Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Secretary Part One





This is the secretary I keep talking about, relentlessly, non stop, so excited.


Upon researching this piece Ive learned basically, nothing, Circa late 1800s to early 1900s
& the style is
called a side by side. I do believe it is oak.


This antique secretary will be periodically featured on this blog, sorry you furniture lovers, it is getting upchic painted and a shabby upcycled. It has such severe surface and veneer damage it cannot be refinished without considerable cost and tremendous labor. It has also been high gloss lacquered and stripping it would take many hours and the use of toxic chemicals.


My husbands Grandmother previously owned this piece. She bought it an estate auction in possibly the 1950s along with 2 or 3 other pieces that included another side by side secretary and a china cabinet. She paid 10.00 for it.


Over the years, Grandma Gertie had mentioned this secretary and how she wasn't going to refinish it. Restoring the other pieces she had was such a chore and since this secretary had such damage to the veneer and missing escutcheons, she wasn't going to even "mess with it" and that it was a good candidate for a faux painted or sponge painted look.


So it sat, many years in her basement. Sometimes we'd talk about it, sometimes we'd go in the basement and visit it. Grandma always mentioned she was glad the original mirror & bowed glass door was intact even though several other parts were missing.


The sponge painting idea came from a 1985 better homes and gardens magazine article where this exact piece was faux painted and re~knobbed and featured with a full picture. Grandma saved the picture and I found it tucked away inside the desk part. It is the same piece, reworked, it's nice to have a picture for reference. By comparing my secretary to the magazine picture I noticed my piece is missing the center molding scroll that should be on the top. Sure enough you can see and feel where it was cut off probably due to damage over the years.


My goal is to up~chic this side by side antique secretary desk for 120.00 or less.


By using the keyword 'secretary' as a label for the secretary progression, you will be able to search this blog for all posts relevant to this post.



Shabulous


Had to show off the most shabby primmy pins I have ever done and the first purple ones. These pins are super vintage, kind of chunky and have reinforcement stopper wire. Shakey hand gramma tole folk roses in shades of purple, primitive Americana traditional in a not so traditional color.


Color my cottage in purple...


available on etsy ships free to the united states:




Sunday, June 21, 2009

Princess Peony


My daughter opened her own etsy shoppe




She is 12. We love how Etsy allows kids to open their own shop!


Autumn is really into repurposing and upcycling items. She has just watched almost every storque etsy video posted by etsy on youtube.


We are currently experimenting with fusing plastic bags, a technique we learned from etsy how to. She plans on listing some party favor bags made from recycled fused grocery sacks so watch for those and add a heart to PrincessPeony!


Thursday, June 18, 2009

Sweet Start

This is my new friend and fellow Etsian, pixicreationz. Pixicreationz is brand new to Etsy, has been a seller for 3 days and already made 8 sales. She'll be on the Etsy top seller wiki in no time!

http://etsywiki.com/index.php?title=Top_Sellers

Pixicreationz makes individually hand crafted polymer clay beads & charms based on yummy foods and sweet treats.




This creating Mom from the UK has the sweetest shoppe and best part, NO calories!


chocolate beads look good enough to eat available now:

Congrats on the excellent Etsy start!

Grog 2

Today sebastian has a friend, his name is Tyrone.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Grog

Today I woke up with a huge zit on my forehead.
I named him Sebastian & went back to bed.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Total Eclipse of the Heart





I was fortunate enough to find almost a full case of these vintage squat pint jars.

Ball Eclipse Wide Mouth Fat Pint, Chic Cottage Sweet.

This is my last single Eclipse. After this I have one more pair in stock and then no more until I find more.

I normally would write some quip to go with this jar, but associating short, fat and wide just reminds me I need to go on a diet.


*sigh*



Monday, June 15, 2009

SoOo Blue Indeed

Thank you Henrietta, this SEO disaster certainly has me singing the blues. (Atleast it's not a boy named Sue...)

MooNsHiNe Hic!







The picshure ish blurrry because i drinked the contents