Saved by the bell!

Sometimes I just don't know when to stop.

I picked up a cute little kitchen table/chairs set at a local Goodwill the other day and it sat in the car for 2 days, I think. Why, you ask? Because I didn't actually have any room for it in the garage. *sigh* My husband said, "I thought we agreed on no more furniture until you move some pieces?" He was right, of course, but I rationalized it by thinking that I really have no control over when something will sell and turning down something that should sell quickly seemed a shame.

Fast forward to today and I have one piece out of the house and three more spoken for. Woo-hoo! Now, this wasn't magic. It helps to renew Craigslist postings once in a while (oops!) and talk to friends about pieces that don't have destinations yet. But I'm excited to be able to work on a few new things and have a direction for others.

Oh! and a lovely lady messaged me about consigning a few pieces to her booth in a near-by market. I am SUPER excited about that. I need to get some pictures printed so I can show her what I have and we can make some real plans.

Anywhoo... here's what's new:

Maybe this desk isn't technically 'new' but getting to work on it is! It's going to be orange. Cannot wait!

Yup. My little helper had to get in on this shot. Isn't she cute?

This table isn't in bad shape at all. Some scratches and maybe a few tiny dents (I'm just assuming... I haven't actually seen any) but over all, it's still cute. 

I'm thinking it'll end up looking something like this when I'm done: 

This next one is just a refresh of an old toy of mine. It was several shades/coats of white and the last one, I think I put on when I was like 10 and it was AWFUL. I've come a long way. I hope. haha

My first 'small'! I was so tickled to find this darling little jewel box. It was actually in great shape when I found it and just needed to be a different color. It almost matches a jewelry case I bought from another local vintage business so if it doesn't sell, it'll just join the collection. 

Slow and steady wins the race?

Like many people, I do image searches and Pinterest searches and blog searches to find ideas or just see what else is being done out there in the world. I thought I was being smart when I started saving bookmarks for all the blogs and projects that I like. Little did I know that I would end up with WAY too many to keep straight. This sort of hoarding leads to incidents like the other day, when I wanted to find the blogger who talked about putting new fabric on her old lamp shades. I hunted through saved links, Googled "fabric for lamp shades blog" to see what would turn up, and even briefly considered just going back through my history... surely it wasn't THAT long ago that I read the entry, right? haha

I DID finally find the blog I was thinking of (over here at Thrifty Inspirations) and then got lost for another hour or so, finding new things to swoon over and hope to recreate some day. 

After that fiasco, I thought maybe I should just write down a list of future project ideas with quick reference notes. Surely having it all on paper somewhere would help... And then I told my husband about it and he was all "Isn't that what Pinterest is for?" *sigh* Yes. Yes, it is. And if I were smart, I would have been making boards for each type of project/technique that I want to someday try. 

Anywhoo... that's what I've been boggled by lately. In case you wondered. 

And here's what I've worked on:

Ok, this cute little tea set isn't really a 'worked on' kind of thing. It's more of a 'Yippee! Look what I found!' thing. Home Goods, you came through. :) 

Thankfully, the finish on this little table was almost completely worn through already. I think someone tried sanding it before donating it, too. Anyway. 10 minutes of hand sanding got a lot of nasty off and made it super smooth to the touch.

I cleaned it off and decided the ink stain or whatever is in the upper middle area is just too deep to try to sand through. It adds a little character, anyway, right? (Like this table needs it!) So after wiping it down again, I busted out the Red Mahogany stain and gave it a nice thick coat. It wiped down really nice but I'm considering adding another coat to see if I can get the color any deeper. The legs will probably get an old white finish, since they're missing some veneer and just aren't as pretty.

Vanity time! I LOVE this little vanity. It was a little plain, though, so I added the accent moulding on the front lip to dress her up a little. I haven't named the last few things I've purchased... what a shame, right? How about Claire? 

Claire

                                    A little close-up of the accent. I love this one and you might recognize it from another  piece, too. Yup. I used it on "Chester". Which just goes to show... even boys can use a little embellishment from time to time!

I found this at the local Goodwill store. It has three glass doors that swing up and slide back to allow access to whatever you decide to store here. I'm guessing it's a curio cabinet of some sort. There are 3 more adjustable shelves, I just have them out for the painting process. I think the doors are going to get a coat of Heirloom White so they stand out a little. 

Charles