Another Coffee Table, New Colour, New Graphic

Having used the Cacao Payraud advertisement many times now, I thought I would try something new - so I spent a pleasant hour or so trawling through the Graphics Fairy images and came up with this one.

 

As usual my very clever, steady handed daughter Laura painted on the graphic, whilst I did the painting, staining & waxing.  With this one I thought I would give the top a darker stain as the pine was a very orange colour, which isn't my favorite shade of wood colour! I tried a walnut colour and I am pleased with the result as it does give an 'old' look.

I painted the legs with some 'Old Fashioned Milk Paint' that I had - I mixed Sea Green with Snow White and it came out this gorgeous Duck Egg colour - I then waxed it with clear wax and the finish is very smooth and very tough.  In fact the toughness was tested well and truely when my old french doors I use a a back drop for some of my photos came crashing down straight onto my freshley waxed table legs! to my amazement there was not a mark to be seen!

So looking forward to the Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint arriving, I have projects waiting and I'm itching to get started!

Bye for now

CJ

 

Vintage Finds in France

I'm way overdue posting on my blog, after a disastrous trip to our 'petite maison' in France. It was our first visit this year, we usually go earlier in the year - March/April time, but this year we had a new puppy - 'Alfie' and we didn't want to leave him until he was a little older - so July was our 1st trip this year.  We were aware January 2012 had been extremely cold with temperatures at minus 28 degrees!

Anyway we had a broken water meter and lots of burst pipes! so things were a little tough - finding plumbers etc.  I was determined it wouldn't stop my annual visit to the local Brocante! and I was blessed with the best finds I've had to date, and such great prices! Which made up for the lack of hot water, although I don't think my hubby thought so.

First thing I spotted was this cute little typewriter, (10€) it has some of the fabric missing off the wooden cover and the base, but I'm going to use some Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint to give it a face lift and the colour I will use is suitably named 'Typewriter' as that's the name of her soft black shade in her new paint line (more about that in a minute)

Then on the very next stall I spotted this old 'bakerlite' telephone (10€) complete with the bell, I love that it has the French names and emergency numbers printed on the old fashioned dial.

I then spotted this coffee grinder - I was attracted firstly by the colour as its almost the same colour I have painted a large unit in my kitchen and secondly I love the way the paint has chipped, plus the guy selling it was so funny - he was a French Rugby player with a real twinkle in his eye! although he was very stubborn about his prices and this one cost (15€) but coffee grinders are very collectible in Europe & UK so I was happy with the price, and it is fully functional as well.

This solid wooden vintage 'stamp' is amazing and caught my eye as it was so pretty - I will try this on a furniture project very soon  as I think it will be very effective - maybe on a drawer front?

Lastly this great earthenware storage pot - I just love the soft grey colour, and best of all the number '12' is stamped into it, think I may use this in the garden for growing herbs.

So all in all a very successful trip.

Anyway back to Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint... I am going to be a UK/European Retailer - I am so EXCITED and I have been beavering away building an 'On-Line' shop where I will be selling it.  This has been very time consuming and challenging as I have no experience at this sort of thing, but determination and the passion I have for painting and refurbishing furniture has driven me on - I'm in the final stages (I think!) and on target for having it live for the release date of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in early September!

I will post more updates when i have more info and when my on-line shop goes live.

Bye for now

CJ
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My entry into Nifty Thrifty Tuesday Party is sponsored by Appliances Online and the Best Range Cooker.

Coffee Table with French Graphic

This is the 4th time I have done this graphic on a coffee table, it is just so perfect for a chunky wooden table.  This time I have painted the underneath section and legs in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint - Old Ochre, which is a lovely warm cream.  As I was going for the cream theme I asked Laura to paint the graphic in brown rather than black like she has before, I thought it would make a change and make the graphic more subtle. The graphic can be found over at the Graphics Fairy

Well I have to admit it may be the 4th time we have done it - but its definitely my favourite! I forgot to take a before pic, basically it was just a pine coffee table, very solid and in very good condition, it had a lot of wax on it though so I had to scrub it down with sugar soap, when it was dry I sanded it really well, starting with coarse grade and ending up with fine grade sanding discs on my orbital sander.  It was then ready for the graphic, once Laura had finished the graphic I stained the top with a mixture of light oak and Jacobean walnut, afterwards I used Danish oil, I gave it about 3 layers to make it resistant to water or any potential marks from coffee cups etc.  I waxed over the Old Ochre painted legs with clear wax.

I am off to France for a week on Wednesday, whilst I'm there I will be looking for some opportunities to find some inspiration for my blog, so hopefully I will have some interesting things to show when I get back. I also have some great projects lined up for when I get back as well and will be sharing some exciting news too!

Bye for now 

CJ

Liebster Award Nomination

 

I was so surprised to receive 2 nominations for the Liebster Award this week, 1st from Jeannine at The Concrete Cottage and then from StaceyAnne at Renditon Road  - 2 very talented ladies with the most wonderful Blogs. - Thank you Ladies.  

I have had a lovely time reading lots of 'Liebster Nominated' blogs to see how others have gone about it, there are many different variations, but my understanding is to tell you a bit about me and follow the rules at the same time.

Award Description:

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. The Meaning; Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

1. Post about your win on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award and follow their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award button to your blog (you can right-click on the Liebster label from my page, save it to your computer, then save to your blog).
4. Present The Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have fewer than 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognised.
5. Let them know by leaving them a comment on their blog.

So...... My name is Carol, although I prefer CJ (Carol Jayne) as I have never liked the name Carol (sorry to all Carol's out there - and sorry Mum!) 

I am 54 years old, but have never acted my age and inside still feel like an 18 year old!

I have a beautiful daughter  Laura who is 27 she is a 'Visual Display Manager' for a large department store, and she paints all the graphics on my furniture as she has a steadier hand than I do.  She is just as 'nuttie' as me, here she is:

I have a gorgeous husband Mike (husband no. 2) who is very supportive of my weakness (furniture painting) and is very tolerant of the amount of furniture stored in the house, the garage & the shed! 

I work full time for a Tour Operator, my dream is to give up work and spend my time renovating and painting furniture.

We live in Surrey in the South East of England and we also have a tiny house in the Limousin in France, in a very rural location, we love to go there to escape and enjoy the 'French way of life' 

Here are my nominations:

Danielle at Silver Pennies

Cyndi at Blue Star Antiques

Stacey @ Flickerwhips

Debbie at Twice Nice

Leanne at Apple Box Boutique

Route 66 Screw Stool

Just thought I would share this with you, this cute little stool was given to me by a friend I work with, it looked like this before:

Pretty boring really, and I wasn't sure what I could do with it to make it more interesting, but I had an inspiration whilst in a meeting at work - I work for a tour operator and a new brouchure was lying on the table in front of me, I would'nt say I wasn't concentrating on the meeting, but my mind was wandering! and as I looked down at the brochure I noticed on the front page was a photo which looked like this:

So my stool ended up looking like this!

I gave it a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint - Old White, then distressed it a little, my lovely daughter Laura painted on the Route 66 Graphic and...You're not so boring now little stool!

CJ

Link Parties:
 http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/wow-us-wednesdays-73.html

Re-Furbished & Re-Loved

 

I bought this a couple of months ago from a 2nd hand shop, I thought it was 'quite nice' and would be a good piece to paint.  As I was loading it into the car I noticed it had a really badly damaged leg at the bottom of the back left hand side, which I must have missed when giving it the 'once over' luckily I did mange to talk the guy around to giving me some money back.

This is the before pic:

I  got it home and left it in the hall for a day, then moved it into the lounge til I was ready to work on it.  That evening we were sitting in the lounge and my hubby said - "I really like it, we should keep it" and funnily enough I was thinking the very same thing, the colour and the patina of the wood was absolutely gorgeous and I can't believe I hadn't noticed this before, this inspired me to keep some of the lovely patina.

The damaged leg looked like this:

  

Pretty bad - hey? So I cracked open the wood filler, and after a couple of days of gradually building it up I painted it, and it ended up looking like this:

  

 Not perfect but a zillion % better! 

 

I painted the framework and legs with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White an waxed it with clear wax, distressed the edges a little 'here & there' and left the beautiful patina on the top and drawer fronts.   I changed the knobs, to new ceramic ivory coloured ones, and this brought it all together.

Its now settling nicely into its new home in my bedroom.

Bye for now.

CJ

Saved From The Tip

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was presented with this by my neighbour a few months ago, with a big grin he said "I've been to the dump and I've got something for you" - most people would be horrified to hear this - not me I was so excited to see what it was, and very grateful as he brought it out from his porch to see that it was not too big, as the house is already groaning with the amount of furniture in it.

Anyway, it was this cute little bureau unit with shelves, the back board was badly warped and hanging off and although the original key was in the lock it was very difficult to turn.

The first thing I did was to get out the WD40 and give it a good squirt, left it for a few minutes and hey presto! it was like new.

The back board came off easily and I was going to replace it, but in the end I was able to slide it back into its grooves and tacked in place, no problem at all.

I mixed Annie Sloan Chalk Paint French Linen with Old White 50/50 for the outside of the cabinet and the inside I painted just in the French Linen so it gives a lovely contrasting tone with the inside slightly darker.  I picked out the edges on the outside with the old white and I heavily distressed the outside only, waxing with clear then dark wax.

The 2 panels on the front were crying out for something and in the end I plumped for the good old faithful sheet music which is always effective.

Although its not my favourite project to date I am pleased  with the way it turned out.

Bye for now

CJ

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