~ Halloween GiveAway #2

In years past, a dead car battery could send this little household into a tizzy. But today, it's all OK.

Darling Daughter took her car in for service on Saturday and used her Daddy's truck for the night. She called to tell me that she really thought the battery sounded weak. I told the Daddy, but... well you guessed it.

This morning the battery was a goner. But I remembered that our insurance policy had a little add on for just such a thing. So I'm waiting for a battery jump so I can take Sweet Hubby's little truck for some new starting power.

Don't you wish you could just go plug yourself in some days and get some new energy to run on!? At least the cooler weather does give many of us a little boost.

So all the time I have for a new post is to do a little

GiveAway.

I think this print is so cute and fun. Just celebrating a little good magic in all of us, especially if you love vintage.

POST YOUR COMMENT HERE
and I'll pick a name next TUES OCT 7th.

(I might be out of town that day, but
I'll announce the winner as soon as I return.)

See ya' soon!

~ Fall Decorating, Last Day Nie Nie Benefit Sale

Oh I love this! Funny, it's mine. I don't quite remember this arrangement. But I love that big gourd. Now where is it? This is from 2006 and the previous fall photo with the large floral (thanks for the compliments on it) is from 2005. What fun finding older photos and seeing what you did before. Last year I used more of the white pumpkins, but I haven't found all of them yet either. But now that I look at the picture, half of those small gourds were real! That does remind me of the beautiful bag of real ones I found last year. So those are gone for sure. But I hope I have a photo somewhere. I'd like to do that again.

(UPDATE on Benefit Sale: All Sold!
What big hearts people have.
Thank YOU to all who participated!)

Last day of the Nie Nie Benefit Sale on Etsy. So amazing at the kindness and generosity of everyone. 1 pm EST.

Two Beau Bunny Prints will be up for sale there today. Since I will be mailing these out, be sure to let me know if you purchase one so I can send you a little surprise. But the sweet ladies who purchased from my shop after the benefit ones sold, I sent you something, too.

See ya' soon!

~ Nie Nie Benefit Sale!! Tues - Friday, Sept 22 - 26

UPDATE: Wednesday
SEE >> Morgan's Blog for updates.
Click below.

Sale CONTINUES again TODAY, &
Thurs, Friday.. at 1 pm EST.
Morgan says she still has more fabulous things!
Click on the box/picture below for updates at Morgan's Blog.

If you missed getting a Beau Bunny Print

and would still like to purchase one
as part of the Benefit Sale,

I have donated 2 more

and they will be for sale!

The Nie Nie Benefit Sale at Etsy
starts TODAY, 1 pm EST, 10 am PST
Click on the box/picture above to go to
Morgan Moore's Blog
for details and FAQ's.


CLICK BUTTON ABOVE TO GO TO ETSY SALE.

This is a SALE, no bids. You like it, you buy it.
Quick and Easy.

See ya' tomorrow for the winner of the Beau Bunny Bandito Print.

~ Halloween Chandelier

A new art print in the shop for Halloween. Isn't if fun? I love mixing things which interest me the most for decorating everyday with a holiday. Chandeliers and Halloween seemed like a great combination.

I'm watching the guys putting the roof on and waiting for the landscape guy who put the French drain in to come by for $$. It's great to get these things done but not relaxing fun. Although it all needs to be done, it's always a bit of a surprise writing the checks. Deep breath in!

Watching the weather channel during hurricane season is a way of life. Even when you stop holding your breath in hopes that the next one will miss you, you still watch hoping and praying for where it is headed. What a season! Hope you are all doing OK and none of the storms have caused any real damage to any of you.

I'll be back when the dust settles a little bit. See ya' soon!

~ Happy Holiday Weekend & Beau Bandito

Beau Bunny Bandito is making a new appearance in the Etsy shop
and I thought you might like to see him.

Beau always makes me smile, but this little rascal with his bandito mask trying to pretend he hasn't gotten any treats yet just cracks me up! I wonder if anyone will fall for it and forget that he already got a treat from them.

It will be a fabulous Autumn to have hurricane season over with this year. Watching the weather for us, it makes me so worried about the people where the storms will hit even if they miss us.

They will be putting the new roof on our house next week. Yes, fall will have to be quieter and less stressful!

Have a Happy & Safe Holiday!

~ Black Glazed Finish for Painted Furniture & Cabinets

** SEE THE UPDATE TO THIS POST ON HOW TO DO A BLACK GLAZE HERE **

When thinking of writing this tutorial I was considering what the differences might be between doing this black glaze the antiqued white (mocha) glaze that I have written about previously.

A lot of people like wood cabinets rather than white. I love both. Some days I love one, then the next day I love the other look. And it can switch at any time.
In addition to changing your white cabinets into a richer more finished look with glazing, you can also do this for wood cabinets. If you look at cabinet doors, etc. at the stores you will see that they often have a black or brown glaze on them, as do many good furniture pieces. This is pretty easy to do once you get used to it. Although this is simple, it can be frustrating at first, but once you get the feel for what the paint does, it is really easy.

1. Black Paint, one little bottle of craft paint will do most jobs.
2. Glaze, either the same used on walls, or use a bottle from the craft store found either in with the artists supplies or craft paints
3. Small art brushes
4. Rags, lots of them.
5. Latex gloves are quite handy to have, or you will have black hands most likely
6. Small container or bucket of water to dilute and clean up as you go.

Start with a small container and mix some glaze and a little water. Just enough water so that the paint is thin enough to run into the crevices. (Although I have done this with just water to make it thin enough, water dries quicker than glaze. If you feel good with the technique you can do it with just water.)

Add black paint to the ratio of 1 part paint to 3 or 4 parts glaze & mix.

Add more glaze or water as needed to control the strength & thickness of the paint.

You will use a small artist brush to brush on like a pin stripe line beside the moldings or lines of the piece. As soon as you paint that area, take a damp rag on your index finger, angled away from the painted area and wipe it clean, leaving the glaze where you want it. (Sounds tough, but it gets easy!)

Carved areas or crevices: Brush on the glaze into all the deepest areas and along side any moldings. The black can stain a bit where ever it touches. So be sure to control it. Keep water and damp rags nearby to remove from any area as soon as you need to. (If it gets on the wood where you really don't want it, Comet will usually remove it right away.)

The smaller the line and the more detailed you want it, the smaller the brush to a certain degree. You will not be using any large brushes for this kind of detail glaze.

I like to splatter and speckle mine when I'm done. You do this by loading the brush with watered down paint, and tapping the brush on something hard over the area you want splattered, and it will splatter specks from the tips of the brush.

OR you can use an old toothbrush. Load it with watered down paint, and then use your thumb to splatter the paint by pulling the bristles back and letting them go. Some old paint brushes are short and stiff enough to it that way as well.

The glaze outlines the molding shapes and really adds a lot to ordinary cabinets. Lots of people have done this who had not painted much or at all before. Once they got the feel for it, they all did a fabulous job with it.

~ See Y'All Soon ~

~ Thank You!

Thanks for your notes and your advice, it is GREATLY appreciated.

Sue your information was very helpful.

A lot of Savannah looked like this not that long ago. It took the city a while to realize that old was good and they finally stopped tearing everything old down. A few little ol' ladies can make a huge difference!

I still see beauty in this old lady of a building. But when you see what has been done, and is being done to the city it really amazes you. The peeling paint might make an interesting picture, but it is a better place to live after it's fixed up.

Thank you again. See you soon!

~ Rain, Rain Go Away.. Rug Seller Info

It's a bit stressful down here. Sweet Daughter's new house has water coming in her bathroom and bedroom, like at the foundation or bottom of the wall. We have all been working non-stop trying to keep it from doing as much damage as it certainly could. I wish I could find someone else who has had this experience. The guy who inspected the house before she bought it is supposed to come out and at least look and see if he can give any information to help.

This was a "vacation week" for Sweet Hubby, so he has spent it digging a trench outside to divert water... which has helped. Who knows! It has rained non-stop since Monday, and is a a little light now. Thank God! But we still have more rain for days to come. I thought my old roof might be a problem, NOT her newer house. So no sleep for me and I'm dragging.

I am happy to share the information on the rug with you all. I know I spent so many hours over the years wondering who you could trust with a large purchase like that on Ebay. This seller has been good for me. I was looking for Chobi or Agra because I like the colors in these. He calls the Chubi. The ones I have purchased so far have been Indo, made in Indian and either Agra or Chubi (Chobi.)

The rug seller on Ebay is a pretty large operation. They go by different names. I think they are mainly out of Canada. When you view any of the rugs there will be a list of their other stores on the right hand side.

ECG USA

ECG Canada

ECG Europe

ECG Select

ECG Liquidation and a couple more.

The colors are usually pretty accurate. Mine have all been new rugs, I haven't purchased older ones from them.

Thank so much for the kind words and emails. Of course this will all go away. And I'm praying the cost will not be horrible to fix all this mess. It could be worse and we know it from seeing the 20-26 inches of rain just SE of us.

So, Thank You again for your concern, it is greatly appreciated.

~ Musical Rugs

Even with all the rain and wind of Fay, the UPS man still delivered the rugs I had purchased on Ebay. They came from the same seller that I bought the one in the living room from, which is my favorite rug. But the one for the studio might move to the top of the list. I really love it. The living room one came in 2006, so I was only hoping to find one something like it now years later. The new one is not quite as lime green, but still goes perfectly in the room. I was actually looking for one for Sweet Daughter's bedroom. But these just kind of popped up.

One of the rugs is for the living room. What? Well yes..it went like this...

The larger new one went in the living room so...
The one in the living room is now in the dining room and is perfect.
The one in the dining room is now in the bedroom. And it is really great there.
The one in the bedroom is now in the family room. :)

So where is the one that was in the family room?
On it's gone to Sweet Daughter's house. It has a little more brown in it, and it was a good buy on Ebay when I found the others, so it was an "in the meantime" kind of thing. It will be so pretty in her bedroom which is blue and brown.

A happy ending to the musical rug game. See you soon!

~ Mamma Mia & Fay, too?

I had not even listened to any weather or news in a week so when I said we were going to Renninger's on Saturday I had no idea that it was going to rain everywhere. Everywhere except where we were at the time, at Renninger's! Sweet Hubby said let's just go and see if it rains. Wow what luck. It has poured many times during past visits. But it held off in that location, even though it rained pretty good at home while we were gone. I'll show you some fun pictures, but first....

Last night Sweet Daughter and I went to see Mamma Mia which is on tour right now. It was simply fantastic! There was great simplicity of set design, so maybe they are all cutting back to keep the price of tickets from getting even higher. The whole place looked sold out and from the applause, I think everyone was thrilled with the performance. I've always loved ABBA's music through their high and low periods, and just never stopped. They have quite a loyal following it seems, and tons of new fans.
If you get a chance to see this, go for it. I haven't seen the movie yet because I wanted to see this first.

The cleaning and organizing continues in the studio art room to make a place to create.
That old pine chest of drawers got a quick coat of white paint, and is now the proud storage area of all my spools of ribbon. I am trying to use anything I can that I already have, not even to save money but to save the planet. :P One of those tree hugger ideas. I looked on Saturday for some drawer knobs/pulls but came home empty handed. However I came across my old ones that were on the kitchen cabinets at one time. Now this made me feel very good. More using things that might otherwise be tossed in the landfill.

In order to redo metal knobs, just make sure they are very clean first.
Paint with a metal primer. Any color is OK.

For these I did a base coat of flat black after I applied the metal primer.
I then used a "rub and buff" type product in silver on the raised, highest areas.
Then a touch of gold on the same area, and follow again with the silver if you are going for an aged silver look, which is what I wanted.

These will hold up pretty well if you make sure you start with a metal primer. In a kitchen they might show more wear, but otherwise it works well.

And Fay....
I hope she doesn't cause too much trouble. Sometimes it looks like her path is kind of similar to Charlie's, so we are keeping a very watchful eye on her. We never knew Charlie was coming at us with Cat 1 wind and rain until the morning before he hit that afternoon. Looks like a ton of rain from Fay, but I hope that is the worst of it.

See you soon!

~ Happy Friday

I really was considering this lovely mirror while shopping in Savannah. When I walked away from it, a piece of it fell off. Nobody was anywhere near it. I asked them if the shop was haunted. We had been on a ghost tour the night before, so it seemed logical to ask. I wondered if it was trying to tell me something.



But I will not buy anything that I don't need, or I just can't live without. An old mantra, but I hope to stick by it. I'm sure I could have found a place for it, but ....

Tomorrow we are going out to Renninger's Antique Market. I hope I remember my mantra. Although I don't need a thing, it would be fun to find some little thing while we are out on a short adventure together. It's always a great time when we go up there, just looking and maybe finding something special.
Maybe something from this fabulous booth. Love all her shabby whites.

Have a Great Weekend! See you soon.

~ Sneak Peeks? Inspiration Board

I used to only do BIG reveals when I was working on large projects, especially a whole room. But I love sneak peeks when someone else doing things because I'm quite impatient. So, here is another little peek.

I've had a board of some sort for so many years, but I wonder if "inspiration" board is a new term. Artists & designers always have them to keep things to inspire them and to keep on schedule! It's nice to see how many people use them now.

This frame was black with gold accents. The more I looked at the tiffany blue color on the chest of drawers, I knew that frame was headed for a makeover. I still love toile. For a while it was tough to keep the love affair going especially when I saw pants made out of the patterns. But as others tire of the toile, many of us who have loved it for years can truly enjoy it again. Will it go out of the style? Not likely, it's been around for a long time and will be used in decorating for another 100 years at least.

Although I didn't plan to put the crossed ribbon on it, I did so for the color. And now I'm sure it will be handy too. You won't see much of the background once I start putting things on it anyway.

Lots more painting to do...an ugly, "old" pine chest, will be white. I need the drawers, so it will do for now. The black desk and black chair either need some added color or they might get moved to the family room. We'll see. I like evolution when decorating. And some days a room evolves and dictates where it's going. You just grab a paint brush and hang on!