Thursday, May 24, 2012

Version 1.0

Every once in a while I get a wild hair to drag out the sewing machine and be sew creative....(ok, bad pun!)  I'm not sure if  (1.) I feel like I need to torture myself, or (2.) to see how long my patience will hold up until I curse or what.  It's not that I don't like to sew, I do!  It's that I will inevitably sew something wrong, or cut something too short, or run out of thread on the bobbin and keep on truckin' until the end and then.....well, see option #2.  

So this project was a perfect fit for me.  Who would know if I cut the fabric funny, or how straight the seams were or......



So, I can see more of these types of projects in my near future.  Or at least until my family says "enough" with the mess I've created.  


Until next time...
xoxo,
Julie 


  shabby creek cottage

Monday, May 14, 2012

Classic Style

God works in mysterious ways.  He never seems to let me forget that.

I had the opportunity to work on this piece through a local company that took a chance on me.  They bought a table from me and sold it in their shop within days.  They asked me to do some painting for them and several pieces have since sold.  When a client walked in to their shop and saw this piece:


she asked for my number.  We talked and through the conversation, she expressed that she wanted to repaint a dresser that had belonged to her grandmother.  She now wanted "grandmothers dresser" to become her soon to be, baby boy's dresser, and she wanted it to be very streamlined and classic.  Oh Lord!  For those of you who know me, that is not my forte.  I can, but I would rather take out my aggressions on the furniture, than be perfect.  How hard could this be, right?! Right!  

As you may remember in my last post, I had found the 'perfect' tool to help me with the job of attaching these new pulls.  It was going to be perfect.  Right?! wrong

I came home, and to my dismay....I still had to use.....math?????  Please God. NO!  I tried and tried to make it right and wanted to do this (prove) to hubby that I could use more than a Luke SkyWalker.  Try as I may, I knew it was too much for me and I knew I needed to admit defeat and let the engineer do what he  does best.  


10 pulls, perfectly in line, and "we" achieved this:




Everyday I ask myself, "What did I learn today?"  The answer for today???  God has given me a gift, but I can't do everything, and some things I should rely on my husband for.  God wanted me to learn this lesson....in classic style.  

Thank you to my sweet client for allowing me to paint your 'new' dresser...and for the opportunity to grow!  

Until next time....
xoxo,
Julie 

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Monday, May 7, 2012

Adding the Bling


Custom painted furniture is a bit trickier than doing my own 'thang'.  It requires me to be meticulous, of which I am rarely accused of being!  I want it my customer to say the words, "It's perfect," and it makes me push beyond my boundaries of 'good enough'.  Not that I do shoddy work when I'm working on my own pieces, but it allows me to be more creative.  I've heard it said before, "There are no mistakes in painting distressed pieces" and I would hold true to that.  Some of the best pieces I've turned out were the ones that I allowed myself to say, "I wonder what happens when...."



A dear client called me to paint her dresser for her unborn baby boy.  He is due in August and she was ready to make over his new digs.  She is going with a nautical theme and wanted me to paint her 50's dresser to look more nautical.  Here is the before:


Several pulls missing and screaming to be made over for sure!  Add a navy blue and ''nautical'' happens in the blink of an eye! (or...more like several days in a hot garage!)


But here is where the need to be exact comes in.....new pulls mean new holes!  Let's just say I'm not exact on this type of thing.....EVER!!!  I have used everything BUT a ruler to measure things, all the way down to Luke Skywalker action figure to give me "exact measurements" for pictures being hung in a grid pattern! (I turned him vertical and horizontal to hang these pictures in my boys' old room)  This, however, was going to call for more than exact measurements than Luke.  Then I found this:

Liberty Cabinet and Drawer Installation Template


Alas, today I will conquer!  I WILL be able to be perfect!  Hope and pray that words do not spew from my mouth that shouldn't and that by tomorrow I will be able to show you the final product!  

Until next time!
~Julie




Tuesday, May 1, 2012

What is a ViNtaGe SouL?




If you are like me, you hold in high regard when someone rolls their eyes at you because you throw on the brakes for roadside treasures. You see the beauty in a piece that has seen better days, (or years!). You don’t want to ‘clean’ it…it’s beauty is in the dirt that rests upon your newfound treasures. You find it a compliment when someone calls you an “Old SouL” or tells you that you should’ve been born in another time. If your heart skips a beat when you’re in the local thrift store and you realize you’re the only one who knows how beautiful you can make ‘that’…..then you are in good company. Because that, my sweet friend, is a ViNtaGe SouL! I’m so glad you’ve come my way! Let’s take this JoUrNeY together, shall we?!
xoxo,
Julie