Acorn painting...

I had the chance to get away over the weekend, and I came back feeling a bit more recharged.  Dallas was lovely, and my hostess had some lovely land and trees to explore.  At one point I was walking and heard something loud come crashing down near my head- I think the squirrels were entertaining themselves by throwing acorns at me.

You know what they say, "When life throws you acorns..."

Paint them.

So I did.  I started out with three lovely colours of Country Chic Paint- Brandy, Rustic Charm, and a new not yet named shade of buttercream yellow.  I thought that the acorns would look lovely on a Thanksgiving table.

Small project, but I like using a bit of nature when decorating the table for Thanksgiving.   Plus, nothing is more relaxing than sitting painting acorns while sipping a hot cup of tea :)

Best made plans...

When I first meet with a client there is a lot of discussion regarding a "plan" for their piece.  Colours, stain, natural top, glaze, wax, etc.

But like they say,

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, 

Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
(The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!)

~Robert Burns To a Mouse

Not that I am left with grief when working on a piece, well, not often am I left with grief ;)  Sometimes I have a plan for something I am working on and then as I dig into the piece and begin sanding, painting, and revealing it's character, the plan has to change.  

Originally this piece came to me yellow.  All of it.  Yellow.  I wish I had a before pic- it was 1970 yellow.  Bad.  So bad that I jumped into painting it and didn't bother to take a before pic.

The plan was to paint it Pencil Tip by Behr and then add dark wax, ebony stain up top and paint the hardware black.  As I was working on it I felt that the ebony stain on top would be too heavy with the black hardware and the sanded exposed wood had a lovely Restoration Hardware wood look to it.

Dark wax mixed with clear wax gave it just enough highlights...

I love that my client was flexible with the plan and welcomed any changes that I was making throughout the process.  

The little table who could...

This poor little table came to me looking like this:

Scratched up, battered and badly varnished.  I looked at her and knew that with a fresh coat of paint and some sanding she could be the little breakfast farm table of someone's dreams.

So I sanded and stained her top.  I love Jacobean by minwax.  Deep, coffee coloured- rich and warm.

I sanded using 40 grit paper, 80 grit paper, 120 grit paper and finally 220 grit paper.  Smooth, but with some of her character lines still showing.  I believe in preserving a bit of the wear and tear that these table tops come to me with.  It's their history- the fine lines that show laughter and weathering the storm.

Then I gave the lower half of the table a few coats of Miss. Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in Lucketts green...

A bit of light sanding to bring out the beauty of this old girl...

I finished the top off with a coat of soft wax and hemp oil for the base...

 I can imagine her sitting in a farmhouse kitchen.  Two steaming mugs of coffee on top waiting to be enjoyed...

Perfectly Imperfect

Whitewashed finish...

Last week I did a job for a client who wanted a to take her old yellow pine furniture and repurpose it for her guest room.   She wanted a grey-ish look to it, so we opted to use Behr pencil point grey as a base coat and then whitewash over it.  

This process is pretty simple- but is somewhat slow and methodical- moving too quickly with the whitewash can make the piece look like a white/muddy mess!  

After two coats of the pencil point, I took plain white paint and mixed it with water in a one to three ratio.  Then I brushed on a coat of the white over the grey, waited about ten seconds, and wiped it off with a clean rag.  I did this for the entire piece and the finish is lovely!

Home...

After 29 hours of traveling, it was lovely to walk through this door and be "home".  

Does anyone else notice that their house has a distinctive smell after being away from it?  As I walked through the door and took that big first breath it just felt like I'd inhaled everything I love about our cottage.  It smelled faintly of clorox (thanks to hubby cleaning before I got home),  lavender, cotton, puppies, and just love.  I have been inhaling deeply since last night!

After an eleven hour sleep I awoke to the faint humming of our newest addition to the family.  A Roomba.   When it comes to gift giving my hubby knows me well!

I've wanted one of these for a very long time, and I have to say after watching it take a few passes around the hardwood floors I am pretty impressed!  It's even able to get over our low pile rugs and slows down to clean the edges of the floors next to the baseboards.  It was an expensive purchase, but my time is valuable too ;)

I have so many stories of Australia to share,  both touching and funny, so I will share those over the next few days as I get readjusted to Texas time.  I also had an interesting conversation with my dad about where my business is going.  I may be using this sign sooner than I thought!

So much to share, but I am exhausted and neck deep in laundry!

Direction...

I am a member on a blogtalk page on FB.  An interesting discussion popped up about wether or not personal news or information should be shared on a DIY/decorating blog.  My answer was this:

I share personal stuff. I have four kids who are a huge part of my day to day and its not always about pretty stuff. To know me is to love me- good, bad and in between.I share personal stuff. I have four kids who are a huge part of my day to day and its not always about pretty stuff. To know me is to love me- good, bad and in between.


This blog is about our home improvements and diy experiences, but there is so much to me than our home.  I am a mom of four kids- four very different kids with different needs/abilities.  There is so much to say on that topic that I can't imagine not including that into my day to day blogging.   I pretty much follow the same rule on facebook- I have one page, my personal one.  I cannot imagine juggling two pages- though I did try under Little Cottage Designs....which I do update, but I'm not nearly as good about it as I could be.  I've only had one negative experience on FB with a fellow blogger who called me some pretty insensitive names because of my views on a subject, but other than that it hasn't been a problem.

That leads me to my second area of discussion today....where am I going?   My painting business is taking off and gives me flexibility and the enjoyment of being creative, but there is something more that I would love to be doing.  I'd love to have a shop.  There- I said it.  A small shop, painting classes, vintage finds, unique furniture pieces....I dream of that.  Little Cottage turning into a place where people can go just to learn new painting techniques or perhaps paint something for the first time.

I feel as if I am in a sort of awkward growth stage....things are changing, but I'm not sure where they are leading.   It will be interesting to see where it goes...

Milk paint vs. Chalk paint...

I've used both types of paint and get asked a lot which I prefer.

It depends on what I'm looking to achieve.  For a washed out, unpredictable finish it's milk paint...

MMS in Ironstone....no bonding agent- but it stuck for the most part...

MMS in Ironstone, no bonding agent...ended up with a very chippy/distressed look...

I love how it just randomly clings to parts of the piece while leaving some rather large areas unfinished. It is a particular look, and not for everyone, so I have not used a lot of this on customer pieces.

Chalk paint is more predictable.  It's easy to use and I can control where the paint is distressed or rubbed off.

Both paints are very user friendly, require no prep work, can be sanded, waxed (dark or light wax) and buffed.

The potting table evolution...

Years upon years ago my mother bought me this lovely little kitchen butcher block... It started out with a creamy white base and butcher block top...and since our kitchen has an island I moved it outside to someday turn it into a potting table.

I have painted it.  A. Lot.

No idea what I was thinking here...

I liked this look so much better.

This past weekend Travis quick built me a shelf/hutch for it to put my vintage watering cans, pots, and odds & ends on...

Yes, I painted it again.  This time going with more of the grey that I love.

new sisal area rug from Lowe's also helped to freshen the space a bit...

I even moved an old chippy door that had been sitting in my living room to the back porch...

I'm on the lookout for a chippy coffee table and maybe an interesting piece as a little side table.  Nothing matchy matchy, and definitely in the shabby/rustic look I love.

Oh my aching back...

This past week/weekend was a particularly busy one for me.  I painted nine pieces of furniture in five days.  Oy.

Last night found me on the sofa after taking a handful of Advil, applying Icy/Hot & the heating pad.  Say hello to my 80's.

But look at some of what I painted....

We also had our annual swim party at my parent's house...

So today I am playing catch up on house stuff and meeting with a friend to discuss homeschool stuff, lots of stuff today ;)

Tomorrow I will be styling Cristian's room for her, and hopefully she will be out of the hospital this week to see her new room.   I will take pictures once it's all finished.

Tomorrow night I will be having my first ever craft night here at the cottage.  We will be making signs and I am so excited to be hosting this!  Melaine at My Sweet Savannah does them and they just look like so much fun :)

Happy Monday, Y'all!