5-2017

A couple of weeks ago I showcased the creativeness of my husband on instagram where he made this wonderful table from old door frames. Then I wanted a bench to go with it. Ok.. I confess..this builds stems from watching The Waltons. I love their table!! with those benches!!

 So here's our version.
 ( it's been dark and dreary out so inside pictures are not the best)

We went with another chunky bench and can I just say this is a super comfortable bench. Maybe because its extra wide??

We traded in our round table for this table and bench and we now have so much more room in my little nook that it can seat 6 anytime. Before it was just 4 and it was a pain to sit around. I said it before and I'll say it again, benches also make sense for putting little bums at a table.

 I still want to paint the chairs black but I'll have to wait till the weather cooperates. :)

How to fit Five People in One Room

My house will be full this weekend and with all available beds taken we needed to come up with a way to fit a family of five into one room.

Roger and I had talked about this last year when we found out about our latest addition (Baby James) and that our current sleeping arrangements would need to change when everybody visits. 

So here is our plan. Custom made bunks!

We used two by fours, plywood and mattress foam. Roger made a simple design that can easily be unscrewed when they are no longer needed or we need to move them. We cut them to measure five feet long which gives them plenty of growing space but still leaves room to move around the room.  These beds would make a easy addition to a cottage or bunkhouse as well. We laughingly said we have the room we could go three beds high which can be done if your short on space but have plenty of height. 

The total cost including the foam was $160.

Believe it or not there is also a playpen and a rocker in this room and I can hardly wait for the little ones to try out our bunks. :)

P.S. Roger tried the top bunk and I tried the bottom so besides being a little on the short side they are more then sturdy enough if longer is what your looking for. 

P.P.S. Check Pinterest out for other bunk ideas!!!

Foam was bought at Len's Mill Store

Wood was bought at Rona

One done! So many more to go...

It's done! Well it still needs it's dust cover and that means a trip to the city but other then that it's done.

Let us look upon its original state. 

That was it almost a year and half ago. I brought it home, tore it apart, painted it and then let it sit in the back corner of my garage. ( you can kind of see why there is a no new furniture rule in place hehe)

It's been painted with my homemade chalk paint, sanded and buffed to a shine with my homemade beeswax polish.

Some pretty little braid ( gimp is it's proper name) has been added.

And for a surprise...

I can never seem to stick with just one fabric. Makes life a little more exciting don't you think. ;)

Link to elizabethandco
            Miss Mustard Seed

The Counterfeiter.

Well there it is! My new name. When I was searching for a name for my Etsy store, I was thinking about what best describes what I do and well counterfeiting came to mind. And really, thats what I do. Take something old, paint it, build it, or craft it into something new, making you feel that thats what it should have been all along.

So for example, my ceiling went from this...

...to this! A reclaimed tin ceiling, that husband says he'll never do again. (he says that a lot, and then does it again) You'd think it was there all along, but it hasn't.

An old door..

...to a new display unit for a local store. Sometimes it takes people a minute to realize its a door.

From vintage sheets and fabrics...

...to new aprons!

Doesn't it seem to just make sense that this fabric should be an apron!

So thats it! That's what I'll be selling in my Etsy store. Aprons !! It's not open quite yet, I'm still playing around with it, but  hoping to be up and running by the end of the week. :)

Welcome to the Sixties!

I adore all things old, but once in awhile I get drawn to a more "modern" piece. The date on the back of   this dresser was 1968, meaning I was one when this was made. ( you can do the math to figure my age ;) )

I made this colour up with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But I'm seeing this shade, pop up all over the place lately.

I saved the handles from another project. They didn't suit it, but I thought they'd work well with this dresser.

Then I raided my stash and found fabric to match. The lighter of the two is an actual vintage piece, the other is new, but I like how they go together.

Considering it looked like this, I'm quite happy how it turned out.:)

The Occasional Chair

For one whole week we set off  North to enjoy some r&r. I find it hard to resist the chance to have a real fire and a good cup of hot chocolate.

Before I left I finished this chair.

Sad little thing isn't it.

M'lynn thought it might look nice in blue and I was itching to use my milk paint again.

So we picked the colour " Laurentien" by Homestead House.

At first it didn't look very blue, it looked more gray, but we waited it out and this was the result.

It's now a cute chair, that can sit in the corner to be used when needed.

I've also been itching to use this fabric. It has all new padding, which gave it a little more umpf then it had before.

  

I like the way the rustic chair, meets up with the classy damask, making it a great chair for any occasion. ;)

So you know....

So you know how the rule in my house for Christmas is that gifts must be hand made. No store bought exchanges, which at first was kind of tricky for some, but did not seem a problem this year at all. So over the next couple of posts I'll show you some of the things that were made.

First up, Roger's gift and how it came to be.

For years Roger has been wanting to build new steps for the basement, so with time on his hands, one day he and Isaac tackled just that.

But he when he tore out the old treads he was thinking they seemed pretty heavy and wanted to know what they would look like cleaned up.

                                        I'm not an expert on woods, but I do know this is a hard wood of some type.

Now this was the hard part for me because I wanted to jump in and take over a few times on his Christmas present. But I'd give my hand a slap and ask him what he wanted to do or thought. And this is what he came up with.

   A much needed night stand, with old treads as a new top that turned out to be some beautiful wood.

I think he did just fine with his design.

Happy New Year!!:)

    

A Dogs Life.

It's been a roller coaster month. First Roger was laid off. Hired back for a month and then last week laid off again. Only this time we don't know for how long or where he'll go.
In the meantime all those projects that we have been putting off, are now getting done with a vengeance.

Picture taker girl and her husband are expected baby number one to arrive in 5 weeks. EEK!!! So there is a bit of a push to get some things done in her wee apartment to get ready for the little one to arrive.
So naturally the first thing we made was something for the dog.
 Hunter, their dog when left alone in their apartment has a bit of a fetish for all things fluffy. He is normally caged in a big old wire cage when everyone is gone, but they wanted something a little more stylish.
So thanks to Ana White and Pinterest we came up with this. I grabbed my phone and took this quick realizing I had almost forgotten to take a picture.

And the final product.....

I painted it gray and then age it with a dark stain.

The neat thing about it is, that it will double as an end table in their living room.

I think it's Hunter approved.:)

Its been There.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I feel soo lucky to work on the things that I do. Its history in my hands and my mind wanders as to where it's been and who used it. So enter this piece.

Its a great piece, I just felt it needed some enhancement. I chose to do some hand-painting on this one and I do like the overall effect.

I'm happy with the way it turned out, and I can see me trying this again.:)

Something Yellow and then some.

Last week began in a bit of a whirlwind. Over the weekend we found out that picture taking daughter and her husband are expected baby number 1. There was rejoicing and a cheer from the crowd.

On Monday we delivered my Something Yellow to the The Garden Gate. The Blue Dresser had sold, so I painted up my Something Yellow to bring. It started life looking like this.

But left my home looking like this.

I like how this turned out so much, that it almost didn't leave my home. But if I kept every stray piece that followed me home, I'd be over run with furniture.

I painted it using my homemade chalk paint then added a stripe. I didn't want my stripes to line up,because sometimes when painting a stripe the stripes become over powering to the piece. I wanted to keep the look soft, that way it could work in a baby's room or be just as happy at home in a dining room. It was then sealed with a wax.

The top was left plain.

She's a cutie and when I look at her pictures she makes me smile, as something yellow always does.

It makes up for the rest of the week when my washing machine suddenly died. So for the last week I've had to bring my laundry to Amy's to do. My new machine won't arrive till next week, but she too is a thing of beauty, if you consider those sorts of things beautiful. :)

Trashy finds.

I have these 2 wooden chairs. They were found in the garbage and to me they were too cute not to love, so we rescued them. They have been used as a make shift stepping stools, moved with us, used as stepping stools again and as of late where used as shelves to hold my junk. But now they are going to be used what they were original made for.... sitting.

                                                  Before and after all in one shot.

I had seen someone do a similar treatment to a chair they had and was intrigue by the way it looked. They referred to it as "dipping", which made it seem all the more fun to do. No dipping is actually involved just taping and I like the look between the "old and new".

 I first dry brushed one side white, wanting to keep the rough chippy look to it.

Then taped off what I thought was a good spot, then painted it this vibrant spring green.  I gave it a couple of coats of paint, only to see that my white seemed a little too white. I grabbed some dark stain and went over the white and wiped off the excess. It toned it down nicely. Next up I gave it a coat of outdoor poly to seal it. 

This chair and its mate will be spending its summer up on my top porch. Now I just need a table. :)

A Good thing.

A long, long time ago and what seems to be a galaxy far, far away, I took a chair I have to an upholster. I was trying to do it myself but I got frustrated and had a bit of a fit. I made a call and delivered said chair this past October to an upholster.

This is it. My sad little looking chair. It has moved from home to home and room to room. Everyone asking me "Can you please move that chair somewhere else".

For 6 months it was gone. I was promised it would be done in a couple of weeks, but as weeks went into months a funny thing happened. I calmly got mad and decided I'd practice upholstery on a few pieces. What I didn't think would happen is that I would like doing it as much as I do.

There is some kind of weird relaxation that takes over as I staple away on a piece. 

I've got a lot to learn yet, but had the chair not been gone so long, I think I would have saved my pennies and had someone else upholster them for me.  Who knows maybe one day I'll feel brave enough to take in someone else's chair or sofa.

This is it now. I think its beautiful and they did a great job, but I'm thankful it took so long because it gave me the push out of the nest I needed.:) 

A Home of their Own

Yesterday I picked up this little beauty. Now, my husband doesn't know this yet because he hasn't been home this week from work.( he works 4 days on 4 days off and rents a room) I've been asked nicely by him to hold off buying furniture for now.

But how could I leave this little gem without a home to call its own? I'm sure tonight when he comes home he will totally understand, that it just needed me.

These also needed to come home with me.

These almost didn't make it home with me. Actually they didn't make it home with me at all.

As I was walking out after my love seat purchase I eyed these little lovelies sitting high on a shelf. I asked my daughter if she saw those cute green lamps up there and I said I should get those, but proceeded to walk out the door and left.

I talked about them the whole way home.

My other daughter came over for a visit and I again talked about the lamps, and how dumb I was to leave them behind.

As fate would have it, she was going to town. I gave her money and she picked them up.

 I'm sure you can see why I couldn't leave these behind either. Just look at that green colour. It shouts SPRING!! That and green apples, which are yummy.

On a totally different note, Miss Purple which she has now been named, it just about finished. She should have her picture taken later today. I will remind you that she looked like this when I started.

She has been a challenge, but when I look at her sitting there now, she has been worth it.:)