Gourds - Who Knew?!?

Bob & I were in St. George Utah visiting his sister, Anne who makes beautiful gourds. I had a fun time visiting her weekly "Gourd Lady Group," and it was really inspiring! She let me take a stab at it, so here's my finished product. I'm sure I'll try another one . . . looks like it could be addicting!

Can you believe the "Wisconsin Gourd Society" is having their annual festival in Madison next weekend?!?!?!? I may have to swing down and take a look!

My very first gourd design

1. I chose a gourd & penciled on a design

2. I used a small drill at the top and bottom of each point;
Then I used Anne's little saw to cut the top into the cover

3. I used the wood burner to outline the design

4. Color was liquid acrylics and gourd dyes;

The inside was painted with acrylics.

5. I managed to get it home on the airplane in one piece!

Applied a little more color and sprayed it with clear satin acrylic.

Ta-da! Thanks Anne!

Master Makeover

Master Makeover

The tired brown on this chair and
a cedar chest was painted white

My 2013 Christmas present from Bob was to plan a makeover for our master bedroom. Well.... We got busy with life and this fall I realized that I still hadn't cashed in on that one! So I got to work and finalized my color choices - and we blocked off time to make it happen before Christmas of 2014. Dark woodwork was painted white, and tired yellow walls were painted a yummy shade of aqua. Here's the result!

Original furniture looks fresh and new
against the new wall color

Before:

Time for the border print and stenciling to go!

Details, Details!

Aqua medallion for the ceiling fan

Found this old grate an an estate sale - love it!

Old brass sconce was antiqued

Closet door knobs form Hobby Lobby

Love the window seat!

Still need to add my photos to these frames on the wall
of the hallway leading into the room

Lamps were antiqued, shutters were dry-brushed yellow to go with
the textured duvet cover from Pier 1

Go Kate Go!

So let me take a moment to say how thankful I am for my daughter, Kate. Back in the day I prayed for a girl, and God answered that prayer with my darling Kate . . . Even way back then I thought about how much fun it would be to have someone who might share some creative interests . . .

Well God certainly does answer prayer! Kate has really come into her own in recent years, and I absolutely love her creativity and style!

This is one of the smaller

bookcases before we painted. 

Last spring when I was there she talked me into helping her paint their dark bookcases white - quite a project because she had a lot of bookcases since they sell books online - but boy did they turn out great!

Here are a few before and afters.

Done painting and starting to put the books back in place

One of the things I really chuckle about is her ability to recognize potential in throw-away pieces. She is constantly spying things by the side of the road in Baton Rouge, picking them up, and breathing new life into them  . . . like this great old piece with a hole in the back! She popped out the back, painted it yellow, and added some baskets. Voila!

A few weeks ago she was driving down the street and a guy was putting this great old, well-used desk at the side of the road. She screeched to a halt and told him she was interested if he was really getting rid of it. He said yes and even popped it into his truck and delivered it for her! Ha! That's my girl! So this week she decided the desk would join her white bookcases . . . .

Go Kate go!
I love it!

Thirty-five

Last week was Christian Life Fellowship's 35th anniversary, and I was asked to help with a few displays of photos to celebrate the rich history of this great church family. The challenge: Create four display tables - two on each end of the Performing Arts Center in Wisconsin Rapids. 

Here is the process I used to create the displays:

Step 1: Prayed with my friend Julie for a great way to do this with little or no money! Thanks to in-house printing and our free roll of black paper, we were able to do this entire project for $55!

Step 2: Went on a hunt around the church for things that would make an interesting "framework" for the photo display. I went out to the garage and gathered some old wooden boxes from past musical events, grabbed a couple leather cubes for seating from the children's wing, spied two cardboard barrels - one in the garage and another in a storage room, borrowed two silver cylinder waste cans, and two half-rounds.

I also snagged four black tablecloths and headed to a back room to start playing with then pieces. One table would be free-standing, and one would be against a wall.   I also called my friend, Sue, who has literally over a hundred fabulous unique candle holders with electric candles that she was willing to lend me.

Step 3: Realized what a large task I had gotten myself into, and enlisted the help of a few creative friends - thanks Kristi and Karen! We took measurements and Karen curt large black paper to cover the cylinders.

Step 4: I looked through hundreds of photos and choose a variety to illustrate many of the people and events over the years. Made them black and white, guessed at some helpful sizes to fit our boxes and cylinders, and asked Pam to send them through the printer. 

Step 5: I trimmed photos and Kristi begin arranging them for the cylinders. Using LOTS of double-sided tape we secured the photos for all of our cylinders on large sheets of black paper on the floor. When complete, we taped the large black paper filled with photos onto the cylinders. 

Then we numbered the large photos for the wooden boxes and cubes. We decided to wait to attach them until we set up at the PAC on Saturday night. We rolled lots of pieces of gaff tape to attach them to the boxes when they were all in place.

Voila! Here's one display Saturday night at the PAC:

We decided to set the whole display up at church for a couple weeks to let people enjoy the display for a few more weeks.. Here's the display back at church:

A Blast From the Past

As I was sorting through my photos this week I found these photos from 2009. We were painting the designs on Maddy and Charlie's newly painted bedroom walls.

We mixed colors and cut out stencils to go with the design on their new quilts. It was really fun to get the kids involved - and even Maddy let Max help, too. It was really fun to add details with thin magic markers!

Wow! Where have the years gone???

Door as a Headboard

Still crankin' out the projects while it's gorgeous weather! All too soon falling snow will replace falling leaves! This old door is destined to become a new headboard:

I hosed it down and let it dry. I mixed up a shade of grey to coordinate with the bedding colors and brushed it on as a base color. (Graphite and antique white) Then I dry brushed a shade darker shade, followed by a lighter shade using Annie Sloan's Cocoa with a touch of Graphite.

Finally I sanded the edges to bring out the details. I finished by rubbing in a coat of Fiddes & Sons Supreme wax polish - Light.


Fiddes is an ever so slightly yellow color wax compared to my Annie Sloan Clear. I felt this would help with the aging look we were going for, without going too dark. I may change my mind after I see it in the room and add the darker wax, as well. Here is it so far:

Look What was Underneath!

Carey was looking for an old trunk to use as a coffee table - with the emphasis on "old." We found a trunk that at Whetstone Antiques' Barn sale that was the right size and had some interesting design elements.

But . . . .

Someone had painted it shiny black, silver and gold!

[Side note: I find it rather humorous - one generation says, "look at this old piece, I can paint it to freshen it up." The next generation says, "Why would anyone paint over such a great old piece! I could strip it to reveal the natural patina!" Next generation - "Paint it!" Next generation - "Strip it and stain it!" These poor old pieces never know what they'll be wearing! I've lived long enough to try it all!]

Definitely not the look she was going for. She wanted to see the original wood, and hoped for an older, "well-used patina" on the trunk and metal-work. The price was right, so we decided to take it home and see what was underneath . . .

We started with this:

I brushed on a coat of CitriStrip Stripping Gel and waited a half- hour. I like CitriStrip cause it does not have harsh fumes. Then I used a plastic scraper to remove the residue, followed by a little elbow grease with steel wool & mineral spirits. (Took about 45 minutes) This is what was revealed:

I took it over to see what she thought - Should I rub in a little yellow ochre? A little olive green? Should we protect it a bit with some wax, oil, or satin varnish? 

She was pleased with it so far, and decided to live with it awhile before doing anything else with it. Here is in its new home.