Bistro Chairs Revamped

I found these chairs last month at the flea market.  They were sturdy but the wood looked very dull and needed a make over.  One of my favorite shops to visit is a quaint and charming garden shop in La Canada, California.  The name of it is Julie O'Keefe Home and Garden.  While I always thought this type of chair was kinda cute, I was never enamored with them until I spotted some in Julie's shop.  They were similar to these and they were painted red and white.  I really wanted to give these chairs some pizazz and I think the new colors really do the trick.  Now they are fun and fresh looking.

This is how they started out.  Nothing to get excited about.

 Now they look like totally different chairs. 

 I used them last week for my red and white table scape post.  I love these chairs so much I think I am going to hang onto them for a while.  Julie has them in the arm chairs and the bistro chairs like I am showing here.  If you are anywhere in the area, stop at her shop.  You will not be disappointed.  As always, I thank you once again for visiting.

Tipsy Toodle Table

Isn't this table fabulous?  It belongs to Pat, the owner of Aubergine Emporium, the store I am a dealer at.  It's a great table for summer.  Of course, I am partial to red and white and this fills the bill.  It reads Tipsy Toodle.  I'm not sure what that means because it has a picture of a large coffee cup painted on it.  I love how this rustic primitive table is paired with these beautiful delicate iron chairs.  Yin and yang at its best.

Doesn't this look chippy and peely?  It's a smooth table top made to look that way. 

Perfect for a summer barbecue!  Bon appetit.

Lefebure French Typography

Here is another antique French typography invoice to share with you.  Once again, I have broken it into the three sizes, the top header, the entire invoice and an in between version.  If you are unable to print these, let me know.  They are scanned into my computer and I can email them to you.  Enjoy!

 






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French Garden Caddy

I seem to be seeing a lot of red lately, at least for the garden.  I went to the flea market a couple weeks ago with a friend so she could pick up a few things.  I had no intention of buying anything for myself.  However, I will confess I have a real weakness for these old tool caddies.  I don't think I have ever passed one up yet.  This one was in real rough shape.

The following photo shows how it started out.  We painted it with Colonial Red American Accents paint by Rustoleum.  We used the canned paint, not the spray.  This paint is suitable for outdoors as well as indoors.  I stenciled the words with my favorite stencil I purchased on Ebay.  I added a little gray shading to the letters and now it's ready for its new life.  I always letter both sides of my projects just in case someone wants to use them for a centerpiece.   When it was completed, it got a spray of clear sealer that was also suitable for outdoor use.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you'll visit often.

Old Books

Not sure I am loving these, and I will try to perfect the process, but thought I would share them anyway.  I love old books with beautiful graphics on the cover.  I have sold at least a hundred of them in the last 10 years.  I love them setting out on a beautiful piece of furniture or just laying on a chair with a pretty throw.  I used three different images from the Graphics Fairy and affixed them to old Reader's Digest books that I had repainted the covers of.  I used a decoupage method and I think next time, I will affix the image with just the spray on tacky type glue and see if that works better.  The images got a little too dark and they are also too shiny.  I share them here just to throw out an idea and I love the Graphics Fairy.  Who doesn't?  I will continue to perfect this concept and then I will share what I discover.  Thanks for visiting.

One other thing I forgot to mention here, the email I use for my blog was possibly compromised.  I have changed my password and hopefully that will fix the problem.  AOL deactivated the email yesterday in an abundance of caution.  I do hope no one that was in my contact list was inconvenienced by this in any way.

Red and White

We are transitioning into spring, my favorite time of the year!  Today I wanted to do a table scape featuring some of my favorite things.  My daughter was skeptical about this one, but in the end I think I won her over.  I included my newest favorite that my husband just completed.  The birdhouse chandelier.  I am supposed to sell this, but I am having a hard time parting with it.  Maybe I'll keep it for another month until I tire of it.  Yeah, like that's going to happen.  It looks great in front of the old windowed mirrors, doesn't it?

 I got these red goblets a few years back.  They were sort of an unnecessary splurge, but I have used them and used them and used them.  They go with a fall table scape, Christmas, a special tea, 4th of July and so on and so on.  The red silverware is the same story except that it's my daughter's and I will have to part with it when she moves out.  Darn, maybe she'll let me keep them.  I will buy her a new set.

 We stopped in at Tuesday Morning on our way home today, and they had this adorable little cupcake holder.  I saw one of these on Miss Mustard Seed's blog and fell in love with it.  Isn't it darling?  It came with a little dome, but the dome wouldn't fit over the Crumbs cupcake.  These are mega cupcakes.  Certainly enough for two.

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Now check out these napkin rings.  I love to go to high end specialty shops to get ideas.  There is one in particular that I go to that carries a lot of French items and her specialty is kitchen design (wish I could show you some of her designs).  She does over-the-top table scapes and in one of them last year she had some incredible geranium napkin rings.  It was love at first sight for me.  They were gorgeous!  I checked out the price and they were $39.  That's right.  That was for one napkin ring.  Yikes!  A little over my budget.  Granted hers were velvet, but still.  So yesterday I wanted to use that type of napkin ring for my table scape.  I rummaged around and found two fat curtain hanger loops with a clip on them.  I cut off the clip and wrapped floral tape around them.  You could use velvet or grosgrain ribbon to make them a little classier, but for spring floral tape was in order.  Then I rummaged in my "silk" pile and found a geranium sprig.  It had two flowers on it.  That was all I needed to complete the look.  The wire was still poking up where I cut the clip off so I plucked the flower off of its stem and plopped it onto the wire and hot glued it.  They are actually very secure on there. 

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll come back often.