make me pretty – so shabby chic!

My husband use to have a food blog and every once in a while he would get free stuff. An extra dish at dinner, a product sample sent in the mail. What was my blog getting me? Well, it did help me get some writing gigs. But I also got a coffee table. One of my lovely readers gave me a coffee table.

I left it in my garage for a long time because it had a leather top and I wasn’t really sure how to work with that. The answer: chalk paint. The miracle paint can cover almost any kind of surface – wood, plastic and leather!

I decided that with all the flower carvings I should just embrace the girlieness and go 100% shabby chic which I believe usually includes cream paint, distressing and flowers! Check, check, check.

 

welcome matilda clementine!

Two weeks ago we welcomed the newest edition to our family, Matilda Clementine. We decided not to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time and I was 95% sure we were having our third boy. I was seriously shocked when they handed her to me and I saw little girl parts. I finally get to buy sweet baby girl clothes and I am not so outnumbered at home (even our dog is a boy!)

I am already totally in love with Matty. She still spends most of the day sleeping but she is gorgeous and I just want to snuggle her and kiss her fat cheeks!

Matty’s first photo shoot!

I know this isn’t a real smile but look how cute it’s going to be!

My best friends daughter is in love with Matilda (her baby!)

Jasper and Emerson have been so sweet with her. They give her kisses everyday.

make me pretty – the color of the year!

I must be good at predicting the future. Or maybe it’s just that green is my favorite color. I see emerald green everywhere now and I am loving it. I painted our bathroom vanity emerald green when we renovated last year. I still had some of the paint and decided to use it on this little table.

Then I put a stencil on top in a dark gray. Jasper, my five year old, said I should have used white because you couldn’t see the gray very well, but that was the look I was going for. Then I painted the whole thing with an antiquing glaze.

I am super pregnant right now, my due date was yesterday. I hadn’t painted any furniture in a couple weeks but I was getting so antsy! This little table was the perfect small project to keep me going!

make me pretty – geometric chair

I taught my “paint finishes and techniques for furniture” class again last weekend at the Visual Arts Center. It is such a fun class to teach. We went over seven different paint techniques for furniture and practiced them on wooden test tiles. I also brought in a chair and we re-did it from start to finish, as a class.

The students had three fabric choices and the class voted on which to use. Then we picked the paint color and the glaze. Everyone took turns sanding and painting and using the electric staple gun to reupholster the seat. I love watching people use power tools for the first time!

I am always surprised how well these chairs turn out, with 8 people deciding the fate of the furniture.

I am teaching the class again in July, if anyone is interested. Go to Visarts.org and search under “three dimensions”.

The chair before:

And after:

make me pretty – typewriter table

This typewriter table was another Vienna, side of the road rescue, from my friend Corbin. Her husband almost claimed it as his own but Corbin rescued it again and it made its way down to richmond.

I took off the desk top and spray painted the legs a dark red. Then I painted the wood table top with chalk paint and added the number 24. I distressed it, waxed it and put it all back together. Don’t ask me what the number 24 means, I just wanted to add some vintage numbers.

a fun road trip from rva – staunton

Every year for my birthday I like to travel somewhere. It use to be New York City or swimming with the manatee’s in Florida. Since having the kids the trips are usually a little closer to home. Last year we took the train up to DC this year we  went to Staunton.

I love exploring towns I have never been to before and this one is seriously cute. Lots of antiques stores, little art galleries and restaurants. All in a very walkable downtown area. Staunton has a focus on the arts and a free trolley that loops around town. And it’s only about a half hour past Charlottesville.

There were two stores that I kind of fell in love with. Pufferbellies, which is a kids toy store that stocks the best toys ever! So much fun stuff – tons of Playmobile and cool art supply stuff and fun magnet blocks. There were also lots of  play stations so the kids were entertained while I shopped.

The last day that we were day I stumbled upon rule42 which is basically the store I dream of having one day. The woman who runs it sells the furniture she paints, as well as gifts and home decor items. She runs furniture painting, and other crafty workshops, out of the store and stocks a type of paint I had never heard of before!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ce Ce Caldwell Paints are similar to Annie Sloan (which is a chalk paint)except that they are a chalk and clay combo. It is also less expensive, comes in tons of pretty colors and is totally non-toxic with no bad fumes. The other exciting thing is that the paint line includes light and dark wax and a polyurethane type finish that is all non-toxic with no bad chemicals or fumes.

I’ve tried the paint out (of course I had to buy some to try!) and it I’m liking it so far. Similar to chalk paint you don’t have to do as much prep work, and it dries fast. It has sort of an irregular finish but I kind of like that look. I will show you when I am done with it – a table and two chair set.

Aside from shopping and eating there is a train track that runs through town that was a big hit with my boys. You can peek in the old train station and there are several old train cars you can climb on. Also Gypsy Hill Park is a nice place to run around. You can get there on the free trolley and they have a lake with the biggest mutant swans I have ever seen!

Anyway, if you live in Richmond and are looking for an easy drive day trip you should check out Staunton.

make me pretty – our attic adventure

Leave it to me to take on a major house project while super pregnant. Will I ever learn my lesson? I really wanted to renovate our attic and turn it into a playroom for the kids. Of course I thought it would be really fast and not cost a lot of money. I know, so naive!

Oh well, it’s going to be super cool and hopefully it will be done before the baby arrives. You’ve got 7 weeks Steve!

Our attic was completely unfinished and really only the front third is usable people space. The roof slowly slopes down so by the time you get to the back of the house there is only about one foot of space. So we are turning the very front into a play room, it has two windows and a not super tall adult can stand at the peak of the ceiling. Then next sloping 1/3 of attic space will be for storage and the very back will be walled off with an access door.

Here is the attic before we got started:

 

 

So far we have put in plywood floors, fixed up the windows, added insulation, run electricity and added lighting and put in some sliding doors to separate the kid space from the storage space.

A friend who builds custom wine cellars (Classic Cellar Design) hooked us up with some cool old barn wood he had left over from a job and we are using it to panel the walls.

 

I thought we could build a loft type ladder to get up to the attic but I didn’t really take into account how tall our ceilings are – the ladder is super steep. So we ordered a spiral staircase. I kind of can’t believe I’m going to live in a house with a spiral stair case – I thought they were so cool when I was kid!