Oil Can Planter

This isn't a fancy project by any means.  The only thing fancy about it is the gorgeous tulips I picked up at Costco today.  I found an old oil can holder that used to fit on the back of a jeep and combined it with one of my funky rusty rakes to make this cute little vignette.

My ivy is a little out of control but it filled in the spot nicely.

I have a bunch of old seed packets somewhere that I wanted to use and I see them all the time (except when I want to photograph them, and I bet they turn up tomorrow), but in a pinch I used some of my vintage postcards to illustrate the use of the rake.

 Old photos would work nicely too.

 This oil can holder is clean, it's just really old and rusty.  So is my rake.  I cut the handle off to fit inside the container.  I wrapped wire around it to hold it secure.  Then I mixed some epoxy glue and glued the cut piece of the rake handle to the bottom of the container.  I didn't want it slipping around.

 After I took this photo and the glue had set up, I took more wire and laced it over the rake handle to make sure the handle stayed flush with the back.  The wire around the rake as you see it here can work as a place to hang this project if you so desire.  Of course, once the glue dried I removed my tape.  I'll just let this set in my yard for a while and let the wire rust a bit so it blends with the rest of the materials.  Then it will be ready to sell.  In the meantime, I think it's kind of cool.  Thanks for stopping by.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Debbie Doos         The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     It's So Very Cheri Bloghop     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Tablescape Thursday   Delightfully Inspiring Thursdays
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

SUNDAYS            It's Overflowing

Paris Magnet Board

In the six months I have been blogging I have yet to enter a magazine copycat challenge link party.  Normally I can barely get my own thoughts into a project let alone copy somebody else's.  So yesterday I realized that Debbie Doo was hosting a party where we could copy anything we wanted so I gave it a try.  Since we could pick any project, I figured I had enough junk treasures around here, I could come up with something.  I thumbed through my magazines and found this image in Romantic Living's Spring 2012 issue.

I had a piece of specialty wrapping paper that I purchased because I liked the images and graphics.  I positioned it on my color copier and made an 8 1/2 x 11 copy.  I had the magnets that I purchased at Michael's in their $1 bin a few weeks ago.  They had a French motif so I purchased a few packets.  Today we had rain and lots of clouds so I had to come outside to get a photo without flash (of course it was after the rain stopped).  Here is my copycat magnet board.

 Here is how I did it.  I used one of my cabinet doors I purchased at the salvage yard for $1.  Since I used what I had on hand, my husband cut it down for me to size it to my image.  The cabinet door was hollow so we cut a piece of stray moulding and nailed it to the bottom.  Then I took a piece of sheet metal I purchased at the salvage yard as well and cut a piece to fit onto my door.

 We used tin snips to cut the metal.  I suggest you wear heavy gloves while snipping, but this wasn't as sharp as I thought it would be at all.  I drilled shallow holes through the metal with a regular drill bit and it went right through.  Then using upholstery tacks, I just tacked the metal to the cabinet door.

 You can see it is a pretty primitive project at this point.

I painted the whole thing creamy white, front and back, and when it was dry, I took my image and outlined it with gold marker pen to give added detail and then sprayed the back side with 3M Super 77 and then applied it to my metal clad board.  The magnets stuck perfectly.  This was very simple.  I could have done it without my husband, but I always appreciate his expertise.  If you wanted to seal this with decoupage glue, it would probably work just fine.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Le Chateau des Fleurs         The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     It's So Very Cheri Bloghop     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Tablescape Thursday   Delightfully Inspiring Thursdays  
                                    Debbie Doo's Copy Cat Challenge
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Vintage Typography William Koven

Here is an awesome vintage invoice from 1904.  I must do something with this graphic.  Hope you can too.

 
I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Debbie Doos         The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     It's So Very Cheri Bloghop     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Tablescape Thursday
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Spring at Aubergine Emporium

It's been a long time since I posted any photos of the shop that I am a dealer in in Simi Valley, California.  It's a fabulous shop by the name of Aubergine Emporium, and, as you can see, the proprietor is incredibly talented.  I am very proud to be a dealer in this beautiful shop. 

This is what you see when you enter the store.  Lots of eye candy.

 I call this next photo the French Quarter.

Here we are looking back at the entrance to the shop.

 This is Pat's space in the front of the store.  Pat, of course, is the owner and resident decorator extraordinaire.

Right now we have a lot of white in the store to reflect spring and summer.

Here is another view of our central room.  The shop has four large rooms and some small little rooms that dealers can share.

 This next photo is the left side of my space.  It's very hard to photograph because of the light coming in from my windows, but I do love having the windows.  Nice and bright!

 This is the opposite end of my space.  A little different color scheme.

There's that pesky window.  Sorry about the glare.  This is looking into my space.  The long view.

I wanted to share this adorable little piece that one of our customers made out of found objects.  Isn't this adorable?  We are encouraging him to make more so he can sell them through our shop.   This little guy looks so happy.

Thanks for taking the tour.  Please stop by and visit us if you are in the area.  You will not be disappointed!

I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Debbie Doos         The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     It's So Very Cheri Bloghop     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Tablescape Thursday
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

French Book Cart

A couple of weeks ago my daughter sent me on an errand for her late on a Saturday afternoon.  As I was driving, I spotted a yard sale still going on.  I did my usual drive-by and spotted this three-tiered stand in the back piled with stuff.  I stopped immediately because it looked interesting and I love shelving and storage projects.  I am calling this a book cart because I just can't think of what else to call it.  You can see I put my fancy vintage jars and perfume bottles on it.

The before picture is at the end of the post.  I can hardly stand to look at it.  My husband removed the stickers for me and painted the whole piece black with Canyon Black by Rustoleum American Accents.  That gave me a clean palate to work with.

I just got this great new feed sack stencil from Maison de Stencils that I wanted to try out.  For the link to the stencil click here.  This is the 18 x 12 size.  I used an acrylic ivory paint for the base coat of the stencil.  I used masking tape to make the border to keep my lines straight.  I just happened to have this corner embossing stencil by Anna Griffin that I used in the corners, but you could use a rubber stamp as well or a fleur de lis.

After the base coat was done, I took a heavy liner type brush and dipped it in the ivory paint and then some raw umber paint and proceeded to go over the letters and the line work.  This gave me an aged effect.  Don't mix the colors on your brush.  They will go onto your surface randomly as they come off your brush.  I was trying to achieve an old painted look as if there was discoloration.

I used a flat wider brush to get into the wreath.  Then I took my liner brush again and did the same thing with the brush and added random lines outside of the wreath leaves to give a more relaxed look. 

There was more wording on the stencil than would fit on the top so I used each line of print on each of the tiered fronts.  Worked out perfectly.  Notice my lettering does not look stenciled.  That's because I went over it with the wide liner brush.  I wanted it to look hand done.   Don't forget that if you have a space in your letter, go back with the liner brush and fill it in.  You don't want the stenciled look, do you?

When it was finished, I sanded it back to make it look old and then sealed it with Valspar Clear Flat spray.  Below is what it looked like when I started.  This is what I call our spray booth.  Hey, it works.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Metamorphosis Monday        The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Tablescape Thursday    Delightfully Inspiring Thursdays
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Old Crate Labels

The inspiration for this project came from a post I saw by Decorating Diaries a couple of weeks ago.  I fell in love with her vintage style labels and she did an excellent tutorial.  Mine did not come out as well as hers (I'm pretty sure it was me and not her instructions) so I used a little bit different method.  I did use some of her brilliant ideas though.

I used two different graphics and two different caddies.  This first one is a Graphics Fairy image.  It's her Holland Bulbs image.  I printed it out in the sepia tone and Xeroxed it onto a used Trader Joe's bag that was cut to 8 1/2 x 11.  The crinkles in the bag added to the old label look.

After copying my image on to the paper bag, I cut out the label image.  BTY, when I made my copy, I did use the color setting.  I wanted to keep everything in the brown family.  I decoupaged the back of the label only and stuck it onto my old caddy.  Wanting to keep everything looking aged, I did not paint, clean, wax or otherwise do anything to these caddies.  This is how I found them.

 The next image is one of mine and the only thing I would change about this is I would darken my copy so I get a darker image.  It faded a little more when I applied the water step.  So a darker image would have worked a little better.

Here is another pic of the Henry Tirrill image showing the brown paper bag images.  The copy on the right is one I did a few weeks ago with one of my French typography invoices.  I must come up with a project for that.  I love the old typography.

So after I applied the label with the decoupage, I took my crate down to the sink.  I sprinkled some instant coffee on my image where I wanted it to look stained.  To do this I used an ice tea spoon.  It applied just the right amount.  I then boiled some water in my tea kettle.  Using the same ice tea spoon, I dipped it in my boiling water and sprinkled it on my coffee grounds.  I got the instant coffee idea from the above mentioned blogger (totally brilliant).  I just couldn't get the right look that I wanted using her method.  The ice tea spoon delivered just the right amount of everything I wanted.

 Now I didn't wait very long.  I got my desired result within about 15 to 20 seconds.  Remember my water was sparse and was only applied to the coffee grounds.  I took a paper towel and just blotted up the water.  Now I had my desired stains.  Next I took the spoon and sprinkled the hot water over the rest of the image and then blotted and wiped it down with a clean paper towel.  This crinkled the paper label and made it look water damaged.  Then in the corners where it wasn't stuck all the way down, I tore the paper away to make it look like a torn label.  Voila, it's done.  Fill your crate or container with goodies and you are good to go. 

Below are my copied images on the paper bags.

This is what my Henry Tirrill caddy looked like before the label was applied.  I like it much better now, don't you?   Thanks for staying with me on this.  I know it was a long post, but I really love these labels and plan to do many more caddies and crates in the future. 

I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Debbie Doos         The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     It's So Very Cheri Bloghop     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Tablescape Thursday
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Tablescape Au Naturel

For this little vignette, I kept things ultra simple and natural.  This isn't usually my look although I love it when I see it in shops and magazines.  It's just a toughy for me because I am a "color" person.  I love color and even shy away from natural furniture.  I always want to add something to the mix.

This table runner is a perfect example.  Just couldn't leave it plain.  Had to add a grain sack stencil albeit in a complementary shade.

 I love these decoupaged apples.  Simple as can be, but boy do I love them.  Covered with French script, they make a perfect decorating accent.  My little hanging bird print has the most color of anything on this table, but it is still very subtle.

The apples are placed in my depression glass plates which I love.  They add an elegant touch to anything because of their facets.   The china is a simple ivory shade of white.  My vase is a beautiful old silver pitcher that has been worn with time exposing the metal underneath the silver plate it once wore.  It's sitting atop my romantic French script covered books to add a little height.

I added simple vintage linen napkins.   Notice anything about the napkin rings?  I used old clothes pins.  The natural wood worked perfectly.

 I used one of my sweet little nests and the stemware my daughter bought me from Anthropologie last year.  Oh yes, I forgot these cute little birds.  I call on them a lot.  They go with just about anything.

So if you are a color phobe like many of my friends, this may be the palette for you.  As always, I love your visits.  Stop by again real soon.  One of these days, I might even prepare a meal for you after I set the table.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Debbie Doos         The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     It's So Very Cheri Bloghop     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors