Another Fixer-Upper

 
 
 

One of the projects that I have  missed blogging about is our new fixer-upper!   In May, for Mother's Day Tommy surprised   me with another  Victorian house.  I will never get done with our house and yet he decided we need a 2nd home??  Crazy??? Yes, but I love it!  And it is a dollhouse!  I am just an antique child and this is my ultimate toy.   I hope I get more done on it next year.  Here is a look at what I have done so far!

 I wish I had some before pictures.  This is the parlor/music room now decorated for Christmas.  In this room I had to removed horrible wallpaper.  It looked like it had been applied with rubber cement. Big gloppy globs that took a month to remove.  The walls were sanded and primed. They are now ready for paint....but I have wavered on color choice.  This is the only floor in the house that I kept.  I did sand and stain it a darker color.  The Baby Grand and the harp were Christmas gifts from the music teacher I work with in the violin program at school! The Victrola was a birthday gift from my Hubby.  I made the couch, ottoman, and pug pillow.  This is really the only room with furniture set up right now.

 I have worked a little in the master bedroom, also.  The whole house had to be primed and sanded.  The wall colors were outrageous- hot pink in here- purple, lime green, etc...  I also removed flooring like the shag carpet in this room!  The shag was so tall the furniture was hidden!!  The brass bed came from Angel's (also from Hubby)  and the quilt was made by a good friend who has worked with me on the Porch Tour. She also made sheets and pillows!  I made the bed skirt and the throw pillow.  I found the tiny suitcase and end table at a thrift store.  I will install hardwood floors and paint after my electrician runs the wires for lighting!  So you can see this will be a labor of love....just like our house  is.....never ending!

 First floor will be parlor and kitchen, second floor master and boy's bedroom, third floor bathroom, sewing room and girl's room,  and the attic in the turret!

Some of the trim had fallen off so I will have to replace that.  I have touched up the paint on the outside and added doorknobs!  I love my dollhouse!  He found it at a Community yard sale and when I saw it I cried!!

Christmas Decorating 2013

 

This year the Santas are on the dining room table. The one in the middle was a gift last year from my friend who headed up the Victorian Porch Tour.

 

 

The rest of the room is much the same.  (I was so glad to be able to look back on the blog to save time!)

In the parlor we have a new tree!  After fighting the monster tree for 12 years I gave up. This is  a 7 foot prelit tree that took less than an hour to put up. The old one took a whole day! It is on a short round table to give it a little more height.

 

 

 

 

The Nativity scene is on a table we got by accident at Angel's this year.  In spite of it's shaky start, it does look like it belongs in this house!

In the kitchen all of the elves got contained in this cabinet this year, which moved across the room to make a place for a project piece...

Earlier this year we bought 3 of these hutches at a yard sale.  The first one was a little smaller. It went straight to the booth with no changes and sold quickly.  The second one had many issues.  It was missing drawers and very scratched up.  It had a major makeover.  It is a very heavy 2-piece dresser and hutch...the back however was cardboard.  Hubby took that off and added real beadboard.  Then I painted the whole thing.  Brown beadboard and top of the dresser, tanish-gray for the rest of it.  And a brown burlap curtain where the missing drawers were.  It turned out nice but it was a lot of work! That one just sold this week after sitting in the booth 2 months.

 

This one we put in the kitchen until I could get to it...of course that was a mistake because I began to use it.  There is a lot of storage in that big boy and it is now full!  I would like to put beadboard on the back.... But I don't really want to sell it now.....

 

The only other change this year is in the hall... Again I had a piece that was a project.  An orphan hutch that I just stuck on top of the hall table and it turned on to be a pretty good fit.  It made setting up the village much easier....may keep this piece for a while, too!

Why I Miss My Blog.....

I have used my blog for years as a reference to decorate for Christmas!
My memory is not what it used to be.
Scrapbooking is expensive and costs more.
...and a million other reasons.....

   I did not intend to stop blogging.  First I had a virus on my computer so I was reading blogs on the ipad.  I was not able to coordinate the camera with the ipad and typing was awkward.  Then I was out of the habit when I got my laptop back.  And so on.  So I am going to try again. 

  I am still spending much time at Angel's Antiques.  My hubby spends even more time there.  He has an actual job there.  We have 5 booths and share a couple more,  I have mine, he has 3, and youngest son has one.  The Boy has a booth that sells grills.  He buys returns or dented grills and sells them at a great price.  He has to build the grills, fix and replace parts. It is a good way for a high school senior to schedule his working hours around his social life....

My next post will be all about Christmas....then I will get back on track in 2014!

Pallet Love and Other Projects

 We have been busy for the last month playing with pallet wood!  There are tons of ideas on Pinterest for rustic projects made with recycled pallets.  The first job is to locate source of free pallets.  Hubby likes the cleaner new looking ones while I prefer the  aged and distressed!   Here is one of his latest projects:

 Inside is a 48 qt cooler. And it has wheels.  He has also made wine bottle racks and a table.  I loved the table and wanted to put it out by the pool between our Adirondack chairs. It would be great to eat on or serve from....I still have hope because it has not sold yet!

 I have taken his scraps and tried some pallet art.  Again turning to Pinterest for ideas.  I am trying to get ahead of the season by working on patriotic projects and football season!!!  Next will  be Fall and Halloween!

Next is a home project which I rarely complete any more.....
 I have to have light weight door wreaths. And two of them which limits my selection... They cost more when you double  it or if I make them it takes twice as long.  So I saw this cute, fast and cheap idea to brighten up the porch.  The center of the sunflower is a basket paper plate holder.  I was lucky and found brown ones at the thrift store.  I had planned on spray painting the natural kind.

 The next hurdle was finding yellow burlap.  Hobby Lobby finally got some in.  I cut a long 5 inch  wide strip, sewed it in a circle and gathered it.  The last step was attaching it to the back edge of the plate holder.   Total price $3.00 for 2!

The next project goes to the booth as soon as I get my patriotic display ready.  I merged ideas from a couple of blogs to make  a  Rag Ruffle Flag Pillow.  All of the materials are recycled and from my stash.  The inner pillow was a down pillow - I bought it long ago to recover.  When I unzipped it the feathers exploded.  There was a hole in it.  So I stuffed it in a plastic bag and there it has been for 2-3 years.     I made a new case from a recycled sheet.  Took it outside to put the feathers in.  It still looks like I have slaughtered chickens in my back yard!

 The denim came from 2 of my teacher jumpers ( please note -I have been retired 11 years- and yes I have hoarder issues)  The white fabric came from the bottom of some curtains that I shortened and the red was a tablecloth in its former life!

The current project in the Swamp has to do with an old gun cabinet with a broken glass front...sadly we bought it that way last year with plans to replace the glass  Never, Happened...

Happy Easter!

 Guess what this is???!!!    A little project I have been thinking about for a while......

 The laundry room door!  It is always open and has bothered me.  I got to thinking about how many chippy painted chalkboards we sell.  Here is my new command center.....

 Hubby's schedule...

Goals and chores...  Let's see how many I can check off this week!

Ugly Duckling to Swan

 Last week I worked on this Ugly Duckling!  A couple of weeks ago my Hubby had an accident at work while loading this china cabinet onto a cart.  He was fine - the cabinet -not so much.  So due to the "You break = You buy" rule he became the not so proud owner of this hot mess!

 The top piece was worse- broken glass, shelf supports and a corner.  He felt so bad...so did I...we did not need a broken $200 Ugly Duckling.  So being a supportive wife I said - bring it home, we will fix it and make it cute and make a profit.  That was before I saw it.....  I sanded, painted, sanded, painted,waxed and added burlap to the back.  He fixed the broken wood and replaced the broken glass.  Last night we took it to our booth and we have high expectations for it to sell!  Here is the swan.......

 She is painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint -Old White.  And finished with clear wax. I really hated it when I started working on it.   Now I really hate to see her go.....

 And just because I always focus on my booth and redos- here are a couple of the Hubby's projects- A corner screen made from the old screen/shutter doors that came off our house.  They have been in the basement for several years (just in case we decided we missed them.) 

 And a cute antique humidor that he refinished.  I bought it and planned on keeping it.  Never got around to doing anything with it.  He really made it cute so we priced it high.  If it does not sell, I will find a place for it!

Weekend Goals

 There is no doubt that if I make goals for myself that it helps focus my effort!  I made a goal of getting 10 things out of my house and I got rid of 26 items. Most of them were small things but less clutter is the goal!  Some of those were more unfinished projects that I needed a push to finish. Like the carrot bunches -  I have made some from burlap and chenille for the booth ...and  I had even cut these out.  Just let them sit...until now.

 This cradle was done except for the mattress.  I finished the quilt and pillow (along with 2 other sets last week)  Hubby had painted the bed and he had to replace the bottom which was cardboard. 

 I worked on this Friday.  Old piece of chippy wood, stenciled cross, Mod Podged the hymn on the edge. Saturday morning I added the burlap flower.  Took it to the booth and it sold that day.  Made a second one Sunday.  Hubby has made some frames from this old wood. He saves me his scraps.

 Hubby and I finished 3 of these memo boards this weekend.  On some of them I decorated the clothes pins with scrapbook paper. 

 And an experiment... a couple of years ago I made some "Junque" necklaces for myself and often get comments on them.  I have not tried them in my booth because I used up all of my junk and it is so easy for things like this to disappear since I don't have any kind of  locked case.  In my decluttering I found I did have more junk and did NOT need to make myself any more!  I also found a few things on the clearance row at Hobby Lobby.  I did put these in security boxes so they will not be easy to steal!

 My final weekend project was this shabby chair.  The only thing needed was for Hubby to attach  the cute bird hook so I could hang the wreathe!  I don't even want to say how long ago I dragged this home and it  has just been sitting around on the porch!  Now it can go clutter up someone else's porch!

On the schedule this week: pillowcase dresses, and painting a huge china cabinet that is parked in the den in front of the TV :(