 2013

Sad week


Sorry I have not been around for the last week or so, but we had some bad news last weekend. My brother in law, Billy, passed away from a suspected heart attack. It is so sad as we all had such a wonderful day at his daughter's wedding 3 weeks ago. We are all stunned by the news and still can't quite believe it.

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I have not been painting any new items since last Sunday, but we did find a new car boot sale to go to in Nantwich. It is a really good one, and is nice to walk round as it's in a field and has a cafe and toilets. Lots of lovely items for sale from Cheshire homes, and some bargains to be had :0) Such a friendly crowd that go.


Here are some of the things I bought...

2 nice pine shelf units
pine chair
Old wooden bedside cabinet
nice old painted chair
Solid balloon backed chair I will recover
Wooden framed beveled mirror
I also managed to get some nice material to upholster with. Dead cheap at the boot sale, these 2 large pieces cost me £2 for both. I watch tutorials on Youtube that show you how to do it :0)


I am also building up quite a nice collection of clear crystal candlesticks, none of them costing me more than £1 each. I saw a photo in a magazine of a dining table that had lots of these as a centerpiece with all the candles the same colour and it looked stunning!

Pinterest pic

Ones I have bought at car boot sales
I have also been buying a few shabby chic style table lamps, although one won't work :0( Once I get them all working I will sell them on ebay. I bought a new shade for the one in the centre of the pic and I might decorate it with little pom poms


So that's really all for this week. In the middle of a heat wave here so it  was far too hot in the conservatory to paint today so I had a relaxing afternoon watching the Wimbledon final :0)  What a match! Well done Andy!!


Next weekend we are driving down to Cardiff as Russell wants to visit the Dr Who Experience. We are staying over Friday night in a nearby Travelodge, then once we have been to the museum we will do some shopping in Cardiff before heading home.


Hope you have a good week!