Happy Fall Y'All

I'm not sure how and when it happened, but Fall has arrived.  In a few months I'll be saying, I'm not sure how and when it happened, but Spring has arrived.  I always seem to be surprised at the passing of time.  It just sort of sneaks up on me.  I feel as if I'm "busy doing nothing" at times.  Such is the life of an antique dealer.  Many projects in different stages of undone.  It is very satisfying when I get to the point when something is complete.  At the moment, I have many items that aren't quite done, so I'll just share a bunch of pictures from our booth that feature a little fall flair.


Our booth number is 68.
  These vintage film reels would be great on the wall of a home theater.



I can't get enough of these little white pumpkins.



A few pieces of black amethyst.

 

I had fun making German glass glitter banners. 
The pictures don't capture the sparkle.
They're gorgeous in real life.

I had to show a close up of this chair.  I think it's perfect.

Love this cake caddy.
Yep, another glitter banner.
How fun would this be at your birthday party?







Turquoise and Brown make such a warm combo.



Not the best picture.  The banner says follow your bliss.



The picture isn't the best, but the message sure is...

I hope you can Follow Your Bliss today, even if it's just for a small window of time.

Followin' My Bliss,

Melony

Put a Bird On It

My friends neice says bird as 'boid'.  So we joke about "putting a boid on it".  Seems to me as I went through some of the booth pictures that I "put a boid on it" quite a lot.  Oh well, here are a few pictures from

 Well Worn.  Enjoy.



Lu Lu is our new mascot.  The nutcracker squirrel sold.





Don't let the chandelier fool you, Lu Lu is a cowgirl at heart.



Not a bird exactly, just "bird inspired".

Even the salt and pepper shakers?

Gilded birds

Mr. Well Worn says these look like they're fighting--men.

Sweet little Villa Barnes inspired "granite" bird.  Check her out on my side bar.



If you see any-wish upon a star!  If you don't Just Wish.

Melony

Takin' a Chance....on Sundance

This is going to be a long one....

I don't know if you'll think I'm a creeper when you read this...but sometimes I feel like the furniture I paint "speaks" to me.  I know, I know, just flat out weird when you write it out loud.  I bought this desk/vanity at an auction months ago and it's been under a tarp in our driveway the whole time.  (Can you say REDNECK?) 

I wanted to get to it and I knew I needed to get to it or take it to storage.  But sometimes I just run out of time.  In a nutshell I work a lot at my "real" job, or maybe I should more accurately say, I work a lot of hours at my "real" job.  I really wish that I could work my way out of a job with my endeavors at Well Worn.  Dare to Dream.  (If  you are my supervisor and reading this, I'm joking, I LIVE to push paper, especially if I can do it in triplicate.)  All this whining to excuse away the fact that I haven't painted this piece yet. I decided that I would tackle it today.  It was my day off and I should be able to knock it out in a day easily.  Especially since I have my new tool, which I like to refer to as "the lazy girl's paint" Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. LOVE.  No sanding no priming, just slap, wax, thank you ma'am.  I thought about this piece last night and decided to paint it Paris Grey with Old White accents.  I would pair it with a chair painted in Paris Grey with a great upholstered seat.  Perhaps a linen like fabric with a damask stencil painted in Paris Grey.  Oh, I had it all planned out.  I took the piece out and it was Dir-tee!  So what is a lazy girl to do when she has a piece to clean?  Give it a light sanding of course.  What, you don't do that?  The piece had a finish that was slightly bubbling and peeling.

Sanding is thirsty work

I decided to just sand the whole thing lightly and then clean it, it's actually easier to do it that way if you're lazy efficient like me.  Next step paint all the accent pieces with Old White.

I was about 30% done painting the accent pieces when I heard a little voice (not really) say psst...why are you painting all of my gorgeous carved wood accent pieces? 

Gorgeous

Wouldn't they look better stained and highlighted?  I ignored the little voice and carried on.  After a minute or two I decided to check it out.  Guess what?  A little Dark Wax on the accent pieces looked FAB-U-LOUS.  Now what am I to do?  I really waffled at this point.  Remember, I am Lazy Girl Painter.  Okay, but what color will look good with dark wood accents?  Turquoise of course.  I don't have turquoise in ASCP (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint).  Now what?  If I'm going to take off all of the white I just painted, I'm definitely NOT painting with anything other than ASCP.  I've already added too many steps.  Solution?  Just make my own turquoise with ASCP, so a little of this, a little of that and I have a color close to turquoise.  How's it look next to the only accent piece that hasn't been painted Old White?    SMASHING.  I.Love.It.  Now here is the dilemma.  If you are just painting for yourself, you can choose and do whatever you want.  If you are painting for a potential customer what do you do?  I knew that painting this piece Paris Grey and Old White was the safe option.  It would be more "commercial", in other words it would appeal to more people and most likely sell sooner and easier.  But once in a while you just have to listen to the furniture and/or your gut.  This piece was screaming to me, I want to be noticed, different, dare I say "art"?  So the piece got it's way.  I had to finish painting all of the accents Old White.  Then I went over everything with my "turquoise" concoction.

  After that was all done, I took a wet towel and rubbed all of the paint off of all of the accents.  I know.  It took for-evah!  It was almost dark by the time I got that part done.  Then, I sanded the top and stained it with Minwax Jacobean Stain.  I was planning on painting the top Paris Grey.  So this was a little backwards.  Normally I sand a piece before I paint it. I don't recommend painting and then sanding.  I was inspired by this piece http://europaintfinishes.blogspot.com/2011/10/sundance-dresser.html  and by the whispers of my vanity/desk in my driveway.      I almost hate to add this link because their work is so awesome.  My stuff doesn't even compare.  I had noticed this post some time ago, but couldn't remember the exact look of the piece.  That's pretty apparent, when you see that my color placement is the exact opposite of  their Sundance piece.

I hope that some bodacious funky chickie comes into Well Worn and sees this and "gets" it and takes it home.
So, what do you think, should I have stayed safe and commercial?

Just need to find some more hardware for the top and she'll be done.

Live Large Today,
Melony

Linking up with

Kookoo for Coco Jack

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint has introduced four new colors.  They are Pure White, Barcelona Orange, French Linen and Coco.  The Pure White is just that.  French Linen is a khaki gray that works well with warm colors.  Barcelona Orange is...well we haven't received it yet here in Northern California, but it looks like a fun color that will pop and has just the right amount of warm undertones.  I am really excited to get it and paint a few pieces.  As soon as I get it in my hot little hands, I'll be sure to post about it.

Last but not least, Coco. For me love.at.first.sight.  Coco is a rich creamy brown.  I don't know if  the reason I like Coco so much is because it reminds me of good things like coffee and chocolate, but I won't discount the association.

Coco

I'll move on.  We did a show at Roses & Rust yesterday.  It was a great event, with delightful weather and  customers.  Fun shows like Roses & Rust make me want to just wander around and buy stuff, and not do a lick of work.  If you are in the Northern California area in June and/or October, I highly recommend you try to attend.      

Remember this guy?

I apologize for jumping from topic to topic is this post.  But, the reason I jumped to Roses & Rust was to explain why I couldn't spend the time with my new love (Coco) like I so desired.  If you've ever participated in an event in any capacity you may have an idea of all the work that is involved.  It's a big undertaking and a labor of love for most vendors.  (Mr. Well Worn just asked me to post that his back is still sore and that he worked very hard.  This is all true, however, I'm not sure if you want to know that, but there it is.)  It also consumes a good deal of time and requires you to be away from those you love, like Coco.  So the only bit of time I spent with Coco was to paint one single little shelf. My initial idea was to paint this sad little shelf Coco so that I would have a small piece to display at the show.  However, I had painted some wood trim pieces for samples for the show.  I painted one with Coco after I painted the shelf.  I just put it in the pile, but when I gathered them up I noticed that Coco, Old White and Provence were great together.  (Almost as good as Coco and I are together.)  So that set the mind whirling.  I didn't want to overwhelm the small piece of furniture with too much Annie Sloan goodness.  What could I do?  How to incorporate this lovely trio?  I don't know why my mind made the leap to a incorrectly colored Union Jack.  Maybe new love like Kate & William and Coco & I...At any rate, here is the result.  I had my daughter hastily snap a few pictures before we loaded her in the trailer for the show, so again, my photography is lacking.  This is no reflection on my daughter's skill, just our time constraints.



Not bad for her first "staged" piece



Yep, I'm Kookoo for Coco Jacks!

Follow Your Bliss,

Melony

Also a big Thank You to my family for all of their help (and sore backs) at the Roses & Rust show.

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