Apple Basket Makeover

 

I am spending more and more time dreaming in white in blogland, and I am happily addicted to pinning lovely whites and creams like crazy on my pinterest boards. In my own home I am still drawn to incorporating worn leathers and warm wood tones which add depth and a "lived-in" feel to the ethereal beauty of  my cottage white walls, white distressed furniture pieces and decorative accents. I love too many different decorating styles to ever have a completely white or strictly shabby chic decor, but I doubt I will ever back to putting much color on my walls even if the white/cream "trend" goes out. If trends revolve back to bold color, it won't matter...I am sold on whites for life! As a collector, I love the creams and whites on our walls because they provide the perfect back drop for my ever-evolving displays and vignettes. Despite having a lot of junk and collectibles, the walls create a sense of calm unity and the look is always pulled together.

I am now getting to the point that I find it hard to resist slapping white chalk paint on anything and everything because I am obsessed always so pleased with the results whenever I do. I was really sick with the flu last week and all I really felt like doing was pinning. All the inspiration was driving me crazy however, so here is what I did this weekend to satisfy my white cravings...

Earlier this summer I bought several old apple baskets at a yard sale, like the ones in the picture below. I love these types of baskets. So many memories of going to the market with my mom and seeing them filled with fresh produce.

source: http://rowhousenest.com/2011/05/08/basketville-baskets/

Mine had been outside so it was a little warped and mildewy. I sprayed it with a bleach and water solution and let it sun-dry. Then I painted it with a homemade chalk-paint recipe. White love strikes again! I had some extra burlap so I adorned the basket with a generous bow. It turned out even better than I thought. There are so many uses for this basket, both functional and decorative, especially with fall coming. Even empty, it is still so pretty.

For now the basket is sitting in this chair. I recently found it at a yard sale for $1. Since it was already white and a little chippy I kept it just the way it was. No extra work. Score!

 I stuffed the basket with a beautiful vintage chenille twin coverlet. Then I made a little stick bundle out of some broken chair spindles that I salvaged from some other furniture makeovers.  

These leftover spindles from misc. broken chairs (previously brown) were
originally tossed out by the garbage, but
I thought they still had possiblity for crafts or decorative potential, so I brought them in and painted them white too!

         Here is a prime example of why I chant the "use what you have" decorating mantra.  I love how this little spindle bundle turned out. Now it looks so pretty tied up with an old crochet remnant and scraps of burlap. And to think they were destined for the landfill!

   I also put this sweet little book in the basket as a prop for the post photos. It was a surprise gift from my best friend when I dropped off her birthday gift. We all know it is better to give than recieve, but its still always fun to receive! In addition to its lovely cover, the book has the most tantilizing pictures of various French flea markets (on my life's to-do list). Until I actually get to make that dream come true, I will settle for wandering through the pages.

Enjoy your blog visit!

 

2013:

http://startathome.blogspot.com/2013/10/furniture-and-paint-party-18-and-50.html

 

 

2012 Linking up:

http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/2012/08/white-wednesday-167.html

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/2012/08/home-and-garden-thursday_29.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ADelightsomeLife+%28A+Delightsome+Life%29

http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com/2012/08/under-100-linky-party_29.html

http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com/2012/08/time-travel-thursday-112-talented-time.html

http://www.primpjunktion.com/

http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/08/vintage-inspiration-103-all-things-home.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: blogspot/bCGJMl (Common Ground)

Demijohns

Hello everyone! Just a quick post about a demi-john I found for $1 back in late spring when my peonies were in bloom.

Demi-johns (Dames-Jeannes in French, or "Jimmyjohns" in South Eastern US slang) are large glass containers covered in wicker or burlap to keep out the light to protect the alcohol, or for protection during transportation. Many people choose to display them without the coverings due to the lovely colors and shapes of the bottles, or simply because the wicker is damaged. It wasn't until blogging that I became familiarized with these bottles, and I was intrigued after seeing the gorgeous displays and collections many of you have put together. I don't necessarily copy trends in decorating so I didn't specifically set out to find one, but when I happened upon mine for $1.00 I certainly snatched it right up!  I have also noticed them in the Pottery Barn and Ballard catalogs, and I have come to appreciate their old world charm. I vaguely remember my mom having one when I was very young.

                                                           Source: Pottery Barn

Here is mine...a little tattered on the bottom, but for a dollar, how could I pass it up? Overall its in great shape and I had no idea how pricey they can get. $300 in Pottery Barn!

 I'm sure this little beauty will appear in future posts once I have found the perfect spot for it. For now I am off to search for inspiration and while I'm at it, I'll share some of the images I find with you. Enjoy!

Source: http://thetialys.wordpress.com/tag/demijohns/


Source: http://harmonyandhome.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html


Source: http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2011/05/vintage-love.html

Partying with:
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/2012/08/feathered-nest-friday_16.html
http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com/2012/08/under-100-linky-party_22.html

Pretty Little Post

We have already been back-to-school for a week! August is flying by and I have had no time for blogging, pinning, decorating, or junking lately and I feel so out of sorts. So this evening I decided to make some time to sneak in a "pretty little post" for White Wednesday and the upcoming weekend blog parties. Since I am short on time I am using some things that I had worked on and photographed earlier in the summer, but didn't get a chance to post. Its not a long post but there are lots of pretty little things in yummy whites and creams for you to savor!

To begin, I want to show you the first bottles I embellished back in the spring and early summer.

    The first step of cleaning them is always the most tedious! They were so dirty that I decided to use antique sheet music to cover the bottles entirely. Then came the fun part of adding the vintage lace, buttons, burlap and some scrapbooking stickers. I really enjoyed working on them and I now I am totally hooked on embellished and altered bottles. I have since found other easier and more creative ways cover them: (http://junkaholicsunanimous.blogspot.com/2012/07/busy-embellishing-bottles.html).

            Pictured above is the very first bottle I worked on which inspired several others. In the background you can see some of my favorite junk finds that I worked into a vintage vignette for this photo. Also, I just noticed that after the all of my attention to detail, I neglected to notice one of my son's Lego Star-Wars light saber pieces... No way I am editing that out. That's real life folks!

 While I was working on the bottles I also experiemented with making some coffee filter flowers and paper flowers to put in the bottles.

My first was a very simple carnation with a vintage button in the center

 Next I got brave and tried out a paper flower using antique sheet music with a vintage brooch in the center. This one was tricky, as the old music was fragile and ripped easily. I love it but for now I think I'll stick with the coffee filters or maybe card stock.

        Love this small bottle too. It is topped by my first coffee filter mini-rose. It looks so similar to a dried rose its hard to tell the difference. I will definitely be making more of these!

 I had this "F" sticker in my scrapbooking stash so I personalized this one.

While I was decoupaging away I decided to cover this cheap foam necklace holder to sell, but it turned out so pretty that I had to keep it. After all, I needed another way to display more vintage-blingy finds on my dresser. In the background is a Beethoven inspired bottle that I created and sold the next day in my antiques booth. Of  all the things I made, its the only one that I didn't hoarde for myself  decided to sell.

                      And lastly, a sneak peak of some of the things in our new shabby-romantic bedroom, the perfect place for lots of vintage dreams in whites and creams! Once I get back into the swing of things with school I will be posting the full  bedroom reveal. Until then, have fun blog-hopping!

Linking up: http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/2012/08/white-wednesday-165.html

http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/08/vintage-inspiration-101-town-and-prairie.html?utm_source=BP_recent

http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/2012/08/home-sweet-home-80.html

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/2012/08/feathered-nest-friday_16.html

Come browse our "Romantiques and Mantiques" booths!

The heat has me confined to the house and as much as I'd love to work on repurposing some junk projects or trying to salvage and nurse what's left of my annuals, its just too hot as most of the rest of you probably can identify! At least I am getting a chance to get caught up with blogging and today I'll be showing you all the treasures my husband and I are offering in our booths.

Decorating my booth is always fun and although my husband is quite tolerant and appreciative of some shabby chic at home, I get to go overboard with the girlie-girl-vintage-Frenchy look with lots of whites in my booth, while my husband gets to junk and stock his own "Mantiques" booth which has some really cool stuff in it too. Take a look around!

Mantiques:


My sweetie made the old-looking "Mantiques" and moustache signs out of salvaged wood from our attic renovation. He's so talented! I have such a great "partner in junk!"

                     Isn't this luggage great? My husband and I both love vintage lugguge of all kinds so this grouping only lasted about 2 days in his booth until we decided we were crazy for selling it. We brought them home and stacked them beside our bed where they are now being repurposed as his night stand.

He loves to go junking for war memorablia, vintage sporting equipment and other mantiques. He added a bit of  imagination and humor to his booth by draping some vintage stockings and lingerie over the mirror along with a picture of a lovely lady, signed, "Sincerely, Marie." Looks like the soldier had a romantic rendevous!

Speaking of romance, let's move on to my "Romantiques" booth.

Here is the rear wall of my booth back in  May.

                                                       

 Here is the same view this summer

 We found this fabulous blue distressed table at a yard sale recently. Its over 6ft long and would make a great sideboard or kitchen island. Or garden shed table. Or booth display table. Did I mention that it's fabulous?

Silverplate love.

Composition doll love.

My back wall was due for a little change so now a shabby console table is hanging as a display. This darling old composition doll is on the bottom shelf awaiting her new home.

Here is the top of the little console table (please excuse the shadows). 

More vintage Huldah prints and girly-chic things.

A simple and decorative use of old canning jars is to dress them up in burlap, jute, coffee-stained antique lace, or just about any other fabric scrap and use them as vases or candle holders. I sold several of these to a friend who is hosting a bridal shower. I can't wait to put some on my new deck to hold small citronella candles.

You can always count on a vintage scarf to add just the right flair!

As for the beautiful jewelry mannequin bust, I just can't describe how gorgeous she really is. I had noticed her long before I became a vendor at the antiques mall when I used to shop there. She is absolutely amazing and I was lucky enough to buy her from another vendor just before a local historical museum snatched her up. The curator had just purchased six similar antique mannequin head/busts from her other antique store so I bought this one and the one shown below while I had the chance. I had been researching them online and they are getting harder to find and can be quite pricey so I didn't want to hesitate when she offered me two for the price of less than one on ebay.

This mannequin head was drastically reduced due to serious cracking and breakage in her neck . Once again, a vintage neck scarf does the trick. I specifically wanted this larger mannequin head for hat and scarf displays and she is simply junktastic!

                    This summer I went vintage wedding crazy, buying anything wedding related including two vintage gowns. I had already been moving toward decorating the booth displays very "romantique." This dress is very similar to the one Kate Middleton wore in the royal wedding.

                                                                    Divine details!

More vintage luggage for a romantic honeymoon! Why buy new???

Same view of the booth a couple of weeks ago. I sold the shabby green side table, garden planter screen and garden accessories.

                        This old chest of drawers is all decked out with wedding pretties.

                                             Repurposed drying rack to accessories display

                                                                       WHITE LOVE!
My absolute favorite display in the booth is this 1950's wedding dress "pictured" in one of my antique chalk painted frames. I think I'll use this as my blog header for a while. Oooo I just realized I have an extra frame that would look awesome on the dress form in my living room. Yay! I'll mess with that right after I finish blogging...

                 As you can see we have been really busy and we have junked most of the summer. Unfortunately school starts back on August 3rd in our area (YUCK!) so we have decided to take a break from junking to get caught up on things and completely finish our home renovations. We have enough projects stockpiled in the basement and around the house to give me plenty to blog about so don't forget to stop by the blog to see what we've been up to.

Hope you have enjoyed the booth browsing. Stay cool!

Summer Parties!
http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/2012/07/home-sweet-home-74.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheCharmOfHome+%28The+Charm+of+Home%29
http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/

Celebrating the 4th of July, White Wednesday, and 100 bloggers!

 Thank you to my 100 followers who have been so encouraging as I started this blogging adventure. I hope all of you have a wonderful Fourth of July!

 Today I will be sharing a few white projects that have kept me busy lately. As usual I don't have a lot of before pictures because I am always so excited to get started that I forget to take them until its too late.

Here is a "Frenchy" estate sale chair that I made over using a homemade chalk paint recipe. It turned out great and I sold it in a recent craft show I did with my best friend Amanda in our new business, "The Junkin' Rubies." (I will be publishing our Junkin' Rubies blog soon so be sure to follow along, I think you'll love what we've been up to!)

This chair was originally just an ugly shade of brown with a hideous 80's fabric tacked over the orignal seat cover. I simply painted away with my chalk paint and distressed the wood like crazy with my hand sander. The chalk paint adhered really well and I didn't even need a stain or wax on top. Then I got brave and painted the original fabric on the seat and it worked great. I used chalk paint so I just lightly sanded it with my hand sander when it was dry and voila!!!

Here it is on display at the show. Love! It was so hard for Amanda and I to part with that

gorgeous flapper necklace she made and this fabulous chair but we are so glad to find customers who love our treasures as much as we do!

I also used the same chalk paint on some very old frames. They were in rough shape but the white made them look amazing! I sold several of them in the show and had it not been 110 degrees in the shade and half of our city out of electricity, I bet they would all be gone!

I am really going to have to get back to using my real camera since these iphone pictures

aren't the best, but i wanted to show you a garden chair and night stand that I remade. I chalk painted this estate sale chair and added some chicken wire to the empty seat so that the new owner could fill it up with plants of his or her choice. There was an article in Flea Market Gardens magazine that showed how to DIY so I used it in my display and the chair sold to a lady who happens to live in my neighborhood, so now I get to drive by and see my chair all decked out with flowers.

I also sold the little night stand (sorry for the shadows). It looked quite pitiful when I bought it at a yard sale but I loved its shabby-French possibilities. Again the amazing chalk paint came to the rescue. I used the same color of paint but I finished with a dark walnut stain. Since I am a music teacher I often incorporate antique sheet music in my projects, so I decided to decoupage some on top where all the veneer was scraped off and it turned out great! I sold to my high school choir director which means I also will be able to see my junk-find again (you know how hard it can be to part with good finds!)  She decided to use it next to her piano instead of by her bed, but that's the whole idea of repurposing! She loves it!

I have a few more things to show but I'll save them for upcoming posts. Right now its time for some lemonade!

Celebrating with:

http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/2012/07/white-wednesday-159.html

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/2012/07/feathered-nest-friday.html

http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/07/vintage-inspiration-95-porches-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: blogspot/bCGJMl (Common Ground)

http://www.redouxinteriors.com/2012/07/giveaway-with-vintage-casters-online-winner-plus-link-party-63-and-mes-preferes/

http://www.atthepicketfence.com/