Tray chic!

Happy Friday to you all!  We finally have some much appreciated sun and dry weather here in Michigan.

Tray chic??..................Tres chic!!!!!!!  Sorry, I just couldn't resist!  Looking around our home, I see that I have lots of trays.  Guess I just can't get enough of them!  Not only are they pretty to look at, but they are functional as well!  I love using them when we entertain.  Everything looks better (and more organized!) when it's corralled on a tray.  And since we love eating outdoors in warm weather, trays are really a lifesaver when it comes time to hauling everything out on the deck!  I thought I would show you some of my favorites.

This Parisian themed one is a shadow box style tray (you can't really see the handles in this photo), that I bought several years ago from Current catalog. The only finish it came in was a dark cherry, and since I prefer lighter woods, it sat in a corner gathering dust for years.  Every time I walked by it I felt guilty!  Why did I buy it?!  Why don't I do something with it??  So finally, I painted her my favorite creamy white and distressed her a bit.  This was before I met Ralph (as in Lauren.  As in antiquing glaze!), or I certainly would've used it on this project!  Anyway, I used scrap booking supplies and a reproduction French postcard, and now I love it!  The neat thing about this tray is that you can easily change it out. I made a fun display for Christmas last year.  This would be so easy to do with a pretty picture frame, too!

I got this pretty black and floral tray a few years ago at a yard sale (25 cents, I think).  It's advertising a store, and I think that it was a gift to customers.  Check out there phone number!  Only 5 digits!  I love this pretty yellow tray. I've not been to Provence (it's a dream trip of mine, though!), but I did find it in a cute little shop in Paris a few years ago.

The rose tray was alot of fun to make!  I decoupaged pages from a vintage French book, then decoupaged roses from a book of Pierre-Joseph Redoutes water color roses.  I found both books at our librarys monthly used book sale.  I was especially excited to find the Redoute rose book! If your local library has used book sales, I would highly recommend going!  You never know what potential crafting projects are lurking within the pages of all of those books! I showed you these toile trays before. They are in our bedroom.  My motto is: "You can never have too much toile"!

I also showed you this last one before, in our living room.  Bought several years ago at a moving sale for next to nothing!  I just love the floral design!

Why not add a little tray chic to your home??!

Well, ladies, I hope that you all have a great weekend!  I am hoping to find a few good yard sales this weekend.  You never know what you might find..............

Sea Shell Chic

It's been unusually cold and rainy here in Michigan, so I thought what better to do than go to the beach!  Well, not literally!!   But I can dream and imagine being at the beach, though!  I am an "aqua baby", and am happiest when I am by (or in!) the water!

I love shells and shell crafting, and I usually don't bring out my shell things til summer time, but felt the urge today to get them out.  Whenever we travel somewhere warm and tropical, my very favorite thing to do is walk by the ocean, collecting shells.  I could get lost in shelling for hours (and I have!).  I've been shell crafting for a few years now.  It's so fun to make things that bring back memories of wonderful trips!  I thought I would show you how I decorated the antique hutch in our living room today.


I'll show you a closer look.  I love the way these shells and sea urchins look in vintage glass creamers!

And here is a close up of a some of the boxes  I covered in shells. The one above (I've shown you two views of it), started out as a metal recipe box!                                                                                                                                                                                  

 

Of course, everything looks better under a glass cloche, don't you think?!  This sweet pink depression glass creamer was given to me by my Mom several years ago.  This picture frame is my first shell crafting project.  That is hubby & me at Lake Michigan.  I do love our Great Lakes!



This shell mirror took many, many hours, and tons of shells!

These are actually mirrors, but I thought that they would look pretty on our coffee table with votive candles in the center.  They look so pretty at night!  I have had these mirrors since I was a teenager, & tucked them away for years, almost forgotten!  Glad I kept them!  The last photo is another box, which started out as a lidded tin.  For some of these projects, I did supplement with a few shells that I bought at the dollar store, but most were gathered on our trips.  Lots of memories, lots of glue gun burns, too!   I will be sure to share with you in a future post more ways that I use and display shells!  I am linking today's post up with Faded Charm for White Wednesday 
and Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday 
and Funky Junk Interiors SNS

Thrift store tray make over

I found a really neat wooden tray a few weeks ago at the Good Will.  Here she is in her before state.  Not terrible, but definitely room for improvement!  I took this photo after I had taken the metal handles off. I really like the scalloped edge, and thought she had potential, though at the time I wasn't sure what I would do with her.  Whenever that's the case, I head on over to the Graphics Fairy
for some inspiration!  I found this really neat copy of a vintage French label, and I thought the shape and the color would be perfect!  After giving the tray a bath, I then primed her and gave her two coats of American Accents spray paint in aqua.  I am loving this color!  I have already used up the entire can on several projects!  Ahhh!  Better already!  I then distressed her a bit with sandpaper, and added some cute little polka dots along the edge to help accent her curvyness.  I used a special tool made just for painting polka dots.  Wanna see it?

 
Ta da!  A pencil eraser makes perfect polka dots! I just dipped it into a bit of cream craft paint.  After the dots dried, I used Ralph Lauren antiquing glaze in "smoke".  Just wipe or brush it on, and wipe it off.  Whenever I use it, I always think of the old "Karate Kid" movie:  "wax on, wax off"!!  Silly, I know.........     Then I was ready to decoupage.  I wanted an aged look and didn't want the label to look so white, so I used a sepia toned decoupage medium.  Well, it was just alot darker than I wanted, so I mixed just a bit with regular Mod Podge til I got the look I was going for.  I gave her several coats, letting dry between each.  Oh, I almost forgot one step.  I had read somewhere that to avoid bubbles in your paper when decoupaging, first spray with an acrylic sealer.  I did this & let it dry before I decoupaged it to the tray.  Still not sure if it made any difference!

I then spray painted the metal handles a flat black, and once they were dry, I used some Rub N Buff in "antique gold" to give them some character.

Here she is!  I am really happy with how she turned out!  I sold her in my Etsy shop, and I hope the new owner will really enjoy it.  I had lots of fun making it, and now I want to find some more trays to give a face lift to!                    
I am linking up with Trash to Treasure over at Reinvented as well as Beyond the Picket Fence Under $100 Party.                                                                 

Come Fly with me!

Happy Monday everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend.
No, I'm not a pilot, but my hubby is!  Today was such a nice day, and we were both off, so we went flying!  I picked my mom up, then met hubby at the small airport near our home where he keeps his plane.  We went to a cute small Victorian town west of here, were there are some really neat shops.  We took my mom to lunch as a little extra Mother's Day gift. The restaurant picked us up, then dropped us off when we were through with the most important part, shopping!    The top photo is of the runway (it's a grass strip) right after take off.  And this is me & hubby & his plane after we landed!  There are a bunch of really nice shops in town, and some nice antique shops as well.

Isn't this little yellow chair in an antique shop window cute? 

And check out the window displays of our favorite shop!  I love the white painted furniture!  Let's look inside!

 

 

Lots  of eye candy here!  Love this sweet painted dresser!  and look at the wire frame of an old lamp being used as a display rack.  How neat is that?!  I love this chandelier in a neat antique shop we went in!  This beautiful display of blue glass was in the same shop.  I love blue!  And I really love this bright blue shutter and pots in another gift shop.  What a great idea!  The lamp below was at the restaurant.  I think it originally might have been gas.

 

The view on our way home!  Lots of pretty lakes.  We had a great day, & my mom really enjoyed herself. I think it's pretty neat that an 83 year old lady is willing to fly in a small plane, and doesn't even get scared!  I know people half her age that would never set foot on a small plane!