Maple Leaf Is Almost Here!!

It is absolutely my favorite time of year and one of my favorite weekends is almost upon us! Maple Leaf Festival happens the third full weekend in October in beautiful downtown Baldwin City. If you have never been you are definitely missing out! If you are a repeat patron you know what I am talking about :) Parade, booths, food, carnival, family fall fun!!!!!!! I love it! The trees are beautiful this year :) It is such a wonderful surprise after the drought we had this summer! In preparation for the thousands of people that will descend upon this quiet little town the crews have been working feverishly to get everything looking picture perfect. We always have a beautiful town, but it really shines now :)
I also had to get my booth in tip top shape. I want to share a couple of recent projects with you :) The first is a sweet glass front cabinet that just needed a little TLC to turn it into a wonderful addition to any ones home.

This is one SOLID little cabinet! It is nice and shallow, but not too shallow. Would be perfect it a bath or kitchen.  I panted it out in Old Ochre ASCP, added new hardware, and a cute little wooden door catch. Such a difference!

See what I mean? Fabulous!!

The next piece is a nice set of sliding shutter door cabinets. They were really rough and one of those items that my husband says "Why?" to. But I knew they could be great.

After a good sanding they were painted out in Duck Egg ASCP. I knew I wanted to go with a time worn look of layers of paint. So next came Paris Gray in ASCP. Still not quite right so a third and final coat of Old White mixed with Cream for the outside. Distressing brought out some of each layer in a wonderful way that looks very worn and well loved. And I do, love it that is :) Wax and some cute handles finished it off perfectly!

Fabulous! This would be so awesome for bathroom storage. Both of these items are at Antiques on The Prairie awaiting the Maple Leaf crowd. Hope you can make it down to check out all the fun this weekend!
See you soon ~Christy

Fall Is In The Air!

Oh my goodness it is a beautiful fall day in Kansas!! Frost on the grass this morning, trees turning beautiful shades of red and orange, and some lucky person was enjoying a fire this morning. I could smell that delicious smell when I walked out the door. Hmmmmmm I LOVE FALL!!! It is even influencing my color choices in paint lately. I happened across these cute little end table/night stands at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. They were super cute, but in definite need of some TLC.

I loved the shape of them and the cute little drawer fronts and they were very solid!

It is hard to tell in the picture, but the top of one of they had some bubbling and water damage. I just put a new piece of 1/4 in finish grade plywood on top and stained it to match the rest of the table.
After sanding it was time for a beautiful new color and I was certain mustard would be great. ASCP in Arles is a perfect fall yellow, mustard color. I love it!

So cute!!!! I was able to use the original hardware because it was in great shape and it was cute! I just gave it a nice coat of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and it was perfect!

These guys have gone to Market Antiques in Ottawa to await their adoption! They are just the perfect size for a bedroom or flanking a sofa. Go on down and check them out!
See you soon!  ~Christy

Wonderful Gift From A Wonderful Friend!

Hello! I am so excited to share a beautiful dresser that I just finished. It was a gift to me from my friend Donna. It's her birthday today so I thought it would be appropriate to post about it today as well :)  This is the dresser before it was brought back to life:

 Such a great shape to it! Lovely legs and sturdy solid oak frame.

 The veneer on the sides was bubbled and peeling off.

 The drawer fronts were scuffed and scratched.

This side was in worse shape than the other.

A couple of the drawers were missing the bottom.
Oh my goodness I was in love though! I couldn't wait to scrape, sand, glue, and paint this baby back to life!
The first order of business was to remove the peeling veneer from the sides. I thought about just putting new veneer on, but wanted to give it a little something special. Bead board!! I love bead board! It would be perfect!

See? Perfect! I trimmed it out with screen door molding just to give it a finished look.

Next step sand and paint out the sides in brown paint to match the wood tone of the dresser. This step is important so that it all looks the same under the finish color when I distress :)

Once it is painted you will never know that it wasn't always there.
I even used some of the bead board to repair the bottom of the drawers! Next step color. I wanted feminine. I wanted sophistication. I wanted Provence ASCP with glass knobs!

 
Sigh......she is lovely isn't she?! It is like a giant Tiffany jewelry box with diamonds on it! I love it!
So Donna, Happy Happy Birthday my dear friend! Thank you for the wonderful dresser that I had a ball refurbishing!! We will go have dinner to celebrate age, wisdom, friendship, Tiffany boxes with jewels, and a night away from husbands and kiddos :)  BTW this beauty is at Antiques on The Prairie for anyone who might be interested in making it your own!
See You Soon~ Christy

Updated Booth Shots

Whew! It has been busy, busy, busy around here! I am recovering from a minor surgery and "taking it easy" so I thought I would share some booth shots with you. I am still in process with several projects so I don't have "before and after" shots this time. Hope you still enjoy taking a peek :)
First are some shots of my Baldwin City booth located in Antiques On The Prairie.

I absolutely love this table and chair set! I had a different table paired with them before, but I thought this was an even better choice. I didn't do a post about this piece because I jumped the gun and and didn't get "before" shots :) The base came with a Formica top and was a trash rescue from my neighborhood "trash drive" which I do twice per week. On Monday half the town has trash day and the other half on Wednesday :) A major source of embarrassment for my children, but I can not resist FREE! The table top is the top of a large wooden box that I purchased. It is very rustic salvaged wood and it makes an awesome table top. I used the rest of the box for another project I'll share later.

Lots of cute stuff in Baldwin! Come in and check it out!

Here is a shot of one side of my Ottawa booth that is located in Market Antiques.

The other side :) The table and chairs sold earlier this week ,but I took down a new set today.

A couple of close-up shots coming back the opposite direction. Lots of cute stuff in Ottawa now too! I guess you'll just have to stop at both places and have a peek!  Have a great day!
See you soon!  ~Christy

What it means to be "Accidentally Fabulous"

     When I found this cute little solid maple table and four windsor chairs on Craig's list I was so excited and knew just what to do! Little did I know that there were other factors that would come into play and change the whole game plan. As you can see they were already sanded and ready for a coat of FLAT black spray paint. I then planned to distress them and wax them and all would be perfect in my world :) I went to my local Home Depot and bought several cans of my favorite Rustoleum  Painters Touch FLAT black paint and got to work.

Now I ask you does that look like flat paint to you?!!!!! NO it was indeed not flat! It was labeled flat, but it was not at all flat! It was at least semi-gloss if not gloss! I was devastated! I pouted for a day or two before coming up with a new direction to take. I also got in touch with Rustoleum customer service. They were very apologetic and promptly sent me a refund check.
 The first thing I needed to do was sand, and sand, and sand some more! That definitely helped, but something was still not right. I love the old blue color that many primitive pieces have and thought maybe I could bring some of that in. I thought that Annie Sloan Duck Egg was about the right color. I dry-brushed some of that on the chairs and then sanded and distressed them further.  After waxing I was in love with the "accidentally fabulous" result!

So very primitive and wonderful! I did a slightly different effect on the table base which also was a victim of the "non-flat" paint. I sanded and then used Arles in ASCP which is a wonderful mustard color. The top was stained a rich dark brown and the whole thing was sanded and waxed.

I think it turned out beautiful and was definitely a lesson in trying new things! I wish it was bigger and could accommodate my family of 5 because it would look awesome in my house :)

This beauty is at Market Antiques in Ottawa just waiting for someone to take her home and love her!
See you soon! ~Christy

Just a Few Odds and Ends

Well we are officially in the hectic fall sports mode with my kiddos and that means not everything is getting done when I want it to. Laundry, dinner, projects, my blog....... I also have been very forgetful about taking before pictures. Needless to say this is going to be a random crazy post of odds and ends. Welcome to my world :)
I want to share a really cool dresser that I just finished. It is massive! I don't ever want to haul/move it again! It was a Craig's List find that had to be carried out of an older two story house  and down the fire escape since it was to big to go down the main stairs. I of course did not take a before picture. It was just an oak finish large dresser in need of some TLC. I painted it in ASCP in Chateau Grey, distressed, and waxed it. I was able to use the original hardware which is awesome since it has 20 handles!

Such a great piece of furniture! Love it!

I also painted out a set of old sewing machine drawers. I also forgot to take a before picture. UGGGHHH! They are not a matched set but I love the way they look stacked together :)

I can just see these filled with cute little knick knack items!

And lastly a really cute piece from a dear friend that started out life as a Noah's Ark shelf in her young son's bedroom. He is now a teenager and it was passed on to me to make it fabulous :)                        

I used my jigsaw to cut out the Noah's Ark and then painted it black and sanded it pretty heavily. I was going for a really primitive look and I think it came out just right!                                                          

Fabulous!

Well that's all for now! Have a good week and try to take some time to sit back and enjoy life :)

See you soon!  Christy