From Light to Light...with help from Annie Sloan

Look what I spied in a dusty corner of the shop!
A vintage light fixture!
I had a vision of something better.

Even after her transformation, she can still be rewired and used
as a ceiling fixture.



After cleaning, a coat of Annie Sloan Coco was added.
Then clear waxed followed by a dark wax...uh, oh...
too dark.
So I re-painted the fixture Coco
and rubbed off enough of the paint to let the brass show through.



Better.



The detail is so pretty.



What about some candles instead of light bulbs?



Or maybe some pretty crackled glass ?



Maybe some feathered candle rings?



The early morning hours were spent trying on new toppers!
I loved these etched glasses..



What else could be done with this dusty old thing?






Another Annie Sloan Before and After

Trying to tie up loose ends before knee surgery at the end of the week.

One of the Mississippi Annie Sloan distributors asked me why I didn't

Annie this wonderful old print!

Indeed, the glass is old and slightly wavy and the print is beautiful...
but that frame! Yikes!
Someone painted it with gloss white and then antiqued the details with a horrible gold.
So....

out came Annie in Old White....

and 45 minutes later...isn't she lovely?!
I love her so much I might keep her...but I think you'd like to see it at the shop!

Annie can transform anything!

Greenhouse Basil "Pops"

Does anyone else recognize that this is the hottest summer since I was expecting a baby back in 1974? Whew!! It's mighty toasty down here in Mississippi!

The hubster and I tackled a long overdue project at the shop...

painting the two long church pews sitting out front under the windows. 

Poor, Poor thing...she looks bedraggled and bewildered!!

So did we when the painting job was finished. 

Off to pick out a "popping" color for the porch!

The "turquoise" door and trim  paint is on the left;

my choice for the benches is on the right.

Ooh, lala! Much better!

 (You must understand that 

...I was down for the count with the knee thing

and my son and his wife were running the place, doing all the buying and trying to manage

5 days a week with little to no help from me.) So "cutsey pieing" it up was low on the totem pole.

However....I am back and feeling much better...it's time I contributed.

So the hubster and I spent the better part of an afternoon cleaning and painting.

Next will be addition of shutters, repainting the doors,new topiaries and wreaths for fall

and an 8 ft. Antiques sign for the front!

Inside things are changing also...

Reproduction football players and frames and desk set for baseball lovers are

set on my barn wood tray.

A quilter's delight (below)...

a vintage Singer Featherweight sewing machine with carrying case!

A centerpiece anchored by an old milkman's crate..

Another cutter quilt...piles of individual squares to be used in a variety of ways!

Priced at only $1.50 per square...better snap these up quickly!

Below is a McInnis and McInnis collaboration on a farmhouse wood coat/jewelry rack...

(and remarkably, we are still speaking!)

Vintage children's dishes

(& a little china tea set is in another room!)

Look at the little mixer...it still turns!

Do you remember any of these items?!

All the above items (except for the Featherweight) are on "my" side of the store.

The "sonster" (aka: my son) and his wife have tons of new collectibles on his side, too!

Their new "man cave" room is a big hit...

and I am getting ready to produce some Man Cave signs

for the holidays.

As you can see, life is gradually getting back into high gear for us!!

Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes!

Hoping you had a great weekend!

Do You Ever Have a Hankerin'?

Ok, so I open Blogger and it's been completely revised....grrrrr....

In the south, we often say that "we have a hankerin" to do something...a hankerin' for fried catfish, to take a walk, to work in the yard...well, this morning I got one...a hankerin'...a hankerin' to repaint my foyer.

Yes, I know...it's tiny...like really, really tiny. But that's the great thing about it! It doesn't take much paint or much time and before you know it...you have a different look! It's been painted red, rust, light green, dark green, aqua, cream and now Duck Egg Blue! Above is before...mossy green. Below is After!

This picture isn't the true color...too much light coming through the front door.

Below is the before of the wall you see when you enter the front door.

This is a Betty McCool print. I love the colors and the print itself, but I had another place to put her and I wanted to change it up a little and hang a new painting by Brandon artist, Cherry Roundtree. Mrs. McCool is probably my all time favorite Mississippi artist. I have a number of her prints and would never move them out of my house...this is just a little departure and shakin' up the place was part of my hankerin'.

I moved the pineapple container I had this arrangement in and put the arrangement in my McCarty cotton row vase. The color of the wall appears to be two colors, one lighter on the top, but that's just the sunlight coming through the door. It's all one color. BTW: I lightly painted the berries in the arrangement...what color? DE blue, of course. I've gone DE nuts.

On to the living room. The couch (as much as I like it) is "heavy" in the summer months. I need to lighten it up. Using another Betty McCool print as my inspiration, I set out to bring Duck Egg into the living room by using small touches of the color here and there. Found some pillows, but they aren't doing it for me. 

If you will look carefully in the upper right hand corner of the above pic, you will see the print. It has all the colors of the couch and in addition to those, the little boy has on duck egg stockings and cuffs and collar. Now, I know I missed on the blue pillows. Tomorrow is another day and I will do better, I promise. But I photographed them on the couch to see the effect. YIKES! Looks like some type of  road kill.

Do I dare paint this little old table? It's been in my mother in law's home for ever...do I or don't I?

Why, heck yeah, I paint it! It's just enough and I Annie Sloan-ed it. (Secret revealed...I couldn't afford to Annie my foyer...so I matched the paint at Wal Mart and it's a VERY good match!) But the table has the real deal.

One other little tip...I Annie-ed the old book below, too. Painted and waxed it. What fun!

Tomorrow will be a treasure hunt for two pillows and any other little touches of the DE I can rummage up. Last thing my sister said to me this morning was, "Now don't overdo it".  Me?   Please.

If you are ever "blue", I hope it's Duck Egg,

Angela

Along With Fall, Crazy Sets In At Our House

I finished this weekend what I began last. I took advantage of the cool temperatures to get the outside of the house really ready for fall. Saturday we took the truck to various places to buy mums and red mulch. Then we began tackling the outside in earnest. I found these berries to add to my Welcome Bench (see here.)

Then I freshened up the porch Baker's Rack. This is a transitional picture of Before.

I removed all the flowers, etc. and the accumulated summer clutter, washed it and did a little transformation.

I found this poor little wreath in the "Please Take Me Home" pile of 40% off stuff at Tues. Morning. I snapped her up at $4. I saw potential under all those leaves! And after my "experience" at Wal Mart and the muffin top, I think I deserved it.

Here she is in all her autumn glory! I like the meshes that are so hot right now. I added some $ Tree flowers and I think she looks much better surrounding my porch lantern.


Do you remember last weekend's post about the small orange bench? What to do? What to do?
I brought around some wrought iron chairs from the back porch, added pillows, put the bench in between and added an old water urn filled with an autumn bouquet.

I wanted to paint her up and make her not quite so chippy. But I honestly haven't had time. That will be another project...maybe some Annie Sloan paint?

I keep my "outdoor" flowers separate from my "indoor" ones. They are each in their own container...after a month or so outside, I'm not a fan of bringing them indoors...might have a lizard attached...yikes.

I mixed artificial with real in the bouquet...rose hips from my bushes, grasses, etc.

I moved Rosie the Rocker to the side porch. I'll add a little table and she will be perfect for that little quick cup of coffee and a rock before the day begins. We mulched all the beds, planted the mums and cleaned all the porches....outside is pretty much finished...until the real pumpkins come in. Then I moved inside. I unearthed this ribbon from a stash I've been saving. Isn't it beautiful? It's from India and was super expensive...I bought it 90% off...who in their right mind would pay that much for a roll of ribbon? But 90% off is just about right.

Look at the detail...lovely.

Now, a tip I learned from a friend years ago and I've been using it ever since. I buy fresh hazelnut coffee beans, spread them in a container and nestle a Hazelnut Cream candle from WM in amongst the beans. When the warmth of the candle warms the beans, it's a heavenly aroma.

I found the hurricane at a garage sale for two dollars...I added some dried rose hips and cinnamon sticks to the mix and set the whole thing on a framed piece of crazy quilt.


See how pretty it looks on the hearth? Speaking of crazy, I enjoy making pillows and wall hangings from felt and beads. The pillow is one I made years ago and she resides on an auction chair that I paid way too much for and don't let anyone sit in because I'm afraid her legs are much too delicate...go figure.


Changing some minor details brings the season indoors. This is a vignette BEFORE "falling it up". And one minor change...do you see it? Makes the difference, doesn't it? Have I exhausted you yet?

I've posted my other autumn decorations on previous posts, so I'm really almost through inside too. I will add pumpkins and turkeys as the months dictate but all in all, I'm ready to welcome Autumn with open arms...

I am linking to: BunnyJeans Bunny Hop ; Boogie Board Cottage's Masterpiece Monday ;

and Catch A Glimpse Thursday and Metamorphosis Monday

Happy Fall Ya'll,