Busy times

 

I'm doing my first sale with my mom at the Michigan Antique Festival this weekend. I've spent a lot of time trying to finish up old projects, but I couldn't help taking on a new one. I didn't get a before shot, but just picture dark, 1970's clunky table.  And yes, that is a pillow in there.

 

For people that furry friends. I've seen side tables/dog beds in high end catalogs, and thought I'd get it a shot.  I was originally planning on doing this in blues with maps, but I decided to paint it grey and my sister helped me come up with the idea of using the black and white maps. I love how it turned out. 

I have a thing for old books and prints. I've busied myself in the last few weeks framing up some of my collection to offer for sale.

Make your own Mercury glass...

So my friend recently had a yard sale, and let me tell you, I was buying. (Plus she gave me lots of stuff too.) Anyway she had this star shaped tea light holder that I thought had potential as just a decorative element. I thought it would look great with a mercury glass treatment.

The main ingredient needed is the Looking Glass spray, by Krylon. It's a little expensive, but it's awesome stuff.  I've used it to make mirror before. You just follow the instructions on the can, but they basically entail spraying the back of the glass. I like it because it created the aged mirror look that I love. While making the mirror, I found it sped the process along if you sprayed black paint on the back. (Otherwise you have to put on a lot of coats of the Looking Glass.)

So to get the Mercury glass look, I found it works best to use the looking glass first, a couple light coats. While the Looking Glass is still a little wet, start spraying, other metallic paints - I had chrome and gold- on the backside of the glass. It's also great, while the paint is still wet, to hit it with some sprinkles of water. (It reacts cool with the paint and makes it more Mercury-like.) I forgot this step on my star. I finish off with a light coat of black paint. I just used chalkboard because that's what I had on hand. 

Here's the finished product ... cloudy-mirrored, loveliness. Useful, no. Pretty, yes.

The Flu and it's untold dangers

I recently came down with the flu, which meant I spent a lot of time in bed, looking around at our bedroom and thinking of the things I'd like to change.Starting with the chair beside our bed. I originally got this chair thinking I'd recover it, but once I got it home I realized it went perfectly in our bedroom. The upholstery was in great shape, except for the little arm rest, which seemed like they had been attacked by a cat or perhaps something worse.
Luckily, I found some greenish plaid fabric that did just the trick on the shabby arm rests. The only problem is I decided to do this while I was sick. Sure, I thought I was on the mend. Turns out my brain was still foggy with the flu and I ...

I managed to staple my finger. OUCH! My brain was so foggy that I initially didn't realize what had happened. There was just extreme pain and a staple embedded into my finger. Only upon staring at it for a few seconds did I realize what I had done... I was holding my staple gun upside down. The only thing worse than having a staple go into your finger is pulling that same staple out.

So learn from me. If you're sick stay in bed, rest and get better, that shabby chair isn't going anywhere.