Maria, Maria

I always told myself, no custom work.  I consider myself an artist, I have always painted what I want to paint, but when it comes to family and friends I always get suckered in.

Maria, she had very specific instructions, her exact words.....I want a Harlequin border on my oval side table in gold and distressed......hummmmm I thought to myself, diamonds in a circle is that even possible?

I measured the center point on all four sides, then I cut out a diamond shape from some scrap wood with my Dremel tool, I used chalk and I outlined my diamond stencil around the table, keeping my fingers crossed the entire time that when I got to the end I measured right.

I outlined the border freehand with Gold, painted in ASCP Chateau gray on the top only under 

Old White, finished with clear wax.

In all honesty, I now have a different perspective on custom work, 

seeing her face and her reaction made  it all worth it.  

Maria has opened up a can of worms in the custom world, soon to follow,

 Sylvie, Cynthia, Norene, Jane and Jessica

Pin It

The Busy, Busy Bees

Farm Stories, published in 1946, I am a little obsessed with this book lately.  It's a children's book about farm animals with 50 different short stories.

Some of the stories are cute in a weird way, The Beetle Battle, The Very Sensible Little Chipmunk, 

The Finicky Calf, I think I know a couple of those calf's? 

There was one short poem that caught my attention

The middle paragraph,

"The days are hardly long enough,

No matter how I try,

I never start or finish,

While the sun is in the sky"

Lately, I feel like a busy bee

Seeing how I am currently obsessed with this book, it has influenced some recent projects,

I made a sign, I used the wax paper tutorial and the image via The Graphics Fairy Blog, it's painted in ASCP, in Arles

Then there is the old chifferobe, 

I wrote the entire poem on all the drawer fronts with chalk, then went over the chalk with 

ASCP in Pure White.

I painted it with Milk Paint from The Old fashioned Milk Paint Co.  I mixed two colors, 

Snow White & Marigold.  I guess I was going for the yellow bee thing.

Here is the before,

My next Farm Stories obsession, 

The Journey of a Pink Pig, No Use Crying & Who Does all the Work!

Your Talking too Much - Meet Me Monday's

Coastal Charm 

Pin It

Old Fashioned

In so many ways I am old fashioned when it comes to furniture.  I love the smell, the story of how it was once used, the attention to detail and the simplicity.

I brought this piece of furniture with me to sell at the art show I was recently at.  It got lots of attention, but someone priced it a little to high, It never sold and on the way home, it somehow 

made it right into my bedroom.  

I painted this one in a combination of ASCP and Old Fashioned Milk Paint, I custom mixed the Milk paint colors and I used ASCP Old Ochre on the pulls.  The thing I love about the Milk Paint, when you don't use a bonder with it over a previuosly finished surface, you get this amazing 

crackling, peeling, chippy thing going  on.

I cannot find the before picture, It was not in horrible shape, 

I found in at a barn and it had been there a very long time.

Here are a couple of other things I painted for the fair also,

Campign style desk in ASCP, Antibes Green, with dark wax wash.

A pair of pressback chairs, ASCP in Old White, on the tips of the chairs I mixed 

Graphite and Greek Blue, to achieve a navy color. I also cut new wood for the seats where the canning was missing and covered them in a rooster toile fabric.

I have lots more thing to share, I have been doing some custom work, 

and I recently purchased 7 new chairs.  One of them I am sitting on right now!

Pin It