12 Days of Christmas...

On the fourth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Four Calling Birds

source

Three French Hens

Two Turtle Doves

and a
Partridge in a Pear Tree

Ciao,
F

It was meant to be...

Last year I spent a long weekend in Minnesota visiting my BFF
and doing a little junking. We stopped in one of her favorite little
vintage shops in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Here I found these
steel panels from an old carrousel  hand painted with Dutch country side images...
and I fell in love. They were beautiful in that vintage folk art way and
they reminded me of Holland where my dad was from.

I don't know why but I didn't buy one. I know, silly right?
You should always buy it if your gut is screaming for it.
Well, a year later and I was still kicking myself for not buying one.

This brings me to this September when I stopped in Minneapolis for a couple
of days to see my BFF and do a little junking. You seeing a pattern yet?
This year we went to Junk Bonanza, neither of us had been before.
We were cruising around and I was reminiscing about the carrousel panels
I was still kicking myself for not buying from last year. I had to stop off
in the restroom and when I came out my friends said "your not going to believe
this but..."

Right behind where we stopped were the ladies who owned the shop we had
been in the year before. (I'm horrible, I don't remember the shops name).
We asked them about the panels and your not going to believe this but they
still had two of them. I described the one I wanted and yes, it was one
of the two they still had. Her husband was kind enough to run them over
and this time I bought one.

Now the issue was how was I going to get it home. Shipping it was more
expensive then what I paid for it and the thing weighed at least 45lbs.
Well, just a couple of booths down was a woman from Yakima.
Some of you might know her, Lisa Souers.
We told her our shipping delima and she offered to stick it in her
truck as she had room now and it wasn't very bulky and I would
find some time to run up to Yakima to pick it up. 

Well, a couple of weeks later, everyone is home again and Lisa and I
are trying to figure out a weekend that would work for both of us for
me to pick it up when she told me she would be up at Ruffles and Rust
in Monroe, WA. I figured, a quick drive to Monroe, pick up my piece
and I get to stop in Bellevue to see a girlfriend.

It all worked, out! I drove up to Monroe on Friday found my new friend
Lisa and picked up my fabulous folk art.

I owe Lisa a HUGE thank you for schlepping my piece half way across the
country and to Monroe just for me. You ROCK sister! Thank you!

Here's the piece, it's not a great picture but you'll get the idea.

Now I need to figure out how to hang it. My walls are lath and plaster and not
very forgiving with holes or heavy things hanging. But that's for another day.

So, you see it was all meant to be.

ciao,
F

wall color...

my Mr. O has decided he wants to paint his music room.
i think it's a great idea since it's been the same color for 8 years...
a lovely English mushy pea green.
that sounds worse than it is, it's actually has a masculine elegance to it.

he's asked me my opinion (isn't that sweet, it's his room after all)
and i am going back in forth between
dark and mood or
light and airy.

we have a 1917 Arts & Crafts bungalow so the rooms
are on the smaller side but lots of windows and detail.

now imagine a room with a big leather chair (this belongs to the dogs),
mahogany bookcases and a sheet music cabinet and the piano.
in all of this is stacks and stacks of music books and sheet music.
of course a bust of beethoven sits on top of the piano overseeing it all.

now that you have a picture in your head here are a couple of examples
of wall colors i am thinking:

Aubergine:

source

grey:

 

source

darker grey:

source

warm cream:

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flax:

 

source

so what do you think?
keep in mind there is little wall and a lot of doors and windows.

love your thoughts as i am torn.

ciao,
F

mystery....

Beautiful....

Mysteries....

Elegant....

Times Past....

source

wishing you a beautiful weekend....

ciao,

f

sludge....

don't let the title of this post scare you away.

i have been reading Abigail Ahern's blog for some time

and she loves to talk about these sludge colored walls.

i love the idea of inky sludge walls.

i was looking at images i pinned to my pinterest 

boards and realized that i had been pinning 

quite a few images of rooms with inky sludge

colored walls and how yummy they are.

they truly are divine!

i guess you can say Abigail may have been
inspiring me without me realizing it.

so go out and paint your walls inky sludge
and feel the yumminess.

ciao,
f

projects....

for awhile now i have been hoping for 

a free saturday that also was sunny and dry.

well my wishes came true this last saturday.

after a morning run, chores and a quick appointment

i pulled as many projects i thought i could finish 

before our guests arrived for dinner.

the lucky projects were:

• the chair i am suppose to upholster
• a white dresser
• a black and green dresser
• the birds

well, i am happy to report my chair is painted

and sealed and all ready for my upholstery class on thursday.

the white dresser just needed a little fresh coat of paint

and yes it needs handles but that's for another day.

before

after

black and mint green dresser, well do i need to say much here?

licorice mint

pale yellow before final coat of paint

the drawers after 3 coats of yellow

and last but not least,

put a bird on it.

after

i forgot a before picture of the birds but they

were all different colors. 

now they are shiny and white.

all of this in one sunny saturday afternoon.

i can't tell you how happy and productive i felt.

i might just get these all done for the show in may

after all.

stay tune for the final results,

handles and all.

ciao,

f

upholstery part 2....

well, finally got a little time squeezed in between
work and a visit from my sister and nephew
to get the sanding, priming and first coat
on my chair.
the weather was even kind enough to
cooperate with some sun and dry weather.
i forgot to take a picture of it sanded and
primed but have a picture of the first coat.

 

i went for a warm, creamy white versus

a real chalky white. it seemed more suited

to the style of chair and fabric.

the backing was done in class last week

along with some sanding.

hoping tomorrow the painting gods

continue to smile down upon my little

chair so i can get a second coat 

on which means i might actually get

to do some upholstery in class on thursday

night.

keep your fingers crossed.

it is starting to look like something.

Yeah!

Ciao,

F