A Few of my Favorite Things

Art. I like what I like.  Friday I hit the yard sales. They weren't good. Since I hadn't had my fix of finding a good deal, I visited three separate thrift stores to see what I could find.

At St. Vincent de Paul's, I found this beautiful watercolor. My favorite art medium is watercolor paintings. Some of my favorite artists were those of French Impressionism. Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas - to just name a few. I love the  wash of colors that were incorporated.  My favorite classical music is French Impressionistic.  One day, I would love to take some lessons and learn how to water color paint.

So back to the piece of art that I found. This was not a print, but an original. It had a white matte attached to it that was held together in the back with some brittle, yellow aged tape. It had no price tag on it. I thought it was pretty, so inquired as to how much it was. $2.00... SOLD!

The artist? Elsie Lower Pomeroy.  I did a little research and found out that she was a California artist that lived from 1882- 1971.  Other than that, I haven't found much else. But I love it! Now the trick will be to find a suitable frame. For now it sits unframed on a shelf ledge in my family room.

The other print I picked up was a Reyn Reynolds print, Portofino for $3.00. I liked the colors and think it will look great in one of the rooms of my house. Once again, I will need to find a frame for this 24" x 36"  print.

While on the subject of art, I thought I would share some other "finds" that I have acquired over the years.

Four years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Cusco, Peru and Hike the classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with my parents and one of my brothers. One of the days while we were on the Plaza de Armas in Cusco, we were accosted  approached by some street vendors that were trying to sell some of their art. I am a sucker for watercolors, so I bought this original piece of art depicting a scene in the Andes with llamas and Quechua Indian women.  I think that I picked it up for the equivalent of $15.00.  It's not in the fanciest of frames right now, but down the road I will frame it in something a bit nicer.  A few days earlier, I saw an original watercolor of Machu Picchu, in a collection that a street vendor was trying to sell. I didn't buy it then, because I was certain I would see it again. I didn't, and to this day am still kicking myself that I didn't buy it at that time.

Some other pieces of art...

About 13 years ago when I was a student at the University, I was working at the University library in the music department. My employer was going through a collection of old (crumbly) sheet music and found a set of watercolor prints in the music. They were of scenes in Paris. I loved them, she offered them to me and I took them home. 

18. Paris. Rue du Chevalier de la Barre

 28. Paris. La tour Eiffel

32. Paris Montmartre.  le  Sacré-Cœur

                                

 
 

26. Paris - Notre Dame et la Seine

The painter's name was not easily deciphered and it was not until recently that I was at a local Goodwill and found another aquatint watercolor print in this same series for $1.99 in a cheap, cheap document frame with broken glass. I of course snatched it up and was ecstatic to find it.

 

35. Paris St.Pierre de Montmartre

I did an Internet search with the title of one of the prints, describing the art, and came up with the name of Marius Girard, a French artist who worked/painted in the 1960's.
I would love to know how many are in the series and to have them all of course. If you see one, or find one and you don't want it. Let me know!

And finally, saving the best for last. I have an 8 soon to be 9 year old that has some learning disabilities and a motor planning disorder called Dyspraxia - amongst many other things. They are very much hidden disabilities, and just by looking at her, you would never guess she had so many obstacles. Anyway, that is the Reader's Digest Version. LOL

Her first couple of years of school when we were really troubleshooting and getting her tested, school was REALLY, REALLY hard and very frustrating and my kiddo was in tears most of the time. I spent a lot of time helping out in her classroom and developed a close bond with her teacher. This teacher was also great at teaching art and the kindergartners spent a lot of time creating art, that the teacher would walk them through step by step, and then put their own spin on it. My daughter loves art and it was something that she looked forward to and could put her own creative touch to. On the last day of school two years ago, this teacher handed me a rather large parcel. I unwrapped it to find a framed piece of art that my daughter had created, that they kept hidden from me as a special surprise. Knowing the struggles of the year and getting to be the mother of this special kid, it brought tears to my eyes. I proudly display it on my wall, at the bottom of the stairs and it is there for me to see every day. It's a combination of black Sharpie marker, watercolors, and chalk.  Please excuse the blurred out blob at the left hand corner of the painting. I blurred out my daughter's name, so that is why it looks funny.

How about you? Do you have a favorite piece of art hanging in your house, and what is it?

Linking to:

Old Meets New

I have finally completed the french dresser - turned t.v. console. Just to refresh your memory, it looked like this when I purchased it.

Some of it was particle board, the drawer liners are a heavier cardboard, and the front faces were plastic! The date on the back was stamped 1976. Vintage. It was time to do some experimenting.

First it was cleaned, primed and painted.

Then a piece of MDF was measured, cut and fitted to slide into where the top drawer should go. My husband did the larger cuts with a circular saw, and we cut out the small square notches with my new Dremel. About this time I am thinking how nice it would be to own a jigsaw.

Then more filing and sanding down of the edge of  the MDF to try and make it flush with the dresser trim.  Next I glued the MDF  into place with some carpenter's glue, and put two screws in the spots where the drawer track used to be.  I clamped the edges together, neglected to take a picture and let it dry.  Then when it was dry, I caulked the heck out of it to try and make it mesh with the dresser. Again, neglecting to take a picture. Use your imagination.

More paint. Rustoleum's Heirloom White, by the way.

Then came glazing with a combination of Benjamin Moore's Studio Finishes Latex Glaze 405, mixed with a little bit of brown acrylic paint to really bring out the details in the drawers and hardware.

Glazing is fun. It doesn't have to be perfect, you brush and you wipe down with a damp rag until you get the desired effect.

Then after that dries, you pull out your handy dandy round tool thing that cuts holes in doors so you can install a doorknob - on doors that is, not on your new dresser turned console. The handy, dandy round drilling tool also happens to  work well for drilling a hole ( or three)  in the back of your new console to thread all of the wires and cables through.

Finally, you drag it into the house, and hook everything back up... cursing in the process and wondering why there are so many cables and cords... hoping you put everything back in the right place... wondering what you are going to do with the Bose sub woofer, and decide it will have to stay down at the side until you can come up with a better way to incorporate it with this old dresser/modern electronics.

We take our t.v. watching very serious here... shamelessly.

So here it is, the grand reveal...

Still dealing with lots of cords, obviously visible in the picture. We don't have the option of mounting the t.v. on the wall, since it is in a corner next to the fireplace. However, it is a huge improvement over our previous set up of a small oak t.v. stand that we purchased here in town 16 years ago.  I am loving the drawers and having another place to put all of our DVD's.  It has freed up a lot of space in my home office closet, to store other "stuff."

Next reveal will be the little (formerly pink) table. That one turned out to be A LOT more work than I had anticipated.

I'm linking up to The Shabby Nest:Frugal Friday

Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special

Saturday Sewing

Saturday the garage sales were horrid. My 8 year old and I must have hit close to 15 garage sales. We came home with a pair of shoes for her. That's it!  Friday, I swear every garage sale was sporting '80's home decor and craft projects from  over 2 decades ago, with modern day prices. Why oh why do people price their crap so high?  Not even good crap.

The first garage sale I hit on Friday looked like they were cleaning out mom's  house.  I picked up a couple of cheap frames for .25 each and found  close to 5 yards of cotton duck cloth/material in black, white and a pale green... for .25! The sign said "fabric pieces 5 for .25."  What a steal and  crazy! I was super excited. Around Christmas time last year, I made a play car mat for my nephews and back then, I remember buying some cotton duck cloth/canvas at JoAnn's for about $8.50 a yard.  When I saw the duck cloth at the garage sale, I knew immediately what I would do with some of it. I had a plan inspired by many, many home decor blogs, and by some pillows that I spotted in a Ballard Designs Catalog.  One of the latest decorating crazes I noticed, is French Grain Sack Pillows. I have seen them everywhere in the blogging world, on Etsy and in home decor magazines. I knew I could create the look much cheaper, and put my own spin on it.

So armed with my practically free duck canvas, my sewing machine, a cutting wheel, a paint brush, painter's tape, Exacto knife and some Maroon colored Ceramcoat acrylic paint,

I got to work on Saturday making some throw pillows for my family room sofa. I knicked my finger with the cutting wheel, but my hands were spared when it came time to using the Exacto knife. It isn't my project until I have bled on it, I decided.  When I was done sewing and cursing, then began the fun part of painting a design on these pillow covers.  I knew I wanted some simple stripes, but what else?

 I settled on a fleur de lis... very French.  I found a clip on the Internet, printed it out and then took my Exacto knife and made a stencil out of it. Using blue painter's tape, I created some stripes.

The inspiration for the next pillow came from a French song. I could not get the song Aux Champs-Élysées out of my head... so the street name Champs-Élysées,  made it's way onto a pillow.

I free handed the lettering with a set of new paint brushes that I picked up at a garage sale... I wish that I had just a slightly nicer set as it was difficult working with the fabric and the paint... oh well.  Now every time I see the pillow, I start humming the song Aux Champs-Élysées and it puts a smile on my face. My first year of college French - many moons ago, my french professor taught us this song and we sung it multiple times throughout the semester. 

The third pillow I just decided to write "Maison No.23" on it. Maison means "house" in French. The number 23? Well It's for my birth date... I also free handed this one and I like how it turned out for the most part.  I have one more pillow that I will paint, but am not quite sure what kind of a design I will incorporate.

Anyway, it's kind of fun  feeling my way through this home decorating maze and finding what I like and what I want to try out.

I am kind of obsessive that way. I pick up a new hobby and run with it for a few years, then I am onto the next thing. Just ask that hubby of mine that has endured my many interests for the past 16 years!

Some New Goodies

I had a Birthday on Wednesday. I am now the ripe young age of 37... which you guessed it, feels JUST like 36. Imagine that? More importantly, my two daughters and my husband made the day extra special for me.

Let me introduce you to Mr. Sander....

.... and Mr. Dremel.

Oh yeah, they know me all too well. I have already taken the sander for a drive and the Dremel I look forward to using very soon. I am prone to hurting myself with power tools, and I am sure that my husband knew that the Dremel would be good to try out cutting some smaller objects without me doing some really serious damage to myself. I don't dare use our circular saw or compound miter saw - just yet. I may have used our reciprocating saw once... very briefly.  Someday I will post pictures of my battles wounds... "Jeralee vs. The Power Washer."  It involves skin getting ripped off - just in case you were wondering.

  My dad called me on my birthday, and when I told him what I received as gifts, I think he was pleasantly surprised. My father is an architect and in his free time (whatever that is! ), he likes to work with wood and remodel their home. Growing up it seemed that our house was in a constant state of remodel. I have a few pieces of furniture that my dad has made for me over there years - a couple of end tables and a cedar chest.  As the phone conversation continued, Dad told me that I need to get a scroll saw next.

 Hmm... not a bad idea. However, I think a scroll saw is 4th in line after an air compressor, nail gun, and paint sprayer.

 

Who knew tools could be so much fun?

You Light Up My Life

Nothing like a cheesy 70's song to get the theme of this post going. No offense if that is one of your favorites. ;-)

Today's theme is transforming mismatched candlesticks to give them a sense of cohesiveness in a grouping.

This particular candlestick I picked up at garage sale a month ago for $1.00.

Who doesn't love toile?

So I finished the little French Chair.

I did the usual of priming it and then painting it with Heirloom White. I glazed it a bit, but you just can't really tell with the lighting in this picture.

However, to me it still feels like it is missing something.

I am thinking of painting it a deep red instead, to match the red in the toile - what do you think - repaint it?  Keep it the same?

So just where did this love for toile come in?  A couple of years ago, I was on the hunt for some chairs to put in my music studio for clients to sit on when they come for a consultation, or for students to use while waiting for their lesson. I found a set of cherry stained dining chairs at St. Vincent de Paul for $14.00. 

 I didn't bother to refinish the wood since it seemed fine to me, but just changed out the upholstery in the chairs. 

 After I completed that project, I still had some toile that needed to be used up.  Feeling inspired by other's decor blogs, a month ago I made these throw pillows out of the left over toile and put them in the chairs in the family room. 

 Then of course there was the toile embellishment on the end table I recently redid.

I thought you might like to know where I put it.

I am still working on accessorizing and adding more to that area. The cute little owl, I picked up at the thrift store for .75. The lamp was one that was in another room that was not being used. The candlestick was white, I painted it black. I plan on doing something interesting with the lamp shade, but am not quite sure yet.  I am still mulling over that one.

Linking to All Things Thrifty and Mustard Seed Creations.

Gardening Tip - Roses

Those of you that live in humid and rainy conditions no doubt are constantly trying to keep your rose bushes and peonies healthy.

I am constantly fighting black spot mildew on my roses. I have tried eco-friendly products that contain neem oil, as well as more toxic varieties. The best cure is to have sun and some hot dry weather, which unfortunately we haven't had a lot of lately.  Recently I learned that at the International Rose Test Garden at Washington Park in Portland Oregon, the botanist has had a difficult time with keeping black spot off of their roses as well. While watching the news tonight, he made the recommendation that if you have a 4 hour window without any rain and full sun, you can spray the roses with either milk or a mixture of 1 tsp. of baking soda mixed with one quart of WARM water and a few drops of liquid dish detergent. This will change the pH balance within the plant and help stave off black spot on the healthy leaves. It is best to hand pick and remove the infected leaves first however, as well as pick up any diseased leaves that have fallen on the ground. Do not put them in your compost bin. You do not want to infect your nice compost soil with the fungus!

I am eager to try this out on my 4 rose bushes and see if it makes a difference.