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Showing posts with label revived. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revived. Show all posts

We were expecting a blizzard this weekend so I made a quick trip to the thrift store and decided I'd sew while I was stuck inside.  Well, we didn't get the blizzard, but I'm still sewing ;)

I always forget to take before pictures, but with these two, I think it's pretty easy to picture in your head.


This was a long sleeved shirt of mine that I didn't wear anymore. The heart ruffles are made from thrifted t-shirts. This is the tutorial I followed: Make it and Love it!


And now Brylie has a Vday dress :)





Formerly an XL mens sweater - I like it much better as a sweater dress and cloche for my little girl :)

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I did a few fashions awhile back for Brylie's back to school wardrobe.  This is the first one I've had a chance to photograph though :)

Simply a tee that looks like it shrunk weird (thrifted) so I took and added a touch of a ruffly skirt and since the v-neck was way to low for her, I added in a section with ruffles there too :)


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Well, I didn't :)  Back at the end of March I was given the opportunity to move into a new studio (I'm a photographer if you didn't know) - twice the space, and I had to jump on it!  Course that meant new decor for the new space and a shoestring budget to do it on.

Good news is - I did it all for about $100 (except for prints)!!!!  Bad news?  It kept me SUPER busy, first redoing furniture, sewing, lots of cricut work, then the actual move, then the actual decorating, and now everyone wants to come see it!  I didn't do a lot of "before" pictures but I'll dig up what I can ;)

Here are some pics to share:

Remember this?
Well here she is now!  With pics of my OWN kids - I know right?!  I painted it all black, and then couldn't find papers I wanted to put in the spaces, so I printed my own and worked a little modge podge magic before distressing and gluing on magnet clips!

In the picture above and also here:
you can see some of my junk stash. 
A (already black!) screen door I picked up during the town trash pick-up, adorned with the sheet music wreath I stole from above my piano ;)  In front of it is my $10 garage sale trunk (again, already black!) that holds a few of my huge fabric drops.  
The chairs on either side, haha, the one on the right was a garage sale reject - it was sitting at the curb, free, after a multi-day sale.  It's been sitting around waiting for a new life, and this was the perfect opportunity!  A coat of black spray paint and a recovered cushion (from our old dining room valance, haha!) and it's fabulous!  The other chair was an $8 thrift store find, that was a hideous putrid green vinyl.  More black paint and more old curtains and it's MUCH nicer ;)
Curtains were meant to be only drop cloth curtains but they shrunk HORRIBLY, so I cut up an old skirt and extended them.  Still now sure I love them, but they work!

Now let me show you the first wall gallery:
This is actually the FIRST thing you see when you walk into the new studio and I LOVE it!  Would you believe I had ALL of these already in my stash?  Even the window!  All got coats of black spray paint, and I used my cricut to put a beautiful saying about memories on the window (don't judge my application - still trying to figure that out!).  Aren't my clients ADORABLE?!?!?!?

On the other side of the front room is my "office area" - consisting of a row of cabinets (this used to house a coffee bar type area!  haha!) with lots of much needed storage, in addition to another wall gallery made of an 8-paned window and, you guessed it, more black spray paint!
There's my logo courtesy of Cricut and black vinyl!  wahoo!  Did you notice the lamp?  It's made out of a light stand that I don't use and a lamp kit - wahlah!

The next room is the shooting room.  Everything in here does double duty :)  First, the obvious shooting area:
This has already changed - that wall (under the papers) is now adorned with 100+ year old tin ceiling tile (droooooooooool).  It's FABULOUS!

Across the room is:
My ugly brown couch (but oh so comfy!) got a new (nearly no-sew) slipcover out of drop cloths (yay!) and combined with my fabulous old doors from a 1915 house, they make a great place to photograph families!
And then there's the console........this this is HEAVY........and was super ugly in it's 1970's (?) orangish veneer glory.  Nothing a nice few coats of black spray paint can't handle, and some roughing up with the sander!  Combined with MORE frames from my stash and I LOVE it - I had a newborn baby boy on there last week - yummy!
And last but not least, are my outside signs:
A couple of 1x12s and 1x4s fit perfectly to use the white glue crackle technique.  I used my cricut to cut me a stencil of my logo and tadah!

And here is my front door signage:

I cut the white out of "permanent" outdoor vinyl and placed it on the outside, then took a sheet of regular black vinyl and put it on the inside of the door.  I love it and it's worn GREAT!

Well, I think I've overwhelmed you enough with all this post after such a long break!  hehe...........I do have more - but it'll have to wait!





Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special


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You guys should see the stack of sweaters I've thrifted this winter to refashion!  Eek!  And when I went in yesterday and they were having a $1/sack full sale I couldn't help but pick up more!

I am so bad about taking before pictures, so you'll just have to imagine that I haven't cut off the sides or the ends of the sleeves yet, mmmkay?

I pretty much just followed this FAB tutorial from Flexible Dreams - using one of Brylie's dresses to help me determine size, shape, sleeves, etc.  Mine even had a band of black at the end of the sleeves that I was able to use on the short sleeves for the dress!  It's the little things that make me happy ;)

So after I did the basic reconstruction (side seams and sewed on the sleeves - so glad I have some basic sewing knowledge! ) I had to decide what I wanted to do about these buttons.  Back in their day I'm sure they were great, but now, and for a 4 year old, yeah, not so much.  Not to mention that one was missing.  I just went with a basic button down the center.  Instead of putting buttons on the bottom pockets, I just sewed on a grosgrain bow - she's not going to need them anyway :) 

And there ya have it!  And adorable (and light this one is) dress!  I used a women's large sweater and turned out about a 5T.  I fully expect that by fall it will be too short, but I think it will be great with a pair of black leggings under it too :)
Can't beat a new (custom) dress for 10 cents for the sweater, 88 cents for the buttons, and everything else I already had!  I will probably take the big chunks I cut off and make her some fun hair accessories to match!  Oh, and did I mention it only took me about 20 mins?  Okay, a little more than that, but only because I had to make 2 trips to Walmart to get buttons (they must have slipped through the slots in my cart the first time?  Seriously, took me longer to make those 2 trips than it did to put this thing together!).  LOVE IT!

Linking up:









Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special


UndertheTableandDreaming












Beyond The Picket Fence



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I fell in love with farmhouse tables, and my love for them only grew as I saw ladies transforming them with dark stain on top and white(ish) painted legs and apron that have been distressed.  So I started my hunt for the perfect table at the perfect price.  It wasn't too long when I came across this on craigslist:


That was the picture on the ad.  And guess what she wanted for it?!?!?!  $25!!!!  Just my kind of deal!  The top was REALLY rough - paint, glitter glue, and spills amongst other stains and damage.  But you know me, I don't want things that look new, so it was perfect!

Let me tell you, this things is HEAVY!!!  Even just carrying around one of the legs is HEAVY.  It's solid oak - it'll be around for a loooooong time!

And here she is, just as I envisioned her:

 GORGEOUS chunky legs that distressed so well!

 It took a lot of elbow grease, but I was able to sand out all of the paint and such.  There are still some deeper scratches that remain, but I think they're beautiful!

The legs got the same Cashmere paint/sanding/dark walnut stain treatment as {My Hoosier} and the top got my first attempt at staining with the dark walnut stain and then sealed with rub-on poly.  Still not quite sure that was the best choice for sealant, but it works for now :)

It's a nice big table that can comfortably fit 8, maybe 10 if we really wanted to!

Linking up to:


Copy Me Challenge

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I am SO excited to share this one with you!

I fell in love with Hoosier cabinets last summer and asked my parents to keep their eyes open for one at auctions.  It was looking pretty grim though - they're rarely found in these parts, and if they are, they're $$$.  I started looking for other cabinets to fill the niche in my dining room, but none of them fit the bill - until I saw this beauty on the online classifieds -- a Hoosier, for $70!!!:





Okay, it wasn't quite so beautiful - yet!  I saw all of it's awesome potential - even though she had been cut in two.  The top had been hung on the shed wall (with peeling paint and warped oak veneer), the bottom had received a new "top" of shelves, which I liked, even though they were not original.  The drawers were, for the most part, in great shape - even the tin drawer that had been used to store flour in her glory days.  Overall the pull out enamel "counter" was good too! 

This was a piece that had been dearly loved by several generations, but it was time for a new family - and that starts with me!  My dad happened to be driving by the town that this was located (1 1/2 hours away) and asked if I wanted to hitch a ride and get it - um, duh!  hehe!  Mom and Dad also contributed to the cost of it for my birthday and I cannot think of a present I would have rather had! {as I'm typing this and recalling the events I'm getting all giddy again!}  We had a wonderful time visiting with the owner's daughter (she was cleaning out her parents' home) and all of us "junk lovers" had a great time digging in the attic (you should see the banister and spindles I got out of there!  another post..........) and imagining what things could be.

Needless to say we loaded this baby up and we were off!  I knew immediately that the veneer was too damaged to repair (and I know nothing about replacing veneer) so I decided I would sand and repaint it.  Knowing I'd be removing the panels that had the veneer on them, I tossed around a few ideas of putting in chicken wire or bead board, but the suggestion was made to use some hail screen.  Just so happened my grandpa had some he wasn't using anymore, and sent it back home with my dad -- it was PERFECT!!!  I did have to add bead board to the back of the top section, however, as the back that was on there was all but dust.

The bottom didn't take much work at all - just some sanding to get off the loose paint and then the entire piece got a few coats of Cashmere (Kilz) paint.  After all was painted I brought it inside and aged the piece (I wouldn't want it to look too shiny and new!).  Using my palm sander I roughed up the edges and hardware, then did some spot applications of a dark walnut stain to bring out the rough parts (you can see on the top section where the previous green peeks through a bit - love it!).  You can click on any image to enlarge it.



I could not be happier with my dear Hoosier!  I love playing with the accessories in it, and just simply seeing the transformation.  Renee, I hope seeing it's new home warms your heart :)  I truly love it!

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