And now it's November?

Time has flown since my last post as October was starting.  At the time, I was beginning a new venture - a sales space at the new cooperative market place downtown, the Rustic Sparrow.  Well, now the space is up and running, and full of items for sale.  

I've also gained a partner in the endeavor.  My neighbor and long-time friend, Doug Eagleson is displaying quite a number of items and doing reasonably well.  I'm forever grateful that he's willing to help me move large pieces into place and even help spruce up some items now and then.  He also did some of the painting for me when I first set up.

Many of the pieces I'm selling are former "projects" that were sitting in my house, garage, or basement and never completed.  To have a tiny bungalow with so much stuff has not been a good thing so being able to finish things and put them up for sale for others to enjoy has been very practical.  What I've discovered is that painting and renewing items is a source of great joy - a truly creative opportunity.  A cabinet that was in my bedroom but relegated to the basement had a satisfactory coat of paint on it but I was able to add more paint, distress it, add a reproduction of a vintage print, and now it's an especially charming piece ready to find a home.  

Even though I didn't need to, I purchased some items at garage sales a couple of weeks ago, including a 2-drawer nightstand that had been a dark wood in a heavy Spanish style typical of the 70s, later painted white to look shabby chic but still not quite working.  I painted it in my favorite new shade of blue with touches of green and yellow, decoupaged some birds and flowers on it, and I love it; I can imagine a little girl enjoying it in her bedroom.

The new challenge has been finding a place where I can paint and create my furniture transformations.  My home office/TV room just doesn't have enough room; the garage and basement will be too cold (and uninspiring) this winter, and that left me smack dab in the middle of my dining room.  It actually felt pretty good to get rid of furniture with minor function that had been in the dining room; in its place I brought in a barrister's book case that had been sitting in the garage.  On top of it sit an old silver pitcher and a crystal biscuit container for all my brushes and inside the book case are my paints, brushes, tools, sandpaper, and miscellaneous other items I need while I work - and it's absolutely great!  I can enjoy the view out of my French doors or the front living room windows, and watch TV while having everything at hand.  A large cardboard moving box, flattened, covers and protects my dining room table.  I've even replaced the chandelier mentioned in a previous post with something that creates more light and casts fewer shadows.   It's a different look - but definitely one I'm enjoying.   I'll take some photos and provide a tour in a future blog, hopefully very soon.

Is it really almost October?

  I can't believe how time has flown by.  I thought I was getting my house ready for our Old Escondido Mothers Day Home Tour last May but my attention was diverted to working on our city's entry in the America in Bloom competition and numerous other distractions.  Luckily another house became available to include in the tour so I was off the hook for 2011.  Looks like my bungalow will be on the 2012 tour instead, though I'm not sure.  Whether or not it is, I still need to paint the kitchen - which still has sample splotches of colors I'm considering from last year.  And the kitchen in the guest house needs to be finished.  So many projects, so little time!

  In the meantime, I've taken a leap of faith and opened a space in an adorable boutique in Downtown Escondido; the Rustic Sparrow.  I'd placed my name on the waiting list when they opened and learned that a spot was available in a new area to the rear of the store just last Wednesday.  On Thursday I gathered some items together to display and started painting the walls around my space.  Yesterday, I finished the faux paint job on the rear wall that was inspired by the funky electrical boxes on the side wall -  I'm calling it factory chic.  Here's a photo, just as I was finishing painting.


I was able to stage a few big items and smaller ones before last night's start of the next-to-last Cruisin' Grand event of the season.  I hope to add quite a few more over the next week and then I get to continue maintaining and adding to it.  Looks like I'll be even busier than ever, but I guess that's what my retirement looks like!

Ring-aling-aling - it's for you!

  My 1931 bungalow has a little shelf in the corner of the hallway for a telephone.  Directly underneath is a small vented cabinet that used to hold the telephone workings.  I've never done anything special to it and the jack for a phone had been removed before I moved in.  A few years ago, I picked up a cute vintage reproduction phone and recently plopped it on the shelf, just for looks.  When some friends came by for lunch a couple of weeks ago, one asked if the old phone actually worked and I had to say no.   Giving it some thought, I picked up a double connector at Home Depot and headed down to the basement where I was able to connect it into the existing line and voila!  I now have a working phone in the hallway again.

The oil paintings hanging above the phone shelf are of my parents, painted by my mother's cousin many years ago.

New Old Chandelier

  In the transition from shabby chic to country French, my living/dining room had one item that seriously needed to be changed out; the chandelier over the dining room table.  It was still the white I had painted it a few years ago with white lamp shades and a pear-shaped crystal tied with very thin pink ribbon to each arm.  One long slender crystal Christmas ornament hung from the middle and miniature silk ivy softened the lines, intertwined through the chain and encircling the arms.  It looked sweet before but, against the more sophisticated black accents and tan walls, it just stuck out like a sore thumb.

I searched on line and at a couple of thrift stores for something to replace it at a price I can afford right now ($25 or less!) but didn't find anything.  One morning, while waiting for a friend to get ready so that we could go somewhere, it occurred to me that paint had transformed this simple chandelier once before and maybe it could one more time.  Bingo, out came the craft paints and a paint brush and it was quickly painted black.  Back from my outing, I remembered something I'd seen on the Internet, an "electric" candle decorated by wrapping old music around it, so I dug out a cookbook I'd accidentally left outdoors with the recipes interestingly hand-printed, and began cutting it up.  I wrapped each candle in part of a recipe.  

Now the lampshades were too bright white, so I really thinned down some brown craft paint with water and brushed it on for a tea-stain effect.  It took two "coats" but did the trick.  The crystals didn't look quite right with it now so I did a lot of thinking, went to a local shop specializing in wonderful country French decor items (the Urban Barn) and thought some more.  I wound up cutting hearts out of the recipe book and tying one to each arm with a lovely hemp string.  While I was buying the hemp string at Michaels, I found a lovely inch-wide tan satin ribbon that could be laced through the weathered brass chain I brought up from the basement.  A leftover piece was just the right size for a bow to hang down from the center.  I'm very pleased with the finished product, which wound up costing less than $7!  Well, then again, I think I'll pick up some thin wooden hearts and apply a recipe to each side because the paper tends to hang askew.

  I still have some work to do before the living room and dining room are finished, but the overall look is definitely much closer to what I'm shooting for!  Which is a good thing, because I hope to tackle re-painting the kitchen soon - and with my home on the Home Tour this coming Mothers Day, the clock is ticking!

Simple Christmas

  On Saturday I said my last good bye to my beloved corgi-basset mix and, what with the fireplace work and all the rain we've had, decorating the house for Christmas has been a challenge.  I decided to keep things simple and in line with the slightly rustic Country French look I have going, so here is my Christmas tree.

  I managed to pull the very sparse artificial tree (the safest! and best for me to avoid allergy problems) out of the basement and added one single string of white lights, a few miniature grape vine wreaths that were in my craft closet,  and a rustic fabric ribbon, also from the craft closet.

  Because I seem to be appreciating friends and family even more this season, I decided to print out their photos on ivory card stock, in muted colors, and simply punch a hole to hang each one on the tree, too.  It's probably the simplest tree I've ever displayed but I love it more than anything I've ever done.  A closer shot follows.





  The middle top photo is one of my sisters, Bonnie and Stephanie, sitting at their new card table at Christmas many years ago and it's flanked by photos of my grandchildren, Andrew and Christina.  Below them are photos of dogs Beau, whose spirit is still with me for Christmas this year and Flame, who is my comfort in our loss.  At the bottom are my granddaughter again and a photograph of my sister, Bonnie, brother-in-law Earl, and me at my son's wedding just a few years ago.  Other "ornaments" include photos of my mom; my grandmother; dear family friend, Scotty; my son, Chris, and daughter-in-law Andrea; and more.

  Oh and there's also this, something I found on the Internet and printed - a stitchery that says "Happiness is a place between too little and too much."  And I think that's exactly where my tree sits.

  May your Christmas be in a place between too little and too much - with plenty of love and God's blessings but not  too much distraction from enjoying both.

Merry Christmas - almost

  I can't believe that Christmas is nearly here.  No surprise that I'm not exactly ready.  Two weeks ago, work was begun on a mantel for my very plain fireplace wall.  Two small windows above flanked both sides of the fireplace, which was a small square hole surrounded by a single row of tiles as you can see in the photo.   Not especially exciting.  

I didn't have much money to spend, so I started thinking of something easy to do.  I knew I wanted the mantel top to go from wall to wall, a span of 12 feet.  I also knew that, as much as I like the look of shelves on either side, I didn't have an inch to spare in my tiny bungalow living room.  The mantel shelf would only be 6 inches deep and a friend suggested treating the lower half differently from the top, maybe using bead board.  That sounded like a winning idea.  Then I decided I would pay someone to do the work as the very hard lath and plaster made me pretty nervous at the thought of nailing into it.  Bead board turned into a board and batten style panelling and eventually into recessed panels.

  I was able to find a nice, straight, clean 2 x 6 for the mantel shelf, good enough to be stained rather than painted.  The design evolved as we worked on it.  The carpenter I hired, Dave, would show up each morning waiting to hear what I was going to change that day.  He and I considered each design option as it came to either one of us and then we called in the tie-breaker, my professional painter and decorator best friend across the street who would also agree to stain and varnish the mantel shelf.  After a week and a half, paying about three times what I'd hoped for, I have a wonderful look that really enlarges the room and creates a fabulous focal point.  Just in time for Christmas.  

 

  Someday, when I have the money and know what I want to do, I'll improve the fireplace surround.  I hope to be able to keep the original tiles without damaging them, maybe covering them and extending the treatment to the mantel.  I'll also need to do something with the plain concrete hearth.  But for  now black paint finishes off that space and all I have to do is to hang the stockings!

 

Stepping Out

  I had dinner with a good friend last night who chewed me out for not letting her know that I've started a blog.  You see, it's been my little secret with all of two followers I'd allowed in on it.  I just wasn't sure where I'd go with this blog but I admit that I enjoy sharing words and photos.  I'm not exactly prolific at this point and I thought it was mostly self-indulgent blather about my latest progress decorating my little bungalow.  But Wendy ranted and raved just enough to make me think that what I post might be of interest to others out there, so here I am, going a little more public.

  On the one hand, I'm not sure how far I can go with this - how much more can I say about my 750-square-foot home?  And the 650-square-foot rental in the back and the small back yard with several levels.  But on the other hand, I'm also preparing it for our Historic District's Mothers Day Home Tour this coming May, so there could be some interesting things coming up.  So, I guess I'm stepping out and letting the world in.

And with that, I say - Welcome to my home.