French Farmhouse Wire Baskets

Hello Ladies,

It's a rainy day here in the Pacific Northwest, making it a great day to cozy up inside and stay warm and dry!

Whenever I am out treasure hunting, I'm always looking for interesting wire pieces that I can transform with paint and some embellishing.  So today I'd like to share with you two of my latest transformations.

 Oooh, la, la!  I am in love with this wire basket, which has neat wooden handles.  The basket was black when I found it, and while it was nice, I knew that it could become tres magnifique with my favorite creamy paint!

 Making tags are also one of my favorite things to create.  My Frenchy bird tag was created by tea dying a tag, adding a snippet of a page from a vintage French book, then some of my favorite stamped images.  Don't you just love this sweet little birdie?  Of course, I've got to get the glitter in somewhere, so I added a silk hydrangea blossom that I've glittered, as well as a tiny rhinestone for added bling.  I tied it on with some wonderfully crinkly taupe seam binding.

 The basket below was also black when I found it.  Isn't it amazing what paint can do?  Some distressing and another one of my French tags, and it's all set for your French farmhouse!

 I've put both of these baskets in my Etsy shop. And that can mean only one thing: I need to create some for myself to keep, as I am in love with them both!!

 Ok, the next photos have nothing in the least to do with baskets or French farmhouse anything!  But, I thought they were so beautiful that I couldn't resist sharing!  I took these shots of our sunset last night, and believe it or not, I've not retouched these photos!

 The bottom three photos were taken half and hour after the above shot.  Isn't it stunning?

 Notice the silhouette of the mountains in the background?  I took these shots from our window.  I would never get tired of this view!

 I just love the reflection of pinks and oranges on the Sound!

Hope you all have a terrific weekend!  I won't be on here much over the next few days, as hubby's nephew and his wife from California are going to be visiting us again for the weekend.  We are so excited to have them stay with us!  I'll catch up with you all in a few days!

A Drab to Fab Makeover With a French Accent!

Bon Jour Mon Amis!

Today I thought I'd share with you one of my latest creations with a French Accent!

I began with a large wooden plaque that I discovered at a thrift shop.  The plaque has seen better days, and I'll show you that in a second.  But first, I wanted to show you the "after", below!

Ok, this is what it used to look like!  Yikes!  I thought for sure that the woman checking me out at the thrift shop would surely think that I had the most horrid tastes!  But no, she actually loved this plaque!  She kept raving about how beautiful it was, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that the violin print was going to be quickly going buh-bye!!

It took alot more elbow grease to remove this baby than I imagined it would!  Lots of sanding and hard work later, I finally succeeded and began with a blank slate!  After painting the plaque a creamy color, then distressing it and putting applying an antiquing glaze on, she was feeling better already!

I actually wasn't sure when I purchased the plaque what I would do with it, but I knew that it was calling out for a French makeover!  I ended up using one of my very favorite French images from the Graphics Fairy.  I had it enlarged, then applied it with Mod Podge.  I love the scalloped edge of the plaque, and I think it's a nice compliment to the Graphic.

Ok, here is where I have a bit of a confession!  Initially, I planned on doing the Mod Podge image transfer technique to the plaque, rather than decoupaging the image on.  If you are not familiar with that process, basically you print out a mirror image of your graphic (printed in reverse), apply Mod Podge to the image side of the paper, then place the image side down on your surface, smoothing out any wrinkles or bubbles as you go.  Let it dry overnight, then remove the paper portion buy moistening the paper and rubbing it off with your fingers.  In a perfect world (haha!), the paper will come off, magically leaving just the image on your surface.

 Well, as we all know, life isn't always perfect!  I should back up a bit and say that I first spent a ton of time trying to print out the image into several different sections, as my plaque is over 19" across. I had to print it out in 4 different pages, then get everything to perfectly align.  Not to mention the fact that I always forget how to print a mirror image!  Anyway, let's just say that the process was not a success, more of a disaster actually!  Too much of the image kept coming off rather than transferring to the plaque, and I was not a happy camper, to say the least!

So, I then spent several hours just trying to remove the remainder of the paper, and the image that did manage to transfer.  I then made the executive decision to decoupage an enlarged copy of the graphic on instead!  Oh, so much easier!

So, while this project ended up taking much longer than I had planned, at least I learned a thing or two along the way!  And I must say that I am very pleased with the way it finally turned out!

I'm putting her in my Etsy shop (even after all of that work!).  In the mean time, I had fun with her photo shoot, and thought my Eiffel towers that I've collected on trips to Paris would create a fitting vignette. A small glass cloche and a tiny nest (isn't it darling?), as well as a couple of vintage books sans their covers, and viola!  One of my favorite drab to fab Frenchy makeovers!

I'm linking up with Kathleen over at Faded Charm for White Wednesday.  Be sure to visit!

Au Revoir!

Snow Covered Mountains

Hello ladies, did you remember to "fall behind"?  While I love getting that extra hour of sleep, I really don't like the thought of darkness settling in so much earlier!  How about you?

Since we've moved out here to the Pacific Northwest, hubby and I try to explore our little slice of paradise as much as we can!  So yesterday we took a road trip to Leavenworth, a beautiful and quaint Bavarian style town amid the Cascade Mountains.  We'd been there several times before, and thought we could catch the tale end of fall colors enroute.  Well, we did manage to see some color, but also lots of snow, too!

 These photos simply do not do the gorgeous scenery justice!  I wish that you could all have come along with me yesterday, the snow covered mountains were just stunning!

 The mountains are always beautiful, but with a fresh dusting of snow, they are even more dramatic!

 Luckily there was no snow on the roads.  When it gets bad, drivers are required to put chains on their cars.  Yikes!

 I am continually amazed at how breathtaking the scenery is here in Washington State!

 I took these photos as we were buzzing along in the car.  The pine trees blanketed in snow were so pretty!

 We love the town of Leavenworth, and thankfully it wasn't as busy as it was there in the summer.  The first time we visited in August, it was in the upper 80's.  Yesterday it was just above freezing!  Luckily I thought to take along my winter coat!

 It truly feels as if you are in a quaint old European village in the heart of the alps!

 I especially love this pretty building, below, with the blue shutters and trim.

 As pretty as the town is, I missed all of the gorgeous flowers that were everywhere last summer, below.

 Another summer shot.

 And speaking of snow covered mountains, the next photos of the Olympic Mountains, is the view that we are treated to from our home!

 I wish that the mountains would have shown up better in the photos.  They are stunning in their fresh coating of snow!

 That's the Puget Sound, and Camano Island that you see in the distance.  Aaahhhh, I don't think I could ever get tired of this view!

Hope you all have a great week!  Can't wait to get caught up with you all, and see what you've been up to!

Vintage Sheet Music Christmas Ornaments

Hi Everyone,
I know, it may seem a bit early to be thinking of Christmas already, but I just can't help myself!  The other day I made a few ornaments that I'm taking to my booth, and thought I'd share them with you today.

 I had fun making a bunch of these last year, so I thought I'd make a few and see how they sell in my booth before I go hog wild making a ton of them!

 I began with clear plastic ornaments from Michael's.  (No worries about breakage, yeah!)  Then came the fun part: filling them with hand torn strips of vintage sheet music, and embellishing them with crinkly seam binding, glittery silver stars, and dainty little glittered silk flowers.  I am in love with this gorgeous aqua seam binding!  Since I only had white silk flowers, I just brushed their petals with a bit of Mod Podge, then dusted them with some light blue flocking from Martha Stewart.  I think they came out quite nicely!

 And for the ornaments below, I used my favorite taupe seam binding, and just added some glitter to the flowers.  Because you can never have too much glitter!

 They are so much fun to make, and they look so pretty gathered in this wire basket for their photo shoot, I think!

 The wire basket was also one of my most recent creations.  I love wire anything, and was thrilled when I discovered this three tiered beauty last week while out thrifting!  It was black when I first discovered it, but I thought it would look oh so much better painted a creamy white!  It was quite challenging spray painting all of that wire!

 A bit of distressing, and I am lovin' the new look!  As much as I adore it, I'm putting it in my Etsy shop.

 Oooh, la, la!

 Now I'm off to do some more creating and blog hopping!  Hope you all have a tres magnifique day!!

I'm linking up with Finding Fabulous for Frugalicious Friday

Vintage Framed Chalkboards

Hunting for interesting picture frames has become my latest obsession passion!  There is hardly a week that goes by that I don't visit the thrift store in search of them!  Today I'd like to share with you one of my latest frame transformations.  Of course, they didn't look this good when I found them!  Oh, no!

 This is what they began life as!  Not terrible, but I knew that with a little paint and tlc, they could go from gaudy gold to shabbylicious!  There weren't any makers markings on the frames, but they are similar to Syroco.  After removing the very dirty glass and prints, I gave the frames a much needed bath, and several coats of wonderful creamy white paint.

 I then distressed them to highlight all of their gorgeous details.  They really do have the look of carved wood, I think!  Next, I had my handy hubby cut new masonite board to fit, and covered the board with chalkboard vinyl.

 

 I can almost hear the frames breathing a sigh of relief!  While they cost a bit more than I normally would be willing to pay (everything seems to be higher out here in the Pacific Northwest, even thrift shops!!), as soon as I spotted them, I just knew that I couldn't pass them up!

 They can hang either horizontally or vertically.  I also think they would be beautiful on an easel, like the one below.  I've placed them, and the easel, in my Etsy shop, if you would like to check them out!

I'm linking up with Kathleen over at Faded Charm, for White Wednesday,
and Debra over at Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday