Halloween Birthday

Hi!
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I certainly did. I did not do anything crafty or creative, but I did get to clean up the area where I usually "create", which is..uhm.. actually my whole house.
But mostly my dining room, which is one of the first things you see when you come into my house, so tis a good thing to have it clean again.

Something you don't know about me, is that my birthday is on Halloween. This meant nothing all the time growing up in South Africa (there's another little tid bit of info you did not know about me), because in South Africa nobody used to celebrate Halloween.
So,  after moving to USA about 7 years ago, I decided to have my first (and last) Halloween Birthday Party!
I decided to show you some pictures of this momentous occasion:


                We decorated the entrance like a bat cave. This was when we were still living in Olympia, WA

Black garbage bags were cut up and hung from the walls and ceiling.

Spiderwebs from DT with little black spiders in, carved pumpkins, witch's hats, and bats cut out of black poster board helped to make it look more spooky.

    The table: 

  Eye balls, pumpkins, old dry branches.

  The old records were used as place mats and to put the hot dishes on.                                     

I found a recipe in a Martha Stewart magazine for these human (bread) fingers.The nails are almonds.

 These spider bread rolls were my own creation.Not bad for a domestically challenged gal.

The front door.

Some scary guests!

Since then, I have spent my birthday every year either going trick or treating with my daughter, or taking her to some Harvest Festival in town. That is the joys of parenthood.

Wondering how ya'll spend your Halloween?

Love to hear from you!

Love,

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Redemption of "Those Chairs"

Hello!

Just so you know...I am done eating worms for a while. My mood has lifted, the weather is wonderfully cool , ....and I finished  " The Chair Project " !
     I was so depressed about those stinkin' chairs earlier this week, that a few of you suggested I just forget about them and dump them . I have to admit , I was tempted. But then , I am too stubborn . I would rather live with an ugly thing (at least for a while) before admitting defeat.

So,  .......I finished the other chair yesterday ! Plus a little table that I had planned to go with this duo from the start . I am happy to report that I am quite pleased with the end result after all..


                                    Here is how the little trio turned out:

The little table was just a lbj (little brown job) , that I got for $6.00 at Goodwill.

I primed with Kilz spray primer, of course, and then sprayed with the same Kryola Satin Black.

Then I stencilled the design on with some left over white paint I had in the garage.

The distress effect was achieved by a little sanding, and a little dry brushing with white.

Don't ask me why.... I was just playing around with it.

Lets take another look:

BEFORE

                                                     AFTER

Not bad, after all the drama!

My only problem now is, I don't have room for it...

Do you have an awful project that turned out OK in the end?

Let me know!

As always..I value your comments!

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I May have Lost my MoJo

Hi Everyone

In the interest of keeping it real, I just have to say that I am discouraged. Actually, that is putting it mildly, but lets just stick with that .
The reason? There are several...just stuff that's just not working out the way I had hoped. Feeling overwhelmed with homeschool and housework, irritated with my weight and with losing the same 40 lbs over and over again ....
And now I seem to have lost my mojo with the furniture painting.

Remember I mentioned the chairs from hell almost two weeks ago?
Well, they are the reason I have not posted in more than a week. I have been trying to get them done, but it was a huge waste of time and Effort, with a capital E.

OK, so let me show you again...

Got these for $6.00 a piece at Goodwill a while back.

 I honestly thought that it would be easy to make them pretty again....I had big dreams for them......

Untill I got here.....

Two million staples (honest, I counted), and two whole days later, the chairs were stripped, sanded and primed.

I then sprayed them with Krylon mat black.

Next followed a series of distress, don't like it, re-paint, sand,distress, try to wipe stain over, don't like it, spray paint black again, dry brush with white, re-spray again.

Its a good thing I don't really like the end result, because I would never be able to recreate the effect ever again.

Are you depressed yet? Don't worry, you will be after I tell you about my attempts to re-cover (I would not call in re-upholstering) the back and seat.

Actually, the seat went really well..

I just took the ugly green vinyl off and stapled the new fabric on at the back. 

The back of the chair was another story altogether. I will not bore you with how many times I had to cut, staple and tack fabric to it...

Lets just say it was a lot.

I have a new respect for people who upholster furniture now.

Here is the end result...

Don't look too closely....

Now I still have to do the other chair..

Wonder if I should bother?

Hope you all had a better week than I had!

Love,

         Suzanne

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One Hour Makeover

Hello Ladies!  (and Gents, if you are out there)

  It seems the weather in Phoenix just made us all exited over the cooler days, and then changed again, so that we are still having temperatures in the high 90's. Arrggh!

OK, that takes care of the small talk!

Do you know what these items have in common?

 Except that they are all dusty and in my garage...

OK,..... you know me too well! Yes, they are all thrift store finds....and all  a dollar each, on Dollar Day.

The brass lamp and bowl got sprayed with Oil Rubbed Bronze....

Primer, like safety, ALWAYS first. (or in my case, 85% of the time)

For the shade I was planning on using a black,decorative ribbon on the edges and seams, but after seeing someone"s* post on how they used a sharpie to put black accents on their lamp, I thought that was a much better, quicker, and easier idea.

 I ended up using the ribbon to make monograms on the sides of the shade.

Just formed the letter with glue, then stuck the ribbon on!

This is what it looks like now...

Uhm...I know you will be a sweetheart and pretend you don't see the ugly cord...

The brass bowl is now ORB, and the other bowl I left as it was...

What do you think? Not bad for a few dollars, right?

Please comment, so I will know I'm not talking to myself here...

Love,

                                                        Suzanne

* I thought I was sure that it was on Marty's blog, but now I can't for the life of me find it. Marty, if it was you, please help! Or if any of you remember seeing a post like that, or maybe it was even you...PLEASE let me know!

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