Recent finds for Shabby Friends

This primitive spice cabinet is my favorite.   I'm having a hard time letting it go.

This berry set would be a great addition to a Nippon collection.  

Love this primitive shelf.  Wish I had space for it.

A close-up of the top of an antique biscuit tin.  

I found this old distressed easel in Bonham.  

Mr. Shabby found this Folk Art Pelican in a dumpster.  

Painted Pumpkins, recent projects and acquisitions

As soon as the brutal Texas Summer was history I decided to paint my old faux pumpkins with various mixtures of chalk paint.  A quick coat of clear latex and voila.......new pumpkins.  

This little table has been around the house for a few years.  We 've  sold so much at Shabby Friends lately I felt that I needed to fill some holes.  I painted the base with ASCP Old White.  The top is painted with silver, then stenciled and waxed with ASCP Dark.  

I finally got around to preparing this old medicine cabinet to sell.   It needs to be mounted into the stud space in a wall.  

I painted the inside a country blue. 

I've been collecting little turkeys and chickens for a few years.  I love
 getting them out for Thanksgiving.

Here is small sample of the most recent acquisitions for Shabby Friends.

I love this clarinet.  It is a Normandy #4.  It was made in France and sold
 to the
US for student use.  c1953.

An old coal shuttle.

I Must have priced this cute bird cage too low.  It sold in two days.

I'm not sure what this is, but I love it's "rustyness".

Wouldn't this look great in a Victorian bedroom?

Recent Projects

My Mother's generation was really into maple.  Everything was Maple.  Hard Rock Maple.  It was all done in what we called Colonial or Early American Maple.  No respectable home in the POST WWII era was without Early American Maple in every room.  Being one who loves to buy and sell vintage furniture, I find my self avoiding anything that suggest the style that filled every nook and cranny of my childhood.  Why is that?  Oh yes, I forgot.  I was a child of the rebellious  60's......rejecting all symbols of the establishment.  And, yes.....Maple was one of the strongest icons of the Eisenhower generation.

So...what to do with Mother's maple.
Well how about painting it.

This was Mother's Early American Tea Cart.  It was always in a corner of her living room displaying her beautiful collection of crystal.  

I decided to paint the cart in ASCP Provence. 

Needless to say, the wheels were a chalenge.

Well, we don't want to disguise all the maple.  A little distressing was needed.

The best feature of this cart is that it is so versatile.  With the leaves up it makes a wonderful little table.

With the leaves down, it stores in a very small space.  Oh, buy the way, the cart sold at Shabby Friends today.

This was Mother's maple dresser.  I painted it will ASCP Old White and
 trimmed it with Paris Grey. I love the way the pulls painted out.  I decided to give
 them a good coat of protective acrylic.  

 I think Mother would be proud.

New Stuff for Shabby Friends

Mr. Shabby brought this cute chair home several years ago and discussed learning to cane.     Well ...... caning is a very difficult skill.  So, the chair hung in the garage for several seasons.  I decided to remove all the cane seating and plug a punch bowl in the opening.   The empty bowl called out for some fall foliage and the process goes on and on but you get the idea.   

I really don't know what to call this.  We bought it last weekend at an estate sale for $3.50.    I would call it a table but it swivels like a piano stool.  But it couldn't be a stool because it is very uncomfortable.   I painted the legs with a combination of grey and white chalk paint then did a little distressing.  What ever.........  I took it to Shabby Friends and we will see what happens. 

I've bought several of these little jewelry boxes for two or three dollars at yard sales and Goodwill.  I love changing them  by distressing then adding dramatic paint colors and metallic flourishes.   They sell very well at Shabby Friends. 

Some vintage hats and purses.  

The Pee Wee Chair

This is the second of a set of three chairs I bought at Goodwill and painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

I call it the Pee Wee Chair because before it was waxed with dark wax it resembled a prop on the set of the Pee Wee Herman  Show......very cartoonish.   Different sections of the chair were painted with Arles, Provence and Olive.

Provence, black fabric paint and dark wax were used for the burlap stenciled seat.  

Chairs are hard to sell at Shabby Friends so I may keep this one.  

A gilded table and a high learning curve.

I had three goals for this summer:  Learn to paint furniture with Chalk Paint, Learn to stencil, and Learn to metal leaf. Little tables like this are found everywhere.  Mr. Shabby, found this for "pennys on the dollar".  

My Annie Sloan Chalk Paint teacher, Lady Butter Bug told me to never mix paint without measuring and recording the proportions.  However, I  took a leap of faith and mixed a little Old White with some Chateau Grey.  Sorry, Karla.

The next step required a leap of faith.  The fear and anxiety of gilding with metal leaf was justified when I removed the stencil.  There was gilt where there should not have been gilt.  There was no gilt where there should have been gilt.  Note to self.....don't use spray adhesive.  So......I re-applied the stencil and repaired with silver paint.  I think the combination of silver and gold works.  

Then, I made a run to Hobby Lobby for liquid adhesive
 and the gilding continued.  

Today is the first day of school so I can't say that I accomplished
 all my summer goals in a timely fashion
....but wait....summer isn't officially over for a month.   

A Shabby Chic Re-Purposed Sewing Machine Cabinet

My back finally healed and I was able to continue this project.  It started with an empty sewing machine cabinet with great cabriole legs.

I decided to paint it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Old White.

A little distressing with sandpaper.  BTW it was 108 degrees on the back porch.  

So, I sanded in the house.  Then Everything in the house was covered with white chalk dust including the dogs.  

I added this stenciled design to the front.

Then....after a sleepless night I decided that the top needed to be painted black.  

I waxed with Annie Sloan Clear and............ " TA DA"