My brain wasn’t hitting on all cylinders yesterday. And it should have been. I mean I have a great nights sleep, a casual morning and a filling breakfast. Things weren’t improving by mid morning so I decided to switch gears and paint.
Paint a dresser, not paint something Van Gogh-ish.
On the blog, you have seen this dresser several times with different seasonal décor arranged on top of it.
I bought it from a friend of a friend. It isn’t antique or vintage. It was not hand painted. It was mass produced.
And I liked it.
But, today was the day that I finally took a leap of faith and decided to fall in love with it.
Not trusting my cylinder skipping day, I sent a picture of the dresser to a friend of mine (Karianne from Thistlewood Farms, maybe you have heard of her) 🙂 asking her what her opinion was about painting this piece. She responded:
Hmm….what about a light blue? Or gray (of course)! hahahaha!
Gray it shall be. Thanks for the suggestion Ms. Thistlewood Farms Blogger Extraordinaire.
The handles were easily removed and I lightly sanded the fronts of the drawers.
Trophy from the Miss Mustard Seed milk paint line was my gray color choice. It happened to also be the only gray milk paint I had, so, win-win on that.
At first I was thinking I would only paint the drawer fronts but as the project progressed, I felt that the entire dresser, not including the the top needed to be painted.
One coat of paint easily covered the two drawer dresser. I then finished it with a top coat of MMS Hemp Oil.
It took me less than 2 hours from start to finish to finish the dresser makeover.
Putting the before and after side by side, makes me giddy happy that I painted yesterday. A sign of love.
Big problems, small problems, some problems that take time to figure out and some problems that feel like they take forever to solve.
Having problems can be stressful. I don’t think anyone will debate that.
If ever in the history of ever there could be such a thing as a good stressful problem, this is my week to have one.
Let me explain.
I have been working with a customer on a wholesale pillow cover order. She is a dream to work with. She knew what she wanted and never hesitated to ask questions.
Sidenote: I myself am a question asker and also love it when other people ask questions.
Anyway, the wholesale order came through the same weekend that Karianne of Thistlewood Farms fame gave me a shout out about the large metal signs I have available in my shop. Everything Karianne touches, turns to gold. The metal signs flew out of my shop! In fact last I checked I only have one left in inventory.
On top of the wholesale order and shout out, I was visiting my parents in Texas AND my Etsy shop had become extremely busy.
The point I am trying to make is that, THESE ARE THE BEST STRESSFUL PROBLEMS EVER!
Seriously, how can I possibly complain about being insanely busy making pillows and signs and home décor items for people who want to buy them for their homes.
Every sale I receive, I am so excited to think that this item will be enjoyed by someone, maybe comfort them and possibly start a conversation when the new owner shares the story about why they purchased something from my little store.
So Thank You to everyone that has purchased an item from either one of my shops or any small business owner.
Now let’s go back to the wholesale order.
Julie from Julie Kay Design Studio was the customer who contacted me thru Etsy concerning a wholesale pillow cover order. A week or so later she shipped me the fabric and zippers she wanted me to work with.
Two huge heavy rolls of fabric made with 10oz. certified organic cotton duck canvas was her fabric of choice.
From here I cut matching pairs of 18 and 20 inch squares.
800 cuts making 200 squares created a nice and neat pile of fabric to finish step one.
Each piece then had one edge stitched with a serger allowing a clean edge.
Two serged edge pieces are then sewn together adding a zipper for the bottom of the cover. From there it is a matter of sewing up the remaining three sides and again serging the inside edges for a finished look.
The covers will now be boxed and shipped to Julie.
She then does her magic and creates these beautiful watercolor covers.
Each one of her pillow covers is a hand painted unique item. No two cover are exactly alike.
Stunning, don’t you think?
Read all about her shop and other products she has available.
These pillows would make great conversation starters. 🙂
I hope everyone has a fun weekend. Stop by tomorrow for a Sidenote Saturday chat.
Years ago when our children were little, I worked nights and weekends as a cook and caterer at a quaint little restaurant in Lake Geneva, WI. The owner/chef was John and he loved to try new recipes. The menu was always changing. John would share his recipes with anyone that asked.
That always confused me.
Why would he give away his recipes? People could just make these dishes themselves and he would lose customers. In his gentle manner, he explained that you can give someone a recipe down to the tsp. but they will always, always substitute at least one of the ingredients so it will never be exactly the same. They will come back.
And they did. 🙂
I am finding this same principle to be true when I am attempting something from Pinterest.
My friend Karianne from Thistlewood Farms posted this blog earlier this week about how to DIY Pinecone Acorns.
Problem was that I changed the ingredients. My acorns don’t look like Kariannes.
Karianne used wooden eggs, I used paper mache eggs.
She stained her eggs, I spray painted and spray-glittered mine.
BUT, we both got our supplies from Hobby Lobby. 🙂
Here’s what I did.
I bought the paper mache eggs and pine cones from Hobby Lobby. The black spray paint and glitter spray paint came from an estate sale and I think the skewers came from IKEA. All very inexpensive items.
I then stabbed the eggs with the skewers and stuck them into the ground in the backyard to spray paint them.
(Can I let you in on a secret? My husband proof reads my blogs before I post them. He is going to sigh and roll his eyes when he sees the grass. Heehee, love you honey!)
After the paint had dried, I cut off the top of the pinecone and cut off the wider end of the egg. The egg was plastic on the inside. I was surprised by that. I thought paper mache meant it was paper all the way through. Obvi, not. ;(
Anyway, cutting off the top of the egg created more of a flat section to hot glue gun the pinecone top onto.
Then I simply added the acorns to my fall décor.
Thank you Karianne for the great idea even if I did change your recipe. 😉
Doesn’t May 22nd seem like a long time ago? The official start of summer wasn’t until June 21 and now as we are staring down Labor Day Weekend, the unofficial end to summer.
May 22nd was the day that this blog went live. A very nerve-racking day. All of the what if’s and doubts and anxiety wrapped into the push of one little button and we were off and running blogging. It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed some guidance from someone who had walked this walk.
Like I referenced in my very first post, I read Thistlewood Farms every day. KariAnne is the star behind the Thistlewood brand. My first contact with her was almost two years ago when she was selling advertising on her blog. I had opened my Etsy store and was trying to branch out and reach more potential customers. So I pulled all of my courage together and contacted her to advertise my little shop on her popular blog. She instantly replied and accepted my pillow business to advertise with her. What a huge burst of encouragement!
I love the Thistlewood Farms blog. KariAnne is so genuine, an amazing writer full of wit and her house….oh her house. I read her blog a long time before I left a comment. I figured that it would never get read because she was such a successful blogger, so why take the time. But one day, I couldn’t stand it anymore and I had to tell her how much I loved the tan and white houndstooth chair from her post, The Day I Forgot My Red Lipstick. And guess what? She replied to little ole me, again! In the world of bloggers she is a pretty big deal, Rockstar status, so for someone to take the time to respond about a comment, I was star struck.
KariAnne also has a “build your blog” option available at Thistlewood Farms. This is where she entered my life for the third and most amazing time. I purchased the hour and half phone call session with her. But, it was so much more than a phone call. A questionnaire was emailed prior to the call. It allowed us to think about the direction we wanted the phone call to head. When I reference “we”, I am referring to Spencer and I. Spencer is my photographer and social media expert. With a great sigh of relief, he took over the questions that were way beyond my realm of understanding. He and KariAnne chatted extensively about….things and stuff….and all I could do was listen. At times I had no idea what they were saying. 🙂 But here is the beauty of that. You get to tailor your session however you like, from whatever stage of blogging you are at.
If you are considering staring a blog, improving your blog or want to know what a blog is all about, do yourself a favor and set up an appointment with KariAnne.
Thank you KariAnne. You have opened our eyes to so many possibilities. I am happy to call you friend.
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