Tuesday, April 28, 2015

A PART OF THE PICTURE...









As all of you know,
 it takes a lot of time and hard decisions
 to make a plan come together,
 but I have never had a struggle
 like I'm having 
with this room that we are working on now.

  The Captain says
 we are taking entirely too much time 
to get it done,
 and while I certainly agree,
 I can not let it go
 until I feel completely satisfied. 
 There is a missing link to the picture
 and, until I can figure out what it is,
 the project will not be worthy,
 in my mind.

So...
speaking of the whole picture, 
I can let you in on certain aspects
 that are completed 
and show you how 
I achieved them.





Here are two pictures 
that received a small amount of work.
  As you can tell,
 the frames are quite different
 and I wanted to make them 
look more cohesive...





...here are the same pictures
 after a little paint
 was applied to each frame.





I used a sponge
 with black craft paint 
and applied it to the frames,
 covering them fairly well...





...then 
while the black paint was still wet,
 I applied a small amount
 of various colors,
 with the same sponge
 over top. 
 I just picked out random colors
 that were in the paintings. 
 If one color seemed too much,
 I just applied a little more black. 
 After it was dry,
 I applied "Rub and Buff" gold leaf
 with my finger,
 hitting the high spots 
on the frame.






I picked up this lamp shade
 at K-Mart.  
It was priced $11
 but the plastic covering was off
 and there was a smudge of dirt
 around the bottom edge.
  I knew I would be covering that part up,
 so I asked for a better price
 and I got it for $5. 
 The ribbon, I gathered and hot glued 
to the edge 
and applied the small trim to the top. 
 These two items came from JoAnn's.
  The base is one that,
 until recently,
 was in the master bath.






This really sweet
 little plant stand 
we found sitting on the curb
 marked free. 
 I am bummed
 that I didn't take a 'before' picture.
  Although it was in really good shape,
 it had been painted a number of times
 and was all chipped, dirty and peeling. 
 I can see
 a number of you 
rolling your eyes,
 but, believe me,
 it wasn't the 'beautifully chippy' stuff that you would have been happy to keep.
  I painted it with Annie Sloan Old Ochre
 and finished it off with Shabby Paints
 clear vax and hazelnut re-vax.

Here is a little idea 
of how this project
 is going...

An old rocking chair 
that we have had 
for ages...




Oh, No..




Oh, H*** No..




Third time a charm? 
 We shall see.

And that was just
 one
 very
 minor
 issue!






I have had a few good days,
 however,
 and just so you don't think
 I have totally
 given up...






I am very pleased 
with my little
 'historical' sign.

When the kids were small
 and we lived in Soquel,
 in the house that Tami, Tim and Jake
 now live in,
 we put a swimming pool in the back yard. 
 We had to install a fence
 around the yard 
and the wood for this sign 
came from that fence. 
 After forty years,
 Tim replaced some of the fence
 and gave me a few
 of the old boards...






...the boards still have 
the old blue paint on them
 and I picked up the chipboard letters
 at WalMart.
  I started with the same sponge
 that I used for the picture frames
 and applied black paint
 to the letters. 
 While that paint was still wet,
 I applied metallic silver paint
 over top
 and kept sponging
 until the paints were blended
 to my liking
 and resembled tin. 
 I also added a very tiny bit
 of burnt sienna
 to make it appear
 that the letters are showing signs
 of rusting. 
 I then hot glued the letters
 to the board when the paint was dry
 and added a little cottage
 for the tiny porcelain birds
 that were a gift from Tami
 many years ago. 
 I had ordered something from WalMart last Christmas
 and they were unable to fill part of my order
 so they refunded me $10 
 and since I had never cashed it in 
until now,
 I paid about 43 cents 
to make this sign.






So,
 there you have a few things
 that make up a part 
of the whole picture.

 I just hope that
 'whole picture' will materialize soon.
  I promise you
 that I will keep 
'painting' until it does.


...Judy...






Sharing today at these fine parties...





















11 comments:

  1. I'm sure the picture will come together and it's going to be awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you have a really good start on things, Judy. I know what you mean- sometimes it takes forever for all the pieces to fall into place. It WILL happen though- xo Diana

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh what prettiness - and clever re-use of items. I love how the photo frames came out - and the sign that says cottage is just wonderful. I am planning a re-do of our bedroom - I'm hoping to get some warm weather so I can paint the furniture - bed table and dresser - and maybe a wooden lamp. I have no room in the house to paint and no garage - so have to wait for the rainy weather to be gone and the temperatures to warm up. I also want to paint and/or replace all the photo frames so they coordinate - you gave me that idea. Love your work so far and can't wait to see how it all comes together.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, that is quite a tease Judy! I LOVE the sign! It sounds like you have done lots of painting!I just know the end result is going to be wonderful and you And the Captain will love it! Blessings, Cindy

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think that there is nothing more important to a room than those little details. I completely understand how you feel about adding them. Funny, my recent post is about the difficulties of redecorating... and don't feel bad, my poor room has been sitting half finished for several months.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You have done a lot of changes and artistic craft work for this room makeover and I can't wait to see it all together. I love the Cottage sign and how you made it. We have 2 old sections of board fence that need to come down and you have me conjuring up ideas to do with the boards now. :) Have a great day. Pam

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh Judy, your cottage sign is so delightful! I absolutely love it :) You have been quite the busy bee, my friend.

    It's always a joy to have you share your loveliness with Roses of Inspiration. Hugs to you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Judy, just love the colors your rocking chair AND the frames have now. And also your cottage sign, it's great. I'm sorry my translation has gone on my blog, don't even know where to, lol, and I haven't been able to get a new one. Hope you'll have a great weekend. Here we have a long weekend with May 1st tomorrow, it's the workers day here. Love Elzie

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ah-ha!! I just knew you'd been cooking up some good stuff!!
    Busy gal!! Love how things are working out for you, and I love that you've been able to exercise your creativity and end up with great results!
    Tho... I do like the chair red.... I know it just wouldn't work with your color scheme :)

    Adorable "Cottage" sign!! Pretty special having some old wood from the old fence at your old house..**smile**.

    Have a great weekend!!

    ~K.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are so special to me...Judy