Thursday, October 31, 2013

Who's Watching You Tablescape/Halloween Replay

Since I haven't had time to create a new Halloween table this year, I thought I would look at last years table. After I saw it I was sad I hadn't put it out again and thought I would share it with everyone again this Halloween. Hope everyone enjoys a Happy and Safe Halloween!

I have been anxiously waiting to use the owl I have blogged about here and here since mid Summer.
 
I have been waiting so much that I almost didn't actually do a tablescape using him! I have been wrapped up in fall fun, kids on break, hubby on vacation, son home from afar, and a trip that I hadn't changed my table since I did this tablescape.
 
So today I made a point to get this table completed so we could enjoy it at least a week before the big day.
 
Let's tour the table and see exactly who is watching us!
 
Who is watching you.....Who is my owl's name.  He stands tall and casts an eerie glare over this spooky table scape.

 
I love the way the candlelight catches the sequins of his attire.


The candlelight in this table scape is more sweet than scary.

 
This dishes in this tablescape are my highly versatile white Food Network favs as well as some really old octagon black plates Wonder Hubby gave me years ago.  The glasses match the black dishes....I've had them for years and never get tired of them.
 
 
The napkins are layered white/ghoul green, white/pumpkin orange or white/midnight black and are caught up in the owl napkin rings I blogged about here.
 

Who isn't the only one watching you at this table.  Each and every glass is peering back at you.  The glass stems are tied with tulle to match Owl's ascot and accented with a spooky spider.

 

Since I am a bit batty, it was only natural that Owl perch on a bat themed cloth.  Bats around the table. 

 
A close up of an owl napkin ring.


I love the witches shoes...there are a couple of different ones in this tablescape....not candy filled though....I can't fill things with candy here because Mini and I can't control ourselves.  I had to threaten to cast a spell on her to keep her out of the candy filled candle holders until after pictures!

 
The signs are several years old and I love finding new spots for them every year.
 
 
 




 


 
The table is set for a Frightening Family dinner or a Ghouls Night out .

Either way we will have a spooktacular time!  Thanks for stopping in....Happy Halloween!
 
 

Saturday, October 26, 2013

1970's French Provincial Makeover and an Epiphany


So I am still learning this whole buying and selling business, which means, I still get caught up in the "I have to buy some more stuff to pile up and makeover."  Did you notice that I didn't say "I have to carefully choose pieces that I have looked over carefully and buy them at a super cheap price?"  Yeah, that wasn't a mistake.  I have gotten my hands on some incredible deals and a few clunkers.  Recently The Nana and I went junkin to hopefully find some more incredible deals.

Apparently, it is very easy to get caught up in the whole bulk buying thing as well as to forget you are not an expert and not pay attention to detail or worse pay too much.  I managed to do all of the above on this particular buying trip. 

There is a small town near me that was having a community wide yard sale and I was hot to get to it.  My blood was pumping before I even left home! lol The first couple of neighborhoods were a bust.  The third one was a charm.  I found lots of goodies at great prices and then got overly confident ambitious and thought I was a pro not a newbie.

We were at a yard sale that had some very nice pieces and they were priced accordingly.  Due to this I was really just glancing and planning to walk away when I realized their garage was packed with stuff...good stuff.  They had set up the sale in the driveway and had the garage taped off but I glanced in and saw a bedside table piled on top of other stuff.  When the lady hosting the sale asked if I needed anything I told her I was interested in something but it was in the blocked off area.  She kindly invited me beyond the tape (boy, I was feeling special, I must have looked like a pro) and I pointed out the table.  What do you know...there were two of them as well as a matching headboard and footboard.  Woo hoo...I had been looking for a couple of these very tables to makeover....it looked like I had hit the jackpot.

Let me just say, looks can be deceiving and being on a buying high is not always a good thing.  The headboard and footboard were buried and I bought them sight unseen and I could only see one table.  I talked the lady down $20 off her asking price and prepared to return later to pick up since I had been so successful already my 4runner was full.  But, I was so giddy I ran out and unpacked the 4runner and somehow magically made room to go ahead and cram my finds in.  I drove home counting the money I would make on these babies.

That euphoria lasted until I unloaded.  First let me apologize for the pictures.  I shot them willy nilly, even the final ones but you will get the idea of the transformation.




 It was while unloading that The Nana discovered one of the legs on the headboard was split.  She quickly decided it was not a problem since Wonder Hubby is quite handy and could make another.


 
She was right and he crafted a wonderful new leg, which I failed to photograph. Sorry, honey you did a great job!  Now, let's take a close look at the photo below.  One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same......since I purchased the bed without even a peek at it I wasn't surprised that I didn't see it at the sale....but after 2 hours of looking at the split leg and discussing paint schemes you would think  I would have caught it.
 
 
Yup....major problem.  What to do now?  Wonder Hubby is good but I didn't think he was going to be happy to hear he would need to repair this.   I considered trashing the headboard and footboard and just selling the bedside tables but then I had an idea.  I kept feeling the paint for this should be Paris Grey with darker grey accents and for whatever reason I instantly knew a Vera Bradley type fabric would look great with the greys.  So the idea for a padded headboard was hatched.  Possible solution?  We shall see.

Before I could celebrate my genius, I discovered a split/bust in the top of one of the tables.  Naturally, it was the one I couldn't see at the sale!  It was easy not to have spotted flaws with these pieces since (a) they were buried and (b) they were super dirty and covered in stickers...lots and lots of stickers.  The zero's were dropping off my profit quickly.
 



Well, like the pig at a barbecue I was committed, so I rolled up my sleeves and got started.  After spending an hour and a half cleaning and applying lots of Goo Gone on stickers, it was time to start the real work.  First task was to remove all the decorative pieces in the headboard to prepare for a padded headboard.

 

Oh boy, I really hope I can make this hair brained scheme work.
 
 
After a little wood putty here and there (grrrr..like in the split)
I got to work painting.  The body of the headboard, footboard and tables were painted ASCP Paris Grey and I ended up with 3 different greys that I turned into chalk paint with Websters Chalk Powder to trim with. 
 
The Paris grey went on perfectly and I was able to roll most of the pieces. In fact, it went on so quickly and easily I was done in half an hour.  I was feeling pretty good and decided I was such a genius that despite the unexpected surprises I would have this complete in a day!
 
Uh huh....not so much.  Although there isn't a lot of trim painting it took WAY LONGER than expected.  I tried taping off the trim to make for quicker painting but unfortunately when I removed it, I also removed the paint underneath.  So....then I had to lightly sand and repaint those areas and trim again by hand.  It took forever a great deal more time than I could have imagined.  Finally, I had managed to finish all the trim on all the pieces (did I mention days elapsed before this was completed?).  I was standing back admiring my work when I thought something didn't look right. Do you see it?
 
 
Look again
 
 
Guess I need to pay a bit more attention to the can in my hand when I paint.  The sad part is one grey paint was in a round container....the other in an oval! Seriously how do you not notice that!  So........I ended up painting all the trim again (and in some cases, again and again).  Actually that isn't true, Mini felt sorry for me and spent a couple of hours painting for me.  Sweet girl.
 
Weeks later Eventually, all the painting was done and we were ready to cover the headboard.  The Nana has done upholstery professionally so I trusted we could handle this.  She even managed to find the perfect fabric on sale!  Wonder Hubby cut a board to fit, The Nana and I figured out a bed eggshell worked perfectly as our padding so we fired up the compressor and nail guns and got busy.
 

I don't see straight so I definitely don't cut straight, thankfully The Nana handled that part.
 

We covered 3 large buttons (love those) and she taught me what a bodkin was, how to make one and to use it.  Pretty handy knowledge.
 
 
Ah....finally it was all done.   I had truly grown to hate this set and was sooooo glad to have it finished that I threw it against my car snapped a few pictures and sold it in hours.  I priced it to move cause I wanted it GONE.
 

 
 
It turned out better than I had hoped considering all the flaws that had to be repaired or worked around.  I blogged here about having a relationship with an object.  Well I thought the relationship I had with this set was a hate/hate relationship...I just wanted it out of my garage and my life.  So, I was quite surprise by my reaction to what happened when my buyer picked it up.
 
The lady that purchased the set came in a pickup...okay no problem there.  While I stepped inside to get her change she began to load.  When I came out, I grabbed the metal bed rails and rushed to put them in so they would be on the bottom under the painted pieces.  I was stunned when I saw the bed of her truck will full of leaky bottles, bags of trash and several busted pumpkins
 
 She had just put the headboard of top of all this!  I tried not to freak out but helped her better place the fabric covered headboard on top of a broken baby gate and out of the way of wayward pumpkin guts...whew.  She managed to get one bedside table in the cab of the truck and I placed the other in the back and crazy as it sounds......tried to pad around it with trash.  I asked if she had anything to put over it to keep the rails from scratching it or to keep it from slamming into the tailgate or side of the truck bed. Thankfully she had a baby blanket (which made me wonder if that would be washed before use again) that I was able to partially cover the table with. 
 
I suggested that she drive VERY SLOWLY to keep things from shifting.  She agreed and then proceeded to gun it down my drive and turn onto the street on two wheels.
 
I realized as I stood there in shock that I didn't hate this set after all.....in fact, despite the hours I had spent working on it and all the frustrating flaws....I felt sorry for it!  I wonder just what type of forever home it went to? 
 
 So that is the story of panic buying, a French provincial adventure and a twisted relationship.  Thanks for stopping in and joining my adventure!
 
 
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Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Tale of a Terrible/Terrific Table Makeover

Is it possible to have a relationship with an object?  Does that sound a little bit crazy?  No, it sounds a lot crazy but I have figured out that my best projects are the ones I fall hopelessly in love with.

When I began searching for pieces to makeover for Lottie & Molly, Lottie and I had different opinions on how to choose pieces. Lottie likes to pick pieces she loves, just in case they end up living at her house.  I tend to want to buy pieces that are the opposite of my taste, therefore insuring they WON'T be living at my house!

I showed you the coffee table I landed recently at Goodwill in this post.  As you can see she was a real challenge.  Strangely I kept wanting to walk away from her in Goodwill but Lottie was determined one of us would own her.  I didn't  see her beauty under all the junk piled on her and when we did clear off the top she was in terrible shape.

 As I wavered and waffled Lottie pulled her tag and announced if I didn't buy her she would.  Why do I fall for this?  Lottie literally has a house full of really nice antiques ready to head to Lottie & Molly, why would she buy this?  Have I mentioned we are very competitive?  Did I mention that we had just spent 15 minutes discussing how we DID NOT need to buy any furniture for a while? Well, all of the above is true.  So....anywho...I bought her and I really didn't even like her.

After I got her home and studied her further I kinda got a crush on her and I called her Carlotta.  Then I spent forever a good bit of time having a wood putty party and then it was time to paint.  I went with an off white paint and planned a look similar to the tables I blogged about here





I loved the way she looked when she was painted and couldn't wait to start distressing and waxing.  But, a funny thing happened.  I went from having a crush to falling head over heels for her beautiful legs and curves.  It was at this point I realized she needed to live in my living room and Old
White just wouldn't work.  Wonder Hubby didn't think she would fit and he didn't want a coffee table but I was in love, who was he to stand in the way of true love?



So after a paint buying trip I repainted her.  I love how she looked with the warmer shade of paint. 



Then it was time to wax and wax and then add dark wax.  Lots of dark wax.




Finally, she was all finished and I was so excited to get her inside.  So this morning when I finished buffing her off, I quickly rearrange the living room and made room to see her in place.

I crossed my fingers that Carlotta would be perfect....but, well, she just wasn't.  I love her color and distressing and aging but I just didn't love her in my living room :(   When you have a great relationship like Carlotta and I did you know right away when it just isn't working and she just wasn't working in my living room. 
 Sadly she was carted back out to the garage to await her turn at Lottie & Molly.   I am sure someone will click with Carlotta and give her a forever home.  Despite not keeping her I really loved the process of redoing her and think she turned out beautifully.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  I am joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday and Marty at A Stroll thru Life and Kim at Savvy Southern Style....join me there!


Savvy Southern Style

and Miss Mustard Seed for Furniture Feature Friday

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